Welcome to an informative episode of the social circus, where host Sarah Thomson celebrates reaching over 100 episodes and two years of sharing valuable social media, mindset, and business insights. Today's focus is a practical guide on effectively growing your Instagram following, a question often posed to Sarah in her capacity as a business coach.

In this episode, Sarah emphasizes the importance of having a cohesive and appealing Instagram profile, likening it to an inviting storefront that captures passersby's attention. Following this, she delves into several growth tactics, including the strategic use of Instagram reels and hashtags, leveraging collaborations and competitions, and engaging directly with the audience through comments and DMs. These practices underscore the necessity of daily, authentic interaction on the platform for optimal growth and audience engagement.

Instagram Profile as Your Storefront: Ensure your Instagram profile is inviting and clearly communicates your business offering to encourage new followers.

Leverage Reels: Utilize Instagram reels to reach a broader audience, as reels are pushed out beyond your existing followers.

Hashtag Strategy: Maximize your content visibility by using up to 30 relevant hashtags on every post.

Collaborations and Competitions: Collaborate with similar non-competing businesses and consider running competitions to attract followers from overlapping audiences.

Engage Authentically: Spend time daily engaging authentically with other accounts through comments and direct messages to increase visibility and grow your following organically.

"Think about your Instagram profile as something similar to having a storefront."

"Reels are the only type of content on Instagram that the algorithm will push out beyond your existing followers."

"Instagram have told us that they consider 30 hashtags to be best practice."

"People who are similar in terms of maybe demographic psychographic information hang out together or know each other."

"There is no express elevator to success. You always have to take the stairs."

The Blooming Bids Academy - Sarah's membership platform for business coaching 

Online Social Butterfly - Sarah's Instagram handle for profile reference

YouTube Channel: Online Social Butterfly - Find free tutorial videos by Sarah Thomson 

Continue your learning journey by tuning in to the full episode to gain more in-depth guidance and actionable strategies to grow your Instagram following. Don't miss out on more episodes filled with insight—subscribe and join us next time at the social circus!