Do you have an Instagram growth strategy?
You should have one if you use Instagram for business purposes and your target audience is on Instagram.
Why you need an Instagram growth strategy is evident. Your relevant audience needs to both see your posts and be reminded about you regularly.
Tons of accounts are trying to win the attention of your target audience.
Even if you won it last week or before the summer doesn’t mean you are winning it right now.
Especially those whose social media accounts were on hiatus over the recent summer, have to restart the engines and get back on track.
Why a social media growth strategy is key for professionals using social media
It is difficult to get any conversion value out of any social media without reach.
I live and work in a country of 5,5 million people.
The mere size of our country limits the size of our social media audiences when we post in our native Finnish.
It seems to me that many social media algorithms prefer pushing our content to our local or national audience. This is a problem for me because, for a while now, I’ve wanted to grow my brand outside Finland. So I started to post in English.
However, this strategic decision to change the language of my posts has decreased my reach and impressions on social media. LinkedIn is currently my biggest challenge because I have a considerable audience on LinkedIn and really struggle with visibility.
TikTok is another challenge because I’m new to TikTok and really want to grow my audience.
Yet, TikTok shows my posts mainly for Finnish or Nordic users. But it seems they prefer to watch content in their own language.
I had this same challenge on Instagram for a long time.
Until I noticed a content pattern that positively influenced the reach of my content and the size of my audience. And I want to share it with you.
My three-step Instagram growth strategy
These are the three primary steps I am now taking on Instagram to grow my reach and drive conversions.
1: Talking repeatedly about the topics I need my relevant audience to be interested in.
For me, this is employer branding, content marketing, copywriting and persuasive communications.
I primarily need to reach people working in HR, employer branding and talent acquisition.
The choice of sharing educational content instead of promotional has been a successful content strategy for more than 10 years.
Not only am I delivering quick value for my audience, but I am also building their trust in my expertise.
This helps me to segment my target audience to those who enjoy learning and developing their skills.
However, this is not enough for branding purposes.
I also need to differentiate myself from other accounts targeting the same audiences with similar educational content.
My differentiators are:
- my Magnetic Employer Branding Method™️
- my tone of voice
- my brand colours
But not just that.
2: Adding the personal side and stories to your content strategy increases your attractiveness
I discovered from data that my audience is more interested in my whole account when I also share about myself and my life. Not just educational content.
This doesn’t mean I share everything. It means I decide which parts of me and my life I share.
I share things I personally enjoy and find interesting.
This attracts an audience of life-long learning HR, talent acquisition and employer branding people who also find my personality and lifestyle appealing.
For a long time, I thought no one cared about my lifestyle and life, but they do.
And that is the dot on the i when it comes to totally differentiating from your competition.
Guess what? The same applies to employer branding..
Marketing coaches keep saying how your professional profile should be 100% work. I disagree.
It is the total content you share that impacts the overall reach. My audience doesn’t seem to want the educational work content all the time.
In fact, they quite enjoy the occasional post about stuff outside mine and their work.
Now I know that this content is equally important to me and my brand. It makes me who I am and differentiates me from everyone else providing the same services.
This is what branding is.
My audience chooses me because they also find these other sides of me appealing.
3: Having conversations and proactively connecting with new people
I’m naturally introverted, but I easily connect with people online.
That’s how I noticed the impact of me initiating conversations and engaging my followers’ posts on Instagram. I also regularly follow people who I would like to follow me back on Instagram.
In addition to having conversations as comments on their posts, I also chat with people on my DM.
These have proven to be a super good strategy for growth. I recommend them wholeheartedly to you as well! Regardless of whether you are growing your own account or your company’s account on Instagram.
By international standards, I’m still an Instagram nobody in terms of the size of my audience.
But I’m starting to be on the micro-influencer spectrum in the Finnish market size.
And I am actively using these three tips to continue to grow on Instagram beyond Finland.
Other actions I take to grow on social media
In addition to these three regular steps, I also have other tools under my belt.
These are:
- Using lead generators to grow my email list for my business
- Advertising my lead generators to expand reach for conversions
- Occasionally promoting specific content, such as selected podcast episodes with paid advertising to grow my podcast-audience
- Testing and trying other tools, apps and means to meet the growth goals connected with value-conversion goals for my business
- Collaboration posts and content with other accounts
What about TikTok and LinkedIn growth?
I still haven’t figured out TikTok. If you have tips for me on this, I’m open to hearing them!
LinkedIn, I did figure it out.
When I changed my language from my native Finnish to English on my posts, my reach (impressions on LinkedIn) literally dropped overnight.
The problem is we need those impressions and reach. Those mean how many people are shown our posts.
When they drop, it’s like you have your weekly gig, and suddenly, you have just a few people in your audience. It’s not because they stopped liking you but because they are unaware of your show. The post office stopped delivering your message to them.
I learned that to grow the reach of my posts and profiles, I need to post more in Finnish. However, this would mean double work for me and doesn’t sound fascinating.
I’m willing to do this occasionally on LinkedIn. On TikTok we started with a company account for Finnish content only. This clearly works.
The small market challenge for business growth
Especially in such a small market as Finland, the number of your followers isn’t as relevant. What is relevant is who your followers are, and that your content also reaches your relevant non-followers.
If you don’t have a massive audience on Instagram, tailor your content to your specific audience. This helps more people like them to find you.
Now that I want to expand outside Finland, I need a much larger audience. And that seems to take time. I’m willing to put in the hours if I see value converted for my business. That’s why I also change my strategies on socials if something no longer works.
Not that I dislike Finland, but my darling motherland, you are too small for my business goals!
Follow me on Instagram | Follow me on TikTok | Connect with me on LinkedIn
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