Episodes

Episode 1: 5 hacks to double your Instagram following

 

Hi guys, and welcome to the very first episode of The Hayley Osborne Show, episode 1. What an amazing podcast this is going to be, sharing my wealth of marketing knowledge along with interviewing some absolutely EPIC big names from across the world and learning their secrets along the way.

Today’s episode though, I am super excited to dive straight into, discussing 5 hacks to double your Instagram following. Yes, you heard that correctly, 5 ways you can really put in the effort and double your Instagram following.

And just remember if this was easy…everybody would do it. Everyone would put in the time and dedication to really play in a space that’s transformed so many people’s lives and businesses.

We live in an age where we are so so lucky to have all these free forms of marketing at our fingertips, so, in 2021, let’s start really using them to our advantage.

Hack number 1: It’s time to be an early adopter

 

According to Instagram what’s trending now is lo-fi video: Low production equal’s high impact. This is perfect for the majority of us who have small budgets for video and really want to embrace doing these things ourselves.

With the rise of the simple creative tools on mobile, people and businesses alike are proving that low-production video can bring in high engagement.

Lo-fi style video – or videos with a DIY look and feel are trending amongst businesses and brands looking to engage customers on an authentic level.

Whether it’s reels, behind-the-scenes stories or first-person IGTV videos, the style used by most Instagrammers is popping up in everything from organic DIY videos to Super Bowl ads. The takeaway? Customers enjoy content that feels approachable and unpolished.

Guys, Instagram has said “Blend in to Stand out” – When thinking about the content that works best for your business, look no further than your customers. Businesses of all sizes (including big brands) are paying close attention to their online community to make sure the content they create resonates and inspires. It’s time for you to get in the mix and really fire up those video elements across your media.

Hack number 2: Post with emotion – hello emotional marketing!

Feeling special is on all of our agendas right? We seek these feelings in our relationships with our friends and family.

This my friends, is also the number one thing our customers want to feel when connecting to our businesses and brands. Everyone just wants to feel special.

Our feelings play a significant role in the decisions we make as consumers. I think we can all agree when we see something that makes us go “WOWWWWW”, or “OH MY GOD” what a great story, I just might follow them, like them, and even interact with them as that really resonated with me.

As a business in 2021 you need to be producing content to inspire, build trust and connect. Your customers want to know about what makes you unique, what makes you different from everyone else, and what is your defining factor that sets you apart! This is the soul of your business, the emotion of your business.

My advice…Sing this LOUD!

You may not even actually realise what this is. Believe me, nine times out of ten this is staring you right in the face. How did you get started? Why did you decide to have your business? Why did you choose the colours in your brand and why is your business logo/font the style it is?

Now, let’s be honest, sometimes we don’t always do things strategically! So, the answers to these questions may very well be simply because you were in such a rush. Supply and demand were ramping up and you needed to get it done so quickly there was literally zero time to think about anything else. This is OK. This is a great story! It’s how you spin it and tell it that will make people smile and quickly realise you’re genuine, making them want to connect with your brand.

Hello – Guess what? All of a sudden, you’re onto a winner! Thanks for coming, another engagement from your ideal client coming your way, you’ve then built trust which leads to a click through to your shopping cart.

Emotional marketing connects your audience through storytelling in a personal way, it gets those heart strings pulling.

Hack number 3: Be true to you – your authenticity and transparency is key

Welcome to the world of content marketing people! Where you get to showcase your brand and business that you’ve worked so damn hard on to the world. I said this earlier, and I’ll say it again, the best part about all of this…it’s FREE!

Your authenticity and transparency are key to showcasing your personality – your brand personality.

Doesn’t matter if you are selling a product or a service, people NEED to be able to connect with you. Inject your personality and soul into your socials through your writing; if you’re funny, be funny. If you’re opinionated or sarcastic, be those things. Your readers would much prefer getting to know YOU, the person behind the writing. After all we’re not robots SO – jump on that stage and write like you speak! Your brand personality is your golden nugget.

Fake is out of fashion – authenticity is totally in.

The real deal is the real deal. Not only do you gain respect and appreciation, but people genuinely want to connect with you. People don’t like being sold directly to. In such a cluttered market full of advertising, consumers are moving away from absorbing traditional advertising and are on the hunt for authentic content. You are being judged more and more on your ability to connect with your audience through your real content marketing – make every sentence worth its weight.

Let me tell you, big brands like Nike, Apple and Telstra are all moving this way. With the events of last year, all brands are taking a back-to-basics approach to their marketing.

I tell my strategy and coaching client’s day after day, 99% of the time your customers will always google you before they actually pick up the phone and call  OR press “continue to shopping cart” on your website. WHY? Because sitting behind a desktop or mobile is far less risky than picking up the phone.

We have been conditioned in this digital world to simply reach not too far and google away! Educating your tribe on your businesses how, what, where and when’s will gain you massive street cred.

Hack number 4: Spend time connecting with your target audience

Brainstorm the types of accounts you want to connect your business with that will have followers similar to your customers.

Follow them. Like their posts. Comment where you can. Send them a DM.

In order to grow your Instagram and social media, you need to be present in the platform on the daily.

Connect with like-minded people. Think about who your ideal online tribe is, find them

and connect with them by liking their pages and commenting on their posts. Build a

relationship online and develop a rapport.

Your followers online are important. They are the people you are speaking to and

connecting with when you post your content, it does not matter if you have 100 or 1000

followers, how engaged your audience is with your content determines the sales you will

receive as a business.

Essentially this is your networking (AND in real life, they do say your network is your net

worth…SO GET networking!).

Take your direct messages, comments and new likes seriously! Make sure you always check your direct messages, even the spam. Always respond where necessary. Reply to every single person’s comments within your feed and do so in a *super* genuine way. Then head over to their feeds and comment and like their photos. If you receive a new like, direct message them and say “hey, thanks for the like” You might even want to offer 10% off your product or service via direct message and make it super genuine so they interact with you, so they see you’re a real person behind the business and head on over to your shop to receive some discount.

If you commit to these engagement activities after you post on Instagram, this will bring more views to your latest post, your overall profile and grow your followers.

If you want to grow faster, ramp this up and put a time in your calendar for regular engagement.

Hack number 5: Use those tools – Ahh hello hashtags & locations

As majority of us know, Hashtags are the search engine within Instagram.

They help you find that one thing you’re looking for.

They help you be found!

Being found means more engagement

More engagement means more SALES (woohoo)

Using the right hashtag will encourage your current audiences’ interactions and target new

audiences – YASSS right!

According to research posts with at least 1 hashtag get 70% more likes and comments than

those posts without – ahhh WOW and how easy to do.

When it comes to picking the audience size of a Hashtag, keep it between 200K to 500K of tags.

Use the search engine to find the hashtag size and related post. If I wanted to check the size of the hashtag #socialmediacoach I would type this in the search engine. It appears to have 350K posts at the time of recording this which isn’t too bad, so I’ll add this to my list.

The reason I say keep this within a small range is so your post doesn’t get lost in the feed as millions of people are using this by the minute. If you’re using a hashtag that has over 1 Million tags, your post will be completely lost and technically that’s a waste of a hashtag as it’s so generic, you’ll be long gone before you even get there.

If you have a large account, you can use any hashtag higher than 500K tags, but I would still recommend you keep your range within a decent reach.

Another great way to utilise the hashtag is to follow your target hashtags. This helps to keep you in the loop of your industry. So, anyone that uses these hashtags will appear in your newsfeed timeline. You can stay connected to your communities without having to follow every single one, but it is as if you were following them. Instagram serves you these posts so all you have to do is stop your scroll and look. No searching required.

An extra little hack for me is I copy the most frequently used hashtags over to the notes section of my phone and keep them sorted into specific categories I talk about. I always keep them in batches of 28 or 29 instead of 30 because I use my brand hashtags in every single post. This makes it super easy for me to copy and paste quickly once I have made a post to Instagram if I haven’t pre-scheduled it. The hashtag batch then accompanies the caption, and they get sent out into the Insta sphere with love and soul together.

Some categories you might want to start filtering depending on your caption categories and photo topics are:

• Location
• Industry
• Trending
• Food
• Fitness

These social media platforms are growing faster than anyone had ever imagined and are the most powerful weapons your business needs to utilise. No one grew by doing nothing.

So as a summary of what I’ve discussed today:

• It’s time to be an early adopter
• Post with emotion
• Be true to you – your authenticity and transparency is key
• Spend time connecting with your target audience
• Use those tools – Ahh hello hashtags & locations

I hope this episode has helped to motivate and inspire you to get organised and aligned across your business strategies and social media strategies to win this year.

In the meantime, don’t miss out on bringing Soul Game to your marketing and social media strategy in 2021, download my FREE e-book, The Ultimate Guide to Building a 6 Figure Business through Instagram www.hayleyosborne.com/ultimateguide