Building a Well Engaged Instagram : Where to START?!?

If I got a dollar for every time someone asked me how I got so much engagement on my page in such a short time, I’d be chillin’ in Oprah’s pool. lol. Just joking.. maybe not THAT many times but I do definitely get a a good amount. So there’s no need in being stingy.. plus I actually like talking about it! ;)

So let’s break it down real quick. My goal is to make this simple and painless. Before you skip to the bullet points, just do a super fast brainstorm. What do you ( yes, YOU you.) like to see? When you go to influencer’s pages, or even just person blog ig pages with good engagement, what draws your attention? Typically it’s a number of things that keeps you coming back and its along the lines of : Organization. A feeling of space. Consistency throughout. Maybe color. Maybe the lack thereof ( muted tones). Maybe you feel like your in a different mini world for the ten minutes you’re perusing around. Interesting content. Relatable content. ( Maybe they have a 2 and 3 year old kid and you do too!) Inspiration and ideas. Encouragement. Thrill. ( Have you seen some of those circus people’s pages?!? Keep you on the edge of your seat watching them do hand-balancing acts on the edge of a cliff!!) Sound familiar??

ALL of those are reason why not only you go to THEIR pages but what will draw OTHERS to your page as well! Okay, done there. Moving on to the part you really want to hear.

  1. Content.

    First and foremost, you need to figure out what you even want to present to the people. Are you into fitness, are you a realtor, are you a blogger, a model, a seamstress, a designer of some sort like.. what. do. you. want. us . to . associate. you. ( and or your brand) with? If you don’t nail something down you’ll be flip flopping all over the place and so will your followers. if you have any.

  2. New Page, who this?

    Start a new [BUSINESS] page. [Yes BUSINESS page so that you can see all the analytics and engagement and actually keep track of your following.]You don’t have to delete you old one at all. Just scroll to the bottom on Instagram and click ‘add account’ and create a new account! You can link up to 5 new accounts ( they all have to have separate emails and passwords though.)and have to where you can view the next one and the next one without re-signing in. It’s an awesome feature really. I use it for my photo account, my retail account, my personal page, my yoga page, and a page that I manage as a Social Media Manager for a business.

  3. Quality

    This is a crucial step. The quality of what you post is going to make or break you. And by quality I mean both the quality of information you post AND the quality of photo. It may not seem like it but there’s a huge (visual) difference between photos taken on your phone versus photos taken with a real camera. 1 or 2 photos you may not be able to tell but when you have an entire FEED or PAGE or WEBSITE filled with them yo u’ll see it make a gigantic difference. It also comes off as more professional. Like, “ this person is really investing in their brand!” Companies will see that and feel more confident investing in you because they have plenty of faith in what they will receive from you. Quality content. They can’t use your android photos on their website. They won’t blow up big enough. And companies don’t want to send you products worth $100+ just to receive something they can only use as long as it’s the size of a quarter.

  4. Consistency

    Once A Day. not the multivitamin, the frequency of your posts. Once a day.Somewhere. Anywhere. Either on Tumblr, Ig, Youtube, Twitter…. Whatever is your cup of tea, but just be active. Since this post is about IG, I’ll go ahead and challenge you to try and find a day where I missed a post. Nope. Every single day, when I get in bed all cozy under my covers on my heated blanket, I make my post. ( I post at night because most of my active followers are in other countries #timedifference heyyy) It’s just like your favorite tv show or Youtuber. You can’t wait to see what they are going to post and you know they always post every “Saturday” or “ Monday at 1pm”. Make your IG the same way! People can look forward to you everyday!

  5. Hashtags

    Really Important. Like, really really important. Hashtags put you out there in social world cuh. When I found that out I was like, “ Omg. let me sit here and think about all the hashtags that would fit this photos. No. No no no let me please save you some time. Stop right where you are go to www.seekmetrics.com ( That’s what I use.) Seek metrics is a automated hashtag creator. basically a robot that go through the internet at super fast lighting speed ( for free) finding the top 30 most used/popular hashtags out there pertaining to whatever word you input. So I typically put in ‘yoga’ and it gives me the top 30 hashtags used. Copy and paste that sucka right on in and watch how your photos start to get more engagement! Now, the trick is, don’t use the same exact hashtags every time of IG will flag your account thinking you might be a fake account of a robot or something. I switch it up and add in other hashtags that I need as well anyway like “ content creator” or “business owner” or “influencer”.

  6. Giveaways + Contests

    Last but definitely not least, giveaways ( and contests) are huge. Why? Because people like free stuff and competitions. But more so free stuff when you’re starting out. Giveaways usually consist of requesting each entrant to follow you (boom, and new follower.) like the actual photo ( boom, engagement) and then tag 1-5 friends "‘that would appreciate this post!” lol. (more followers and more engagement) .

    And there ya have it! Hope this helps! Let me know your thoughts!