Growing your brand's Instagram – if it was easy, everybody would be doing it. Actually, everyone IS doing it, even though it's difficult.
The rewards of owning a direct communication line with your distinct clientele are too bountiful to miss out on. Owning your platform gives you the most creative freedom for video and photo content, concentrates your customer base into one place and saves you heaps of advertising dollars by cutting out the middlemen of conventional media. A slick-looking Instagram page with many followers is also a massive flex to your patrons, partners, and, most importantly – jealous competitors. Anybody can print a business card. Nobody can fake followers. Or can they?
You can't buy love
Well… Yes and no. Like with any other worthwhile goal in life that requires patience and diligence to see to fruition, some seek shortcuts. We've all witnessed an IG account with thousands of followers post a blurry photo of their cross-eyed pug only to receive 7 likes in a fortnight. It's quite sad, and unlike their pug, the user fails to look at things from different perspectives.
Buying thousands of fake followers might boost your stats in the short term and fool a few into believing you're Elvis. Still, ultimately, the hard-working bot farmers of Indonesia are probably not going to buy what you're selling.
Even if you are interested in folding a great paper tiger of an account into existence, Instagram has a constantly evolving, all-seeing eye of Sauron of an algorithm designed to wipe out fake followers quicker than you can say: "Follow for more!"
Be content with your content
Before we get to what, when and how often to post, we need to establish and word your brand's unique selling proposition.
What's better than a quality travel blog? A quality blog about travelling with your cat. Which is easier to describe to your friend? A talented tattoo artist or a talented tattoo artist who inks depictions of iconic 80s movie characters? Once you've picked an outstanding niche, showcase it in your name, profile picture and bio. Use words that are easy to search for and create top-of-mind associations. Here are some examples: travel kitty, journey whiskers, 80s ink, scarface tattoos etc.
Now that we have the foundation, it's time to build content pillars and post themes. Pick unique topics about your field that interest you and create posts routinely. Inspire your followers to become massive nerds like you. To stick with examples above: posts describing weird or meaningful scenes most people missed in iconic 80s movies or educational tips for those who travel with pets.
Technical jargon
Now we have established the fundamentals of a quality Instagram account, it's time to talk execution. No matter how big you grow on Instagram, you can never rest on your laurels. Did you know that taking a break from posting decreases the percentage of your own followers who see your posts? Fortunately, you can still do your social media detox because Instagram graciously allows post-scheduling on business accounts.
The best times to post to achieve engagement efficiency are usually mid-to-late mornings and early afternoons during the week. Depending on your follower count, you should post your goods on the gram' 3-5 times a week. You want to be neither forgotten nor annoying.
To reiterate – creating an online presence, along with consistent video and photo content, is a lot of work. As if running a business is not enough on your plate. Fortunately, we are here to help with social media content creation packages starting from $590!
