First things first. Watch this 2 minute video by Gary Vaynerchuk!
Who is Gary Vaynerchuk?
- Founder of VaynerMedia, one of the top digital agencies in the world. $100mn in revenue with clients like Budweiser, Coke, etc
- Investor in Facebook, Uber, Twitter, Snapchat, Tumbler, etc
- Voted one of the top 10 most influential people on the internet
Why is this important?
- He is the #1 "expert" in the world on branding, marketing strategy, and social media
- Gary has a huge personal brand + executes the social media and advertising budgets for some of the largest companies in the world + he builds the individuals brands of upcoming celebs via Vayner Talent
How does Instagram work?
- Instagram is driven by algorithms and #hashtags
- To get great at Instagram you want to understand the algo and adopt hashtag strategies
Why be proactive?:
- 99.9% of people just use Instagram to push out pictures and videos of themselves. A “me” strategy. What people don’t realize is that the best individuals and brands are customer obsessed!
- The best are commenting, liking and proactively building fans day after day! This commenting and engagement not only builds hardcore fans and followers, it drives Instagram's algorithm
Strategy #1 - Engage Around Your Key Hashtags!
Step 1 - Identify the top hashtags related to your brand and audience.
If you’re into yoga for example, make a list of 10-15 of the biggest tags (picture above). You should write down these tags in your notes app on your phone to remember them for later!:
- #yoga (42mn)
- #yogaeverydamnday (11mn)
- #yogainspiration (4mn)
Step 2 - Engage in each tag every day! Become part of the community.
Find top 9 posts one of your hashtags and "like" and leave a comment in each one. Make sure your comments are nice and thoughtful. Ideally, you want to engage in a conversation with that content creator (and of course, you can like/comment on more than just the top 9 posts)
Watch this 42 second video
Here is what the 9 top posts look like in the #yogainspiration hashtag
Less time on yourself > More time on making others feel good!
Here is what happens when you actually do this. Within 10 minutes here is a reply we got from one of the posts we commented on. We commented “Love the motivated face” on his picture
From taking 15 seconds out of your day to comment on a strangers' post, you can gain a fan, follower and potentially even a customer. There has never been a more amazing time in history to be a digital entrepreneur. Millions of customers available in seconds, at our finger tips. The secret ingredient is spend less time on yourself and more on making others feel good!
Step 3 - Repeat this for 10 minutes every day. The longer the better.
If you do this every day, you will build a great digital business. This is how you can start to gather more fans and how you can grow word of mouth around your business. The "x-factor" on social media is not another picture or workout guide. It's the time you spend engaging with your audience. The real social success comes to those who care!
Strategy #2 - Engage Around Your Key Locations!
Everything you learned in Strategy # 1 can also be applied to Strategy #2 “Locations”. It's a simplistic, yet highly effective strategy!
Step 1 - Identify the "words" that relate to your brand and physical location.
If you’re into fitness then its fitness, yoga, gym, etc.. Here is what it looks like when you type “fitness” into Places in the search bar.
Step 2 - Go into those places' pictures and engage!
Go into the top 9 posts and like and leave a comment on every single one of them. Make the comments nice, thoughtful and engage in a conversation. (Again, feel free to go past the top 9 posts)
Step 3 - Repeat this for 10 minutes every day. The longer the better.
If you are patient, and consistent, and adopt this strategy every day YOU will build a great digital business! This is how you'll earn more followers, who turn into fans, and how word of mouth surrounding your brand will spread. The "x-factor" on social is not another picture or workout guide. It's time spent engaging. The real social success comes to those who care!