Instagram Guide

to Organic Growth
What Really Matters

© 2018 by David Dražil. All rights reserved.

 Thank You !
Thanks so much! Just the fact that you’re interested in my work
enough to take your time to download and read it means the
world to me!

Appreciate you being here and hope you can get some bits and
pieces from this little guide and use it to your advantage. Take it
easy, take your time, enjoy, and feel free to leave out all the things
that don’t feel right for you.

- David Drazil -
#SketchLikeAnArchitect

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 Get in Touch !

Click on the icons

to get in touch, leave a comment, or just say hi!

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 Contents
Author’s Note 05
My Journey 06
What Really Matters 09
Your Why 10
Niche 12
Target Audience 14
Value You Provide 16
Worksheet 17
Strategies & Tactics 18
Hashtag Strategy 19
Quality Content 21
Document over Produce 23
Bio Optimization 24
Be Social 25
Consistency 26
Post Checklist 28
Wrap Up 29
My Top 10 Rules 30
Resources 31
About the Author 32
Thank You & Contact 33

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 Author’s Note
Who is this guide for?

First off, let me clear out who will have the most benefits out of this
little guide. As most things, this isn’t for everyone. However, I believe
that some people will find it very valuable. Especially creative people
and creators starting out with Instagram and/or having intentions
of building a community of engaged people around the thing they’re
passionate about. I don’t believe in shortcuts and so you cannot find
here any magical tricks that will get you hundreds or thousands of
engaged followers over night - that’s just not how it works. If we are
clear on this, then let’s move on to the real deal.

What can you expect from it?

In this guide, I share my journey, experience, and thoughts on raising

awareness of one’s work and building a following on Instagram. How-
ever, keep in mind, that what worked for me doesn’t necessarily need
to work for you. Feel free to take everything written in this PDF as a
source of inspiration and leave out the things that don’t feel right for
you. This guide represents just one of many possible approaches to
sharing your work online. I hope you enjoy the read.

PS. I refer to some third-party services and other Instagram ac-

counts, which I have no affiliation with, I simply like them ;)

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 My Journey
I was avoiding Instagram for quite a while until I finally signed up in
December 2016 (6 years from Instagram’s official release). None-
theless, it took me couple more months to actually start using it ac-
tively and post something everyday. My first posts didn’t even have
any hashtags as I didn’t understand the first thing about Instagram.
The reason why I started was to use Instagram as a gallery of my
works-in-progress as I was starting to work on my online course on
architectural sketching - March 2017.

One of my first posts ever. Notice there is no caption, no hashtags, no geo-

location, post is not in square format, and it’s not that pretty photo either.
Almost nothing about it was ‘correct’. Did that bother me at that time?
No way! I was excited to start on this platform ;)

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 My Journey
My focus was on producing content that I could use to proudly pres-
ent myself but I didn’t really have any expectations when it comes to
getting followers or becoming ‘successful’ on this platform. I thought
of Instagram also as a substitute for a website which I found much
more complicated to start with. My approach was more like: ‘Hey,
let’s give it a try and see where it goes!’.

It didn’t take long and I started really enjoying the platform and it’s
intuitive, easy-to-navigate, and very visual character. After a while, I
was hooked. Since I was having fun, I was eager to learn more about
the platform to actually find out how it works and how I could use it
in more systematic and sophisticated way. I was reading a lot of ar-
ticles, took a couple of online classes on Skillshare, and experiment-
ed with various approaches and strategies to see what’s working and
what’s not.

During Spring of 2017 I also started working as a volunteer for Cre-

ativeMornings Copenhagen, where I was a part of communication
team. Thanks to that I got more insights about content strategies
and planning on a more serious level.

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 My Journey
Jumping back to this day - 1,5 years and more than 50,000 fol-
lowers later, thanks to my online presence on Instagram I’ve had the
chance to meet some amazing people, speak at conferences, collab-
orate as a featured artist for two sketching apps, be interviewed, and
featured in a magazine.

On the next pages, I’d like to share with you my Instagram

experience and what I believe were the most important fac-
tors which led to creating an engaged community around the
project called #SketchLikeAnArchitect.

That guy with a microphone is me - talking about importance of hand-sketching in

today’s world focused on innovative technologies. Conference about architectural
visualizations Vizkon 2018, Humpolec, Czech Republic.

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What Really Matters
On the next pages, I’ll try to touch upon the most important factors
(in my humble opinion) when it comes to building your online pres-
ence and growing your Instagram account.

Your Why
Niche
Target Audience
Value You Provide

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Start with Why

The call-to-action ‘Start with Why’ is borrowed from Simon Sinek. It

can be applicable to most areas of our lives and it matters also when
it comes to your online presence on Instagram.

I told you at the beginning that I started with Instagram to use it as a

gallery of my works-in-progress related to online course Sketch Like
an Architect. I needed a space to present my sketches, to have an
overview of them, and also an ability to share them easily with oth-
ers. That was my Why back then. No big expectations.

Slowly as my online course took off and my following grew, I re-de-

fined my Why. I share my knowledge about sketching, explain various
techniques in sketching, and show little tips  & tricks for improve-
ment because I believe it helps designers to be better at both solving
problems and communicating ideas. That is my Why now.

If you haven’t yet, it’s time also for you to define your Why. It’s a
foundation for all the other steps of building your online presence.
Do you have an expertise you want to share with others? Do you
want to help people with something they often struggle? Do you
want to build something bigger than you? Have an honest intention.

I know it’s hard to answer. However, it’s crucial to take your time and
clearly define your Why.

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Designer = Problem-solver + Communicator
The online project #SketchLikeAnArchitect is here because I be-
lieve sharing knowledge about sketching helps architects/landscape
architects/interior designers/civil engineers to be better at both solving
problems and communicating ideas.

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Define Your Niche

Niche in other words is an area of interest. Instagram is a very visual

platform (as opposed to Twitter for instance), so some of the most
popular niches are the ones which can be strongly represented in
visual way.

Some of the Instagram’s most popular general niches are Fitness &
Health, Luxury Lifestyle, Beauty, Fashion, Travel, Business, and similar.

Of course, all of these can be divided into smaller niches. In case of

Fitness, there are (sub)niches focused on specifically on CrossFit,
Calisthenics, Running, etc.

Your ideal niche should be big enough, meaning there’s enough people
interested in it, but also well-defined and specific, so your unique point
of view can stand out among others and you avoid being too generic.

The more you can define your niche and the more specific you can
be, the better!

MY EXAMPLE - Architectural Sketching

My niche lies at the intersection of architecture and sketching. It is

very visual (good fit for the platform), defined specifically enough, and
at the same time there is enough people interested in this topic (I had
no idea when starting out, I was just lucky! You can be more prepared.)

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 Your Your
Passion Expertise

Your
Ideal Niche

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Target Audience

Once you have your niche defined, a target audience goes hand in
hand with it.

I think there’s no point in trying to please everyone, so be clear about

the fact that your content is NOT for everyone. It’s for a specific
group of people who share the same interest as you.

Again, the more you define and understand your target audience,
the better. In that way you’ll know who you are creating the content
for, which will lead to better response and overall engagement of
your followers.

My audience consists of mainly students and young professionals

in areas of architecture, landscape architecture, interior designer, civil
engineering, industrial design, and related professions.

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Kindness
- it doesn’t cost a damn thing,
sprinkle that shit everywhere!

credit @brianacarrion, lifetales.se

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Value

Value you provide is one of the main reasons why people follow you.
It is relative to your target audience, who is often looking for a solu-
tion to common or specific problems within your niche.

Provide value through a quality content. The value can have many
forms, such as

inspiration
entertainment
education
beauty
etc.

MY EXAMPLE

I try to put some informational and educative value along with high
aesthetics of my posts. I like to explain how a sketch was made, what
tricks and techniques there are to achieve similar result. In that way,
the audience can enjoy and get inspired by nice sketches and at the
same time learn a bit more about architectural sketching step-by-
step and apply it to their own sketches.

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 What Really Matters
What Really Matters
YOUR WHY
TIP: Choose your Why regardless of
Instagram. Define your Why based on what
you believe in. If your Why includes your
passion and helping people at the same
time, you’re probably on the right track.
YOUR NICHE
TIP: Choose your niche according to your
area of interest where you feel you have
the most to share. Combination of your
passion and expertise is the foundation for
a great content.
YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE
VALUE YOU PROVIDE
Worksheet
My Example Your Turn
I share my knowledge and skills in
architectural sketching because I
believe it helps designers in both their
essential roles - problem-solving
and communicating ideas.
Architectural sketching
Fans of sketching and drawing,
students and young professionals
from architecture, landscape
architecture, interior design, civil
engineering, and related areas.
Through my posts I share
informational, educative, and inspiring
value about architectural sketching by
explaining sketching techniques and
sharing tips on improvement.
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Strategies &  Tactics
In the next Chapter I share some of more practical approaches when
it comes to producing content and sharing it on Instagram.

Hashtag Strategy
Quality Content
Document over Produce
Bio Optimization
Be Social
Consistency

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Hashtag Strategy

Hashtags are searchable words or phrases which dramatically in-

crease the reach of your posts as well as engagement of people. It’s
one of the characteristics Instagram was built on. Using them should
be a no-brainer.

How many to use?

The number of hasthags you should use per post is a topic of many
discussions. The allowed maximum is 30 hashtags per post - and
that’s what I’ve been using almost all the time. Some people recom-
mend using only 3 -10 hashtags. It’s really up to you to try and optimize
on the way. But what’s maybe even more important is their relevance
to your content and combination of different types of hashtags.

Types of Hashtags

One way how to differentiate between hashtags is how much they

are used and therefore how big reach they have. Obviously, you can
reach more people with more popular hashtags.

Creating your own hashtag strategy means creating an organized

overview of relevant hashtags for your niche with focus on the right
combination of hashtags with both high and low reach.

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How do you find out which hashtags to use?

use Instagram’s search tool for obvious choices for your

niche and suggestions of related ones
look what your audience is using
analyze your ‘competitors’ or similar profiles in your niche

It’s a good idea to keep your hashtags organized in an Excel spread-

sheet or a Notepad - it’s systematic and easy-to-use.

If you’re an entrepreneur or you’re trying to build a community, you

can create your own branded hashtag through which you can con-
nect with your followers - my example is #SketchLikeAnArchitect.

Examples of different hashtags found through Search tool in Instagram app. Notice two
things - one, popularity of the hashtag represented by the number of posts; two, a little bar
under the hashtag with related ones.

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Quality Content

Quality content is alpha and omega of your online presence on In-

stagram. This is the are where you’ll probably spend most of your
time - creating or curating quality content.

Here I try to break down what I believe makes quality content.

Aesthetics

High aesthetics of your posts are a must - especially in terms of

composition, colours, and contrast. Optionally, you can decide to es-
tablish a consistent visual style for your whole feed.

It’s Shareable

Shareable content is both relatable for your target audience and

original - presenting your point of view. Shareable content is some-
thing people like enough so they share it with others.

It Brings Value

It’s engaging

Great example is a caption of a post - try to think of your caption

more as a start of a conversation rather than a statement. Ask a
question for instance or tell a related story.

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Behind-the-scenes

I think people love getting to know how things are actually com-
ing to life and what it takes to produce whatever you’re creating. By
showing people how it’s done, you also educate them about your ap-
proach and yourself.

It’s native to the platform

We might not always realize that, but there’s a big difference be-
tween scrolling through Facebook feed and Instagram feed. Both
being social media, both owned by Facebook, but our mindset is dif-
ferent and that makes all the difference to our experience on it. We
are used to different kind of things, different people, different con-
tent on each platform and that is why it’s important to create con-
tent which is native for respective platform.

Square posts, 9:16 ratio for Stories, 1 min video for post, 15sec for
Stories. Specific hashtags relevant for our content and niche. Keep-
ing in mind the characteristics of Instagram as a platform and being
aware of the mindset people are in when scrolling through their Ins-
tagram feed.

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Document over Produce

I’ve heard this thought from Gary Vaynerchuk. It’s especially use-
ful for profiles that share their own work (User Generated Content).
Here’s an example how I can produce one sketch and document it in
4 different ways, resulting in 4 unique pieces of content. In that way,
the hamster wheel called Instagram doesn’t swallow you entirely and
you keep your sanity.

1 Sketch

Photo of the sketch Scan of the sketch Coloured sketch Sketch in a mockup scene

Optionally, I could have also recorded myself creating this sketch

which would result in at least one more piece of content - video.

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 Bio Optimization

Your Bio on Instagram works as your main landing page, a personal

website really. Here are couple of things to keep in mind for conver-
sion rate of people deciding whether to follow your or not.

Differentiate between your username and your name.

Your Instagram name is also searchable so it makes sense to re-
place it with you brand name or include keywords
Make clear what people can expect from you and what they get if
they decide to follow you.
Incorporate hashtags and tags in your description.
Include a website link and add a call-to-action (CTA).

user name

name with searchable words

If you’re deciding whether to have a business profile or a personal one,

click HERE for a nice infographic which will ease your decision making.

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Be Social

If you want to get anything out of social media, you need to be actu-
ally social. What do I mean? To engage with other people - respond
to comments, like and comment posts of others, leave your .02c,
and reach out to people you want to make contact with or collabo-
rate with.

$ 1.80 Strategy

This is an effective strategy from Gary Vaynerchuk. Taking your time

and leaving your so-called 2 cents is a great way which helps to raise
awareness of your profile and to build an engaged following.

As Gary Vee presents it, leaving your 2 cents mean searching for 10
relevant and most popular hashtags in your niche and commenting
on the 9 best posts under these hashtags. By leaving a nice, mean-
ingful, and useful comment, you start to build an awareness of your-
self and gain engaged followers. If you do it consistently every day,
people will notice.

Click HERE for the original post to read more about this strategy.

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Consistency

Probably one of the most important rules to play by. Again, appli-
able to many areas of life. I talked about quality content and what
makes such content in my opinion. This is an addition to it.

Quality content, consistently!

Frequency of posting is up to you. Rule of thumb for growing is the

bigger the volume, the faster the growth. Decide on what is sustain-
able for you in the long term and stick with it. I try to create a post
for every working day - meaning 5 times per week.

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Originality is a myth !
99,9 % of things today is not original. If someone thinks it is, it just
shows a lack of his knowledge of the things it was derived from or
combined of. Most things today are ‘just’ a remix. So look at things
you are interested in and give them your own twist. You don’t have to
reinvent the wheel all the time.

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Post Checklist
Use this checklist to get most out of your every post on Instagram.

Your Every Post

Brings value

Is highly aesthetic (optionally, it fits your feed’s visual style?)

Tells something about you or your work

Has an engaging caption(which is more of a start of a dialogue/

a story/a question than just a plain statement)

Includes relevant hashtags (number is up to you, I use all 30 of them,

which combine both high- and low-reach hashtags, as well as my
own branded hashtag)

Includes Tags of profiles relevant to your content and/or curating

pages who might share your post

Includes Geo-location Tag

Is posted in time when your target audience is most active

Fits your posting frequency

Extras
Engage after you share your newpost and always reply to comments

Make an InstaStory as a teaser for the newpost

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1. Value
Bring Value to your followers through the content you create. Be it
entertainment, inspiration, education, beauty...

2. Attention
Gain attention by sharing high quality and valuable content on
consistent and regular basis.

3. Trust
Earn trust from your followers by truly caring about them, engaging
with them, communicating through DMs, and helping them as
much as you can.

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My Top Rules 10
01/ Be clear about your Why

02/ Bring value through your content

03/ Care about people

04/ Be consistent

05/ Put in the work

06/ Make a plan and stick to it

07/ Be Social ($1.80 Strategy)

08/ Experiment and have fun

09/ Document over Produce (Gary Vee)

10/ Be patient, quality takes time

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 Resources
Clickable Resources to check out. Click on the text to learn more!

Gary Vaynerchuk
Simon Sinek
Seth Godin

My other digital products. Click on the text to learn more!

Freebies

Free Hand-Sketched Human Figures

Free Hand-Sketched Vegetation Vol. 01
Free Hand-Sketched Vegetation Vol. 02
Free Hand-Sketched Photoshop Brush Sets
PDF Collection ‘Best of Sketches vol. 01’

PDF Handbooks

Sketch Like an Architect

Online Courses

Sketch Like an Architect - Step-by-Step from Lines to Perspective

(Skillshare - 2 months free offer)

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About the Author
David Drazil is a young architect and CG artist from the Czech Republic, currently
based in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Since his childhood he‘s been fascinated by visuals and has been inclined to fine arts,
architecture, and graphic design. During his architectural studies, both in the Czech Re-
public and Denmark, David found his passion in the visual presentation of architecture
- namely architectural sketching, visualisations, animation, and virtual reality.

Today, David works as an architect at Danielsen Architecture in Copenhagen, Den-

mark, and runs a successful Instagram account where he shares every day his pas-
sion for architectural sketching and design. Moreover, he’s teaching an online sketching
course on Skillshare.com accompanied by downloadable freebies and educational
handbooks. David collaborates as a featured artist with sketching apps on iPad called
Morpholio and ShadowDraw.

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Thank You for Reading!

Click on the icons

to get in touch, leave a comment, or just say hi!

- David Drazil -
#SketchLikeAnArchitect

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