(Skarlet Shuplat is an Instagram Specialist for Pet Pros. She recently published on LinkedIn the following Instagram primer for novices. I asked her to allow me to guest post it here; more than a few entrepreneurs and small business owners may be thinking of by-passing social media managers to carry out their own digital presence in 2021. I don’t advise that, but if you are, this is solid advice to help you with your launch.)
Starting a new Instagram account from scratch is a big undertaking, but there are a few easy steps you can take to set yourself up for success.
- Know your audience. Knowing who you are talking to helps you refine your message and engage with the right people.
- Set up your bio to appeal to your target audience.
- Decide what aesthetic you’d like your feed to have and pay attention to this when posting new photos.
- Be authentic. Your audience wants to see images and read captions that are true to who you are.
- Use relevant hashtags.
- Post consistently at least once per day.
- Make your first 6-12 posts so that your first few followers have a full feed of content.
- Learn the ins and outs of the Instagram Algorithm so you don’t do anything it’s not happy with.
- Start engaging with people you want in your audience and those who have an audience similar to yours. You should try to spend 60 minutes a day doing this.
This is obviously a super short explanation of the best practices for growth. If you’d like something that goes a little more in detail, shoot me a DM and I’ll send you my ebook about how I grow new accounts to 1,000 followers in the first month.
You got this! ☺
(Thanks Skarlet!)
