Gary Vee’s $1.80 Instagram Strategy

Social media guru Gary Vee gets hundreds, if not thousands of messages a day from artists and content creators who want to expand their following on Instagram. 

His key to Instagram success? Be social. According to Gary Vee, “The only real way to do this from scratch is to become part of the conversation.”

His $1.80 Instagram strategy is based on leaving your 2 cents on 9 trending posts for 10 different days (which adds up to $1.80). 

At the end of the month, you would have engaged with different accounts in your niche and gained followers that are actually interested in what you’re all about. 

In a nutshell, here’s Gary Vee’s $1.80 Instagram strategy.

Step 1: Find niche-related hashtags. 

Let’s take music as an example. First off, we need to identify 10 hashtags that are relevant to musicians who are trying to cut through the noise and navigate the maze that is the music industry. 

Here are ten new music-related hashtags that are currently trending on Instagram.

1. #newmusic 
2. #newmusicfriday
3. #newmusic alert
4. #newmusicvideo
5. #newmusiccomingsoon
6. #newmusicmonda
7. #newmusicsoon
8. #newmusiccoming
9. #newmusicrelease
10. #newmusic2019

Pay attention to less popular hashtags (in this case #newmusic2021 with approximately 36K+ posts), as you’ll be able to make a bigger splash if you’re engaging with a smaller community. 

Scroll through the top 9 posts of each hashtag. When a post catches your eye, identify what the person behind that account is all about. Pay attention to their engagement rate. They might not have a huge following, but their followers may be super engaged, in which case, bingo!

Step 2. Leave your comment…or your 2 cents

Leave a meaningful comment on their post and try to provide value. Comments such as Follow back just don’t cut it anymore. Comment on their aesthetic, reply to the other comments and give positive feedback. 

Step 3. Continue to like, comment and engage

Continue leaving your 2 cents on 9 different posts for 10 hashtags every single day. 

By investing your time in a meaningful strategy, you’ll not only be gaining followers that are interested in your story but you’ll also be learning more about your line of work. This will, in turn, prove to be indispensable when it comes to planning your content strategy, as you’ll be well versed in current trends and what your target audience wants to see. It’s a win-win situation, if you ask me!