My following plateaued at 650 on instagram. I couldn't figure why it would change. I followed all the rule. 1-3 posts in a day every few days. I used hashtags. I like and followed other artist. I put up aesthetic images. I posted about my life to seem more "real". None of it mattered because in a sea of billions of online personas I was post 1-3 times in a day, every few days.
1-3 posts.
Every few days.
Of course it wasn't working! I had to revved up my posts. I had to be everywhere. I was so boring and lack luster to my few followers, and I wasn't out there enough to get any new ones to bore. I was being boring and taking the least amount of actions, I might as well have been doing nothing. It took more effort to be worried about my following than it does for me to post more.
I increased my posts to 10 times a day, linked to all my other social media, and it's only been three weeks, but I finally moved past that hurdle and I'm seeing sales and site visits in countries outside the US for the first time.
You need to do more and be everywhere.