How To Kickstart Your Social Media Growth

Maybe you’re starting a new Instagram account or maybe you’ve been managing an account for awhile now, but you’re not seeing any growth. Whatever the case, there are tons of strategies to use that will boost your number of followers and engagement with your posts. I am in the beginning stages of building my business account on Instagram but, I have studied social media since 2008 and I’ve also noticed some trends on my personal pages. Most importantly, I am now looking towards the experts who have the followers and engagement to back up their tricks of the trade! Let’s put some of these gems they’re dropping to use and see what happens…

To get started, I want to share three things to focus on in order to kickstart your growth on social media:

1. What’s the plan?

   Planning is always the most important step. You don’t want to put your brand out there if you don’t have a plan to execute your goals. You’ll need to identify your niche and narrow it down as much as possible. You’re slimming down your audience so you can consistently provide valuable information to people who care about your product. Remember that saying, “You can’t please everyone”? Well, it’s true and this is why defining your niche is important.

   Now for the fun part—planning your posts. Ideally they will drive people to your website and ultimately get them to buy what you are selling. Do you have a blog? Turn the information you’ve already written into an engaging post, story and/or reel. If you’re just getting started like me, you can get some inspiration from websites like Pixistock. I signed up for a membership and got 30 days of post ideas. Which brings me to this piece of advice from the pros—Plan your posts for one month out. This ensures that you will post consistently and it will be easier for you to stay on brand. Plan out your content buckets, write out your captions and decide which graphics you are going to use.

2. Invest in the right tools.

   The right tools will change your life. I depend on Canva to produce stunning graphics and they have a nice stock photo collection to pull from too. There are other cool apps to use like InShot, Facetune 2, Vimeo Create, etc. Usually there are free features and then you have to spend a little money to get the coolest features. Spend the money! You can’t build your brand for free. And, you want to stand out rather than do what everyone else is doing.

   I suggest utilizing tools like Trello and AirTable to help keep all of your ideas organized. And then you’ll need a social media management system to schedule your posts. I’ve used Hootsuite, Sprout, Buffer and now I’m using my personal favorite of all—Loomly.

3. Create & post with confidence!

   You might want to give yourself a time limit to create your graphic element because this can take forever and the reality is that perfection does not exist. What’s most important is that you are posting often and the information is clear, valuable and visually appealing. To build your following and engagement, you want your content to be save-worthy and shareable. When you know you are teaching your audience something and adding value to their lives, you can post with confidence.

Do you have any tricks to share about your planning process? What are your favorite tools? Please share your answers in the comments.