5 Ways to Build Your Instagram Presence
Social Media is a BEAST! It is a full-time job. It takes a LOT of work, time, patience, and experimentation. Some weeks I feel like an Instagram rock star and then other weeks, I want to pull my hair out. I do know that, for my own personal brand, my main goal is to always be REAL! It is definitely hard to keep up with the "Joneses", trends, and to not compare yourself to others. Just DO YOU!
Now with that being said, I also think it is important to continually educate yourself, especially if you are using social media to grow your business and earn an income from it. You can still DO YOU, but if you want to continue to grow there are definitely some "tips" to help you do that, while still being authentic. That is why I asked my good friend Jess to share some of her favorite ways to help GROW YOUR BUSINESS! Take it away friend...
Hi, everyone! I’m so excited to be here as a guest for Katie today. As a social media strategist, I help small businesses establish and grow their social media presence. My goal today is to share a number of easily actionable tactics that you can implement in order to build your Instagram presence!
Instagram might be one of my favorite social media platforms, and it is a focus when I work with social media clients. With over 500 million active monthly users (source), it’s pretty safe to say that Instagram is a great place to be when trying to make an impact in your community! As a business owner, Instagram can be an effective tool for you in regards to connecting to customers, increasing reach, and growing your business.
Why Using Instagram Can Help You Grow Your Business
If you’ve established that Instagram is an effective tool for you to grow your business, you may wonder: how will it actually help me? Ah, the million dollar question. Over time, building your Instagram presence helps you:
Build trust with current and prospective customers
Establish and nurture a relationship with your readers
Reach more people
Give your readers a chance to share the love, by reposting your photos, tagging you, etc. which will continue to drive traffic to your profile and business.
5 Ways to Build Your Instagram Presence
Once we understand that Instagram can be a useful way to grow a business and connect with our niche, how do we go about building our presence? Let’s talk about five tactics that I believe are 100% realistic and easy to implement.
Be Clear About Your Presence
Ideally, when someone comes to visit your Instagram page, he/she should be able to immediately figure out what your brand is all about. Being clear about your presence includes making sure that your bio is direct and concise. Including WHAT you do, WHO you serve, and where you’re located can help you reach the right people.
Use Appropriate Hashtags
Instagram allows up to 30 hashtags per post, and I would encourage you to take advantage of it! Do you need to have 30 for each post? That’s debatable, but including at least a handful of relevant hashtags can help your posts get seen by more people in your niche. Users can search particular hashtags and connect with people who have used the same hashtag, which in turn can build your presence and help you grow your business!
Post Consistently
Consistency is key when it comes to building your Instagram presence. Within your direct community, being consistent with posting will basically “train” your audience to be accustomed to your presence! If they’re used to seeing your content, they’ll be more likely to engage with you and be aware of your brand and messaging.
Having content that goes out more consistently will also help you get seen more often across Instagram: in feeds, within hashtags, and in “explore” feeds. All of these factors can help you build your Instagram presence.
Engage With Your Audience
In order to build an Instagram presence, we must seem personable, trustworthy, and reliable. That includes making time to engage with your audience! If someone takes the time to post a comment on your post, please try to respond to them in a timely manner. I’ll admit, I’ve fallen behind and have waited a few days to respond to comments. Try not to do that ;-).
By starting and keeping up with REAL conversations on Instagram, you’re building long-lasting, trusting relationships that will build your presence in the long run.
Be Authentic
My final and possibly most important suggestion for you is to be authentic with your audience. Prioritizing just the sales of your product/service will likely get you nowhere in the long term, as far as relationships go.
A quality growth in your Instagram presence includes building real relationships with your audience, establishing a presence in your community and niche, and staying true to your brand. That could mean practicing being vulnerable with your audience - can you share both successes AND failures in your posts? If we show people that we are human and relatable, we’re more likely to build our presence in a quality way.
Building your Instagram presence does not require crazy-complicated tactics. Being consistent, authentic, engaging, and clear about your presence and brand will result in all the good things for your business!
