1. Hey Bradley, where are you from and what was it like growing up there?
I’m Bradley van der Straten and i’m 20 years old. I live in the Netherlands in the province of Utrecht. There are many villages and towns in the province of Utrecht. I was born in the hospital, this was in the village of Zeist. Officially I live in the village of Woudenberg. I live here with my parents and my sister. It is a cozy village where everyone knows each other. I like living in the village, because you can be yourself here. But it is also a quiet village and usually in the city it is busier.
2 . We see that you are also building your own influencer network. For Those Who Don’t Know: How Would You Explain the Business of Influencer Networks?
In January 2020 I started a group to support each other. What you do in this is like and comment on each other’s photo. This group started with people from the Netherlands & Belgium. Then when this group was going well I wanted to make an international group. Where people from different countries can support each other. At one point I had two groups that were going well, but I wanted more. After 3 months I have grown on Instagram. In the time I give many people with tips, howyou get more likes on your photo. How do you get Instagram so that there are companies that work together? I helped people with this. Meanwhile, in 7 months time, we have more than 120 groups. Many people know each other, have mutual contact and have become friends. This way you get to know new people from the groups. In the months that this is all running, I have built a team that helps with this. Maintain, check with the groups. Expand by asking new people. Come up with new ideas for groups. We do this as a team and that’s what makes it so successful. Now we have more than 200+ groups.
3 . Your Instagram profile has a network of more than 250 million and is the # 1 network in Europe. What does this figure mean for you and your business and what do you think makes your network number 1?
These are figures that we as a company can be very proud of. We have achieved this in six months. The fact that it is number 1 in Europe is of course something we can be proud of. We work very hard to make everyone happy. Checking whether people would follow the rules to support others.
4 . Who are the different types of influencers that exist in your more than 250 million network?
There are several influencers in our groups, it is quite broad. From small accounts to large accounts. Every influencers has what he / she / it is good at. Some are well known in the music world. Others have well-known company. We mainly focus on accounts in: travel, fashion, music, sports and more. We have accounts from 200 followers to over a million. Everyone is welcome to join in with support.
5 . That seems a lot to manage. What is your schedule like, how do you balance all this network management?
Indeed it is a lot of managing! I worked on it for 3 months a day from 11:00 am to 4:00 am. See if people were going to overtake others. In the meantime, more administrators have joined who monitor. For example, we have a group that is opened every morning and closes in the evening. In the evening we made a list with the links of that day. We also have special rules in other groups that should let people know in some way that there is a new photo. If someone does not catch up, this will be told by some members and then also which group.
6 . What can you tell us about Instaland Groups?
Instaland groups is very broad. There are many different groups that people are in. Do you have a fashion account and would you like to support people who also have a fashion account? But there are many different groups. We also have special groups. Here are models or people with a good feed. If you support people with a good feed, this can motivate you to pay attention to your feed yourself. As I said, many people know each other in the groups. You can see it as a family. If someone has a caption where they say something personal. Will be well responded to below the photo. They show that they are there for them. Or be happy for that person.
7 . What’s next for Bradley and the Instaland brand in 2021?
This year I had set goals for myself to achieve. I really wanted to get 100,000 followers in 2021. I have already achieved this and am very proud of it. Many well-known influencers that I groups sit and comment under my photo. This has already been successful and would like to expand to more. I would like to post more photos on my feed and post positive captions or personal captions.
There is certainly a future for the instaland brand. Would like to expand to specific groups. We think it is important that everyone is welcome. We want to focus on countries, that people from a certain country support each other. But also more travel, fashion, sports, music groups. Who knows, more ideas may come.
8 . What is your top 5 favorite groups?
That is a very good question that I have to think about for a moment. We have many groups. Also groups focused on a niche. But if I had to choose, I will go for Lifestyle at number 1. This because it is very broad and you can ask a lot of new people. Second, I think fashion. This is because I really do like fashion. It is also very nice to see others fashion style. Third, I am going for travel. I love to see people discovering beautiful places. Fourth, I go for the boys & girls group. Since it is great that you support each other and you get to know new people with a different niche. As last of the top 5, I would pick the international group. This is very broad and you can ask all different people from other countries.
