Building a successful Instagram is much like growing a plant... hard work and a long process!
As all plant mum and dads know, it takes time and a lot of patience to see your slightly weird-looking seedling turn into a beautiful, flourishing plant đȘŽ
Just like a Fiddle Leaf Fig, you canât expect to build a mega Instagram platform overnight, take it from us. Blood, sweat, tears, and late nights spent recording Reels, we've seen and felt it all.
With that being said, it is possible to set up your Instagram for success â weâve broken it down into an easy alliteration called The 3 C's of essential areas to optimise for a successful Instagram.
Clarity
First up we have Clarity! An important step towards a successful Instagram page; if you donât know who you are and what you offer, then your followers sure as heck wonât know. Your followers will only know what you put out there; tell them who you are, what you do and why they should follow you (which will ultimately lead them to your services) right away in your âabout youâ section!
The Instagram username, searchable name, bio and profile picture are the first point of contact for any new follower. Think of it as your portfolio, business card, and landing page all in one â promote the hell out of your small business!
Think: brand colours, emojis, keywords and links.
Hot tip!
Use keywords in the ânameâ field of your bio instead of your actual name. This field is searchable, so be sure to use words your followersâand customersâwill be using to search for services that you offer!
For example, we changed ours from âLexicon Creativeâ to âCopywriting and Social media agencyâ, becase we already had the former in our @ handle. Keywords are golden.
Content
We all know creating content is hard. Sigh. But have you ever heard of the age-old saying âquality over quantityâ?
While an Instagram page that churns out content may seem like itâs thriving, if itâs not content that is actively engaging with your target audience then you may as well post photos of your doggo (heck, it might even get more likes). #dogsofinstagram
So, what is quality content? Content that engages your target audience with what they want to see!
4 main posts to include in your content cycle that will successfully boost engagement:
đ„Educational
How can you teach your followers? Try fun facts, industry secrets, value-adds they can't simply 'Google', mistakes youâve learned or seen others do, and statistics about your industry.
đ„Promotional
What are you selling? Tell us more about you, your business ethos, your clients/customers, reviews, and your services.
đ„Entertainment
Everyone loves a little entertainment in their life! Share some tweets, memes or fun Reels that creatively relate back to you and your business yet show your personality.
đ„Community
Engage with the community! A great way to do so is by including question boxes and polls in your Feed and in Stories for followers to have their say.
Hot tip!
Canva is your new best friend! Say goodbye to low-key-confusing, hard-to-understand Photoshop and welcome Canva to your life. With easy-to-use templates and the ability to create a brand kit â itâs all youâll ever need as a small business owner.
Community
With over 1.44 billion Instagram users, itâs important to find your niche and own it! Know your target audience and engage with them.
Take 10 minutes out of your schedule (just do it while you're on the loo... yeah I said that!) and channel your inner social media manager to scroll with intention. Engage with hashtags, followers and accounts you admire and leave meaningful comments, not just emojis. Be genuine and comment how you would want to be commented on.
Hot Tip!
Stories are a great tool to use to build trust and relatability with your followers. Donât be afraid to get on camera and chat with your audience.
We know first-hand how nerve-racking putting yourself on the worldwide web can be, but it will make all the difference with your followers. To learn more about getting on camera check out our free masterclass, âConfidence on Cameraâ!
Wrapping it up
The 3 Câs, while easy to remember, can be challenging to bring from your mind to your feed in actionable ways. You canât build a successful Instagram page overnight, but you can set yourself a goal each day to work on one of the Câs to set yourself up for success.
It takes on average 66 days to learn a new skill â so put in the time and youâll see your Instagram page flourish! Donât beat yourself up if it doesnât magically happen in one week, keep consistent⊠youâve got this.
At Lexicon Creative, we believe in the power of a good social media strategy.
We are taking waitlisters for our new online course "Social Media Made Simple", based on our successful Simplified Socials Coaching Course 8-week course built to give you the confidence, consistency and strategy to amplify your social media page!
Interested? Join the waitlist to be the first to know the release date!
Check out what some of our past students had to say:
âYou will walk away feeling a lot less stressed! Alexia is full of knowledge. Social media is filled with so many different avenues and you literally learn something new each week!â
â Alyse, The Stylistâs Guide
âI loved it and would definitely recommend it! Itâs so professional and Alexia is so good at teaching all the things! You will learn so much more and also how to be organised.â
â Lashes and Brows by Georgie
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