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Podcast Show Notes
Everyone seems to want to get their hands on the magic trick that will take their account from 2k to 10k followers overnight. But today, I want to give you my thoughts on this whole follower obsession and show you why engagement should be your top priority over follower count.
I live, eat, breathe, and teach authenticity inside my business, and today’s show is going to share exactly why.
If you’re looking to get more followers on Instagram and increase your engagement, it’s time to let your audience into your world.
what readers want
Everyday readers of your original content are paying attention to the experience that your brand gives them, and the emotions that you invoke within them.
What this means is that you are not selling your product, service, or opportunity.
You’re, in reality selling yourself, your image, and your reputation.
Which, in short, is your personal brand.
You sell your personal brand every time you show up online with your original content in written, audio, or video format.
the biggest trend for 2020
While Instagram used to be ONLY about high-quality visuals, a cohesive aesthetic, and on-brand images… the biggest trend for 2020 will be authenticity.
And the way to double your engagement on Instagram this year will be with long-form captions.
These longer caption lengths will allow your audience to learn more about you, your brand, and your mission.
While having a memorable brand identity that brings you credibility and recognition is essential, it’s not the ONLY piece of the puzzle to creating engagement and monetizing from your IG account.
The 4C’s to creating content
I teach a lot about content marketing inside my Branding for Beginners Blueprint course and the 4C’s method of creating original content.
- Creative
- Content
- Consistency
- Currency
Creative is the doorway to your content to deepen your connections with your niche audience. When you show up with consistency, your audience builds a memory structure about who you are, creates a desire for your product, and brings them into the next step of your sales process to create currency.
In short, I believe when you can think less about actually monetizing and put more effort into creating high-value original content that your niche audience cares about, you’ll find more success with deeper connections.
what is the best caption length
So getting back to your caption length, according to influencer research by Fohr, the average caption length has more than doubled since 2016.
For example, what they reported was that in 2016 captions with 500-1000 characters averaged a 2% engagement rate, and in 2019 that rate grew to 5.36%!
And in 2020, it’s reported that feeds will have an average caption length of 405 characters — which averages out to be 65-70 words!
When I did my own research on word count
I did some research on my posts using wordcounter.net, and what I found was that over my last seven posts, I averaged: 87 words and 505 characters.
You’ve probably seen many of your favorites brands and influencers jump on this trend as well. They all share lengthy captions on their posts to provide further insight into their world or to share their knowledge.
When you can share more with your community through your Instagram posts, you can build a stronger relationship with your audience (both new and existing).
It lets your audience be involved, giving them a genuine glimpse into your life, and behind the scenes of your business. You might find you gain new followers, and better retain the niche audience you already have.
this is what data I look at
When reviewing my Instagram data every month, I’m focused on two things… my engagement rate, and my bio links taps.
Over the last 30 days, the engagement rate on my IG feed has been almost 5% and 4.5% for IG stories which tells me my longer captions are doing their job.
While I use social media to grow deeper connections with my niche audience, my main goal is to drop more people into my sales funnel. When they click on my bio link, which takes them to one of my lead magnets, I can add more value when they get my free workbook or masterclass in exchange for their email address, which leads them into my back office email sequence automations.
Building a loyal community
With just over 2,000 followers on Instagram, I am building a loyal community one person at a time.
Even though my follower count may seem low, my reach has been almost 19k people in the last month. This means my content is being seen, consumed, and shared by others not following me yet.
Using this sales process system, I teach inside my Stay in Your Lane Brand Method I’m able to use social media to deliver high-value content and drop over 200 new niche clients into my email sequences every month.
In conclusion
So in 2020, I challenge you to focus on your original content in written, audio, and video format and use more extended captions. Use 405 characters and 65-70 words to deliver impactful and value-loaded content for your niche audience. Not only will sharing more of your story increase and possibly double your engagement, but it will also lead more people into your sales process.
Now more than ever, your audience wants to see your authentic self in content. I think providing purposeful content that shows your real-life personality is KEY to growing online these days.
