How to lose 1,000 Instagram followers in 10 hours

Do you want to rapidly trim the fat on your social media (Instagram, Facebook et al) following? 

Let me show you how it’s done.

Step one

Create a reel advocating for more inclusive language in your industry, when words like ‘bridal party’, ‘bridal table’, ’bridal suite’ still get dropped regularly. And in a time when we continue to see business booking forms list ‘Bride’s Name/Groom’s Name’ as the default (same-sex marriage was legalised eight years ago, FYI).

Here’s the offending reel:

https://www.instagram.com/p/C8_kRuXSLWI/

Step two

Get called a ‘clown’ and an ‘Instagram clickbait idiot’ running a ‘wed-circus’ by a fellow wedding vendor on their Instagram stories. Inclusivity is too *woke* apparently.

Step three

Do the only acceptable thing and double down by responding with another reel to poke the bear and go deeper into the issue.

The results?

• Lost 1,000 followers in 10 hours;
• Filtered out folks with some pretty dated beliefs;
• Strengthened relationships with like-minded businesses and clients;
• Created a space for open dialogue and education on important issues;
• Reached 93% more accounts than the previous week; and
• Probably made some industry thought-leader gains as an advocate for positive change. 

There are a lot of people flying the flag for tackling spicy issues within your industry for content, including Odette Barry, Anaita Sarkar and  Jess Ruhfus. This one isn’t even spicy; it’s just common sense for being a decent human and doing good business.

But if you needed some encouragement to speak out on something that continues to frustrate you each month, this could be it.

And yes, ‘wed-circus’ will be a go-to on the daily when things go wrong, as in “it’s a fuggin wed-circus right now”. Thanks for that one.

This article is an edited version of a post that was first published on LinkedIn.

Amy Parfett is a co-founder of wedding planning marketplace Wedshed. 

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