I used to be a fashion blogger. And as you may know, 99.9% of fashion bloggers use instagram to connect with and grow their audiences.
But not me, oh no.
I hustled hard, yes. But I didn’t gain the kind of traction I was hoping for. And truth be told, I contribute the lack of growth to the fact that I didn’t really believe in or utilize the power of instagram.
In saying that, not using instagram to it’s full potential helped me realize a new path I wanted to venture down.
I had always wanted to blog about topics that related to small business owners, it was something I legitimately enjoyed, so after four years I decided to let my fashion blog go by the way side and follow my dreams of starting my new small business blog.
After having this shift in mindset, I knew I needed to start using social media platforms that could connect me with my audience. And so, after having heard about it from so many other bloggers, I decided to return to instagram. This time with a plan!
I set myself a goal: Gain 1,000 followers in 2 months.
I got to work and first started to focus on the style and branding of my account. Since instagram is all about the visuals, I got clear on the colors and type of images I wanted to post. Within a week or so, I had transformed my instagram account from random and personal posts into a fully branded business account.
Once that was done, I started searching for my target market.
I noticed there were quite a few bloggers with large audiences – over 30k+ followers! You’d think with a social following that large, you’d have pretty substantial results and profit, right?
Unfortunately, those large audiences didn’t transfer into their businesses and this was because their followers weren’t in the bloggers target audience.
An account that has an active and engaged following with 1,000 followers has far more value than the other account with 30k followers who couldn’t care less about their latest post or products. So don’t feel discouraged if your follower numbers aren’t where you want them to be yet. They’ll get there.
Results: Within 1.5 months I had gone from 800 followers to 2,300 followers just by doing a simple method I discovered. That’s a 213.3% increase!
Before I get into the method itself, answering the three questions below can help you get the most out of this instagram case study. Best of all, once you’re clear on them, you don’t need to invest a huge chunk of time into applying it – I did it in my downtime each day – and I still increased my following rapidly!
Let’s get to increasing your instagram followers by 213.3% in 1.5 months!
What’s Your Niche?
In other words, what do you want to post about on Instagram? Do you enjoy fitness because you coach people on increasing their overall health? Are you a fashion blogger that alerts your followers on flash sales through affiliate links? Or do you have a service based businesses that help out small business owners with brick + mortar stores? Your niche is your area of expertise, get clear on what it is and start gathering bite sized bits of that information for your upcoming posts.
Define Your Target Audience
So you’re a coach, fashion blogger, or service based business owner. Now take a hard look at your clients or customers and define the audience specifically. Who are you wanting to attract? Who typically purchases what you provide? For me, I am a web designer + graphic designer and love branding businesses for female entrepreneurs.
My target audience is 20-40 year old women business owners that are super boss at what they do. I have no trouble finding all of these awesome women on instagram because I defined WHO I was trying to search out. Once you know who you are targeting, it is easier to make a strategic plan on how to put your services or products in front of these people so they can benefit from them!
Search for Hashtags
You have probably heard of this method before, but I thought I would mention it in this point just in case someone hasn’t! Searching out hashtags within your niche that your target audience would be using is a hashtag worth looking through!
For me, I typically search out business/entrepreneur related hashtags like #femalebusinessowner and go through each account making sure that I like at least 7 – 8 images of theirs. Then I leave a genuine comment on one of the images.
Leaving a genuine comment is more than just a few hearts or “love this!”, a genuine comment is typically a few sentences long and relates to the person that posted the picture. I have created so many biz friends through this and have been involved in several fun collabs! So get to searching out your hash tags!
The Instagram Method I Used to Gain Over 2000+ Followers
Prep: So you’ve gotten clear on your niche, you know who your target audience is and you’ve found relevant hashtags in your niche. One more question I need you to answer before we start on this fantastic method of increasing our instagram followers is, Who is someone in your niche that has similar services or products?
If you’re a fashion blogger, who in the fashion/blogging/instagram world has an account similar to yours? If you run a children’s boutique, search out some Instagram accounts that are owned by people running a children’s boutique themselves.
Make a list of two or three accounts that are similar within your niche that already have a substantial following (over 10k minimum). You know everyone that is following this account is generally interested in what this person is talking about all day on their Instagram. THIS is where your target audience is!
Method: I start from the top or bottom on the list of followers and give each person a follow, 8 likes, and a genuine comment. I do this if I want to connect with them or to follow me back. And that’s it! Literally!
When I started using this method, my follower stats boomed easily and almost effortlessly. I created new and genuine relationships with people in my target market in less than 10 minutes a day!
Guest Post by Haley Burkhead
