4 Proven Strategies to Improve Your Instagram Presence
In this ever-changing digital space we currently live in, it is easy to get left behind with the new social media trends. However, it is essential to keep up with these trends and maintain a consistent social presence to remain relevant in your respective industry. This is especially true for creative businesses with a focus on using Instagram as their main platform for building a community and generating leads.
Although Instagram can be a great place to build a loyal community and generate revenue for your business, it is also a highly saturated market-place. There are often many other creators, just like you, pushing daily content to their followers. This blog will outline four ways you can differentiate yourself from the competition and resonate more with your target audience.
1. Speak to Your Ideal Client
There are two methods of producing Instagram content. The first is by creating broad content to appeal to the masses. With this method, your account will reach many but resonate with few. The second method is by creating highly targeted content directed specifically at your ideal target market. This method will not have as wide of a reach, but it will resonate highly with the individuals it does reach. The second method is the best approach to take if you are a business owner trying to turn your Instagram followers into customers. Every time you generate content to post on Instagram, you should consider your ideal client and ask yourself if what you are about to post will be valuable to them. Ask yourself these questions:
– Will my ideal client think this post is valuable?
– Will my ideal client find this post entertaining?
– Will my ideal client be able to understand the language and terminology used in my caption?
Whenever you focus on serving your ideal client, you can form deep relationships with them. This builds trust with your online community and increases the chances they will convert into a customer.
2. Include Simple Calls to Action
Follower interaction on your Instagram account is beneficial for three main reasons. The first reason being the Instagram algorithm will recognize the high-level of engagement and show your post to more users. Increased reach leads to increased followers and increased conversions through Instagram. The second benefit of follower interaction is it allows your customers to feel like they are contributing to what you are doing. Giving input makes them feel important and valued. The third benefit is the valuable insight you can gain from your followers by asking them questions and gaining direct feedback on what they are wanting and how they are thinking.
You cannot post to Instagram and simply hope your followers will engage. You need to make it easy for them to engage and share what they are thinking. This can be done through the use of clear and direct calls to action. Every single one of your Instagram posts should have a call to action telling the viewer what you want them to do next. Some examples of Calls to Action are:
– Double tap if you resonate with this.
– Share with your business bestie.
– Save this post to refer back to.
– Tag a friend in the comments.
– Comment your thoughts below.
– Visit the link in my bio to sign up.
– DM me if you want to learn more.
– Drop an emoji showing me what you think.
These are all great examples of how you can make it easy for your customer to interact with you. The more interaction your posts get, the closer your audience will feel to your business and the more it will get shared on the platform, expanding your reach.
Simple Calls to Action encourage your viewer to stop scrolling and connect with you. Try to craft unique ways for them to participate in building your brand in both feed posts and stories.
3. Incorporate Reels
There is a current shift in our society toward short-form video content. This has been made evident from the massive growth of Tik-Tok in the past year and the establishment of Instagram Reels. This type of short-form video content is becoming the preferred method of consuming content. Along with this preference for video content, the Instagram algorithm has been pushing reels more than other post types. They are rewarding the Instagram users who are frequently using the reels feature by showing their posts to a larger audience. In addition to these factors, it is also much more likely for an Instagram reel video to go viral than a normal feed post. Reels spread faster and usually have a longer lifetime than the average Instagram post, which gets lost after 48 hours. All of these reasons provide an ample amount of support as to why you should be incorporating reels into your Instagram content regularly.
4. Interact With Your Audience
You should be on Instagram to build a community around your business and brand. A community is only formed through conversation and trust-building. People like buying from people. You need to show your followers you are a trustworthy and relatable person. Begin establishing these relationships by interacting with the content your community produces. Take at least 15-30 minutes a day liking and commenting on the posts of current members in your community. Be genuine with your interactions. Do not be spammy and copy and paste the same comment on every post. Take the time to thoughtfully comment on posts you find interesting. Try to start conversations. Doing this will let your audience build their relationship with you. You can also comment and interact in this same way with Instagram stories. This is sometimes an even more intimate interaction because you will be messaging in their DM’s. Don’t be salesy. Genuinely try to build relationships. Relationship-building is a long-term game, but the payoff is irreplaceable.
After you have spent around 15 minutes interacting with your current audience, take the time to explore the discover page and interact with other Instagram users in the same way. Interacting with users from the discover page is a great way of increasing your following and expanding your reach in your target market.
If you begin implementing these four proven strategies for improving your Instagram presence, you will begin seeing growth in no time. You will gain more followers who fit into your target market. Your current followers will become more engaged with your content and be more likely to buy. The revenue from lead-generation through Instagram will begin skyrocketing. The growth is worth the extra time investment spent leveling up your Instagram presence.
Comment below the first step you are going to take to begin implementing these strategies with your business Instagram! Until next time friends…
Upward and Onward!
Bailey Thibodeaux
Founder of Honeywave Creative