Instagram is more than a place to connect with friends, share vacation photos, or upload a silly video of your dog. Since its inception, the social media platform has grown into a powerhouse marketing channel, used by brands everywhere to connect with potential customers.
Meta’s photo and video-sharing app has also springboarded the careers of countless creators who monetize their personal brands through their content. If you’ve ever thought of leveling up your presence on Instagram or starting a business on the platform, you’re in the right place.
With more than 1.4 billion users hungry for fresh visual inspiration and trends on the platform, how do you get their attention?
In this guide, learn how to get more Instagram followers (not bots) and how to increase engagement on your Instagram posts, Stories, and Reels.
Reference: https://www.shopify.com/in/blog/14288561-how-to-build-a-massive-following-on-instagram
The first thing that I would focus on is using video, because it is such a powerful way for you to quickly build a sense of connection with your audience and to really allow them to understand a bit more about you. It’s the next best thing to being in person with your audience – and the quickest way position yourself as the expert that you are.
When it comes to the content of the video: focus on giving a lot of value. I like to consider how I give more value than anyone else, instead of just ticking a box. Share content that people can’t help but tell a friend about. Forget about watching that follower number and get to work on actually creating content worth following!
One of my students, Kim, is a graphic designer, and she really struggled with filming herself for video when she first joined The Modern Marketing Collective.
She stuck at it, following my tips and processes, and recently told me during one of our member coaching calls, she grew by 400 followers in one month, and received three new client enquiries, two of which hadn’t even looked at her website or her prices. The told her that they loved the vibe of her Instagram and wanted to work specifically with her – the price wasn’t important.
Now, I know it can be challenging to film yourself and share it. I struggled with this at the start too, and would do more than 30 takes of my videos before I was happy to share one.
But as this example demonstrates, showing up in videos is going to help your audience more quickly connect with you and want to work with you specifically.
2. Optimise Your Instagram Profile
Your Instagram name
What exactly should be in your bio? Firstly, you can optimise your Instagram name (this is different to your Instagram username/handle). Think about what people would search for on Instagram to find your business or offerings if they didn’t know your business existed. I.e. they don’t know your name or the business name. It’s just like SEO on search engines like Google. What are you trying to rank your website for? Apply this to your Instagram name.
For instance, if you are a florist based in Melbourne, instead of having your business name as your Instagram name, add in Melbourne florist or something like that. And that’s actually going to help your account come up in search results, and get your account found as you grow your Instagram from scratch.
Your Magnetic Message
The second tactic to optimise your Instagram bio is being very clear about what problem you help to solve, and/or what exactly it is that you do and/or who exactly it is that you work with. If people are confused when they look at your Instagram profile, they’re just very quickly going to click away. So make sure that you are clear and really capturing the attention and speaking to the challenges and the desires of your ideal customer in your Instagram bio.
Don’t just put in there a list of five different services that you offer. That’s what most people do but it’s not speaking to what your like secret source is, what it is that you are so good at, what key problems you help solve, and who you work with. So get a lot more clear about who exactly you are speaking to.
Call to Action
Number three when it comes to optimising your Instagram bio is having a call to action and a link in your bio. What is the first step for people to take to work with you or to jump on your email list or to book a free consultation with you? Spell that out in your bio because you can’t assume that your audience are going to know what to do next. When you tell your audience the next step, you’ll find people take a lot more action.