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For Melbourne-based blogger Angela Giakas, Instagram fame came fast and from a wholly unexpected source. 

After steadily growing a loyal follower base in the mid-twenty thousands since 2014, the influencer's popularity has exploded overnight. In the space of less than a week, the Shopping Links influencer's account Sunday Chapter has amassed hundreds of thousands of new followers, currently standing at 393,000 at the time of publication. 

The Shopping Links team first noticed Giakas' following swell earlier this week, and since then we've seen the numbers rise in their thousands by the hour.  

In the short time taken to write this piece, Giakas has gained 32,000 new followers, and the trend shows no sign of slowing down.  

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For Giakas the success was unexpected, yet also the product of years of hard work, experience and preparation. With a background in PR and years working as a content creator, Giakas decided to share what she thought were fairly regular Q&A templates on her Instagram story: a fun exercise to stir up some engagement with her followers.

What she wasn't prepared for was what happened next.

Within hours the templates went viral, with celebrities and major bloggers like Something Navy reposting her designs. The big-name exposure earned her hundreds of thousands of new followers in the space of a few days, and that number keeps rising still.

"I thought Q&A templates would be a really fun way to connect with my audience and learn all about them! I was (and still am) in complete shock at how viral they went," she tells Shopping Links.

"I wasn't expecting it at all, I thought a few of my followers would do them and next thing I know I woke up with 20,000 new followers and it kept growing from there!"

While Giakas' unprecedented success is a combination of good timing and a keen eye for design, what wasn't unexpected was the backlash it caused. Within days, people were accusing her of buying followers, leading the influencer to take to her blog to set the record straight.

In a post titled 'The Dirty Business of Influencer Marketing', Giakas aimed to dispel mounting accusations, most of which suggested that a 300k+ spike in followers couldn't have been achieved through organic engagement.

"Over the past week I have been accused more than a few times of having bought followers on Instagram. It’s upsetting but I understand it, which is even more sad, because it’s what this industry has come to," she acknowledged in the post.

In an industry still trying to recover from a damning New York Times fake followers expose, it's understandable that some observers were dubious that such rapid growth could be the result of authentic engagement tactics.

Giakas acknowledges that the widespread practice of purchasing followers is what's making it harder for influencers like herself to create authentic content.

"It's not impossible, but it is a lot harder to grow an organic following these days as the industry is completely saturated, which has turned a lot of people towards buying their reach," she tells us.

Yet the magnitude of Giakas' overnight success –and the fact that its scale led people to question if it could possibly be real –proves that organic influencer marketing still works. The screenshots below highlight just how dramatically Giakas grown her reach in the past week.

With many bloggers observing how severely Instagram's algorithm has hindered their reach, the fact that amazing engagement can still be achieved through honest means should be a cause for celebration in the industry.

Giakas now hopes her success – and the questions it has raised –can act as a call to arms for both influencers and the platform they operate on to embrace greater transparency in the future.

 "How is this industry ever supposed to survive if Instagram allows tools where influencers can freely (and quite cheaply) purchase followers, likes, views, impressions, and so on?" she asked in her post.

"I truly hope Instagram becomes a more transparent platform in the future and the relationship between influencers, PRs, brands and audiences becomes a more honest and open one," she said.

"There’s already so much shade, secrets and deception in the industry like the fact there are no regulated ad rates, sponsored post rates, fake bot traffic...do we really need to create more?"

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Content is King 

Rather than being seen as a novel industry anomaly, or evidence of underhanded engagement tactics, Giakas' success should be championed as a beacon of hope for the future of the influencer industry: a sign of things to come.

It's clear that followers now want more than just beautiful images; they want useful tools, resources and actionable advice.

"We need to start looking at more innovative ways at how we can add value into our audience's lives, apart from aspiring imagery," Giakas advises. 

"Instagram is a visual platform but there are so many incredible content creators out there today and a lot of them are struggling to grow because of that reason. How do you set yourself apart?" Giakas says.

Rather than relying on comment pods and gimmicky captions to boost engagement, influencers should instead provide their followers with real value to grow their reach.

Increase your engagement: The secret to Sunday Chapter's success

For influencers looking to rapidly grow their audience, Giakas has two key takeaways from this experience: collaboration and innovation. 

"Instagram is still a community so you always need to make sure you're staying engaged with everyone in it, but it's also important to look at new ways to grow," she advises.

"Collaborate with others in your niche, use undervalued tools such as Instagram stories to build personal connections and don't forget about your blog!"

For Giakas, it's not just networking that leads to a successful social presence: it's also the capacity to be seen as a trusted creator making meaningful content.

"Most importantly, I think you have to change your thought pattern from "how do I gain a bigger audience?" to "how can I add value to my audience?" she says.

In the end, Giakas' surge in popularity comes down to one simple truth: content with real value will shine brighter than any bought engagement ever will.