This workshop has been hosted free for entrepreneurial communities through the Knoxville Entrepreneur’s Center (KEC), Women in Entrepreneurship (WiE) Knoxville and Blount County, and Tuesday’s Together, Knoxville Chapter. Reach out if you’d like to bring this workshop to your community or group.

It takes about 6 - 12 months of consistent investment (of time and effort) and engagement to grow a supportive Instagram community (audience).  Support can range depending on what you as a creative business owner/service provider need, but often, support looks like: active engagement with your posts, clicking through your links, saving your posts, purchasing featured products, inquiring about services, subscribing to your list, commenting on your content, etc. 

The truth is, you might not need to be on Instagram. Your business might benefit from a parked piece of real estate with a 9-tile eye-catching “landing page” that drives visitors to the link in your bio, which sends them to the next call-to-action in your funnel or process. 

You only need to be actively cultivating community on Instagram if: 

• You can make money directly through the app by selling products (shoppable posts).

• You can book clients through traffic driven from the app (for creative or intellectual services) and are willing/able/excited about previewing your services through graphics and copywriting. 

• Your brand awareness is benefited by local (geotagging) spotlight (e.g. brick and mortar businesses)), illustration of products and services (e.g. photographers, graphic designers, writers and lifestyle bloggers), or you are growing a personal reputation (e.g. influencer, media personality, model/actor/book writer).

If none of these statements apply to you, your business will likely be benefited by you spending time on another platform, generating leads in person, or investing in business growth elsewhere!

Alternatives to Instagram: Facebook, Pinterest, SEO-optimized Content Marketing, In-person Networking, B2B Collaborations, Listing Services (Angie’s List, Better Business Bureau (BBB), Thumbtack), Marketplaces (Etsy, eBay, Depop), and more.

Don’t take it personally: Instagram is a business tool.

At least, in this case. When you step into using Instagram as a business tool, it is paramount to shed the self-judgement and ‘cringe factor’ that says “I can’t post everyday / curate a visually aesthetic feed / I feel lame and spammy.”

Stake your claim for Instagram real estate and own it.

Download the free Instagram Masterclass workbook.

This blog post only scratches the surface of the workbook’s content, so click the button below and get started on your Instagram strategy today.

What to expect from the full program —

The workshop is organized into three sections, designed to build on one another and to guide you in creating your Instagram strategy. If the ‘s’ word scares you, consider that there’s an entire page called “Tip Sheet” with one-off tactics you can implement to your heart’s content.

1. Attract: Show up with stellar content where your target community is already hanging out. Focus on hashtags, geotags, sharing/promotion, collaboration/cross-promotion, cross-platform promotion, and consistency. Activities: Hashtag + Tag Bank Template

2. Grow: Multiply your attraction with consistency and broadening tactics. Introduce algorithm-favoring tactics: increasing time-spent on posts, repeat engagement, Instagram Stories, in-app features and usage, limited ‘noise’ (hashtags and media tags), increased Saves and Shares to Story, avoiding spam (giveaways, tag chains, comment circles).  Activity: Growth Strategy active brainstorming.

3. Maintain: Engage with your audience in a way that leaves them feeling valued, understood, and supported. More on comments, clear connection instructions (for them to you), responsive content creation, showcasing/spotlighting, providing for needs and wants, validating presence. Consistent content, engagement, expectations. Activity: IG Management Workflow

I also include a guide to my favorite supplement apps to simply Instagram activities, a guide for nurturing an engaged audience, and an batch-content development guide.

Why make this all free?

Almost everything I’ve learned from bloggers, business writers, and other entrepreneurs has been free. Articles, eBooks, video content, direct advice… all free. Making it into something profitable (applicable to my business) was my main priority.

So, here’s a portion of my contribution back into the pool of free advice. Take what works and leave the rest.