Background.

Once I sewed my first patchwork quilt, I couldn’t stop and continued sewing. There were a lot of ideas, fabrics were purchased, the process was going on and at one fine moment the understanding came that the finished product needed to be sold! All the mothers I know have already been gifted with colorful blankets, and my empty maternity wallet obviously wouldn’t mind an extra penny! The question arose: “How to find a buyer?” Of course, the most successful option for selling copyrighted products is social network. This is live communication with interested people, a vast territory, huge coverage - all of Russia and beyond! I decided to try it and chose Instagram for the experiment.

From theory to practice.

I already had a personal profile, but for my designer textiles I created new account. As I sewed new projects, I filled my profile with photos of finished quilts and kits. The first 100-150 subscribers were my real friends and acquaintances. And then it was necessary to attract the target audience. I tried different methods, read articles on the Internet, even resorted to the help of a third party, but first things first.

So, what do you need to do to get people to subscribe to your account?!

Of course, the most important thing is decide on the topic of the account and fill it with the highest quality photographs on the chosen topic. If I sew quilts, then my profile should have photos of the quilts, not kitties/dogs/flowers, etc. I approach photographs of my products very responsibly - the profile is a virtual showcase, my “face” and if I am a super craftswoman, and the photographs of my works are ugly, then no one will subscribe to my account and no one will appreciate or buy the products. Therefore, I take several photographs of the finished work from different angles, then I select the best frames on the computer and make sure to run them through a photo editor.

I would like to point out right away that for good photos It’s not at all necessary to have a super cool and expensive camera, download Photoshop, etc. Modern Cell phones are equipped with good cameras, and you can make the photo more attractive in the photo application on the same mobile phone or on Instagram itself! The main thing is to pay attention and time to these issues, and not upload everything (soapy or frankly unsuccessful shots) to your profile!

By the way, a few words about the number of publications. People don’t like it when a user makes several posts in a row at once, or when posts are too frequent - you “clog” the feed and people will unfollow you... Optimal in my opinion 2-3 publications per day during peak user activity hours on Instagram, it is 9-10 am and 20-21 pm Moscow time.

Photos must be included in the description hashtags, by which potential clients and colleagues will find you.

While I was busy filling my portfolio with beautiful photos, I came across a promotion account that had a free test day. I wrote to the user in Direct, received answers to my questions, transferred the login and password from my account and received: +200 subscribers per day and, as a side effect, +1000 accounts to which I was subscribed!.. After the test day, I changed my password and slowly unfollowed 1000 people I didn’t need. Those who subscribed to my profile were unclear who, online stores, dubious users... Extras. This is not at all what I wanted, I need to sell my product! To attract the target audience, the Promoter asked for 4,000 rubles per month of work. Having understood the principle of attracting followers, I refused paid services and decided to try to unwind myself. The idea is simple - subscribe to users and some of them will subscribe to you! All that remains is to go to a colleague (competitor) who has many, many followers - people who are interested in our topics, and subscribe to these same potential clients! Inspired by the simplicity of the manipulation, I rushed to follow my colleague’s followers and immediately received a temporary ban from Instagram: it turns out that you can follow no more than 150 accounts per hour! I exceeded this limit and my ability to follow was temporarily blocked.

Ban lasted from 2 pm to 8 am next day, it was at this time that I woke up and decided to check whether the restriction had been lifted and the ability to follow had been restored. From then on, I began to subscribe to 140-145 people every hour. I opened IG several times a day and attracted the target audience. The goal is to reach 1000 subscribers. For starters, it seemed to me that this is a very realistic figure and my account will look visually more attractive to profile guests. I spent about 4 days until I gained the coveted 1000 subscribers, a side effect - at that time I subscribed to more than 4000 accounts that had to be cleaned.

I waited 3 days for everyone I subscribed to to see my subscription (not every user logs into IG every day). You can also unsubscribe from IG from no more than 150 accounts per hour. I had to spend a few more days unsubscribing.

I was very glad that the account was “work” and not personal. After all, be in my personal profile 4000 extra people, it would be extremely difficult to filter unfollows - what if you unfollow the desired account? And in your work profile you can unfollow everyone without bothering.

Manipulations with subscription/unsubscription can be continued for as long as you like until your goal is achieved, the main thing is not to violate the rules of the IG.

Bottom line.

In 10 days, I managed to attract about 1000 potential clients to my profile completely free of charge, respond to many comments about my blankets, and receive 2 orders. My Instagram profile began to look more presentable, the number of daily subscriptions increased from 1-2 followers to 15-30 even after my subscription ended. Now I boldly direct my energy to sewing (including received paid orders) in order to fill my profile with fresh photos of my textiles, receive new followers, and with them new orders!

About Instagram restrictions:

• Likes - no more than 150 per hour;

IN Last year The interest in this social network Instagram is simply enormous. This is not surprising - on the one hand, the number of users mobile devices, and therefore applications, is actively growing, on the other hand, the engagement of subscribers on Instagram is several times higher than in other social networks. And yet, many still don’t really understand how to properly manage an Instagram account in order to attract clients. This is what we will talk about today.

The first thing you need to do before you start being active on Instagram is to think about the concept of presence. The presentation of material on social networks is specific - here, much more than in other social networks, visuals matter. Therefore, often simply posting photos of your products is not very good idea. The exception is bright, visually attractive products. Like these socks, for example:

If your products are not so bright, options are possible. Earlier, in the article, I already said that a great source of content is your customers themselves. You could, for example, offer to take a photo of them after happy shopping- right at the checkout, you can ask them to take a selfie and put a thematic hashtag. You will get lively, bright photos that will help you gather your target audience.

You don't have to post hundreds of photos every day. 1-2 beautiful photos per day is a good posting frequency.

If you have already thought through the idea, it’s time to start promoting your account.

On this moment There are the following options for promoting an Instagram account:

1. Using hashtags. There are high-frequency, mid-frequency and low-frequency tags. Individual hashtags (your company, brand, product, etc.) are usually used as low-frequency hashtags. Let's take a look at these fish socks.

To promote your products, it makes sense to add 2-3 high-frequency hashtags to the picture, as well as mid- and low-frequency hashtags.

How it works? For example, a person looked at a photo using the hashtag #fish (fish) and among various photos with fish, fish salads and photos from fishing he saw these socks. I clicked on the picture to look, became interested in the products (I wanted to know if there were any other interesting models) and followed the hashtag #sockclubmoscow. Since there is a “Follow” button next to each photo, the visitor can subscribe to your page if he is interested. It is possible that he will eventually become your buyer.

2. Conducting competitions. Works very well for attracting new subscribers and increasing the engagement of existing ones. There are plenty of options. This could be, for example, a prize for a like (the winner is determined randomly). Or a user photo contest. The key point is that according to the terms of the competition, people will have to put your hashtag in their photo.

Screenshot from the site Instaspell.ru. Don't let the prices scare you. The largest accounts are shown at the top by default.

4. Another popular method of promotion is using services like tooligram.com, jetinsta.com and their analogues. The principle of their work is as follows. You select the audience you need, and the program begins to subscribe on your behalf to representatives of the selected audience. Some of these people will follow you in return. Then you can start the process of unsubscribing from those who did not reciprocate. This way you will gather a core audience, but the question of its involvement will remain open - you will have to try to ensure that subscribers do not remain “dead weight”.

That's all. I hope this article will help you promote your Instagram profile and attract new clients.

Dmitry Dementiy

Instagram is one of the most promising social platforms for business promotion. Firstly, the popularity of this network is growing steadily. At the same time, Instagram users demonstrate high engagement in interaction with each other and with brands. Secondly, Instagram allows you to publish and consume visual content, which is perceived by users tens of thousands of times faster than text content. Add to this the ability to use Instagram literally on the go using mobile gadgets. It turns out to be almost an ideal social platform for modern man living at a frantic pace. Third, unlike traditional social networks, visual content sharing platforms successfully generate immediate conversions.

After reading this article, you will no longer doubt the effectiveness of promotion on Instagram. You will also learn how to promote projects using Instagram.

Why business needs Instagram

This question can be answered using statistics. According to the Pew Research Center, 17% of total social media users over 18 check Instagram daily. The core audience of this social network is represented by young people aged 18 to 29 years. We are talking about the millennial generation, who often make purchasing decisions influenced by social platforms. In terms of gender, women dominate on Instagram. Instagram users are very active on this network. 57% of owners check their account at least once a day, and 35% do so several times a day.

The following materials were used in preparing the material

With over 200 million users and over 16 billion photos uploaded, Instagram is the most popular means of sharing photos, short videos, as well as likes, feelings and emotions. Like any social network, Instagram can serve an excellent way to promote your business.

He shared his expert opinion on using Instagram to promote a business with us. owner of the online store of exclusive watches La MER Collections:“We have been running our photo blog on Instagram for more than 2 years. La Mer Collections does not buy likes or use any artificial methods to attract new subscribers. On our page we like to share the quality of our products and new collections, as well as display photographs of our office and clients. Those who are interested in beautiful stylish things find us themselves. At the same time, the number of our subscribers is constantly growing. ”

Indeed, publishing interesting and varied photographs that you yourself like is one of the proven and working tactics. I'll tell you 7 more ways to improve your corporate Instagram account.

Step 1: Bring Your Photos to Life

So, let’s imagine that you already have your own Instagram account, where you indicated the direction of your store’s activities, its physical address, if there is one, and provided a link to email address store For example, as our clients, the owners of an online store, did.

“What’s good for an online store is bad for Instagram”: On store pages, it is recommended to place photos on a white background, where nothing distracts the user from the details of the product itself, while Instagram loves color and variety: Place unexpected photos of products from different angles, against an unexpected background or in an unusual setting. Repost photos of your customers enjoying a new pair of shoes, a beautiful bracelet or a stylish hat.

Step 2: Use hashtags

To attract new subscribers (and therefore potential clients), you cannot do without hashtags. It's one of two available image search tools on Instagram (there's also a search by account name), and users actively search for images using tags. To increase sales, you need to use hashtags that match the theme of your online store and highlight the features of your product. Using resources such as Webstagram or IconoSquare, using keywords, you can easily find the right hashtags that will help expand your customer base.

Good set of hashtags may have the following structure:

• Hashtags with the brand name: #baldinini #baldininivrn #baldininitrend
• Hashtags with product descriptions: #baldininishoes #shoesoftheday #happyshoes #bestshoes
• Hashtags with your geolocation: #Russia #Moscow #msc #Moscowfashion #Moscowshoes #Moscowtrends #Moscowfashionbloggers
• Popular hashtags: #love #picoftheday #instagood #instamood #cute #beautiful #like #follow

Try to use hashtags of all categories, but don’t get too carried away: 15-20 is optimal, 30 is maximum. Don’t duplicate the same list of tags over and over again, look for new words and combinations. It makes no sense to update hashtags for old posts, since not very long ago Instagram changed the search results algorithm, and now takes into account not the date the hashtag was added, but the date the photo was published, so latest photos will be at the top of search results in this social network.

Step 3. Give your item an expert opinion

Mention your Instagram page and demonstration of the use of your product in a powerful account with a huge number of subscribers, which are the absolute target audience for your store, can be excellent additional advertising for your business. To do this, you do not need to spend huge amounts of money on marketing strategies; you just need to do the same for your partners. The quid pro quo formula works well. Or even just that simple give your product to the owner of a popular account. The main thing is that he becomes a truly happy user of your product.

Step 4. Attract new subscribers at the expense of competitors

Go in search of those who have already expressed interest in similar products and services. Study the subscriber lists of your direct competitors and try to lure them to your page. There are 3 simple ways to do this on Instagram:

• “Like”, that is, mark the subscriber’s photo as liked
• Comment on the photo
• Subscribe to potential client

The more effort you put in, the more new subscribers you will have, and this will undoubtedly lead to an increase in your popularity and increased sales.

Step 5. Organize promotions and photo contests

Instagram is an ideal place for various promotions and photo competitions, for example:

Step 6: Engage with Followers

Answer all comments and questions from subscribers, even if they are negative. Periodically publish stories about your subscribers and regular customers. Just a few lines written about the client will help attract the attention of a larger audience, especially if your clients include celebrity guests: this will doubly help build trust to your brand and online store.

Step 7. Post regularly, but without fanaticism

Update your profile daily, but not every minute, otherwise you risk spamming the client. It's better to choose 2-3 best photos of the day than to post 10 bad ones. Post up-to-date information about discounts, new arrivals, seasonal sales, the appearance of a new brand in the store, useful tips related to your product.

Or simply wish your clients a great day and good mood in the morning, congratulate them on the upcoming New Year, March 8 or Tinsmith's Day, share your mood and thoughts with them. Let your subscribers know that behind your store’s profile there are real people who, just like them, love beautiful things, quality coffee and fun travels.

Try, experiment, and you will succeed.

How to find clients on Instagram?

When they talk about Instagram as a platform that can multiply the number of clients for a business, or provide a huge influx of buyers to a new business, and for a minimum investment, many have the mistaken opinion that all it takes is to create an account and publish pictures from the Internet. What a disappointment it can be when another mother, having posted a bunch of pictures with shampoos and creams from Yandex search, suddenly discovers that her publications are liked by only 3 people: her friend, giggling at an unsuccessful business, the business mother herself, and her neighbor Aunt Lyuba, who I started Instagram and, due to my lack of skills in using social networks, subscribed only to this same business mother. Instagram is simple, but not that simple! Moreover, now there is more and more competition in it. In this post I will talk about how to find clients on instagram.

Login to your account

Before you rush out and look for your clients, work on your account and the content you post on it. A good Instagram account is half the battle. In some cases, a well-optimized account is capable of self-generation of clients. People, seeing a beautifully and clearly designed account and professionally written content, automatically take the business with due seriousness. On the contrary, if the account is created hastily and superficially, then the attitude towards such a business will be like a shawarma shop opened by illegal Asians. Here are a few articles that will help you create an Instagram account:

• How to add multiple links in Instagram profile description?

After the account takes on a presentable appearance, the description is clear and with its help it will be easy for the client to contact you, you can start searching for clients.

Think about who could become your client and how to reach them on Instagram

I will not describe promotion methods, but will only give examples of where you can find your potential clients, who can be collected in one database and then, using this database, use various promotion methods in order to capture the client’s attention and encourage him to buy you have a product or service.

Instagram is more like a broker than a grocery store. People go to the store on their own, but on Instagram, you need to find a client, as a broker, and offer him favorable conditions for purchasing a product or service. Our task is to find those groups of people who may be interested in our proposals.

We monitor competitors

The first step is to take a closer look at your competitors. The client is not always satisfied with the product or service. There are those who are not satisfied with the price. There are those who are embarrassed to ask questions, expecting that they will turn to him. And your competitor may have such subscribers. Look through the comments under posts and collect in a list all those who were interested in the goods or services that you provide. You can lure them away by launching a promotion with a good discount.

The method of identifying like subscribers also helps a lot. If a user likes several 3-5 posts of a competitor, then most likely he chose a product, or looked closely at the results of the service. He liked something, so he liked it. You can also include these in your potential client base.

Do not include in your database those who have given 1 or 2 likes. Usually these are mass followers or random likes.

Searching using the correct hashtags

Another way to identify your potential customers is to look at hashtags that may post photos related to the problem your product or service solves. For example, if you are selling an application that helps you get likes or comments, then it is appropriate to search for clients using hashtags: #liketime, #mutuallikes, #likezalike. Obviously, users publishing posts using such a hashtag need likes.

Or, if you sell educational toys for babies, then you can find your potential customers using the hashtags: #namodingyear #we are 1 year old #first birthday. Those who post using these hashtags have small children who could benefit from your product.

We are looking for geolocations of clusters of your target customers

Your clients may have a preference to visit certain establishments. For example, you can identify users who have small children by geolocation kindergarten or children's parks. Simply, look through publications and add to the list of those who publish relevant content.

We are looking for or holding competitions with prizes for your target audience

Contests are another way to identify your potential customers. Imagine a competition where a baby stroller is raffled off. Who will participate in such a competition? I think it's not difficult to guess. You can hold a competition yourself, thereby concentrating your target customers in the competition post. If there is a clause in the condition - leave a comment, then it’s in the bag.

We are looking for or conducting thematic marathons

On Instagram you can often find themed marathons in which your the target audience. For example, a weight loss marathon. If you specialize in weight loss programs and products for this, then in such a marathon you can find a large number of clients who will also be warmed up by participation in the marathon.

You can find marathons using hashtags, or by following opinion leaders in your industry who regularly hold such events. You can also become a marathon organizer, which will make it easier for you to sell your products and services.

We are looking for or conducting events for your target audience

Various events that take place at specific intervals can be a great source of clients. For example, if you sell running equipment, sports sneakers and other accessories that are useful for sports or for morning runs, then sports events will come in handy. For example, a 10-kilometer marathon in your city. Obviously, those who can run this distance will take part, and accordingly regularly train in this. They are likely to be interested in your product.

Useful post? Take him to your place social media so as not to lose!