Can I let you in on a secret? I hate social media. Truly, I don't like being on instagram, I don't like posting or following trends, any of it! But I still do it & I’ve learned to not only do it well but to do it efficiently. Because my business depends on it.
So if you're like me & dread growing a social media presence but know its a necessary evil OR you’re simply just interested in learning HOW to grow an authentic audience on instagram.. Keep watching because I am going to share all the tricks I've learned over the last 4 years of growing my own audience authentically.
First you're going to want to make sure you have your profile page setup in a clear, organised & visually appealing way. If you don't know how to do this, go check out our last video ___ to learn how.
So let's start with the most important aspect of growing your instagram page- posting content! Because really, that is what the platform is all about! It is shocking the amount of business profiles I come across that post once a month or less. Trust me, I feel you, it's tough to find the motivation but it is so incredibly important if you not only want to grow but also if you want to sell whatever service or product you're offering.
So STAY CONSISTENT with your posting. I aim for once a day but I’m not perfect. If I post 4-5 times a week I am happy with myself. Now that being said, I've been working on this for 4 years and I've gotten a little too lax. When I was in my grind/ heavy growth period I would post every day religiously.
You also don't want to post too much. I know, the instagram algorithm is such a fickle bitch but it's her world we are just living in it & we have to play by the rules! So if you post too much your account could be flagged as a spam account.
Next, utilise your stories! You can do so many things in your stories- like sharing parts of your personal life, as a business it's great to show the person behind the scenes, people love to support other humans they feel connected to.
You can share behind the scenes stuff about your business, for example I show BTS videos from photoshoots, unedited photos while I’m editing a set- show your process!
You can even play games on your stories like this or that polls, voting games, meme games, etc. This will help with the engagement with your audience & people love to be entertained.
I also highly recommend talking on your stories & showing your face. This will take practice (unless you’re a natural then I am envious of you). Talking on your stories really allows people to get to know you as a real human & they feel more connected like I mentioned earlier. I have many clients that come into my sessions saying things like “i feel like I know you already!”, “I feel like I'm meeting a celebrity!”, or just “I can't believe I’m finally here, I’ve been following you for so long”. For some people it takes that personal connection to pull the trigger on booking.
Now let's talk about how you actually gain follower
So if you're like me & dread growing a social media presence but know its a necessary evil OR you’re simply just interested in learning HOW to grow an authentic audience on instagram.. Keep watching because I am going to share all the tricks I've learned over the last 4 years of growing my own audience authentically.
First you're going to want to make sure you have your profile page setup in a clear, organised & visually appealing way. If you don't know how to do this, go check out our last video ___ to learn how.
So let's start with the most important aspect of growing your instagram page- posting content! Because really, that is what the platform is all about! It is shocking the amount of business profiles I come across that post once a month or less. Trust me, I feel you, it's tough to find the motivation but it is so incredibly important if you not only want to grow but also if you want to sell whatever service or product you're offering.
So STAY CONSISTENT with your posting. I aim for once a day but I’m not perfect. If I post 4-5 times a week I am happy with myself. Now that being said, I've been working on this for 4 years and I've gotten a little too lax. When I was in my grind/ heavy growth period I would post every day religiously.
You also don't want to post too much. I know, the instagram algorithm is such a fickle bitch but it's her world we are just living in it & we have to play by the rules! So if you post too much your account could be flagged as a spam account.
Next, utilise your stories! You can do so many things in your stories- like sharing parts of your personal life, as a business it's great to show the person behind the scenes, people love to support other humans they feel connected to.
You can share behind the scenes stuff about your business, for example I show BTS videos from photoshoots, unedited photos while I’m editing a set- show your process!
You can even play games on your stories like this or that polls, voting games, meme games, etc. This will help with the engagement with your audience & people love to be entertained.
I also highly recommend talking on your stories & showing your face. This will take practice (unless you’re a natural then I am envious of you). Talking on your stories really allows people to get to know you as a real human & they feel more connected like I mentioned earlier. I have many clients that come into my sessions saying things like “i feel like I know you already!”, “I feel like I'm meeting a celebrity!”, or just “I can't believe I’m finally here, I’ve been following you for so long”. For some people it takes that personal connection to pull the trigger on booking.
Now let's talk about how you actually gain follower
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NewsTranscript
00:00Can I let you in on a secret? I hate social media. Truly. I don't like being on
00:05Instagram. I don't like posting. I don't like following trends. Any of it. But I
00:09still do it. And I've learned to not only do it well, but to do it efficiently.
00:14Because my business depends on it. So if you're like me and you dread growing a
00:19social media presence but know it's a necessary evil, or you were just
00:23interested in learning how to grow an authentic audience on Instagram, keep
00:27watching because I'm going to share all the tricks I've learned over the last
00:30four years of growing my own audience authentically. First, you're going to want
00:34to make sure you have your page set up in a clear, organized, and visually
00:38appealing way. If you don't know how to do that, go check out our last video. I go
00:41into detail on how to do all of those steps. So let's start with the most
00:45important aspect of growing your Instagram page. Posting content. Because
00:49really that is what this whole platform is about. It is shocking the amount of
00:53business profiles that I come across in the daily basis that are posting once a
00:58month. Trust me, I feel you. It is tough to find the motivation, but it is so
01:02incredibly important. Not only to grow your Instagram page, but also if you're
01:07wanting to sell whatever service or product you're offering. So stay
01:10consistent with your posting. I aim for every day, but I'm not perfect. If I get
01:16four to five posts out a week, I'm happy with myself. Now that being said, I've
01:20been working on this page for four years now, so I've gotten a little bit
01:23too lax with my posting schedule. When I was in my grind, heavy growth period, I
01:28was posting every single day religiously. Sometimes multiple times a day. That
01:32being said, you also don't want to post too much. I know, the Instagram algorithm
01:37can be a fickle biatch, but it is her world and we are just living in it, so we
01:42have to play by the rules. And posting too much could get your account flagged
01:46as a spam account, which is what we want to avoid at all costs. What I mean by
01:50posting too much is posting three or four times a day, posting the same
01:55content over and over again. So a great example of this is I thought I was being
01:59really great with my social media strategy one time and I was posting a
02:03post of say five photos and then I was using those five photos to make a reel.
02:09And I was posting both a reel and a photo post in the same day of the same
02:13dog. And then I was sharing those two posts onto my stories. This got my
02:19account flagged for being spam because an Instagram algorithm was noticing the
02:23same photos being posted over and over again. Even though it was different
02:27content, it was the same photo, so that's what got me flagged. Next, utilize your
02:31stories. There's so many things that you can post on your stories, such as your
02:34personal life. People love to see the person behind the business. It makes the
02:40customer feel more connected to you and humans love supporting other humans. And
02:44you can also share behind-the-scenes stuff of your business. For example, I
02:47will share behind-the-scenes videos of us at photo shoots, like actually working
02:51with the dog, or I'll share unedited photos from a set that I'm currently
02:55editing, like on my desktop. Just show your process. People like to see all the
03:00behind-the-scenes stuff. You can even play games on your
03:04stories, like this or that polls, voting games, meme games, etc. There's tons of
03:08different options. This will help increase your engagement with your
03:12audience and people love to be entertained. It's also great
03:16conversation starters. I always get tons of responses from my stories when I do
03:20these kind of things. I also highly recommend talking on your stories and
03:23showing your face. This will take practice. Unless you're a natural, then I'm
03:28envious of you. Talking on your stories really helps your audience get to know
03:32you as a real human and this will help them feel more connected to you, like I
03:35was mentioning earlier. I have had so many clients over the years come into
03:39their session and say things like, oh my god, I feel like I know you already, or I
03:43feel like I'm meeting a celebrity. That one always makes me feel uncomfortable.
03:47Or just, oh my god, I can't believe I'm here already, like I've been following
03:51you for so long. For some people, it actually takes that personal connection
03:55to pull the trigger on booking. Now let's talk about how you actually gain
03:58followers. You might get lucky, go viral, and just watch them flow in effortlessly.
04:03But this is unlikely for a new account. Just like everything in life, it's not
04:07that easy. You really have to get in front of people and show them what
04:11you're offering and this is why we do targeted engagement. Engagement is
04:15basically communicating or engaging with their audience to build a connection.
04:19However, if you're a business, you don't want to be engaging with just anyone. You
04:22want to be putting the effort in it to engaging and connecting with people who
04:26are actually potential clients. So that's why we are deliberate with who we
04:29connect with. So how do we do that? First, we have to find the right audience. For
04:34us, that's anybody who has a dog and is in the location of our photo shoot. We
04:38find them by going on Instagram and searching by location. So for example,
04:41Toronto, Ontario. Or if you want to be more specific, you can even search up dog
04:46friendly locations like dog parks or dog friendly breweries, things like that. And
04:50then quite simply, we just scroll down until we see a picture of a dog, click on
04:54that profile, and engage with them. Which means liking a couple posts, leaving a
04:59couple comments, and if something really resonates with you, you can even respond
05:03to their stories and strike up a conversation. By doing these things, you
05:06are getting in front of that person and making it more likely for them to
05:10remember you. You can also find these accounts by searching hashtags too. So
05:14such as hashtag Toronto dogs or dogs of Toronto, things like that. Speaking of
05:19hashtags, let's talk about those for a second. Are they really as important as
05:23everybody says they are? Personally, I don't think so. And I don't say that
05:28because I don't think you should use them at all. I just don't think that you
05:31should put too much effort or brainpower into it. Personally, I just slap on a few
05:36hashtags with whatever corresponds to that current post. So for example, if it's
05:41a post about a golden retriever, I'll do hashtag goldens of Instagram, hashtag
05:46golden retriever, and so on and so forth. And honestly, you can even just start
05:51typing it in like hashtag golden, and then a whole bunch of examples will pop
05:56up for you to just click on. Even though I don't think that hashtags will be the
06:00be-all end-all of your Instagram growth, I do think they're worth using because it
06:04does help with the algorithm's SEO and it will pair you with other like-minded
06:08accounts. Plus, if it gets you in front of a few new eyes, I would think it's worth
06:13it. My last tip is be patient. An authentic
06:16audience does not grow overnight. I've been working on my platform for four
06:19years now and we're at about 75,000 followers. Don't forget, it's not about the
06:24number of followers that you have. It's about the clients that you're going to
06:27attract, or if you're not a business, the people that you're going to attract to
06:30connect with. Because really, that is what you're on this platform for. The number
06:35of followers that you have really only means that you've attracted that X amount
06:39of people that could be potential clients. So I've explained what we've
06:43done to grow our Instagram, but if you want to learn exactly how we use it to
06:47gain new clients, check out our online course and mentorship program, Fluffy
06:50Studios Photo Academy. I'll leave the link down below. It really dives deep
06:55into everything I know as a dog photographer, literally from technical to
06:59business and everything in between. It will take you from an amateur to a
07:03professional so that you can also build a successful business and dream job that
07:07you've been striving for. See you in the next video.