Unfortunately, on April 28, 2024, I was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia, a serious blood and bone marrow cancer.
This diagnosis requires me to undergo chemotherapy and stay in the hospital for the next 6-8 months, possibly longer. As a result, I must close the business temporarily to focus on my health and I am unlikely to be able to respond to any messages or emails.
Consequently, I will no longer be offering courses or starter kits for sale. However, existing customers who have purchased courses within the past 12 months can still access them using the link below, with the email address and password they used during enrollment.
I need to tell you a secret. I've never told anyone this before. I don't know why? But, It makes me feel kind of awkward, like I'm concealing a dirty secret.
Nobody, likes to air their diry laundry in public right? Nobody wants to unleash the dusty old skeletons, hidden in their wardrobe!
But, I'm going to reveal my dirty secret to you, right now!
Are you ready? "I hate Social Media!"
Yes, you heard me right, I hate social Media!
I'm an introvert AND a Brain Injury Survivor, so apart from the fact that I don't feel comfortable posing for selfies and posting my face all over social media, my Brain Injury, means that I get very quickly overwhelmed by information overload, severely impairing my cognitive abilities, resulting in severe mental exhaustion and neuro-fatigue.
Let me tell you, that neuro-fatigue, is not like your ordinary kind of tiredness. It's debilitating. It's like somebody pulling the plug out of you, rendering your battery entirely flat. Just the same as a car, if you're battery is flat, you're not going anywhere.
So, whilst prior to my Brain Haemorrhage, in 2016, I could muti-task and spin plates like an Entrepreneurial Pro. Things are very diffferent for me now. I need to think very carefully about what I devote my time and attention to.
Prior to my brain injury, I built my business, entirely through organic SEO, by writing blog articles, tinkering with my website and becoming a ninja at email marketing.
I liked that! I felt comfortable with that! I could sit quietly behind the safety of my laptop, without even thinking too much about social media.
But, following my recuperation and since making a return to work on developing my business, I have discovered (to my horror) that the landscape of business and digital marketing has significantly changed.
Whilst, SEO and Email Marketing are still vital marketing strategies in buidling your business, Social Media has become increasingly important for all business owners, regardless of your niche.
As happy as I am, to continue tapping away on my laptop, writing blog articles, similar to this one, to help get my Business out there, I know that todays busines landscape has changed and requires me to do more.
So, despite my Brain Injury and my personal dislike of Social Media, I made myself a committment to "go all in on instagram", to revamp my graveyard of an account and figure out what I needed to do, to win at Instagram.
Now, let me tell you, prior to this, I had an immensely huge aversion to social media, but especially Instagram. On the face of it, it appeared to be a highly superficial platform, littered with images of people posting selifes of their so called "perfect lives" and revealing far too much than myself or my injured brain could comfortably process.
But, as my whole mission in life is to inspire and empower women to ignite their dreams, unleash their potential and create their life's victory, Brain Injury or not, I decided, I needed to lead from the front and inspire my Craft Ecademy Students and Guild Members, what is possible for me, is certainly possible for you too.
So, I set myself a target to gain 500 followers on Instagram within 3 weeks! (Whilst I was on holiday, walking the Cornish Coastline with my Dog!). You can see some of my walking escapades with Maddie here!
Now, just to get things clear, as I had previously avoided Instagram like the plague, I had no idea how to do this. I simply comitted to myself. "I'm going to figure this out and make it work.
Well, guess what? I did figure it out! Although, I'm still at the beginning of my Instagram Growth Journey, I've outlined below, "The 7 Steps that I took to grow my Instagram Followers from 0 - 500 within three weeks,whilst walking my Dog!"
Since begining my little Instagram experiment, I have discovered Instagram users to be far more engaged than facebook users. In fact a recent study found that, on average, Instagram images get 23 percent more engagement than Facebook images. So, the first rule, in order to catch your audience’s attention on Instagram, is to create engaging content.
So, here are my top tips for creating engaging content that will boost your engagement and followers on Instagram.
After you’ve organised and created fresh and engaging content, schedule your posts out in advance. Ideally, do this for one week to one month ahead, depending on how far ahead you like to plan. For me, when I made the committment to go all in on Instagram, I created and scheduled out all of my content, a couple of weeks in advance, to enable me to get ahead of the game and to help me begin gaining momentum. (That's how I grew my instagram from 0-500 followers whilst walking my Dog! :-)
The key is posting at the right time, so be sure that you convert your Instagram account to a business account, so that you can make use of all of instagrams insights and analytics to help you fine-tune your content and posting schedule. For instance, my insights tell me, that my audience is primarily online between 12pm-6pm, so I have now ammended my posting schedule accordingly.
The next thing that I did to grow my Instagram from 0 - 500, was to compile a list of major accounts on Instagram within my niche. For example, this may be your major competitors, bloggers or any business, which speaks to the same audience as you. If you are a local business, make sure that your list focuses on, relevant local businesses, who share the same target-market and audience as you. I.e If you offer Baby Casting and Baby Keepsake Services, search for Baby Photographers, Baby Boutiques, or any other Baby Businesses, local Frachisees, or Groups who operate in your local area and who are also active on instagram. Start by familiarising yourself with these accounts to better understand what type of content you should publish. As you compare the brands, ask yourself:
Once you have a list of major accounts and competitors, who share the same audience as you, begin to follow their followers one by one. These people will be your target market, because they already follow your competitors and follow relevant niche accounts. This means that they’re likely to be highly interested in what you’re sharing as well.
Important Note: If you are a local business, be sure to follow relevant local accounts, who share the same audience or niche. There is no point following a Baby Photographer in Inverness, if your Business is in Basingstoke. Think strategically.
When following this strategy, be aware: The current Instagram algorithm only allows you to follow 50 to 100 people every day. If you exceed this limit, there’s a chance your account could get suspended by Instagram. So, take it slow and steady.
Make a committment to connect with a high volume of followers and engage authentically with them, by leaving comments when posts resonate with you. This shows that you’re paying attention to what they’re posting and also ensures that they notice you too. The intention here, is that many of these followers will like what you’re sharing and follow you back, making it a quick and simple way to organically increase your Instagram followers.
An Instagram Engagement Group is a community of Instagram users who help each other in gaining more engagement and followers. You can get engagement, but more importantly, organic followers, by following accounts that host Instagram Follow threads. The idea is simple, you introduce yourself in the comments and then everyone follows one another for a follow back. All the accounts are real and authentic, making this an easy way to increase followers, of up to 60 to 100 new followers every day.
I have been using this strategy for just 3 weeks (whilst I've been on holiday, walking my dog!) and I have gained 500 new authentic followers in just 3 weeks! But even better, this has resulted in 57 new visits to my website, directly from Instagram and 55 new people optin to my email list! This is a great start, which I'm really pleased about!
The key to success with anything in Business is consistency. Follow these seven simple steps consistently and based upon my own experience, it would appear to be highly achievable to gain your first 500 followers in a month and 1000 followers in two months. This means, that in twelve months time, you could have around 6000 Instagram followers and upto 12,000 followers in 2 years! But remember, success never happens overnight. Consistency is always key.
So, despite my initial dislike of Social Media and the struggles that I have, due to my brain injury, I hope that I can inspire you, that if I can gain 500 followers in 3 weeks (whilst walking my dog).... so can you! :-)
If you have been inspired by this post, please come over and follow me on Instagram and let's grow together!
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