Kate Weiser, a sophomore in Boston University’s College of Communication, is one of the university’s most famous Instagram users. Her account, Bucket List Boston (@bucketlistboston), has nearly 5,000 followers with more than 337 original posts that depict the beauty and liveliness of Boston. Less than a year after Weiser started the account, companies have reached out to her for partnership deals, and her pictures have been featured on dozens of Boston-themed Instagram pages.
Surprisingly, the account was inspired from a rejection. Weiser started her page after the prestigious Boston photography Instagram, IG Boston (@igboston), did not accept her as a contributor, she said.
“I really wanted to be a part of [IG Boston],” Weiser said. “They said that I didn’t have enough ‘Boston’ in my Instagram account. So I sat on the idea, and came back into second semester with the idea to create an Instagram solely for all of my Boston pictures.”
Weiser chose the handle @bucketlistboston for its alliteration and its unique niche. The account is essentially a virtual bucket list. Every post is numbered as a place or thing for people to do around Boston, such as spending dawn at the Esplanade or visiting Boston College. After a couple of months, Weiser’s account began to pick up a large following.
“The account began to grow last spring. As I was studying for finals, a kid came up to me and said that seeing Bucket List Boston pictures was the highlight of his day,” she said. “It made me realize the extent to which I was touching other people.”
One of Weiser’s largest breakthroughs, she said, was being featured on the official BU Instagram page. After Weiser and Bucket List Boston reached BU’s more than 33,000 followers, her account received an influx of new followers.
“We gained about 1,000 followers from that, which is insane,” she said. “We’re also working with Kane’s Donuts in South Boston for a collaboration, so that has been fun.”
Weiser said a key attribution to the success of her account was her ability to relate to her followers.
“You want people to be able to say, ‘Oh, I could see myself doing that thing or going there,’” Weiser said. “I try to accomplish this by making most of what I post free of charge, so more people are able to do it.”
In addition, Weiser engages with her followers by creating a story arc with a countdown of places to explore in Boston.
“Every day there’s at least one new thing that you can do in Boston, and it creates that pull that keeps followers engaged and checking out the content,” Weiser said.
As for generating content, Weiser stressed the importance of building up a queue of posts.
“Having quality content is huge,” she said. “You will gain a lot of followers and get more likes if you produce quality content. It’s important also to have content built up beforehand, so you have posts saved to share with your followers.”
To achieve this, Weiser said she goes off campus at least once a day with her camera to take photos.
“I get my exercise in for the day by going on walks and getting lots of pictures,” Weiser said. “Yesterday, for instance, I went on a nice walk to Newbury and got my first holiday pictures of wreaths and lights that were up.”
Weiser credits the main success of her Instagram to her desire and motivation to getting off campus and exploring Boston.
“The ‘BU bubble’ is real,” Weiser said. “It’s really easy to feel like our campus is huge anyway, so why bother going off? But Boston is such an amazing city, and we are here for four years so it’s worth taking advantage of it. There are not a lot of opportunities of being new in a big city, so why not explore?”
