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In today's video, I want to run through a hypothetical scenario and that scenario is
what I would do if I only had 100 followers on Instagram.
I know many of you who follow me here on YouTube, you're interested in getting laser-focused
advice on what you can do to either get more sales, get more leads using Instagram, or
to grow and get more exposure for your account, whichever goal that you have.
I have a feeling that this video is going to be really helpful to you because I'm basically
going to zone in on the things that are truly important in terms of growing an account,
especially if you have a small following and a small audience.
So if you're interested in that, then this video is perfect for you and I highly recommend
that you watch until the very end.
Now, before we dive into the video, if you're familiar with this channel, we always do community
shout outs, so let's dive right into those.
Massive congratulations to this week's YouTube channel and Instagram profile of the week.
Thank you for supporting this channel.
Now, if you're interested in being featured too, all you have to do is take a picture
of this video and post it to your Instagram stories.
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Anyways guys, let's get right back into the video.
All right, welcome back.
So the first thing that I would zone in on if I only had a 100 followers and I was trying
to get more exposure or get more leads to my business is really clean up my Instagram
bio.
Think of your Instagram bio as the equivalent of the sign on your door.
It's really what's going to tell someone why they should follow you, what they should expect
from your account and who you are as a person and how you help.
And specifically within the Instagram bio, I would make sure that it's clear to people
of who this account is really for who I exactly help, how I help.
So what type of solution do I offer or what type of problem I solve at minimum.
Now, if you're someone who maybe doesn't have a business, maybe something to consider is
at least putting your content pillars in there.
So let's say it's a fashion account.
Make sure that it's clear to people that it is a fashion account.
Think of it as when you follow your own favorite influencers or your own favorite accounts,
you're generally following them for a particular reason.
And if someone's stumbling on your account for the very first time, they don't have time
to scroll through all of your content, look through your stories and know your whole life
story.
What they can do is just look at your Instagram bio and get an immediate sense of what you
do, who you help, what they can expect from your account, and why they should follow you.
So I would just make sure that my Instagram bio is clear enough for people to see that.
Now if you need more help with your Instagram bio, I do have a video right here that breaks
it down way more in depth.
So definitely check this out if you want more Instagram bio advice.
Now.
Another thing that I also want to mention is don't get so caught up in this, by the
way, now I am putting this as my first tip because I do think it's important, but it's
not important for you to perfect it.
Okay.
The big mistake that I see a lot of people making is that they're constantly spending
way too much time on their Instagram bio and they think that their Instagram bio is going
to make or break their entire Instagram account.
That's not the case.
The Instagram bio can help someone get a little bit more clear in terms of what you do, what
you offer and how you help, but don't forget that there's so many other things that allow
someone to get to know you better, like your content, how you show up in your stories,
how you DM people, your energy.
There's so many things and remember that you can always change your Instagram bio.
I'll show you an example of an Instagram bio that I had a year ago and it looks like nothing
like what I have today and even the Instagram buyer that I had two months ago looks nothing
like the Instagram bio that I have today.
I'm constantly changing my own Instagram bio, so don't spend too much time on this, but
just remember that at least being clear to someone on what you do, who you help and what
you offer is going to at least compel them to want to DM you to want to follow your account
and so they can manage their expectations of what they can expect when they do consume
your content.
All right, so once I've cleaned up my Instagram bio and it's clear to other people about what
I do, what they can expect from my account and everything like that, the next thing that
I would consider doing is I would actually choose a more searchable platform to be on.
Now I love Instagram to bits.
I think it's one of the best ways to close clients and get more sales into your business.
However, the one pitfall of Instagram is that it's not the most SEO friendly, and I'll give
you an example.
If someone is on Instagram and they're searching for how to get 10 K followers on Instagram
in the search bar, your content is not going to show up.
Your caption, your ITVS, your videos, it's not really going to show up in your profile
will not show up either.
And that's why I believe that even though there are so many awesome things and awesome
hacks that you can do like hashtag optimization which does work and also optimizing your Instagram
name so that when someone's searching for that, you'll at least show up in search compared
to other platforms like YouTube, podcast, blogging, even Facebook groups.
Instagram itself just isn't the most search friendly versus a lot of you guys have found
my Instagram account thanks to YouTube and when you're searching for your problems or
solutions to your problems, for example, how to grow your Instagram account.
If you only have a hundred followers, you'll find this video and therefore you'll click
on the description or you'll figure out, you know, more information about me.
And then you'll find my Instagram, and so that's a really key reason of how I've been
able to grow really fast on Instagram is simply because I've been on other platforms that
are a lot more search friendly.
Not only am I on YouTube, I'm also on podcasts.
People can find me that way if they're searching for a particular topic.
I'm also on blog posts, so when I write my blog posts, that's going to show up on Google
and then that's also going to show up on Pinterest because we've also added Pinterest pins to
it.
Now, you don't have to go the whole nine yards to do this, but I would just recommend that
if I was in your position and I wanted to quickly grow my Instagram account, I would
start maybe a TechTalk account or a Facebook group or a YouTube channel or a podcast or
a blog, and that would be how I would get more traffic going to my Instagram and accelerate
my efforts that way.
Because remember, it's something that I love to say is that oftentimes it does take a platform
to grow another.
It took my Instagram account to get my initial exposure on my YouTube and eventually it was
my YouTube account that started growing my Instagram.
And then what grew my podcast was both my YouTube and my Instagram and all of that.
And so I've really over time built this social media ecosystem.
And if you were just starting, you don't need to build an ecosystem like I said, but you
do have to start somewhere and I highly recommend either doing YouTube podcasts, starting your
own Facebook groups so it shows up in search or whatever it takes to really get more exposure
to your Instagram account.
Now moving on to the third action item that I would take, and this is very unique to those
of you who want to start service based businesses or coaching businesses or anything like that.
And that is I would want to build my authority and in order to build my authority, especially
if I'm just starting out and I'm starting from scratch, I would actually work with beta
clients and what beta clients are.
They're basically clients that you worked for free in exchange for testimonials and
social proof.
And also feedback on your services and this is exactly how I started.
A year and a half ago I was working with a handful of free clients or discounted clients
because I knew that I didn't have a lot of experience and I wanted to create a safe space
for me to actually experiment my strategies on Guinea pigs and they would give me their
testimonials and share their experience with other people and it was awesome.
It allowed me to really build that social proof and build that authority on Instagram
and even outside of Instagram and it became an awesome foundation for my business.
Eventually after working with beta clients, I transitioned to working with painful clients
and then I started to increase my prices as I got more experienced.
And so if you are someone who is interested in starting your own coaching business just
like I did and you want things, tire roadmap on how you go from zero clients to beta clients
to paid clients and all of that, I do have a free master class that I am running.
It's in the comment section and also in the description box below if you want it to sign
up for it.
We've seen a lot of our own students get massive success using our method and so definitely
check that out if this is something that you are interested in.
But beyond that point, I do believe that if you are wanting to get more leads into your
business and everything like that, it is very important that you do build that authority.
And the number one way to do it is testimonials and social proof.
And so if you don't have that yet, definitely consider having it because that is what I
would do if I only had a hundred followers and I wanted to grow my business.
Now obviously you might be wondering, okay, so if I do work with clients, what is the
point?
How do I build that authority?
Well, it's really simple for me.
When I was at that stage, all I did was work with these clients one on one, get a massive
feedback, but also on the flip side, I was documenting that journey on my Instagram.
I was sharing the wins that my clients were getting and so when my followers saw that,
they would then DM me and ask me, how can I work with you or tell me more about your
services?
And that was a really great way to get more leads into my business and build authority
at the same time.
Now moving on to the four things.
Speaking of DMS and direct message, the fourth thing that I would do if I did have only 100
followers is I literally treat my direct messages as gold.
I would treat my dams the same way that I would treat my customer support.
I would show extra love to anyone who messages me in the DNA.
And this again is exactly what I did a year and a half ago.
Now obviously it's a lot harder for me to do now because my DNS be crazy.
And for those of you who have tried to DME, you probably get the feel of that.
But if you do have a small audience, the powerful thing that you have is capacity to literally
answer every single one of your DMS.
Send voice notes, send video notes, this is what I used to do all the time.
And it was really that wow factor and it actually helped me convert a lot of clients that way
as well.
And so if I'm starting small and for as long as you can hold the capacity to actually treat
every single person as if they were in the same room as you within the DMS, I would continue
doing that.
DMS is one of the best ways to make sales build rapport and grow a loyal following.
And so even for me, even if I had people messaging me saying, Hey, I really like your content,
I will literally send them a voice note and say, Hey, thank you so much for saying that.
That totally made my day.
Tell me like what you want to see more of my content.
I would love to know and I would love to get your feedback.
And so by really having these one on one conversations, it allows me to build rapport.
And what I ended up seeing is that these people were so wowed by it that they would share
that interaction on their stories and tag me and that allowed me to get even more traffic
and get more followers because people were so amazed by the community even though it's
small, the tight knit community that I had built.
So I definitely would recommend, especially if you have a small following and a small
audience and you still have capacities to do it, to really treat your DMS no different
than your customer service.
Now moving on to the fifth thing that I would focus on if I only had 100 followers and I
was trying to grow my account and get more leads and get more sales into my business
is to create shareable content.
I think I talked a lot about it in this video right here and also I believe in this video
right here as well.
But basically I'm all about shareable content and if you look at my Instagram account, even
now, a lot of my content is basically made so that people will share it.
And the powerful thing when you create shareable content is you get, well, at least from what
I found, I get way more, saves, way more shares and I actually find that more people that
share it, their audience members on their account will see it on their Instagram story,
click on my profile and potentially follow me as well.
I've seen my profile visits increased by over 10,000 more visits than I usually get, which
is insane.
And I've also seen my account even though the likes and the comments are a little bit
less than what I'm used to, I'm getting way more saves, way more shares and I would rather
have more shares than more likes because more shares basically means that I'm getting more
traffic.
And for me it traffic is one of the most important KPIs for my business.
And so that is why creating shareable content is so helpful, especially if you have a small
account.
But even if you have a big account, it's really helpful as well.
Now you might be wondering what is shareable content and what does it look like, why is
it different and everything like that.
And so the main premise of it is that when you post a photo of yourself like this, yes,
it could get likes.
Yes, it could get comments.
But the thing is is that people are less compelled to share a photo of you to their own audience
versus if you create content like this, which is a little bit more share friendly, then
people are going to be more compelled to share this piece of content on their stories and
that's going to allow you to get more traffic.
And so that's why shareable content has more capacity to go viral than a photo of yourself.
So that is basically the TLDR of why shareable content works and the strategy behind it.
Now moving on to the next tip or the next action item that I would do.
So at this point we've cleaned up your bio or I've cleaned up my bio.
I have chosen a more searchable platform to really accelerate my growth on Instagram.
I've decided to work with beta clients to build my authority and show that I know what
I'm talking about and I can get people results.
I'm also treating my DNS the same way as I would treat my customer support and really
loving my community hard and building that small but tight knit community and I've also
begun to go on Canva and create these shareable content pieces that I can share with my community.
The next thing that I would do now is I would try to post consistently, I would post at
least two to three times a week, at least from the beginning.
And the reason why I say this is because when you are just starting out and you're trying
to build authority and you're trying to grow a following is people like consistency.
People want to know that they can rely on your account and that they know that every
week you're going to create content.
Otherwise it's going to increase the chances of them just leaving.
What's the point of following you if you're not even active?
Right, and so it's the equivalent of if I stop posting videos, you'd be like, okay,
so no videos this week.
Okay, I guess I'll just unsubscribe.
I'm not really sure what's happening with this account now for me, because I've been
on YouTube for awhile for like a year and a half, you guys have built that trust with
me, so when I do miss out on upload, you guys kind of know that maybe I had a bad week or
maybe I just missed an upload.
But for a lot of people who were just starting out and don't have that community yet and
don't have that trust built yet, your audience may be a little bit less forgiving and that's
why it's important that you stay consistent, whether it's on your Instagram stories or
on your feed posts.
Now, an interesting thing that I found is that the more times that I've posted a week,
so I used to never really post that much on my feed.
Maybe like once every two weeks or once a week or once a month, maybe even or once every
two months.
I used to do that on my Instagram account.
I noticed that my traffic was decent, but the moment that I started posting more regularly,
whether that's twice a week or three times a week max, I noticed that my traffic has
also exploded as well as you can see and so that's why I do believe there is strength
in being consistent, but I also want to make sure that you are managing your time wisely,
even if it's once a week that you can maintain that's already good.
The most important thing is being consistent.
It has less to do about frequency, but it has more to do about consistency and so especially
if you are just starting out and you're really trying to make your name out there on the
Instagram world, I would highly recommend that you stay consistent and what I recommend
is at least once a week is already pretty good, but if you can get to two to three times
a week, that's also really great as well.
Personally for me, I don't post more than three times a week.
I think that it's important to not bombard your audience all the time and also the more
times that you post, it's going to be harder for you to really catch up on your content
planning and everything like that.
And so that's why I find that one to two is already a sweet spot and three for me is already
kind of a stretch, but that's just my advice to you is to really, really try to stay consistent,
especially if you are starting now.
Once I've developed that consistency within my Instagram account, the next thing that
I would do is I would make sure that I collaborate with other people.
That's in a similar niche as me.
I think there's so much power in building genuine relationships in the Instagram and
social media and business and entrepreneurial community and I feel like especially if you
have a very small audience, collaborations can get you really far.
Now, obviously you're not just collaborating for the sake of growing, but you're really
collaborating to genuinely form connections and through collaboration you're able to share
audiences.
Let's say if you decided to collaborate with me, let's say just as a random example, then
you would get exposed to my audience and my audience would get exposed to your audience.
And that's how a lot of people are able to grow.
Not only this beyond just collaboration.
I would also make an effort to really surround myself with content that's similar to mine.
So for example, I would actually like posts from people that do similar things to me and
engage with that.
I would also make sure that Instagram is really clear on what type of account I have.
And that kind of goes back to my first action item, which is basically to make sure my bio
is super clear, but also that my content is really consistent in terms of the type of
content that I produce.
So for example, if I'm always posting about business entrepreneurship, you know, coaching
social media.
So then one day all of a sudden I start posting about cats and dogs and I start posting about,
I don't know, robots and photography and everything like that.
The Instagram algorithm is now going to get a little bit confused as to what category
I fit in and so remaining consistent is going to be really key and the reason for this is
if Instagram is super clear on what category that you're in, then if someone is looking
for another account that's very similar to yours and they click on other accounts that
they should follow, it might increase the chances of you showing up as recommended.
And so that's why collaboration's really surrounding yourself with content that's very similar
to yours and making it super clear within your own content strategy of what category
you belong in, what niche you're in.
It's going to make it even more clear to Instagram of where to slot you and how to recommend
you within the Instagram platform.
Now at this point in the video, I shared with you these seven focus points that I would
do if I only had 100 followers on Instagram.
These are the exact steps that I would do if I want it to grow.
And also if I wanted to just get more leads into my business and set up that quick foundation.
Now if you are waiting for next week's video, don't worry.
I also have these two videos that I have right here.
In the meantime, I talk a lot about social media marketing, entrepreneurship and online
coaching.
So definitely check out these two videos that I have right here as well.
Also, something that I want to say.
If you don't know already, we recently launched a podcast not too long ago, so definitely
check out the target followers into clients podcast.
If you're looking for more advanced business strategies and just a more no filter conversation
about business and online coaching and everything like that.
But anyways, guys, thank you so much for watching today's video.
I hope that you guys have a great day, a great week, and a great life and I will see you
in the next video.
Bye guys.