Instagram Marketing 101: Using Hashtags, Stories, and More to Grow Your Business

why is my instagram dead that is the number one question that i'm getting from small business owners and entrepreneurs right now so if you've noticed a decline in your engagement or maybe your follower count don't take it personally it's definitely happening to everyone it's just very competitive on instagram right now however there are definitely specific steps that you can take in order to cut through the competition so if you're looking to promote your business and make some money today's video i'm going to walk you through each step so that you can get out there and start killing it on instagram [Music] but before we go any further i just want to introduce myself my name is michelle and i am a creative strategist and if you're just stumbling upon this channel welcome to learn with shopify learn with shopify is the channel to get all the knowledge that you need if you are an online entrepreneur and you're starting running or growing an online business just recently we dropped a video on how to do tick-tock marketing so if that kind of content would be useful to you make sure that you are hitting subscribe so i work with countless small business owners and i started noticing a trend i started noticing that they were saying they were lacking engagement or that they were having a hard time making sales on instagram so i went back did some research and i found out exactly why this is happening to everyone and how you can beat the algorithm okay so first let me explain why you're actually having a hard time growing and making sales on instagram every social media platform is gonna go through a life cycle just like everything in life so it's gonna start with launch then it's gonna move on to growth and then monetization at its peak now the first phase is the launch phase so at this point instagram was figuring out what their value proposition was they were doing all that behind the scenes work and they were just getting started if you were a business or if you were a creator on instagram at this time this would have been a very easy time to grow now realistically you probably weren't because you probably didn't even know instagram existed the next phase is the growth phase this is where instagram would have started to pick up some steam so when you hear people saying oh instagram really isn't what it used to be they're talking about that time when it was you know wild there was a lot of engagement you could have gained followers super quickly and that all happened during the growth phase so this would have been about five years ago um and at that point it was just really easy to grow your account there was a lot of engagement and if you were on it enough to monetize back then you would have seen a lot of sales coming through but if i think back to where i was at in 2016 i was probably somewhere on my couch in my living room hearing all my friends talking about instagram but not on the platform yet but those days have come and gone my friends because instagram is now at the monetization phase they're really focusing on profit so what they're doing is they are working with advertisers to sell users attention so that really just allows them you know to pay their employees and run their business instagram is no longer handing out exposure like it's halloween candy and they are the biggest house on the block but instead they're keeping their exposure precious they are only electing a small portion of the population to be the chosen ones um those people are getting all the growth they're getting all the exposure now i know this sounds elusive um but you can be a chosen one so here are the four things that you can do to make it to the other side become a chosen one so that you can start growing your business and start making sales tip number one is make content that no one has ever seen before all right so now that we know that instagram is in the profit or the monetization phase we can gather that they're gonna be willing to help you if they can make a profit off of you so in other words they're going to reward you with exposure if you keep users on the platform for longer this is because that's going to mean they can show more ads to your audience and collect money from companies that are willing to pay for those ads so if you make content that no one has ever seen before you're going to help instagram reach their goal and then they're going to help you reach your goal so let's use this fake hot sauce brand just as an example of what not to do okay so rule number one in making scroll stopping content is do not post bland product photos product photos with a white backdrop is amazing but those should be reserved for the product page on your online store or your shopify store you're going to have a very hard time standing out by posting product photos like this on your instagram but in sharp contrast take a look at how you can still show your products but in a creative and a different and fun way so look at this guy he's making hot sauce fountain i think that is a genius and this is really going to make people stop and watch so those people that are stopping and watching they can potentially turn into followers and then one day down the line they can turn into customers as well also don't try to be perfect i know this one's a bit of a hard one um but perfection is 100 expected on instagram so to be different and to make content that people have never seen before try adding a human element so while this picture over here is you know it's obviously stunning this photo lacks a human element you know it's perfectly lit it looks like maybe it was taken at a studio so instead embrace the human element with your photos and with your videos so when we look at this video here in contrast we can see that you know maybe it was taken with a smartphone um you can see people's natural reactions to how spicy the hot sauces are and there's a story storyline behind it so it has a human element so keep that in mind as you're creating your content ever wonder how you can make money on instagram like the many influencers and brands that you see when you open up the app register using the link below to gain access to a free webinar that's going to walk you through proven methods for growing an instagram following from scratch and the variety of ways that you can start monetizing with as little as a thousand followers so in just 45 minutes you're gonna learn strategies to get more engaged followers and you're gonna learn how to use instagram to drive traffic and sales to your store so the next tip is to be consistent now i know you guys have definitely heard this advice before but it's super important because being consistent tells instagram that you are a trustworthy account and that you are a reliable account so if you're the type of person that has you know a hard time staying motivated and a hard time being consistent i know it happens to all of us here are a couple of really helpful tips for you guys so number one use a scheduling tool so you could use a free tool like later and later is going to allow you to schedule content so that it automatically posts later that way you're not posting a ton when you're super motivated and then completely falling off the map when you start to get busy so something like hootsuite something like later those are really going to help you stay on the ball and on track secondly set a dedicated time to plan and shoot your content so if you decide on every sunday at six for example i recommend that you put a recurring event in your calendar and turn that alarm on baby because once you hear that alarm you're going to drop everything that you're doing and you're going to start creating so the close sister of consistency is actually patience so my last piece of advice for you is just be more patient with yourself if you're trying to be consistent you're going to also have to be patient with yourself growth right now on instagram is not going to happen overnight i you know like we discussed that but if there are 365 days in a year and you promise yourself that you're gonna post once a day that is 365 opportunities that you're giving yourself to blow up every piece of content can be that shot so really trust the process you know trust the universe enjoy have fun um and if you are consistent and if you are patient and you are dedicated about growing your business then success will just naturally come rule number three is don't be boring crazy advice but what i'm trying to say is have whatever is going on in your content be super active and be super dynamic so if we look at this picture right here you know there's really not much going on there's just you know we're just looking at some ingredients but if we look at this video here this is dynamic this person is showing us the ingredients still but he's showing us how the hot sauce is made now obviously don't give away your secret sauce but maybe showing some crazy or unexpected ingredients for example maybe that can catch people's attention so hopefully now you get a better sense of how to make content that no one has ever seen before now if you're stuck for ideas it happens to all of us honestly i would just recommend you hop over to tiktok see what people are doing on that platform because it's super creative over there and then just bring that content over to instagram but make sure that you're putting your own spin on it next tip think like instagram so we've definitely done a lot of you know this kind of thinking like instagram even just throughout this video but in order for you to succeed on instagram you want to think like instagram what's on their agenda and how can you use that knowledge to further your business so them dropping the reels feature that is a perfect example of how you might have you know taken that opportunity uh to think like them and propel your business forward obviously from a business standpoint they were competing with tick tock so we can wager a guess that they would reward early adopters with more exposure if you were to use reels early on so you know just getting your brain into that mindset of you know thinking like instagram that can really help you and propel your business forward next tip is stop making selfish content so i actually heard gary v say this first but when i heard it i was like this is so accurate and i wanted to share it with you guys so selfish content is anything that you post for you know your own agenda or your own ego or your own business and i think that it's really easy to fall into this trap of making content that fulfills your own needs i mean i know i've done it before i think we've all done it before but what we want to focus on is providing some sort of value so those examples that i showed you before they were selfless they were funny they were interesting you know they really took the viewer into account first and you just you know you want to notice that none of them said like big blowout sale or like new product drop you know you want to assume that people don't care about your products but what they do care about is consuming content that's good so after you command a viewer's attention that's when you can start thinking about monetizing that attention later and honestly this is a little meta considering that's exactly how instagram did it with their platform you know first they got the user's attention and then they monetized it and i think that's you know full circle and this is a perfect place to end off for today's video but before we wrap up for the day if you're looking to grow your business with instagram then shopify is going to have everything that you need it allows you to sync your product catalog to an instagram shop so that you can easily create ads and shoppable posts transform posts and stories into shopping experiences with product tags offer a smooth shopping experience by bringing the look and feel of your shopify store to facebook shops expand your audience through facebook ads and use shopify to create track and manage your ad campaigns and orders all in one place you can get started with a free 14-day trial no credit card required and building an online store is a lot of fun and it is super easy plus the powerful features and the free apps are gonna make marketing really simple and it's gonna allow you to make more sales more often so i will leave a link for you guys in the description box if you're looking to get started on your business journey if you thought this video was helpful make sure that you're giving it a thumbs up because that really helps me understand what you want to watch and of course it helps this video it helps our channel grow if you're not already subscribed make sure that you're hitting that subscribe button especially if you're an online entrepreneur maybe you're aspiring to be an online entrepreneur maybe you're already in that growth phase but here is the channel for you to learn all that knowledge in order to be successful as an online entrepreneur thank you guys so much for watching and i will see you in the next one you

Channel: Learn With Shopify

Views: 106,302

Keywords: learn with shopify, ecommerce tutorials, shopify store, ecommerce business, online business, instagram marketing, instagram marketing strategy, how to get followers on instagram, instagram for business, instagram marketing strategy 2021, instagram growth strategy 2021, instagram for business marketing, instagram marketing strategy for small business, instagram marketing 2021, instagram growth 2021, make money on instagram 2021, online business 2021

Id: 6skg3U8y2nM

Length: 12min 57sec (777 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 07 2021