Why 10K Shouldn’t Be Your Goal on Instagram

Call us crazy - but seriously - we’re not here to tell you that you need 10,000 followers on Instagram. Yes, 10K looks really good and you get the added bonus of the swipe up feature in Instagram stories - but for many businesses, 10K could actually hurt you. In today’s episode we’re sharing why…To start - we’re not saying that 10,000 is a BAD thing, so let’s get that out of the way. But if you have 10,000 followers who are NOT sharing, saving, commenting, dm’ing you and…(drumroll) BUYING your products or services… then what’s the point? This is why buying followers or participating in follow/unfollow tactics never serve you in the long run. Think of it this way - the more followers you have; the harder you need to work to have your ACTUAL customers or potential customers see your content.What we want to focus on are more valuable techniques to grow your business on Instagram. In today’s episode we are going to share five things we want you to focus on (instead of the 10K mark). Let’s get started:1. Create content that your audience will want to share - perhaps it is your favourite quote or a funny meme. It could be a promotion of giveaway. Do you ever share other accounts content in your stories? What makes you do so? Start thinking about how you could create your own unique content that gets shared2. Create content that your audience will save - this is one of the best strategies you can implement right now. Instagram favours shares and saves and it will help to increase your engagement. Creating a post or even a carousel that educates your audience is a great place to start. Check out some of our education pieces @thesocial.focus to see what we mean.3. Be mindful of who is following you. If an account follows you, we encourage you to visit their profile and check them out (they may be a great connection and or potential customer). If they are your ideal audience or avatar (for more on that tune into episode 51 where we go in depth about your ideal avatar) - but if they are, reach out! This is a great opportunity to introduce yourself. Comment on some of their posts or better yet, send them a dm! 4. This is really part two of number three - because if a new follower appears to not be anywhere related to your ideal avatar… you may want to remove them as a follower. Or - if it looks like a bot - it probably is a bot. And having followers or fake accounts following you will not serve you well at all.5. We’ve said it before and we will say it again - engage. We recently ran a 5 Day Grow Your Engagement Challenge and oh boy did it deliver! We had such great feedback because when you lean into engaging with the right audience, you’ll start to reap the benefits of organic growth. To summarize - 10,000 followers does not necessarily mean money in the bank. If you’re using Instagram for you business - you’ll be better off serving 900, 500 or even 300 engaged followers that ACTUALLY buy you products and services. Let’s leave the vanity metrics in 2020. Don’t miss out where we open up the questions in the chat box!! Have a question for us? Be sure to check us out on Instagram @thesocial.focus Have a question for us? Check us out on Instagram @thesocial.focus @angela.s.doyon and @natcaronphoto and send us a DM! On Pinterest we are: @thesocialfocus2020 www.thesocialfocus.co