The Ultimate Guide to Instagram
How to gain followers the organic way, build your brand & grow your revenue.
Let’s break it down:
GROWING YOUR INSTAGRAM >
Following & Unfollowing >
Prep Your Profile >
How to Get Mentions & Create Shareable Content >
Hosting Contests & Giveaways >
Challenges >
CONTENT STRATEGY >
Library of Content >
Organizing Content >
Starting From the Ground Up >
Switch to a Business Account >
BRANDING & BIOS >
Tagline Length & Tactics >
Tagline Goals >
Creating Your Tagline >
Creating Your Tagline’s Hashtag >
HOW TO GENERATE LEADS >
Post Notifications >
Specific Offerings >
INFLUENCER MARKETING >
Landing Brand Partnerships >
Engagement Groups >
INSTAGRAM ADS >
Building Your Funnel >
Re-Targeting >
Types of Ads >
Analytics >
Your Analytics >
Interactions >
What it Means to be Genuine >
Wrapping it up >
[Section 1 + Intro]
GROWING YOUR INSTAGRAM >
Whether you’re starting from the ground up, aren’t happy with your follower count, or want to totally overhaul your Instagram, you’re probably well aware that there are thousands upon thousands of articles and videos explaining how to do it. So what makes our guide different? This is what we do for a living—we specialize in transforming any Instagram account into a monetized, authentic, genuine revenue builder that gets noticed and gets followers. And now we’re spilling everything we know.
And here’s the coolest part. You don’t have to spend excess cash or pay consulting fees to do it. All you need are proven tips, strategies, and starting points to take your IG presence to new heights. We’ll cover everything from following strategies, templates, post scheduling, content libraries, tone of voice, tagline, personal brand creation, common mistakes to avoid, and a whole lot more. Think of us as your BFFs for getting real advice. Everything we list here has worked for us and our clients, and we’re excited to help you implement the same success tactics. So, let’s go!
Following & Unfollowing >
If you’re not already using this strategy to boost those follower numbers, here’s why you should be doing it. Following someone who posts similar content as you, or following someone you have a lot in common with is a sure-fire connection from the start. It’s like meeting someone out in the real world and realizing you have similar interests—there’s a much higher chance of finding common ground with that person and forming a friendship.
If they reciprocate and follow you back, there’s a greater chance of building upon that organic relationship and not only getting a new follower out of it but getting more engagement, share opportunities—maybe even a genuine friend. Talk about a win-win. However, you have to follow up on your end. Every few days, check in on the people you’ve followed to see if they’ve taken interest in your content. Did they follow you back? Did they like or comment on any of your photos after you did the same? If they haven’t expressed interest, you have the chance to unfollow them and try the process with someone else. It’s a great way to keep your “following” numbers reserved for people who genuinely want to connect with you, without taking a lot of time on your end.
This strategy is the fastest tactic to grow your Instagram. And the more followers you gain from this tactic, the more profiles will follow you organically. The pro tip here is to stick with following people who are in a similar industry or have a similar aesthetic as you and to always follow fewer people than are following you to truly optimize your follower count.
Prep Your Profile >
So, we know the follow vs. unfollow method is a surefire way to gain followers. But first, you’ve gotta get your profile in tip-top shape. Make sure you have a clean & consistent look (covered in the branding section below), ensure your website link and tagline are located in your bio, do everything you can to make the decision to follow you an easy one.
Pro tip: Start pumping out content on your IG stories to help new followers get to know you better and start forming that connection by posting candid content if it’s not already on your posted images. There’s a person behind every profile, and the more you let that shine through, the more likely someone is to gain interest in what you’re doing and actually want to follow you. Give it a shot. And don’t make people work to figure out what your brand or personal brand is.
How to Get Mentions & Create Shareable Content >
One of the easiest ways to get a boost in followers is to post photos of brands you genuinely vibe with, tag their account, and use their hashtag in your post. If you own a small gym, post images of your members with their favorite protein bars, water bottles, yoga mats— anything that can showcase how a brand’s item is being enjoyed and used out in the real world. Chances are, that brand is going to see your photo and repost it to their story or profile. Then all of a sudden, your content is in front of all of their followers. Your name is out there and chances are, you’ll get some new followers from it. People will see that shared image and relate to it. They love the brand too after all. So you’re making it that much easier for people to find you and give them a reason to follow you.
Pro tip: After a brand has shared your photo, go in, and follow/engage with their follower list. Their followers have you fresh in their head after seeing your content posted by the brand, so they’ll be more likely to follow you and start engaging back.
You’ll also need to ensure your content is sharable. If it’s a quote or text on a background, choose your brand’s color palette and stick to it. Include your hashtag and handle in the image and spend time on the design to make it look totally unique to you. If you’re featuring clothing or a tangible product, make sure it’s well lit and high quality. Shooting on phones is perfectly fine, as long as the product can be easily seen and fits in with the brand’s aesthetic. No matter what your brand is, create guidelines, pay attention to the brand’s guidelines, and find that happy medium.
Hosting Contests & Giveaways >
Giveaways are a quick way to see your follower count skyrocket, but here’s the thing. When you run a giveaway, people are going to follow you for inauthentic reasons—they’re here for the free stuff. But that can also be okay, as long as you do some pre-planning.
Giveaways need to be strategic and intentional. Plan out your giveaways, post about them in advance, and make them a piece in your overall story. If it’s ingrained into your brand to do a giveaway once every 4 months, awesome. If it’s part of your brand strategy to giveaways once a week on the same day, at the same time, also awesome. You put thought into this.
Doing random giveaways on the fly because you desperately want followers? Not awesome. This devalues your brand because you’re putting the free stuff out as follower bait. It’s not a built-in action item for your brand, and you might not even know if you’ll ever run one again. And that means all of the people who just followed you probably won’t stick around long unless they are interested in your content.
Challenges >
This growth method is similar to a giveaway in the sense that you’re offering up something of value, but more participation and user-generated content is involved, already making this a stronger choice than giveaways. When you create a challenge, you’re asking someone to do something, and they’ll get a reward if they follow the steps correctly, making it enticing and beneficial for all parties.
Start with your objective. Maybe you’re a clothing brand and you have 30 turtlenecks to giveaway. Create a turtleneck challenge on your IG by offering up the free turtlenecks in exchange for participants following your page and posting a photo of their favorite way to style turtlenecks, while tagging your profile and including a specific hashtag you’ve started just for the challenge (maybe it’s #TurtleneckChallenge2020). Boom. You just created a community for followers to connect with each other, added value to your brand through shares, mentions, and user-generated content, and you’ve gained more followers.
This is why we love a well-thought-out challenge as opposed to a giveaway. Just be sure to make it simple, with easy rules so people don’t get confused about how to participate. Plus, it helps to repost your participants’ photos from the challenge to show others the momentum you’ve gained.
[Section 2]
Content strategy >
As you’re growing your Instagram, it’s important to recognize the different types of content, their value, where they fit into your brand, and how you can optimize them for the best results. Feed posts, for example, are the first pieces of content someone sees when they tap your profile. So, feed posts are key for forming a consistent look that reflects you and your brand. And it’s up to you to plan out a calendar around this content. Maybe on Monday you post an outfit photo, Wednesday you post an inspirational quote and on Saturday you post closeup details of one of your latest outfits. The pro tip here is to strategize before you post and leverage good copy, your specific hashtag and brand mentions to get the most out of your scheduled posts. This method holds for a by brand or influencer, there has to be structure to keep people engaged.
The same goes for your IG stories, IGTV, and reels. Maybe on the days, you’re not uploading feed posts, you’re adding polls to your stories and the best moments of the week on your reels. The greatest part about stories is that they disappear in 24 hours. So, this is the ideal spot for small mentions that don’t merit their own post, daily things you’re doing, goals you’re working on, behind the scenes moments, and so on.
The key is to plan this content out and know what type of content you want for each category so you can save time, organize your content and be able to put more effort into engagement and brainstorming new ideas.
Library of Content >
Having streamlined content adds so much value to your brand, saves you time, and helps you plan posts up to months in advance. But you have to build up your library first. Plan out multiple photoshoots at a time if that’s your thing, so you have images ready to go with countless different looks that all adhere to the same color story, look, tone, and feel. The higher quality images you have the more sharable and noticeable they’ll be.
The same goes for captions. Write a document filled with captions, quotes, news, short stories—whatever’s relevant to what your IG’s all about. That way, you don’t have to spend an hour thinking of that perfect caption when you’re ready to post. But before you do this, make sure you establish your tone of voice and stick with it throughout every piece of content you’re pumping out. You want followers to get familiar with your voice so they can easily relate to you and feel more involved with your work. If your whole thing is being a witty musician, use lots of plays on words related to instruments and work hard to “hit all the right notes”. If you’re a zen yogi, have an organic, free-flowing voice that dreams up effortless quotes to inspire, energize and enlighten. The pro tip here is to stay true to yourself, then master that tone of voice so it’s totally your own. People will pay attention and start to expect that quality in all of your copy.
If you’re designing graphics, motivational quotes, or graphs, have a template with your color story so you can plug in the copy, information, or design and be ready to go at a moment’s notice. It’s easy to get thrown off schedule and devalue your brand when posts aren’t ready to go at your scheduled time, so do the work in advance and make the process easier for when the moment comes to post. This will ensure you have consistency free from typos, incorrect color palettes, and images that haven’t been edited or perfected. Doing some work in advance goes a long way when you go to grow your brand. Create it, store it, and have it ready to go anytime.
Organizing Content >
You have consistent, quality content. Now, where are you going to keep it? Don’t rely on the photo reel on your phone to store all of your content. Use DropBox or a similar app so you can have easy access to organizational tools, including folders that are dated and sorted by year and category, plus enough storage space to house any type of content— including longer videos. This will help you pull exactly what you need, when you need it, and sort out content that’s ready to go live vs. content that was just shot and needs editing. This might seem like a small piece in growing your account, but the thing is, life happens. You might think you’ll always have the time to drop everything, edit a photo, write a caption, choose your hashtags, and post on the fly, but it will not be the case every day. Do your part and set yourself up for success to get more out of your time and get more out of your posts.
Starting From the Ground Up >
If you’re just getting started and are building your content from the ground up, it’s crucial to have a backlog of your content ready to pull before you even get started. A newbie mistake is taking a photo, posting day of, then relying on free time to get that next post in the works. This can lead to inconsistency in quality, authenticity, and branding. Plan in advance, before you even make your first post for a truly successful look that people will resonate with and want to engage with.
Switch to a Business Account >
The moment you decide to increase your Instagram following and turn your scrolling days into a money-maker, you need to switch to a business account. You’ll be able to have a clickable contact button so brands and clients can easily reach you, and it allows you to highlight the industry you’re in (influencer, musician, dentistry, etc). You’ll also need this for stats on how many views your page is getting, demographics for your audience, and the ability to publish IG ads, which we’ll talk about in a later section.
[Section 3]
BRANDING & BIOS >
Having a personal brand is a top priority for building your Instagram and preventing posts from being all over the place. Make an extensive list of both your personal attributes and your brand’s attributes. What themes are you noticing? What values do you want to translate into your content? What are qualities about you that need to shine through in every post? There’s no right or wrong answer because this is all about you, your brand, and what you stand for. Authenticity, personality, and transparency will carry your content to the place you want to get it to, but first, you need to nail down the details. Think of this as a bit of social media soul searching.
Once you have your values laid out, think about your goal for Instagram. What are you trying to get out of it? Chances are, you’re not just here to get followers. You’re here to sell, build, share, grow, or all of the above. Next, spend a day or 2 digging through accounts that share a similar goal and monitor their tactics. And ask yourself why you like their profile. Are they educational? Funny? Entertaining? Inspirational? How are they communicating their brand and personality? Pay attention to what they’re doing right and learn from it.
You’ve done the research. Now it’s time to get really specific. Come up with 3 adjectives to describe your brand on Instagram and transform them into your overarching guide. Everything you write, create, post, and share should fall under the umbrella of 1 of your 3 adjectives—even better if it covers more than 1. For example, if you’re a company focused on revenue growth, your adjectives might be strategic, educational, and refined. If you’re a chiropractor, they might be inspirational, healthy living, and exercise-oriented. If you’re a young fashion influencer, they might be witty, sustainable, and adventurous. Once again, there are no wrong answers here. But it’s up to you to choose the adjectives that will drive everything you put out into the Insta world to ensure cohesion, strategy alignment, and goal-driven actions.
Now we have to put it all into action, and the first place to start is your bio. Your bio needs 6 key components to be easily readable and understandable:
Your tagline or personal motto
A relevant image of you, your logo, brand, or product
Your branded hashtag
The adjectives you chose. Ex: Fashionable, Traveler, Hilarious
Any emojis you want associated with your account
Your website, blog, Spotify, online store, contact page—or whatever your product is
This takes out any work on the viewer’s part to figure out who you are. Makes it easy on them. Let them see right away if they relate to your vibe or not. Give them clear action if the goal is to get them to your website. The clearer and more specific you are with your bio, the more you’ll get noticed and stick in someone’s head. Not to mention, you’ll be distinguishing yourself from other profiles in the same realm. So don’t be afraid to let the true you shine through (just like your mom always said).
Tagline Length & Tactics >
Keep it short and try to convey just one clear idea. You want your customer to understand your message at a quick glance, so try to stick with 7 words or fewer. People will be viewing your tagline on a mobile device and if you go too long, it’s very possible that your formatting will be obstructed or the full tagline won’t be visible. Short and sweet is the way to go.
Tagline Goals >
What does your company do (or what do you do) that sets you apart from the rest? Why should a client come to you over the competition? Think strategically and use keywords that will grab your client’s attention. For example, if you were a vegan bakery that only uses local ingredients, your tagline might say something like, “Vegan Only, Local Always.” Put the benefits forward to help communicate what you’re all about from the moment someone reads your tagline.
Creating Your Tagline >
Block out a few weeks at least to brainstorm and gather feedback on your options. Since taglines are crucial for educating and attracting new clients, there’s no room for subjectivity. Call upon some trusted colleagues or hire a focus group to weigh in on which tagline perfectly sums up your company.
Creating Your Tagline’s Hashtag >
This is your key community builder and a simple tool to give others when they’re sharing your content or talking about your brand. Your hashtag can be a spinoff of a popular existing hashtag. Just make sure it’s not widely used because this is going to become all you. You’re going to own it, so inject your own personality into it.
Example: Your name is Kyle and you’ve got a smoothie shop. You’re probably going to be tempted to use something like #SmoothSipping #BestBlendEver or #FreshMixes. Okay, we see you. But you can do better. Get that personality in there. It just so happens that Kyle’s a huge jokester and he lives in Portland, OR. So, here are some personal spins Kyle should use for a hashtag win: #KylesFreshFixes #KylesSmoothieMoves #MixPourSipPDX. Go specific for your hashtag, so no one else takes it and so it becomes associated with only your brand.
Next up, put your tagline and hashtag everywhere. Your business cards, website, any additional social media accounts, in-store signage if it’s relevant, your LinkedIn, your blog, sponsored posts—basically, anything you touch.
[Section 4]
HOW TO GENERATE LEADS >
No matter what your niche is, you’ll need to attract leads in order to circulate awareness, revenue, and new clients. The same mindset can be applied if you’re an influencer trying to gain new followers and brands to endorse. The pro tip here circles back to our content library. Remember all of those captions you pre-wrote? We’re going to do the same for post comments and direct messages. Write up a minimum of 3 templates for comments and DMs that can be used to send when someone new follows you (a thank you message), when you want to offer someone a service (drive awareness & promote) and a general “love your content” message (to show you’re genuinely engaged with their content). Here are some examples of the kind of DMs and comment templates you should be writing:
[Welcome + Hello DM]
Hey! I just wanted to say thanks so much for the follow. I really love your posts and motto, too. I’m thrilled we got to connect! Take care, —[insert name]
[Offer + Promo Awareness DM]
Hey, what’s new! Not sure if you like pedicures, but right now through Sunday, we’re running a buy 1, get 1 for manis and pedis, with 20% being donated to [insert organization]. All you have to do is mention the offer when you make a reservation. Hope to see you soon.☺ —[insert name]
[Thank You Comment]
You always come in with those fire compliments! Thank you! [Love Your Content Comment] Look at your serving serious inspo! Love it!
When you’re writing these comments and DM templates, keep your 3 brand adjectives in mind, in addition to your tone of voice to lock in believability and authenticity. These need to come from you, after all. Spice them up with your brand-specific emojis and keep in mind—this tactic builds value with the person you’re trying to engage with. By letting them know from the beginning you’re available as a resource, friend, or source of information for something they need, they’ll be much more likely to keep following you and keep you in mind for when they really do need your service, product, friendship, etc. Always start with the friendly intro and build on from there.
Post Notifications >
If you have a list of people you want to engage with, turning on notifications (located in the following tab on the user’s profile) for their posts will let you know right away when their new content goes up. You’ll be one of the first people to engage with the post, showing your genuine interest in building upon the relationship and likely getting engagement back.
Lead generation and engagement are crucial to building trust, especially when you’re trying to increase revenue and get someone interested in your service or business. People don’t instantly trust a new brand on the first comment or interaction. Just like you would ignore a spam call or feel put off by someone trying to sell you something the moment you meet them. No one likes that. You have to be persistent and real—in other words, a friend—in order to get someone to take the plunge and try your service or product. Build the trust, take all of the steps and from there, let them decide.
Specific Offerings >
Whether it’s a free e-book, short story collection, free sample size, or exclusive discount, having special offers for your new IG followers will encourage interaction. Plus, you’ll have the opportunity to build email lists for newsletters and future promos when the user signs up for whatever you’re offering. You get data. They get a great offer. And you score a new client. Offerings are a score for everyone, but they’re most optimal when you link them back to your website, landing page, or somewhere they can learn more about what you do and what your business is all about. It’s an instant value builder and shows you care about your clients.
[Section 5]
influencer marketing >
Here’s some great news about influencer marketing now, and in the future. It’s not going anywhere. Instagram has proven that people put more trust in endorsements from other real people compared to standard corporate marketing or celebrity partnerships. And by monetizing your Instagram, you’re making it easier than ever for brands to take one look at your profile and decide you’re someone they want to partner with. Before you begin partnering with brands, there are some prep work items you’ll need to work through, including:
Work on growing your following before approaching brands. While many companies will share any follower’s photo featuring their product, brands will be choosier when it comes to a contracted paid partnership—whether the payment is free product or cash. Use the strategies we discussed above to work on growth, follower trust and engagement before you start sending out messages and emails.
Set your rate. If you have a specific rate in mind for a sponsored post, be upfront about it, and stick to it. It’s not up to the brand to decide how much to pay you. And lessening your rate for one brand may lead to other brands expecting you to do the same thing.
Learn the expectations. Any brand you work with will have stipulations and guidelines for how they want their product presented, their color palettes, copy preferences, and how you talk about their product. Chances are, you’ll need to send the content for brand approval before posting to make sure everything is in the clear. Discuss these guidelines thoroughly and ask questions upfront to avoid having to do rework that you probably won’t get paid for. Next, you’ll want to get familiar with the different types of brand-sponsored posts and what each entails.
Gifting: When a brand gives you free product in exchange for a mention, review or post.
Affiliates: You personally have tried the product and endorse it, by offering special discount codes to your followers.
Brand Ambassadors: A relationship between a brand a loyal follower who lives, breathes, and represents the brand. An ambassador will be asked to create photos, videos, stories, and additional content in exchange for offers, free products, or mentions on the brand’s social media.
Sponsored Content: A brand is paying an influencer for a specified post or series of posts, highlighting the brand’s product.
Takeovers: An influencer attracts their following to the brand’s page by taking over their social media, via posts and stories for a set amount of time.
As far as industry standards, each of the different types of influencer branded content will be subject to different guidelines and payment rates. Larger companies obviously have greater means to sustain a paid influencer partnership. Smaller brands may only be able to offer a product or page promotion in exchange. That’s why it’s crucial for you to have your own standards in place before you approach brands. This keeps the interaction professional, straightforward, and will set all parties up for success.
Landing Brand Partnerships >
Pro tip: Pretty much every brand under the sun goes through an agency to conduct influencer partnerships. That means, if you find the agency that’s running social media for the brand you’re interested in, you just made your job way easier. Do some snooping on LinkedIn to find the social media managers running that brand and reach out to them directly. Be sure to include all of your social media stats, links to your website and IG, and be direct about why you think you’re a good fit to represent their brand. Sending a direct message will be worlds easier and more impactful than blindly sending emails to the PR contact on the brand’s website.
When you’re trying to get quick results, you have to get clever. When you do land a partnership or have one in the works, stay in touch, and follow up after the post goes up. Most social media managers have a lot on their plates—they’re juggling the entire social networks for one brand or even multiple brands. Even if you have an impressive IG, it’s up to you to keep that partnership buzzing and fresh. DM them when they post, compliment new items, be the first to comment on their posts, do whatever it takes to stay fresh in their heads so you’re the first person they think of when they need influencer content.
It’s also a good idea to come up with your own ideas to collaborate. If you have a clear vision of how a brand’s product could fit into your vision, help the social media manager visualize what that might look like. It’s a good idea to keep up with the company’s current brand standards to know what kind of content they want to post. But don’t be shy about running with your own creativity and trying to get a brand inspired to come along for the ride.
Engagement Groups >
What are they. What do they do. And are they risky for your IG? Here’s the thing. Engagement groups can be widely helpful, especially when you’re just starting out. They’re set up as a pod of people, and when one person posts, everyone that group engages with the post. Some pods require you to follow everyone in the group. Others simply ask for likes and comments of a certain length for every post. For larger pods (usually 15 or more users) they’ll usually be hosted off of IG’s DMs, and on another app, such as WhatsApp. Utilizing engagement groups is helpful before you start going after brand partnerships because you’ll be getting more likes, comments, and genuine interaction, which brands like to see. These groups are usually uplifting and encouraging, leading to an increase in engagement, even if you exit the group. After all, the people in these groups, much like you, are joining in with a similar growth mindset.
[Section 6]
instagram ads >
Any time you’re scrolling through your IG feed or stories, you’ll notice sponsored or paid posts pop up. Running ads is a fantastic way to target specific demographics, run analytics tests, gather data, promote a new launch, and execute specific goal-oriented strategies. The one thing not to do—pay for an ad on Instagram without a plan in place. If you’re paying for an ad and you have no product to sell, no call to action, and no specific goal for the content, you’ll lure people to your page and they won’t know what to do, causing them to exit your page without engaging. If you aren’t aiming for results, you’re not going to get them with ads. So save your money and wait until you have a strategy.
Building Your Funnel >
Start with 5 ads for your funnel strategy, and map them out like this:
Ad 1: Build awareness for your brand. This can be a general introduction to your values, product, creative process, etc.
Ad 2: Offer something free. This can be used to gather data and allow new clients to test your product before they take the plunge and buy. The theme of this ad should be something like: “We know you’ve been wanting to try out Xproduct. So, we’re giving you the chance. For the next 3 days, you can get Xproduct totally free when you sign up for our newsletter. Free X and the latest scoop delivered to your inbox—what’s not to love?”
Ad 3: Re-target the people who saw ad 2, but didn’t engage and didn’t act on the free item. This should act as a reminder to and say something like, “FOMO alert. You’re about to miss out on free Xproduct! But don’t worry, it’s not too late. All you have to do is sign up for our newsletter to get your free X. So easy. And we know you’ll love it.”
Ad 4: This ad should be informative and it should speak to what you’ve been promoting. If you’re a pizza company, go in-depth about how long it took you to master your dough recipe to get just the right amount of thick, crispy texture. Or if you’re a clothing brand, talk about how each logo on your sweatshirts is hand stitched by local garment makers. Use this as an opportunity to highlight the value and give people a reason to want your product over the rest.
Ad 5: At this point, you’ve run 4 ads so you’re starting to collect analytics and see who’s paying attention to your ads. Take that information and run with it. Repost your offer from ad 2, only with the demographics in mind. If you notice most of your engagement is coming from women in Italy between the ages of 18-32, that’s your target. Repurpose the ad to make it relevant to exactly that audience.
Re-Targeting >
Your funnel is essential to creating strategy and purpose. Make sure the experience is streamlined and seamless for the user to interact with. The CTA needs to be clear to follow, your landing page needs to be updated with any offer details and newsletter signups and you need to list any disclaimers or stipulations for the free item on the page you’re linking off to. A successful ad campaign with a free offer will showcase who your target customers are and who you should target future ads to.
Types of Ads >
Something else to keep in mind as you’re creating your funnel are the different types of ads you can create. For Instagram you can utilize:
Photos
Videos
Carousel/Dynamic Ads
Stories
Stories Canvas The Stories Canvas format for ads is dynamic and interactive, with a carousel of experiential content within the story. For your first funnel, stick to one kind of content and focus your attention there for the most accurate metrics and tangible results you can learn from.
[Section 7]
analytics >
Your Analytics >
So, now we know why we need analytics—to figure out who’s looking at your profile and who wants to buy your product. But here’s a fun fact about analytics. There’s so much more you can do with them. You can look at specific posts and get a rundown on that post’s engagement metrics. Do a deep-dive and study a month’s worth of posts and highlight the trends you’re seeing with engagement. Now, you have a strategy in place—boost engagement by making posts more inclusive to the audience that’s really paying attention to what you’re doing.
This can be especially helpful as you’re launching a new service, product, clothing line, ebook—anything. Because you’ll know exactly who to speak to when you’re creating your ad funnel for that new launch.
[Section 8]
interaction >
If you want to create a community, you have to be consistent about communications with your followers, brands you admire, and people you’d like to see on your followers list. Respond to every comment, DM, like back when someone likes your photos. These tips may seem insignificant, but this is how you show genuine interest in content on IG. People will notice and you’ll become a loyal IG friend in their eyes. You’re also reminding them who you are every time they see your notification pop up.
Refer back to our comments and DMs template section above, so you’ll know exactly what to say the moment someone posts. Having this strategy in place allows you to connect with way more people on a daily basis than if you were coming up with everything on the fly.
What it Means to be Genuine >
We’ve touched on this a bit in previous sections for coming up with an authentic brand voice, but keeping your account genuine and true to you is one of the most important factors for credibility. A rule of thumb, don’t over-edit your posts. Don’t photoshop yourself into different places you haven’t actually gone to and don’t overuse face-tuning apps. Users can see right through content like this, and they’ll know you’re putting on a front. Embrace who you are and what you stand for. You own this account, so treat it like it’s your real life.
Approach every comment, post, and partnership with your personal values and personality. This automatically makes your content unique and special, no photoshop required.
Wrapping it up >
You made it! Congratulations on arming yourself with the best, industry-proven strategies for boosting your Instagram without all of the consulting fees. If you put time into each of the sections above, starting with your brand and content library, you’ll find success with these strategies. Sure, it takes time. Any job does. But these are the most effective, organic strategies for seeing growth fast. So try it out. If you’re serious about making IG your career or a stream of revenue, this is the best place to start attracting new followers who will stick around.
Do you want to learn more about a specific section in this guide? Book a free consultation here. We’ve been in the game for a while, and we’re always excited to help out a new client.
Happy gramming, everyone!
Written by Brittany Barker
Brittany is a senior copywriter, with a passion for helping all kinds of brands find their voice. When she’s not writing, she’s probably styling outfits, playing with her film cameras or talking to her cats. See what she’s up to @glowiboibrit