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October 2016 Performance Report

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This month was very exciting for my business. While I did start slow, I got a lot accomplished. Out of all of the months, October represents the month in which I got more of the previously stated goals accomplished from the prior performance report than any other month.

Without any further adieu, let’s dive in.

 

Total Social Media Domination (TSMD)

I am happy to say that I have published my TSMD membership site. The reason you haven’t heard much about it yet is because I’m still working on a few final adjustments.

Before I share it to the world, I need to polish the copy and dashboard. I’ll also have to upload some of the final videos and create a schedule for me to update the membership site.

But the bulk of it (about 90%) is done. For now, here’s a screenshot to whet your appetite.

total social media domination

 

ConvertKit

The swap between iContact and ConvertKit is virtually over. My critical landing pages have made the complete switch. It’s just a matter of getting some email addresses moved over. With October technically not over yet, this is something I can very easily do in the last few days.

 

Public Speaking Gigs

I am in the process of landing public speaking gigs. I sent out almost a dozen pitches to different events. My new plan is to focus on getting local speaking events which are easier to get. These events will help build credibility and result in more events later on.

In addition to credibility, speaking at local events puts you in front of more people, and in particular, more event organizers who can land you more public speaking gigs.

I am more than happy to speak at public speaking events even if they are free because in any public speaking gig, there’s money to be earned. Even if you don’t get paid to speak, you can offer your product or service to the audience. If you get some sales that way, then it was worth it (or if you want credibility it’s also worth it).

 

StatusBrew

I began using a new tool called StatusBrew to grow my Twitter and Instagram accounts. While the Instagram capabilities are limited due to Instagram’s API rules, Twitter growth has no limits as far as API is concerned.

StatusBrew interested me for a few reasons. The big reason being that it’s the only tool I know of that helps you unfollow Instagram users not following you back while enabling Twitter auto DMs.

While I have been strongly against auto DMs and it’s something people encourage you not to do, I have responded to some of the DM call-to-actions I have received over the years.

So I decided to test one out. I currently have an auto DM promoting my eBook 27 Ways To Get More Retweets On Twitter.

I modeled my copy after some copy that recently attracted my attention. It’s too early to tell whether auto DMs work. I will have a better viewpoint a month from now.

 

InstaPower

I am at a position in which any relevant Instagram photos I post will automatically exceed 50 likes. I am very excited about Instagram’s potential for my business. I finally found some extra time to focus on Instagram which is why I can actually grow my audience on that platform.

I recently surpassed 2,500 followers and am aiming for at least 10,000 Instagram followers by the end of the year.

I’m promoting my Instagram account on my other social networks and even plan on doing some email list promotion. I’ll have more on this in the upcoming month.

 

Guest Posts

I got two submissions for guest posts this month that I will be publishing on my blog shortly. These are the first two guest posts that will ever get featured on my blog.

The reason I take guest posts now is because they provide a level of insights that I cannot provide on my own. I want to learn new things on my blog just like you. My goal is to get at least one contributor each week to offer new content for my blog.

If you are interested, read these guidelines.

I plan on contacting some guest bloggers I know and having a freelancer contact other people as well.

 

Unlock Your Potential—BIG NEWS

The manuscript for my upcoming book Unlock Your Potential has been completed. Now I’m on the hunt for a publisher. I have already contacted two people and will choose one of them. I respect both of these individuals and know that they will take my book and my brand to the next level.

The book totaled at 38,000 words (I’m not offering a page count because there are so many factors involved with page count), but that word count will be slightly modified after all of the editing takes place.

But I have put myself in a position to hand off the baton to someone else.

 

I Now Have A Structured Week Plan
Out of everything I wanted to discuss, the structure I created for myself was by far the most exciting thing I wanted to discuss. Every day of the week, I know exactly what I must do from wake up to bedtime.

Some may argue that this level of structure restricts freedom, but it’s quite the opposite. This structure eliminates most of the decision making process which gives me the freedom to pursue my work instead of guessing what work I should pursue now and what I should hold off for later.

Within this structured week plan is 1.5 hours of knowledge acquisition. Every day, I am listening to a podcast episode for 30 minutes, listening to an audiobook for 30 minutes, and reading at least 30 pages of a book each day.

That totals to 900 pages, 15 hours of listening to podcast episodes, and 15 hours of listening to audiobooks. At that rate, it will be easy for me to consume (read and listen) to over 10 books each month.

 

Books I Read

I did not read 10 books this month but I set up a structure so that won’t be a problem for the following month. I didn’t listen to as many audiobooks because my knee was bothering me.

That’s important to know because while I could easily run, I avoided the bike because I did not want to risk an injury. Virtually all of the time I listen to audiobooks is conducted while riding the bike.

With that said, I did get to read some books:

#1: Email Marketing Demystified by Matthew Paulson

#2: SEO 2016: Learn Search Engine Optimization by R.L. Adams

#3: Writing Copy That Sells by Ray Edwards

#4: All Marketers Tell Stories by Seth Godin

#5: Email Marketing Demystified by Matthew Paulson

 

Blog Posts I Wrote

7 Ways To Get More Instagram Followers: In some cases, my writing reflects topics I am investing my time towards. This blog post is no different. By reading it, you’ll discover some of the methods I’m currently using to grow my Instagram account.

Why I Switched From iContact To ConvertKit: I go into detail about what each of the services offer and why I ended up making the switch (ConvertKit cheaper and more valuable. That’s the basic summary).

The Top 3 Email Broadcasts You Should Be Sending: This blog post goes into detail about how you should communicate with your list to serve them the most.

 

Podcast Episodes I Published

The podcast is still growing strong. I even added a tab to this blog leading directly to the podcast. That’s my temporary solution for now. Eventually, I’ll publish all of the podcast episodes straight on this blog in addition to the other platforms I currently utilize.

Episode 10: How Lise Cartwright Starting Making $3-4K Within Her First Six Months As A Kindle Author

Episode 11: How To Land $20K+ Clients With Matt Inglot

Episode 12: Landing More Public Speaking Gigs With Jen Grisanti

 

Looking Back At September

I was not happy with the progress I made from August to September. October was meant to correct that problem, and I am happy with the progress I made. September was all about adapting to a new way of life.

Nothing spectacular happened for my business last month, but it set the stage for an epic October.

While I still haven’t surpassed 1,000 daily blog visitors, it is still a strong goal of mine, and I am moving in the right direction to make that happen.

November Goals

Some of the goals I have set for myself this November are different from the types of goals that I have previously set for myself. This is partly due to reading more books and learning about all of the possible goals I can set for myself. In addition, I discovered which specific goals would yield the greatest impact for my business.

 

#1: Conduct At Least Three Email Swaps

In case you are not familiar with an email swap, it’s a mutual relationship between two marketers in which they both promote the other’s landing page to their respective email lists.

The end result of email swaps is that both you and your partner’s email lists grow. Conduct enough of these email swaps and you’ll have a massive email list in no time.

With that said, I will ensure that these email swaps benefit my audience. I don’t want to promote some random guidebook on fashion because I know that doesn’t resonate with my targeted audience.

If I get the chance to promote a book about generating more sales using Google AdWords, then I’ll promote that to my email list in an email swap.

This will be similar to how I promote affiliates or free guidebooks that I read through. I feel like I’ll have an extensive case study on this topic in the future.

 

#2: Read 12 Books This Month

With my structure in place, I am reading 900 pages and listening to 15 hours of audiobooks each month. AND since I speed up the audiobooks to x2 or x3, I will actually listen to anywhere from 30 to 45 hours of audiobook content.

Reading 900 pages each month puts me on pace to read 4-6 books each month depending on the lengths of the books. 30-45 hours of audiobooks puts me on pace to listening to 4-9 audiobooks each month.

And that doesn’t even include podcast episodes which I’ll be listening to at x2 pace.

The point is that in a single month, I will be far smarter than I was in the prior month. My knowledge will continue to expand, but the true test will be me putting that knowledge to use.

I am very excited with the possibilities.

 

#3: Get At Least 15 S4S Partnerships On Instagram

S4S, otherwise known as share for share (or shout out for shout out) is one of the most powerful ways to grow on Instagram. Foundr Magazine referred to this tactic as their top method for growing a massive audience on Instagram.

Just to give you an idea of Foundr Magazine’s InstaPower, the brand got 10,000 Instagram followers within two weeks and over half a million Instagram followers within one year.

I aspire to achieve similar results for my Instagram marketing as Foundr Magazine. Therefore, I’ll be engaging in more S4S partnerships.

With that said, I’m not partnering up with anyone. I will only partner up with brands who mirror what I can do. I want the S4S effect on my audience to be seamless. No matter what, each of my Instagram pictures will motivate and provide value.

 

#4: Send Multiple Broadcasts Every Week

I need to do a better job at consistently communicating with my email list. I usually communicate with my email list every 7-10 days.

Communicating with my audience via this platform more often will force me to crank out more value. In addition, the relationship between me and my subscribers will be strengthened by this change.

 

#5: Schedule The First Month Of My 2017 Content

I currently have all of my content scheduled until the end of November. While that provides me with a cushion, it’s not a sufficient one. I want to schedule more content for a longer period of time to create a more comfortable cushion.

The more comfortable this cushion is, the more I can focus on providing value instead of strictly getting the content out. While I always focus on value, it’s a difference between 80% focus and complete focus.

 

In Conclusion

October is in the books. I am set up to have a very strong November. Out of everything I did this month, my greatest moment for the entrepreneur side of my life was interviewing Seth Godin. Without him, I’m not an entrepreneur (maybe I’m 20% of what I currently am).

That’s how much of an impact Seth has had on my entrepreneurial journey…and life.

While the interview will come out in a few weeks, one of the topics we discussed was self-criticism. We tend to critique our shortcomings instead of magnifying our successes. This type of self-talk prevents us from moving forward with our goals.

For every 60 seconds we self-criticize, we lose a minute that could have been used to move a little closer to accomplishing your next goal.

In November, I’ll continue raising my bar higher, but I also aspire to avoid self-criticism. Self-criticism is more toxic than any other type of criticism on the planet. If I don’t accomplish all of my goals, I won’t self-criticize myself. I approach each task with a desire to get it done, but I won’t dwell in my mistakes. Instead, I will magnify my successes.

What were your thoughts on this performance report? Did anything stand out? How did you do this month? Sound off in the comments section below.

The Top 3 Email Broadcasts You Should Be Sending

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email marketing

Email marketing produces a higher ROI than any other form of online marketing. Most marketers’ biggest regret is not building an email list sooner. Email marketing is that valuable.

There are plenty of ways to get more people to sign up for your email list. Landing pages and pop-up messages are two of the many methods I discuss in this post.

But what happens once someone subscribes and goes through your autoresponder? What email broadcasts are these people getting on a daily or weekly basis?

Over 100 billion emails are sent each day. These emails have many different lengths and purposes. Some are from friends or co-worker, while others pitch products and services.

It’s easy to become overwhelmed by the options, but these are the top three email broadcasts you should be sending your subscribers:

 

#1: Community Broadcast

The Community Broadcast asks readers to participate in a particular activity, from a real event to answering a question or providing a simple observation.

Most email broadcasts don’t involve community action. Rather, they often contain a CTA asking the reader to clink on a link or make a purchase. While those emails are important, the Community Broadcast is less about promotion and more about building relationships.

A while ago, I sent a community broadcast inviting my audience to ask me questions that I could answer on my YouTube Q&A series. The result? I got dozens of replies and enjoyed huge growth on my YouTube channel.

I like to get my community involved with the creation process. Not only do I get new ideas, but I’m also serving them better by showing an interest in what really matters to them. The questions they ask are always based on the problems they face each day. And since many of those issues are shared by a large segment of my audience, the videos appeal to most of my subscribers.

 

Find Inspiration

The questions themselves inspire new ideas for content. For example, one person asked me how he could get more book sales. Once I knew that question resonated with my audience, I dedicated an entire video to the topic.

Content producers always aim to inform, entertain or empower their audience. Every time I respond to questions, I know I am empowering my audience. And when my content empowers people, I know I’ve done a good job.

The possibilities for Community Broadcasts are endless. Community Broadcasts involve anything that will get your community involved. In addition to asking questions, you can encourage networking and dialog among your audience by creating a Facebook Group and inviting them to join. Or you can create a 30 day challenge of some sort and ask participants to share their results.

Remember that Community Broadcasts are more potent when your focus is on the love for your community rather than how you or your business will benefit.

 

#2: Broadcast Of Value

The Broadcast Of Value is an email broadcast in which you provide free value in the form of a blog post, YouTube video, podcast, livestream, webinar, or any other means.

These email broadcasts help you build credibility because people will associate your name with valuable information that is relevant to their interests. And as you become more credible, they will be more inclined to share your content.

The cool thing about the Broadcast Of Value is that you can turbocharge certain parts of your business. If you start a new podcast and have 10,000 email subscribers, you can easily tell those people about your first episode.

Hopefully they will tune in to your podcast or download the episode. As your episodes receive more downloads, your podcasts will rank higher and possibly end up in the New & Noteworthy category (the gold mine category for new podcasts on iTunes).

 

Segmenting

I have two rules for sending Broadcasts Of Value: the first is to provide value, and the second is to segment my lists as much as possible.

For example, when people subscribe to receive my “27 Ways To Get More Retweets On Twitter” eBook, they are automatically added to my Twitter email list. This helps me on the weeks I produce a lot of content because I can be more selective about who receives what content.

For example, I may send different email broadcasts to segmented lists. The people on my Twitter email list might receive a Twitter How-To post while the people who’ve subscribed to my blog will receive a How-To Blog post.

Segmenting your email lists, and then sending targeted email broadcasts to each list, results in more engagement and fewer unsubscribes because you are aligning your content with audience interests.

The people on my Twitter list definitely want to learn more about Twitter. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have requested my free Twitter eBook. Some of them are also interested in blogging, but since I can’t be sure, I do not want to risk sending them irrelevant content. Likewise, the people who’ve downloaded by eBook “27 Simple Ways To Get More Blog Subscribers” are sent more blog-related content.

 

#3: Product Broadcast

The moment you’ve all been waiting for. The email list is the most profitable online platform today. But to make a profit you need to sell stuff. There’s no way around it.

I’ve read many Product Broadcasts and I can assure you that not all sales pitches are created equal. Most will lose your attention right away, some will leave you interested, and a few will prompt you to take immediate action.

Plus, if you send Product Broadcasts too often people will not want to hear from you anymore. No matter how strong your reputation, promoting product after product without sending other types of email broadcasts will hurt your credibility.

As a general rule, you should only send Product Broadcasts every 2-3 months. For a product launch, however, some companies send as many as 20 emails. These types of email campaigns are okay as long as you offer something of free value and make sure they don’t last for more than a month.

 

Be Subtle

It’s also important to be subtle when it comes to product promotion. What exactly does that mean?

For other types of email broadcasts, you can sneak in a product promotion. Two people who do this well are Neil Patel and Jeff Goins. Leading up to the launch of his book Hustle, Neil included a subtle call-to-action to preorder the book.

email broadcast example

This isn’t an in-your-face CTA. It’s not an email discussing all of the benefits of the book. It’s permission marketing in full effect. Neil isn’t telling you to buy his book. He’s just letting you know that it’s out there.

Jeff Goins is another person who knows how to subtly promote a product, service, or in this case, an event. During the Self-Publishing Success Summit, Jeff integrated event promotion with his latest content.

email broadcast example

That changes the entire dynamic of the email. Instead of primarily talking about SPSS, Jeff sprinkled it on top of another type of email broadcast.

Being subtle does not mean tricking your audience into doing something. It simply means focusing the main message of your email broadcast on one thing and gently mentioning a useful product, service, or event towards the end of the email broadcast.

 

In Conclusion

Email marketing trumps all other forms of marketing. It can even be argued that the primary purpose of other types of digital marketing is to attract more people to your email lists. If you make that part of all of your marketing efforts, your email broadcast will get more engagement.

And that added engagement will result in more traffic and sales.

What are your thoughts on these three types of email broadcasts? Which one of do you send most often? Do you send a different type of email broadcast? Sound off in the comments section below.

Episode 12: Landing More Public Speaking Gigs With Jen Grisanti

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On today’s episode, Marc is joined by former studio executive, and writing instructor at NBC: Jen Grisanti. Having spent years working in the entertainment industry under some of the best names in the business, Jen transitioned to running her own consultancy to pass her knowledge on to others. Jen chats to Marc about how it all happened.

 

Listen in to hear Jen discuss why it wasn’t as straight forward as just being able to deliver knowledge to a new audience, and the fear that came along with the new territory. Learning valuable lessons every step of the way, including having to reinvent her methods of delivery, Jen talks us through her journey to successful public speaking and instruction. 

 

Jen quickly saw the void that her skills could fill, and worked hard to provide her unique services to those who could benefit from them the most. We are fortunate to hear valuable advice and tips, from everything including why mental preparation is key, to tips for getting more speaking gigs and even how to find your breakthrough. 

 

Join us in Marc’s latest episode.

 

Important links from the show:

www.jengrisanti.com – Jen’s Personal Site

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Jerry-Weissman/e/B001H6N238/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1476706517&sr=8-1 – Jerry Weissman Books

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Brian-Solis/e/B001KD2V1C/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_3?qid=1476706587&sr=8-3 – Brian Solis Books

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Garr-Reynolds/e/B001I9TU1W/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1476706607&sr=8-1 – Garr Reynolds – Presentation Zen Books

 

Learn:

– 3 tips for getting more speaking gigs

– Advice for breaking through

– Jen’s favorite inspirational quote

– Why preparation is so important

 

Why I Switched From iContact To ConvertKit

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Switching from one email service to another isn’t an easy decision. But after using iContact for years, I switched to the rapidly growing ConvertKit. Founded in 2013, the company has quickly become a million dollar business recommended by Pat Flynn, John Lee Dumas and others.

When I decided to take a look at ConvertKit, this is what I found:

 

No Limit On Emails Sent

One of my biggest pet peeves with iContact was the limited number of free emails I could send. Some of my marketing efforts were cut short because I didn’t want to spend the extra money.

Once I sent an email blast that put me over my limit, and I had to pay an additional $100. Needless to say, I was not pleased when that bill arrived. Since ConvertKit has no limits, I no longer worry about getting hit with those charges.

The removal of this limit has helped me think differently about email marketing and how many emails I should send on a given day. Some of the people I’ve come to admire appear in my inbox more often than others. For instance, messages from Neil Patel and Jeff Bullas show up in my inbox every other day.

With each message, relationships grow. And now I too can send messages every day or every other day without worrying about extra fees. If I tried doing that on iContact, it would have cost me hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars.

 

Superior Automation Capabilities

Automation on iContact lets you schedule email blasts, get your subscribers on the right lists and send your subscribers a series of messages in an autoresponder based on those lists.

You can do all of those awesome things on ConvertKit, but with some caveats. For example, ConvertKit lets you create rules that control how subscribers move through your sales funnel.

One thing I try to be careful about is sending additional messages to people who already receive my autoresponder. I am so careful, in fact, that I’ve created a segment on iContact that contains only the people who’ve completed the autoresponder.

The only problem is that I have to remember to manually update this autoresponder. I put people on that segment based on the date they joined my account. I’d have to change the date every week to reflect the additional people who’ve completed the autoresponder.

ConvertKit now does that for me with a simple rule I’ve set up. Anytime someone completes my Twitter Domination sequence, they then end up on my Twitter Domination tag.

convertkit automation

This allows me to identify all of the people who have completed the Twitter Domination autoresponder. I can then email the people who completed the Twitter autoresponder and avoid emailing those who’ve already completed the autoresponder.

Here are the automation options ConvertKit provides.

convertkit trigger

 

Price

The powerful automation ConvertKit provides is similar to that of InfusionSoft. Before ConvertKit, InfusionSoft was one of the only players that enabled that type of automation.

Two big complaints about InfusionSoft are price and user experience (some see InfusionSoft more as a CRM network than an emailing service). ConvertKit is cheaper and simpler.

But let’s go back to iContact vs. ConvertKit. Which one is cheaper? Well, that depends on your account type. For this blog post, I decided to see what iContact and ConvertKit charge for someone with 10,000 subscribers.

You’ll pay $119/mo for ConvertKit and get all of the cool stuff the service has to offer.

On iContact, you’ll pay $79/mo for a regular account; I used this version throughout my time on iContact but it didn’t have nearly as many cool features as ConvertKit. iContact Pro, however, seems to offer similar features as ConvertKit such as workflows, triggered messages, and more. But it will cost you $189/mo.

The services on both platforms are spot on. But based on price, ConvertKit is the better buy.

 

Easier Emailing Format 

Sending emails is easier on ConvertKit. iContact requires extra steps like choosing among templates whereas ConvertKit sends you straight to a text box similar to a blog post. Just write the email and that’s it.

convertkit-tutorial

Plus, immediately after you create the email, you can see a preview. The best part is that you can click on your links to be sure they’re working. Double checking the links takes only a few seconds and ensures that you don’t make a careless (and critical) mistake.

 

In Conclusion

Migrating from one email service to another can be a tiresome process, especially when you have numerous landing pages and subscribers. But while the switch may be bothersome in the short-term, the long-term benefits are worth it.

ConvertKit is very promising. I started using it last summer and completed the switch by October. Migrating email lists isn’t the most enjoyable activity, but in the end it was well worth it.

What are your thoughts about ConvertKit and iContact? Do you prefer another email service? Sound off in the comments section below.

Episode 11: How To Land $20K+ Clients With Matt Inglot

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Lifestyle entrepreneur Matt Inglot is driven by his freedom to run his life as he wants. He built a business from the ground up and is now successfully pulling in $20K plus clients, while having the freedom to work on his own terms. 

Matt offers up great advice from breakthrough to scoring high paying and quality clients, and why he feels autonomy is so key to the success of his business.

Matt tells us how he bit the bullet and started again, having already run a successful business, except this time he made sure he knew what he wanted. Now, working from the comfort of his own home, Matt takes time to speak to Marc, and explain his views on how a business should be run. 

Key Links from the show:

www.freelancetransformation.com – Matt’s Site

https://freelancetransformation.com/blog/podcast – Matt’s Podcast

 

Learn:

– To use your skills for success in business

– Why autonomy can be crucial 

– Understanding a goal and having a clear vision

– 3 Tips for scoring high paying and high quality clients

– To take charge of your role to the client

– Matt’s advice for breaking through

– To always be working on your business

7 Ways To Get More Instagram Followers

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Instagram followers

Photo: (cc) Pixabay

How hot is Instagram for businesses? Well, the social network boasts over 300 million daily active users and engagement is through the roof compared to other social networks. So what’s the trick to increasing your Instagram followers?

I recently posted a picture to my 2,000 Instagram followers that was liked over 40 times. That high level engagement is normal on Instagram. If any of my tweets was retweeted or favorited that many times, I’d be overjoyed.

That’s why brands are scrambling to master Instagram as quickly as possible. They want large, targeted, and active audiences who will fall in love with their pictures and products.

I recently started taking the social network more seriously and was happy to discover that many Instagram growth methods are similar to those used for growth on Twitter. If you know how to get more Twitter followers, then you have an edge when it comes to Instagram.

But there are also some differences that I will discuss within this post. Here are seven ways you can get more Instagram followers:

 

#1: Follow The Right People

You could technically follow many Follow4Follow accounts to increase your following. However, those followers are more interested in adding you to their own list of follows than your content.

You don’t want an audience of real, yet non-targeted and non-interested followers. Rather, you should be looking to build an audience of targeted individuals who have a strong interest in your brand. Here’s how you find those people:

  • Find a person in your niche with a big audience.
  • Go to that person’s most recent post.
  • Follow the people who liked that photo.
  • Repeat the process with more influencers’ accounts.

instagram marketing

While Instagram requires a few additional steps compared to the Twitter approach, you’ll be following people who are:

  • Interested in your niche.
  • Active.
  • Engaging with content related to your niche.

Making a careful selection of who to follow will help you build a relevant audience that engages with your content. Try to be sure that the people you follow will be likely to follow you back.

Not only is it possible to find targeted and engaged users who are likely to follow you back, it’s also easy.

 

#2: Like The Right Pictures

Google the phrase “how to get more Instagram followers” and you’ll come across the tip I previously mentioned: follow users who like content related to your niche. More people are clicking on particular images to see who has liked them, then following those users.

This is a method people use to gain liked-minded followers. Liking hundreds of pictures related to your niche will put you in front of thousands of potential targeted followers.

Like photos posted by influencers in real time. The sooner you like the picture, the more exposure you’ll get. If you know an influencer posts pictures at a certain time each day, be sure you’re logged into Instagram at the same time so you can be one of the first people to like his or her post.

 

#3: Post Consistently

Engaging with other people’s pictures and following their active users will put your account in front of more people. But unless your account makes an impression on visitors, you won’t get many followers.

Posting consistently makes your account more impressive. Consistent posting makes it clear to potential followers that you are an active user. Until recently, there was no free way to schedule your Instagram posts. Now you can get the job done with HootSuite, but keep in mind that you must be logged in to the Instagram app in order to post it.

HootSuite doesn’t actually schedule the Instagram post. Rather, it notifies you to post to Instagram according to your schedule. So if you schedule a post for 6 pm, but don’t log into Instagram for the entire day, your picture won’t get posted.

Posting consistently on Instagram requires a bit more work, but it is also more rewarding. Far more people engage with Instagram posts than with Twitter and Facebook posts.

I have two predictions: the first is that the scheduling problem won’t last very long. My second prediction is that Instagram will keep growing, and you’ll want to post consistently now (and let other people complain about the technological restraints).

 

#4: Optimize Your Bio

Let people know what you do professionally, and who you are personally. List some of your personal interests and professional accomplishments. People who have never heard of you before should immediately get a sense of who you are just by reading your bio.

And no bio is complete without a link to your blog or website. This link will help you increase your traffic from Instagram, and that traffic can equate to subscribers and sales. So should you link to your post or landing page?

If you post your blog post pictures on Instagram and want people to read your content, simply include “Read this post by clicking the link in my bio” at the end of the post description.

If you prefer to include your blog’s link within your Instagram post descriptions, link to your landing page in the bio. Social media is a means to an end.

Successful Instagram users aren’t getting more followers just for the sake of having a pretty number and bragging rights. The purpose of Instagram varies for each person. Some people view Instagram as a way of building an audience and getting more blog traffic, while others want to funnel as much of their Instagram traffic to their landing pages as possible.

If you are using Instagram to grow your email list, then why link to your blog? Link to one of your landing pages to expedite the process.

Of course, if you view Instagram only as a means to an end and don’t bother interacting with your audience, your Instagram experience won’t be a smooth one. No matter which social network you use, interaction is a must.

 

#5: Include Hashtags

Use Hashtags to get your content found on Instagram. They’re the SEO for Instagram. Choose the right hashtags and your pictures will get in front of all of the people searching for that hashtag.

I like to use at least three hashtags in a given Instagram post. Before I choose hashtags, I’ll put the hashtag into Instagram’s search engine to see how they rank.

motivational instagram hashtags

When choosing my Instagram hashtags, I’ll mix in the most popular hashtags with hashtags that aren’t as popular. Often less popular hashtags still get a lot of visibility.

Getting a lot of engagement for those hashtags boosts social proof and helps out with the more popular hashtags.

 

#6: Comment On Other People’s Pictures

Here’s a fun activity. Find a successful Instagram picture related to your niche. Then see how many people liked the picture and how many people commented. I decided to do this with one of my pictures:

  • 41 likes
  • 2 comments

Foundr Magazine is crushing it on Instagram. I decided to look at the stats of one of their Zig Ziglar pictures:

foundr instagram

  • 5,021 likes
  • 34 comments

Why does this fun and insightful game help you obtain more Instagram followers? Instagram pictures don’t get nearly as many comments as likes, which makes the comments section an easier place to stand out.

Post a meaningful comment, and you’ll get more followers from that person’s audience.

Foundr Magazine currently has over 800,000 Instagram followers but the case study post only received five comments. So if you add comment #6, you are automatically exposed to thousands of people. You won’t get in front of Foundr Magazine’s entire audience, but a few thousand people seeing your comment isn’t so bad 🙂

 

#7: Post Awesome Pictures

Not all pictures are created equal. In the end, there are only three types of pictures that I post on my Instagram account.

The first type is something personal. I like it when people can connect with me on a more personal level. I’ve had numerous conversations with my audience about running, dogs, and the Red Sox. I love those types of conversations.

Not only does my audience get to know me better, but I get to know them better, too.

The second type of picture is a motivational quote. I like to inspire my audience so much that I created an inspirational quotes board that currently has over 4,000 pins. I am that serious about inspiring others (to be fair, I’ve got almost 600 contributors helping me with that board).

The third type of picture I post is a picture of one of my blog posts in order to drive more traffic to my blog.

Understand what types of pictures you want to craft and make them epic. For personal pictures, I like candid shots take in the moment. I hire a freelancer for my blog pictures because choosing those images is not my strong suit. For motivational quotes, I edit images using Canva (although I may begin outsourcing those as well).

 

In Conclusion

Instagram is a social network seething with new opportunities. You’ll tap into a powerful, highly engaged audience that can take your brand to the next level and beyond.

Foundr Magazine is doing very well, and the owner attributes much of the magazine’s success to Instagram. If you take action, you may attribute much of your business’ success to Instagram as well.

What are your thoughts about using Instagram for your business? Have any tips for us? Sound off in the comments section below.