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One of the questions I’m asked the most about Instagram is “where do I start”? And I get it. It can feel intimidating, overwhelming and just plain confusing when you’re starting out on a new social media platform. And even more so when you’re working out how to use it effectively for your business.

Today, I’m sharing how I would grow my Instagram if I were starting from scratch – including what I’d focus on and forget – some of these might surprise you!

1. Get yourself on video

The first thing that I would focus on is using video, because it is such a powerful way for you to quickly build a sense of connection with your audience and to really allow them to understand a bit more about you. It’s the next best thing to being in person with your audience – and the quickest way position yourself as the expert that you are.

When it comes to the content of the video: focus on giving a lot of value. I like to consider how I give more value than anyone else, instead of just ticking a box. Share content that people can’t help but tell a friend about. Forget about watching that follower number and get to work on actually creating content worth following!

One of my students, Kim, is a graphic designer, and she really struggled with filming herself for video when she first joined The Modern Marketing Collective.

She stuck at it, following my tips and processes, and recently told me during one of our member coaching calls, she grew by 400 followers in one month, and received three new client enquiries, two of which hadn’t even looked at her website or her prices. The told her that they loved the vibe of her Instagram and wanted to work specifically with her – the price wasn’t important.

Now, I know it can be challenging to film yourself and share it. I struggled with this at the start too, and would do more than 30 takes of my videos before I was happy to share one.

But as this example demonstrates, showing up in videos is going to help your audience more quickly connect with you and want to work with you specifically.

2. Optimise Your Instagram Profile

Your Instagram name

What exactly should be in your bio? Firstly, you can optimise your Instagram name (this is different to your Instagram username/handle). Think about what people would search for on Instagram to find your business or offerings if they didn’t know your business existed. I.e. they don’t know your name or the business name. It’s just like SEO on search engines like Google. What are you trying to rank your website for? Apply this to your Instagram name.

For instance, if you are a florist based in Melbourne, instead of having your business name as your Instagram name, add in Melbourne florist or something like that. And that’s actually going to help your account come up in search results, and get your account found as you grow your Instagram from scratch.

Your Magnetic Message

The second tactic to optimise your Instagram bio is being very clear about what problem you help to solve, and/or what exactly it is that you do and/or who exactly it is that you work with. If people are confused when they look at your Instagram profile, they’re just very quickly going to click away. So make sure that you are clear and really capturing the attention and speaking to the challenges and the desires of your ideal customer in your Instagram bio.

Don’t just put in there a list of five different services that you offer. That’s what most people do but it’s not speaking to what your like secret source is, what it is that you are so good at, what key problems you help solve, and who you work with. So get a lot more clear about who exactly you are speaking to.

Call to Action

Number three when it comes to optimising your Instagram bio is having a call to action and a link in your bio. What is the first step for people to take to work with you or to jump on your email list or to book a free consultation with you? Spell that out in your bio because you can’t assume that your audience are going to know what to do next. When you tell your audience the next step, you’ll find people take a lot more action.

Profile Photo

In most cases, I recommend using a photo of your face as your Instagram profile photo because it builds on that sense of connection. One of the key things I recommend investing in early on in business is photography, because your imagery represents your brand.

Your first 12 Posts

A lot of people ask me what they should post when they are first starting on Instagram. What I suggest is for your first 12 photos on Instagram, you can just push them all out in quick succession without worrying about timing because you’re probably not going have any or many followers to start with or many followers.

Once your follower numbers start growing, they can view these posts to understand the type of content that they can expect from you, versus if they visit your profile and you’ve only posted one or two posts.

It’s never going to be perfect, so don’t let that hold you back! Just get those posts out there and that gives your new followers a really good understanding when they land on your profile of what you are all about.

3. Engage strategically with ideal customers

So many people have a social media account, are not active on there apart from posting, and wonder why their audience isn’t growing.

The reason you aren’t receiving engagement and your audience isn’t growing is because you’re not helping to encourage it.

It’s like in business that you can’t just set up a business and hope things are going to start working for you. You have to get out there and hustle a little bit when you’re starting out. The same thing goes for your Instagram.

So what do I mean by engagement and what does that actually look like? First of all, I would be looking at searching for different hashtags, which are based on your type of business or the geographical area that you are based in.

When I was starting my business in Ballarat, I would frequently explore at the Ballarat hashtag. From doing this, I would know the new businesses that were opening, who else was active on there and I was using that to build relationships. I would like the photos, comment on the photos, and people started to get to know me. So I used that tactic to get myself and my new business in front of other businesses on Instagram, who were my ideal clients.

One of my students in The Modern Marketing Collective, Cherie, used this strategy. After becoming clear about her client avatar, she started engaging with her ideal customers on Instagram and she said that they have started following her back and ordering from her.

So when you’re actually getting clear about who you’re actually trying to reach on Instagram and who the best people are for your products or your services, you can actually find them on Instagram and start building relationships with them.

Over to you – strategy one, two or three – which will you start with today?

Looking to build a stronger connection with your audience? You’ll love my free Audience Connection guide. Download here.