[Strategy Spotlight] Conquer Your Instagram Game: Engagement is Key with Melissa McClure

The Instagram Game is ever-changing, but the number one thing you can do is to conquer engagement! How do you engage on social media? Is it more than just posting a photo? It sure is. Instagram expert, Melissa McClure of Melissa McClure Coaching, shares with the Fab Fempreneurs community on how to uplevel your Instagram skills to create authentic relationships and gain more exposure.

Melissa spent 15 years as a wedding and portrait photographer and uses her photo and social media skills to help women entrepreneurs put themselves in front of their brand. Although photography and being behind the camera is her first love, over the past year she has discovered that she loves being in front of the camera and has experienced growing more comfortable with her body confidence and self-image. She is launching a new program to help women entrepreneurs find their passion while being more comfortable and self-confident. Her best tip to get started on Instagram is to put your whole self out there: from your sweaty workout self to your sophisticated business self.

Interact for more than 20 mins a day
The more you interact on Instagram, the more Instagram will share your content. This does take time, so it is good to time block about 20 minutes a day to engage with other users and followers. The more time you allot to this, the more growth you will see on Instagram. Melissa suggests you interact for 10 minutes, then share your post, and then engage for another 10 minutes after. This will help boost your algorithmic exposure and will help make sure you respond to each comment on your post. Then go to their page and comment. This process helps build relationships, rapport and trust. One engagement SECRET to know is: Only comments with at least 4 words will count as a comment, and even sending a direct message (aka a DM!) counts as engagement according to the Instagram algorithm. Also, don’t bombard other users for requests. It's about posting and engaging, which will help in building your online community.
Follow Hashtags
You can have up to 30 hashtags, but 11 hashtags are ideal and is all you need for engagement. The thing about hashtags is, you don’t want to reuse the same ones over and over because you can get marked as spam (yikes!). On Melissa’s phone, she has a note with 10 sets of hashtags she uses and she rotates them depending on the post. Just like the following accounts, you can follow hashtags, which is a good way to find new accounts and have them find you. Find out what hashtags work for you and your ideal client. Give your hashtags a niche. For example instead of #weddings try #outdoorweddings
Join Giveaways
Collaborate with other like -minded entrepreneurs and participate in Instagram giveaways. A fast way to get followers with these requirements: Have them follow all accounts, and comment and tag friends for more engagement.

Melissa McClure will be a speaker at this year's Fab Fempreneur Fest 2020 and will be discussing more in-depth tips on how to attract the right followers on Instagram and turn them into paying clients. To connect with Melissa further, please visit her website http://www.melissamcclurecoaching.com/. To register for Fab Fempreneur Fest and more info, please visit our website. https://fabfempreneurs.com/fest