Why your Instagram isn’t just about “Followers!”
Here’s the deal… there are far too many people that believe the more followers you get… the more money you’ll make. This is far from the truth!
Let me share with you why chasing followers isn’t a great marketing strategy for your online business. If you want to grow, you need this.
Yes, it’s great to go viral but do you really want to go viral? Are you ready to handle all the criticism? Are you mentally prepared for it? This isn’t to scare you but to help you realize that getting attention means you’re going to get attention from BOTH sides.
What people don’t understand is, Instagram isn’t just so you can get followers. And sadly most get caught up on this.
If you’re a brand and you want to grow it then you better think about 🤗 CONNECTION!
Think twice because it isn’t about a pretty little following. Most influencers work their assess off so they can have that type of following and sadly they’re not making a dime off of that 30, 50, 70, 100k followers… those followers are actually not EVEN ideal followers… some are paid and the rest are from Pods. How do I know because I manage Instagram accounts for my clients and I actually get to see major influencers do the follow unfollow… pay for those little Instagramers… and of course, they use engagement groups to grow.
Hardly, do I see an influencer use Ads or organically grow their audience.
Those who do have an authentic following you can immediately tell by the comments they get and how many they get! There’s a huge difference.
They actually read the post and there’s a lot of conversation around that specific post.
So let’s dive deep and see what it takes to get there. The way I will structure this is by —
- Mindset
- Interest
- Connection
Mindset
This is a HUGE factor to why some win and some don’t. And that is, thinking that you’ll win by having a gazillion followers isn’t the right the mindset to have. Especially if you’re starting out. I see this so often with new entrepreneurs.
There are two types of Entrepreneurs
- Gardener- That one who nurtures their audience like a gardener and takes time enjoying the process.
- Gambler- That one who goes from one change to another, downloading everything possible to catch the latest trend like it was some sort of casino game.
What makes these two different and which one wins over time? The Gardener. Why? Because they take the time to nourish, give, give, give, and give without expectation but instead out of generosity because they know at the end of the day they will win this audience over time. And slowly but surely grow an audience that will LOVE, KNOW, AND TRUST them as the expert and a best friend.
But you might ask… “Jocelyne, How can I get people to trust me without thinking I’m a big ole library?”
You got to drip little by little. You give but don’t give the WHOLE cake. They binge on the content and then you hook them with your offer! Tweet that y’all
What did you think? You were going to give it all away? No, think about movie trailers. Do they give you the whole nine yards? Of course not, so why would you? And if you do, most people won’t need your help anymore.
Alright, so how do you write content that converts?
Let’s dive in.
Interest
This was a gamechanger for me! The moment I realized I needed to be specific about what I was posting… everything changed!
When you go from Broad-ville to Specificity-ville your audience will love you and trust you and all the goodness that comes with it.
Is not because you have these gorgeous looks and you were born that way… No, no, no. It’s because people are looking for specific solutions to their problems.
That my friend is the ICE breaking deal! Learn about what people are asking you specifically. These questions are GOLD and you can use them to your advantage. For example, if you ever suffered from body shame and you finally made peace with your body, you want to talk about your experiences and how you’ve been able to overcome such a thing.
Many women will resonate with that message because there are many who don’t talk about it out of shame, guilt, and criticism.
Share away and let conversations flow because I guarantee they will come! More so, when you speak from the heart. And Instagram will love you because you’re creating conversations and that means they organically share more of your content on the explore page. 😍
So now that you have that piece, let’s move on to
Connection
Getting followers for the heck of it so that you can get the swipe up feature comes from such a scarcity mindset is not even funny!
The moment you realize it isn’t just about followers and actually “real people” then you’ll gain a whole another perspective.
Building a strong foundation is key but making connections is EVEN better! And that seals the deal!
Okay, so how the heck do you do it? You’ve got captions and you also have STORIES! Aha! Yes, you guessed that right.
Stories are where you will find your biggest return. Believe it or not, that’s now where everyone is hanging out! Crazy to believe but you’ll get more engagement from your stories than your actual posts?
Why is that? Think about it for a second. People are looking for easy to digest content. I mean the attention span of a human now is less than a goldfish?? Really it’s true 😂
That’s why stories are so popular these days because they are a lot more engaging and fun to watch!
Your Insta stories are the best place for building massive trust with your followers… ahem, your tribe. You can get personal, you can share about your life, you can share your daily routines and others can easily learn from you this way! So stinkin’ simple! That also means you need to be sharing video not graphics because no one can relate to graphics! Right?
One of the best tips I can give you about Insta Stories is to post at different times of the day. Let’s say every four hours that way your Story Gallery is full. Why? Because they last 24 hours so it gives you plenty of time to create and enjoy your day too all at the same time. Talk about efficiency 😉
Also, use every feature with Instagram stories, such as Polls, Emoji’s, Gif’s, the slider, the Geo-tag, and hashtags. The reason you want to use all of these is that Instagram counts those as interaction… whoa! Yes, they do so use those effectively while making the experience fun for your followers.
In case, you don’t know what they look like it’s this —
And Finally my last tip and the most important one… Always, Always, Always respond to DM’s.
I cannot repeat myself enough here. This is so crucial because the moment you interact via DM’s Instagram will automatically mark this as a Major POSITIVE. And if they begin to follow you, they will begin to see your content FIRST! Meaning, the moment you post, they will see it almost immediately once they open up their app! I’m not even kidding you! The algorithm is that smart!
There it is. Why your Instagram isn’t just about “followers”! Share 🙌 this post if you found it valuable with your friends and I would greatly appreciate it.
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