[a beer is enough]

I am starting to notice that social media (especially Instagram) is a pretty big deal to the younger generation and a lot of the popular people tend to have not only a high follower or friend count but also a lot of likes on their photos. Now I've been late to the social media game and never really used it in college, huge mistake looking back at it now, but I notice I am behind compared to most of my friends in their 20s.

From my observations in my immediate social circle, my friends who got in on the Instagram game at a young age by going to big high schools where they were popular and big colleges where they were social already have a head start. Most of them are well over 1,500 followers and get around 500 or so likes a pic, this is insane DHV to most girls who I feel can tell if it is fake or not.

Now with guys I know who are faking it, it is like you see them with a high follower count but low amount of likes per pic. Even their followers and the likes they get are from random ads or company accounts rather than people it seems like they would know.

I've read guides on this forum to Instagram game but I feel that by using boosts or some software glitch, it doesn't really lead to a genuinely big enough social following.

I also hate to entertain the "life ends after college" crowd on here too but I am starting to wonder now if after college, it is too big of a mountain to climb to build your social following in a genuine way.

Would love some thoughts on this.

[Batman_]

If you think it's worth an increased likelihood of depression, lower self-esteem, and becoming ego/image obsessed, go ahead and start an IG to get a higher DHV. Personally I don't think the tradeoff is worth it.

[a beer is enough]

(06-07-2018 09:42 PM)Batman_ Wrote:  

If you think it's worth an increased likelihood of depression, lower self-esteem, and becoming ego/image obsessed, go ahead and start an IG to get a higher DHV. Personally I don't think the tradeoff is worth it.

Oh how I used to be in the same boat as you back in my college days, thinking social media is for the conformists until I realized what a mistake I made. Well put together accounts most definitely have their benefit in this day and age, especially if you are chasing after hot girls who care about how their friends perceive them. I mean I all for being an alpha and breaking the trend but I am starting to notice it sure as hell has its benefits to play the social media game, as long as it is done right.

Plus, if you let the social media game depress you when playing it, the issue is not social media it is you. It is like fat people blaming fast food for them getting fat.

[Batman_]

(06-07-2018 09:45 PM)a beer is enough Wrote:  

(06-07-2018 09:42 PM)Batman_ Wrote:  

If you think it's worth an increased likelihood of depression, lower self-esteem, and becoming ego/image obsessed, go ahead and start an IG to get a higher DHV. Personally I don't think the tradeoff is worth it.

Oh how I used to be in the same boat as you back in my college days, thinking social media is for the conformists until I realized what a mistake I made. Well put together accounts most definitely have their benefit in this day and age, especially if you are chasing after hot girls who care about how their friends perceive them. I mean I all for being an alpha and breaking the trend but I am starting to notice it sure as hell has its benefits to play the social media game, as long as it is done right.

Plus, if you let the social media game depress you when playing it, the issue is not social media it is you. It is like fat people blaming fast food for them getting fat.

I never said there wasn't a benefit. I'm not basing my argument on social conformity but on numerous studies that have been published that show the relationship between social media and mental health. And the people with immense popularity in social media aren't necessarily any better off than the unpopular people, in terms of how it effects their perceived self image. It's also horrifyingly addicting, but that's another discussion.

[a beer is enough]

(06-07-2018 09:49 PM)Batman_ Wrote:  

(06-07-2018 09:45 PM)a beer is enough Wrote:  

(06-07-2018 09:42 PM)Batman_ Wrote:  

If you think it's worth an increased likelihood of depression, lower self-esteem, and becoming ego/image obsessed, go ahead and start an IG to get a higher DHV. Personally I don't think the tradeoff is worth it.

Oh how I used to be in the same boat as you back in my college days, thinking social media is for the conformists until I realized what a mistake I made. Well put together accounts most definitely have their benefit in this day and age, especially if you are chasing after hot girls who care about how their friends perceive them. I mean I all for being an alpha and breaking the trend but I am starting to notice it sure as hell has its benefits to play the social media game, as long as it is done right.

Plus, if you let the social media game depress you when playing it, the issue is not social media it is you. It is like fat people blaming fast food for them getting fat.

I never said there wasn't a benefit. I'm not basing my argument on social conformity but on numerous studies that have been published that show the relationship between social media and mental health. And the people with immense popularity in social media aren't necessarily any better off than the unpopular people, in terms of how it effects their perceived self image. It's also horrifyingly addicting, but that's another discussion.

I think a lot of these studies are coping in the same way that studies say rich people are unhappy or attractive people have image issues. As a whole, I think that being popular is better than not being popular when it comes to game.

Maybe I've been entrenched into North American millennial culture for too long but I do notice that around my age group, it is popular guys who are dating and smashing the hottest girls as well as going out with them in general.

[Batman_]

(06-07-2018 09:51 PM)a beer is enough Wrote:  

(06-07-2018 09:49 PM)Batman_ Wrote:  

(06-07-2018 09:45 PM)a beer is enough Wrote:  

(06-07-2018 09:42 PM)Batman_ Wrote:  

If you think it's worth an increased likelihood of depression, lower self-esteem, and becoming ego/image obsessed, go ahead and start an IG to get a higher DHV. Personally I don't think the tradeoff is worth it.

Oh how I used to be in the same boat as you back in my college days, thinking social media is for the conformists until I realized what a mistake I made. Well put together accounts most definitely have their benefit in this day and age, especially if you are chasing after hot girls who care about how their friends perceive them. I mean I all for being an alpha and breaking the trend but I am starting to notice it sure as hell has its benefits to play the social media game, as long as it is done right.

Plus, if you let the social media game depress you when playing it, the issue is not social media it is you. It is like fat people blaming fast food for them getting fat.

I never said there wasn't a benefit. I'm not basing my argument on social conformity but on numerous studies that have been published that show the relationship between social media and mental health. And the people with immense popularity in social media aren't necessarily any better off than the unpopular people, in terms of how it effects their perceived self image. It's also horrifyingly addicting, but that's another discussion.

I think a lot of these studies are coping in the same way that studies say rich people are unhappy or attractive people have image issues. As a whole, I think that being popular is better than not being popular when it comes to game.

Maybe I've been entrenched into North American millennial culture for too long but I do notice that around my age group, it is popular guys who are dating and smashing the hottest girls as well as going out with them in general.

Of course being popular helps game, there's no question about that. Social proof is probably the most powerful tool for raising your SMV.

I think these studies have a lot of merit. When you consider how unhappy hot women are despite the fact that they have thousands of followers on their social media, it begs the question, is it really adding value to people's lives?

But again, it's super obvious what social media does for increasing your success with women. I just had to put in my two cents because if you're not already entangled in this mess, you might want to carefully consider the implications first. If you're only doing this for game and you don't think you will get sucked into it, then it's probably worth doing.

[Simeon_Strangelight]

Do it with subtle finesse and panache:



If you have it, then you show it - the funny part is that it works.



There are infinite ways of how to show off your DHVs without going into the humble-brag category.

Most guys however have nothing to show, so it's basically down to travel-pics and food.

If you have a good body, then someone needs to take a shot of you in a natural pose. If you own an impressive car or house, then someone takes an artsy pic of that with you in it or opening the door.

Going black and white in those pics also conveys those things.

[Noir]

I thought a beer is enough, why the need for instagram?

For real though, lead a cool life and it's just a window into what you want to showcase. That's literally it.

You're a stock and have value. Instagram is the stock market and you go 'public'.

Your choice but it's another vector of legitimacy. It works for me but as always, nothing compares to real life.

I wrote about social media in depth and instagram is similar; passive, high value glimpses that you siphon out at busy times for exposure.

[tobehero]

Plenty of threads already on how to do IG (game) properly without it coming off as fake.

Like anything you DON'T need it but if do it right it makes additions to SMW.

[Savemham Lincoln]

The Instagram automation works. I rebuked Instagram until I read the Ragnar and Vinny thread.

If you are starting from a low number it is all gain and no loss. Those who can tell whether it is "fake" or not are irrelevant. For every one who knows it's fake, there are 10 who don't. The question is whether you are using Instagram to validate yourself or to get women.

On the path to 10,000 followers I got over 100 DMs - from doing nothing at all.

I stopped automating a few months ago and what's happening is that I lose a follower every now and then but I also get new follows.

3 days ago I got followed by a girl who is currently in the Top 28 for Miss South Africa.

This is all with lacklustre pictures. I don't take pictures when I am out and have less than 10 posts.

[tobehero]

If you are willing to put in the work and consider it a +6 months project then you will reap the rewards.

[RDF]

I agree with the last few posts, there are many ways to build a social media following post-college without it looking, or actually being, fake.

Here is an example scenario of how you can do it:

Setup:
- You're a mid20s guy and you happen to be really into skiing, snowboarding, and winter spots in general. You're not a pro or anything like that, but you go skiing every few weeks, travel to multiple resorts around the country. In the summer, you're big into surfing, wakeboarding, etc. This is your "niche".

- You already have an Instagram with some of your friends on it (for simplicity assume you have ~300 followers and following similar #), though for now you've posted lots of other pics in addition to those that fit your niche. You get a decent number of likes on your photos (~15% or 45 or so per photo, this is probably the case if most of your followers know you personally). You also have a newer-gen iPhone along with a few apps on the phone that let you take and edit very good quality pictures.

Here's what you do:
1) Begin to target your account to that specific niche. Post photos of you shredding the slopes, you on the chairlift, you at the jacuzzi after finishing your day on the slopes, and whatever else that you are ALREADY doing. You're not faking anything, you're living your life and showing people a specific piece of it.

2) Hashtag those photos, but not too aggressively (3-5 is fine). If you don't want to use hashtags, you can add them as a comment under the pic so much fewer people will actually see them

3) Buy a FollowLiker subscription, or use another similar service. Here is what it does -- it is simplier than you think. It automatically follows people in a category that you set for it, and then unfollows them at some point later to make the ratio of followers-following look good. Some of these people will follow you back. These are REAL people that are following you now. The number of people that you have to follow to get a follow-back (ie: whether it is 2% or 20%) will depend on how you zone in on your niche. If you post good content and pick the right pages to find people from, you can raise that number relatively high.

Note: This is technically something that you can do yourself. However, it will waste a lot of time. It is better to do it through a service. Look into the Instagram thread or any of Vinny's old threads for information on this.

4) Post content on a regular basis (once/week or more) that appeals to the niche in which you are finding followers. Feel free to post other stuff as well if you think it looks cool and you want to post it, but ~50% of your photos should apply to the niche where you are searching, and it should be higher when you are just starting out.

5) Your growth will depend on what setting you set up on the service (ie: if you will grow faster if you follow 800 people/day vs if you follow 80 people/day). But, over time, your follower number will grow. If you're posting good content, your engagement will grow as well. Even better, you may begin to get followers purely organically, since your photos will show up higher on hashtags and locations due to your higher follower count.

I'll expand a little further on engagement:
- Engagement = # of likes per photo divided by number of followers.
- If you're at 5% you are doing fine (ie: if you have 3k followers, you should get ~150 or more likes per pic on average). If you're at 10% and higher, you look good. You will look fake if you're at ~2% or below.
- It is interesting that you mentioned in OP about friends who have 1,500 followers and 500 likes/pic, because my guess is getting that type of engagement as a guy might actually come off more fake than if you're getting 100 likes/pic. I remember when I started Vinny's service and was getting 500 likes/pic while having ~1,000 followers and a few people called me out on it. It might not be as much DHV as you think.

I will stress again - this is not "fake", and you are not "buying" fake followers. You are growing your account by following people that are relevant to you. Nobody will know that you're using a service unless they really stalk your account hard as fuck on a daily basis. If anybody asks how you got followers, just say somebody posted your account on a reddit page that applies to your niche and you got followers from there.

So, you can grow a social media following out of college. The hardest part is to find a specific niche that applies to you and your life, and post things in that. Once you find it, it is pretty easy to grow to a few thousand followers or more.

[a beer is enough]

A lot of great replies to this thread and I like the direction where we are going with this but here is my thing with the "niche" part of it. It seems like the guys who I was talking about on this thread are doing all of this through a personal brand in which the Instagram is basically a collage of their social life experiences. The other thing I notice is they set their accounts on private meaning you have to know them in order to be added to their network and see their pics.

Now I was wondering if this sort of a brand building is possible for someone past that age group.

Maybe I am falling victim to what these younger guys are doing but it seems like they genuinely have met or known that many people given the way social dynamics work in high school and college. Are some of us who are not really in that age group anymore in a position to approach social media from that sort of an angle?

(06-08-2018 07:41 AM)tobehero Wrote:  

If you are willing to put in the work and consider it a +6 months project then you will reap the rewards.

I am all ears for your plan!

[RDF]

To answer your question directly: Probably not.

The exception would be specific circumstances such as a nightclub promoter, or a guy who travels the world year-round, stays at hostels most nights, and meets a dozen new people a week. For the vast majority of people, it's pretty unlikely that you're meeting hundreds of new people your age all of time like you are in college, so there isn't really a way that you can get 1,000 followers in a reasonable time frame just from people you know.

Also keep in mind that there is an upper limit to growing in the way you describe. While a popular college guy might actually "know" all of his 1,000 followers, that is impossible to be true if he has 10,000 followers. Same goes for chicks (on a side note, every cute chick who has significantly over 1k followers has thirsty dudes following her to boost that number). Every time you're seeing a profile with ~2k+ followers, that number is boosted by randoms.

On the bright side, growing that way is completely unnecessary. If you're looking to approach social media as an alley to showcase your life and to get some cuties, it doesn't matter whether your followers all know you personally or not. As I said, any profile with thousands of people following has randoms on it, guaranteed.

I think that the barriers guys have with growing Instagram come down to one of these 3:

1) Finding things to showcase. If one's life is very routine along the lines of .... 9-5 job, gym, sports, sleep, go out on fri/sat.... it might not be easy to find a lot of "instagrammable" stuff. The best solution is to actually live a more interesting life and to have fun hobbies that you can showcase. Another solution is to always keep an eye out for things in your life that could look good in pics. If you live in a big city, it shouldn't be a problem, just takes time to get down.

2) Picking a niche. This is related to the above, but if you can't think of an interesting "angle" into your life, it will be harder. I actually think a great discussion for the Instagram thread would be to discuss niches and which ones work better and worse for getting a following (as an example, unless you have a top 1% body and actually compete in Crossfit/MMA/etc, fitness is a pretty bad niche for dudes). I'm sure plenty of people will have ideas that I haven't thought of.

3) Choosing which pics to post. It isn't just quality, it is also style. Social media value display can be tricky. In my view, the jist of it is that the photos should tell a story by playing off of each other (while not being too repetitive), it should be subtle rather than forced, and the profile should leave a little to the imagination. A girl should click your profile and think something like "He seems like an cool/interesting guy, I'd love to know him better".

If you can solve those 3 issues, you should be able to grow a following pretty quickly.

[a beer is enough]

TBH I don't even know how people met 1k+ people in college. It seems like no matter the size of the campus, most people were in their tight little cliques and even the fraternities/sororities which were social seemed to get small enough in regards to socializing. Maybe I missed the memo for college, my experience sucked so that's that.

My thoughts are if it takes longer then so be it, guess this was more of a build a cool social life overtime to display on social media as opposed to just getting followers through a bot program.

You make one good point though about guys being boring so that is another beauty of this social media discussion, how to genuinely build a DHV lifestyle which you can show off to the world.

[ksbms]

(06-07-2018 09:45 PM)a beer is enough Wrote:  

[...] Well put together accounts most definitely have their benefit in this day and age, especially if you are chasing after hot girls who care about how their friends perceive them. [...]

Can you empirically prove that "most definitely" a unit of time spent building and maintaining Instagram account as well as used for messaging provides better result per the same unit of time devoted in other areas of development and with focus on non-online game? A unit of time is a very imprecise approximation, there are other important costs but we need to start from somewhere.

[tobehero]

(06-10-2018 07:32 PM)ksbms Wrote:  

(06-07-2018 09:45 PM)a beer is enough Wrote:  

[...] Well put together accounts most definitely have their benefit in this day and age, especially if you are chasing after hot girls who care about how their friends perceive them. [...]

Can you empirically prove that "most definitely" a unit of time spent building and maintaining Instagram account as well as used for messaging provides better result per the same unit of time devoted in other areas of development and with focus on non-online game? A unit of time is a very imprecise approximation, there are other important costs but we need to start from somewhere.

Once you get it going, it's mostly automated so you are not spending time actively looking at it. Looking at the feed is a waste of time.

There will be "dead-time" when you can focus on this.. e.g queuing .... taking a crap, whatever...

Time is spent on the pics, which as a traveller you should be collecting anyway (I think most on this forum is leading towards). if you are not currently travelling you can get friends / girls , or fellow gamers to take turns taking pics. Or save time and daygame whilst collecting pics.

Again I stress you dont need it but it makes a huge difference once you have IG working for you... get indifferent girls turn to yes girls. get random girls messaging you.

[a beer is enough]

For me, getting social media going is not just about game, it is also about having good pics to look back on as I get older and can no longer enjoy some of the fun things I can in my young days. I also do want to get a big following going because I genuinely feel like there are benefits to it as long as you aren't using a gimmicky app.

My ideal goal is to get my follower count up without having to rely on any one particular niche. Instead, my Instagram should tell the story of my life with high quality photos while I add people I meet or come into contact with.

Did I ask the wrong question with this thread when instead I should have been asking how to meet more people to grow your social media circle?

I wish I had got in on it a lot earlier in life!

[tobehero]

Yea it's a great way to look at it and life in general.

I suppose that's where the niche aspect comes into play. You share common passions and interests , connect that way. This is more networking... what can you offer of value to someone that already has the following.

[getdownonit]

Just showcase your real, actual, normal life. This way when you meet a girl you will be congruent with your IG personality.

None of us like getting catfished by a SIF off Tinder or whatever, right? Same shit for girls and instagram

[a beer is enough]

(06-16-2018 04:00 AM)getdownonit Wrote:  

Just showcase your real, actual, normal life. This way when you meet a girl you will be congruent with your IG personality.

None of us like getting catfished by a SIF off Tinder or whatever, right? Same shit for girls and instagram

Fair enough right there but the only question now becomes, how do you authentically build a following from that without having to rely on adding people you don't even know?

[True Balla]

(06-25-2018 07:56 PM)a beer is enough Wrote:  

(06-16-2018 04:00 AM)getdownonit Wrote:  

Just showcase your real, actual, normal life. This way when you meet a girl you will be congruent with your IG personality.

None of us like getting catfished by a SIF off Tinder or whatever, right? Same shit for girls and instagram

Fair enough right there but the only question now becomes, how do you authentically build a following from that without having to rely on adding people you don't even know?

Get to know them / more people then?

[a beer is enough]

(06-25-2018 09:37 PM)True Balla Wrote:  

(06-25-2018 07:56 PM)a beer is enough Wrote:  

(06-16-2018 04:00 AM)getdownonit Wrote:  

Just showcase your real, actual, normal life. This way when you meet a girl you will be congruent with your IG personality.

None of us like getting catfished by a SIF off Tinder or whatever, right? Same shit for girls and instagram

Fair enough right there but the only question now becomes, how do you authentically build a following from that without having to rely on adding people you don't even know?

Get to know them / more people then?

On the right track on the right track, I like that!

So how do you get to know more people who you can add on social media or would be interested in that sort of a game?

As in the proper way to go about building that following by meeting the kinds of people who are actually into social media instead of seeing social media as something immature.

[True Balla]

(06-27-2018 07:47 PM)a beer is enough Wrote:  

(06-25-2018 09:37 PM)True Balla Wrote:  

(06-25-2018 07:56 PM)a beer is enough Wrote:  

(06-16-2018 04:00 AM)getdownonit Wrote:  

Just showcase your real, actual, normal life. This way when you meet a girl you will be congruent with your IG personality.

None of us like getting catfished by a SIF off Tinder or whatever, right? Same shit for girls and instagram

Fair enough right there but the only question now becomes, how do you authentically build a following from that without having to rely on adding people you don't even know?

Get to know them / more people then?

On the right track on the right track, I like that!

So how do you get to know more people who you can add on social media or would be interested in that sort of a game?

As in the proper way to go about building that following by meeting the kinds of people who are actually into social media instead of seeing social media as something immature.

I'm not sure what your question means exactly - but I don't treat it that complicated. I follow people who live in my area, and if they're girls I DM them and start a conversation. That either turns into a date or friends. If they respond ill keep them as friends and I'm sure eventually they'll want to meet up. I comment on stories etc. often tho.

For me, I've made friends off there who I've met in real life (girls and guys), and I've gone on dates with hot girls off there that I randomly DM'd, including a model. I've also had a girl fly down to meet me from another state, and just most scenarios probably (including me flying to a different girl). However, I wouldn't hesitate to say I've prob sent out over 1k+ DM's and that it is a numbers game. I think, all in all, I just try and make friends off IG. Also for people in real life, I get their Instagram to stay in touch. Whether it's from going out, gym, playing ball, whatever, I use it as a way to network. I've got 10k+ followers tho, so I don't think anyone thinks its creepy in any way. If they do, it's instantly diffused once they see follower count.

[Captain Gh]

Well you need to ask yourself What is Your Goal? What outcome are you looking out of InstaGram? You need to know exactly why because correctly growing on Instagram requires some work. I might be incorrect, but I think you just want a high fallower count to look cool & smash some A$$. As long at your content is quality... correctly using bots can get you there easily while looking genuine.

Edit: I know you've mentioned on how you missed out i college, and are worried about life being different and "boring"! Honestly do this to try to see how this is wrong. #1 Most people will forever be in debt after college.

#2 if smashing chicks is what you want... doing this outside of college is easily achievable! Whether you do it via DayGame, Roling Solo NightGame, or Online... smashing opportunities are overly present.

And if you make Bank... then you have access to international Poon... and can even work 6 months on/ 6 months off being a Playboy Round the world! Limitless opportunities my friend! So stop with this having missed out on College! Shit's only starting!