5 Things more important than followers on Instagram
“Read This if: You are trying to build a social media presence & feeling discouraged about your follower count”
“Wow, so you’re kinda like famous, huh?” said the lady as we stood in the middle of Hobby Lobby. I can still remember the first time someone reacted this way after finding out I had 10k followers on Instagram. Strangers, both craft shopping, we started a conversation while I was looking for jewelry supplies for my brand Pretty Perfect Style & we became fast friends next to rows of turquoise and wood beads. I explained to her, I’m far from famous, I still worked a 9-5 & had just kinda lucked up on a decent social presence due to my style posts.
But, I learned that day that the “glorious” 10k on Instagram can be nice but it can also be deceiving.
Reaching the social milestone can come with assumptions of success & superiority when you are building a fashion brand, but let me tell you a little secret- when I reached 10k nothing magical changed. I still had to work just as hard, had to post just as much & be even more intentional about my messaging because at the end of the day, no one really cared about my follower count if I wasn’t giving them the social fix they came for (more on that below).
Although reaching the milestone was great and I did a little happy dance that day, it was only a small piece of the puzzle when it came to growing and crafting a spiffy Instagram brand page.
“I learned 5 Instagram laws that were more important than my follower count & here they are:”
Consistency! I talked about consistency in my last blog & I will continue to talk about it until the cows come home. An increased social following does not give you the pleasure of taking cruise control on Instagram. You still have to be consistent, and really you should be more consistent as your platform grows. Why? Because now there are more eyes on you. That means more people looking for inspiration, a cute outfit, or a catchy caption. The pressure to “perform” is on and all the eyes are not always forgiving. So, if you’ve made it to 10k, buckle up & get ready to put your best foot forward. If you haven’t, enjoy refining your social preference while you have a smaller audience & more “space” to mess up here and there.
Purposeful Posting! Your page doesn’t need to be perfect & pristine, but it needs to be purposeful. When building a brand whether it’s a personal brand (content creator, service provider etc.) or product-based (selling your own or wholesale products), your page has to be filled with images, words and “vibes” that are directed at impressing your ideal customer. Your social media has to be intentional! That means, no more posting a random picture of your dog twice a week unless of course, it’s in line with your brand. Focus on words & images your ideal customer wants to see. That’s the key.
Finding Instafriends! The best part of Instagram for me has been the friends I’ve made! Most of them, I’ve never met in person but have talked to in messages about business, planned photoshoots, gotten content ideas, or just encouraging words! I encourage you to make friends on Instagram because you never know where it will take you or your growing business. How do you do this? Find people that are in your similar niche (or people you just admire & think are cool 😎), follow them & comment on their pics or instastories. Spark up a pressure-free, non-creepy conversation & tada… you have an instafriend. I love the connections that come with social media & who couldn’t use a new friend online that lives all the way across the world? Remember, Instagram is not just there to grow your following & feed your ego, it’s there to connect to humans you may have never had a chance to meet in real life as well.
Interaction! Interacting with people on Instagram is the key to being genuine and not looking like a spammy bot for your business. And if you’re not interacting, you’re most likely doing this thing we call posting and running (somewhat like a hit and run and we all hate those). Posting and running is defined as not interacting with the people who like & comment on your posts and not forming genuine human relationships with others on Instagram. Instagram is not a cold transactional service where you post & get off & go on about your day. True communities (which lead to a better brand & more customers) are built on human interaction from the human that runs your page (that’s you)! Sometimes I hear ppl say they aren’t getting likes & comments on their pics & my first question is- are you liking & commenting on others’ posts? If not, you really can’t expect anything unless you are giving what you want to receive yourself.
Captions that make people do… something. I’ll go ahead and say this, Captions are hard. Sometimes I spend more time thinking about the captions than I do actually taking the pictures. The sooner you realize you have to put a little thought into your captions, the sooner your captions will work for you instead of against you. As s golden rule your picture & captions should do one of three things: inspire, educate or entertain. Once they do one of those 3, you can slip in an ask (buy this, read this etc.). Unless you’re Kim Kardashian or someone else famous, an emoji as a caption isn’t going to work. Social media is a selfish place because people are there to gain something- a laugh, some good advice, a solution to their problem, a sense of belonging, the list goes on and on. So, what are you offering to your followers? Not all captions have to be deep, but as a rule of thumb, most of your captions should be well thought out & have a purpose. This takes practice & trust me, you’ll get better with time.
When it comes to advice on Instagram there’s always a push for more and more followers, and don’t get me wrong, the more followers, the more potential influence and customers which is always the goal. But you can have a lot of followers and have no real customers, interaction or influence. Focus on doing these five things and doing them well, and the followers will appear at the perfect time. Like this post? Share with a fashionista friend and let me know on Instagram!