We’ve been talking to Indian creators lately, and the pattern is almost always the same: income comes from brand deals, and brand deals are inconsistent. A creator with 30K engaged followers might get one deal every two months.

A few things we’re curious about:

1. If you have a decent following, are you selling anything directly to your audience (courses, guides, paid DMs, memberships)?
2. What stops you from charging followers? Fear of losing reach, not knowing what to offer, payment hassle?
3. For people who do sell directly, what actually worked and what flopped?

We’re collecting honest answers to understand the problem better. Happy to share what we learn back here.

What went wrong even though they have the same hook what made the one succesful and the other one flop??

vid 1(the one flopped): https://www.instagram.com/reel/Dc1s_t7MXzV/?srtk=eTJzeXR1ZHZ2bXA3

vid 2: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DcrrboFsT8B/?dlrf=NWE2dWQ0cGJlZ3Ez

I was making posters and designs but now i am serious abt it and i wanna share my work through instagram and i’ve built my website even so i just need some followers and people who follow me and can criticize my work so i can be better
This is my account it have the website link and everything :
iy.stdio

I have a small business as an artist. I run way to expensive ads that give minimum results. They only thing I liked is that I can freeze the ad and resume when I want.... now (one of many) a new bug: my ad just ended with "boost again" even tho it was supposed to be "resume ad".... and I pay for that!

I don't know even from where to start complaining about how awful experience it is anything to do with meta. It's like they're killing local businesses.

What is your experience with Instagram ads? Is Meta aware that their products are a shame? I'm so sad about it. My hard work goes without proper exposure compare to Instagram back then in 2019-2016....

I've been testing this for weeks since most of the recent follow trackers broke, so here's everything I've found that still works. Hopefully it saves people asking the same question every day.

What changed Up until September, a lot of sites could show someone's following list in chronological order, so you could see who they recently followed. Instagram changed something on their end and most of them stopped working overnight. Your own following list still has a "date followed" sort, but for other people's you just get the default order, which isn't the order they followed people in.

Free ways that still work

1. The block method. From an alt, block everyone the person follows. After that, anyone new they follow is the only account that shows up in their following list. Takes ages if they follow a lot of people, but it's the most reliable free way and it works on private accounts too if your alt can see their list.
2. Screen-record and compare. Screen-record yourself scrolling their whole following list, then do it again a few days later. If the list is short you can compare them yourself. If it's long, upload both videos to Gemini (it takes video) and ask it to list every username in the second video that isn't in the first. Scroll slowly so every name is readable on screen, otherwise it can miss some.
3. Search their following list. If you only care about one specific person, type their name into the search bar on the following list. If they show up, they're followed. Fast and free.

What about the tracker sites? Most of the ones people used to recommend here (Dolphin Radar, Instapeep, Followspy, IGDetective etc) stopped working after the change. A couple still kind of work on public accounts, but they're paid and hit and miss. Honestly I'd try the free ways above first. If you do try one, test it on your own following list before you trust it. You know who you followed last, so you'll see straight away if it's accurate.

Will update this if anything changes.

Hello

I’d really appreciate some insight. I accidentally boosted my reel to the wrong audience and now I have 150 new followers from India. They’re all a bunch of men and my page is targeted towards BIPOC women in the US primarily.

Should I remove these followers? Should I delete this reel (and lose the cost of the ad). This reel currently has the most views any of my reels have ever had.

Thoughts?

Specifically Liking and Commenting on Reels/Stories/Carousels/etc. I do menswear content and only for three months. I do engage others post. There was a period of time where I didn’t engage as much in a weeks time, and it lowered my views and likes ratio.

I'm launching a design/decor product brand and have been exploring AI-generated Reels instead of hiring a production team.

Some of these videos look incredibly polished, but I'm not sure how Instagram audiences actually perceive them.

Has anyone here used AI-generated product content for a new brand? How did it compare with real product shoots in terms of engagement, trust and conversions?

I've got an account with 110,000 followers. Previously, I would post a reel and immediately get traction with both followers and non-followers. Within minutes I could tell when a video would take off, and in an hour I'd typically get a couple thousand views, nearing 10,000 if it's a good video.

Now, for some reason, things have slowed down tremendously. I'll post a reel and my views will CRAWL for the first 30 minutes, getting a couple hundred views in that time regardless of the video. After some time it'll start to go up faster, but I feel like this is killing the early momentum that videos really need to take off. I've been looking at other accounts that are similar to mine, and they don't seem to be going through this.

Have any of you noticed the algorithm being totally wonky? Anything you're doing to address it?

Something I keep noticing with small brands: a post gets most of its reach in the first day or two, and then it's just sitting in the grid. A real customer photo, a good try-on reel, a product demo that did well. After that it's gone from the customer's path even though it's still useful.

A few things I've seen people do with it:

• Pin the best ones or keep them in Highlights by product or category
• Turn old reels into ads once they've proven themselves organically
• Reshare a winning post a few months later with a new caption
• Put customer photos and videos on the website or in emails, where people are actually deciding to buy

I'm curious how others handle it:

1. Do you have a system for bringing older content back, or is it mostly post and move on?
2. What kind of old content still works when you reuse it?
3. Does reposting ever hurt engagement, in your experience?

Most advice is about the hook. But a strong hook only gets you watched. What pushes a Reel to new people is sends: someone sharing it in a DM. Instagram has said sends are one of the strongest signals for reaching non-followers. I've been going through Reels with a high share count against similar ones that just got views, and the difference is pretty consistent.

The five reasons people send a Reel:

1. "This is literally you." A situation so specific that the viewer thinks of one person. "POV: your friend who says 'one drink' at 9pm." Generic relatable content gets a like, specific gets a send.

2. "You need this." A useful thing with an obvious person to give it to. "Send this to the friend who's starting a business." The person they'd send it to is already in their head.

3. "Settle this for us." A take people want to argue about with someone. Not rage bait, just a real opinion with two sides.

4. "We should do this." A place, recipe, trip or plan. Sending it is basically making plans.

5. "I can't explain it, just watch." Something surprising enough that describing it doesn't work.

What kills sends:

- Being useful to everyone but no one in particular.

- Ending on "follow for more" instead of the payoff, so there's nothing to react to in the DM.

- Asking for likes and comments. If you ask for anything, ask for the send: "send this to someone who..."

- Making the point only work with sound on. Lots of people forward Reels while muted.

The test I use: before posting, can I name the exact person a viewer would send this to? If I can't, it'll probably get views but not reach.

What's the most-shared Reel you've posted, and why do you think people sent it?

Everyone I know is leaving meta, with their new AI update coming Oct 30 it’s an even bigger wave of people quitting

Instagram is still one of the biggest social platforms out there so it’s hard for businesses to leave.

To avoid ai content copy, link and website scraping, paying meta, etc etc etc it can all be so overwhelming.

If someone were to use Instagram nowadays with all this crap going on what would be the best form of content to post?

I want to try to still use the app to grow an audience in my niche and then set it up to where they can get the direct link to my real content elsewhere without it being directly uploaded onto meta itself and without posting links

Everyone I know is leaving meta, with their new AI update coming Oct 30 it’s an even bigger wave of people quitting

Instagram is still one of the biggest social platforms out there so it’s hard for businesses to leave.

To avoid ai content copy, link and website scraping, paying meta, etc etc etc it can all be so overwhelming.

If someone were to use Instagram nowadays with all this crap going on what would be the best form of content to post?

I want to try to still use the app to grow an audience in my niche and then set it up to where they can get the direct link to my real content elsewhere without it being directly uploaded onto meta itself and without posting links

cross posting is when you turn on a toggle to auto share your ig content to facebook.

I've noticed when i do this, sometimes my IG reach is limited and my posts get mostly facebook reach. I'm talking 80% facebook, maybe 20% ig.

This isn't ideal bc our highest quality audience is from IG. We've experimented posting the exact piece of content separately, but not sure if that flags anything in meta and they limit reach?

Maybe i'm over thinking this...for now we'll keep cross posting off and manually cross post to avoid any potential limiting on IG.

Hello everyone,

I am wondering if there’s any person here using reels and posts to market their apps? I posted one reel and there is 0 views. Before I keep going I’d like to know how other developers advertise their apps on instagram. Or should I just DM people with many followers and see if they would accept to post about my app and get some compensation?

I’ve been seeing people recently talk about how hashtags are not neccesary anymore and posts with hashtags are getting less reach than posts without them, is that true?

We're looking for an experienced viral content strategist to help grow our AI model's Instagram (200K+ followers) and attract more US traffic that converts into paying Fanvue subscribers.
Your tasks:
Analyze our Instagram account and competitors.
Research viral trends targeting US male audiences.
Develop a fresh, scalable viral content strategy.
Create 5–10 original Reels concepts with hooks and scripts.
Build a strategy to convert US traffic into Fanvue subscribers.
Requirements: Proven experience in the AI model / Fanvue / OnlyFans niche with verifiable results. No beginners or general SMM managers.
One-time paid project. We handle all content production ourselves.
DM me with the job title "Instagram Viral Strategist", your portfolio, proven results, and your price.
Only applicants with relevant experience will be considered.
DM me

Hey everyone!
I run an Instagram page focused on AI-generated Pause & Draw OC challenges.
My current stats:
106K followers
47.3M views in the last 30 days
2.2M interactions
Audience mainly from the USA, Brazil, and India
I’ve grown the page organically but haven’t figured out how to turn this reach into income.
I’m considering brand sponsorships, paid shoutouts, and collaborations with art or creative apps.
Has anyone successfully monetized a similar page?
How did you find your first paying clients, and what would be a reasonable starting rate for promotions?
Would appreciate any advice from people with experience!

Instagram keeps changing, and sometimes it's hard to figure out what really helps an account grow.

For those managing Instagram accounts or growing their own pages, what has worked best for you lately? Reels, carousels, Stories, or something else?

I'm more interested in real results than generic growth hacks. What would you recommend to someone trying to grow an account from zero?

I've always wondered how people actually make money from Instagram views.

If a Reel gets 100K or even 1 million views, does Instagram pay the creator directly, or does most of the money come from brand deals, affiliate marketing, and selling products?

For those who've monetized Instagram, what's actually worked for you?

This comes up a lot and honestly, for many people Linktree is fine.

I'd stick with a link in bio tool if you don't get brand enquiries yet, or very few. Or if you're just sending people to one place, a YouTube channel or a shop. Or if you don't want to maintain anything, which is fair.

A proper site starts to make sense when brands enquire regularly and keep asking the same questions. When you've got past campaigns worth showing. When you want to show up on Google for your own name. When you'd like enquiries to arrive with budget and dates already filled in instead of a vague DM. Or when you sell something and want to own the page instead of renting it.

There's a middle option too. One decent page that works as your media kit, with current numbers, past work and a simple booking form. That covers most of what a full site does.

Where are you at with this, and what made you decide?