20 Lessons From 20,000 Followers On Instagram 👀

Recently, I hit 20k followers on Instagram 💥
But I’m not here to show off about it… Followers are nowhere near the most important metric!

I’m here to share the 20 crucial learnings I’ve taken from my journey so far… 

01: Consistency pays off 📈

You’ll notice some accounts with massive followings don’t have the best content.  It’s simply due to them showing up day after day. 

02: Most of the gurus are lying 🤥

They tell you serious growth will take you 60 minutes a day. This is to position their growth products as “easy to achieve”. It WILL take longer.

03: Quantity over Quality ➕

Your content won’t be great at the beginning. But it doesn’t need to be. You can only make good content by experimenting. Put yourself out there and you’ll soon improve. If you wait until it’s perfect, you’ll waste valuable “audience-building” time.

04: You need help (and it doesn’t have to be from a big account) 🛟

I already had my expertise before I started my Instagram journey. And you probably do too. But I needed someone to teach me the platform. Paying mentors helped me to grow my audience much faster. Funnily enough, all bar one of my mentors had smaller followings than me.  Look for the expertise, not the follower count.

05: Beginners, stop posting NOW 🚫

Make sure you have at least 14 (ideally 30) pieces of content ready before you launch into any platform properly. Stop now, and plan your next month.

06: Ignore them 🤫

Most business DMs you receive are not legitimate. They will waste your time. Choose quickly who to ignore.

07: Collaborate 👫

Collaboration boosts your profile. Massively. Reach out to a couple of accounts a week to go live, or arrange a post together.

08: Re-purpose ♻️

No-one will remember this email in 3 months’ time. I will turn it into a carousel, Youtube video and lots more. Believe it or not, some of this email was actually taken from an existing carousel, and I’m filming a YouTube video on the whole subject tomorrow!

09: You can make real friends 👍🏻

Seriously. I speak to some people on social media more frequently than I do my long-term friends. Forging true relationships will help your business. 

10: The first 1,000 followers are the hardest 😓

I didn't believe it when I read it, but it's true. Each day you grow, it gets easier. Social growth definitely has a snowball effect.

11: Showing up daily will make you money. 💰

Posting consistently results in more people seeing and trusting you. Trust = sales.

12: Template everything possible. 🧩

Social "success" doesn't come easily. Wherever possible, template everything you can. It will save you hours in the long run!

13: Don’t use ads at the start 📺

Until you know that your product/service actually works, don’t bother with ads. You could just be pouring money down the drain. You might never need ads! I’ve grown my audience to 20k with zero ads.

14: You can monetise through content alone 📲

I didn't talk about my "offer" to begin with. I had about 10 paying clients before then. If your content is good enough, it will do the work for you. 

15: Focus on building an email list 📧

Obviously, these evergreen organic email funnels are great. But you don’t need to have any at the beginning. Create a freebie, create a landing page on MailChimp or ActiveCampaign for free and push it out there!  

16: Don’t try to conquer every platform at once. 🥷🏼

Seriously, one platform is enough to be a full time job. Choose a singular focus, fail, learn from it and then see how you can take the learnings for other platforms.

17: You need to include engagement & outreach 💬

Engagement, Content and Outreach are the holy trinity. Make sure you're combining comments, content and conversations!

18: Hire a VA 📥

One of the best decisions I made was to hire a VA for outbound and inbound engagement. I still handle all my own DMs and create my own content, but having someone to help with the daily tasks is a gamechanger. It saves so much time. Two of my clients recently hired VAs and they are closing more coaching clients as a result.

19: Don’t obsess over the big accounts 👀

They are only where they are because they put effort in earlier than others. You’ll find many more smaller creators have higher quality content.

20: Think evergreen 🌲

You never know when you’ll want to switch platforms, change your logo etc. Bear that in mind when creating your content - try to future-proof as much as possible. You’ll probably want to re-purpose.

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 If you’re a coach, consultant, creative or expert looking to grow YOUR business using Instagram or LinkedIn - I have two spaces open on my programme, Content To Clients. 

This is for you if you’re ready to start hitting $5k+ per month.

Curious about how Content To Clients will work for you? Use this link to book a call with me directly for a chat how we can help you crush your offer, content & closing rate.

Speak soon 👊🏻