How to Build a Huge Following Online

A question I get a lot is “What’s the best way to get more followers on Instagram?”

And honestly, I don’t f*ing know. 

I have a social media manager who does everything on Instagram for me. I made the decision to hire her early on, when I looked at Canva and thought, not for me. 

Truth is, I don’t need thousands of followers to succeed. I’m not trying to grow my audience organically, and I also don’t want to get a traditional book deal. But for you, it’s different. Because you want to be a traditionally published author, your social media presence is important. Publishers and literary agents expect authors to be on social media. 

However, social media is just one component of an author platform. You can, and will, succeed at getting your book deal with less than 100,000 followers. My client Dr. Katrina Ubell — whose book comes out this September — is a great example. Her book sold to Grand Central Publishing with only 3,000 followers on Instagram. In her case, the opportunity to attract readers to her book was from her podcast, which had thousands of listeners. She also had an active and engaged email list that she sent content to weekly, as well as an ability to reach readers through her ads and sales funnels. 

In the end, Katrina didn’t need to be Internet famous to get a major book deal. 

Instead of looking at how to gain followers for followers’ sake, I encourage my Author Platform Builders to look at all the different components of an author platform and decide where they want to invest their time and money. If you don’t want to spend your time on social media, that’s OK. There are alternatives, whether that’s hiring someone to post and engage for you (like I do) or building out another part of your platform so that publishers feel confident you can sell thousands of copies.

Every author I work with has built their audience and author platform in a unique way that works for them. The way to build a huge following online is the way that works for you. Unfortunately, there are no fast solutions or a singular way to succeed. 

I wish I had better news for you, but the one positive I can leave you with is that you don’t need to be an Internet famous influencer to be successful. All you need to do is to choose where you show up, do so consistently and put in the work — like Katrina and so many of my clients do.