Does the word Instagram instantly fill you with dread or excitement? You may be hesitant to jump on the Instagram bandwagon, but once you do you will quickly see why it’s one of the fastest growing social media platforms, especially among “younger” adults. Because of its ease of use and highly visual content, over 35% of Americans adults use Instagram and 60% of those users check out what’s happening on their feed daily. If you are looking to grow your community and influence, Instagram is the way to do it. This social media platform thrives on hashtags, making it super easy to find the right audience for you to serve and for them to find you!
In just ten months I’ve grown my Instagram account by 800%. That sounds impressive, doesn’t it? In reality my numbers are still super small compared to most social media influencers out there, but they are steadily growing a little bit every day. During this last year I have researched and learned a lot about using social media to grow and serve an audience. I’m going to share some secrets with you. Here are my three favorite free and easy tech tools that will help you share content, provide value to your community and grow your influence on Instagram:
- Linktree: Linktree is a free tool used to house all of your content in one simple link. Why is this valuable? Since Instagram only gives you one spot to link a single website URL in all of your account, including posts and comments, this is priceless.
So how do I share my recent blog post, collaborative giveaway link, free resources, website, speakers page, YouTube channel, and coaching packages with my community in just one link? That’s where Linktree comes in. With Linktree you can link to multiple URLs from your blog or website and even other websites in an Instagram-friendly way through one Linktree link located in your profile. Want to see it in action? Take a peek at mine HERE.
- Story Cutter: Instagram gives you the ability to share the moments of your day, not just the ones you want to keep forever on your profile. Similar to Snapchat, you can share videos, photos, emojis, comments, other social media accounts and live videos that will only last 24 hours through your Instagram Stories.
Have you ever tried recording an Instagram Story video and keep getting cut off in the middle of a word, thought or moment by the 15-second max video clip session? It can leave you feeling uncoordinated and frustrated. Story Cutter is an app that lets you select a video already on your device or record a new video and it will cut it into 10-second clips that can be used in your Instagram Stories without the hassle. You can find this app on Google Play for Androids or the Apple App Store for iPhones.
- Everliker: Wouldn’t it be nice to get your Instagram account in front of potential people that could benefit from your message without paying for ads or spending a lot of time online? Everliker is a free Google Chrome plugin that will “like” up to 700 posts a day for you. All you do is choose the hashtags based on your niche/audience that you want your account to “like” and this bot will do it automatically.
For those of us already on Instagram we have all experienced this familiar scenario:
- You are notified that someone has “liked” your post.
- You click on their picture to find out more about them.
- You become a follower of a new amazing Instagram account.
That’s exactly what this tool can do for you! It gets your profile out there by “liking” the posts of people and businesses that are using the hashtags that matter most to you and your community. This will then enable the account holders who “liked” your post to click on your profile picture to find out more about you, and become a follower.
There are so many reasons to grow your Instagram account and even more ways to do it. This week set aside one hour. Designate it as an “Instagram Power Hour” on your calendar. Use the hour to get your account cleaned up and ready for an influx of followers. Add a few great posts and tweak your profile description. Then, set up your personal Linktree link and add it to your profile. Use this link to highlight your best work like your website homepage, favorite recent blog post, about me page, and free download.
Next week, use your “Instagram Power Hour” to continue adding great posts and set up your Everliker plugin. Instagram always shows how many profile visits you have had in the last seven days at the top of your Instagram profile page. After you have implemented these two free and easy tech tools, pay attention to how many times your profile has been visited. As people visit your profile your email list will grow and the message you have been given to share will get out. Although there is no instant success on Instagram, you can set things in place to grow your community and influence steadily, a little bit every day.
Tiffany Jo Baker is a mom who has birthed seven children, but only two of them were her own. This three-time Surrogate, Speaker, Writer, and Couples Life and Fertility Support Coach continues to help women and couples birth their dreams and thrive thru infertility. If you or someone you love find themselves on a harder than expected path to parenthood, you can find hope, free resources and more to help navigate the road and relationships while trying to conceive at www.tiffanyjobaker.com.
