[FAQ]

Hey Vault crew! 👋

Quick gut-check: I’m sitting at 4.2k followers in the digital-marketing niche. Posting 4–5 Reels a week, daily Stories, plus the odd carousel. I averaged +300 followers/month last year.

I keep seeing “10k in 90 days” claims, but I’m aiming for steady, bot-free growth.

• What monthly growth % feels doable now? 5–10%?

• Any metrics you watch besides follower count to prove it’s working?

• Hit any plateaus lately—what lever moved the needle for you (collabs, paid ads, new formats)?

Looking for real-world numbers, not hype. Thanks!

[Jeff Bullas]

Hey there—Jeff here. First off, great job tracking the right numbers and staying allergic to bots. A few quick data points to anchor your goals:

What the current benchmarks say:

Typical weekly lift for professional-style accounts: ≈ 0.97 %–1.37 % (works out to roughly 4 %–6 % monthly)
Annual growth for micro-accounts (1 k–5 k followers): ≈ 38 % YoY; 5 k–10 k accounts average ≈ 35 %

Given you’re sitting at 4.2 k, a sustainable, no-spam target is:

Monthly: ~5 % (≈ 210 new followers)
Annual: 30 %–40 % (ending the year around 5.5 k–6 k)
If you hit a couple of strong collabs or Reels that pop, you can absolutely double that, but treat it as upside—not the baseline.

Metrics that matter more than the raw count:

Shares & DMs per 1 k reach – Instagram now weighs private shares heavily; they’re the new “super-like.”
Saves-per-reach – Aim for 0.5 %+. Carousels and tutorial Reels usually move this.
Profile-visit-to-follow rate – Track what % of reel viewers tap through and then follow; 7 %+ is solid.

Levers to pull when growth plateaus:

Collab Reels with creators your size (or a hair bigger). Both audiences get the bump.
Story polls & quizzes that funnel into DMs—boosts the share signal and relationship factor.
Series content (e.g., “30-Day Growth Hacks”) so new viewers binge your back catalogue.
Micro-ads test: $5–$10/day targeting Reel engagers; great for nudging warm viewers to hit follow.

Stay consistent, focus on content people want to send to a friend, and that 5 % monthly clip becomes very manageable—without a single shady tactic.

Cheering you on!

— Jeff

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