If you've been in business for awhile, you'll know how often marketing methods change. When I first started, search engines were really the only way people would find your business. If you weren't paying for advertising, chances are you were struggling a bit. Then Facebook added business pages and that became the new place to be to nab new clients. Now, Instagram seems to be the way to go! Is anyone else here having a hard time growing your Instagram following? Julie & I have been working on upping our Instagram game lately (have you noticed?? Be sure to follow us!) & couldn't help but notice friend of the show Melissa McClure's amazingly successful Instagram account. This girl has 11.2k followers and gets HUNDREDS of likes and comments on her posts. We invited her to join us for a chat about growing your Instagram following!

Key Takeaways

• Follow & Observe. Follow accounts that are doing what you want to be doing. Watch what they do! When do they post? How often do they post? What are their captions like? What type of content seems to be getting engagement? If you can watch and emulate your favorite accounts, you'll likely be on the right track to growing your Instagram following too!
• Quality over quantity. The most important aspect of Instagram is engagement. You want to have a LOT of likes and comments, and ideally you want to spark conversations in your comment section. Be sure to reply to every single comment you receive; that DOUBLES your comment number just by itself! DMs also count as engagement, so be sure you're messaging people back when they message you. You should also be messaging others... introduce yourself & let them know what you like about their content! Make sure your captions are fun & add calls to action... it's the best way to get people to comment!
• Get over your fear of stories & just do them already! We get it... stories are SCARY. The best stories usually involve other people seeing your face, and that's something most of us are terrified of. Do we have enough makeup on? Is our hair done? Are we a sweaty mess after a 10 hour wedding? NONE of those things matter... what matters is people seeing YOU & getting to know you beyond your images. Stories are a great way for potential & current clients to see glimpses into your personal life and they DON'T CARE if you have makeup on. In fact, the more real you come across, the better!

Melissa has about 30 million more amazing tips during this episode regarding everything from hashtags to sketchy ways to grow your Instagram following, and more. Be sure to tune in to hear the rest!

Also, be sure to check out Melissa at instagram.com/chasingbacklight as well as melissamcclure.com. And if you haven't heard her previous episodes, you can find them here:

http://photosparkshow.com/episode-10-taxes-are-no-joke/

http://photosparkshow.com/the-other-side-of-the-lens/