Zero to Hero | The Creator's Guide To Instagram 0-10K
If At First You Don’t Succeed…
If at first you don’t succeed, then try and try again. This well known sentiment has served me well over the past few years where I have learned a few extremely hard but important lessons on achieving my goals in work and life. In fact, I struggled greatly with gaining any momentum at all across my social media platforms in the early days of The Wardrobe Blog. Finally, after repeatedly reaching many dead ends I uncovered the fundamentals of social media success and now I’ve decided to share what I have learned. Like many of you reading this, I am dedicated to creating beautiful content and inspiring others with what I produce. The hard reality is that this cannot be achieved without an audience, so together let’s make that happen!
In today’s blog post I want to share with you what I have learned about Instagram, and how to implement a social media strategy that will work for you. I’ll also be writing a dedicated blog post on this topic coming soon. Since reaching 10k on Instagram I decided it’s finally time for a tell all on this notorious platform, with the fundamental tools you need to experiment with for growing your Instagram along with resources, foundation and purpose.
Zero to Hero | The Creator's Guide To Instagram 0-10K
The Creator's Guide To Instagram 0-10K | Recognise Your Resources
I started The Wardrobe Blog with big dreams. In the beginning I committed all my time and energy to creating and maintaining high quality work for my blog and social media with very little rewards. I was deeply frustrated that I could not reach a wider audience, create more traction, and grow! I suffered from what I like to call the fatal artist’s focus. In other words I believed that creating ‘great’ work alone would automatically result in success. I cannot express enough how wrong this way of thinking is, and how detrimental it can be to your creativity, your goals, and your general well being. After finding myself continually questioning my efforts, choices and even my skills and abilities, I decided to ditch my insecurities and deep dive into researching the strategy of success. Eventually I began to discover the truth about online social media strategy. It’s nothing to do with quality, despite what you’ve been told. It’s about quantity of three ingredients of marketing strategy: Positioning, Purpose, and Planning. It begins with understanding the aim of the game! Today’s game, is Instagram.
Understanding social media, and Instagram from a simpler perspective is easy when you start thinking of the internet as a bustling city. In every city there are areas with groups of people, and the businesses in each community that reflect the area. This brings us to the first step of Instagram growth - Positioning. When you are trying to grow on Instagram you want to consider the different areas or niches within Instagram and where you would fit in. Which communities would be receptive to what you offer? Who would benefit the most from seeing, reading, and consuming the content you create? Think about the types of businesses and the people they attract in different parts of your favourite local city. Consider a few real world examples you’re familiar with. Here in Auckland we have Ponsonby which is the alternative location for people seeking something fancy but a little bit different and cultured, whereas if you are seeking the the most high end brands then the commercial district of New Market is much better suited for you. Considering business placement within each community is essential in the physical strategy of marketing in the real world, it’s part of the four principles marketers use called ‘positioning’ and it’s also essential as your first strategy in the online world of Instagram.
The Creator's Guide To Instagram 0-10K | Provide Purpose
Once you have considered the positioning of your business, next you’ll need to offer something of value - that’s where providing purpose is helpful. You may be thinking, but how on earth will I get seen if Instagram is a city saturated with business? That’s why understanding where you fit in is so important, because once you position yourself to the best audience, and you provide value for them, this directs more eyes to your work! Remember that learning these skills take time, I did a degree in Business Psychology to learn most of what I am sharing here but if you’d like to learn more I suggest researching the four principles of marketing and what is known in the marketing world as STP - Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning. All of these topics are relevant and very useful to growing your Instagram.
Don’t be afraid to stand out by sharing a different perspective of opinion in order to get eyes on the prize. Remember it’s not about your content, it’s about the conversation you create. Providing purpose gives you an effective strategy to reach people who are looking for what you share and why you share it. Use questions, provoke conversation, remember the old adage of any publicity is good publicity. The more alternative, interesting and thought provoking your ideas are the better!
“It’s not about the content, it’s about the conversation.”
The Creator's Guide To Instagram 0-10K | Framework Fundamentals
Finally, If your positioning and purpose is set up with laser focus, then this final stage is simple. Learning and understanding how the heart of this process works is essential to growing your social media and was the first essential tool I used for my own Instagram. Facebook adverts manager covers both Facebook and Instagram now, each platform has advertising delivery options and they are essential to understand. Growing your Instagram is about strategy first, content second but this doesn’t mean it’s not a lot of hard work and energy!
Understanding the basic framework of a platform like Instagram may sound simple but grasping a full understanding of the details will give you the most valuable insights to achieving growth and engagement. Instagram may be a photo sharing application, but it’s more than that. It’s about story telling, and every feature plays a role in helping you do this. Don’t work against the tide, work with it. Learning what Instagram wants from YOU as a user, can help you to essentially ‘feed’ it what it wants, and Instagram will reward you with higher organic growth as a result. Great places to learn about Instagram include the platform itself which has a dedicated information website section all about each feature and how it works including tutorials for creators here. Platform fundamentals include the obvious - use the platform how it was intended to be used, this means using new features, the earlier the better, along with being consistent, and using every feature with precise purpose.
If you could only take away one piece of advice from this blog post that would help you on your creative journey, it’s to remember to make your content easy to digest. Your purpose, positioning and planning will be pointless without clarity. Make it easy for people to find, read and understand exactly what you are trying to communicate with every post, story, caption, and image you share. Provide precise purpose with call to action, and don’t be afraid to tell your audience what you want them to do! Are you selling an artwork? Give the specifications of it and tell them how to purchase it. Are you wanting engagement to grow your following? Tell your audience to tag a friend, comment below, or follow you for more content. Be specific, simple, and straight forward in your communication online. The truth of social media success on Instagram does not lie in magical spells or confusing algorithm analysis, it lies within you and how you share of yourself for the benefit of others over yourself. Be bold, be better and be brave!
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Based in Christchurch, New Zealand.
