Instagram has long ceased to be a social network where people share their personal photos, but has turned into a serious business platform, in which competition is growing day by day. Subscribers become more selective and demand quality content, reach and engagement are falling.

To stay on top of the wave of popularity in such a changing environment, you need to constantly fuel interest in your blog. A blogger with an audience of 4.5 million subscribers Anna Protasova, better known as Anna Reira, told the publication about the phenomenon of hype, as well as about other blogging methods of keeping the audience’s attention.

May the hype be with you

From English “hype»Translated as shameless, intrusive, aggressive advertising. In other words, hyip means artificially created hype, excitement around something for the purpose of promotion. Hype works equally effectively on social networks, as well as on TV and in the media.

With this technique, Instagram bloggers maintain reach and increase engagement. The hype phenomenon is quite understandable: people tend to be interested in the details of someone else’s life, looking for dirty details. That is why people are so happy to watch endless discussions of high-profile scandals and intrigues in the format of talk shows or stories on social networks. Hype allows you to promote quickly and for free. Therefore, it can easily increase both television ratings and the audience on social networks.

Blogger tools

Sooner or later, any blogger starts thinking about monetizing his page. And so that sales do not affect reach, there are tools that help to increase engagement. As a blogger with a multi-million dollar audience, I highlight three of the most effective techniques.

Dramaturgy – a popular tool that implies the gradual disclosure of a blogger as a character by demonstrating his emotions and explaining the motives of his actions.

Think back to your favorite TV show: From episode to episode, new events show the protagonists from different angles, making us feel happy, empathic or anxious. Blogging is about the same now, only a content plan appears instead of a script. Just like in the show, you watch a blogger tell a story, biding his time and adding intrigue. At this time, you are looking forward to new stories and are as involved as possible. After that, the coverage is not afraid of any sales, they will remain at a high level. The main rule to remember is to always bring the story to its logical conclusion, without leaving subscribers in the middle of the story, as some bloggers like to do. Otherwise, trust will be lost, and the technique will not work the next time.

Once, on my personal Instagram page, I talked about my weight loss. honestly and openly admitting to her audience in stories that she took antidepressants. In parallel, I launched the sale of two information products. And it was a coup as the reach has grown significantly. Also, I am as open as possible with my audience and do not hesitate to share intimate things.

Conflicts – a specific and time-consuming tool to use, and therefore little used in the blogging community. The conflict can be with anyone. With another blogger, when “military actions” unfold immediately in posts, stories, and comments of both opponents, and subscribers act as the “army of soldiers”. With a person from the blogger’s environment, in this case, only one point of view will be shown to subscribers – the blogger himself. And, of course, with the audience itself, for example, against the background of a fallen asset or a misunderstanding that has arisen. It is important to understand that the conflict does not have to be real. It can be created artificially to attract attention and exchange audience.

The notorious leader of the Leningrad group, Sergei Shnurov, is very fond of using conflicts in the network. Of his recent high-profile conflicts, one can single out the “Instagram war” with Basta. After speaking on his Instagram about the rapper’s concert in St. Petersburg, Cord launched a skirmish, which the followers called a “poetic duel”. Not only Cord and Basta, but also Vasily’s label colleagues, as well as an army of fans, took an active part in the battles.

This conflict has turned into a real news feed, and the coverage of both performers has grown significantly.

Hype… It can be both the main topic of the blog, on which everything is built, and a secondary topic that appears occasionally. Of course, it is very difficult to regularly hype and keep the audience’s interest just based on this technique. In any case, where there is even a pinch of hype, there is a genuine interest of subscribers. You can hype both on real events and on fictional ones – the coverage will still be high.

I recently became a hype subject myself. So, while conducting an emotionally difficult webinar for my subscribers, at a certain moment, tears arose. After that, one of the producers on Instagram announced that crying on Instagram is her personal feature, and I just stole this trend from her. This situation is a vivid example of how you can artificially create a hype.

HYIP Kings

The clearest example of a blog where the main topic is HYIP is Instasamka, aka Daria Zoteeva. Appeared in blogging in 2017.

To date, she has 3 million followers on her account. Daria is a concrete example of how a person earned popularity with the help of provocative videos, vines, mate and conflicts with anyone possible.

As soon as interest in the blog begins to fade, Daria resorts to hype again and shocks her audience to return coverage to the previous level.

Hype as a tool works great not only on Instagram, but also on TikTok. A good example is the popular TikTok blogger VolodyaXXL.

Haypanul at will “shoot all the gays“- a quote, mentioning this first in your account on TikTok, and then repeating the thought in Instagram. To say that this topic is hype is to say nothing. Result: Volodya has a million followers on Instagram and 3.2 million on TikTok, worldwide fame (in his opinion) and a lot of fans. But, as in the example with Instasamka, this entire wave of popularity can quickly fade away without constant support.

Of course, HYIP is an effective promotion tool, but it requires constant generation of a certain type of content, and not everyone can do it. Sooner or later, any blog built solely on conflicts and hype will simply exhaust itself and become uninteresting. It is the matter of time. That is why now in the Instagram-world there is an increasing trend towards “environmental friendliness”. Bloggers try to build their content on usefulness to the audience and maintain coverage through interest in their person, and not in high-profile scandals. This is a more promising strategy that will help you grow in blogging quality.