Creating a Successful Personal Brand on Instagram – What You Need
From product brands and photographers to influencers, Instagram is one of the best places to create some buzz for your business. However, to be successful on Instagram, you need to stand out. If you want to use this popular platform to build and grow your personal brand, there are a few basics you’ll need to get right first.
Your Insta Strategy
Before you can start creating content and gaining followers, you should have the following in place:
- Objectives. What do you want to achieve by starting this account? By being clear on your goals, you’ll have a better idea of the content you should create. Is this accounts purpose to gain a ton of followers so you can become an influencer? Is this accounts purpose to create a small tight knit community? Knowing your specific goals will help you avoid common pitfalls in marketing, and provide you with unique insights on how to best show up to the platform.
- Audience. Who is your ideal target audience? Spend time getting to know what makes them tick. Where do they live? What do they do with their time? What is their age? Demographic? – knowing all of this will greatly help you navigate your content strategy.
- Niche. What is your unique selling proposition? You can’t be everything to everyone, while being jack of all trades is helpful in practical reality land, in marketing reality, people will pay you much more when you show that you’ve mastered something specific. When it comes to achieving greater success, statistics show that choosing a niche is much more profitable than trying to market a wide variety of services.
- Schedule. How often will you be posting? Having a basic schedule in place that you can start building upon will keep you on task and make posting fun and less daunting. This can look like anything from once/month to share a new incredible piece of art work you created, to several times a week to build a larger audience. There’s no one sized fits all method to success.
Instagram Tips for Personal Branding Success
Stay Consistent If you want followers to trust you and start engaging with your brand, you need to be authentic and consistent. From the tone you use in your copy to your branding visuals, make sure that your followers can instantly recognize you and your content.
Use the Right Hashtags Hashtags are important because they’ll increase the visibility of your content. Get creative with your hashtags, make them specific, and ensure they speak to what your personal brand is all about. Bonus points for spending some time researching hashtags in order to pick up on trends and find inspiration.
Show Them Who You Are Instead of using a logo as your profile picture, opt for a professional headshot instead. Every entrepreneur and influencer needs a few professional photos that highlight their brand personality and style. These headshots are ideal as profile photos and can be used as Instagram posts too. Your followers want to know what you look like! This will also go a long way in helping to build trust.
Get Sharing Get involved in your online community by sharing and liking content that you find interesting or that you know your followers will enjoy. By being more involved and engaged, you start building real connections with your Instagram community. Just don’t go overboard, no one likes to be blasted with a ton of DM’s or half hearted comments. People can also sense fake agenda based comments a mile away!~ Keep it real
Be Detailed Go all the way with each of your posts. Include high-quality images, the right hashtags, location tags, and clear calls to action. Make each of your posts as detailed and engaging as possible if you want to stand out. It also helps to get your followers involved every now and then by asking for their opinions.
Instagram can be one of the best platforms to give people an inside look at what your personal brand is all about. Keep it interesting, stay consistent, be authentic, and you’ll be Instafamous at just the right time. Success doesn’t often happen overnight (though it certainly can) Keep showing up with positive intentions and trust that right people will find you!
Jamie Salima Love is a FingerLakes based Headshot/Branding Photographer and Personal Branding extraordinaire. She has helped thousands of small businesses, brands, and entrepreneurs over her 20 yr career by creating updated image libraries with stellar imagery. She is available for a multitude of services, whether you’re looking to work with her to simply update your Headshots, or to create an extensive Personal Branding Photography strategy and library with all the bells and whistles she’s got you covered.