Is it too late to get started on Instagram?

It is fair to say that Instagram completely changed our lives. You might think “how can an app change your life? Isn’t that a bit exaggerated?” But the fact is, it has allowed us to do things we never thought possible – work with our favorite brands, stay at the most beautiful hotels for free and inspire a community of over 2 million people combined.

If you are reading this blog post, you have probably thought about taking your Instagram growth to the next level, but you’re a bit…scared? There might be a voice inside your head telling you that you are too late and missed your chance. That the market is already too saturated, and it’s impossible to stand out among the thousands of amazing profiles with awesome content already out there. That nobody will care about your posts or that you don’t have enough value to give.

Guess what? These are perfectly normal concerns! Many creators have them, including us! We had all of these thoughts when we first started – we thought we were late to the game, we were shy and we didn’t think we had value to give. But the thing is, we didn’t listen to these voices, and you shouldn’t either.

Now, succeeding on Instagram isn’t a walk in the park, but it is absolutely possible. In fact, there’s never been a better time to be a creator or business on Instagram. And our students are the best example of that:

Mat & Lou (@lesmoonwalkers) started their account in November 2021, reached 10k only 3 months later, and by now they have over 30k followers!
Dani & Arash (@crossingcultures_) started their travel page a little over 2 months ago and already had 2 videos that went viral which allowed them to grow from 2k to 30k followers in just 2 weeks. Now, they have over 53k followers and they are already getting several offers from companies!
Julia (@julesandaway) is already at 23k followers, landed several hotel collaborations, and more hotels and PR agencies are reaching out to work with her! She even had to decline and postpone several offers, because she couldn’t schedule them all at once!

Alisa (@alisa_eileen) grew her account from 500 to 2k followers from one viral reel. She has already started to sell her itinerary ebooks about Bali and even landed her first hotel collab. She recently quit her job and moved to Bali to pursue her dream life.
Sophie (@sophiefamilytravel) went viral with her Reel and hit 17.7M views which allowed her to grow to over 3k followers! She already landed her first hotel collaboration and is planning on leaving her 9/5 job soon.
Martina & Tomash (@magneticcouplesbracelets) just doubled their following to 69k because of a viral Reel with over 73 million views! They even sold out thanks to this one video!

Now, even though I think this should already prove to you that it’s definitely not too late to get started and turn your hobby into your business, you might still have some doubts, so let me clear them for you:

“There are too many competitors already”

Currently, there are over 1 billion active Instagram users out there. So you might be thinking: everything that I have to show, or tell has been said before – the market is too saturated.

And while that might be partly true, there is one thing that’s for sure: it hasn’t been said by you. Your words, your perspective, your experiences, your point of view, your insights, and your aesthetic: no one will create the same content as you. There will be so many people out there that will share your opinion, or prefer your style of work over others. Your voice and your point of view are what make your profile stand out from others. Besides, even though there are an estimated 3.7 billion users on social media, less than 2% are influencers or content creators! So there is still plenty of space for you!

“But there are so many creators that have so much more to share”

We know, sometimes we look at other people’s accounts and think “wow, what a crazy life they have. Every day they get to experience another adventure”. Although that might seem great and impressive, most people will never relate to these accounts as much as they could with someone more like them. Nowadays followers turn to creators they feel they can trust, and relate to. They want to see things that they can identify with, or at least things that are also reachable for them. Showing the real you, your unique, authentic self is going to be exactly what you need on this platform. They will engage with the content that they connect with which in return will bring you high engagement, which of course brands will love!

“As a brand, it’s too hard to stand out from other brands and to make sales”

That’s just a matter of how you brand and market yourself. With the right strategy, you can actually get most of your sales from Instagram. Influencer marketing is a very powerful way to sell your products to others and can do you a world of good. Find the right partners for your brand and see how you can work together. If you choose the right partners, you will not only get amazing content from them, but you will also get a lot of new leads and potential new clients! Most of the small businesses here in Bali only use Instagram to sell their products and it’s working so well!

“Instagram has been taken over by TikTok”

I admit it does seem like TikTok is taking over the social media world and it might be a lot easier and faster to gain followers there, but that doesn’t mean that it’s over for Instagram. On the contrary! The lifespan of an Instagram post or Reel is actually much longer than a video on TikTok. And on top of that, you just have so many more content options – carousels, photos, videos, Reels, text, stories, and links all in one place. So it comes as no surprise that it’s getting easier and more common to find brand partners on Instagram, no matter how many followers you have. The influencer marketing industry is set to grow to approximately $16.4 billion this year, so imagine all the possibilities out there waiting for you!

“But Instagram is constantly changing – it’s so hard to keep up”

Yes, it is changing but that’s good. Change is growth and that’s exactly what we want – new options for reels, longer stories, collaborations, and link stickers… It feels like there is a new update every week and you should take advantage of it!

Some people say getting discovered is more complicated than ever – but that’s not true at all! With Reels, it is now easier than ever to go viral and get your content in front of hundreds, thousands, and even millions of people! You saw it with our students – from one viral video they managed to grow quickly in no time. Once you get the hang of creating a good Reel, you will see the impact they can have!