We hear so often “My reach has dropped!” or “I’ve got a low number of followers on Instagram”. How do you create an engaged Instagram audience?
Firstly, if your reach has dropped, check out the quality of the content you have been posting of late – AND your post frequency. Are the posts different to what you were previously posting? Are they overly salesy?
Secondly, a low number of ENGAGED followers of your Instagram account is far better than a high number of ‘fake’, ‘purchased’ or ‘disengaged’ followers. You know those follow-trees? Like for like campaigns on that Facebook group you are in (that are a perfect example of a very bad idea)? They are going to help increase the number of followers you have, sure, but if they aren’t your ideal client they are actually going to negatively impact your chances of your posts being seen by your REAL ideal client.
So, what can you do to actually GET an engaged Instagram audience?
Here are our top three tips – the absolute must-haves that you need to invest time in to start with. If you don’t spend time here, any other genuine strategy won’t matter.
1) Optimise your profile.
This goes for any social media platform, but especially Instagram. You have dot-point-nothing seconds to engage people enough whilst they are mindlessly scrolling the ‘gram. Well, engage them enough to want to scroll into your feed or at the very least your 9 (3×3 grid that shows initially).
Help your scrollers to immediately understand what it is you do and who you are – by making your profile clear and concise.
2) Consistently post relevant content and use relevant hashtags.
Use a testimonial every 4-7 posts. Post images and content that ADDS VALUE to your audience and doesn’t SELL SELL SELL. Seriously, it turns people away from your content and brand – exactly what you DON’T want.
Not sure about hashtags? Firstly, you are looking to use the terms your ideal client would be searching for. There’s an art to this, and it takes time to develop your tailored hashtag strategy.
3) Engage. Engage. Engage.
Don’t Post and Ghost. Or Drop and Dash. Spend 10-20 minutes hanging out when you do post on Instagram, and engage with your ideal client accounts. As in genuine engagement. If you wouldn’t walk up to someone in the pub and say “Cool post”, it doesn’t have a place in commenting. Think minimum of 4 or 5 words of genuine conversation.
Choose one of the tips above and set aside 30 minutes to action it in the next 3 days.
So what are you going to now do to create an engaged Instagram audience.
