All right.
We've gotta be honest here.
It is not as easy to grow on Instagram as it was.
Back in the early days of the app, but it's not at all impossible to grow.
Both of my Instagram accounts have both seen healthy growth over this past
year, even with all of the algorithm changes and updates and formats
and, you know, drama with Instagram.
So today I thought it would be fun to share what I would do if I were starting
an Instagram account from scratch today.
Let's talk about content first.
First and foremost, I would post.
Three to five times per week minimum.
Again, back in the back in the olden days, back in my day of Instagram,
a little bit really went a long way.
If you posted a really beautiful photo, you might get likes on
that baby for a week or or more.
But today the app moves really quickly and the current algorithm
also rewards consistency.
So just like on YouTube, I try to upload two or three times per week so that.
The YouTube algorithm remembers who I am, my subscribers.
I remember who I am.
The same is true for Instagram, so aiming to post any less than three to
five times per week, in my opinion, is going to be an uphill battle.
It's going to be hard to see growth.
I see it on my account.
I am not perfect on my Instagram account at the Latasha James.
I definitely don't post three to five times per week right now.
But I have an audience built up already, so that definitely helps.
But when I do post, that's when followers come in, and I don't know if it's that
they're finding me through these new posts or if just something in the algorithm
like Instagram just shakes people.
I, you know what?
I don't know how it works, but I do know that if I'm not posting, usually
my follower growth isn't really growing.
I would also, in the beginning, focus on saveable.
And shareable content.
One of the big mistakes that I see a lot of people make just with, with social
content in general, this could be for any platform, is they rush to sell.
They're like, Okay, I'm starting this Instagram account for my
business, so I need to be selling often, you know, to to, to prove
it's return on investment, basically.
And that's a noble cause I feel.
But you need to warm your audience up to you.
You need to grow an audience first and foremost.
And I don't think the Instagram algorithm likes you taking people
to click the link in your bio to go onto other sites so much.
And I don't think your audience is gonna like this brand new
Instagram account, just spamming them with the links to buy stuff.
So you really need to focus on awareness and engagement.
First, so focus on things that are saveable and shareable.
Some things that are saveable and shareable are like graphics, for example.
Now, this doesn't work for everybody, of course, but just some things that
I see in my feeds, graphics, you know, nice, like words or infographics, things
that you can slide through and kind of.
Learn, get a lesson out of just this one Instagram post.
I need to do better about infographics, but I do post quite a few of them.
On the online Business Launch Lab account.
We'll just kind of share quick how to, or maybe some of our favorite books, things
like that that just give people swipe, almost read like a little mini blog post.
Some other things, of course, are reals.
You know, reels are kind of Instagram.
Take on TikTok on that viral content trend.
So if you can make people laugh, if you can inspire people, if you can entertain
people and do that so well that they wanna share it with their friend, then you're
gonna be in a really good spot because one, that's a signal to the algorithm.
Two, that's another set of eyeballs that just got a DM with your post in it.
So those things all help grow your audience.
Now, speaking of reels, if we wanna go back to that posting frequency, three to
five times per week is what I'd recommend.
I would make sure at least two to three of those are reals, if you can.
Now, I know I'm talking ideal world, right?
If you have all the time in the world, if you have all the resources
in the world, this is what I'm, I'm talking of course, do what you can.
If that's not realistic for you, do one a week, do two a week, whatever.
But yes, Instagram is.
Heavily favoring reels in the algorithm.
They are really pushing real content, and I think just the social climate in
general is really favoring video content.
Now, I feel how I feel about this.
I don't really like short form content.
It gives me a headache.
I don't like being glued to my phone.
I think it's shortening our attention spans.
But the good thing about it, I think, is that, you know, for selling
when it comes to selling, Audiences connect better with video content
than anything else if you ask me.
And so it can be a really great way to show off your product, to talk
about, you know, your expertise.
If maybe you're a service provider or showcase other happy customers,
there's a lot that you can do that is just more compelling and more
interesting than, you know, writing a post about it or taking like a, a
picture of a, of a piece of jewelry, for example, Showing that in a real.
So much more fun and engaging.
Now when we're thinking about content as well, I would also create series
or reoccurring themes on my Instagram.
Now, I've talked about content pillars before.
These are basically just two to three main buckets of content.
Maybe it's um, you know, jewelry trends.
Seen on the runway and beauty and fashion inspiration or muse
or something like that, right?
Those are content pillars where each piece of content you post will, you
know, fit into one of those buckets.
Maybe it's a picture of a model who's a muse.
Maybe it's a, a real of an outfit.
And, um, I already forgot the other pillar that I just said, but you
get, you get how that works, right.
But even deeper, I would do actual series.
So just like on YouTube, I have the Freelance Friday podcast.
I have a week in my business.
Those are different series I would have if I'm that same jewelry
brand, maybe it's Interview with a Muse and maybe you interview a.
Influencer or model or fashiony stuff or whatever.
It could be what's new on the runway and you have sort of a commentary, a
real style green screen commentary, picking out different fashion trends
for each season or something like that.
The reason I would recommend doing this is because, again, I think
that Instagram and, and all of this schwart form video stuff, they
want us to almost think YouTube.
You know, they, they are almost wanting us to have shows on that platform.
And again, audiences respond to this really well.
Also, if they know you as that company who does the runway
commentary, they're gonna come back.
They're gonna get in that habit of looking, you know,
every time they see a new.
Fashion show, they're gonna come to your account for your commentary on it.
So as opposed to just kind of like free styling and doing a different
thing every time, it kind of gives your audience a bit of whiplash.
They don't really know what to expect.
You know, you all know on this YouTube channel, you can look forward to
this podcast every single Friday and on the podcast platforms of course.
So you kind of know what to expect, even if maybe my Monday and Wednesday
videos are a bit of a freestyle.
So I think this really helps build an engaged audience.
And I also have a hunch that Instagram likes it as well.
Now you probably have to experiment a little.
Of course, you're not gonna know exactly which series perform the
best until you kind of try a few.
But give that a whirl.
Measure your results.
See which ones are the most engaged, the most talked about,
the most shared, the most clicked.
If you're linking over to a website and then scale that, you know, maybe
have two to three shows, if you will, or series that you publish regularly.
Okay?
Now, the second big piece of growing an Instagram account
today or any day, any year.
Is engagement.
I see so many business owners post amazing content on Instagram and
get little to know engagement, clicks, followers, anything from it.
And a lot of times when I dive deeper and try to figure out what's going
wrong here, the issue is not the content, it's the fact that they are.
Engaging at all.
They are not being social on these social media platforms,
and this is a really big mistake.
It's really easy to make.
You know, content is king, as they say, or queen or whatever.
Content is, is everything.
It's a, It's not everything though.
It's a lot, but it's not everything.
So if I were starting an Instagram account today, I would first
write out a list of Target.
Hashtags ideal clients.
I would really try to understand who I wanna reach on Instagram.
If I'm this jewelry company again, am I trying to reach fashion stylists?
Am I trying to reach the consumer?
You know, is this a consumer product?
Is this more for stylists?
Is this like, I don't.
No, maybe like, um, you're trying to reach boutiques or something
like that to sell wholesale.
I don't know.
I don't really know how the industry works.
I'm just making this up, but figure out which one of those categories
you most wanna reach out to.
Now, of course you might wanna reach out to several, so you could do this
a few times and have a few different.
Uh, engagement sessions per day one where you reach out to target
customers, one where you reach out to stylists, things like that.
But write out a list of your archetypes of your ideal clients, who you're trying
to reach with your Instagram, and then try to find like influencers in that space.
Maybe for the consumer, it's fashion bloggers or fashion Instagrammers,
or talkers, you know, stylists.
You can find some celebrity stylists, some well known stylists.
You can find, of course, some high end boutiques.
Uh, wholesalers, buyers for those boutiques, et cetera.
Figure out who those accounts are and then also take a look at the hashtags
that they're using on their posts or just any similar brand to yours is using.
Go through these hashtags, Audit them, see how well they tend to do,
see what the quality tends to be.
You know, is there like a lot of spam and a lot of junk in there?
Or is it usually pretty good stuff?
And then take those lists and every single day, spend 30 minutes
a day going through and engaging with some of those influencers.
Maybe you're sharing some of their post your stories saying, Oh my gosh, great job
styling this outfit stylist, Latasha, you know, Loved that inspiration of the week.
Maybe you are just commenting on these different boutiques accounts.
Oh my gosh, love this display.
This is so cute.
Love that jacket.
You know, you're not doing it in a spammy way where you are like, buy our
necklace, carry our line, and yours.
Store, but you are just becoming top of mind for these influential accounts.
And of course the goal is that you kind of make friends, make Instagram
friends, if you will with them.
They follow you back, they investigate, they see the link in your bio, they
see what you're selling and they buy it or they reach out or they do
whatever it is that you need to do.
So, Meaningful interactions is key here.
This is not heart.
I emoji.
This is not spamming.
This is not using automation tools.
Listen, I'm sure there are some out there that are legit in that work,
but I haven't really found any.
This is a manual game and I think even, even spammy stuff aside, I think that
having it be a manual game is important.
If you wanna build those real.
Manual, I guess connections, you know, authentic connections don't come from a
bot, They come from you and your actual feelings, emotions, and interactions.
And then lastly, I think we focus a lot on content.
Like I already mentioned specifically reels.
We're like, All right, we gotta do reels, We've gotta do reels.
But we don't wanna forget about stories.
Stories are a really easy, quick way to connect with your audience.
It doesn't take a lot of resources to hop on camera, selfie style and just
say, Hey, I'm in the warehouse today.
I wanted to show you a couple.
Like new receipts before we put them onto the website.
I mean, something as simple as that.
Can one give people kind of like a reason to follow your stories?
Cuz maybe they're getting a behind the scenes, they're getting a first look.
They're seeing how the sausage is made, if you will.
But it's also a great place to get, uh, customer feedback, do market research.
I use my stories all the time to create polls.
I ask you all questions.
What do you wanna see next?
What videos do you wanna see?
What type of courses should I develop next?
Uh, what problems are you having in your business so I can try
to help you figure them out?
I ask questions all the time.
I'm probably annoying to my audience, , but it's really
fun and it really does help me.
Of course, it's not super scientific, it's not like a controlled group or
anything, but it does at least give me an idea of the people who are
watching my stories, which tend to be.
People who are the most engaged and the most likely to purchase my products.
So use stories every day.
I think it's just such a great way to connect with your audience.
And again, you know, if you can't make that three to five time, uh, posto
up per week, at least if you're doing a daily story, it's still telling
Instagram, I'm alive and well, I am here.
I'm trying to engage with people, I wanna have conversations.
And your account is not just like completely dead.
So it's really easy to.
At minimum, you can share those reels that you create every week
or share your post into your story.
Or again, like I said, use this as a part of your engagement strategy.
Share a stylist as your, you know, muse of the week or whatever equivalent
that's gonna be for your business.
Share a fun quote or, you know, a fun in infographic from another account that's
not a competitor, but maybe that's in a parallel industry, for example, you know,
Talk to a lot of social media managers.
That's not all that I talk to, but you know, that's most of my expertise.
So I might share graphic design tips because social media managers have
to know a little bit about that.
I might share email marketing tips into my story, things like that, that are
going to not necessarily be competitors of me, but that are just gonna be
supplemental information that maybe I can't necessarily give my audience myself.
Okay, so let me know how Instagram is going for you.
Are you struggling?
Is it hard for you to grow right now?
Are you in a season where maybe things are starting to look up?
I would love to hear a little bit about your experiences.
If you're watching on YouTube, please use the comment section and let me know.
How it's going for you.
Also just say, Hey, I love hearing from you.
If there's any content you wanna see on the podcast in the future, feel
free to drop that down there as well.
And if you're on the podcast platforms, if you wouldn't mind leaving me a rating
and review, I wanna say thank you to this one for leaving me a lovely review.
It means a lot.
And I think that's it for today's episode.
Shorten Sweet.
I hope it was helpful, and I'll talk to you in the next one.
Bye.