Instagram can be an amazing platform for fitness professionals. Whether you have the goal of attracting new clients, selling products, or something entirely different, Instagram can be absolutely golden!
I know many fitness professionals feel like they are making little to no progress on Instagram. To be clear, I am not just talking about getting new followers. Follower quality and loyalty are significantly more important than follower quantity.
Ask yourself, when you make posts do people take notice? Are your posts being shared and saved? Are your posts receiving a lot of engagement? Is your audience excited about what you have to say? If not, it’s time to go back to the drawing board.
Over the past year and a bit I have made tremendous strides on Instagram. I have built an amazingly engaged and loyal audience. Many of my audience members have also become customers, and clients.
Here is a graph that has tracked my progress. In exactly one year I’ve gone up 35 000 followers.
Here are 10 common sense tricks that can help you achieve far superior results on Instagram. These tips have worked wonders for me. I wanted to hit 50 000 followers on Instagram before I released this article.
To be clear, I’m sharing what has worked for me. There is not a one size fits all formula for success.
#1) Create Content People Want To Share And/Or Talk About
If you want to grow your audience and brand, you need to create content people want to share and talk about. Whenever I am creating content, I strive to hit one or more of the three ‘’E’s.’’ I want to educate, empower, and excite. Typically, if I can hit 2 or 3 of these ‘’E’s’’ my posts will explode. I will get a lot of shares and saves (my top metrics for success), and a lot of new followers.
If you watch my Instagram stories, I am constantly sharing videos and posts I’ve been tagged in. People are excited about my free content and paid products. This is a great example of ‘’free marketing,” and is actually how I do most of my marketing.
Also, all of the points below will help make your content more ‘’shareable.’’
I rate the success of my posts based on the number of saves…
And the number of shares…
Many of my posts have also brought me a lot of new followers.
#2) Provide Value. Don’t Just Sell
If you expect to achieve optimal results on Instagram, provide value, don’t just sell. People HATE being sold to. This is especially true if your audience members are just getting to know you.
If you do use Instagram to market yourself and your services, ask yourself, what makes your content unique, and why should people purchase anything from you? If you don’t give away high quality free content, and on a consistent basis, don’t expect many people to purchase your products and services. Giving away high quality free content, and also engaging with your audience, are both great ways to gain your audiences trust. Trust is a must!
Here are several messages I’ve received from people who follow me. To reiterate, I try to educate, empower, and excite with my content.
#3) Make The Topic Of Your Posts Very Obvious
What is your post about? The topic of your post should be evident right off the bat. If people are scrolling down their timeline, if they can see what your post is about they will likely be more inclined to stop and check it out. Also, as many people do not turn on the sound for videos, labeling posts is all the more important. In fact, I think this is a must.
As a LOT of people have asked me how I edit my videos, I use Instagram story to label my videos. So you do not need to use anything sophisticated, nor do you need to spend money on an editing app. I also use a free app called Video Collage to make my collage videos.
Here is one of my posts. As you can see, the post is clearly labeled.
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#4) Only Include Relevant Parts Of The Exercise
I think I speak for many when I say this is a huge pet peeve of mine. If you are going to post a video, ONLY include the relevant parts of the exercise. Very few people have the time or energy to see you roaming around the gym and loading equipment, tying your shoes, having a sip of water, talking to the random person beside you, petting your cat/dog, or whatever you might be doing. I take that back, I’d be ok with the cat/dog part ;).
Remember, people cannot fast forward on Instagram. If you expect people to take the time to watch your videos, take the time to edit and remove ALL of the unnecessary parts of your video. Failing to do so comes across as lazy and sloppy. To note, including relevant parts of exercise set-ups, for instance, unracking the bar during squats, can be very helpful to include.
#5) Make Sure You Are Big Enough In The Frame
If you want people to take the time to watch your videos, make sure they can actually see you, and what you are demonstrating. Make sure you take up a large portion of the frame. People won’t get anything out of your content if they cannot see you, or what you are doing.
For starters, set up your camera so it is closer to you. If you are not able to do that, you can edit the video and make yourself appear much bigger. I often do my editing using Instagram story. Also, I am not a fan of the horizontal/landscape option (image on the far right) as this makes seeing your video an incredibly daunting task. Nobody wants to have to use binoculars to see what you are doing.
Speaking of size, if you are using labels, or if you are providing written cues and instructions in your videos, make sure the writing is large enough people can read the words. Also, make sure the writing stays on the screen for long enough that people can actually see it. Remember, people cannot pause or fast-forward on Instagram. So if they cannot read your writing, and if it does not stay on the screen for long enough, they will not get anything out of it.
#6) Make Sure You Include At Least Several Reps
If you are posting an exercise video, make sure you include at least several reps. Otherwise people will not get much out of your videos. If your goal is to educate, this is very important. To note, I am not referring to 1 RM lifts.
#7) Make Sure you Perform Exercises Using Proper Form
To be very clear, there is no one-size-fits-all for optimal form. Form will vary on an individual basis, and due to different factors. That being said, with most exercises there are glaring mistakes that should be avoided. In terms of fitness accounts on social media, few things pain me more than seeing coaches giving exercise tutorials while making egregious mistakes.
If you are going to take the time to post an exercise, watch the video first to make sure your form is ideal. Also, I am not referring to good form/bad form videos. These tutorials can be extremely helpful. Here is an example of a “good form/bad form” video.
Again, you can see how clearly I’ve labeled the video. I’ve also only included the relevant parts of the exercise.
#8) Promote What You Are Passionate About Versus Bashing What You Don’t Like
First of all, I will absolutely say there is nothing wrong with calling out something (or someone) you don’t agree with. That being said, this can be done very tactfully and respectfully. But, if the majority of your content is devoted to complaining, or bashing one thing after another, this thick layer of negativity will alienate many followers, including colleagues.
Or perhaps people might like to view the content for the ‘’drama’’ and you might net some followers, but remember, follower quality is what matters! These people might be less inclined to purchase your products or services, or have any professional relationship with you. Be classy!
Personally, I prefer to promote what I am passionate about versus bashing what I don’t like or don’t agree with. There is enough negativity and stress in the world anyway…
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#9) Don’t Be Scared To Recycle/Repurpose Content
Countless people are under the impression that 100% of their content must be brand spanking new. This could not be further from the truth. This mindset places a significant amount of pressure on people to constantly churn out new content. As a result, so many people give up before they’ve gained any traction, or they resort to releasing one low quality piece of content after another.
I don’t know if this is 100% factual, but a long time ago I read that Instagram generally shows posts to only 10% of your audience. So basically every time you share something the majority of your audience will not have seen it. You also need to factor in new followers.
Content can be recycled in different ways. While you could just reuse the identical video/photo and write-up, you could also repurpose the content. This is a perfect example of working smarter, not harder.
Some of my top producing posts have been recycled (gasp!). Here are the stats for one of these posts…
This post was saved a whopping 6089 times, shared 437 times, reached 240 660 people, and brought me 695 new followers. Not bad for something that took me between 10-15 minutes to create, and maybe one minute to re-post.
#10) Be Consistent, And Don’t Expect Results Overnight
I would be rich if I was paid a dollar every time somebody complained to me about how they are not making any progress on Instagram. More often than not, when I ask the people if they’ve been posting consistently, the answer is almost always the same. They have not been, or they have only been doing so for a few months. I hate to break it to people, it can take MONTHS, or even years to make serious gains on Instagram. If you are consistently putting out good content, people will take notice and you will be rewarded. So keep chipping away…
All audiences are different, so figure out what works best with your audience, and aim to post at least several times per week. For whatever reason, so many people have been led to believe that they need to post three times per day, and every day of the week. This is nonsense. Aim for quality, and consistency. Don’t just post to make noise. Make your posts count! Consistently sharing several high-quality posts per week absolutely beats churning out multiple mediocre posts per day.
Several Time-Saving Tips:
- Set aside time every week or few and mass produce content. This way you will always have content on hand.
- After you’ve mass produced content, save the posts to your draft folder on Instagram so it is ready to go. Right now I have 51 posts sitting in my draft folder. So these posts are ready to be shared, and in a matter of seconds.
- Organize your content/photos into folders on your phone. This will save you hours of time.
Unfortunately, an abundance of people have fallen prey to constantly switching things up on Instagram, and they have no rhyme or reason for doing so. Quite simply put, they are being impatient. Like with training, excelling at the basics and being consistent yields top results. Program hopping does not. Be patient, and be consistent. You will be rewarded.
I highly recommend following accounts of people who are doing well on Instagram. Don’t just go based on number of followers. Remember, the number of followers is a relatively poor metric to use. Not all followers are created equal.
Try incorporating some, if not all of these tips, and let me know what happens.
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