Instagram basics for your business

Creating an Instagram page is crucial for your brand. Whether you’re a small business or a stay at home mom testing out building an audience, this blog post will cover the basics of growing your following.

1. Come up with 5 words that you want your page to convey.

For example: 

• Honest
• Authentic
• Joyful
• Edgy
• Personable

Once you have thought about the words you want your page to convey, go through and do a cleanup. Anything that doesn’t fit those words goes! Anything negative or unhelpful? Get rid of it! Potential brands/customers don’t want to hear you complaining. These words will be the building ground for the image you want to portray. Coming up with loads of content all the time can be really hard, having these words to come back to when you don’t know what to post next can be helpful.

2. Is your bio straight forward?

If I were to go to your page, would I know who you are, what you offer, and why it matters? (check out an example on my personal profile @mommytruth)

Along with the aesthetic of your profile, this little blurb of words at the top of your page carries a huge amount of power to turn your viewer into a follower. After reading your bio and looking at your page for about 3 seconds you’ve either gained or lost a follower.

be clear about who you are. Be clear about the purpose of your page. Give them a call to action. Direct them to a link in your bio, or maybe a story highlight. The longer you can keep them on your page and give them a better idea of who you are the better.

3. Are all your pictures edited the same?

Are they clear with good lighting? Do you have a theme?

Light, bright, and airy? Or maybe dark, moody and mysterious is more your style. Having all your photos have the same feel gives your audience a sense of familiarity. Creating a sense of familiarity turns into creating trust. You need to gain your audience’s trust if you expect them to buy anything you’re advertising or selling, and creating that trust starts with your photos. If they can tell it’s your photo before they even see your username as they scroll by, you’re doing things right!

If photography stresses you out, get preset for adobe lightroom. It’s a free app and most presets are 25-45$ for the mobile versions. A preset is a “pre-set” edit made by a professional photographer. It’s worth the investment if you want a professional-looking feed and don’t have the time to learn how to edit photos

4. Are you utilizing hashtags and captions?

Are you putting time into the semi-popular hashtags for your photo? I say semi-popular because if you’re using the most popular hashtag, the likelihood of getting featured in that hashtag is low unless you have a million followers. Aiming for hashtags that are in the 10k-500k range gives you a better chance of getting featured.

Pro tip: Use popular hashtags that have millions of uses when you share your latest post on Instagram to your story. That adds your story to that hashtags story which boosts your chances of more eyes on your post.

Captions. When you’re scrolling by, you only see about 15 words in the caption of a photo. Use those words wisely to make your audience hit that “more” option.

For example:

” I love this cleaner because it’s toxin-free”

” GET OUT OF MY HOUSE. In 1976, congress passed..”

In almost the exact same amount of words, I caught your attention by starting with facts about why you don’t want toxins in your home. Which one would you want to read more of? Use those first few words wisely!

 

Defining your niche and understanding engagement.

5. Here’s a biggie. What is your niche?

If you think about it, most “popular” people on social media are known for one thing. I’m sure when you think of someone you follow who has a lot of followers, you follow them for a certain reason.

What are you good at? What is your passion? What do you want to influence people to do?

Example niches:

Mom blogger

Travel blogger

Jewelry maker

Ok now lets narrow that down.

A mom blogger who blogs all about foster care.

A travel blogger who blogs about the best places to scuba dive around the world.

Jewelry maker who specializes in crystals.

The more you can dial it down, the more you will attract a close-knit audience who relates with you for that one specific reason.

This is much easier said than done and is a struggle for a lot of people (including myself)

6. ENGAGEMENT!

You have to engage with other accounts. Like other photos, comment, “like” comments. Make it part of your daily routine. Engage with a similar niche/your target audience for 20 minutes a day and it will help you greatly.

Social media is all about connection. Followers aren’t going to come to you unless you get yourself out there.

Get the number of likes you receive out of your head. Don’t get discouraged if you’re not getting as many likes you think you should. Show up for your audience every day no matter what. Even if you speak to one person with your content, that’s all that matters.

Pro tip: Engage with accounts for 30 minutes before you post on your feed. When other users come to check out who liked their content, they’re most likely to “like” your most recent photo to return the favor.

What is “good content” and how often should I post?

7. Let’s define it. Good content consists of quality photography and an engaging caption.

Your captions should be educating, inspiring, creating curiosity, and start a conversation.

If you need help coming up with ideas, research some big brand Instagram accounts that you aspire to be like. See what they’re posting and spark some creative ideas for yourself.

How often should I post?

The answer to that is as many times as you can commit to. If you can post amazing content twice a day, DO IT. If you can come up with killer content 4-7 days a week. DO IT.

Consistency is the secret sauce. Not being consistent for a month or 6 months. If you want to make it on social media plan on doing what I’ve told you in this here for years and years. No matter how hard or unmotivating it gets (because it will) keep going. By all means take a break, even a week! Then get back to it. And realize building a brand takes a LOT of time and a LOT of work. But it is achievable. And you can do it.

Social media is a monster that can never be fed. You can never post too much good content, you can never interact with your following too much.

You have to create boundaries and treat it like a job. Focus on being a content creator and not a content consumer.

Do you feel like you need one on one help? Book a session with our social media specialist and get your brand headed in the right direction.