How I Grew My Instagram Account To 100,000 Followers

Plus, the return of #ThriftScoreThursday

Quick note: If you are new here, welcome! I’m Virginia Chamlee, a longtime vintage shopping expert/high-end antiques dealer, and a writer who authored a best-selling book about shopping for vintage, Big Thrift Energy. Long before my book hit shelves at places like Wal-Mart and Barnes & Noble, I would go on Instagram Stories and share my thrift finds, every single week. One of the biggest ways I grew my Instagram following, at least in the early days, was with #ThriftScoreThursday. And now, I’m bringing it back. Starting today at 8:30 AM EST, I’m going to go live to share my most recent thrift haul here on Substack. I hope you’ll join me and weigh in on my finds. I’ll be going live every single Thursday (so long as my schedule allows) — usually at 8:30 AM, but the time might change in the future. I plan to invite guests to share their hauls, too, in the coming months. It’ll be a quick, 5-10 minute video each time, but also an opportunity for us to discuss why we buy what we buy and what we’re all on the hunt for.

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I recently hit a personal social media milestone — 100,000 followers on Instagram. This was a big deal for me! Particularly because I remember very clearly my goal when I got my book deal: I wanted to hit 10,000 Instagram followers by the time it hit bookstore shelves in July 2022.

Hitting 10,000 to coincide with the release of my book was hugely important, as I had not fully established myself as an expert in the world of vintage shopping. To be clear: I was an expert. I had spent nearly my entire life buying vintage, and I was among the very first group of “Super Sellers” on Chairish (the sellers who earn the most on the platform).

But outside of that world, I was an unknown. And first-time authors don’t get a huge amount of help on the publicity front. So I knew that promoting my book would fall on my shoulders — I needed an audience and I needed it fast. So I grew my following from around 5,000 to 10,000 in a year. And then it kept growing.

Keep reading to learn exactly how I did I grew my Instagram account to 100,000 followers — along with some ideas for growing your own Instagram following and my thoughts on why you need to diversify to other platforms, too. Plus: why valuable content always wins over viral content, even if it yields fewer followers.