Some of you may already be planning on becoming an Insta-freelancer and for many of you this may be the first time you ever heard of that term. An Insta-freelancer is essentially someone who uses social media – primarily Instagram – to grow awareness surrounding their brand. Here are a few ways how.

Hashtags

Think of hashtags in two ways. First, they help you get discovered by people who are searching for content like yours. Second, they help you stay connected with your online community.

Studies have shown that using a single hashtag in your post can increase engagement by 12%. To put this in perspective, Instagram allows 30 hashtags per post, so even if you only use the recommended number of hashtags (8 to 14 per post), that’s a lot of opportunity for increased engagement.

A hashtag with between 5K and 20K usage will be far less competitive than a hashtag with five million uses, however, if the hashtag has less than 5K posts, it may be so niche that only the people using it know about it. Or, to put it in other words, your ideal customer may not be searching for it.

The following hashtag categories are ideal if you’re aiming for growth:

Hashtags about the audience you serve

Hashtags for lifestyle choices

Hashtags for niche/industry communities

Hashtags for Instagram communities

Hashtags for holidays, seasons or daily happenings

Analytics 

When your goal is to attract people to your brand, measure your follower count and post reach.

To increase your reach, create shareable content like quotes, infographics, and useful information. Make sure that you’re also using hashtags and peeping in to see where folks are coming from!

When your goal is to build a loyal and engaged community, measure true engagement.

We’re not talking about the engagement that all of the social media people are telling you to measure. Likes and comments are great, but saves & shares are SUPERLIKES. Direct messages, even better. Businesses are built on relationships, and relationships happen through conversations.

We’ve built a handy dandy scorecard that’ll help you get right down to the nitty gritty. Just pop in your follower count, likes & comments, saves & shares, and DMs and it’ll pop out an overall growth rate and final score for your month!

When your goal is to make more sales, measure DMs and leads.

Simply challenge yourself to have as many conversations as possible. STOP WORRYING about getting more people into the room—focus on the ones that are already there, waiting to hear what you have to say.

Shares & Engagement 

People mainly share three types of content: content that inspires, teaches them something or is entertaining.

So, when creating content with virality in mind, always remember it has to be catchy, high-quality and valuable.

This will increase the likelihood of your content showing up on the Explore tab, being shared often and of others tagging their friends like crazy on your post. All signs that a post is picking up steam and the virality score is rising.

Many freelancers and solopreneurs use Instagram as a lead generator or list building tool by offering a link to sign up for a tutorial or checklist in their profile link. This is a brilliant way to use your marketplace profile link as a key lead generator (this not only secures the lead quicker but also shortens the clients journey. 

That comes to our 7 tips:

Tip #1: Use a business account on Instagram… Your bio should clearly communicate who you are and how you help your clients

Tip #2: Make sure you maximise your “link in profile” by using LinkTree or Carrd.co 

Tip #3: Use PLANOLY’s Newest Feature sellit – Great way to place your offers from Wishu (copying the link) to get on-demand bookings. 

Tip #4: Use hashtags to find prospective clients. If you’re a local business, you may find success searching geotags of your city or you can search.

Tip #5: Providing value and sharing relevant tips on Instagram will showcase your expertise and can help sell you to future clients.

Tip #6: Build you funnel…Make sure to include a marketplace (somewhere where the client can easily access you and book your services)… shortening the client’s journey. 

#FinalTip: Show off your personality!