How to Slay the Instagram Dragon and Grow Your Business
In some ways, Instagram can feel like a dragon breathing fire down your neck.
You’re consumed by the logistics of the algorithm, so you sit drafting content, wondering how many posts you should create and how many stories you should post daily. Some days it feels like you’re slaying the dragon, and some days it feels like you’re going down in flames.
At the end of the day, you know Instagram is an amazing tool for connecting with your ideal customer. The problem is, you don’t know how to effectively utilize Instagram to grow your business without becoming overwhelmed. Whether it’s learning to utilize strategy hashtags, leveraging stories, or creating content that converts, you want to feel confident that you’re establishing fundamental strategies for your platform so that even when the algorithm changes, you know you’re still growing.
After years of successfully climbing the corporate ladder in marketing, Shannon Lutz, creator of The Social Bungalow, has created one of the fastest growing online marketing brands in the industry and she is going to rock your world when it comes to leveraging Instagram for your business.
She knows you want more for your brand and your business, and she’s going to help get you there. Check out her top tips for building your business with Instagram!
Understanding Instagram for Business
If you were to compare your Instagram profile to a brick and mortar store, your profile picture, title, and bio would be the sign on your building. You want to entice people enough to make them stop and check out the rest of your “store.” Your content and captions act as a window into your store. They allow your audience to better understand if they like your style and what you’re selling. It allows them to “window shop” so to speak.
Instagram stories are how you open the door to your store. It’s an opportunity for you to share your life, and your brand, documentary style. By sharing content on your stories, you’re allowing your customers to learn more about your and your business - in real time.
And if that person chooses to walk through the door to your business to shop, or in this case, send you a DM, you have two choices:
Be the clerk that walks up to them and starts throwing random items at them while you customer says, “Wait a minute. That’s not my style.”
Be the clerk that asks you customer what they are looking for and how you can help. Ask them if they want to try something on, if they have an occasion or event in mind.
Which one sounds more appealing to you? Probably the second option right?
Be that clerk. Cultivate a real relationship with your customer. Make them feel special, heard, and appreciated.
The Psychology of Instagram and Utilizing Stories
We are all voyeuristic. We want to see what’s happening - no matter how good or bad. Have you ever heard the saying, “It was like a train crash, I couldn’t look away”? That’s because of our voyeuristic nature. We are innately curious and want to see what’s going on. It’s just the way our brains work.
Because of this, it’s best to think of your stories as having a beginning, middle, and end.
Think of it this way: if you start your day sharing that you’re getting on a plane, heading to a speaking engagement, and then in the middle of the day you show that you landed and went out to lunch with friends, and then maybe in the evening you show what your room looks like, but then you don’t have any stories showing the speaking engagement, your audience is going to feel cheated - like they missed out on something important to your story.
So any time you have the ability to share the beginning, middle, and end of your story - do it. You’re not just talking at your audience, you’re talking with them. You’re sharing with them. Take them through your day. Showing them who you are so they feel a connection with you.
But remember, you have to find that balance between posting too much and not enough. It’s all to easy to get trapped watching stories for hours on end, but the sweet spot, when it comes to stories is five to ten per day. You can stick to the higher end of that number when you’re gearing up for a launch, or are travelling for something work related. It’s a fine line, but sharing too little can result in loss of followers, and sharing too much can result in your audience skipping through your story. You want your story just long enough to be interesting, but not so long your audience gets bored.
Share Often, and Share a Lot
Now, that doesn’t mean you have to have a ton of content every single day. You don’t need to neglect your kids or spend hours on stories sharing every second of your day. You can break your content into bite sized pieces that you can schedule into your day. Make it something that feels manageable to you.
And when I say, “share a lot,” I mean to have variety with your content. Share a lot of content from a lot of different mediums. Don’t just have a talking head the entire time, or have all text graphics. Mix and mingle your content to keep your audience engaged.
When it comes to your stories, you can share still shots, boomerangs, meme’s, other people’s posts, talking heads, or even text content. There are so many options and ways to keep your content fresh and exciting - it just takes a little planning. Take some time, one day a week, and plan out the purpose of your content each day. Having a purpose or theme for each day will allow you to plan your stories, or it will help get the creative juices flowing so you can come up with content that is relevant to the theme for that day.
Be Authentically You
It’s completely okay to be your natural self on Instagram. You don’t have to be dolled up for every story - filters are your friend!
And on the days you really don’t feel like being in front of the camera, go on Canva and create graphics that talk about different tips and tricks relevant to the theme for that day. For example, maybe you want to talk about how to convert leads. Start by creating a couple of graphics with tips and tricks to convert leads. Include images that further demonstrate your point. Then maybe you share screenshots from people stating how helpful your method or advice is.
It’s okay if your content is a little messy and not perfectly curated. It will feel more realistic to your audience which will, in turn, foster that sense of trust and believe in you and your brand. Your stories should be catered towards the people that follow you - assuming those people are your ideal client. You want to use your stories to build a community through your following. You are designing content for the people that are going to grow with you, buy from you, and advocate for you and your business.
Understanding Highlights
There’s a term in the web design world called UX, which stands for user experience. The idea is that you determine what the user experience is when they come to your website in order to better design a website geared towards the end user. You think about flow and what you want your end user to know about you and your brand.
The same concept can be applied to Instagram. When your user comes to your page they are going to check out your name, bio, and then scroll through some posts. They might watch your story from that day, but most likely they are going to scroll through your highlights. Your highlights are a place for you to save stories that have an education purpose or are valuable content that you want to save for a later date. Keep in mind that after twenty-four hours, any stories you posted are deleted forever, so having a place to store them gives you the opportunity to share content over and over again for new customers and clients.
Your highlights are a way for you to tell people, “Hey! This is the information I really want you to know.”
Crafting a Unique Bio
Not all bios are created equally, and it’s important to understand that your bio shouldn’t read like a dating profile. Stating that you’re a “feisty brunette who loves to read and has three kids,” doesn’t tell us anything about who you truly are, what you do, and how you can serve your audience.
So how do you take 150 characters and get the most bang for your buck?
Keep. It. Simple.
All you have to say is who you are, who you serve, the results you offer, and a call to action (which is probably going to say “Click the link in my bio”). To break it down even further, follow this checklist:
I help [insert types of individuals here]
I am a [job title]
I offer [products or services]
Talk about your brilliant or proven results
Add a line about what your clients will get from you
Sure, you could share that you love flannel, a good cold beer, and that you’re a boss babe living the dream, but that’s not the best use of that space. Instead of putting filler content in your bio, let’s start a trend where we actually talk about our businesses.
Utilizing a Call to Action
If your Instagram bio doesn’t have a direct link to a product or service you’re selling, or to an opt-in or freebie, you’re doing yourself a disservice. You want to have something on your page that encourages your audience to stay engaged.
That being said, having a minimal barrier to entry is key - essentially, less is more when it comes to clicks. When you’re in launch mode and you’re sharing that you have this awesome product for sale, you don’t want your customers to click the link in your bio and be overwhelmed with too many options for links that will take them to yet another page. If you have more than three options you have taken their thought process out of “take action” land, and you’re now in a dream world.
There will be an element of, “I don’t want to waste my time and energy looking through all of these links to make sure I find the right one so I’ll just buy this later.” But later eventually becomes never.
So many things as easy as possible and choose a couple of links that are going to keep your audience engaged without being overwhelmed.
Getting Ready for a Launch
There’s a delicate balance that has to be achieved when it comes to social media and launching a new product or service. You don’t want your audience to see you posted a new story but go, “I am not going to watch their story because all they are going to talk about is their launch.” On the other hand, you don’t want to undersell your launch by not sharing enough about it.
You should strive for a 70/30 split during a launch. 70% of your content should be related to your launch, and the other 30% should be personal content or freebie tips and tricks for your audience.
Utilizing Hashtags
Hashtags are hard because they’re the only non-human element of Instagram stories and posts. They are completely driven by the mood of the algorithm for that day, so you have to continuously test different hashtags and methods to see what works best for that day - and realize that what worked the day before might not work the next day! Don’t stress out over prefect hashtags. Remember - content is King.
However, it’s best to start with at least twenty different hashtags and see how those work. It’s also important to stay relevant with your hashtags. Utilize hashtags in your content that matches the specific post for that day. If you use the same twenty hashtags on every post the algorithm is going to say, “I’m not sure if these hashtags are actually relevant because you’re not mixing it up. I’m concerned so I’m going to put your content on the back burner and share content that uses fresh hashtags.”
If you need inspiration for new hashtags, find other people, with similar audiences, and look at what hashtags they use. Make sure their hashtags are relevant to your content and your ideal audience, but it’s always good to look to see what might be working for others. You can also sit down and think about your skills or what your ideal client might be searching for on Instagram, search those words yourself and look to see what hashtags fit those skills or descriptions.
Keep in mind that just because a hashtag has 5 million for the usage, doesn’t mean it’s better, it just means you have more competition. Sometimes hashtags with smaller usage numbers are better because they provide more visibility for you and your content.
And remember, keep your hashtags relevant. If you’re not posting about bubble baths, don’t use #bubblebath on your post. The algorithm is going to say, “this isn’t relevant,” and your post will lose visibility.
So mix it up with each post and put them in the caption or the first comment of your post. It’s all about trial and error and what works best for you with the algorithm.
Engaging with Your Audience
Have you ever gotten a, “DM to collab,” comment on your posts and instantly rolled your eyes because the comment screams “fake”?
Engaging with your audience should be authentic and real, it’s not just about you, it’s about them.
Remember these three words: Give to Get.
When you want to engage with your ideal client, read their posts in full, leave a comment that is hearty and demonstrates that you not only read their post but value their content. Write content that is going to mean something to the original poster. You want to start a conversation with your comment so you “give to get.”
How to Boost Your Strategy
When you want to see a big spike in followers, you have to tap into someone else’s audience. That’s when things like collaborations, giveaways, or follow on follow’s become highly strategy and useful. If you do it right, you’re going to bring in a lot of great candidates that are going to add value to your community, and hopefully translate to sales.
So pick a strategy that feels right to you and then figure out who you can team up with that not only has a following that is similar to your ideal client, but that will provide something of value to your audience as well. Make sure you have noncompeting products and then make everything as simple as you can for them so that the process is easy for both of you.
Find something that feels organic and aligns with who you are, what you do, and who your audience is.
Be Confident
Regardless of if you just started a business, or have been in business for years, these Instagram tips will help you grow your brand while creating a community of like-minded individuals that spark creativity and inspiration everywhere you turn. Be confident in your strategy and execute that strategy with excitement.
Go forth and slay the Instagram dragon with your newfound tools! You can do this!