Answering Your Q’s: How do I grow my audience on Instagram and YouTube?
For Q&A Tuesday, you asked us for our advice about how to grow an audience on Instagram and YouTube, especially for those who have less than 3K followers. Keep reading to get the same insights, advice and strategies that we share with the Influencers we represent.
Consistency
Consistency will make or break your momentum. If you can't create content throughout the week commit to pre-filming or shooting your content in bulk and then space your content out every 2-3 days. Keep forgetting to post? Peak time is the middle of your shift? Subscribe to an auto-publishing app like Later. It's free if you're scheduling 30 posts or less a month and $12.50 USD to for up to 60 posts a month. They also share the best posting times based on engagement results collected from their platform.
Mutually Beneficial Relationships
One crucial mistake we see is not engaging with the people who are liking and commenting on your pictures regularly. Your audience wants to connect with you and be acknowledged by you. If you get 100 comments or less in a week on your posts and you don't take the time to comment back or at least like their comments... you're slacking friend. "Honor the people who believe in you" - Jamie Kern Lima, IT Cosmetics Founder
Community. Community. Community.
When it comes to growing an audience Community is Queen.
So many people make the mistake of trying to do this alone. Isn't the whole purpose to connect with people? Finding your tribe is so key and easy if you can get over the fear of rejection. WHO CARES if that person left you on read, blew you off or just flat out said no to your super well written and witty coffee date invite. They just didn't happen to be one of the millions of awesome people already on Instagram who DO have the same interests as you and WANT to meet new people in the same creative spaces as them.
Besides gaining a #girlboss to add to your favourites, you'd be surprised how many followers you each can gain when you tag each in pictures, videos and stories, even when you comment on each other's posts. Discuss how you can strategically promote each other to build a larger community that has plenty of room for everyone to shine. No fail, every time we've been tagged in or shouted out on IG Stories it always follows with a burst in followers and engagement on posts for us. Same goes for the Influencers we work with, we love seeing them sharing content that inspires them from other creators on the team. Don't be afraid to put your followers on to other content creators that are doing awesome things in their space. Spread positive energy and it'll come back tenfold.
Boosting Your Posts
There's no shame in investing to promote yourself, especially if it's done well. One strategy we recommend:
The content you boost should be Staple Content (content you post regularly that typically has high engagement) or a teaser leading to a valuable resource.
Promoting A New YouTube Video
Create a teaser video for Instagram (no more than 30 seconds) and pair it with a caption that catches attention. "Can you picture this look with that outfit you've been dying to rip the tags off? Just uploaded the tutorial, come check it out on my YT channel and let's get cute together".
Promoting Your Page
Your caption could be something as simple as: "I've got you covered for office-friendly outfit inspo! Discount codes too ;)".
Link A Resource
Here are 3 examples of helpful resources you can link in your bio and share as a downloadable PDF:
- Discount Codes to My Top 10 Favourite Brands Right Now
- 5 Recipes I've Added To My Weeknight Staples List
- 5 Books That Changed My Life
Link A Shopping Page
There are shopping pages that allow you to recommend thousands of products and categorize them into themed lists. Affiliate links + rewards? Yes, please. A few we recommend:
- LIKEtoKNOW.it via rewardStyle
We want to hear from you! What strategies are you most excited to put into practice? What was your biggest takeaway? How did these strategies perform for you? Leave us a comment down below and share this post with someone who could use it.
