OH HEY, SOCIAL MEDIA

Social media is the future of marketing. Whether you’re looking to grow a personal brand or build a business, your digital strategy helps build brand awareness and generate a powerful follower base that can help you reach your goals. Instagram is one tool that you can’t afford to be overlooking. It allows you to drive traffic to your website and other profiles while utilizing both photographs and videos. Our guide gives you a quick overview of how you can build your Instagram profile from ground zero. 

CREATE YOUR PROFILE

It’s estimated that there are one billion monthly active users on Instagram, making it the most popular social media platform. While it gives you the largest possible audience to target, you’ve also got an uphill battle of standing out from the ground.

You want to start on the right foot by setting up your profile. Choose a username that is easy to remember or recognize. If it’s for a personal brand or blog, you can choose your own name. If it’s for your business, try to use your operating name if possible. You’ll want to keep your username the same across all your social media platform. 

Once you have your username, you want to optimize your profile. While your bio is a small space, it can help your demographic find you amongst the millions of other accounts. You want to incorporate information about your brand or business’ niche so that it’ll appear when someone searches the term. Don’t forget to add the link to your website or other platforms in your bio.

START POSTING

No one wants to follow an empty Instagram profile. You want to start by getting a few posts uploaded to show your aesthetic and give potential followers a taste of what to expect from your profile. Don’t focus just on feed posts. One of the main ways to grow your account on Instagram is the utilize all of the functions, including Reels and new features being launched!

While there is no perfect formula that will help you manipulate the algorithm, you want to have a mixture of both videos and feed posts. You don’t want to overlook the importance of Instagram stories as a way to keep your audience engaged and to speak directly to them.

It’s always best to have a strategy and plan for your posts. You can use apps, like Planoly or Preview, to help you plan out your Instagram feed to decide what order to post photos to capture your aesthetic. 

FIND COMMUNITY

Once you’ve got your Instagram off the ground, it’s all about finding your community. Reach out to other accounts in your niche and build connections with other users. You want to interact with other people and bring people into your community. Engagement is key to the success of your Instagram account. You want to take the time to reply to every comment and message you get on Instagram. Take the time to visit their accounts and interact with them.

You can utilize your posts and Instagram stories to engage with your audience and bring them into the conversation. Instagram is a two-way street. You need to interact with your followers as much as possible. You want to give them content that educates, engages, and entertains them.