Do you own and operate a business? A personal training or wellness business, an MLM of some type, a blog, a small fitness apparel or product brand, or really most any other business? If so, you need to be active on Instagram and implementing effective strategies for long-term results. It’s a non negotiable. As a digital marketing consultant, I am continually tracking trends, strategies, new social media channels, and implementing campaigns for my clients. Over the past two years, Instagram has continued to explode in popularity and I have experienced a tremendous amount of success via IG initiatives.

Last year I produced both a Fit Pregnancy and Body After Baby DVD. As a result of my Instagram conversions (customer orders) alone, I sold out of Fit Pregnancy DVDs before I even got my first shipment in, and I covered the production costs for my Body After Baby DVD within the first day or so of sales. Instagram is a phenomenal platform.

If you haven’t gotten started on Instagram yet – all is not lost. Create an account today and implement my Top 10 Tips consistently for maximum results.

1. Implement my 20/20/20 strategy. Every day of the week, follow, comment on, and like 20 photos or profiles of individuals who are in your niche market and who interest you. This strategy alone has been a game changer for my small business clients in terms of developing a strong loyal tribe of followers. If you do not have time to implement this strategy personally, consider hiring one of my digital marketing company staffer to help you for a small fee. The ROI is astounding.

View my video explaining this strategy in more depth.

2. Cross promote your Instagram account via your other social media platforms. Do an IG shoutout on your FB page and Twitter profile. Push some IG photos to your other channels to people see that you have an Instagram account. This will be key in establishing qualified followers.

3. Add a good profile description and photo. What best describes you? How would you like to be contacted? Also add an engaging profile photo. I like profile photos to be personal (headshot) versus a high res image of your small business logo.

4. Post consistently two or three times per day — early morning, afternoon, and late evening are the best times.

5. Add a call to action in your post to generate leads — Ie: Ask followers to leave their email, friend you on Facebook, or tag a friend.

6. Focus on a strong content marketing strategy. In an age of invitation avalanche, post tips and valuable information to entice your followers versus yet another invitation to follow, like, join, submit, pay, etc. I like to post helpful tips and family photos every day with only two lead generators per week.

7. Rejoice with your clients and customers. Do not toot your own horn.

8. Be sure your Instagram posts are short and sweet. Instagram users do not want to read a book.

9. Utilize some good apps for photo filters, collages, text, and more — Instafollowers, OVER, Picmonkey, Pic Stitch, PicPlayPost, Whiteagram, Timehop, Fipagram to name a few.

10. Be genuine and authentic. Be true to your personal brand and style. Serve versus sell via your Instagram page.

If you found these tips valuable, please submit your email below to receive more social media and content marketing tips and/or to receive info about my extremely successful business mentorship program. I share tips like this with my Team INSPIRE and mentorship clients every single week day. I would love for you to join in the trainings and learn about effective marketing and best practices too!