Best of... Why You Must Do an Instagram Cleanse

In episode 2 of Lessons of a Lashpreneur I shared with you about how lash artists are killing their chances with the Instagram algorithm by prioritizing popularity over profitability. This is not how you should be utilizing social media for your business.

You need to prioritize profitability over popularity. 

You are using social media marketing in a way that's actually making it harder for you to get clients finding them on social media

If you are constantly concerned about your number of followers more than the quality of your posts – then you have got things backwards.

So I wanted to bring back an episode from 2019 that I've referenced at least 10+ times in the last few weeks that some of you may never have heard so you can start to really understand how to start attracting actual clients to your business using Instagram.

 

In this week’s episode I’m going to talk to you about:

• What big mistakes you are making in your social media marketing

• How to maximize your exposure and your effort

• And, how to get clients off your app and into your business

 

To do all this – you need to start with an INSTAGRAM CLEANSE!!!

 

But I’ve finally reached 1,000 followers, why would I do an Instagram cleanse??!

I can practically hear you crying this from reading the title of this episode alone.

But it’s okay, I’ll explain all. Get ready, because in this episode of Lessons of a Lashpreneur I’m going to get REAL honest about how an Instagram cleanse is essential for the growth of your business.

 

Why do I need an Instagram cleanse?

If they are not a potential customer of yours – or they’re a dude! Or a bunch of tweezer manufacturers…or anyone who is NEVER going to be your customer, then they are not helping you extend your reach or purchase from you.

So, if you have 1,000 or 2,000, 8,000 followers and you own a solo brick and mortar business – you have a lot of clicking ahead of you.

 

If they are never going to be your customer – then ELIMINATE them.

 

You’ve got to get real. It’s no longer social media for your personal use. We want to get our marketing in front of the right people. All these fake followers, tweezer manufacturers, lash brands are all people getting in the way of people who would actually want to become a customer of yours.

 

I don’t care about popularity, I don’t care about numbers and I hope you don’t either.

 

If you’ve gone from 1,000 followers to 100 followers because of this cleanse, then you now have 100 potential clients that your posts are more likely to show up in their feeds. Not those 1,000 people who have no interest in your business.

That does nothing to grow your business and it wastes your time. So stop wasting your valuable time coming up with posts, editing photos, crafting captions, getting the right hashtags, to then have nobody see your posts!  That’s because the only people that like your posts are other industry professionals, lash brands and beauty industry. And, that does NOTHING to grow your business.

You all DM me and say that social media doesn’t work. Well if I go into your social media account and the first thing I find is industry pros, or anything that says, lash, hair or make-up in the name, then I know you are not targeting the right followers – and that is why your social media is not working.

 

It doesn’t matter who you follow. It’s about who follows you.

 

How does the Instagram algorithm actually work?

Instagram sends out your post to a test section of your followers. If that test sample shows that people engaged with your post, then the algorithm will send it out to another test section of your audience. The more valuable it is, the more likely it is to show up in more of your followers’ feed. If that test section doesn’t engage, then it won’t get sent out to more people.

 

Instagram works off engagement.

 

If you spend longer in the app you are going to get more exposure to ads – so Facebook/Instagram can charge more to advertisers. That’s how they make their business.

Instagram’s social reach is between 1-3%. If you have 100 followers, only 1-3% will actually see your posts. For our Instagram account, we have 30,000 followers and our reach is way less than 1%. The more followers you have can actually work against you.

 

But we have a really targeted audience – and we are constantly cleansing. It may sound harsh, but that’s how the algorithm works.

 

Go back to episode 2 of Lessons of a Lashpreneur – How You’re Killing Your Chances With The Instagram Algorithm to learn more about how Instagram works.

 

Why am I not getting engagement?

If you’re not using any captions, or hashtags, and are not responding to comments and are just posting an emoji of a butterfly 🦋 and a close-up eye shot👁️, then of course you are not building engagement.

What am I supposed to engage with? Do I reply with a caterpillar emoji?? 🐛. That’s not engagement. 🙄

 

What about other lash artists that follow me and engage? I can’t get rid of them?

Yes, all those lash artists and friends may be great for community, but how are you supposed to get accurate data on what posts are successful and connecting with customers if it is getting watered down by lash artists who are engaging with you on EVERYTHING.

 

You need to eliminate ANYBODY and EVERYBODY who is not a potential customer. Even if they are your supportive Auntie who lives in Boca – they have got to go.

 

It’s not personal, it’s business. Let your friends follow your personal account or pick up the phone and call you.

Your social media marketing is supposed to create a relationship with the customer. To do that – you need to hear from them and find out what they want.

 

• Do they want to know your story?

• Do they want before and after shots?

• Do they want inspirational quotes?

• Do they want community?

 

We can’t know any of that – without that data.

Data is everything if you want to grow your business.

How can you make informed decisions about how to market to a potential customer if you don’t know what it is they want to see or hear from you if you are not getting accurate data?

If you want to know what potential customers want from you –  and you can’t experiment with that – until you have the right audience.

Lash artists are drawn to all those close-up eye shots. But, potential customers aren’t. You will keep thinking this is what your audience wants and keep posting more and more eye shots. What you really need to do is find out what it is your audience wants, but you have all these other people muddying up the waters.

I know I keep telling you to engage with your audience – but you have the WRONG AUDIENCE.

 

So, if you have low engagement you either have the wrong audience and the wrong followers or they don’t value your posts.

 

You can find out which, by doing an Instagram cleanse.

 

How do you remove followers?

I know some of you are going to resist this and I challenge you to DM me and tell me “hang on I’ve already taken off 200 followers and I haven’t found a difference?”

Well, let me tell you, we have had so much success with members going through and being BRUTAL with eliminating followers and cutting 8 or 900 down to 200.

AND…

They’ve said;

“I’m getting more engagement and more interaction from people I didn’t even know were potential customers and I’m getting DMs.”

Trust me, there is a method to my madness.

 

How do I start?

1. Go to your profile page on your app

2. Click on number of followers

3. Tap on that number

4. On the right-hand side, you’ll see three little dots

5. Tap that and you should have the option to remove follower

6. If you don’t, you’ll have to go into their account and block that follower instead

 

Wait, blocking is way too harsh?

If you block them, you won’t even come up when they search for you. And, if that sounds harsh – well it doesn’t matter as they aren’t ever going to be your customer. Plus, they don’t know that you’ve blocked them.

I recommend for any spammy manufacturers you just block them.

 

What will happen once you cleanse your Instagram account?

Once you’ve cleansed your customers into actual potential customers, you will start to notice an increase in engagement, more traffic to your website, views on your stories – all those good things you want from social media because you have the right, targeted audience.

You’ll start getting true data about what your audience wants from you. Then, you’ll start getting real engagement. More of your posts will be getting seen and more DMs will start coming your way.

 

You need to utilize social media so you can get a return on your time and energy it takes to post. Start getting numbers that translate into dollars.

 

Go do your cleanse and let me know how it works for you over on my Instagram account!

ALSO - this week is our last week for accepting applications for the Momentum Mastermind! If you are interested in growing and scaling your business to multiple six and seven figures with a team, head on over to www.thelashpreneur.com/mastermind to schedule a call with me and let's talk about the program!