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Wondering how to attract ideal followers on Instagram and turn them into customers? In today’s episode, I share with you my own methods on how I’ve been able to attract ideal followers to my Instagram page, build a community, & turn my followers into social media management clients.

Why More Followers Shouldn’t Be Your #1 Focus

What I learned from working at an Instagram Marketing Company, is that so many people are more focused on vanity metrics and hitting x amount of followers, rather than focusing on attracting the right people to their social media pages, building a loyal community, & nurturing them so they go from a follower to a client.

The truth is so many people assume that if they just had x more followers then they would make x more sales but the key here is that you need to have quality followers. The more followers you have doesn’t actually equate to finances or the dollars in your bank account. 

A great example of this is when I had an Instagram consultation with a lady who had 300k Instagram followers. When I asked her what her main goals were with Instagram and why she was looking for help, she admitted to me that while she had all of these hundreds of thousands of followers, her jewelry business had little to no sales. Now in her case, taking a deeper look at her account it was painfully obvious that she had bought followers, and even the ones that did look like real accounts weren’t actually interested in her content, weren’t engaging, nor were they interested in buying her luxury jewelry designs. So while she had what seemed to be at first glance a successful social media account with tons of followers, it actually meant nothing because not a single one of those 300k followers were engaged or interested in her products.  

Focus On 1,000 True Followers

Instead of focusing on vanity metrics and trying to appear as a successful social media account + brand, this lady should have been focusing on attracting & nurturing 1,000 true fans. This is a concept by Kevin Kelly and it basically states that you really only need 1k true fans to make a solid living. Why? Because these are going to be the people who will be the first to buy, they love what you do, what you are all about, & therefore they are those true fans. So if you can attract 1k of these types of people and let’s say you convert even just 1% of them, that’s 10 people. And in the case of the lady selling luxury necklaces for let’s say $1,300 each, that is still $13,000 which is a pretty good chunk of change.

So again it’s not that you need more followers, its that you need the RIGHT followers, those true fans, and it’s up to you to attract them to your social media pages, nurture them, build trust with them, lead them down your sales funnel & ultimately convert them.

Now some tips to help you start attracting those 1k true fans and turn them into paying clients is:

#1. Identify Who Your Ideal Client Is

I recommend building out a client persona or avatar for your dream client. This is the person that you want to attract to your audience, the one that you want to speak to within your content, and the one you ultimately want to work with. So for me, I actually have a google doc where I’ve outlined my own ideal client persona, I gave her a name, listed out her likes/dislikes, where she’s currently at with her own social media management business, what she’s struggling with, her goals, what platforms she’s on, and so forth.

By doing this, I now have a clear picture of who I am speaking to within my content, I can stay consistent across all platforms, and I can start attracting those ideal followers to me.

#2. Create Free Valuable Content

If you’ve ever wondered how big-name brands have these huge audiences, with loyal fans, and people who jump at the first opportunity to work with them? Well, it’s because they put out free valuable content on a consistent basis. Yes, FREE.

This type of content genuinely helps their audience whether it is helping them solve a specific problem, educating them on x topic, inspiring them to take action, entertaining them, etc. The reason why they consistently put out free valuable content is because it’s what allows them to connect with their audience, position themselves as the go-to experts, build their brands, & ultimately builds that know, like, and trust factor. So when it comes to creating valuable content for your own social media platforms, you want to think about what your ideal client is struggling with, how your content pieces are going to help them or bring them value, and what’s the key takeaway.

#2. Create A Lead Magnet

Essentially you want to create something for free and something of value for your ideal audience and in exchange, they provide you their email address. AKA helping you get them onto your email list and into your sales funnel. This lead magnet can be a free pdf guide, an ebook, a webinar, a free challenge, or even a 3-part video series. You can create your freebie in Canva and then create the opt-in page & email sequence in Flodesk or another email marketing service of your choosing.

Now when it comes to creating your own freebie, really think about what your ideal audience is struggling with, where they are at in their own businesses, and then create something that will provide them a few tangible tips that they themselves can implement. Just remember to include some kind of call to action, either for them to go ahead and work with you, connect with you on Instagram, book a discovery call, etc.

And when you do create this freebie, you want to go ahead and put it in the link in your IG bio, on Pinterest, or whatever social media channel you are on so that you can spread the word about your freebie and ultimately attract your ideal followers + clients to you. 

#3. Build Relationships

If you are in the early stages of your business, the reality is that clients aren’t going to magically fall into your lap. You have to take that initiative, put yourself out there, find these ideal clients, build relationships, and ultimately build your network. There’s that saying that “your network is your net worth”, and it’s very true. The more people that you know and can build relationships with, the more people that can vouch for you and your skillset, refer you to others, and ultimately build your brand + client base.

Episode Links:

Free Guide: Kickstart Your Social Media Management Business

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