The 2 Keys to Growing Your Instagram Following, According to Comments by Celebs Co-Founders
Meet Emma Diamond and Julie Kramer, co-founders of Comments by Celebs (CBC), an innovative media company that delivers celebrity news and entertainment in the form of Instagram comments. The core of the brand, the @commentsbycelebs Instagram account, was started when Diamond and Kramer capitalized on Instagram’s initial algorithm change. Since its inception in 2017, CBC has amassed over 1.5 million followers, including celebrities Gwyneth Paltrow, Alicia Keys, John Mayer and Chrissy Tiegen.
For those of you with sore thumbs from scrolling through your feed, don’t worry. Diamond and Kramer are now breaking down all celebrity news on their Comments by Celebs Podcast, giving you their honest, no-B.S. approach to what’s going on in Hollywood. They’ve even been known to include an occasional guest like John Legend, Kelly Ripa, Katie Couric, Lisa Rinna, Sara and Erin Foster and more.
The self-proclaimed “celebrity experts” have started a whole new cultural phenomenon around humanizing celebrities and making the public aware of their relatability, with major media outlets coming to rely on their brand to break celebrity news. During a recent email interview with WrapWomen (with joint answers), the duo talked about what it takes to grow your social media following and how to turn your passion into a full-time job.
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This podcast is for the girl who loves…
To analyze all things pop culture.
This podcast is for the girl who is looking for…
An informative, relatable and fun take on everything going on in the world of celebrity.
3 words to describe this podcast are…
Informative, lighthearted compassionate
Before starting the Instagram account what made you realize, “I need to do this!”
It was when Instagram changed the algorithm to highlight celebrity comments that I got the idea for this account. All of a sudden, we were able to see these celebrity interactions that had previously gone unnoticed. It was fascinating – and I knew it was a portal into a whole new way to understand celebrity dynamics and culture. The desire to capitalize on it was immediate, and luckily, Julie was down to do it with me. We got on it immediately – the total time from idea to inception was one day.
How did you go from two friends with an idea to an über-successful Instagram page and now a podcast?
Pop culture is really both of our passions, so it has all happened very organically. At the core, it was a simple idea that just hadn’t been done before. Since the beginning, we’ve curated the content from the lens of, “would we want to see this on our newsfeeds?” We don’t post just for the sake of posting, and try to maintain a balance of news breaking/viral content, with simply funny and feel-good moments. In terms of the podcast, we were approached in June 2018 and it just felt like a perfect fit. It’s a way to give a longer-form explanation to the content we post on the page.
What advice do you have for someone who is looking to create an Instagram page (separate from their personal account) and generate a large following:
I think the biggest thing is to never ever sacrifice your morals or what you intuitively know is right, just for the sake of viral content. Followers are great, but they’re so much better when you know you gained them from putting out content that you feel internally good about. And consistency is key. In order to be successful, it’s so important to not allow discouragement to stunt progress.”
How are you able to track down the comments?
It’s a combination of being obsessive scrollers, knowing where to look, and having an audience who are so on top of it as well. Our followers are a huge part of our account, as they are constantly seeing things and sending them to us. We are unbelievably grateful to have such an engaged community.
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Who is your favorite celebrity commenter?
That’s like asking a parent to pick a favorite child. They’re all good for different reasons. Personally, we get the most excited when a great comment comes from a ‘legend’ in the entertainment world. For example, there’s just something about an Oprah, Martha Stewart, Drew Barrymore comment, etc. They aren’t as frequent, but they don’t disappoint. My favorite post we’ve ever done was a Julia Roberts clapback.
How did you make the leap from running an Instagram to hosting a podcast?
It was a really natural transition, honestly. We always wanted a way to expand on the pop culture moments captured on the page, and podcasting has been a medium of interest for a while. Neither of us have any desire to be famous or on-camera talent, so audio is a very intimate way to connect with our audience, while still remaining relatively behind the scenes. When we were approached about a podcast, we couldn’t have been more excited.
Do you have a favorite episode?
Again, like choosing a favorite child. The Katie Couric episode will always hold a special place in my heart, as her warmth and intelligence are palpable. It was almost unfathomable to be recording with a woman who we have both admired, as a journalist and human being, for so long. It was also the first time I ever publicly talked about losing my mom, which was very liberating and emotional for me. The John Mayer episode was also unique, and totally different than our usual format. It shined a light on social media & celebrity culture in a way that isn’t typically done.
Who would you most like to collaborate with?
The list is endless. We really admire the brand David Dobrik has built, and would love to sit down with him. There seems to be an overlap in the fact that both of our content aims to make people smile. Kris Jenner is also top of our list. Julie and I spend so much time analyzing the Kardashians – both as people and as a business – that it would be fascinating to speak with the woman who is in charge of it all.
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