5 Ways To Grow Your Instagram Following
In this episode of STRUT IT, I pull back the curtain on how I exploded my company’s social media following and share five essential strategies that propelled my dance studio's IG account from 650 to 55K followers and my personal brand from 1K to 33K within just 12 months. I’ll unveil the secrets to growing an Instagram following, sharing my personal insights and actionable tips that can revolutionize your social media game. If you’re ready to leverage Instagram in your organic marketing strategy and you want to build a bigger audience filled with ready-to-buy hot prospects, this episode is for you!
In this episode, you’ll learn how:
Consistency Builds Trust:
Uncover the power of showing up consistently, even during slow periods, to establish the know, like, and trust factor with your audience.
Leveraging Reels is key for Audience Growth:
Dive into the world of Reels and discover how to leverage this powerful feature to organically grow your Instagram audience.
Authenticity Wins:
Embrace authenticity by sharing your genuine energy, not taking yourself too seriously, and being transparent about both the ups and downs of your journey.
Niche Focus and Content Discipline are the key to exponential growth:
Learn the importance of focusing your content on one key topic, avoiding the chase of every trend, and becoming more disciplined in delivering valuable content to your audience.
Generosity and Value Sharing will take your content to the next level:
Explore the art of giving real value to your followers by highlighting their struggles, making them feel seen, and generously sharing solutions, tips, and strategies to help them achieve their goals.
In this episode, you’ll learn…
[1:39] How to grow your business on and OFF of social media through networking
[07:41] - Why consistency is critical for IG follower growth
[09:23] - Leveraging Reels for Explosive Growth
[10:58] - Authenticity: The Power Of Sharing the Real You
[12:10] - Why Niche Focus and Content Discipline Are SO Important
[14:45] - Why giving real VALUE to your followers is a key to IG domination
[16:59] - How you can get a free Instagram Breakthrough Call with Elizabeth
This season is all about how you can win the game of Instagram. If you’re looking to have Instagram work for your business, be sure to tune into this episode.
Links mentioned in this episode…
Free guide to Monetize Your IG: Seven Simple and Proven Ways to Finally Make Money on Instagram
TRANSCRIPT
S3 Ep02 5 Ways To Grow Your Instagram Following
0:00 Elizabeth Marberry: Just three years ago, I was working on growing both of my Instagram business accounts. My dance studio account was stuck at 650 followers for years, and I felt so frustrated with the slow progress I even questioned if social media was worth my time as a busy CEO and entrepreneur. Fast forward to today, my studios followers went from 650 to over 55,000 followers on Instagram almost 40,000 followers on Tiktok. And my personal brand is now at 33,000 followers. Most of this exponential growth happened within a 12 month period. And today I'm sharing with you five ways that you can grow your Instagram following because starting from zero followers on Instagram can be daunting, but this episode will fast track your growth and make Instagram work for your business. Let's dive in. Welcome to strut it, a podcast about creating bold visibility on social media with zero apologies, I'm Elizabeth marberry, your host and Instagram marketing coach, I help small business owners get seen on Instagram and monetize their offers so they can make more money doing their soul lead work. If you're tired of spinning your wheels on Instagram, and you're seeking simple proven Instagram marketing strategies that actually work you're in the right place. Let's dive in
1:39 Elizabeth Marberry: Welcome back to the show. I'm super excited for our episode today where you are going to learn five ways in which you can grow your Instagram following and hopefully attract more dreamboat clients into your sphere. And before we dive in, I just want to tell you that I'm super pumped because today, I get to go to an in person networking event at the Four Seasons here in Denver for whip out which is the wedding international Professionals Association. And if you don't know I have been a wedding industry Pro for we're going on our 14th year in business where we've been serving couples helping them rock their first dance with confidence at my studio. And while I adore the online space, because you can reach people all over the world, the world is your oyster, I still really value in person networking events. And so just wanted to share that with you that it can be both you can be showing up very boldly and visibly online. And you can make intentional effort to connect with people in real life because we need that we need that human connection, looking people in the eyes shaking people's hands. And for me this past year, I've really focused on being super intentional about building my circle of support around me. And what I wanted to call in is more entrepreneurs more ambitious visionaries and CEOs and people who are playing big to surround me so I could feel less alone and and more supported. Because not everybody is going to get you as an entrepreneur, as a small business owner, not everyone's gonna get it. And so it's very important to surround yourself with people who do understand what you are going for, and they are going to be rooting for you. So this is just a reminder today that, yes, let's leverage Instagram, let's leverage social media to grow our businesses. And don't forget to prioritize in person events and connections even if that's just calling your business bestie working with your coach or mentor or even just scheduling some coffee dates with other people in your industry. I invite you to make connections. Let's get into the five ways you can grow your Instagram following now first of all, why even bother growing your following we all know that followers don't necessarily equate to sail. So there's a few different reasons why you want to grow your following part of marketing is building your audience. A lot of my clients that first start working with me, they are promoting a new coaching brand, or they're wanting to build their real estate team or they're wanting to call in more luxury level clients into their business. And part of the first step of growing your social media is getting really clear on who you serve, and how you help them and calling in those followers. Here's why you want to follower so they can see the incredible content that you are going to put out every day. So when we talk about growing your following, it's really just building your audience And it's not just any follower, right? It's not just your uncle following you or your grandma, we want ideal followers, meaning prospective clients or customers who are going to want to eventually purchase your product or service. Now, looking at your follower count is only one metric that you can look at in terms of your success in terms of your reach, and all of that. So what I want to start with is, no matter how many followers you have today, it's awesome. Those people are in your audience. And I want you to start speaking to those people today. Sometimes when we are in this kind of mindset of like, oh, I want to grow my following, it can be really easy to kind of neglect the people who are already there who are already appreciating you and consuming your content, maybe they're even commenting, or maybe not a lot of people will consume your content and not even respond to it. I can't tell you how many people I'll see at the grocery store. They're like, Oh, my gosh, I watch your videos all the time. And I'm thinking to myself, You have never once liked or commented on any of my stuff. But wow, okay, you're seeing everything I post. So before we even jump into growing your following, take a minute and really feel into who is already in your audience. And from this moment, don't forget about them. Remember, if you have 50 people following you on Instagram, right now, imagine a room filled with 50 people, and you're speaking on the stage, that's a pretty big audience. So try not to get too caught up in the numbers here, I want you to really think about growing your following from a place of service, and from a place of each follower is a person and every single person matters. And I want you to speak directly to that client avatar, the ideal client that you are wanting to call in. So you can start that today. No matter if you have two followers, or 20,000 followers, you have an audience, you have a platform, and I invite you to serve them fully today. So we are clear that no matter the size of our current followers, we are going to show up from this place of service giving real value to our followers to our prospective clients. And I want to get into five ways that you can grow your following and note that these five ways it's not linear, it's not like step by step, you will kind of ebb and flow between all five of these different ideas as you learn how to be a better content creator
7:41 Elizabeth Marberry: So the first way that you can grow your following is showing up consistently. And it's important for a lot of different reasons. One is, of course, you want to build that know like and trust factor. And consistency is important for many different reasons. But I like to kind of use this example of going on a date. So imagine that you went on a date with someone, you're super into them, you're super excited. And the next day, they don't text you and then the next day, they don't talk to you and then it's like two weeks go by go by. And then they finally reach out to you. Do you do have a sense of trust for them? Do you have a sense of like, oh, I can count on this person? Probably not. And I want you to think of growing your social media in the same way. So you showing up consistently, week after week is just going to build that know like and trust factor, it's going to position you more as an expert. And here's the best part I think about being consistent is that consistency leads into practice. So if you commit to let's say, you commit to posting three reels a week on Instagram, you are going to get better and better and better at your craft, right? Because you're flexing those muscles, you're putting in those reps. And your content over time will get better. You might not see it from week to week. But if you zoom out from six months, oh my gosh, now your content is finally really speaking the words of your ideal client, it's giving value, you're attracting more of those ideal followers. And it's starting to work so consistency is the number one way.
9:23 Elizabeth Marberry: Now the second way if you're wanting to grow your following on Instagram, you absolutely must be utilizing reels reels are short form videos, you can kind of think of like Tic TOCs or YouTube shorts. They are short form videos on Instagram, you can record up to 90 seconds although, especially in the beginning when you don't have a big following. I really recommend you keep your reels very short and succinct, but reels are really the best way to attract new followers. So the way the algorithm works is that reels are pushed out to people who yes follow you but More importantly, the people who don't already follow you. So here's how it works is I'm scrolling on Instagram, I see your real, you're speaking directly to me, because your content is so laser focused on your client avatar, you're helping me solve a problem. You're entertaining me, you're informing me, you're educating me, whatever your content is, I click on your bio, I hop on over to your page, and then I see what you do. And I'm like, Yes, oh, my gosh, this person can help me, I'm gonna give him a follow. So that is how it works. To get more followers, I want you to really focus if your goal is to build that audience and attract more people into your sphere, you definitely need to be leveraging reels, leveraging reels is a whole nother skill set it is there's a strategy behind it. I'm not going to be getting into that today. But that is absolutely something that you need to be leveraging in your strategy, if you're wanting to grow your following on Instagram.
10:58 Elizabeth Marberry: The third way is authenticity. And I know that authenticity is like such a buzzword, I feel like in my sphere, I hear all the time to the point of like, is the word even landing in my heart. But when I say authentic, I mean you being real, like you adding your special sauce and personality into your content. A lot of the clients I work with, so I'm working with this incredible real estate expert right now. And she has built a team of over 60 Real estate agents, she's now rebuilding again on a new team, and she is a real estate coach, She's incredible. And her her copy is so fantastic in terms of the value. Clearly she's an expert, but I was sending her a message the other day. And I said, I want to see more of you in this copy, I want to see more of your personality. Because that is what is going to make you stand out on Instagram is the more that you can be you and be your unapologetic self, it will magnetize those soul aligned clients to your feed.
12:10 Elizabeth Marberry: Okay, the fourth thing that I want you to do to grow your following, if you haven't already, is focus on one thing. So I want you to think of like what is your specialty, a lot of times, and this was a mistake I made in the beginning of my Instagram is we kind of chased the trends, you know, you chase the, you know, the trending audio, whatever you see, or you might, you know, I used to show videos of myself on my walk and then doing yoga and you know, working at my desk and doing all these things. And it's not that any of that is wrong. But my messaging was all over the place. I was talking about food, I was talking about movement, I was talking about body image I was talking about, you know, empowerment, confidence. And it was like my messaging was way too spread out all over the place. And so I invite you to specialize and go narrow instead of wide with your content. So I'm gonna give you the example of how I did that. There was a pivot in my Instagram growth journey where I decided to instead of talking about movement, and food and all of the things that I wanted to talk about, I decided that I am going to grow my Instagram from the place of dance studio CEO. I've been a CEO and entrepreneur for over a decade, I have this thriving successful dance studio business. And I wanted to build my personal brand as like dancy to the face behind this multi six figure business. And so when I made that pivot, I decided to only post videos of me dancing, because Hello, I'm a dance studio CEO, former professional dancer, that makes total sense. They click on my bio, they'd see my business and you know, it'd be an awesome fun all toward my studio. And when I started to focus in on dance videos, it took a level of discipline, right? Like, there was a there was moments where I'm like, Well, I really want to post that like inspiring thing. But it didn't really line up with like, my focus for my account, once I started to really decide that I was going to serve from a place of dancing and all of my content was going to be dance focused. My Account started to blow up. And so what I want you to think about is like how can you narrow your focus or your niche even more even more than one what maybe feels comfortable to you, because I'm telling you, you will go so much further faster on Instagram, you will start to attract more of your soul aligned audience and it's a great way to grow your account.
14:45 Elizabeth Marberry: The fifth way that you can grow your Instagram is one of the most important and I think it's one of the hardest things to kind of wrap your brain around and that is you absolutely have to give real A lot of value to your followers. Okay? So oftentimes when we are business owners wanting to use Instagram, we just sell, sell sell all the time, right? We're like, here's my studio, here's my offers, here's why we're so great, here's this, here's that come get this membership, come join my class, you know, come to my event, whatever your industry is, I'm sure you can relate where it's like, when you're just kind of putting out there, like the sales energy of like, it's all about us basically, like, look at our studio, or look at my company and look at our incredible products or services. And that does not work on Instagram. Okay, so you have to kind of shift your brain into a place of how can I give value to that person? Who is my potential client? Who is my ideal client? Who is interested in my product or service? So it's a total brain switch. And a couple of things I want you to think about in terms of giving value to your followers is this, I want you to think about their top 10 struggles, like what are they struggling with right now? What are their pain points? What keeps them up at night? You know, what, what are they just feeling stressed about? And and how does your product or service solve their problem, why it is what you do matter to them? Frankly, right? And I want you to start to create content where you are highlighting that pain point, like you're calling it out, because then your ideal client will stop in their tracks and be like, Oh, my gosh, is she reading my mind right now? Yes. And you will create a piece of content that highlights that problem. And then you will present a solution in that real, okay, so this can happen within seven to 15 seconds. And it takes a lot of practice. This is why people come into my six month mentorship program. Because this is a skill set that just takes time to develop. It is a total shift in marketing from doing super long form content to more short form content that has a lot of potency. And that is the work I do with my clients and my six month program called Insta boss. And if that's something that you're interested in, then your next step is to send me a DM on Instagram and say Apply. Because what we would do is you would fill out an application, I could learn more about your business. And if I know I'm the right person to help you get to your next level, then I'll invite you into a complimentary Instagram breakthrough call. So if you are interested in getting a free call with me, then DM me apply right now. And we will take it from there. And I would love to support you in mastering your reels strategy and content strategy for Instagram. So Instagram will work for your business back to giving real value to your followers. So I want to give you a great example of this. And this is kind of a visual example. And then I'll try to give some other ideas. So in my dance studio, business wedding dance coach, we do choreography for first dances. So giving my followers real value looks like this. I post a reel of a first dance entrance. So it's a very simple entrance. They could watch the video they can grab their partner and learn the learn from the video how to do this entrance, right? And you might be thinking, oh my gosh, Elizabeth, people pay you to do that. Like why would you just give that away for free. But here's here's the thing I want you to think about, I can give you a first dance entrance, and you can look incredible coming out onto the floor, you do a simple spin, you're ready to go? Did I just choreograph your entire dance for you? Absolutely not. Did I just help you when you were getting stuck in that step? Or did I did you get personalized coaching from me? Absolutely not. So if someone wants that level of service, they will have to invest in one of our packages and work with one of our instructors. So that's how social media works is if you can give your ideal followers, your prospective followers, a piece of the pie that truly helps them like it's not a tease. It's like very helpful, they're gonna want to save it, they're gonna want to share it, they're gonna want to comment on it because it is so helpful to them. So I want you to really think about for your audience, what are your people struggling with today? And how can you help them? How can you answer that that question for them today? And what's really cool about this is that as people start to have real wins from the information that you give them, they will reach out to me out to you and be like, Wow, you really helped me with this and it's okay that you help Then with your free content, the right people will want to invest and go deeper with you. Because they will even they will start to imagine, oh my gosh, if this is the content that Elizabeth's giving for free, imagine the depth of what she delivers to her paying clients. And that's really true, right? Like, I can give you all the tips and strategies on this podcast. But there's no, there's nothing that can compare to you and I sitting down on Zoom and talking about your business and uncovering any places where you feel stuck in implementation and helping you to feel more clear, right? So I want you to think about that for your business for your product or service. What is your ideal client, you know, bumping up against and how can you help them. Another great strategy in terms of giving value is just painting the desire of what your ideal client wants, and really allowing them to kind of imagine and see what's possible for them and position you as a person that can help kind of foster that transformation for them. So I hope that gives you a few ideas of how to actually put value into your content. One thing that helped me a lot is I stopped gatekeeping, I found myself sort of thinking, Oh, should I should I do this post about like, you know, you know, very specific coaching on Instagram, like the things that only I tell my paying clients, like, Should I do this post, and the minute I stopped gatekeeping, that information, and I started just sharing more generously and serving more generously. That's when my videos started to do better. That's when more business owners started to find my account. And it's such a win win for everybody. So I encourage you to share generously from your heart, share those followers you already have. And by doing these five things, you will start to build your following build your audience, you can really manifest the dream business and life that you want.
22:03 Elizabeth Marberry: I so appreciate you being here with me today. If you found this episode helpful, please hit that Review button. Leave us a five star review that really helps us to reach more ambitious entrepreneurs and small business owners who want to leverage Instagram to grow their business. And I cannot wait to dive into more strategies and tips for exploding your social media presence next week.
22:27 Elizabeth Marberry: Thank you for listening to strut it. If you're ready to start leveraging Instagram to grow your business, then you're gonna want to grab my free monetize your IG guide, where you'll learn seven simple and proven ways to finally make money on Instagram. You can grab your guide at Elizabethmarberry.com/freebies That's elizabethmarberry.com/freebies To get my monetize your IG guy. If you got some incredible value from today's episode, be sure to leave a review and subscribe on your favorite podcast platforms and I cannot wait to start it with you again next week.