How Do I Grow My Instagram – Part 1 The Basics
How do I grow my Instagram Following
That is the million-dollar question. Experts all over have answers to how to grow and gain more traction. It really feels like it is trial and error sometimes. And honestly, it is. Your audience is unique to YOU. Your audience may value something more than someone else’s audience. So you may want to spend some time devoted to learning what your followers like and what kind of followers you want to attract. Here are some tips to get started on your quest to grow your Instagram channel.
Find your niche
This is probably the most important thing. Many influencers focus on so many things. And while this may work for many, it seems to work better for those that have a specific topic. Something that the followers care about and view you as an expert on. A niche could be things like – Travel, Food, Kid Activities, Crafts, Upcycling Vintage Items, Home Decor, or Party Planning. These are just a few of the many niches out there. And they all have a big audience of people ready to learn from and follow you!
You could go a step further. The more specific a niche the better. For example instead of Food– see if there is a theme to your food content. Are they mostly quick meals? Are they mostly kid-friendly? Are they mostly easy meals? If it falls under a subcategory try to focus on that.
If you can’t narrow it down to just one, you could focus on 2. For example Kid-Friendly crafts and activities. They are both under Parently and Kids but do not restrict you to stay within 1 small box.
Buffer suggests a great theory.
“Design a personality for the account and create branding guidelines so you can stay consistent. Branding guidelines should include notes on tone, style, and values along with your brand’s colors and fonts.
Buffer
Profile
Once you have your niche, update your profile! Make it specific. It should be a hook to reel in your new followers. Let them know exactly what they will see when they follow you. Make those 150 characters count!
Update your profile picture. Make it personal! People love to see a face behind a brand.
Start With Your Own Test
Every good process starts with a plan and data. So now is the time to do a test of your own and make a plan. This is the best research you can do for your brand and help you optimize your content with your current followers and future followers. So do a test for 1 week to collect data.
There are tools that you can use to help with finding your best time to post for your audience. But you can find out for free right from the Instagram App. To find this, click on your Insights. But remember this is for your CURRENT followers. This should be used as a starting point and guide. If the times Instagram shows in your insights is not proving to be helpful, test to find out which time is really the best for you. You should pay attention to when you get more views and engagement on your content. While Instagram will store this information, you may want to screenshot this page to reference later.
- Recommended timing: Scroll to the bottom and you will see times that your current audience is most active.
- Test the timing: Try posting a variety of times per week (not just the recommended times) and see when you get the most engagement and more views.
- Recommending type of content: Look under engagement to see what kind of content receives the most views with your current following.
- Test the types of content, photo, videos, formats, etc.
- Try a variety of content styles: reels, video, single photo, stories, lives, etc.
- Try a variety of storytelling content: Consider photos with text, photos with you, photos in action, full tutorial or recipe video, a finished product with written tutorial or recipe, photos of landscape or nature.
Now you are on your way! Do these simple steps and we will follow up with Part 2: Beyond the Basics for the next steps to growing your Instagram.
This Weeks Challenge Recap:
- Try posting a variety of times during the week
- Try to post at least once daily
- Try a variety of content styles: reels, video, single photo, stories, lives, etc.
- Try a variety of storytelling content: Consider photos with text, photos with you, photos in action, full tutorial or recipe video, a finished product with written tutorial or recipe, photos of landscape or nature.
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