“I had a medical client hit 9,000 reach with 146 followers, so the follower gap isn't the metric I'd stress about. What I'd actually look at is whether your three posts a week are the kind of candle content people save, share, or buy from, because reach without action is just a number.”
“Hashtags are not your bottleneck, and three posts a week is barely a heartbeat on Instagram today. I grew my own account to 350K by posting daily Reels with strong hooks, not by chasing hashtags; I tell my students to stop stressing about them and focus on the first three seconds instead. Your cousin is probably winning on Reels because the algorithm right now is pushing short video harder than static posts.”
“I went from 900 to 100K followers in six months, but before that I tried teaching content strategy with under 400 followers and looked like a fraud because I had no receipts. For a candle business, three posts a week is barely a signal; your cousin is probably posting Reels daily and the algorithm is rewarding volume plus hooks that stop the scroll.”
“I spent about a year stuck at 30K followers posting every single day, then realized I was making selfish content that didn't serve my audience. Once I switched to shareable, niche-specific reels with strong hooks and consistent posting, I hit 45M views and 86K followers.”
“Reels are where Instagram is pushing discovery right now, so if you're only posting static feed content you're mostly talking to people who already follow you. I'd shift some of that energy into short videos showing the candle being made, the pour, the first burn, because that's what lands on the Explore page and pulls in new eyes.”
“Most people are chasing the wrong score. I stopped obsessing over hashtags years ago, because the metric that actually matters is saves and shares, not follower count. Reels are still the fastest way to reach new people, but if your 400 followers are buyers and her 3,000 are just scrollers, you're winning where it counts.”
“Hashtags are not the main problem. Instagram's feed algorithm mostly shows your posts to people who already follow you, so three static posts a week will plateau fast no matter the tags. Reels are the only format built to reach strangers, and accounts posting five or more Reels a week see roughly three times faster follower growth than those relying on static posts.”
“I wasted months chasing follower counts for clients before I saw that reach and saves matter more than the number itself. For a candle business, I'd bet your cousin is winning on Reels because short-form video is how Instagram surfaces new accounts now, not because hashtags are broken.”
“I spent a year posting three times a week on Instagram with almost nothing to show for it, then watched short-form video change the game overnight. Reels aren't the whole game, but if you're still doing static posts while your cousin is doing video, that's almost certainly the gap. One good Reel with the right hook can outrun a year of pretty feed posts.”