Episode #107 – Blow Up Instagram by Keepin’ It Real with Rachel Bell
Where do you get started with Instagram? Does your photo feed get lost with other accounts on the platform? Today on Financial Fluency, I’m excited to have Rachel Bell with me. Rachel is an Instagram influencer and co-founder of Trill Media. Trill Media is an Instagram marketing agency helping brands grow large, organic followings.
On the show, Rachel shares how to use Instagram to drive business growth. She goes in-depth and explains why Instagram is the top social media platform for businesses today and how you can replicate those results. Rachel says 2017 is the year for Instagram because of the new business features they’ve added.
Influencer marketing is huge. Thousands of people successfully monetize their Instagram accounts every day, sometimes with a single post. And well-known brands have the budget to spent $5,000 – $25,000 for a sponsored post. Rachel says if you’re a model, live in LA, or have a large following, paid sponsorship is great way to monetize your account. If you have a smaller following, you can run targeted ads to help boost your page.
With her own feed, @drivenyounglady, Rachel aims to connect with millennial women. She wants to give her followers inspiration and advice from her entrepreneurial journey. As a social media strategist who helps make her clients go viral, she’s rediscovering what it means to have her brand on the social media platform.
Rachel mentions the shelf life for content on Instagram is short. Thousands of people are posting and using hashtags every second, and it’s easy to get lost in the noise. If you want to gain new followers, Rachel shares that you have to post 1-3 tailored photos daily. Continuous posting will help you build and gain trust with your audience. She mentions it can be a lot of work to keep posts engaging, relevant, and likable. Her strategy? Leverage viral content.
Rachel’s Tips to Boost Your Instagram Account
If you want to have authentic followers, you have to nurture your Instagram. Follow these tips to help get your account off the ground:
- Write good content—but know that’s not all. You need to engage with followers and other people’s followers to get more visibility on your account.
- Cross-pollinate with another account. Feature someone else’s photo with a photo credit, or take part in a shout-for-shout with a handle that has a similar account following
- Use hashtags. Instagram’s hashtags help categorize and rank your account. Sometimes, it’s smart to go outside of those no-brainer hashtags; it depends on the goal of your photo.
- Steal like an artist. Research what people want to see in your niche. Find related accounts and look at the best-performing accounts and posts. Get an average like and comment total and see what looks abnormal. Replicate those highly engaged posts with your style and aesthetic.
- Cut through the noise. Instagram had no SEO except for your username, handle, and bio. Tailor your profile to match keywords relevant to your niche and accounts like yours.
People naturally want to be brand ambassadors for brands they know and trust. It’s about creating shareable photos.
You can connect with Rachel via her company’s website at www.trillmediateam.com.
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Resources
If you want to learn the basic principles to grow your Instagram account, check out Rachel’s in-depth ebook, Instagram Secrets: Get your first 100,000 followers on Instagram with our proven method.
You can also join Rachel’s free Facebook group, Become a Social Media Manager.
Rachel is an Instagram influencer and co-founder of Trill Media, an Instagram marketing agency focused on helping brands grow a large, 100% organic following so that they can boost influence and go viral. After testing all the typical strategies on Instagram, she has found ways to crack the code and gain a massive following – without using any automation or bots. Now, Rachel has used these tactics to form partnerships with other influencers, create a network of over 25 million users, and amassed a total following of over 450,000 across different accounts.