Written by: Eloho Efemuai, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
I recently received this message on Instagram “May I ask you a question, Eloho. I understand the need for social media and the purpose it serves to get our message out to the world. I also understand the call to multiply what God has given us, but when it sucks life out of one, how do we get around it? What if I also want to engage more with physical people? I’m not sure I’m even expressing myself well. I thrive more when I’m engaging with people one-on-one. Also, I have the niggling thought at the back of my mind that I’m engaging on social media to ‘get something’. I apologize for offloading all these questions on you. I’m a preacher/teacher, and building relationships one-to-one is my thing. I get lost in a crowd. I don’t want this to become a burdensome endeavour for me. How can I do it to thrive? Hope you understand my point? I keep going to the accounts I aspire to be like to comment and like their posts, engage with people there, but🤷🏽♀️ It wears me out especially since I have other things to attend to.”
My first response to this was, “It is your responsibility to let your audience know you are available, reliable and competent to help them meet their needs because they may never know until you inform them. If you truly believe that you’re assisting others, you must show up for them and let them know”.
This conversation on Instagram got me thinking that many more people out there feel social media is mentally draining, and it propelled me to help women of faith and fellow creatives increase their social media visibility to have a more significant impact, influence and generate consistent income without feeling like it’s a chore.
Do you desire to increase your visibility on Instagram? Do you feel drained from trying to grow your Instagram yet have no result to show for it? Let me show you how I scaled mine with these top 7 tips!
Background:
Instagram is a social media platform that emphasises photo and video sharing. You can take, edit, and publish visual content for your followers to interact with through likes, comments, and shares. With over 500 million daily active users, Instagram has a huge potential for brands, creatives, marketers and entrepreneurs.
This social media platform has seen massive growth and currently holds the number 4 position on monthly active users (MAU). Which means that as a brand, business, creative, marketer or entrepreneur you must pay attention to where your demographic might be hanging out.
With that in mind, it is important to get the basics right when planning how to use Instagram to grow your visibility.
Before we Begin
As Instagram is primarily a platform for sharing visual content, it is important for me to state that getting your visuals and branding right is crucial to your success on the platform as 20 per cent of your work is already done.
So, what should your visuals look like
Bright & Clear
High resolution photos and videos
Original & Authentic
Aesthetically pleasing
Now let’s begin. 7 Proven Tips to Help You Grow Your Brand’s Visibility on Instagram
1. Cause (Know Your ‘Why’ for Instagram). The first step towards growing your brand’s visibility on Instagram is to clarify your why for the platform and define what success looks like on the platform for you. What is your vision for Instagram? What is your end goal for the platform? What do you want to achieve in the new year? Setting clear, measurable goals will inform your approach and keep you on the right track, that way you can deal with the “overwhelm” that may come. So, to start off with growing visibility for your brand or business on Instagram, you must consider what your overall main goals are for your business or brand and how Instagram could help achieve those goals. Your goals are unique to your business, but these goals are quite popular, and they can help you get started.
Increase brand awareness and reach new potential customers
Sell more goods or services
Build a strong and loyal community
Position your brand as an industry expert
These will help guide your visibility strategy on Instagram and ultimately be your roadmap for success on the platform.
2. Clarify (Who is your Target Audience). Who do you serve? Who needs what you have? To grow your visibility on Instagram, you must be able to identify who your audience is; this way, you can create content tailored to them. For instance, if you anchor a cooking show, your target audience is food-enthusiasts, chefs, women, etc. If you own a blog about wines, your target audience is most likely winery owners, readers, wine enthusiasts, wine tasters, French and Italians.
Where are they located?
What do they love?
What are their interests? Who are they? What do they do?
What keeps them awake at night?
Where do they live?
How old are they? Gender? Race?
What generation do they belong?
Social status? Background?
What do they enjoy?
Goals? Beliefs?
What problems do they usually have?
What is their psychographics? i.e., their personality, values, opinions, attitudes, interests, and lifestyles.
Knowing exactly who you serve and how you can help them will help you position yourself as the go-to-expert in your niche.
3. Community Building. To be visible to your target audience and attract a community of likeminded people, you must be willing to meet them where they are at and connect with them. So, what does connection look like on Instagram? It means taking time to explore other accounts on the platform, engaging with their content by liking, leaving genuine comments on their posts, it means sending Direct Messages (DM’s), saving their posts and sharing to your stories. This was one of the issues highlighted by the user in the conversation I shared at the start of the article. According to her “it was wearing her out and sucking the life out of her”
So, I came up with a simple engagement strategy that I personally use which will also help bring visibility to your brand.
Engage with the right accounts (Your target audience, Your existing followers, bigger accounts)
Engage at the right time (Switch on notifications for the big accounts you follow and try to be one of the first people to comment that way you get noticed, look through the people who have liked or commented on your posts, respond to their comments on your post and go to their accounts and comment on their last post)
Engage with the right comments (Have an opinion, express yourself, ask questions, add value)
My clients have always wondered and asked how much they need to connect and engage on Instagram to give their brand the visibility it needs. While this question can be tricky, in terms of a minimum, I suggest you go for 60 minutes a day but in 20-minute blocks. If you have more than 60 minutes, then go for it, the more the merrier. 60 minutes of real, strategic engagement. NOT 60 minutes aimlessly scrolling through Instagram and liking any posts you see.
4. Content. To grow your visibility on Instagram, you need a strong content strategy that will communicate your purpose, attract new followers, provide value to existing followers, generate leads for your business and even turn your followers into customers. So how then do you achieve this?
Create valuable content that helps your audience grow & take action; these could be educational, informational, inspirational, entertaining & motivational posts.
Speak like your audience, talk to them and with them through your posts, don’t talk at them.
Stop sounding like everyone else – Our social media pages are inundated with business owners, brands and influencers from different niches and walks of life. If you are producing the same types of content and sounding like everyone else within your niche how then do you expect to stand out? Your content should be authentically you. What sets you apart? What have you experienced, let that come through your content. Listen to the questions being asked by your audience and speak in the language that resonates with them.
Stop selling before building trust with your audience – The best strategy with social media is to grow a following of loyal fans who can’t get enough of you, your products and services. Spend time to get to know your audience, have conversations, share advice, tips and guidance, and you will find the sales will naturally follow
Never create content without adding a CTA (Call to Action).
5. Consistency. You must have heard this before “if content is king, consistency is queen”. Consistency ensures that you are remembered. What has helped me and still help me is planning. I plan my content ahead of time; however, I do leave room for flexibility. I don’t try to figure out what to post every day because I have planned. So, planning will ensure that you stay consistent on Instagram.
I recommend that you
Use a simple excel or google spreadsheet
Have all the days of the week and different platforms on the sheet
Choose a weekly theme to focus on
Set aside 1-2 hours on a Saturday or Sunday evening to plan
Create a list of frequently asked questions based on your theme
Then plan and create your content around those questions
Decide which content will be good for carousels, single posts, photos or videos
Create the graphics using a tool like Canva or having a professional designer create these for you
When you are done, you can then use scheduling tools to schedule all of your weekly content.
Planning your content with this simple guide will help you stay consistent and not have to worry about what to post every day.
6. Colours (Work on your aesthetics). Ensure that all of your images have a similar appearance and feel. Don’t post photos that have a different filter or colour scheme. Concentrate on one theme and stick to it.
Pick a theme that you believe resonates with your brand
Be colour-conscious
Maintain a consistent colour scheme for your feed
7. Connect: My last tip is to always show the face behind the brand. This makes you more relatable and humane. And your community can connect with you in an authentic way. Go live once a twice a week to build that know, like and trust factor. Collaborate with others within you niche Show up on your stories daily.
Bonus Tip: Whenever you show up on your Instagram, show up with confidence, whatever energy you give off is what your audience will see coming through your posts.
I hope you enjoy reading this article. Let me know what you think. If you are struggling to grow your visibility, you need an Instagram Strategy, and I would love to help create one.
My name is Eloho Efemuai, I am a brand visibility coach, singer, speaker, author and radio broadcaster who inspires creatives & women of faith to stop doubting their potentials, unleash their inner confidence by beating the stereotypes and creating a 360-degree visible and impactful brand.
I am the CEO of Scotland’s Number One Online Christian Radio station Heartsong Live in Edinburgh where you can find me broadcasting words of inspiration every Monday to Thursday morning from 6:30am. I also run HSL International a social media consultancy.
As a professional singer with two studio albums, I’ve attracted an equally impressive tribe, who are drawn to my soulful voice and positive messages. Across my social media platforms, I have almost 60-thousand fans, who engage with me on a regular basis.
Achieving such impressive follower numbers within just a few years has meant that word has spread rapidly about my social media expertise and my ability to inspire and empower creatives and women of faith to discover their true potential.
After years of struggling with my own identity, I recently released my book, which I wrote in lockdown, You Are Not Everyone’s Cup of Tea: Stop Doubting Your Potential, Live a Fulfilled Life – Regain Self Confidence and Self Worth. It became an overnight Amazon number one bestseller not only in the UK, but in the US and Canada too.
My Mantra – Anything is possible when you are visible.
Eloho Efemuai, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Eloho Efemuai is a brand visibility coach, singer, speaker, author and radio broadcaster who inspires creatives & women of faith to stop doubting their potentials, unleash their inner confidence by beating the stereotypes and create a 360 degree visible and impactful brand.
She is the CEO of Scotland’s Number One Online Christian Radio station Heartsong Live in Edinburgh from her converted garage. You can find her broadcasting words of inspiration every Monday to Thursday morning from 6:30am.
As a professional singer who’s released two studio albums, she’s attracted an equally impressive tribe, drawn to her soulful voice and positive messages. Across her social media channels she has almost 60-thousand fans, who engage with her on a regular basis.
Achieving such impressive follower numbers within just a few years has meant that word has spread rapidly about Eloho’s social media expertise and her ability to inspire and empower creatives and women of faith to discover their true potential.
After years of struggling with her own identity, she recently released her book, which she wrote in lockdown, You Are Not Everyone’s Cup of Tea: Stop Doubting Your Potential, Live a Fulfilled Life – Regain Self Confidence and Self Worth. It became an overnight Amazon number one bestseller not only in the UK, but in the US and Canada too.
Eloho believes that anything is possible when you are visible.
