- Today, we have four strategies
to grow your Instagram following,
here on "The Journey."
- Alright, so you're on Instagram,
you probably got a great cadence going already
with how often you're posting,
but you're definitely thinking,
"How do I get more followers," right?
I know I was asked that actually just recently
when I was doing a seminar in Orlando.
And it's a good thing to think about,
because the more followers, the more likes.
- Right. - The more likes,
spread more word of mouth.
- Yeah, the more conversions to your website,
the more you grow,
all these fun things, right?
- Yeah, but, as I always get asked,
"Well, what are best practices
to get more followers on Instagram?"
So we're going to break it down
into four ways to gain more followers,
starting with: Don't skip over that bio!
Make an awesome bio about your business.
I know I have a favorite one.
There was-- - What is that?
- There was this pub in L.A. when I lived there,
and they did this really bold move.
They decided to go 100% vegan.
- Interesting for a pub.
- Yeah, and in their bio, it says,
"Oh kale yeah! - (laughs)
- We're plant based."
So to get right to it - [Nealey] Love a good pun
- [Emma] (laughs)
Oh Kale yeah!
We should get shirts, that say,
- That's all you. - Would you wear it?
- No - Just me?
- Just you. - Just me.
All right, anyway, so like it's their announcement
that "hey we're plant based now."
It's also funny which is their voice,
their sense of humor.
And then from there they like have added links for example,
if they wanna direct you to their website,
or anything that they're promoting that month.
So when it comes to your bio,
that was just one example "Oh Kale yeah we're plant based"
but I also recommend, if you've been in business
for a long time, whenever you opened up,
add that, that's always a big one for me,
especially when I'm checking out like a auto repair shop,
I wanna know, they're not just like the new shop in town.
It makes me feel like I can trust them more,
if they've been around a while.
So I'd also incorporate anything that really
demonstrates your personality or your vibe,
so if you're a restaurant and you're known
for fine dining, like let people know that,
so you get the right audience versus
if you're super like divey, hipster, vegan, crunchy place.
- Exactly right. - I'll be there.
- Yep, she'll be there.
- (laughs)
- I might try it.
But with your bio, you really wanna be strategic
about what put out there,
basically put how you actually help your followers
and what they're going to get out of it.
The more that you describe what's in it for them,
they're gonna read that and go oh cool that's me
like I wanna talk about or see vegan pubs
or I wanna have help with real estate
or I wanna have help with whatever.
Put "helping you do blah" whatever that is,
add that in there.
And what a cool little trick is,
so in Instagram bio, you can't really do those line breaks,
it will make it just one giant paragraph,
but instead, open up notes, like on your phone
add your bios there, add your line breaks,
your emojis, whatever you wanna do,
and then copy pasta that over
and then it's like all nice and organized,
it's little sentences versus one giant paragraph.
- Yeah, absolutely and one thing I would also include,
you mentioned real estate and then I started thinking
about home services and then I started thinking bout
where your service area might be, or areas.
So if you only service certain cities,
you know spell that out for your customers as well.
So at a glance I know, hey it's worth picking up the phone
and calling you, to do business with you
as a potential customer or not.
- All right now, with including the bio
is the link that Instagram gives us,
it's the only place where we can link to another source.
What are some things that we should basically
link to there?
- Yeah, so there's a lot of options,
I know I actually did this recently for The Journey
I added the YouTube link for all of our videos.
- Yeah I saw that, you basically posted about it and said,
"Hey check out the link in the bio".
- Yeah, yeah!
- And then went right to the video.
- Did you click on it?
- I might have. - (laughs)
- Seven times.
- So if you wanted to direct people to a YouTube channel
that you're doing or other social media platforms
that you're on,
or maybe you're offering a really exciting discount
or a special giveaway, and then you direct them to there.
And you can do this in your Instagram stories,
"Hey, link in bio"
or on your Instagram post
"oh check out the link in our bio".
So that's a great, I see that a lot,
especially for giveaways or 10% off, really cool shirt.
- Yeah I dig it.
And then I think last thing with the bio
is the, basically display name,
what a lot of businesses will do
they'll just put their business name there
but if it's not super apparent about what your business is,
maybe that won't resonate with your audience,
but you can add your business name,
and then that line and then basically put the
services that you offer.
Whether it's real estate investing or vegan pubs
or whatever that looks like.
So when someone's going through,
searching the feed, they can see your business name
then cool, that industry might entice them
to wanna jump in explore your page a bit more.
- All right, so that takes us to number two.
Infuse your Instagram with personality.
♪ Ahhhh ♪
- What does that actually mean?
- (laughs)
- Other than your award winning personality?
- ♪ Yes ♪
So that means think about what content you're doing
what you're putting out there.
Don't try too hard,
it's gonna come off that you're trying too hard.
Be authentic, be real and plan ahead
'cause that's one thing I notice too,
is that when content is just being rushed
personality's left out completely.
So just take the time, think "what is really me?
"What is my voice?
"What is my business about?
"Do I have a good sense of humor?"
- Yeah and for the most part
people follow your Instagram page,
not only just for the services you offer
but they follow it for you right?
So the more that you share you
and just share your day to day,
your struggles, your wins, your opportunities
and going on there post about you,
the more that you'll really relate to them
and connect with that audience,
the more willing that they're gonna be
to just follow you and your presence.
- Yeah, as soon as you come off just sounding like
a business or predictable or a robot
you're going to get less engagement.
And why would I follow you?
I'll probably unfollow you if you become too salesy
or sound too much like a business.
And I know that can seem confusing right?
'Cause you're like "I am a business".
- Right.
"I wanna sell my services." - I'm (laughs)
"I wanna make money, like I'm on there to get more business"
So yes I hear you, but consumers,
especially millennials,
we wanna see a personality.
So authenticity for the win.
And speaking of millennials,
I read an interesting stat the other day
it said, "millennials prefer user generated content"
so be sure to incorporate that on your Instagram.
It's like the mecca for user generated content.
Which if you don't know what that is,
it's essentially content that
other people have created for you, about you,
like your customers taking pictures of their pizza,
and then mentioning you.
You can repurpose that into your own post.
And there was also another stat that said,
85% of people when they see user generated content
they actually, visual user generated content,
they actually trust it more
than business, what they're saying about themselves
or brands or colleagues or your family.
So strangers are pretty powerful.
- Yeah.
And there's many ways to really create
that user generated content.
We've got a video for you to check out up there.
But what quick things you can do,
run a contest, create just a personalized hashtag
with your business and tell everyone to hashtag it
and then you can go search those hashtags
and then all that user generated content is there.
Reach out to them say "hey, you mind if I post this?"
get their permission just in case.
And then add that content to your own feed,
create that user generated content,
get people to really like you and buy into your business
and you win and you grow your following.
- Another awesome way to infuse personality
in your Instagram,
it's actually really quite simple,
ask questions.
- Like what?
- So I saw. - That was a question.
- That was, oh that was good. (laughs)
It's working. - It's working
(both laughing)
- So I saw this hotel and they did a post
on Instagram and it said
"I feel" I don't, it was like "I feel most at home
when I have blank".
So the hotel asking that question was just
a really cool way to not only get their audience engaged,
'cause people love to talk about themselves.
- Right.
- But they also then shared what makes them feel
most at home, it was like,
"curled up with a book, cozy with some hot tea".
- Yeah and another added benefit with that is
now they're getting basically survey data
of their audience, what makes them feel at home
they collect the-- - Oh my gosh.
- Kind of the best examples,
make sure they include that in their hotel too.
- I didn't even think, that's so true.
- Yeah.
- 'Cause what if someones like,
really enjoys cucumber water.
- Yeah, they can-- - Put that in your lobby.
- Makes them feel at home.
- So another really simple and effective way
to infuse personality on your Instagram,
besides asking questions and user generated content,
showcase your team.
I mean what a great way to like be authentic
and show who's behind the scenes you know?
Do some BTS, how is that recipe coming together,
who's underneath the hood of the car
when I get my oil changed?
Like who makes this business?
Plus, when you see a familiar face
at some of your favorite local businesses as a customer,
sometimes that's all I need,
is just like a little incentive to go back and visit you.
- Yeah, absolutely and I know that we do this a lot
at GoDaddy.
Our guides are the face of our brand,
and you can basically do it the same with your employees
like they're the face of your brand,
they're representing your business everyday.
So show them off, show, tell their story,
let the people connect with them.
And it should help them just resonate with your audience
and build that loyalty.
- All right so the third way that we wanna talk about
actually getting more followers on Instagram,
we've kinda touched on it but hashtags.
Other popular hashtags, like just industry wise,
think about it, and you can google this.
You know what industry you're in,
let's say you're in retail,
"popular hashtags to use if you're in retail".
You google it right now.
And one that I love to see, especially for some inspo,
some fashion inspo, hashtag OOTD.
You know what that stands for?
- Outfit of the day?
- That's right, Nealey pays attention to what he wears.
- I'm hip with the lingo. - He's hip.
And hip with the clothes.
So retail you'll see that a lot, OOTD.
And a lot of people love to use it to just
get, like I said, inspiration for their fashion.
And it's gonna help you to get in front of new customers,
more followers, which is what this video is all about.
But don't stop there, don't stop with just industry
specific hashtags
or branded.
You can also do neighborhood,
or local hashtags.
- Okay. - Yeah.
- So like for in Seattle, like hashtag Seattle coffee
for example to. - Yes.
- Really bring around Seattle coffee?
- Yeah, that would be a great spot, you know?
Branch out, outside of Starbucks,
find a local business to go to,
where we could get a cup of coffee
before we come in and shoot "The Journey".
- And with these hashtags too,
it's not necessarily just for you to post about,
really join in on the conversation
of other people that you see talking about these hashtags.
What I'd recommend. - Yes.
- Spend like ten or 15 minutes a night
search a couple hashtags and just start adding
conversation to other peoples posts
and adding value.
Don't just put generic comments
'cause nobody is gonna care about that,
people are just gonna think you're spam,
but if you actually go in and add value,
continue on the conversation, maybe ask questions,
it's really gonna help you connect with a larger audience
and show that you're an actual person
not just a faceless business.
All right Emma, did you know that 70% of people on Instagram
watch Instagram stories on a daily basis?
- No but I'm not surprised.
I definitely spend way more time on Instagram stories
than just like scrolling through my Insta news feed.
_ I feel the same way. - I know!
- I just go into the stories. - I love it.
- It's authentic and it shows personality.
- Yes.
Which tees up our fourth way to get more followers.
Incorporate fan content, like user generated.
- Okay.
- Into your Instagram stories.
- So instead of like reposting it,
reposting it, basically posting on to your story?
- Yeah, so for example,
I was, I recently got a new surfboard,
it's my baby, I love it, can't wait to go home and surf.
I recently got this new surfboard
and I was curious about the brand
and the brand is modern surfboards
and I checked out their Instagram
and what really sold me was their Instagram stories.
And they are doing an awesome job
of repurposing their fans content.
And so this was a really cool way to see
people like me, potential customer,
well for them it was already a customer,
and their out there like getting pitted
and showing off their board.
So I got inspo for like, what board I wanted to get,
I also just like increased my hype to go catch some waves,
but it's really cool to see their fans
and where they're surfing,
and what boards their intrigued by.
And it got me really excited.
And the good news is, like we mentioned earlier,
Instagram is the mecca of fan content.
But it is your responsibility to be paying attention
to when people are mentioning you,
like you were talking about earlier.
- Yeah, you'll get a notification.
And you can go one step further,
not only reposting their posts,
you can repost their stories.
Now the only way to do this is if they mention you
in their story.
So encourage your fans, your followers
to mention you in their story when they talk about you
that way you can repost it on your own channel.
'Cause they don't do it, you won't be able to do it.
- And it makes it really easy too.
Like Nealey is great about this
when we're doing "The Journey"
shoot and he'll mention me and then it just pops up
in my inbox on Instagram and then I'm like,
"oh Nealey mentioned me, well do I--"
- Get a little "Add this to your story".
- What did, what did he capture?
- What did I do?
- First let me check it,
oh this is cool
and then I can just click "add this to my story".
- Super quick, add a little gif, add some conversation,
say "hey thanks for the shout out"
or whatever you wanna do.
Make it personal, don't just click the mention in my story,
add your little 2 cents to it.
It'll really, basically like, resonate with that person.
And now they think they're a little Insta-famous too.
- All right, that's a wrap.
You just learned four ways
to getting more Instagram followers.
Be sure to like, comment and subscribe.
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This is "The Journey", see you next time.