I feel like this might be a little ‘obvious’ to some of you. To others, this might be a complete shock.
How many times have you asked yourself, “why the heck am I not growing on social media?”
You’ve added the hashtags, you’ve tagged people, you post on average a minimum of three times a day. I mean, it’s exhausting, right?
For time sake let’s talk about ‘the Gram’ here. And by Gram, I do mean Instagram. I am a total social media nerd and I have used it successfully to grow my business. If you ask anyone, I can write about Facebook or LinkedIn for days so we will leave that for next time!
I am here to throw you a bone.
Let’s consider the following:
Are you using 30 hashtags for each post?
Are they unique to your brand and to your photo? (Meaning does each post have several different hashtags. And are all the same hashtags for every single photo? Don’t be lazy!
Are you using 20 tags to tag your photo with brands, publications, and even people you admire and love in your industry?
Are you adding a location tag to your post?
Are your images nice? And by “nice”, what I mean is, that they don’t look like you took the photo in the dark or while you in a moving vehicle.
Let’s say you’ve said ‘yes’ to all of these. You feel pretty confident about it your Gram Game. Cool.
But you still don’t see ‘growth’? Right?
Cool.
Answer me this…
What’s more important to you: the number of followers or engagement?
If you answered ‘the number of followers’, you’re wrong.
It should be, engagement.
But why, Jen?
Let me explain…
First things first… social media is meant to be two things:
- Fun
- Social.
If you aren’t being ‘you’, getting personal, sharing stories, secrets etc. then you aren’t being or having fun. It probably means you’re stressing about posting or creating content because you’re too in your head. So, do yourself and society a favor and stop posting.
Secondly, social media is meant to be social. Let me say that again: SOCIAL MEDIA IS MEANT TO BE SOCIAL. What the heck does that mean? Well for starters, Instagram wants you to stay on Instagram. I mean, the more time you spend mingling (commenting), liking etc. the more likely you are to see growth.
Think of The Gram as a big global party where everyone’s hanging out judging everyone by their outfits (I know I went there). Your outfits are your pictures. If your pictures are good people will like and keep coming back to look some more, which is what you want. This means they are also more likely to read your content and start to ENGAGE with it.
Once people start talking to you, you’re building engagement. When I say “talking” I am referring to commenting on your photos and YOU commenting on others.
Now, don’t go ham and start commenting emoji’s on everyone’s accounts, you’ll just be that person no one likes at the party.
Start creating meaningful connections. Pick 10 accounts you LOVE. I mean the ones you’re absolutely obsessed with and go like and comment on their photos. Even start conversations with other people in the comments that might have commented the same thing – don’t get creepy though. Do this once in while! And do it with class!
Create authentic engagement by being authentic.
The key is to not only be interesting but BE INTERESTED. Create conversations with people you love to learn more about. I mean I would rather have 50 quality engaged followers than 500k followers who barely look at my stuff.
The Key Takeaways:
Learn to be social on social media. Don’t just post to post because you think that if you post you’ll gain followers. Actually, if you post shitty content you’ll probably lose followers. Talk about shit that matters.
Get personal. And be personal. Don’t be scared to connect with other top followers that you love about what they post. I know this takes some time, but I like to put aside 30 mins in the morning, 30 mins mid-day and then 30 mins before I go to bed where I go in on Instagram and comment, like photos. I use a timer too because we all know that sometimes that can lead to a deep dark scrolling whole!
Happy Gramming guys! If you like, love, this article, please please share and comment!
Let me know if these tips work for you! xx
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Wow. This wasn’t obvious to me at all! Thank you so much for the information. This week, I focus on hashtags on “the gram!”
Hi Donna, I am glad this was helpful! You know what they say, right? When you “know better, you do better!” 😉 Also, I have a Hashtag Curator- go to my shops! It has all top industries hashtags and you lifetime access!
Speaking of social media, I have been interested lately in travel apps where you can connect with the locals. I have heard about the app called Jetzy, and I want to know your ways of connecting with locals if don’t mind sharing!
Hey jess! Thanks for the idea. love this and i am adding it to my draft of posts. in the meantime, these are my secrets: Travello App, Meetup, and Facebook locals events. Oh! And Couch surfer has events all the time.