As Warren continued to refine his unique yet relatable voice and streamline his production process, his entertaining reels began appearing more frequently across Instagram’s recommendations, enticing many people to become followers. This visibility enabled him to reach new audiences and more than double his follower count in just a few months.

To accomplish this, Warren drew in big audiences with interesting hooks in his reels’ first few seconds, consistently showcased his authentic point of view, and always provided viewers with payoffs that not only encouraged them to watch to the end but also to like, comment, and share his reels with their friends afterwards. Through this combination of creativity and viewer engagement, Warren has been able to continue to grow on Instagram over the last year.

Some tips Warren has for creators looking to grow their audience:

• Don’t be in it just to go viral. If you come in with expectations that you need to achieve viral success, you’ll likely feel like you’re failing and get discouraged, especially when you’re just getting started. Find your “why”, and ask yourself if this is something you could do every single day even if you weren’t getting paid for it. If you have the right mindset, you’ll find your voice more easily and improve with each post.

• Find your niche. Once you come in with the right mentality, the next step is to find your niche. You can and should experiment to figure out your niche, but ultimately, it should be a topic that genuinely excites you. After landing on a niche, ensure you let people know exactly who you are through your posts. You should also use your bio and/or profile picture to reiterate your message. If your account has content that spans multiple genres (e.g. dance and food videos) and likely has distinct audiences, consider creating separate accounts for each audience. This can also give you multiple opportunities to succeed. Don’t make your account confusing for new people who may not be familiar with who you are.

• Be consistent. Establishing consistency, especially with your followers, is key to building a true community. Consistency, however, doesn’t necessarily mean posting a specific number of photos and reels each week. Rather, consistency means finding different ways to engage with fans such as taking them behind the scenes through your Stories, going Live to interact in real-time, and replying to their comments and DMs.