How To: Create An Instagram Fan Page {Part 4}

Welcome back to part 4 of my on-going series, How To: Create An Instagram Fan Page. My last 3 posts in the series talked about popular Instagram acronyms as well as how to go about starting your fan page. If you haven't seen them, what on earth are you waiting for??

Anyway, here we go with part 4. This post will mostly tackle building relationships and how to go about making friends and building your name.

1)  Relationships

One of the most important things when it comes to owning a successful Instagram fan page is to make good friends. Friends are there to make Instagram more fun, to look out for you and to help you gain followers.

I met one of my IG besties, Amo, a long time ago. At that time, I had about 1K and she had 6K. I idolised her because I thought she was so cool (she still is pretty cool). Later on, when I had about 3K, she applied to join a promo group that I was starting with my two other friends, Kyla and Maegan. The promo group is called The Petrova Pact and its still active till today. Anyway, she was accepted in and we went from just mutual friends to really good friends. We helped each other out a lot and we talk quite a bit. We even oovoo-ed once with some of the other Petrova Pact members.

There's also Uday and Jess who are so sweet and who add me to everything and talk to me all the time and who know when I'm on.

The point is that friends are a vital part of your Instagram journey. I have been so blessed to have met so many wonderful people from all over the world through obsessedwithvamps. I honestly really don't know where I would be without them.

(Shoutout to my friends: Amo, Nikki, Jess, Uday and so many more)

Friends really help you and the only way you can make friends is by not being bitchy and nasty. Don't burn bridges. Make them.

2) Professional Relationships

This is a continuation of my first point of not burning bridges. Now, in your time on Instagram, you will be a participant of a mega/GS/sfs at one point or the other. This is where you build your contacts. As your account grows, you will meet people with bigger accounts and sometimes you rarely talk but you guys do a lot of promoting for each other.

What I'm getting at is to be professional. Don't fool around on a group chat because people are there to gain followers. Not to fool around. Unless everyone is having fun, maintain a bit of professionalism. Too many times I've been in something and there is one person fooling around and annoying everyone. It's okay to have fun. Instagram is supposed to be fun. But learn when to turn it down a notch.

I personally have so many professional relationships. I have so many people with which I do SFS all the time but who I hardly know. These people are important to build your account.

(You also have a responsibility to make sure that other people do not get into your kik and harass your contacts. I wrote this point mainly because recently, a contact let her cousin on her phone. This cousin wrecked havoc and was so nasty to me and another girl that I had to block her. And I never got an apology from the original owner. I don't consider that professionalism)


3) Have A Good Reputation

Once you have established your account, you will find that you tend to be doing megas, GSs and SFS with about the same people. Which is why you need to build a good reputation from the start.

There are two girls that I know on Instagram who are complete bitches. Everyone knows that when they are around, a fight will break out because one of the girl's likes to swear and cause trouble and her friend will back her up. They are vicious and everyone knows that. But the thing is, she only has 1K+. And huge accounts with 20K+ actually know her and know that she is a bitch. So that only makes it hard for her to gain because as she climbs up the ladder, people are just going to know that they don't want to do anything with her because she is a world-class asshole.

Same goes for scamming people (when you get someone to post your sfs picture but then you don't post theirs). People will remember that. So watch yourself and create a good reputation.

That's all for part 4. I just wanted to say thank you. I started this series because I got 6K. Today I got 8.1K so I just want to say thank you for following me. If you want to find me on Instagram, my links are in the sidebar to your right.

A Tumblr Room: Day 2

So day 2 of decorating my room took a bit of time because my printer ran out of ink and I had no way to change it myself till my dad helped me on Wednesday.

So today I basically put up more pictures in my room.

I also started and finished my vision board today. I'm really excited about it but I won't talk much about it here because I want to dedicate a whole post to my vision board tour. I'll give you guys a sneak peek here though.

A Tumblr Room: Day 1

So finally semester is over and I have a lot of time on my hands. During semester, my room got really messy. I kept making excuses and saying that I was too busy to clean up. I finally decided to do something about that and I cleaned up a lot. 

As I was clearing up, I found the owl wall stickers my mom had bought me. She bought them last month for me but I hadn't had time to put them up. I started trying to figure out where they should go and as I was doing that, I started to notice how much bare wall space I have around my room. 

I've always wanted to do something cool with my room but I've always planned too much and ended up not doing anything. Yes. I plan too much.

So I decided to just start. I put up the owl wall stickers and then decided to work on the wall behind my bed.

After a bit of time on Tumblr, I had a collection of some pretty pictures that I wanted to put up on the wall. I printed them out and started cutting and pasting them up with double-sided tape.

After that, I got some wooden alphabets to put up my name along the edges of my shelf. 

That concludes day 1. Stay tuned for day 2 

How To: Create An Instagram Fan Page {Part 3}

Welcome back to part 3 of my guide to creating an Instagram fan page. If you haven't seen the last two parts,

So in my last 2 posts, I taught you guys the basic Instagram acronyms and I gave you 3 tips for setting up what you will need. In this part, I will be helping you further as well as answering the questions I received on part 2.

1) Shoutouts 

I started @obsessedwithvamps from the ground up. Meaning at one point in my Instagram journey, I legit had 0 followers. It's hard to gain followers when you have like 10 followers because it's hard to find people who want to do shout outs with you. It's actually a cycle. The more followers you have, the more people with more followers want to do shout outs with you and you gain faster. (Did I just make sense? I don't even know omg)

Anyway, the key to overcoming this (and its something you should carry with you throughout your Instagram journey) is simply to do shout outs with people who have about the same number of followers that you do. If you have 10 followers, don't ask people with 1k and above to do shout outs with you. It's not fair to them and also the chances that you will get rejected is very high.

As you gain more followers, like if you have 6k, its okay to ask a person with 8 or 9k for shout outs. That's because its still considered a lot. 

(This was a question posted to me on part 2)

2) Editing Apps

I was asked in my last post to recommend good iPhone editing apps. I have always edited my photos on my phone and I am only just starting to learn how to use Photoshop CS6 to edit. So far I've only been able to teach myself how to make GIFs (lol)

I like to teach myself how to do things. I taught myself how to make GIFs on Photoshop. I taught myself how to use Final Cut Pro in a day (the basics at least). I taught myself how to edit on the iPhone and I'm working towards learning to edit on Photoshop CS6. So I really really can't stand it when people can't be bothered to learn things themselves. 

I absolutely hate it when people comment on my edits asking what apps I used to make it and what filters I used and what fonts I used. It annoys me so much. I always tell people in fact, that I don't give these things out. I'm a fan page. I'm not a 'How To Edit Page'.

The reason why accounts don't give out apps, filters and fonts is simply because that is their unique style. Would an magician give away his trick? No. Why? Because that's what makes them unique and special. That is exactly the same for an editor.

There are a lot of editing apps out there in the app store. Millions in fact. I found the apps that I currently use mostly by trial and error. I like to download a whole lot of apps at one go and then go through them one by one, testing them and seeing if they are any good. Then I will delete the ones that aren't good or aren't what I want and keep the rest to use for my edits.

Bottom line: To find good editing apps and styles, trial and error plus a passion to learn is critical. 

3) Knowing Your Followers

What does it mean to know your followers? In fact, how do you know your followers? With 6300 followers, you can't expect me to know every single one of my followers. That's crazy. So what I mean with this point is to observe your follower trends. 

The first and most basic step to knowing your followers is knowing when they are mostly online. For me, I learnt that my followers are mostly active at about 10pm-1am (Singapore time: SGT). This means that if I post something during that window, I will be able to get the most likes. It's also why I do majority of my shout outs during that time. I found this out again, by trial and error. It's just something you will learn after having your account for some time. 

TIP: Everyone wants followers who are active 24/7. But that's obviously impossible. What you can do however is do shout outs during the whole day (THIS SHOULD ONLY BE DONE FOR A SHORT TIME LIKE 1 OR 2 DAYS). This will make sure that you have followers from different timezones and so you have active followers all through the day basically.

The second thing to do to know your followers is to know what kind of stuff they like. This is done by checking how many likes you get on a photo. If you get 300 likes on a cast photo, you know they like it. If you get 150 likes on an edit, you know they may not like it very much. 

While this should aid you in knowing what to post, always remember that it is ultimately your account and if you aren't comfortable posting something, even if your followers are crazy about it, don't post it.

Well that's all for part 3. Stay tuned for part 4 which will come out (as usual) when this post hits 100 views.

 If you have any questions you want answered, please COMMENT HERE. A lot of you have been directing your comments to my Instagram and while that's okay, it is easier for me if you comment directly here.

(P.S. Check out my other posts. They're just as good (I hope) There's even a TFIOS review up)

How To : Create A Successful Instagram Fan Page {Part 2}

Welcome back to to part 2 of my ongoing series, How To: Create a Successful Fan Page. If you haven't seen part 1 then I'm sorry but 

Go check out part 1 if you haven't basically. The link is here {http://twentythreeowls.blogspot.sg/2014/07/how-to-create-successful-instagram-fan.html}

In this edition, I will be talking about the popular (basic) acronyms that are used on Instagram and KIK. 

So let's get to it and I'll explain why it's important to know these things later.

SFS: 
Shoutout For Shoutout. This is exactly the same as a PFP (Post For Post). It's when someone KIKs you a shoutout picture and caption and you send yours and both people post it and leave it up for 10 minutes unless otherwise discussed.

Screenies:
This is similar to an SFS but it is not done on KIK. It is done on Instagram directly. You simply take a screenshot of the person's account or edits and post it saying 'Follow @obsessedwithvamps', for example. Again, you leave it up for 10 minutes.

Group Shoutouts/Shares (GS):
This is where your nice people skills come in. This is also the place where you meet friends and network with people. Basically in a GS, someone will say 'Drop names'. You then post something like this:
Cam 1 
Someone will then gather the names and put them in a list. Then, by the order of the names, you send your SFS picture and caption and everyone will post. Then the next person will go and likewise till everyone is done. This can be fun but sometimes, when you have people who are not active, it can take a long time and be very annoying. So make sure you have time to remain active in the GS before agreeing to be in it.

TIP: Try to be first or second. Sometimes GS's breakdown after one or two people go because of inactiveness. Try not to get last because sometimes people don't post. That said, don't go bat crazy if you do end up last. Just deal with it. Not everybody doesn't post. Also don't leave if you do end up last because it is 

Megas:
This is similar to a GS except when someone says 'Drop', you type your username like this:
@obsesedwithvamps 
Then someone will gather the names to put in a list. REMEMBER. If you are the one gathering, you have to send your username as well. Then you gather according to who dropped first. Don't shove your name on top simply because you gathered or because you are hosting. It's very rude. Then, someone will make a caption and someone else will post a mega picture. Then everyone posts and leaves it there for 10 minutes. Pretty simple.

TIP: Try to get your name on top as much as you can without being rude or cheating. People sometimes like to follow the top person only. If you can't get on the top, try to put your name last because it's just as good as getting a top place.

Ultras:
This is pretty fun as long as you have active people and good coordination. These things don't happen often though because it takes 20 people and some people just don't want to deal with that 'ish. ANYWAY. An ultra is basically when you have two full KIK groups (so 20 people) and you have one person who is in both groups. Then, you drop your usernames, someone will gather it and the person that is in both groups will combine the names from both groups and then it will be like a mega but with 20 people. I've been in good and bad ones so be careful. If it looks like its falling apart, leave. Don't waste your time.

CWD:
This means 'Comment When Done'. Pretty self-explanatory. 



So that's it for part 2. It is super important to know these things because it is very annoying when you have someone asking you to explain it. You most likely think I'm being bitchy here. Let me explain. Majority of established fan pages have what they call SFS time. This is an allocated time when accounts will do a lot of SFS to gain followers. That means that it is highly likely that a person will be in 3-4 megas, one GS and a couple of SFSs all at once. It's hectic obviously and the last thing you need is someone asking questions. So don't be that someone. 

I hope you guys liked this post. Stay tuned for part 3 which will have more tips!

(P.S. Just a note, just like part 1, when this post hits 100 views, I will post part 3)

How To : Create A Successful Instagram Fan Page {Part 1}

I've decided to write this post as a thank you to my beloved followers for getting me to 6k.

So to commemorate this milestone, I decided to come up with a few blog posts, a series if you will, on how to create a successful Instagram fan page  account from the ground up. In each post, I shall have 3 points. I'm not yet sure how many posts there will be by the end of this. I can be long winded. 

So, let's get to it then.

1) JUST DO IT

Creating an Instagram fan page account can be pretty daunting. Well, it was for me. I had to think about things like if I would have time to manage an account (I created this account last year when I had to sit for my major Cambridge exams). I also wanted everything to be perfect. Little did I realise that with a fan page account, you can never reach perfection. You will always be improving in some way or the other. 

BUT I'm going out of point. The point is, don't think too hard. Just go for it. Having a fan page account is unpredictable and that's what makes it so damn fun.

2) YOUR USERNAME

There actually is a story behind my username. When I created my account, I was just out of the Twilight fandom and I was really into the Vampire Diaries and vampires in general. I had (and still have) this really cool book about all the different types of vampires and they had cool stuff about the evolution of vampires in fiction and stuff. So I was really into vampires. Hence I decided on the username Obsessedwithvamps. 

Again pretty irrelevant to what I really want to say about this point (sorry). When coming up with a username, follow these tips:

1) Do not copy. Be original.

2) Avoid numbers. It makes you look like a noob and it also makes it harder for people to remember your username

3) Avoid underscores though if you really want an underscore, just use one. Not 5 or 6. 

4) Try to use something that is catchy and that has a ring to it.

3) CREATE A KIK

This is super important when you have a fan page because it will be what you use to communicate with majority of your friends and occasionally, followers. You NEED a KIK. This is what you will use when you are communicating with people for SFSs, GSs, Megas and more (I'll make a post soon about the acronyms). You have to remember however, that this will be your professional KIK. 

What does that mean? Well firstly, it means that your particulars have to be on point. Your username, as far as possible, should be the same one you have for your Instagram. This will make it easier for people to find you on KIK. Again, don't have some crazy name.

Secondly, the format for your display name should be like this:

As you can see, it should have your name or nickname, followed by the number of followers you have (BE HONEST) and then you can put 'ON' or 'OFF' depending on when you are online so people know that they can contact you. 

Well, that's it for the first part of the series. I don't know why anyone would listen to my advice but I've been wanting to do this for  while so I don't really care. Part 2 will be out soon. 

Once again, thank you so much for 6K. Instagram has really become this big part of my life and I'm so grateful for all my 6000 friends. I honestly don't know why you guys follow me. I'm not the best editor out there. I'm not the most hardcore fan out there. So I'm really grateful that you guys don't care about that. Every follower, every like, its all special to me and I hope you guys know that.

**SIDE NOTE: I have included links to both my personal and fan page Instagram accounts by the side.