Five years ago I decided to make my dream come true and become a photographer. I managed to build my photography brand in less than two years, and I never paid for ads. I can easily say that Instagram is one of the platforms that brought (and brings) me the most revenue. I'm excited to share with you my tips and experience with using it!

Although these tips will work for anyone, whether you're a small or medium-sized business, my experience will be most relevant to other female entrepreneurs like me, that is photographers, life coaches, yoga teachers, therapists, etc and therefore I dedicate this post to them.

Instagram is a fantastic, and often an under-utilized tool for building your brand and attracting the right followers that you can turn into paying clients. So, grab a cup of coffee, and let’s go!

First, let’s take a look at some facts.

How to build a successful brand on Instagram | Natalia Wisniewska

As of July 2020, 33.8 percent of global Instagram audiences were aged between 25 and 34 years.

In total, over two-thirds of Instagram audiences were aged 34 years and younger and this makes the platform particularly attractive for marketers. So if you know who your audience is (and if you don’t, you should!), and it falls into this age category, you should focus your efforts on building an attractive Instagram presence.

Here are my tips for building a Successful Personal Brand on Instagram:

  1. Treat Instagram as a way to build trust with your audience. It’s a great way for your followers to get to know you and build trust. Building trust is crucial if you want your followers to contact you to inquire for your services. Focus on posting interesting things, such as facts about yourself or valuable information. That means, do not try to sell your services in every single post. Yes, you can promote what you’ve got to offer, but make it one post out of five or less.

  2. Tell a story. You’ve probably heard it a million times, but let me say it once more: a story sells. It doesn’t matter what you’re offering - photo sessions, yoga classes, coaching, or a physical product. You need a good story. And what makes a good story? Personality. People connect with real people. So, if you’re a life coach, tell your followers why you became one. Share something vulnerable about yourself. Make your posts humane, and your audience will feel connected to you.

  3. Post photos of yourself. According to Omnicore Agency, photos with faces get 38% more likes. Once your audience can recognize you in the photo, you will get even more engagement. Every time I post a photo of myself, I get on average three times more likes and comments than when I post a photo of a landscape or other people.

  4. Post videos and stories. Instagram videos get over 2 times more engagement than Instagram photos. The same goes for stories - people tend to spend more time watching them and engaging with them than with posts.

  5. Whatever you post, make it engaging. You might have heard about the famous Instagram algorithm that decides which posts it’s going to show to your audience (not all of your followers will see what you’re posting because of it). So how can you beat the algorithm? Make sure your posts, videos, and stories are engaging. The key to beating up the algorithm is to make people interact with your content as long as possible. So write long captions and add a question or a call to action at the end of each post (for example “drop a <3 in the comments if you agree).

  6. Use #hashtags. You can use up to 30 hashtags in every post. Some people are afraid that it looks spammy to use all of them and that it doesn’t work - that’s not true. It’s important to use all of the available hashtags as this makes your account discoverable to new followers. However, it’s important to use the right hashtags for your brand. Don’t use hashtags that are too generic like #love or #business. Focus on hashtags that have fewer amount of posts and are more suitable for the size of your business. 

Instagram is a powerful platform to build your personal brand and connect to people who could be your future clients.

Make sure you're making the most of it and you will see the results! Just remember that growing your Instagram account organically takes time. So create a strategy, follow it, and be patient! You've got this!

If you want to help with building your personal brand on Instagram, check out my Content Plan Creation Course, which will be launching in March 2023.

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