🔥 The Ultimate Guide To Grow On Instagram With Giuliana Vann 🚀

How do you build and grow your influence for your business? In this day and age, you need to be well-versed with social media. One of the top platforms out there is Instagram. And Adrienne Hill has the guest who can help. In this episode, Giuliana Vann provides tips and tricks on how you can grow on Instagram. Giuliana is the owner & founder of Living a Digital Dream LLC, a social media marketing agency helping personal brands, product and service providers, small business owners, and influencers take their online presence to the next level. Join today’s conversating to learn the proven organic methods they use to manage their clients’ social media accounts. Make your presence known and catapult towards success today!

#impactfulentrepreneurshow #guesttakeover #instagramgrowth

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🔥 The Ultimate Guide To Grow On Instagram With Giuliana Vann 🚀

Are you growing your Instagram and trying your best to grow and get the right followers, people who are interested in you, your business, and your offers? Are you trying to figure out how to build that strong visual brand, how and where to use hashtags, and how the algorithm has changed that reels are in the equation? This episode is perfect for you. We’re going to dig into all of those topics and help you up your Instagram game. Let’s do this.

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I am here with Giuliana Vann. She is an Instagram influencer coach and social media and branding strategist, educating small businesses, bloggers, influencers, network marketers, and female entrepreneurs with the right strategies to help them grow their Instagram, build an impactful brand, and grow their businesses by leveraging Instagram specifically.

You folks are in for a treat. I'm so excited to dig into this topic. She has a background in nursing. She worked in a busy oncology and med surgical unit as a charge nurse and a clinical preceptor. I'm not smart enough to know what that means but I'm super excited to have her here with us because teaching is one of her passions. You are in good hands with her. If Instagram is on your goal board, you are in the right place. She enjoys teaching and empowering other women to go after their dreams and help them achieve success on social media specifically. Welcome, Giuliana.

Adrienne, how are you?

It's so good to have you here. I'm so excited to dig into all things Instagram with you. Thanks for taking the time to share your knowledge with us. First things first, there are a lot of people joining this summit because they've been leveraging maybe 1 or 2 platforms. They're looking to maybe add in some new ones to the mix. For some people, Instagram might be brand new to them. What I would love to do is start high level and then dig in deeper as we go, if that's okay with you.

Yes. Instagram is my love language.

In case people have not met you yet, could you tell us a little bit about your story and journey? What brought you to where you are in business?

I'm a mom of two kiddos. I live in Sarasota, Florida, sunny and very humid. Hair days are the worst. Thank you for the beautiful background information about me, Adrienne. I did practice nursing as an oncology, medical-surgical nurse, and clinical preceptor. Meaning that I taught early nursing students and brand-new students right out of college to practice nursing.

I taught them the ropes on how to become great nurses. That's what I did besides bedside nursing out of the hospital. Long story short on how I become now, I own my social media and marketing agency and teach private coaching, Instagram social media, and branding to premium brands, also creatives and female entrepreneurs and small business owners.

I fractured my ankle at the beach with my three-month-old. I was post-three-month C-section. We were at the beach. I was playing paddleball, running and everything. I went right into a big sand hole with impact. That's where I fractured my right ankle. From that day to three months later, I had to have surgery, which I did not want. Nurses are the worst patients. I was telling the surgeon, “I already had an emergency section with awful complications. I don't want to go through another surgery if I can do it on my own with therapy and all that stuff.”

Grow On Instagram: Each keyword is a chance for you to start growing.

We tried for four months. I was still having this pain. I could not be on my tippy toes. I cannot even walk for one hour without having uncomfortable pain. The surgeon said, “You're a young mother. You have a full career and you're nursing ahead if you want to go back. You’re not going to be able to run anymore and be able to do high-impact activities. If you want to create this life, you have to have some surgery procedure to help you recover faster.”

After a lot of praying with my husband and family, I decided to go through the surgery, which was 60% got me through my feet. It was a full year over quarter at home. During that year, scrolling through Instagram, I saw one of those ads that you probably see all the time on how to grow your influence. I started as an influencer myself because of that one ad. It got my attention. I said, “This is something that I could do at home while I still recover and be at home with my kids.”

I started my Instagram page and saw the impact that you can build on Instagram by sharing your story. I open up and shared my story. I was a nurse. I started building a community of moms and nurses. People love a healthy lifestyle. Years ago, it was health, fashion, and more. That was my Instagram. Learning everything because I was like, “There has to be a better way of posting every day or multiple times a day,” which some gurus tell you that. There has to be a better way to post with the intention to enjoy the app.

You don't have to be a slave on Instagram or social media. Have a life. I started to learn everything like how to post, use hashtags, and everything you want to know on Instagram. I also paid for my coach and programs as well. I built 20,000 followers in each community in less than a year. I saw the power of how I built it and then it's like, “I need.”

COVID came and I kept hearing about a lot of people losing their jobs. Being stuck at home, probably they have side hustles, which a lot of people that I know had. They had a full-time job plus a side hustle but then they were stuck at home. What do we do? We need income to survive and thrive from this pandemic. I went from health, fashion, and war to Giuliana Vann. I branded myself.

After a lot of prayers, that's what I felt. My calling is to help all those business owners and female entrepreneurs like you trying to make some income from home and help others by sharing your story. Showing up on Instagram authentically, I started sharing tips and tricks until I got my first client. I knew that I had something happening. I went all-in into the social media business. I'm living my digital dream because I get to work from home and help others grow.

I still have my nursing license because I volunteer for my church. I plan probably to do some type of business too. I have ideas. I'm always having ideas. I'm probably going to do something later on but I'm enjoying this. It's been a full year of helping hundreds of people grow their businesses online, especially when this is on Instagram.

What a fascinating story. What I love about that is it's interesting how God works. He took an event that may have been viewed as something terrible that happened to you like breaking your ankle. Not just a clean break to the point where you needed all these surgeries and recovery but he turned it into something amazing for you. It was the start of a journey it sounds like.

As entrepreneurs, many of the audience will identify with this. You constantly have ideas. Your mind is always going, “We are like these amazing idea engines.” Let me know if you can relate. We have more ideas than we have time to tackle. I love that you noticed what was happening in the world. A lot of entrepreneurs maybe weren't very online or social media-focused but COVID forced them to move into that world out of necessity. You saw an opportunity to help more people. You were brave enough to step into it, which I love.

Business coaching and Instagram coaching are a whole new world to me but you have to push that fear, doubts, and insecurities that you may have and start. I can't wait to teach. When we started, how you can leverage the power of the platform for all social media, business, and creative, the power of Instagram can do for your business.

Start to see the impact that you can build just on Instagram by sharing your story.

You also talked about showing up authentically and sharing your real heart and self. I can tell that you're going to be the perfect person for us to learn from because I feel that heart and authenticity. I'm so excited to dig into this. Instagram is an interesting platform because it's so dynamic. It has so many different elements. You can post and share stories. There are Reels and Instagram TV. I noticed when you were talking about your initial journey into becoming a successful influencer yourself, you mentioned hashtags so let's start there. What role do hashtags play on Instagram? How important is it to figure out the whole hashtag game?

Hashtags are keywords. That’s what they are. Keywords that drive your content to the right people that are searching for that specific content. If you are, for example, a candle maker, your business is all about candles. You got to think first of, “Who is my target audience,” because then you can create those specific keywords. When searching for hashtags, “Who is my target audience? What she, he, or they may be searching on Instagram?” You start creating and brainstorming those keywords.

How do they label themselves if you are a local boutique or photographer that needs local people? You have to leverage your location plus the hashtags. There are different categories of hashtags that you can utilize on Instagram. Leverage all of those keywords that Instagram is giving you because it's a free tool that you can reach all that target audience. You create content. You get to utilize this free tool of hashtags. Have a strategy so it's not only posting on the fly or in your red light and thinking, “Hashtag love, hashtag selfie.” It's more to it.

We have some people reading who are brand new to Instagram and some people who are maybe have been using it for a while but they want to up their game. Of all the strategies that you can implement across Instagram, how important are hashtags? Are they right at the top of the list like thou must nail your hashtags?

When you think of hashtags, think of exposure and visibility. How you are going to become visible to that target audience on Instagram. If they're searching for candles or full clothing, that's when your content and image with your captioning are going to populate on the hashtag grid. Also, build a community. When you use community hashtags and you know what this target audience or ideal clients are hanging out on Instagram, you can leverage the community hashtag to find them and start engaging and building relationships.

You can utilize up to 30 hashtags. A lot of people think, “You only have to use eight.” There are different numbers that you're going to find online like 8, 15, and 20. When you are new and you're just growing, you have less than 5,000 followers, I always recommend to all my clients to utilize most of them after 30. Each keyboard is a chance for you to start growing. If you already have more than 10,000 or 20,000 followers and you already have built an engaging following, that will not be your priority.

You probably want to start taking your business to the next level, building more relationships. Not much visibility or reach. You can start with fifteen. You don't need that much. The higher your following is, you can start utilizing less hashtags. 100,000 accounts don't need to utilize 30. They don't even need twenty because they've already built their community. That's why with those larger accounts, you see that they only used 5 or 3. That’s all to it.

If you're new to Instagram, figuring out your hashtags is huge because every single hashtag is an opportunity for the right people to find you. Plus, it's a free tool. It doesn't cost any money to use hashtags.

That's how I grow without paying any for ads. That's how you're going to grow organically. Use them but use the right hashtag. You got to have some strategy in geotagging your posts as well using that location if you're starting on Instagram. Hashtags are not everything. If you're new to Instagram, you want to get to 10,000 followers, which in my world, I have seen clients with less than 1,000 followers, building a business, having sales and impact on all their people so you don't need a huge number to be successful. If that's in your goal to create a massive following, hashtags are not going to be the number one tool to grow. It's more to it.

They're an important tool but not the number one?

Grow On Instagram: Instagram changes every week, but a strong brand and presence will not.  

No, it's not the number one. Hashtags will help you maximize your growth efforts if you're already creating very valuable content and you already have your branding on point. Hashtags are going to help you reach the people, get the visibility and exposure that you need and reach those people with the right hashtags.

I do want to get what the number one thing is but before we do that, I have a few follow-up questions about hashtags. In case people are getting started or maybe they're wanting to get a little bit more efficient on Instagram, if you're trying to grow your following, use as many of those 30 as possible. What types of hashtags should be included in those 30? Should they go for the biggest hashtags that get all the hits, tiny hashtags, or a mix? What's the right mix if you're trying to come up with your first strategic mix of 30?

First, brainstorm categories, which are your niche and industry. Which category do you fall on Instagram? If you're an entrepreneur, a creative, or a small business owner, what are your industry and niche? The second category is the target audience. What are they searching for? How did they label themselves? Are they corporate moms or stay-at-home moms? Are they creative? The third category is your location. Always close to your location because people are searching for things online especially local and specific, and then community hashtags.

With those categories in mind, I will brainstorm those words and put them in columns so I got your industry, half a lead set of 30. You have more than 100 hashtags to choose from. 30 industry, 30 target audiences, 30 communities, and 30 locations. Let's say maybe you were in the holidays, Fall, Christmas then you can add those very specific hashtags to it.

Leave room for about 3 to 5 hashtags that are very specific to your image and caption. Instagram uses machine learning. It scans a picture. If your picture has a cat, an ice cream cone, or something like that then I will start searching for ice cream or a cat. Something that's specific to your image and the keywords on your caption.

Let me dig a little bit into what would a community hashtag be like. What would fall into that category?

BossBabe, that's a community where thousands of millions of people are hanging out. That's why I said, where are they hanging out? If you are a photographer, a community will be photographers of Instagram or blog of Instagram.

Like #BoyMom where all the boy moms hang out.

Like Scary Mommy which is a very big scary meme or scary mommy. They're pretty much a community where people are looking for people of the same meme.

You recommended having multiple location hashtags. Once you identify your city and state, how many different locations can you have beyond that? Are you talking about literal places within your city?

When you think of hashtags, think of exposure and visibility.

Think of it like New York City. “Where is my nearest city and my largest city?” You could also do New York life and then probably there is a Long Island lifestyle. If you are a service, maybe a restaurant or a boutique, then you'll probably want to utilize a New York influencer or blogger. You're reaching those people in your area. You keep using the ones in your city and the nearest largest city. Location means by places. Are you in a very popular coffee shop? They have branded hashtags as well. Maybe you run out of sorts so restore and use allocation on a specific hashtag.

One of my follow-up questions and I'm sure the audience is wondering too is if you're a restaurant, you very much need to rely on your geographical area but let's say you're an online entrepreneur. You're not limited to your geographical location. You can talk to anyone across the entire country. Should you still be using a location hashtag?

I do. I have global clients from all over the world but I still do because I want to be known in my area as well for opportunities locally, for people and other business owners to reach out to me so I can probably go meet them. As an influencer, I utilize those things also to have opportunities in my area. You can help business owners right where you live but they don't know who you are or what services you offer because you have not utilized your location hashtags.

For the people who live in rural areas and maybe out in the country, should they still be using locations and take themselves to the nearest big city?

The nearest, yes. I had clients like that too. They're in very small towns and they started utilizing the largest nearest city.

It's still smart to do that even if you're not geographically limited in your business?

Yes, plus geotagging the post. That combination is going to maximize your visibility and people are rediscovering your account.

You come up with a mix of 30 in each of these categories. By the end, you have 100 or more. Do you mix and match which ones you use on different posts?

Yes. Let's say you're already crafted your caption, image, or slide of images, you're going to say, “What's my image?” Instagram scans images. “What am I trying to convey through my message?” You're going to pick 5 to 10 of one category, another category through all your categories, and utilize sizes. You're going to maximize your visibility by using small, medium, and large size hashtags.

Small is anything from 5,000 to 25,000 posts on that hashtag. If you're new, growing and have less than 5,000 followers, you want to use more of the small. You can utilize from 10 to 15, 5,000 to 25,000 to leverage those niche hashtags. Medium-size is anywhere from 25,000 to 100,000. If you are new and less than 5,000, focus on the small and medium hashtags. You can use a little bit less of the large ones, which are anywhere from 101 to 500,000. You want to stay up to small, medium, and large.

Grow On Instagram: Whatever type of content strategy, you got to have that one person you serve in the back of your head.

The very large ones are anywhere from 501,000 to millions, 3 million or 5 million. Let's say you have more than 100,000 followers. You can leverage those large ones. You can do 3 to 5 of them to get that quick engagement. As you grow, you drop them out of hashes from the small ones and mediums and start utilizing more mediums, large and very large.

We'll talk about this in the Facebook group. How many of you are already thinking about your categories and numbers and wanting to create a sheet? I know I am.

That's a whole strategy. If anyone needs that one-on-one in specific, that's what I also have but it does help because you are not going to be throwing hashtags on the fly and think but you also have to search them on Instagram to make sure that Instagram has not blocked that hashtag. It's called banned hashtags. Beauty blogger is a banned hashtag so don't use that one.

Why would they ban them? That's so weird to me.

If you type in beauty blogger, which is a ban hashtag, you're going to see a message right above that says, “This hashtag has violated.” They have violated some community guidelines or a lot of users on Instagram have reported the hashtag because of the content sensitivity. This goes to people using the wrong hashtags in their content for visibility.

Maybe a digital marketer uses beauty blogger, for example, and their post is all about paid ads on Facebook. It has nothing to do with beauty bloggers. As a user, I'm going to look for that image and be like, “What?” If they hit the three dots, they're going to report content. The more people doing this signals to the algorithm, “A lot of people are reporting this type of content. We're going to block the hashtag.”

It's not necessarily the bad hashtags that get blocked. It could be anyone who was using them incorrectly too many times that it could get banned. That's fascinating.

When you go to a hashtag, what does the hashtag grid show you? Images. The algorithm needs to know that your image belongs in that category. It’s important that you search for the hashtag. It's not banned. You don't want to use it. You'll see that message above, “This hashtag has been blog banned.” You don't want to use it.” That's why it's so important to have a strategy so you're not popping these wrong hashtags. You're going to have the chance that someone will report your content as well because they don't want to see the content in the hashtag grid.

For the audience, I hope you're catching a couple of things that come up over and over again. Have a strategy and don't throw spaghetti at the wall. You want to think it through. This is super helpful. Thank you. Any other big tips on hashtags before we move on?

Now that you have some strategy and an amount which is 100 or more, a lot of people think that copy and pasting hashtags, you’re going to be having chances to have your account flacked because the algorithm is going to keep seeing the same sets of your hashtags post-to-post. It's not good to have. Rotate them. You can use the same hashtags but in a different order so they're not the same set each time.

It's all about creating a strong brand presence on Instagram.

Even if you do want to use the same set multiple times, copy and paste them in a different order so that every 3rd or 4th time, you're using a different set.

They are in different places on your set, not in the same order.

You could have variations 1, 2, 3, and 4 of the same group of hashtags.

Also, leave space for five hashtags that are specific to that post.

One other thing that I've noticed and I'm sure the audience has noticed as well is some people put the hashtags in the post itself and some people put them in the first comment. Does it make a difference? Are they both fine?

That's one question that we get all the time with the changes that the head of Instagram has said about the search feature. When people are searching for things, if you want to become more visible, in the search, they want you to put hashtags in the caption. That means with your posts. Not in the comments. If you write long captions and you don't have space, don't panic because that's only to become visible in the search. That has nothing to do if you want to grow.

It will help you grow over time. You can still put them in the comments. What I recommend is putting your most specific hashtags that are related to your image into your caption and what your account is about so that's what Instagram wants to know so they can categorize your content into the appropriate hashtag. Support at least 5 or 10 of those in the caption and then you can add the rest in the first comment.

Those are super helpful pro tips. Make sure to write that one down in your VIP action workbook if you have that out, everyone. We've talked about hashtags but you had told us before hashtags aren't the number one thing. What is the number one thing that you want to make sure you're doing as you grow your Instagram account?

It's all about creating a strong brand presence on Instagram. If you think about branding, Instagram changes. Every week, there is an update on something. Reels came, hashtags are changing, everything will change and marketing evolves but when you create a strong brand and presence, that will not change.

What would you consider to fall under the umbrella of a strong brand? What are the elements that people should be checking the box to make sure they have a strong brand?

Grow On Instagram: A strong brand is the core foundation of your marketing. It is going to build your credibility.

If you want to take notes, I'm going to give you three key steps to building an authentic and strong brand that aligns with your values to show up on Instagram. The first is storytelling. That's huge. Why? It’s because the stories sell. That's a no-brainer. People buy from emotion. When you tell your story, you're connecting to the right people. Being vulnerable is like when I share my story. People share their stories but in a way that you're putting your customer, that potential client or customer as the hero of your story.

Whatever you're going through, you have to think, “How is my story going to impact someone else? How is it going to touch someone else's life?” With the power of storytelling, you're going to reach those people. They're going to become like, “I know her already. I like her.” I build that like, know and trust factor. Storytelling is one step to building the like, know and trust factor without telling a story of what is your why. Why are you doing what you're doing? You have to have a why. Why did you create your business? Share your story along the way because it connects deeply on an emotional level with people.

I've experienced that myself, both being a follower of others and also being an influencer myself. We talk about that a lot and we'll continue to talk about this in the Facebook group. You have to put a person at the heart of your business.

You got to humanize your brand. You cannot hide behind a logo, pictures, or graphics. People want to know who the owner is or the person behind your brand. How are you trying to help people when you're going to hide behind graphics or logos? You want to humanize your brand. It's all about connecting, building relationships, and sharing your story in a way on how it’s going to impact someone's life.

Maybe inspire them to take the first step or make them believe in themselves. The minute someone feels emotion when they encounter your content, as humans, there's something that happens when emotions are triggered. It tells us, “We need to remember this person.”

You want to become a memorable brand. There are so many components how. Your goal is to have a strong brand and also become memorable to others. It's those little things. I'm going to talk about brand voice. It's your message. It is not what you're communicating but how you're communicating. Adrienne and I could sell the same product and service but at the end of the day, it is how I'm communicating my message to you. How Adrienne communicates her message is different. My brand voice is going to be different than hers. It is how I am communicating what I do in a way that is authentic to me. I am not a loud person. I’m different and unique. I'm not the typical coach and people notice that.

Only Giuliana can be Giuliana. Only Adrienne can be Adrienne.

You have your superpower. Sometimes you have to dig deep like, “What's going to make me unique?” What is your unique differentiator online? You could be selling the same thing with thousands of other people but at the end of the day, you've got to share a humanizer brand. People want to see a face, connect and see, “She does this but in a different way.”

I know we both have the same viewpoint, “It’s not all about what you sell. It's about who you serve and speaking directly into a person's heart and showing them your real heart.” The great news is you have to be yourself.

That’s when your brand voice comes in.

Stories sell. People buy from emotion. When you tell your story, you're connecting to the right people.

Creating a brand is being yourself but being brave enough to be your real can be hard sometimes.

When I talk privately with all my students and clients, some of them are hard. They're almost in tears saying, “I have this in the past. I've grown this way. I've been raised by my mom telling me all these negative things in my head. I cannot show up, do it, and show stories. I don't want to.” “You don't have to share your dirty laundry or share those negative stuff.” That's what I said in the beginning. How are you going to craft your story in a digestible way so that people will understand where you are coming from and how you got where you're at now in a way that you put them as the hero? How can they relate to your story?

That's different than sharing, “I'm so-and-so. I came from an abusive relationship.” You don't have to say it that way. You could say it in a way that relates to your target audience with your own words. That all comes from market research. I could speak about market research for hours. That's another thing. You got to know your audience and who you serve.

Another common thread I see throughout is you have to know who you're speaking to. It’s who your audience is. I see this a lot out there. Let's speak to this for a moment. I would love to hear your take on this. For the people who were saying, “My product or service can help everybody. Shouldn't I talk to everybody?” What would you say to that?

That's my next step in building an authentic brand. You got to be super clear and crystal clear that whenever you're creating content, showing up online, sharing your stories, doing activities, and whatever type of content strategy you have, you got to have that one person that you serve in the back of your head. When you're talking to that one person, you’re not only becoming confident on camera because it's like you're talking to a friend.

You are going to be solving those pain points. You get to know, let’s say, “Adrienne is my ICA. I want to help her lose those last 10 pounds so she can look radiant for her wedding.” You're going to be solving a pain point that she wants to lose those last 10 pounds so she can look great with a wedding dress and fit in quickly for her wedding. You get to solve that 1 problem with your 1 solution. “What is she struggling with?” It’s beyond demographics. You've got to know this psychographic of this persona.

What books are she reading? There are different types. My client could be different than yours but we're still in the same thing. You see this very differently. We could be selling the same product but my avatar is going to be more maybe luxury for some that like to go to the Ritz-Carlton but maybe your avatar is going to be someone that goes to Walmart. That’s an example of that. You got to know who you're serving.

People are trying to speak to the whole world. When you're trying to craft a post, a message, or whatever it is and you're trying to speak to the entire world, it feels like an impossible task but once you imagine 1 person in 1 unique situation with 1 particular problem they're trying to solve, mentally, it feels so much easier to speak to that 1 person than it does to try to talk to the entire world.

That's another component when you build like, know and trust factor because people buy from people that they trust. Automatically, it’s like, “I like the person because she's creating likable content. I feel like I know her because she's sharing part of her story that connects with me. I feel like I trust her because she is with her authentic voice. She's creating all this content that speaks to me.” They want to feel seen and heard. The next step in building this authentic brand and a strong brand on Instagram comes to clear communication. You got to be crystal clear on who you serve, what we spoke and having your authentic voice as the brand voice.

Your message is what you're communicating but your brand voice is how you communicate it. You don't want to be blending in and being a copycat like others in your industry showing up. Show up authentically with your voice. You have to know the differences in your industry. What's the gap? When you do market research, there's always a gap in your market.

Grow On Instagram: You've got to create emotionally engaging content to connect with your audience. That's where the trust comes from.

Thousands of other people are doing network marketing or selling the orange FIS but the way that they're doing it is different from how I'm going to show up online on Instagram. That is finding the voice, finding how you're going to create a different type of content, and talk into the ICA or Ideal Client Avatar in a way that is not the same as other people.

Folks, I hope you see the truth. What Giuliana is giving you is gold. The great news is that once you know who you're speaking to, you have good branding and marketing which works on every platform. It works no matter where you put it because it's a foundational skill. The branding and marketing on Instagram are going to work as well as good branding and marketing on any of the other platforms. If you get good at that, you'll be good no matter where you show up.

Marketing has evolved. Instagram changes all the time but when you have this strong brand, the core foundation of your marketing is going to build your credibility always. You're going to keep getting better, become more confident, and have more social proof. It builds your credibility and confidence. You have found your voice, all of your marketing strategy, and who you're going to speak to so you're going to be more confident speaking your stories and doing videos. You will attract more people.

The third step that I have here is emotional connection. It's so important and I love this part because when we talk about building the like, know and trust factor, I want you to think of these three Vs that you can remember very easily. One is Vulnerability like what we spoke about in storytelling. Being vulnerable in your story but connects with others. That's sharing any failures that you have had and the hardship moments that you had in your life but all relate to your ICA. That humanizes your brand.

The other V is creating valuable content. It's Value. Providing value all the time. It is no longer 2012 when you could post a selfie of yourself or a picture of a son and be like, “Have a great day,” and gain a lot of followers. It is more to it in 2022. Creating value by speaking directly to your ICA so you're honing in on them. You get up your why value into their lives. All those how-tos, tutorials, any tips and tricks that you have from your niche and industry that you can provide to them.

You want to create content that does take away. What are they going to take away from this particular post every single time? You don't have to be posting every single day. A lot of people and gurus say, “Post multiple times.” I see it. They're posting three times a day, Monday through Sunday or Saturday. That's a lot of content that you're going to have to come up with. It's going to lead to burnout and not enjoying Instagram.

Focus on quality over quantity. This comes to content strategy. To have a strategy as well and have those content buckets and all those main topics that you want to share with your audience. What are they going to take away? Post with intention. Even if you're going to make them laugh, that's creating value in their life. It doesn't have to be educational content all the time. A little quick tip that people come to Instagram for is to be inspired, motivated, and educated because they always want to learn something and they want to be entertained.

Those are the content pillars. If you stick to those content pillars, say, “What type of content am I going to create to inspire or motivate them to take action?” It comes Tuesday or Wednesday. “What type of content am I going to create to entertain them?” Another day, “What type of content do I want to create to educate them?” You stick to those pillars and then create content buckets, meaning the main topics you need to create every week. That was part of the by-level. The third V is Viral content.

This viral content means quotes and memes because people will not share a selfie of you. They don't tend to share posts of kids or family. They share quotes and funny memes. You see it all the time. Are the graphics relatable to your niche? Think that each of your followers has maybe 2,000 followers and have an average of 100 views. You have 100 eyeballs on your profile times maybe 2 people share it so you have 200 eyeballs directly reading your name and handle.

That's a way that you're going to have more exposure. Also, people are going to come to your profile. Let's say your profile is fully optimized and you're creating valuable content. You checked off the other two Vs. They're going to consume your content so they're going to see that it is valuable and vulnerable. That viral meme or story that you created is right there. Everything compliments.

Humanize your brand. You cannot just hide behind a logo, pictures, or graphics.

Those three Vs are so simple and easy to remember. We can do this. We got this. If you have the three Vs, you have super strong and clear branding and if you have the right hashtags, there's no reason you can't grow very quickly.

Quickly and with the right people. One thing is you got to have a goal. Do you want to grow a mass following maybe by giveaways, do follow loops, or whatever those things?” It's like, “Why do I want to grow an Instagram?” Do you want to increase sales? Do you want to build a community? If you do all of the steps, you can build a community of targeted followers that are going to love your content. It's not an overnight growth. Slow and steady, you will build an impactful brand on Instagram. Let me share the third step. It’s an emotional connection.

Emotional connection is said and done. More than 90% of people who buy from emotions are amazed by emotions. You've got to create content that is emotionally engaged and connects with your audience. That's where the trust comes from. If you can build content that creates the like and the know, now that you're creating this emotional connection, it's going to build trust. When you know your ICA, the Ideal Client Avatar struggles, you're going to create content that speaks to their pain points. “What does she want in life? What does she need? What is her desire?” You have created a bond. There's a special bond that you have created on Instagram. That’s where a relationship comes from.

They start to believe that you're the one person who can help them move past that because not only have you been there like them and you can relate to them because you’re right, you used to be in the same spot but you've moved past it and you can help them move past it. I love that. That's wonderful. What a nice framework to share with the audience. It’s super helpful.

Without feeling overwhelmed by posting every day.

It doesn't have to be overwhelming. If you're hitting on all those key things, you can focus on quality over quantity. You don't have to be a slave to Instagram, to your phone, or to business.

Have a goal. I helped my clients have monthly goals. “What is your monthly goal? Do you want to only increase sales?” You have a little shift with your content or maybe a shift with what you're doing on Instagram but if you keep wanting to build momentum and followers, you got to know. Maybe you want to create reels. Incorporate those reels into your content strategy and utilize more video because also with video, they can show your personality. People can see you, how you’re talking and everything. Have a content strategy, optimize your Instagram, and have those aspects of creating that strong brand presence.

For each of the four areas that Giuliana shared with us, I hope that you're noticing that these tips and strategies that she shared, you could use on a post, story, reel, Instagram TV, or any of the actual features that Instagram offers because they're fundamental. They can be used anywhere.

People use blogs for marketing. Utilize those. For example, if you created a caption, you can break that caption and repurpose it for a blog, YouTube, and other channels like Twitter. You can use the same post and repurpose it.

I'm feeling super inspired by all of this amazingly helpful advice. I'm sure the audience is too. You have the perfect gift to help them get started with their new Instagram journey. Can you tell us a little bit about that?

It's hashtags. It's a free guide on how to search for those right and specifically target hashtags for your account. I’ll give you my four-step formula on how to search for hashtags so you can start building that momentum, visibility, and exposure. It's going to help you maximize all of your other growth efforts to grow on Instagram.

What an abundant gift so be sure to scoop up that. Make use of that because you can apply this formula that she's giving for how to come up with your hashtags. You can apply it to Instagram but hashtags can be used on more than one platform. Once you come up with the right mix, you can always use these hashtags in other places too. Be sure to scoop those up.

 

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About Giuliana Vann

Giuliana is an Instagram and Influencer coach and social media & Branding Strategist educating small businesses , bloggers/influencers, , network marketers, and female entrepreneurs with the RIGHT strategy to help them grow their Instagram , build an impactful brand and grow their business leveraging Instagram

Giuliana has a Background in Nursing. She worked in a busy oncology/med-surgical unit as a charge nurse and clinical preceptor. Teaching is one of her passions.

She enjoys teaching and empowering other women to go after their dreams and help them achieve success on social media

PodcastAdrienne Hillhashtags, coaching, social media, influencer, community, instagramComment