As an Instagram expert I come across a lot of difference Instagram accounts; some big, some small, some successful and some not. I have managed to hone in on what makes a successful account and what doesn’t. The key ingredient on Instagram is striking a perfect balance between strategy and creativity. One must be creative enough to encourage people to follow our accounts, to take interest in our photos and to care about what our captions are but equally we must be strategic enough to know that we need to build relationships with our followers to the point that they trust our brand and they want to buy from us.
Creativity
Being creative on Instagram is important. It is a visual app and having a strong visual aspect to your Instagram account will make it stand out from the others and will make it more inspirational and aspirational to new followers. You may find that you are rather good at the creative side of Instagram and perhaps even enjoy creating a beautiful feed, however, if you are so creative that you are not making any sales from Instagram then perhaps you are missing the balance between creativity and strategy because you haven’t got a strategy on what, when and how you are posting and what you are saying.
Strategy
On the other side of the spectrum, if you are too strategic and not creative then you may be someone who sells all the time, who often focuses solely on their products and services rather than brand awareness and uses a lot of Instagram advertisement and perhaps is only focussed on an end sale or mindlessly growing vanity metrics, such as likes, followers and engagement. This may get the odd sale but it is not a long term approach to Instagram, it will put people off and you will never find true success on the app by just being strategic.
Balance
Therefore, finding the balance in the middle is key to being successful on Instagram. The best accounts are ones which lean on the creative side of being aware that it is a visual app and so are thoughtful when putting out their posts, captions, thoughts and hashtags but that understand a strategic element to it so understand a need for relationship and trust building and brand awareness to a point where the followers are ready to engage and buy from you. You can’t do one without the other.
So, the best accounts that I see are ones which have an organic growth, engagement and content strategy whilst being visual and creative with their feeds enough to make it stand out from others in their industry and make it appealing on first glance. It is all about understand that that first look that people get are at your posts and your pictures and so those need to be instantly visually and creatively appealing, however, it is taking this further and understanding that once they read the captions, the bio and once they start to follow you and understand how you interact with them in stories and the way that you write and engage; it is at that point that you start to turn what could be just aimless followers into a profitable customer base.
If you want more information on how to be strategic on Instagram then come and follow my free training group on Instagram; www.instagram.com/designyoursocials or get in touch with me to hear more about The Social Method and how you can join in on my four month strategic journey to getting your followers to Know You, Like You, Trust You and Buy From You in a supportive and accountable environment.
