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Want to use your Instagram account to grow your business?! Today I have a guest appearance from the amazing Elise Darma.

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video transcript:

Top 3 Tips for Growing Your Instagram for Business

I am super excited because today I have a very special guest - I have Elise here from Elisedarma.com. She is an Instagram expert and she is going to share with us today how to grow your Instagram account and how we can use Instagram more effectively to grow our online businesses. As you know, Instagram can be huge for getting more sales and clients, but you have to be doing it right, so that is what Elise is going to share with us today. I am excited to dive into how to grow your Instagram account.

Before we do that, if you are new here, I’m Louise of Louisehenry.com (formerly Solopreneursidekick). I put out new videos every single week all about growing your online business, so if that is something you are doing, definitely hit Subscribe, and hit that little Bell icon as well so that you get notified every time I post a new video.

Elise also has a YouTube channel, so I’m going to link to that in the description down below. Make sure that you go and subscribe to her channel as well. Now over to Elise, so that she can share with you how to grow your Instagram account and therefore grow your business as well.

Elise: Hey, my name is Elise Darma, Instagram marketer since 2013, where I started growing accounts for clients. Today, I have worked with thousands of entrepreneurs, business owners and freelancers like yourself, to help you grow your Instagram account to actually grow your business.

I’m not one for vanity metrics – I’m all about quality followers that turn into real customers. In today’s video, that is what I want to cover. I want to cover Instagram for your business account. By the way, thank you Louise for having me on your channel. It’s real cosy in here, and I can’t wait to dive in.

So, in today’s video I’m going to share my 3 top tips on how to grow your Instagram account, so that you grow your business. Make sure you stay until the end, where I’m going to be sharing a bonus tip that is probably going to give you a bit of a sigh of relief. The tips that I’m about to share in today’s video have worked for my friend and client, Beck Keen who is an online business coach – and today she has generated over $40,000 in revenue to her business, and she has less than 1,000 followers. So, if that sounds good to you, listen up and let’s dive in.

Tip #1 – Instagram Stories

Tip #1 on how to grow your Instagram account is to embrace storytelling through Instagram Stories. Last summer in 2018, it was reported that over 400 million people are viewing their Stories every single day. In 2019, that number is probably way higher. The point is, if you’ve neglected your Feed a little bit and you’ve been posting more in your Stories, that’s actually a really good thing, so keep doing that - keep showing up.

I recommend showing up in your Stories three times a day – ideally in the morning, the afternoon and the evening. That way, you’re at the top of your followers’ Feeds all throughout the day. Now, when I say storytelling, what I mean is exactly that. Your Instagram Stories are not just for your highlight reel. You can put your highlight reel over on your Feed. Your Instagram Stories are for the “real” stuff – the raw stuff that’s happening to you as you’re growing your business. It’s for behind-the-scenes, it’s for sneak-peaks – so don’t be afraid to experiment with the type of content that you’re going to share here. The point is to actually be real, be your real human being, so that your followers can connect with you and therefore know you, like you, and trust you even more - so that you’re the person that comes to mind when they’re ready to buy.

One mistake I see business owners and entrepreneurs make all the time is that they post to their Instagram Stories without any context. So, as a viewer, you’re kind of like, Why should I care about this? So, don’t forget to give your viewers context to your Stories. I call this the setup phase, so whatever background information you need to give to your followers, let them know. Hey Guys, Today I’m at xyz event, or I just got off a call with a client – let them know the information they need to know.

The second part is to actually share the content of your Stories. So, take as many Stories as you need to actually share, and don’t forget to end with a call to action. The Instagram algorithm loves it if you can get viewers to actually take an action after they’ve viewed your Story. It could be simply the Poll sticker or the Slider sticker – whatever actually asks your followers to take action and they do, the Instagram algorithm is going to reward you for that.

Tip #2 – Direct Messages

Tip #2 on how to grow your business on Instagram is to embrace sales through Instagram’s Direct Messages. There’s this widespread belief that to actually generate sales from Instagram you need to drive people away from the app, you need to send them to your website, you need to send them to a sales page – but the truth is, if you simply start that conversation with someone in a DM thread (Direct Message), then you can really cultivate that relationship – and, inside that Direct Message thread, you can share an unlimited amount of links. So, don’t worry about sending people to a website. Create that connection with them first, in a DM thread, and then, when they’re ready to book a call with you, or when they’re ready to see your services, or when they’re actually ready to buy, you can paste as many links as you want inside of your Direct Message thread.

Direct Messages are where the action’s happening today. It’s private because it’s a conversation between you and another real human being, who could very well become your next client. Get creative in the DM threads – use voice notes – that’s my favorite feature because, let’s be honest, I’m a little lazy, and to send a voice note is a lot faster than typing out a message. You can also send a video reply, you can send an image, you can video call the person as you’re chatting with them in the DM thread – there are so many options there to help you cultivate that relationship with someone and ultimately close that sale.

Tip #3 – Accept Decreasing Engagement

My third tip for growing your business on Instagram is to embrace and accept the fact that, as you grow, your engagement is going to decrease. Yes, I said it – I’m an Instagram marketer who’s acknowledging that your engagement level is going to decrease. What do I mean by that? I mean, chances are, you’re going to start seeing less likes or less comments, and this is actually a side effect of growth. Now there are a couple of factors here – one being the fact that there are more and more users on the platform every single day. That means there is a lot of competition to get eyeballs on your posts. But more importantly, going back to my first two tips, the truth is Instagram users are really caring less about the posts in their Newsfeed and they are spending more time watching Instagram Stories and DM’ing people.

So, if you’re noticing a decrease in your engagement, don’t stress about it. Accept it, and let it go. I should also mention the Instagram algorithm here. No longer do we see posts in chronological feed - it’s really up to the algorithm to show your post maybe when you publish it, or the algorithm might decide to show your post to other followers two days after publishing. This is just the evolution of the platform. None of us have control over it, so if you are worried about your engagement dropping, I honestly wouldn’t stress about it. Focus on where your followers are hanging out – which is in your Instagram Stories and in your Direct Message threads.

Bonus Tip – Perfection Not Required

This is where I want you to breathe the biggest sigh of relief, because, since Instagram has just blown up in popularity, marketers have kind of taken it over - and we’ve all just jumped on the bandwagon of creating a beautiful, perfect curated Feed.

Well, in 2019, followers on Instagram are caring less about perfection. What do they want? They want value, and they want realness. Now, what is value on Instagram? I like to define it in three different ways. The ways that you can give value to your followers include education, inspiration and entertainment. If your account can deliver one or all of those things, then you’re delivering free value and that’s a reason for a follower to stick around.

I want to touch on this “being real” part one more time too, because again, we’re really seeing a trend where followers are not engaging with perfectly curated content, or beautiful poses, or things that are just not relatable, so I encourage you to start experimenting. Show up in your Instagram Stories without makeup, show up unprepared and see what comes out of your mouth – or maybe you haven’t even shown up on your Instagram Stories yet, and if that is the case, I think that’s the challenge for you. I encourage you to grab your phone and say Hey to your followers for ten seconds, just to start showing up as that real person that they’re following on Instagram. I know the thought of this might sound scary and daunting, but I promise you, as you start to show up more as a real person, you’re going to get more Direct Messages from people who are resonating with your content, and who want to work with you. You’re going to get requests to be a guest on big podcasts, and you’re going to be able to sell out your programs and services with so much more ease.

I hope you found this video on how to grow your Instagram account helpful. If you did, please give it a like and let me know in a comment below what was the number one takeaway you got from this training. Again, thank you Louise for having me. If you liked this training, feel free to join me over on my channel over at Elise Darma – that’s where I share a lot more in-depth trainings on how to sell in the Direct Messages, how to get 10,000 followers, or how to share links without the Swipe Up feature. Feel free to join me over there on my channel, where I have lots of free trainings and goodies just for you - the entrepreneur who is looking to grow their Instagram to grow their business.

That’s it for me. Thank you so much Louise for having me at your channel. It’s been lovely, and I’m going to throw it back over to you.

Louise: Amazing – thank you so much Elise for coming and sharing such fantastic tips with us today on how to grow your Instagram account and grow your business. I’m super excited to implement them in my own business and see what results I get, and I hope you are all excited to do the same.

Again, Elise has a YouTube channel as well, so make sure that you click the link in the description below so that you can subscribe to her channel, and also check out the free trainings that she has available for you. I know that if you follow her advice you are going to see some pretty incredible results.

If you like this video on how to grow your Instagram account, let us know by giving it a thumbs up, share a comment down below, and don’t forget to hit Subscribe for this channel as well. I’ll see you real soon with another video.