Ask an Expert: How to Boost Your Engagement and Build a Following on Instagram
We’ve been spending a lot of time at Create & Cultivate HQ discussing how we can best show up for and support our community during this uncertain time. Community is at our core, and connecting with others through one-of-a-kind experiences is what we love to do. While the world has changed, our mission has not. We’re committed to helping women create and cultivate the career of their dreams, which is why we’re proud to announce our new Ask an Expert series. We’re hosting discussions with experts, mentors, and influencers daily on Instagram Live to cure your craving for community and bring you the expert advice you’ve come to know and love from C&C. Follow Create & Cultivate on Instagram, check out our Ask an Expert highlight reel for the latest schedule, and hit the countdown to get a reminder so you don’t miss out!
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Have you ever found yourself on a rollercoaster of emotion when it comes to Instagram? One day you’re flying high and people are clamoring to engage with your content—and the next? You’re shouting into the void with only crickets to respond. It’s time to ditch the not-so-fun ride and cruise into sustainable growth, engagement, and community building.
In this installment of our Instagram Live series Ask an Expert, Dre Fox, the CEO and founder of TimeOfDre Media, lays out a framework to follow to boost engagement, build sustainable growth, and cultivate a community on Instagram. Scroll on for her tried and true tips and be sure to follow Create & Cultivate on Instagram to tune into our next Ask an Expert Live.
Why Does Engagement Matter?
Instagram is a fickle platform that judges success by your ability to create conversation and interest amongst your online community—a.k.a. you keep people on the platform. So IG favors those that receive high engagement as a way to incentivize that creator to keep going, but also the platform reaps the rewards of your community building.
In short, the more engagement—likes, comments, and shares—you get, the more Instagram will push you in front of new eyes.
Engagement Is Not What You Think!
Creating an online community is not a product of spending 10 hours a day on the platform dropping “cute pic” comments on everyone that you see, it’s the product of alignment.
Here is how I like to break it down:
When your message, your audience, and your content are all aligned, you can easily boost your engagement, your following, and your impact within the online space.
So, Let’s Break It Down
Find Your Niche
The specialist advantage or “your niche” is the most critical piece to nail on your Instagram page, because if your profile is hard to understand, most won’t click “follow,” which results in lower engagement.
So ask yourself, what topic or area can I provide the most insight or help to someone else in the online space? This doesn’t mean you need to be an award-winning expert or a top person in that space, but where can you draw the most insight and knowledge?
We want you to be a “go-to” or a wealth of knowledge to one group of people!
Attract People Who are Invested in You
If you truly want more engagement, you’ll want to have an audience of people that are invested in your content and inspired by your words. That can’t be created when your audience is filled with the wrong people.
So your first task is to revamp your bio to be geared towards your new topic and the people that would be interested in your niche. The goal here is that once you’ve made over your bio, you can hand your phone to a stranger and they’d be able to clearly state what you do and what you talk about!
Create Valuable Content
Think back to the best friend or mentor you ever had. They likely helped you, made you feel good about yourself, made you think deeper and pushed you to be better. This is your job on social media as well!
People are HIGHLY attracted to those that add value to their lives, for free.
So, identify the top 10 problems someone in your niche is having and break it into the following categories:
Tips
Example: 3 tips about (problem 1)
Advice
Example: Ways to avoid (problem 2)
Resources
Example: Struggling with (problem 3)? Here are some apps for….
Once you start creating value-driven content for your aligned audience, engagement will naturally increase without having to spend hours a day engaging.
Be a Champion of Others
Picture this, you get a nice comment, a thoughtful comment on your post from someone, you take a look at their profile and realize they’re speaking about topics you have interest in—you are clicking follow and bingeing their posts.
Conversely, you get a “cute pic” comment from an account that has nothing to do with your topic. You’re not going to follow them, right?
It’s pretty simple really, engagement is most effective when your heart is actually in the game and you’re trying to build an audience of like-minded people, not collecting likes.
Some best practices around active audience building is to comb through related hashtags and competitor accounts for people that will LOVE your content. Reach out, leave them a nice comment, engage with their stories and encourage a future relationship!
Once they are able to pop over to your page and see that you have amazing and helpful content, they’ll click that “follow” button and become a long term fan.
So What Does This All Mean?
It means that engagement is not about working more or working harder to scour the internet, it’s about being intentional and thoughtful with the relationship we are building. Having that narrow focus and an audience full of excited fans will carry your account much further than one full of thousands of dead accounts.
It’s time to niche down, create more value for others and spend your time creating relationships—the true secret to increased engagement!
About the Expert: Dre Fox is the founder and CEO of TimeOfDre Media, a Forbes and Washington Post featured social media agency located in Austin, Texas. After many years of helping Fortune 500 companies improve their social experience and brand awareness online, Dre was inspired to focus on building the brands of small businesses and public figures. Her core passion is helping people just like you, realize their dreams online.
Right now, TimeOfDre is offering 30% off The Elevated Instagram, a foundational Instagram course using code: CC30 for all readers of Create and Cultivate. Please check out Dre over at Instagram for more free social media advice each day.