Reach More People by Keeping It Real!

Business owners large and small utilize Instagram to build relationships. Whether you are posting every day or every week, you’re likely seeing some levels of engagement with your business account. The volume of content available on Instagram is growing by the day. And as such, it can be a real challenge getting your messages in front of the right audience.

Think about why you have your Instagram business account in the first place. You likely set-up your account to reach your target audience, to let the world know about your products or services, and to establish credibility for your business. But what’s the secret to getting your posts seen and delivered to the right people?

The big, giant, enormous secret is…

To simply be your true and authentic self. If your business was built from the heart and you are passionate about it, your audience will be engaged with your content if it’s in line with that passion.

The Instagram Algorithm, although forever changing, recognizes and rewards accounts with high engagement.

What does this mean?

It means that the algorithm values authenticity over popularity. The Instagram algorithm rewards engaged accounts. It ranks posts for individual users based on number of factors such as relationship, timing, comments, likes, shares (cough. . . . engagement rate), profile searches and more.

For example…

An account with 3000 followers that gets an average of 50 likes, comments, shares, has an engagement rate of 1.7%.

Whereas an account with only 500 followers that also averages 50 likes, comments, and shares per post, has an engagement rate of 10%.

What does this mean?

It means you should never get sucked into the schemes of buying followers, whether they are fake or real. If you are thinking about buying fans or trying to inflate your followers with other hacks, let me CAUTION you… it will never help you connect with the people who you want to see your product. In fact, it will actually hurt your cause.  

The math here is simple. By purchasing followers, or trying to add them in any other way aside from organically, you are knowingly adding to the denominator, without and growth to the numerator. The majority of those “fans” you purchased are never going to like, comment, or share your posts. And when you have a high number of followers but a low number of likers… your engagement rate drops.

Take these words to heart: Instagram is not a popularity contest. You could have all the fans in the world, but if your engagement levels are low, your posts will be ranked lower, and thus seen by fewer people. Instagram values real, authentic content over spammy, bot-like behavior. By valuing real, individual relationships, we are ultimately responsible for how successful our Instagram accounts become. When you connect with the right people, there is no limit to the success that can be found on this platform!

Putting yourself out there isn’t always easy…

It can be challenging to think of creative, eye-catching content that resonates with people day in and day out. The best way to find out what’s going to click with people is to make yourself a part of the conversation. To create authentic engagement, we need to create content that solves our customer’s problems. We need to think about what makes us relatable to others and what we can do to help others grow.  By pivoting your focus from followers to relationships, your Instagram account will grow organically and will be followed by the people who you want to see your content.

Always remember… when it comes to Instagram, engagement is GOLD!

If you would like to learn more about creating authentic, informational, and relatable content for your business, the team at Ellen Grace is always here to help! Check out our Insta, then get in touch!