How to grow your business on Instagram in 2023.
These tips are great for setting up your account for the first time, plus some higher level tips for those who have been around IG for a while.
How to Grow Your Business On Instagram: Getting Started
When you first set up your Instagram account, it’s important to get set up the right way.
Profile
Here are the steps to set up your Instagram profile for success.
1.Username
What you choose for a username is not that critical; claim whatever you can claim that works for you and your brand.
2. Name
What does really matter is the name you choose for the account – that is searchable. You do not want a sexy tagline for this. Instead, do some research and use keywords. For me that means things like:
- business coach
- blogger
- business coach
- somatic healing
I also include my name. That’s optional; it’s good for brand awareness.
3. Category
For your category on Instagram, choose the industry that most closely matches your business.
4. Instagram Bio
One great way to structure your Instagram bio is as an “I help” statement. Add your year established and any other details of interest.
5. The Link
You can use Linktree, but I prefer to create a page on my website that looks like a linktree – because that way, I get the traffic.
As an example, here’s my bio and link:
Business Coach | Somatic Healing
Entrepreneur
▹Grow a joyful business AND life | Heal your #wealthwound and indulge in dreams you thought were out of reach
▹EST 2011. Coach+marketer+innovator
alisonreeves.co/monetize
6. Photo
For your profile photo, you can use a good photo of your face, or a photo of a product if you are more product focused. The main thing is to not change it too often, because people will memorize what it looks like and associate it with your brand.
Finally, use a business or creator profile, not a personal account, for your Instagram account.
Types of Content to Use to Grow Your Business on Instagram
Posts, Videos and Reels
Posts, videos, and reels all show up in your feed.
Videos that are 90 seconds or shorter will be prioritized as a reel. You can have longer videos, but they will not get as many views. Shorter videos are much more likely to go viral than longer ones.
Types of posts
Just having text over a brand color has been working very well for me, lately. Photos of yourself are not required. Carousels are doing really well right now!
Everything in your feed should be content that is very specific to your business
Instagram Stories
Instagram stories only live for 24 hours. They can be about absolutely anything: funny memes, life stuff, whatever. They are great for engagement. Before doing a business post, I’ll post a few good memes in stories to get views up.
Live video
Live videos need to be super relevant to your audience. If you post a live video and it’s not relevant, you are only attracting people who won’t buy.
Growth
Video
To grow in 2023, you will have to do short form video; Instagram is strongly prioritizing video. You don’t have to dance, or talk, or even BE in the video. My most successful video to date doesn’t have me in it.
Using trending audio in your videos is a good way to get more views.
Engaging in hashtags
It used to be that you needed to use hashtags in your post to be found, but that no longer needed. Instagram is good at figuring out what you are about these days.
However, hashtags are great for finding people who could be your avatar.
I used to look for competitors, look at their hashtags, and engage with people who are using those hashtags.
Now, instead, I find a competitor and see what hashtags they are using. I click on those hashtags and I look at the top people using the hashtag.
THEN I look at the posts from the top people, look at who is engaged with those posts, and I engage with THOSE people. Those will really, really be your people.
More great ways to grow on Instagram:
- Following people – pay attention to ratio of followers to following. You don’t want to be following tons and tons more people than follow you.
- Collaborations
- Go live on each other’s pages
- Friends and communities
- FB groups and friends
Curating visibility
This is a critical part of business growth on Instagram: we don’t want to just wait for the algorithm to see us – we want to force that growth if we can.
One way to do that is with strategic content. Posts need to be super specific to your audience – no generic motivational posts!
Instead, try these:
- Unpopular opinions
- Things you know your avatar is struggling with
- Cross post to FB business, linked in
- Always relevant – motivational quotes that are polarizing only
Types of content
The three basic types of content that you want to use on Instagram are:
- Inspirational: motivational content, quotes, mindset work
- Aspirational: testimonials, results, etc.: “I want to be like you, or like your clients”
- Educational: you’ll want more educational content than other kinds. This can include mistakes people are making, what used to work and no longer does. This is where you want to share the what, but don’t give away all of your how.
How do I actually start doing all this?
The biggest factor in structuring your approach to content is your personality.
There are two basic types of workflow: you can batch content, or write from an inspired place in the moment. Either one works – just choose the one that lines up with the way you like to work.
Either way, think about themes. You can choose monthly themes, weekly, or both. Themes should be centered around what you are doing at the time – a workshop, a launch, etc.
How To Get Started
If you have any questions about this, I would recommend booking a call. We can have a conversation about this or anything else you need help with in your own business.
