| { | |
| "title": "INSTAGRAM SECRETS", | |
| "subtitle": "The Underground Playbook To Grow Your Following Fast, Driving Massive Traffic & Generating Predictable Profits", | |
| "author": "JEREMY MCGILVREY", | |
| "sections": [ | |
| { | |
| "section": "CONTENTS", | |
| "content": [ | |
| "The Instagram Environment", | |
| "9 Steps To Creating the Perfect Instagram Name", | |
| "Your Instagram Logo", | |
| "How To Build A Bio/Profile That Generates BUYERS", | |
| "Instagram Page Hacking", | |
| "How To Select The Perfect Niche…", | |
| "How To Create A Steady Flow of High-Quality, Engaging Images In Under 5 Minutes A Day", | |
| "How To Time Your Instagram Posts & Shoutouts for Maximum Engagement, Followers & Buyers", | |
| "Instagram Identity Theft", | |
| "Shoutouts & Instagram Influencers", | |
| "Throwing Gasoline On the Fire", | |
| "Scroll Stopping Images", | |
| "Instagram Videos", | |
| "How To Write Captions That Get Your Followers To Take ACTION", | |
| "The Hashtag Lie", | |
| "Turn Followers Into Buyers", | |
| "Instagram Automation", | |
| "Turning Followers Into Dollars Part 1", | |
| "Turning Followers Into Dollars Part 2", | |
| "Turning Followers Into Dollars Part 3", | |
| "The 8th Wonder of the World", | |
| "Conclusion" | |
| ] | |
| }, | |
| { | |
| "section": "DEDICATION", | |
| "content": [ | |
| "To my son Tristan, who helped me realize how magical the miracle of life truly is.", | |
| "To my son Thomas, everything I have and everything I will become was made possible because of you.", | |
| "And to all the people who didn’t believe in me. Thank you for the extra motivation." | |
| ] | |
| }, | |
| { | |
| "section": "FOREWORD", | |
| "content": [ | |
| "Smartphone + Instagram = Gold Mine", | |
| "When I first started on Instagram, it was nothing more than a way for me to add value to people’s lives.", | |
| "...", | |
| "To your success and wealth on Instagram, - Jason Stone, aka Millionaire Mentor" | |
| ] | |
| }, | |
| { | |
| "section": "INTRODUCTION", | |
| "content": [ | |
| "12 Reasons Why Instagram Dominates Every Social Media Platform", | |
| "1. Instagram allows you to reach up to 100% of your followers, Facebook only allows you to reach about 6%", | |
| "2. Instagram’s engagement is amazing (likes, comments, shares, etc.) – 58 times more than Facebook and 120 times more than Twitter", | |
| "What Makes Instagram Unique?", | |
| "Simplicity in Design", | |
| "Instagram stands out due to its minimalist and intuitive design:", | |
| "No annoying buttons or excessive features.", | |
| "No sketchy links or intrusive pop-ups.", | |
| "A vertical gallery of beautifully captured photos for users to enjoy and share.", | |
| "Powerful Engagement", | |
| "The platform enables brand awareness, audience engagement, lead generation, and sales growth, making it a powerhouse for entrepreneurs and influencers alike. Its seamless features and visually appealing nature provide a natural way for users to document and share their lives.", | |
| "The Potential of Instagram", | |
| "Instagram is more than just a photo-sharing app. It is:", | |
| "A platform for self-expression and storytelling.", | |
| "A tool to build a loyal community.", | |
| "A valuable resource for entrepreneurs to grow their brands and businesses.", | |
| "Whether you want to drive traffic, share your dreams, or create relatable content, Instagram offers unparalleled opportunities through:", | |
| "Engaging photos.", | |
| "Short videos.", | |
| "Live streaming.", | |
| "Why Instagram Outshines Competitors", | |
| "Key Statistics", | |
| "Unmatched Reach: Instagram allows you to reach up to 100% of your followers, compared to Facebook’s 6%.", | |
| "High Engagement: Instagram boasts 58x more engagement than Facebook and 120x more than Twitter.", | |
| "Ease of Use: Its simple interface makes it beginner-friendly with almost no learning curve.", | |
| "Growth Rates: Instagram experienced 23% growth in 2016, while Facebook grew by just 1.8%, and Twitter lost users.", | |
| "Wide Accessibility: Equal distribution among iPhone and Android users.", | |
| "User Base and Engagement", | |
| "Over 650 million active monthly users.", | |
| "Organic engagement has grown by 115% on Instagram, while Facebook saw a 63% decrease.", | |
| "The average order value on Instagram is $65, compared to $55 on Facebook.", | |
| "Market Potential", | |
| "Instagram’s growth rate doubles every other smartphone app.", | |
| "The platform efficiently eliminates fake or spam accounts.", | |
| "Only 36% of marketers actively use Instagram, compared to 96% on Facebook, reducing competition.", | |
| "Why Businesses Love Instagram", | |
| "Visual Storytelling", | |
| "Top brands like Nike, Red Bull, and Tiffany & Co. use Instagram to transform mundane topics into captivating visual stories. With Instagram, businesses can:", | |
| "Drive conversations through share-worthy videos and photos.", | |
| "Generate higher engagement compared to traditional marketing methods.", | |
| "Expert Opinions", | |
| "Social media expert Gary Vaynerchuk emphasizes the platform’s potential:", | |
| "\"Anybody right now who isn't spending a disproportional amount of time trying to figure out the hashtag culture, the Instagram ad product, organic Instagram posting, working with Instagram influencers, is making a huge mistake.\"", | |
| "The Tools for Success", | |
| "Key Features", | |
| "Live Video Streaming: Engage with your audience in real-time.", | |
| "Stories Feature: Share short-lived photos and videos for a more personal connection.", | |
| "Consistency and Strategy", | |
| "Successful Instagram marketers:", | |
| "Focus on consistent, purposeful content.", | |
| "Use strategies to improve traffic, engagement, and conversions.", | |
| "Formula for Success", | |
| "Fundamentals + Automation = Sustained Success", | |
| "Master the basics and automate processes to maximize growth efficiently.", | |
| "What You’ll Learn in This Book", | |
| "Building a Unique Strategy: Define your brand and stand out.", | |
| "Growing an Active Community: Cultivate loyal followers who value your content.", | |
| "Leveraging Features: Utilize Instagram's tools, such as Stories and live videos, to enhance your reach.", | |
| "Automation Tools: Learn to automate effectively without compromising quality.", | |
| "Let’s dive in!" | |
| ] | |
| }, | |
| { | |
| "section": "THE INSTAGRAM ENVIRONMENT", | |
| "content": [ | |
| "You Can’t Play the Game If You Don’t Know the Rules", | |
| "Before we jump into the tips, tricks, secrets and strategies contained within this book, you need to understand exactly what you are dealing with when it comes to the Instagram environment. Otherwise, you will waste a lot of time trying to learn strategies that will not get you maximum results. You need to learn how Instagram operates before you can jump in and use the tactics outlined in this book. Consider this a primer for those who are completely new to Instagram. Experts should read this as a brief refresher.", | |
| "1. INSTAGRAM IS 99.9% MOBILE", | |
| "The overwhelming majority of Instagram users are accessing the app through their mobile device. It’s far easier to use on a phone compared to the desktop application and this will not change anytime soon. Everything that you do needs to be done with the consideration of how it will be viewed and perceived on a mobile device. Don’t assume that what you see is what everyone else sees. Make sure to view your adjustments and changes on the mobile app to see how they appear. This is far different from every other social media application where engagement is spread somewhat evenly amongst multiple platforms.", | |
| "This also holds true for any sales copy you use on Instagram. With a limited amount of space, long form sales letters have no place on Instagram. Why? Because you have far less room (and time) to get your message across. Here’s another way to look at this: People are addicted to their phones and have a really hard time putting them down and your followers and customers are waiting to engage with content on Instagram that appeals to them. They are rapidly scrolling and browsing through all the posts on their newsfeeds so it is vital that you catch their attention immediately and deliver value the second they see your Instagram post. You don’t have to worry about the .1% of people who use Instagram on their desktop computers because pretty much everyone these days is spending all of their time on their phones. A Pew Research study recently revealed, \"Nearly 80% of social media time is spent on a mobile device.\"", | |
| "On another note, everything on your website or sales funnel, presuming you have one, needs to be fully optimized for mobile use, it has to be setup for easy viewing on a phone. If the website is not mobile optimized, you’re basically throwing money down the drain. Instagram’s desktop version, is primarily used to control third-party applications and modify certain preferences. It doesn’t serve much use outside of these two functions. In fact, the desktop version only came into the picture recently. To this day you still can’t post to your Instagram account from the desktop version (unless you use one of the risky third-party apps). This may sound like a downfall until you realize how astonishingly easy Instagram is to use on the go. This is what leads to the highly active user base (more than 650,000,000 monthly users) that you see on this incredibly hot social media platform.", | |
| "2. HIGHLY VISUAL IS THE NAME OF THE GAME", | |
| "Every single photo that you post needs to be high-quality, no ifs, ands or buts about it. In this day and age, people are expecting crisp and clean photos as a bare minimum. With the standard being higher than ever, you will quickly fall behind if you do not obey this vital rule. By nature, humans are exceptionally visual creatures. We process visual information much faster than any other type of media and the majority of information processed by our brains is visual. Research has proven that we remember vivid imagery far better than anything else.", | |
| "Instagram takes full advantage of this biological principle. In this book, you are going to learn how to leverage visuals to your advantage. When you apply the principles I teach you in chapter 7 for making crisp photos, your page will become eye candy to anyone who views it and as a result, you will attract more followers. The takeaway is clear: You need to create highly visual content. Your Instagram posts need to be clean and well-designed. Those who think they can just slap random stuff together and call it content are the ones who burn out the fastest and end up broke.", | |
| "3. MASSIVE COMMUNITIES ARE ALREADY ON INSTAGRAM", | |
| "Although you will be creating your own community, you must understand that there are already huge groups of people that exist on Instagram within virtually every niche. You need to pinpoint exactly where they are and figure out how to tap into them. This is important to understand if you want to drive massive traffic to your Instagram page and grow your follower base extremely fast. This all doesn’t seem too complex, does it? That’s how ridiculously simple the Instagram platform is. However, you need to apply laser focus in following and executing the strategies in this book with a complete understanding of the Instagram environment before you can effectively take advantage of the massive communities and utilize them to drive traffic, grow your own follower base and ultimately generate consistent and predictable profits.", | |
| "Now that you know what to expect on this amazing platform, you are ready to begin setting up your Instagram profile." | |
| ] | |
| },{ | |
| "section": "REPURPOSING/REUSING CONTENT", | |
| "content": [ | |
| "Let’s do some simple math: Let’s say you follow my recommendation and post 3 times a day. That’s 270 posts over a 3-month period. I don’t know about you, but that seems like a lot of content. Way too much, in fact. With the best pages on Instagram, you’ll notice that most of them do not have hundreds upon thousands of posts. There are merely a few hundred or a few thousand that get repurposed (i.e. posted again) from time to time.", | |
| "This is a huge relief for people who overwhelm themselves from the very beginning with all the work that has to be done. Don’t get the wrong idea – there is a lot of hard work involved behind setting up a successful Instagram page, but at the same time you don’t want to make things harder than they have to be.", | |
| "As your following begins to grow and you start posting images on your Instagram page, it will not take you very long to figure out what’s working and what isn’t working. You’ll see the posts that your followers don’t like in the form of low engagement through a lack of likes and comments. When you figure out what people like, that’s when you can repurpose the content that gives you the best engagement.", | |
| "After a period of about 6 to 8 weeks, you can browse through your old content and repurpose the posts that received the best engagement. I can tell you from personal experience that this strategy works great. Here’s why: When you shared that content 6 to 8 weeks ago, that was with your followers at that particular point in time. Now, you have a huge group of new followers that haven’t seen what you posted a month or a few months ago. Simply put, the majority of your community hasn’t seen that content yet and they haven’t had the opportunity to benefit from it or engage with it. It’s almost like a new post made from scratch. Also chances are the original group of followers who liked or commented on that post initially won’t recognize the fact you are reusing that image and most likely will like or comment on it again.", | |
| "Even though I showed you how to efficiently create high-quality content, it doesn’t take away from the fact that it still takes a lot of time at 20 plus posts per week. Reposting images or videos allows you to post content that engages with your followers at a high level since you are repurposing content that has been proven to generate likes and comments. This is a great way to work smart instead of hard.", | |
| "It’s a win-win situation for you and your followers. You focus on high-value content to ensure that your engagement rates steadily improve, AND you have fresh content for your new followers that you know will enjoy and interact with that particular post.", | |
| "This will keep your followers focused and engaged with your Instagram posts on a consistent basis. You will see your engagement steadily increase with this strategy. It’s fresh content for new and old followers and it’s content you know they will all love.", | |
| "You’re now beginning to move towards a steady path of learning how you can monetize your Instagram page without having to post 3 to 5 times a day and spend hours designing images.", | |
| "SHORT TERM SACRIFICES PRODUCE LONG TERM SUCCESS", | |
| "Understand, when you are starting off, the process of gaining organic followers is extremely labor-intensive. It will take a lot of dedication and self-discipline before you can gradually slow down. Don’t listen to the hype from successful Instagram Influencers who try to sell you on how relaxing and comfortable their lifestyles were when they were building their massive followings. Unless they bought an Instagram page (which I do not recommend anyone do) I guarantee you they put in an extraordinary amount of work and went through a ton of trial and error before they saw their efforts pay off.", | |
| "In fact, your first 10,000 followers are going to be the most difficult to obtain. You will find that building your Instagram following cuts into other activities that are part of your daily schedule. Giving up on the notion of balance is essential to creating a massive following in a short amount of time. I told you in the introduction of this book that this was going to require hard work, but the message is worth repeating.", | |
| "All of the notifications and pings you will get on your phone are going to drain your battery like nothing else. It would be wise to keep your phone attached to a charger at all times, or at least invest in a charging dock or a portable battery that you can use. This allows you to leave your phone by your computer so that you can stay up to date with activity on your Instagram page.", | |
| "For many people, growing and monetizing an Instagram page begins as only a side hustle, but you must take it serious from the onset. While you can work on your Instagram page from anywhere in the world, the beginning will be rough. Only in the future will you be able to relax while managing and making money off your Instagram page.", | |
| "You might even have to cut your meals short and reduce the amount of sleep you are accustomed to getting for a while so you can stay engaged with your followers. The more you can create a connection with your community, the better your engagement rates will be. Growing an Instagram following requires a major investment of your time, but fortunately, Instagram continues to make it easier for us to engage with our followers: We can now ‘like’ the comments they leave on our posts.", | |
| "Personally, I spend a tremendous amount of time replying to comments, answering direct messages and liking the majority of comments I receive on my posts. I do this (and you should too) because it allows me to expand on the amount of touchpoints and interactions I have with my followers. My favorite strategy is liking each of the comments I get on my posts, specifically because it requires practically no effort and the commenter will receive a notification that I liked their post thus creating another touchpoint or notification they can associate to me and my brand.", | |
| "Ignore the people who sell you the dream of “effortless prosperity”. Growing your following and making money on Instagram requires more than just posting and closing the app.", | |
| "Your free time is now your Instagram time. Eventually, you’ll reach the point where you only have to post for a few minutes a day, but right now you are probably not at that point. The only thing you can do is look forward and focus on what you are going to do in the moment and the near future. After 6 to 8 months of hard work and intense effort, you can look back and bask in all the incredible progress you have made. By then you will be able to relish in the self-satisfaction that you succeeded and proved the naysayers wrong (trust me...there will be naysayers and they will try to talk you out of succeeding regardless of what avenue you pursue in life).", | |
| "Building a successful Instagram page that generates predictable profits is filled with setbacks and bumps in the road, especially when you’re just starting out. There were several times I wanted to quit. But wanting to and actually doing it is what makes all the difference." | |
| ] | |
| }, | |
| { | |
| "section": "HOW TOTIMEYOURINSTAGRAM POSTS & SHOUTOUTSFOR MAXIMUM ENGAGEMENT, FOLLOWERS & BUYERS", | |
| "content": [ | |
| "You might not have realized it yet, but the time of day when you post on your own Instagram page as well as when you post shoutouts on Instagram Influencer’s pages will make a big difference in your engagement and conversions.", | |
| "Many of the big pages have international reputations. They have followers from all over the world which means that they have to take into account all of the different time zones. When you are setting up your shoutout schedule, you need to think worldwide. To be more specific, at the time I am writing this I have over 200,000 followers and 57% of them are international, so this point cannot be emphasized enough.", | |
| "If you post a shoutout at the early morning hour of 3am US EST, your promotion will be seen by a certain group of people. Post that same shoutout 12 hours later, and you will have access to an entirely different group of people.", | |
| "When you are setting up a schedule for posting your shoutouts, you should aim to post on 2 to 3 pages a day (make certain you are tracking each shoutout individually), each at a different time. Not only do you allow the majority of people on other pages to see your posts, but when they see it enough times on separate pages they will be more enticed to visit your website. If your sales copy is compelling enough and you have a solid product, you’ll have a buyer!", | |
| "If you are posting advertisements on your own page, you can place them inbetween your regular content but be sure to remove them after about 6 hours. Remember the rule from the previous chapter – the vast majority of time you need to be posting value-based content that is in the form of high quality images and possibly videos.", | |
| "As for posting personal content on your own page, you will eventually create a content schedule that works best for you and your page. People will know what to expect and when to expect it. The more you meet that expectation, the more loyal your followers will be and the more you will attract new followers. This is how you build trust and integrity with the community you are building on Instagram. You don’t ever want to leave your followers hanging!", | |
| "You also want to be consistent not only in how frequently you post but also in the volume that you are posting. If you are posting several bulk images at once, you are harming your Instagram brand in several ways. For one, you will receive lower engagement on each individual post because it’s too much for your followers to go through. Second, you are giving off the impression of a spam page that is not run by a real person. Third, you might come across as an advertisement heavy page which will turn your followers off. People aren’t naive in the online world and they will quickly catch on to this and unfollow you.", | |
| "The best way to go about it is to post 2 to 4 times a day, with the posts being spaced out evenly. Posts should be at least 4 hours apart. I have noticed that publishing two photos at the same time, advertisement or original content, leads to lower engagement and a lower number of followers gained, if any. You will have to experiment with the time of day you post to see when the best times are for you to gain new followers and get the best engagement on your images.", | |
| "The right balance will have people excited to receive high-quality content from you without believing that you are spamming them or overwhelming them. If you post too much, you are getting in the way of posts that they want to see from their friends and other pages that they follow on their personal newsfeed. Excess posting is a great way to encourage your followers to click the ‘Unfollow’ button! All of this is entirely dependent on your niche and type of followers you attract. Even then, you will have to do some individual testing to figure this out for yourself.", | |
| "Once your page becomes larger, you can slowly but carefully experiment with posting more often. You can post more original content and advertisements/shoutouts.", | |
| "ICONOSQUARE", | |
| "What I want to encourage you to do is use a tool like Iconosquare to determine the best times of the day to post for your target demographic. You will be able to see how engaged your audience is and specifically when that engagement is occurring. The app records your posting times and shows your audience engagement over a 24-hour period. You can see which days are important and which times of the day are best for posting. If you have your Facebook page attached to your Instagram page you will get analytics directly from your Instagram page, but I still like to use Iconosquare.", | |
| "You need to use analytical tools to get the best information since you will not be able to deduce this by simply looking at your individual pieces of content on your Instagram page. Once you have this setup you can create a pipeline where posts are delivered at a preset schedule. You won’t be able to do this automatically since Instagram’s API does not allow third party apps to post content in your place. (Note: There are third party apps that do this but they violate Instagram’s Terms of Service and are likely to get your account banned so proceed with extreme caution if you are looking into this type of automation.)", | |
| "INFOGRAPHICS", | |
| "Don’t bother wasting your time with infographics that tell you the best times of the day and the days when you should be posting. There are too many variables to take into account that will completely change what works best for each Instagram page.", | |
| "So start posting, testing and tracking and soon enough you will know the ideal times to post on your own page to increase engagement as well as the optimal times to post shoutouts to increase your traffic to your sales funnel and ultimately generate predictable profits from your Instagram page." | |
| ] | |
| }, | |
| { | |
| "section": "SHOUTOUTS & INSTAGRAM INFLUENCERS", | |
| "content": [ | |
| "How to Get Famous Instagrammers to Promote Your Page & Products", | |
| "For the vast majority of people, businesses, and brands who begin using Instagram, the initial objective is to get followers so they can build a community of raving fans who will want to purchase their products and services. In order to build your community, you must first learn how to increase your brand’s exposure by getting more people to visit your Instagram page. The more people who visit your page, the more followers you will obtain, therefore increasing the influence of yourself and your brand. This will allow you to create an asset that you can leverage to deliver value, market your products or services, and ultimately grow your business and generate predictable profits.", | |
| "The most powerful marketing strategy you can utilize on Instagram to increase your page’s exposure consists of leveraging the power of Instagram Influencers. When done correctly, this can grow your Instagram following fast and drive tons of warm leads to your website or sales funnel on a consistent basis. This is the exact strategy I used to not only build a community of well over 100,000 followers in less than six months but also to create an automated flow of steady traffic into my sales funnels.", | |
| "The process by which you can leverage an Instagram Influencer’s community to promote your page, product, or service begins with what is called a 'shoutout.' A shoutout involves sharing a post to feature another page or product (e.g., 'go follow this person' or 'go buy this product'). Since the beginning of Instagram, this has been one of the most basic ways to increase your following and sell your products and services on Instagram without needing to use Facebook’s ad platform. You simply connect with an Instagram Influencer, pay them to post a screenshot of your page or share a post with your product, along with a personal endorsement that encourages people to follow your page or buy your product or service.", | |
| "The concept of influencer marketing did not originate on Instagram—it is widely used across various types of media where marketers spend their time. Yet, to this day, using Instagram Influencers to build a community and drive traffic remains an overlooked and drastically misunderstood strategy by many marketers. Their lack of awareness of the raw power of Instagram only makes it easier for people like you to take advantage of this opportunity and begin using Instagram as an asset to launch and grow your business faster than ever before.", | |
| "Leveraging Instagram Influencers is very simple in nature, but to understand the fundamentals along with the specific time-tested techniques, we need to dive deep into the overall strategy one step at a time. Whether you are looking to grow your follower base, drive traffic to your website or sales funnel, or accomplish both objectives simultaneously, there are multiple free and paid strategies you can begin utilizing today. Let’s break them down, starting with the free strategies for growing your follower base.", | |
| "SHOUTOUT-FOR-SHOUTOUT (S4S)", | |
| "One of the most common ways people build their communities on Instagram is by using a shoutout-for-shoutout (S4S) or share-for-share. The way this works is simple: you find a page with a similar follower base (in terms of niche and follower count) and you shout out each other’s Instagram page. You essentially partner with another Instagram page with the objective of tapping into their community to increase your brand’s exposure and attract new followers.", | |
| "When forming partnerships for S4S, the key is 'an equal exchange of value.' Ensure that both you and your partner benefit equally. For example, if someone has half your follower base, they need to do two shoutouts for each one you post for them. If you have 3,000 followers and someone with 1,500 followers wants a shoutout partnership, they would need to do two shoutouts in exchange for your one.", | |
| "SHOUTOUT GROUPS", | |
| "Shoutout groups, also known as 'shoutout trains,' leverage the power of a group of Instagram pages to multiply exposure for everyone involved. A group of active users creates a chain where each member gives a shoutout to another member, creating a snowball effect that reaches a broader audience.", | |
| "Be cautious, though—overusing shoutouts or partnering with irrelevant pages can harm your brand. Always prioritize value and your followers’ interests.", | |
| "PURCHASING SHOUTOUTS FOR FOLLOWERS", | |
| "Purchasing shoutouts differs from free methods because it requires an investment. By paying Influencers to promote your page, you can target much larger audiences and grow your follower base more quickly. For best results, focus on Instagram pages with 100,000–200,000 followers when starting with paid shoutouts. Prices typically range from $20 (for 100K–300K followers) to $300 (for 1M+ followers).", | |
| "Ninja Hack: After the Influencer posts your shoutout, make a new post on your page within 10–15 minutes. This ensures your content appears in the newsfeed of your new followers, boosting engagement.", | |
| "By implementing these strategies effectively, you can rapidly grow your Instagram following while maintaining your brand’s integrity and delivering value to your audience." | |
| ] | |
| }, | |
| { | |
| "section": "THROWING GASOLINE ON THE FIRE", | |
| "content": [ | |
| "How To Nurture Your Community & Leverage Engagement Groups", | |
| "As you begin to implement the strategies outlined in this book thus far, your follower base should be growing at a very consistent rate. The momentum that you will begin to experience must be maintained at all costs. Consistent daily actions (the right actions) done over time will naturally produce consistent results (the right results). Day in and day out you must be engaging with and building your community.", | |
| "Take a look at what the massive Instagram pages do. They treat their communities like a garden that is watered and nurtured daily. Multiple times a day, they tend to their garden and ensure that it is growing at a steady pace. Cultivating relationships with your followers is where a majority of your efforts need to be focused.", | |
| "Successful pages will post valuable and empowering content multiple times a day. They will actively engage with their followers numerous times a day. When Instagram users see that a page genuinely cares for them and personally reaches out to them, that provides a huge incentive for other followers to engage. You will see that your community eventually becomes a self-engaging machine that you can easily promote your products and services to, and chances are they will be grateful for it.", | |
| "There are multiple ways by which you can build influence and increase your engagement by connecting with current and potential followers. Here are the most basic ways by which this is done. More advanced strategies will be discussed later:", | |
| "Sharing: You can share your followers’ photos on your page (make sure you ask for permission first) and spread their name around. Better yet, share content if their photo features your product, brand or service in it. This is a great way to go the extra mile and show that you really care about your loyal fans!", | |
| "Liking: What better way to show people you care than to like their photos? When you start liking photos, people will see that you are interested in being part of a community. You won’t be perceived as someone who takes and takes without giving anything back.", | |
| "Commenting: This is where you can really kick things up a notch and develop a connection with Instagram users. Comment on the photos posted by your followers and by those you follow. Say something that compliments their post and always be sincere in your message. Mention them by tagging their @username for bonus points!", | |
| "Messaging: Using simple call to action messages in your images and captions will get people to like your post and share it with people who they think will agree with your message. It can be funny or serious as long as it is relevant to your brand and your niche. Simple 'Double Tap If You Agree' or 'Tag Someone Who: Motivates You, Inspires You, Is Going To Be A Millionaire' will produce extremely high engagement rates as long as it is relatable to your followers and their friends.", | |
| "Following: You didn’t think that you were going to be able to do all of this without following other people, did you? Follow the people who follow you if possible but don’t worry about following everybody. There is something to be said about having a small amount of pages that you follow and if you study successful pages within your niche, you should see a number that is reasonable that you can model.", | |
| "Return Direct Messages: Being bombarded with direct messages from your followers can seem overwhelming at times. However, you must remember that your followers will eventually become your customers. Therefore it is vital that you do not neglect their direct messages and you are constantly checking your 'requested' messages from Instagram users who are not directly connected with you.", | |
| "Use the stories feature to highlight positive direct messages you received: Something a lot of the top Instagram Influencers are doing lately is taking screenshots of the direct messages they receive from their followers which shows their exchange in communication and posting them on their stories feature. This shows their followers that they are actively engaging with their community which encourages more people to engage with them.", | |
| "Use the stories feature to show your new post: A great way to use your Instagram stories feature is to take a screenshot of your Instagram profile and use Instagram drawing capabilities to block out your most recent post. Type new over the post and that will encourage people to go check out your profile.", | |
| "Contest & Giveaways: This is a great growth hacking strategy that will increase engagement amongst your current followers while attracting new ones to your page. There’s nothing people love more than a contest where they have a chance to win FREE stuff. Your audience will grow while your brand awareness improves. You kill two birds with one stone. You don’t even have to give away anything expensive, although you could if you wanted to. Things like subscriptions or one of your products for free are already great incentives for people to enter your online challenge. A copy of your brand new book, one of your hottest items in your store – be creative. You can even create a hashtag that is unique to your brand. Have your followers use the hashtag and spread it around wherever they can. Engage with the people who use your hashtag by replying with a comment. This encourages more people to use it since they know they are more likely to get a response from you. This is not something that you want to do when you are new to Instagram. You are far better off waiting until you have at least a few thousand followers. Because there’s no point in catering to an audience that doesn’t exist yet.", | |
| "ENGAGEMENT GROUPS: Another great way to foster engagement on your Instagram posts is through 'like and comment' groups. This is similar to shoutout groups except you are going to be liking and commenting on other people’s posts and in return, your posts will receive likes and comments therefore increasing the overall engagement on your posts. Like the shoutout trains, you can recruit other pages via direct message on Instagram until you have a group of 15. Reach out to accounts that have a similar size to yours and don’t be shy to reach out to larger accounts as well. Just make sure that their engagement rates are solid. You can always join my private Facebook group that is dedicated to connecting Instagrammers to quality like and comment groups: https://www.facebook.com/groups/IGLikeComment/)", | |
| "When other members of your Instagram 'like and comment' group comment on your posts, their followers are going to gain access to your content. When you are under 100,000 followers, this is a great strategy to use so that you can grow your follower base fast. The sooner everyone begins engaging with each other’s content, the greater the opportunity you have of appearing in the 'Explore' page on Instagram. On this page, ALL of the 650,000,000+ users on Instagram will have a chance to see your Instagram post. You expose yourself to more people, you get more followers, and the rest speaks for itself.", | |
| "Certain Instagram 'like and comment' groups use specific hashtags to connect. Later in this book you will learn more about this opportunity and much more about using hashtags effectively.", | |
| "If you decide to join a 'like and comment' group just make sure that you are timely with your engagement in these groups. You want to like and comment on the group members’ photos as soon as possible (they need to do the same for you). Keep in mind, one of the hardest things in life is getting people to work together so inevitably you might be faced with having an engagement group that doesn’t engage much.", | |
| "These engagement groups work best when everyone cooperates and participates so it’s vital that you add as much value as you can by liking members of the group’s Instagram posts quickly once they are posted and avoid leaving generic comments. The more sincere you are, the more engagement the other participants in the group will give you. This ultimately benefits you in several ways: More followers, better comments, and more leads and sales.", | |
| "A downside with engagement groups is the fact that you must rely on other people’s efforts in order for your own efforts to be rewarded, so be cautious of who you allow in your group. An easier way to ensure that you have the right people in your group is to use Telegram engagement groups.", | |
| "THE POWER OF TELEGRAM: Telegram is a free app you can download that allows you to create, organize, and moderate groups of people which makes it a powerful tool for not only setting up engagement groups, but for managing them as well. The best part is, there are already countless people using this app to create engagement groups specifically for Instagram and it has proven to be an extremely effective strategy.", | |
| "Telegram essentially operates in the same way as a 'like and comment' group. However, the primary difference is Telegram groups focus more on something called 'rounds'. Rounds are mainly focused on liking other Instagram users posts rather than commenting on them because likes currently play a higher role in Instagram’s algorithm for deciding who’s Instagram post gets added to the Explore page.", | |
| "Many of these groups are private and typically there’s a fee to join. There are also groups for Instagram users who have a particular amount of followers. For example: There are telegram groups for Instagram users who have 10k, 50k, 100k, 500k followers and above.", | |
| "To join a Telegram group you have to meet various requirements: First you need to have access to the private Telegram group’s unique link. You can get this secret link by finding someone who can send it to you. Another way to gain access is to locate a group's admin and message them directly. Obviously this requires finding the right people. Once you have access to a Telegram group you will want to review the pinned post showing the rules and explaining how the group works. Practically every group has a pinned post so it’s vital you review it so you know exactly what will be expected of you and how that specific group operates.", | |
| "Inside each of these Telegram engagement groups is where 'rounds' take place. The purpose of a 'round' is to game Instagram’s algorithm by getting as much engagement as possible within the first hour of posting. The faster your posts receives likes and comments the higher the probability your content will reach not only more of your own followers but have a greater chance of making it to Instagram’s Explore page.", | |
| "Here is a simple 3 step process that Telegram groups follow to ensure that each 'round' is effective in providing everyone with a high level of engagement on their Instagram posts:", | |
| "Step 1: 30 minutes before the round starts, the host/admin will prompt you to drop your Instagram username into the group.", | |
| "Step 2: Host/admin compiles all the Instagram usernames into a list, then at the specified time of the round (usually at 9am EST, 12pm EST, 3pm EST and 9pm EST) gives everyone 60 to 120 minutes depending on the group’s rules to engage on the most recent Instagram post of those who are participating in that round.", | |
| "Step 3: You must engage with all the Instagram users who are participating in the round by liking their most recent posts within the specified time the Telegram group requires. Failure to do so will get you blacklisted from the group.", | |
| "Telegram groups use an automated system that checks directly on Instagram whether or not you gave likes so it’s vital that you fully participate and adhere to the group’s rules.", | |
| "People who don’t engage back with others in the group are called 'leechers' and there is a 'leecher' detector in each group that will find the people who do not engage and will warn them. After several warnings they will be removed from the group. Since the entire purpose of using this strategy is to ensure everyone is engaging back the group’s leecher detector plays a vital role in moderating the group and making sure everyone involved is actively participating.", | |
| "If you get banned from a Telegram group you can get back in by messaging the administrator and following their 'unbanned account' process which typically results in a few days of being banned or you might have to pay an unban fee.", | |
| "The first week I participated in a the 'rounds' on Telegram I increased my engagement by over 800 likes per post so this is definitely a strategy worth considering if you are looking to increase your engagement and build your community." | |
| ] | |
| }, | |
| { | |
| "section": "Instagram Secrets", | |
| "content": [ | |
| "Scroll-Stopping Images: Advanced Post Creation Strategies to Increase Engagement, Follower Loyalty & Sales", | |
| "By now, it should be extremely obvious that Instagram relies entirely on attractive visual content. However, there is an art and science to posting photos that will attract followers and increase engagement. You don’t want your photos to repel people from your Instagram page, do you?\n\nAt first, you might feel somewhat limited because Instagram primarily uses images. But within this medium, there are infinite possibilities. Every single post should be an opportunity to connect with your community and encourage them to take action: Like, comment, tag, or share. Now is the time to think outside the box and break past traditional rules.\n\nThis chapter is packed with tips on how to use the power of visual imagery to provide more value to your followers while increasing success with your own promotions and advertisements. Let’s dive in!" | |
| , | |
| "High-Quality Photos", | |
| "Thanks to advancements in photo technology, the minimum requirement for quality is higher than ever. Instagram users expect every photo to be clean and crisp. One poor-quality image can cause users to scroll past without a second thought.\n\nIf you are collaborating with a major Instagram influencer, consider how a low-quality image might affect their brand. High-quality visuals are essential in these collaborations to maintain credibility for both parties." | |
| , | |
| "Digital Product Sellers: Learn from Physical Product Sellers", | |
| "Have you ever seen how physical products are marketed on Instagram? Physical items like watches, cars, shirts, etc. Many successful businesses use strategies that can be applied to digital products.\n\nInstead of posting digital images of your ebook, course, or other digital products, consider presenting them as physical items. For example, print out your ebook cover and place it on a physical book or display your audio course as CDs or a cover on an iPhone screen. This method can skyrocket traffic to your sales funnels and increase conversions." | |
| , | |
| "Non-Information Products", | |
| "For physical products like clothing, accessories, and supplements, high-definition photos are key. Consider hiring a professional photographer to capture these items. Adding a human element, such as a person wearing the item, can also boost engagement and conversions.\n\nAvoid overloading your photos with too much text. The goal is to grab attention quickly without overwhelming viewers. Keep the photo clean, with a healthy mix of nativity and marketing. A strong call to action and the right balance will enhance engagement." | |
| , | |
| "Service-Based Promotions", | |
| "When promoting a service-based business, make necessary edits to emphasize the benefits you provide. Experiment with different photo styles, while ensuring your promotions are visually appealing and not overwhelming. Find a balance between standing out and blending in with the surrounding content.\n\nTesting various styles and analyzing the results will help you determine what resonates best with your audience." | |
| , | |
| "Take It Easy on Colors", | |
| "While your Instagram promotions need to be visual and attractive, avoid creating overly colorful images. I’ve found that sticking to a single dominant color works best, with cool colors like teal performing particularly well. However, test different color schemes to see which ones drive more engagement with your followers." | |
| , | |
| "The Two-Thirds Rule", | |
| "The product or person featuring the product should occupy no more than two-thirds of the total shot. This allows the product to remain dominant while giving space around it for better processing by the viewer. Most smartphones offer a grid function to help you achieve this balance." | |
| , | |
| "Filters", | |
| "Filters can enhance the look of your photos, especially warmer ones, and can lead to higher engagement. However, avoid using filters when promoting your products. Followers want to see the true representation of what they are purchasing." | |
| , | |
| "Pick a Font That Stands Out", | |
| "When using quotes or text in your photos, it’s important to choose fonts that are clear, readable, and visually appealing. Test different fonts to determine which ones produce the best engagement with your audience." | |
| , | |
| "Go Pro", | |
| "To make your Instagram posts more appealing, ensure your camera or phone is upright when taking pictures. If photographing from a surface, position the camera three feet above the object and keep it parallel to the surface for the best results." | |
| ] | |
| }, | |
| { | |
| "section": "Instagram Secrets", | |
| "content": [ | |
| "How to Write Captions That Get Your Followers to Take Action", | |
| "Here is where the selling gets fun! Now that you have optimized your photos and your plan for expanding your follower base by leveraging Instagram Influencers, it’s time to put your copywriting hat on and craft a compelling caption. Your caption is the text that goes below your image. This is where you can deliver your own written message that expands upon the image in your post. If you are promoting something, this is your chance to explain to the followers on the page you are promoting on (or on your own page) what they should do.\n\nIn the caption of your Instagram post you need to tell people what they should click on and what benefits they will receive from doing so. This is where you provide a strong call-to-action and sell them on why they should visit your website or sales funnel and buy your product or service. One of the keys to a high-converting caption is to keep things short and sweet. People are not going to hit “more” and read the rest of your caption unless you lure them in with a strong opening sentence or two. Remember that you are dealing with customers on a mobile platform that have hundreds of other posts they could be engaging with.\n\nThe best way to maximize the text in your caption is to focus solely on the benefits (NOT THE FEATURES). You focus on what your followers (or the Instagram Influencer’s followers) are going to get when they click your link. Try to answer these questions: What’s in it for them? Why is your promotion worth their limited attention in the first place?\n\nYou also want to write the caption as if it was a personal message. It can’t read like some aggressive over-hyped sales pitch. Instagram users will see right through it and perceive your copy as fake and inauthentic. When you focus on a more conversational tone, it sounds like it is coming from a real person who genuinely cares about their success. This is especially important when you are promoting on an Instagram Influencer’s page and their followers are reading the caption. The Influencer’s followers need to feel like the Influencer wrote the caption themselves and is personally endorsing your product or service. This is crucial to a successful promotion/shoutout.\n\nWhen an Instagram Influencer is promoting your product on their page you want to make it seem like they are recommending your product because they want to, not because you are paying them to do so. This should stand out in the first two sentences of the promotion/shoutout and it should sound as genuine as possible. At the same time, you do want to sell the person on visiting your website or sales funnel. That’s why you made the promotion in the first place, right?\n\nYour personal approach got people to start reading but now you want them to stay glued to your caption. And what you write next in the caption is going to largely depend on the product you are selling. Below, I’ve taken the liberty to provide you with some examples that I’ve seen work great on Instagram when it comes to writing a compelling caption.", | |
| "Physical Products", | |
| "Discounts and limited-time offers are great for creating a sense of urgency for your potential customer. Everyone loves a good deal when they get it before other shoppers do. If you can afford it, free shipping is another great incentive. “Free worldwide shipping,” “Discount code at X% for a limited time only” are great examples of captions that get Instagram users to take action and buy your product.", | |
| "Digital Products", | |
| "Presell your product by listing a benefit or two. People want to know how they can benefit and what they can expect to achieve before they spend their time visiting your website. Also, giving FREE bonuses is a great strategy for adding value and persuading people to take action and purchase your product.\n\nIf you put the price of your product or service in your caption, you can expect less traffic but a higher number of conversions on your website or sales funnel. I personally like the strategy of letting people know the price immediately – because when people click on your link they know in advance that they are going to have to pay for something.\n\nIf you are promoting something FREE, make sure you mention the word “free” at least once. Everyone loves a free product! People also love the words ‘bonuses’ and “gifts.”\n\nNinja Hack: If you can place the word FREE in the URL of the link the Instagram user will be clicking, it will increase traffic to your website or sales funnel drastically: YourProduct.com/FREE\n\nOne of my main strategies is to offer an ebook for $4.97 that comes with a free audiobook, so in the caption I mention the price by saying “and at only $4.97 it’s an absolute no-brainer” and I mention the fact they get a FREE audiobook as well. This allows me to hit on both the upfront mention of the price along with the word free.", | |
| "Strategy with Influencers", | |
| "Remember, if you are promoting on an Instagram Influencers page, the caption should be written as though the Influencer is personally recommending your product which helps you frame the price and the free offer effectively.\n\nYou will have to test captions where you state the price and where you don’t to see what works best for you. Continue to A/B test multiple captions until you find what converts the highest. My experience is that the tactics above generate the most profits.\n\nAfter the sales message, add in another sentence or two that reinforces the personal Instagram Influencer’s recommendation. This keeps you from going into a super-aggressive sales pitch and reminds people that this product is a genuine recommendation directly from the page owner, which again is vital.\n\nLast but not least, the famous call-to-action. Here, you are instilling urgency and telling followers EXACTLY what needs to be done right now. You want to direct people to your link AND your Instagram page. Throw in the URL if you can and your @InstagramName at the end of the call to action. This gets people to go to your link while reminding them to follow you!", | |
| "Call to Action and Engagement", | |
| "More money AND more traffic to your Instagram page – that’s killing two birds with one stone therefore accelerating your overall success. Let’s recap: Personal message to grab their attention, selling 1 to 2 benefits to keep them hooked, reinforcement of the Instagram Influencers recommendation/endorsement, call-to-action along with telling followers to follow you if you are promoting on a page that is not your own.\n\nA simple 4 to 5 sentence framework that is easy to remember works every time. Don’t be afraid to continually change your message around until you get the best results.\n\nNote: A new strategy I have been testing out recently is to open the caption with a question. This behaves as a pattern interrupt and gets your reader thinking.", | |
| "Engagement and Long Captions", | |
| "Once you get this outline down, it’s extremely easy to create compelling captions and you wonder why you did not think of this tactic sooner. Often times it’s the simplest things in marketing that lead to dramatic increases in traffic and profits.\n\nEven if you aren’t trying to sell something, a compelling and engaging caption about a picture that you post can increase your engagement significantly. I’ve found that longer captions (not too long) have more people tagging others compared to captions that only contain a few words.\n\nYou can add even more value and more of a personal touch to your followers with a great caption. You establish trust and build a relationship with your followers where you are perceived as a credible authority that consistently delivers massive value when you provide them with concise – yet captivating captions. This virtually guarantees that more people will follow you, visit your website and buy your products and services.", | |
| "Effective Captions Lead to Results", | |
| "You will know when you have the right caption in place when people are compelled to do more than view your picture and scroll up. Sharing the post, commenting and liking are just some of the many ways that they can engage with you. You want to ENCOURAGE people to naturally and effortlessly engage – it must not feel like a chore to them." | |
| ] | |
| }, | |
| { | |
| "section": "THE HASHTAG LIE", | |
| "content": [ | |
| "Why MoreIsNOTBetter,How ToFindtheRightOnes & How ManyToUse", | |
| "h, this is the part that you were probably wondering about. With so many people using hashtags all the time on Instagram, they must be super important. Right?", | |
| "Wrong!", | |
| "There’s actually a hard limit on the amount of hashtags that you should be using. And just because you can post up to 30 hashtags on a picture does not mean that you should. Here is what happens if you go down this route:", | |
| "Sure, you’ll get lots of new followers and an increased amount of likes. You must be getting greater engagement. Not so fast! For one, you are going to attract automation bots that are specifically programmed to like or follow people who post using a certain hashtag. This dilutes your following of engaged followers and decreases your engagement rate over the long-term which annihilates your chances of consistently making it to the Explore page on Instagram. Additionally, you are attracting people that might not see your posts or page, let alone be interested in the niche that you cater to.", | |
| "In short, using excessive hashtags is just a game of improving your likes and followers for the sake of having higher numbers. If you recall from earlier discussions in this book, you know that more followers does not necessarily lead to more dollars in your bank account. The primary focus of this entire book is to walk you through step-by-step how to generate predictable profits from your Instagram page. And in order to do that successfully you have to create a community of real and engaged followers that genuinely want your content. You cannot develop a loyal follower base by pasting 30 hashtags on each of your Instagram posts.", | |
| "If you look at my page (checkerscustard) along with other large Instagram pages, you’ll quickly notice that hashtags are rarely used. On the occasion that they are used, they are either specific to the post or their overall brand.", | |
| "The maximum number of hashtags you will see on large Instagram Influencer pages is 5, with 1 to 3 being the norm. Since hashtags lead to engagement from people who don’t even see the post, you cannot know when you are receiving true engagement. This is why you should strive to leave any hashtags off of your content when you are testing new and different content strategies.", | |
| "Leave the game of hashtag oversaturation to people who don’t understand the concept of acquiring real and engaged followers. Go the opposite direction and get real engagement that you can utilize to accurately track your growth. With that said, there is no need to completely demonize hashtags. Used sparingly and strategically, they can be yet another useful tool in your arsenal for increasing your follower base and your engagement.", | |
| "Here are some tips for using hashtags on your Instagram page effectively.", | |
| "BE SPECIFIC", | |
| "The most successful Instagram Influencers only use targeted hashtags or ones specific to their brand. You want to model that same approach. Using generic and spam hashtags (anything with a ‘4’ in it) will hurt engagement in the long run because you will be unfollowed for not engaging back through commenting or following them.", | |
| "Plus, your followers aren’t going to your page so that they can be spammed with endless hashtags in each photo. It looks out of place and some of your followers will get the impression that you are a bot-run spam page.", | |
| "KEEP HASHTAGS IN THE COMMENTS", | |
| "This ensures that your picture will be found when a particular hashtag is entered into the search field. It makes your content more accessible to those who are searching for your hashtag but are not following you.", | |
| "Moreover, your caption is for valuable sales copy that gets people to take action (follow someone, click on the link in the bio, etc.). Don’t take up valuable space with distracting hashtags. You can fix this by putting the hashtags in as a comment on the post. Just because this is so important I want to repeat this point and make it crystal clear: DO NOT put hashtags in the caption section of your Instagram post. Put your hashtags in as a comment on your Instagram post.", | |
| "ROTATE BETWEEN SETS OF HASHTAGS", | |
| "Let’s say that you have a number of hashtags that have worked well for you, but you know that spamming your content repeatedly with them won’t help. Within your niche, you can have a set of hashtags that you sparingly use for specific scenarios. You can have a set of hashtags for posts about your personal life, another set of hashtags for inspirational posts, and perhaps a set of hashtags for your ad shoutouts. This helps you tap into audiences based on search results and you can bring in more engagement to your page.", | |
| "Ninja Hack: Have your hashtags saved in the notes section of your smartphone so all you have to do is simply copy and paste them into the comments section of your Instagram post.", | |
| "DO SOME HASHTAG RESEARCH", | |
| "Of course, all of the tips above are predicated on doing your due diligence in finding the right hashtags to use. A great tool to use is: SocialRank.com. It’s free of charge and allows you to research the key hashtags being used by your successful competitors. You can also find the users that identify most with key terms and the most frequently used hashtags within each of those terms. There are other things you can do with Social Rank, but it really stands out as a great hashtag research tool.", | |
| "Another great place to learn how to expand on your hashtags is: Hashtagify.me. Visit this website and learn how you can reach a broader audience on Instagram by finding hashtags that are similar to the ones you are currently using.", | |
| "GEOTAG YOUR PHOTOS", | |
| "This is a strategy I have not personally tested, but there are Instagram Influencers who swear that they have seen increased engagement on their posts from using geotags. Try it for yourself and see if it works for you.", | |
| "Here, you are geotagging your Instagram photos as a way to add locality to your Instagram posts. I can see where this would be especially useful if you are a local business looking for exposure in your city or town, or operating in a niche involving multiple locations around the world. It turns out that more and more Instagram users are using “Places -> Near Current Location” in the search function. If your post is geotagged and they are searching for something in your niche, you have opened up the door to gain local organic traffic.", | |
| "In conclusion, hashtags can definitely help you grow your Instagram following as well as act as a navigational tool for helping people find your content. Used correctly and sparingly hashtags will spread your content throughout the Instagram platform. Consider them to be icing on the cake – they are nice to have but your business or brand will not fail because you forgot to use hashtags or you use the incorrect ones. Make sure you have the fundamentals down pat before you start testing out different hashtag strategies." | |
| ] | |
| } | |
| ] | |
| } | |