Consistency.

Consistency is key. You can’t expect to do something (anything, really) once or twice and expect great results. It takes consistent, focused effort to get there … and to stay there.

Case in point … (I’m going to preface this entire thing by saying that I am NOT a social media expert, just sharing what has worked for me.)

Growing our brand on Instagram has been a focus for me throughout the month of February. Prior to this, we’ve not been very active on this account as you can see on the screenshot from the day I started.

I started by building our highlights. I set up highlights that I thought were interesting or important to express who we are, and then went back through the photos on my camera from the past year and added them to our stories and then the highlights. Several of my team members sent photos as well.

My next focus was on posting. Twice per day. Every. Single. Day. I’ve been mixing up the content with a mix of photos, videos and graphics (most that I made myself on Canva), and have been using a variety of hashtags. Some that are specific “branding” hashtags that are personal to our team that only we use (like #pgbilliondollarimpact) and popular, general hashtags that I select based on the content of the post.

This consistency has allowed us to increase our followers by 50% during this time period. We haven’t bought followers, or used bots (not that I am sure what those are), or followed and then unfollowed people. I did invite my contact list to follow us, and we follow most anyone who follows us. I’ve boosted less than a handful of posts, those I thought were most compelling, spending less than $200 total. We did 3 “giveaway” posts, one that was connected to a giveaway that was already part of our marketing program, one to give away a $10 gift card for correctly guessing a location, and the other to give away five $5 gift cards to a new local beverage shop that we featured in a post.

Possibly the best part of this whole experience thus far is that I’ve been testing, gathering data, and learning. I’ve been figuring out which posts garner the most interest, and trying to replicate aspects of those. I’ve learned more about hashtags, and what works with promotions. We used to boost posts for a smaller amount of money over a longer period of time, I’ve now learned that the best results seem to come from more money for a shorter period of time (my typical budget is $25 per day for 1 or 2 days).

Had I not been focused on this and been so CONSISTENT over the past month, I wouldn’t have made these observations … which will only serve to help our growth in the future.

Is there an area in your business that you need to grow? Whether it is building your database, increasing your social media presence, or increasing your lead conversion, consistency really is the key!