What do you need to know about promoting a personal brand on Instagram?

Every day, social networks attract the attention of an increasing number of user audiences, as well as business representatives who would like to expand their zone of influence and increase the number of clients. Social networks are also in extremely high demand among bloggers. Instagram can rightfully be called the leader in this segment. This is exactly the platform that provides a lot of opportunities for the development of not only corporate, but also personal brands. In the latter case, you will be able to establish yourself as an expert in a particular industry and build a good and stable reputation. One that will have a positive influence on others and force them to listen to your competent opinion.

If you consider yourself a blogger, supplier of unique goods and services, if you want to open up new opportunities for promoting your personal brand on the Instagram social network, then this material is just for you. We will tell you how to set the right goals and achieve them with the help of a personal brand, and teach you how to distinguish between real and fake influencers. Let's talk about what strategy you should choose when working with a custom audience and how to measure the level of engagement. Let’s describe the nuances that should be taken into account when developing a content plan, and talk about the design solution for a personal account. The information presented will be useful for both beginning influencers and those who have been working in the market for a long time, but are looking for new ways to retain the attention of regular subscribers and attract new ones. We’ll also show you how to organize work with the Instagram social network without any risks or restrictions.

Why should you promote your personal brand on Instagram?

Today, many social networks offer opportunities for promoting a personal brand. But still, most opinion leaders choose Instagram for themselves. Thus, according to statistics for last year, the number of users of this social network amounted to 1.35 billion people. If we analyze the dynamics over the past few years, we can say that by the end of this year the number of accounts on Instagram may reach 1.45 billion. This figure in itself does not say much. But if we say that this is over 30% of all Internet users in the world, then you can evaluate the prospects of this social network for the development of not only corporate business accounts, but also personal brands.

Also speaking in favor of Instagram is that over 90% of regular active users of the social network are subscribed to at least one commercial account, a blogger. And some more statistics: almost 80% of representatives of the B2B sector make decisions about cooperation with one or another opinion leader only after familiarizing themselves with his account on the Instagram social network, assessing the quality of the material, studying the user audience and how it reacts to each new post.

All this indicates that Instagram — This is exactly the social network that opens up a lot of opportunities for opinion leaders. Here you can sell goods, services, engage in your favorite activities and at the same time earn good money. Yes, the prospects are quite bright, but, as the classics say, “we still have to live to see the prospects.” Namely, before all this becomes a reality, so that you can attract the attention of your audience and retain it for a long period of time, it is very important to pay due attention to promoting your own brand. This is the only way the audience can learn about you and understand how useful information, products, and services they can receive from your feed. Thanks to promotion, you will be able to show your pages to the largest possible number of user audiences and interest them.

Now that you have already realized the need to develop your own brand on Instagram, you can gradually move on to implementing your idea. And here you have to systematically go through several key stages. Let us dwell on this issue in more detail.

We set ourselves a task

These recommendations will be especially useful for beginners. That is, those who are just starting their journey as an opinion leader, supplier of goods and services on social networks. In particular, before moving on to the actual creation of a personal brand account and its immediate promotion in Instagram, you need to answer a number of key questions:

• Can you generate content, offer products or services that will truly be useful to the target audience and help solve problems that are relevant to them?
• In which area can I become a full-fledged opinion leader, what product can I offer the audience?
• Do I know the secrets and do I have the qualities that will help motivate the audience to create stable and lasting interest?
• For what purpose do I want to get the maximum number of followers on Instagram, what problems can I solve by doing this?

Now that you have answers to each of these questions, you can already formulate for yourself the key goal of creating and promoting an account on a social network. In particular, there can be 3 options:

1. Provide your user audience with up-to-date information about events that will occur in your life or in your company. In this case, you are creating an information account, that is, the sale of any goods or services is not intended here.
2. Create a community, captivate a large number of user audiences in order to unobtrusively advertise some brands or products. As you know, many business representatives turn to opinion leaders to advertise their products. And it brings good profits. But this is relevant for truly promoted personal pages.
3. Sell your own goods and services. That is, you will attract an audience so that they buy your products, thereby providing you with a stable and good profit.

At this stage, you already have a detailed idea of your own capabilities, as well as the main goal, which will be realized in the future. We would like to draw your attention to the fact that initially we focus on creating native advertising campaigns — this is not the best option. In this case, you need to become the blogger to whom other companies will turn to advertise their products. That is, it is better to start by selling your own goods, services or information material. And if you achieve good success in this segment, you can be sure that there will definitely be those who want to order advertising from you.

And now it’s time to move directly to developing a personal brand. We would like to immediately draw your attention to the fact that there is a lot of work to be done, but you will be able to implement them all consistently. Moreover, we will tell you how to do it as correctly as possible. So, let's go.

Forming a personal brand identity

The first thing you need to start working with a personal brand on Instagram is to form its identity. In particular, we are talking about uniqueness and core values. We must not forget about social responsibility, because you plan to work with people, and each person may have their own views on a particular issue, preferences, and moments that cause intuitive denial. And all this must be taken into account, be as flexible and loyal as possible.

If you analyze modern social networks, you can easily identify successful personal brands. Basically, these are fairly well-known public figures who are engaged not only in their own development, but also take an active part in the social life of society and help solve certain pressing issues. If we talk about personal qualities, then professionalism, hard work, creativity in a particular niche, impeccable style and taste, visual attractiveness, and the desire for excellence will always be welcomed. But at the same time, there must be some kind of social responsibility, a certain civic position. This is what will really attract the audience, gain respect and get a large number of supporters.

That is, when determining identity, it is necessary to take into account three key aspects:

1. Uniqueness. If you cannot offer the market something unusual, original, extraordinary, then you probably shouldn’t even start. At best, you will become the same brand as thousands of others in the online space: the same type, ordinary. Here you will not be able to attract the attention of a large number of people, much less keep it. That is, the main thing is to find something that will set you apart from your competitors.
2. Key values. There should be no insincerity or pretense here. The audience will instantly notice this and will not perceive you. That is, a personal brand should be based on one’s own values and beliefs. This should be something you yourself are passionate about, something you want to tell people about and win like-minded people.
3. Social responsibility. Think about how you can help the people around you and what their problems and pains can be solved. Perhaps you are ready to offer a number of ideas that will simplify the daily life of people with disabilities. If you are well versed in fashion, you can tell us how to create stylish and unusual looks for every day from what is in every person’s basic wardrobe. If you love to travel, suggest lifehacks that will help you save on travel, tell us which less-than-promoted places in a particular region are worth visiting. There are a lot of options here. But the main thing is that it is interesting for the audience, so that they receive not just entertaining content, but some benefit for themselves.

After working through this stage, you should already have an idea of what exactly your personal brand will be dedicated to.

Researching the user audience

We have already said that only the brand that can find its own audience on the social network will be successful. That is, you must offer a solution to any problems or pains of people. To get to the point, to attract and retain the attention of users, you need to clearly understand who exactly you are targeting. This is the only way you can create the most effective content that will evoke a response and help increase your recognition and authority as an opinion leader.

In order to implement these works as correctly and correctly as possible, use the following recommendations:

• Define your own niche. Again we return to the fact that you must determine the uniqueness of your own product or service. This is exactly what will allow it to stand out from its competitors, let’s say, to break out of the same type. So, for example, you can offer men's and women's clothing, or you can narrow the area somewhat, as an option to clothing for pregnant women, focusing on its comfort, but at the same time being attractive and in line with fashion. In parallel with this, it will be possible to offer additional products for expectant mothers and even for babies. That is, on the one hand, you seem to narrow the main niche, but at the same time open up new, much broader opportunities for your own brand.
• Do market research. Now you already know what niche you will work in. That is, you need to determine the preferences and interests of your audience. Even before launching your account, you can run a number of surveys and analyze data from the personal pages of your competitors. That is, you need to immerse yourself as deeply as possible into the niche, understand what trends are interesting to people here and now, and only with this store of knowledge move on to subsequent actions. But we want to immediately warn you that such studies should become the norm for you in the future. That is, you must constantly explore new trends and not miss them. Only by offering something relevant and interesting can you retain your audience.
• Create a portrait of your consumer. Imagine exactly what your regular subscriber and buyer should be like. As a result, you should end up with a character that summarizes the traits of an ideal regular subscriber. In this case, it is necessary to take into account behavioral and psychological factors, demographics. That is, determine the optimal age range, income level, perhaps even background. This can be achieved by collecting information from personal profiles on social networks. That is, this is what will allow you to understand the people you are targeting, determine their needs, and then satisfy them.
• Bet on social networks. In this case, we are talking not only about Instagram, but also about other platforms where the user audience is represented. These accounts — it is literally a treasure trove of information about the target audience. It is clear that it is not possible to manually collect all this information; you can see that its volume is very, very impressive. But this is not a problem, since there are specialized parser programs, automating actions on the network. With their help, data collection will be as fast and simple as possible. As a result, you will receive systematized information that only remains to be processed.
• Start actively interacting with your audience. This can be done through comments on social networks, participation in various communities, and direct direct communication. Here you need to pay attention to people’s reviews, their suggestions, wishes. You must take part in discussions, sincerely respond to certain pains of people. Such interaction and desire to help – this is what builds trust. This is what will become the basis for the subsequent successful development of a personal brand.

The implementation of this stage will require a lot of time and effort from you, but as soon as you do this work, you will see what opportunities all this has opened up for you. Believe me, your efforts will pay off quickly.

Analyzing competitors

No business can do without a detailed acquaintance with competitors. That is, you must understand which companies operate in the same niche as you, what products, services, information they offer. Here it is important for you not to duplicate content, but also not to deviate from fashion trends. We would like to draw your attention to the fact that today the social network Instagram has its own analytics tool, in particular Instagram Analytics. To use it, you need to select the Insights option, and then click on Audience. All this is enough to obtain detailed information about your own subscribers, in particular their location, gender, age.

But such solutions will not be enough to work with competitors’ accounts. In this case, you will need to use any third-party services for parsing data. With their help, you can analyze the personal pages of your competitors, determine their audience, see what advertising campaigns they are launching, which of them give good results and which do not. It would also be a good idea to check your account for cheating. You can also get acquainted directly with the content, highlight the most effective solutions, and choose the optimal time for publication.

One of the good options in this case would be the trendHERO application. It will be useful not only for parsing competitors, but also for those business representatives who are looking for bloggers to advertise their products and services. That is, you can see how much this or that account is inflated and understand whether it is worth spending money on this or that influencer. You will also be able to see how engaged a particular blogger’s audience is and what geographic region it belongs to. That is, you can find the most suitable opinion leader for yourself as easily and simply as possible. Here it will be enough to use a well-thought-out filter system or set keywords and receive a package of collected and processed information that can simply be analyzed.

Making a content plan

You can only retain your user audience if you regularly offer them interesting and exciting content. And similar posts here — not an option. That is, even if you are a super-duper professional in your field, your competent recommendations will eventually become boring to the audience. Your subscribers will slowly begin to leave.

So you need to create content that will display:

• You as a person. Try to add quotes, raw photographs from life, both from work and home, relaxation, and appropriate jokes in your post.
• Social connections. Show that you are developing, take part in certain events, conferences, communicate with like-minded people, including well-known personalities in your field.
• Personal preferences, hobbies. This could be a display of interesting places you have visited, some charity events, or your personal achievements. Even if they are small, they will indicate that you are not standing still and are developing. Show a book that impressed you, tell us about your hobby.
• Professional knowledge and skills. This is all that will show people that you really understand this or that niche and have achieved some success in it. This can be done using indicative statistics, providing life hacks, instructions, advice, and rewards.

Visualize your content

Instagram — This is a social network that primarily relies not on text, but on graphic content and video. Here, the design of each individual post and the entire account as a whole can play a key role. Follow link to study in more detail trends in photo processing for social networks. Now we will present some of the most relevant recommendations:

• Take as authentic portraits as possible. Those times when professional photo shoots were welcomed on Instagram are already a thing of the past. Now the emphasis is on naturalness, naturalness. Show your own real emotions and your personality in the pictures. Tell us what you look like in a normal home environment. This is what will show people your authenticity, improve the level of trust, and portray you not as a public figure, but as an ordinary person with his own interests and passions.
• Use minimalism. Simplicity, conciseness, uncluttered visual images, emphasis on naturalness — this is what attracts audiences today. Don’t fill your posts with unnecessary pictures or complex elements. Place your bet on the main product.
• Get away from the same type. Despite the fact that your posts should show some similarity and individuality, uniqueness and unusualness are also welcome. That is, you must show how diverse a person you are, what interests you have. Tell a little about everything, and the publications will definitely resonate with the audience. Stories from life will make your personal brand more inspiring and successful.
• Add animated, interactive visuals. Modern photo processing applications allow you to use different creatives to ultimately get unusual effects: retro style, film photographs, fluorescent lighting, etc. Bright, unusual, dynamic images — this is something that will definitely attract attention, allow you to show your originality, and improve the overall user experience.

When performing this work, you need to constantly monitor the trends that appear on Instagram in order to keep up with more progressive competitors.

Creating text content

For the most part, photo content should be supplemented with text in order to show the audience exactly what information you would like to convey to them. But there are quite strict restrictions on the number of characters. A post containing from 100 to 150 characters is considered optimal. But in some cases, you can make a much more voluminous description if your idea requires it.

In any case, the text support should be written in a bright, lively language and have a consistent structure. It is also important to maintain the general style in absolutely all posts. This way you will increase your own recognition.

Add hashtags

Hashtags — This is something that can increase the effectiveness of posts and customer engagement. Today, different hashtag options can be used on the Instagram social network:

1. Targeted and relevant. This is something that is designed to increase the reach of the target audience with this or that content. In this case, a combination of broad and niche tags is used, which will be specific to your audience or materials. Thanks to this, you can attract users who are interested in the relevant product, service, information. That is, with their help you can effectively attract new subscribers.
2. Locations. Such tags will be more effective for local businesses, as they will be able to reach a local audience. Such a solution will be especially useful for companies that are actually located in a particular region, city, as well as those who would like to emphasize their close connection with a particular local community.
3. Fashionable. These are modern hashtags focused on tracking the most relevant topics. They should be used when you want to keep abreast of any events, current discussions, trends, holidays in a particular niche.
4. For communities and niches. They are designed so that communities can interact with a fairly narrow audience and establish interaction with like-minded people. That is, with their help you can work with a highly targeted audience. Practice shows that it is precisely such subscribers who will be the most involved and relevant.
5. Geotargeting. In this case, the hashtag itself will contain the name of a particular region, city, or country. They can help you reach hyperlocal communities and connect with the audiences that will be most engaged in a given location.

You will be able to choose the best hashtag option for yourself if you understand exactly what tasks you will face when promoting your personal brand.

Working with other influencers

When promoting your own brand on social networks, you cannot neglect third-party help, in particular well-known and well-promoted opinion leaders. And here you need to understand which category you would plan to work with:

1. Nanobloggers. The number of followers of such influencers ranges from 1000 to 5000. There is no emphasis on creative, glamorous representation. Photo content will be as natural, natural, and lively as possible. The result is realistic material that is sure to resonate with the user audience. This is what will really increase sales.
2. Microbloggers. The audience of such opinion leaders ranges from 5,000 to 100,000 people. Basically, these are people who have become experts in a fairly narrow niche. It is worth paying attention to such influencers if you want to attract the attention of a highly specialized business audience.
3. Megabloggers. These are already truly famous personalities, whose audience has already exceeded 100,000. It is not always worth betting on these opinion leaders. Firstly, the cost of services here will be very, very high, and secondly — The desired effect may not be obtained at all, because for the most part all the attention of the audience will be focused directly on the influencer himself, and your products will remain literally behind the scenes.

Create your own store on Instagram

A similar solution is gaining momentum in popularity today, as many people prefer to buy goods and services directly through a social network, without even going to the company’s official websites. That is, you can turn Instagram directly into a trading platform. But we would like to draw your attention to the fact that in this case you will be able to attract the attention of the so-called millennials and the more modern generation, while the category aged 50+ will most likely remain behind the scenes.

We connect stories to work

This format is also in high demand and popularity among the audience today. And practice shows that stories really help increase income, since they can be seen by the maximum number of users. But here you need to be very careful, since you will only have one chance to attract an audience, and that’s literally in the first 3 seconds. That is, you must think through your video so that it contains useful information for the user audience and contains a call to action. It is also important that the stories correspond to the overall strategy of your brand.

Choosing the optimal time to publish

Statistical studies of social networks and Instagram, in particular, have shown that the timing of a post also has a significant impact on the reaction from the user audience. At the same time, it is very important to take into account the topic itself. So, as an option, publications dedicated to the tourism sector evoke maximum response from people on Fridays in the time interval from 09:00 to 13:00. It is also worth publishing information about restaurants, cafes, bars on Friday, well, already at lunchtime. If you plan to provide professional services, it is better to publish your material on Tuesday, Wednesday or Friday from approximately 9 to 10 am.

Such recommendations today exist for absolutely every business niche. And this is really what gives excellent results in practice. Ordinary human psychology comes into play here: Monday — It’s a tough day, so you shouldn’t expect maximum results from your user audience. It is better to move everything that is devoted to entertainment to the afternoon on weekdays or weekends. It is better to publish a post in a niche such as selling goods and services from Tuesday to Thursday in the morning.

To summarize

In this review, we have outlined step-by-step actions that will allow you to create and promote your own brand on social networks as effectively as possible. The main thing — approach the implementation of each given stage as responsibly and professionally as possible. In any case, most of the work will be implemented at the beginning of the launch of your account. Subsequently, you will simply need to follow current trends, prepare publications in accordance with them, come up with creative ideas and do everything that will attract and also retain the attention of the user audience.

The last point that I would like to draw your attention to is that Instagram is currently prohibited in Russia. This means that you will not be able to directly promote your personal brand here. But such a limitation can be easily circumvented using mobile proxies from the MobileProxy.Space service. This way you will have at your disposal an intermediary server that will replace your geolocation with one where the social network is not prohibited.

Follow the link https://mobileproxy.space/en/user.html?buyproxy to evaluate what opportunities you have get it in practice thanks to connecting such mobile proxies, and also take advantage of a free two-hour test. We would like to pay special attention to the current tariffs. They directly depend on your location, as well as for what period of time you rent mobile proxies. So, if you choose an annual tariff, then a day of use will cost you about ten times cheaper than using the same daily tariff.

If you encounter any difficulties with your work or require additional assistance, contact the technical support service, which is available 24 hours a day.

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