In the age of social media, everyone is looking to build their audience for one reason or another. Maybe you have a message and want to reach more people. Or, you may want to use Instagram or other platforms to build your business and find clients. With Instagram constantly making changes to it’s “algorithm” a lot of people are finding it hard to hit those follower goals they are hoping for. If you are looking to grow on Instagram, you have came to the right place!
Define Your Niche
One major key to having success on Instagram is finding both your Niche and Your audience. You want people to be able to visit your feed and know what you are about. They should be able tell your expertise and how you are going to add value to their life.
I used to get really intimidated when it came to trying to find my niche. I didn’t want to be too committed to one topic because I love to share so much. While I choose Lifestyle as my niche, there are more specific ones out there. And if I’m being honest, the more defined your niche, the more valuable you may be. At least more valuable to brands, if you are looking to monetize your personal brand at some point.
“It’s important to know WHO you are talking to.”
Once you find your niche, you can get a better gauge of who your followers are. Are the audience in your niche older or younger? Do they have children? Are they married?
When you know these things, you can use Google analytics to you forecast content to post about in your niche. It is also a plus to know this when you decide to boost content on any social media platforms.
Also, if you need help trying to figure out what your niche should be, don’t worry. I have a blog post for that here!
Engage with Current Followers
After you define what you want to talk about and who you are talking to, it’s time to start doing the work! Reach out to your audience. Like and comment on their pictures and stories. Slide in their DMs with a friendly text or even a voice message if you’re feeling extra friendly.
It’s very important that you are showing up, in front of your audience, every day (or as many as you can manage) in some way shape so they recognize your face or name.
This is how you start to form those “internet” bonds with complete strangers. It’s absolutely magical. Even though social media can be somewhat of a curse, it’s also a blessing. We are able to reach people and connect with those we may have never met if it wasn’t for the internet. Use this to your advantage!
The key on how to grow on Instagram is to stay in touch with your current follows and to also discover new potential followers.
How do I find new people and connect with them?
Finding new people to engage with is easier than you think. It’s all about being creative with your approach. Here are a few ways I like to reach out and connect with people that may not be following me.
- Engaging with posts in niche related hashtags
- Engaging with followers of my followers
- Engaging with people that comment on other people’s posts
- Engaging with people from posts in my explore tab
- Find people on other platforms and engage with their Instagram profile
- Use collaborations and giveaways and engage with the audience
- Engage with follower of brands and artists or other hobbies
Find Out What They Like and Want to See From You
So, you now have people coming to you page and checking you out. What do you do next? The best way to figure out what you should be posting is to ASK THEM! Asking your audience what they would like to see from you is another way to engage with them and to also get some insight on what content they would respond to best.
You can simply use the poll or question feature in your stories, or just ask them in a video in a story slide, or leave a call to a action in a caption on your feed.
Once you have your niche and start to build a tight night community, people will start to suggest topics they want to see or they will ask you questions. Be sure to pay attention the questions your audience is frequently asking you.
Those type of things are dead giveaways to the type of content you should be posting and that your audience wants to see from you.
Improve Your Skills
To start, perfecting your craft is a very integral part of the process if you want to grow on Instagram in 2019. Content creators come a dime a dozen, so you have to be on your A game with both your skill level and creativity.
DO NOT compare yourself and where you are to the next person’s feed, though. You are not on their journey but your own. So please remember to stay in your own lane. *claps hands* It is important to remember this saying as you are growing and bettering yourself.
“Everyone had to do something for the very first time.”
You know what this means? While you are first starting out, you may suck. That is ok! Keep working at it and bettering yourself. Focus less on playing the comparison game and more on making each piece of content you put out there better than the last. The idea behind this is to eventually get to the point where you are putting out things that people cannot help but stop and look at. You are posting things that are grabbing the attention of your audience.
Please be patient with yourself. This is something that may not (mostly likely won’t) happen over night. Just keep pushing forward and you will see growth in your skill level as well as your following.
Offer Content that Adds Value to Their Lives
Next, giving people a reason to double tap, follow, subscribe and comment is imperative if you want success online. I was once told that people will come and/or STAY because of your WHY. I’ve found that people that have a WHY that solves a problem or educated people in some form or fashion tend to do the best.
That being said, make sure you are uploading content that has a purpose! Ask yourself, “How can I help my audience?” As mentioned before, most times, once you are further along, your audience will tell you what they would like to see from you.
Be Consistent and Upload Often
In addition to posting quality content with a purpose, you have to also be sure you are uploading OFTEN. People want to see consistency. And often times, social media platforms will favor accounts that are ACTIVE and posting regularly.
Figure out a schedule that works best for your workflow and aligns with when your audience is most active. Plan out your content ahead of time and follow any other strategies that will put you in a position to be able to post as much as you can.
Engage with Non Followers
Collaborate with Creator in Your Niche and/or Area
Collaboration over Competition! When you network and build relationships with other creators, you should bring up collaborating on different projects when the time feels right.
How would collaborating benefit you? Well, I am glad you asked! When you collaborate with another creator, you both expand your audience and possible reach people you wouldn’t have normally reached otherwise.
Pay for Promotions
Let me start by saying, paying for promotions is not necessarily a bad thing. Promotions can help you grow on Instagram. You just have to be smart and strategic about it. First, please make sure your content is high quality and you have a lot of it. When you promote content, people will possible see the post and visit your feed. You want your feed to be eye catching and lead your audience to other posts and other platforms that you are on. You would be wasting your money if you paid to promote a post and had nothing else to offer once they double tap.
Second, make sure you use custom targeting and be knowledgable of you audience. You do not want to waste money reaching people that will most likely not be interested in the content that you offer. You could also target people that you would like to be your key audience.
When you do this, be sure to keep track of your results so you can see which groups are getting tractions. This is a good indicator that the target audience is interested in your content and you should continue to promote to them and even go a step further and engage with people in that demographic.
Have Patience
Being patient with yourself and your craft has to be the biggest piece of advice anyone could offer when you are trying to grow on instagram. There is not coincide that this is my last tip. Even when utilizing every single strategy and honing in on your talents day and night, you have to give yourself TIME.
Like everything else, if you want to grow on instagram, it takes time!
It takes time to get into a system, time for people to discover you, and time for you to build up your army of highly engaging content. So RELAX and don’t be so hard on yourself.
You will get to the finish line in no time. Remember, it was the turtle that won the race after all!
I hope you found this helpful if you are looking to grow in Instagram. For more in-depth tips and a step by step guide on how to grow and build an engaging audience, be sure to sign up for my email list so it can be sent to you!
