Although some influencers' Insta followings grew quickly because their YouTube audiences followed them from platform to platform, they also had a helping hand. When Instagram was just starting off, it had a "Popular" page that was based on numbers of Likes and followers. Now, that page is the "Search and Explore" tab, where you see posts based on who else you follow — and the types of posts you tend to Like. “There were girls that became fashion influencers really early on and had a ton of followers really quickly, not because they were doing the right things, but because they started their account in 2012 or 2013, they posted pretty photos, and Instagram wanted to pre-populate feeds of their users,” Asano says.