GROW your Instagram Following

I’ve been hearing from a lot of interior designers that are now getting most of their clients from Instagram! Building a following on Instagram takes time and effort but as I was gathering all the tips and tricks below it became apparent that the return on investment is great. Managing Instagram can be time consuming and a job in itself. If you have the time and love it … great! If you prefer to hire someone to manage your social media, that works, too. And if you are getting your clients elsewhere than keep doing what you are doing. There always exceptions and it makes sense to start tracking where your clients are coming from if you aren’t already doing that. It will help you so much in terms of deciding where to spend your marketing efforts and dollars. But if you are interested in gaining a larger following on Instagram please see below.

How to increase your Instagram following:

1.       Be yourself! Being your authentic true self will attract the clients you want to work with. Don’t be afraid to share a little bit about you and your life … your clients want to get to know you! Some people shy away from this and that’s okay … but don’t you like to know a little bit about a person before you choose to work with them?

2.       Share consistently. A lot of successful Instagrammers share at least once per day. Use Planoly or another scheduling app to help you post daily.

3.       Make a plan! Since you have to post daily spend a few hours once a month and set up your monthly plan as to what you are going to be sharing … will it be projects, before & after, chaos, shopping, a day-in-the-life, etc. Creating this monthly plan will help you stay organized and less overwhelmed.

4.       Create a cohesive look with your images.  Look at your grid of 9 and make sure your images flow and look good together. It’s all about the visual on Insta.

5.       Ask for share for shares. Do your research and find people that could share your post and you can do the same for them … some interior designers find that they get more followers when non-interior designer professionals share their Instagram. Think event planners, real estate agents, fashion influencers, photographers, etc.

6.       Engage. This one is super important. Answer the questions and reply to everyone that leaves a comment. You are building a relationship with potential clients and you showing up for them means a lot! They need to be able to trust you and rely on you in order to work with you.

7.       Share where you purchase items with affiliate links. I wouldn’t share where you purchase trade items but if you purchase items from anywhere you can get an affiliate link from them by all means share. You could make some affiliate income just for sharing.

8.       Take advantage of Instagram stories. Instagram stories have become super popular and I still haven’t dived into trying them myself but that is where we need to be to gain more followers.

9.       Use video. People like to see your face; hear you talk and learn more about your personality. We live in a world where we watch people all. the. time. Trust me … if you post it, they will watch it.

10.   Think positive. Consistency and persistence will pay off. It won’t happen overnight, but it can happen! Stay positive, have fun with it and you’ll see the numbers increase.

Remember, time is going to pass anyway, so you can start implementing changes today and see results down the road or you can do nothing and in a year or two be exactly where you are today.

XX, Danae