How To Grow Your Audience on Instagram

Growing your audience on Instagram is something we are all after…all the time. In fact, it’s probably your number one goal as a business owner. But how do you do it? My number one answer is through REELS!

Now don’t worry, I’m going to spare you some of my “reely” bad puns that I’ve been throwing out trying to convince you guys that short-form video is the way to go. Maybe…

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW WHEN CREATING REELS

If you don’t already know, these are basically short videos you can record, edit and add music to, then post to Instagram in your feed or stories. They can be up to 60 seconds long and are the perfect way to give your business more exposure.

• Figure out your target audience: If you haven’t figured this out yet, this is where you need to start. Before you move on to any of the next steps, they won’t do you any good if this is not nailed down. You need to know what types of reels your audience wants to see! Reels give you the opportunity to get personal and show your real self and connect with your audience. So it’s imperative you know who you are trying to connect with.
• Promote the right content: Get creative. Yes, it’s good to focus on your business, but change it up a bit to keep things interesting. Show your personal side a bit, try a how-to video, share some advice or knowledge about a particular subject that your ideal customer would find interesting. This will build up trust with your audience and halpe to break up the same old same old.?
• Use native reels: In order to make sure you are using the Instagram algorithm to it’s fullest extent, you want to make sure youre reels are getting seen by people who don’t yet follow you. And the best way to do this is to make sure your reels do NOT contain any sort of third party logos or watermarks. Instagram only wants to push out reels that were made within their platform. So try and stick with that, or at least clean them up enough so that they look like you created them there.
• Use text: Adding text or subtitles to your reels is super important. We already know that a lot of people view reels and social media platforms without the sound on, so you want to catch people’s attention by providing text they can read rather than a reel they can only listen to. But aside from that, Instagram’s algorithm actually favors videos with text. So including text will not only get you more views and engagement, but will also get you seen by more people!
• Try a custom thumbnail: Doing this can create a more cohesie look for your brand and make you a bit more recognizeable. Not to mention it gives more of an idea of what your content is about.?

STILL NEED HELP?

Trust me, you don’t want to miss the boat on creating reels just because they seem a bit confusing. If you want to grow your following (and don’t we all), reels are a must!

So if you’re not even sure where to start when it comes to creating a reel, check out this blog post that helps simplify the process so you can dive in slowly. I also take a deep dive here with Kendra Swalls who has so many great tips for creating and optimizing reels. So whether you’ve been doing them a while, or are new to the game, it’s a great episode to help you fine tune your reels or just get you going in the right direction.

And if you still need some ideas or direction, don’t hesitate to reach out!