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What is Social Media Monetization and Why Do You Need It?

Many people are asking, “What is social media monetization.” A better question to ask is, “Do you like making extra money with little extra work?”

If you are like most people, making extra money without increasing your work load is an exciting idea. The way to do this is with social media monetization. And with over 70 percent of all internet users have social media accounts, you have millions in potential sales.

What is Social Media Monetization?

Social media monetization is the art of making money using your social media accounts. You have already done the work, which is building a following. You update your statuses each day and take advantage of opportunities to increase your social media numbers.

The number of fans you have on your social media pages can translate into dollars and cents. Your followers are fans. They want to feel a connection to you. They are willing to purchase what you are promoting. This is beneficial to you, because your posting schedule will remain the same, but you’ll be making ancillary income from social media monetization.

Because you are such an influencer, there are several reasons why you need to monetize and manage your social media accounts.

Get Paid for Endorsements

You are a person with influence. You are seen daily in your social media posts wearing the latest fashion trends, using the newest tablets and phones, even driving the best and fanciest vehicles. You’re traveling around the world and discovering restaurants and clubs.

You are giving numerous brands and businesses free advertising when you post a picture of you enjoying these things.

Why not reach out to those brands for an endorsement collaboration? They will appreciate being able to reach such a large audience and you will appreciate the extra income through this social media monetization technique. You may even get free products and clothing in addition to making money.

Double the Sales of Your Own Products

Selling yourself and your own products on social media platforms is a must. And who better to sell them than you? With the click of a button on your social media page, your fans can purchase your music, t-shirts, lyrics, books, art and any other products you want to sell them.

Fans don’t have to wait for a concert or spend time searching the web for a place to buy your products. As soon as you post the product for sale on your social media site, your fans can hit the buy button.

Make Money Using Your Other Talents

It is unlikely your primary creative work is your only talent. You are creative. Today, you do not have to just be known as a writer, musician, designer. You can be known for all your talents. And you can make money with all your talents.

Use your secondary talents to teach and entertain your fans. Create products to sell on social media that utilize these lesser known talents. Your fans will be inspired by you and will want to buy items representing all your creativity.

Make Money from Collaborations

Even stars have people they look up to. Who are the role models in your life? Who influenced you in the business?

Wouldn’t it be great to collaborate with these people? Your fans would love it and would be eager to pay for products related to these collaborations. A notable example of this are Kim Kardashian and Kanye West.

Separately, they are marketing experts, making millions from their individual creative works. Once they became a team, the millions turned into multi-millions. Think of collaborations you have been excited to see? Now think about the collaborations you can create.

Make Money from Video Sponsorship

Reports claim that Snapchat has 10 billion video views each day. Combine that with the millions of video views from Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Well, you get the idea. That’s a lot of people wanting to see more videos.

It’s no wonder sponsors are eager to advertise on videos. Here’s this type of social media monetization works.

You make the video, sponsors pay you to allow them to advertise before or after your video. It’s that simple.

Because you think of your fans first, you can choose the sponsors that you feel will benefit your fans. You can choose the sponsors that you trust.

Social media platforms have made creating and posting videos, content, and pictures a very simple task. They have made social media monetization just as easy. Plus, there are many monetizing tools that can do most of the work for you.

What this means for you is the ability to grow your platform and make easy, extra revenue.

How Celebrity Influence Affects Advocacy

Over 390 billion dollars were given to charities in 2016. Each year this amount increases. This amount seems even more shocking when you learn there are 1.5 million registered non-profit organizations to date. These numbers continue to rise due to individual giving and celebrity influence. In the past, estates and private foundations were the majority leaders in donations. But that is not so today.

Religious charities continue to be the sector receiving the largest amount of donations. Following behind religion is education, human services and health organizations. The recipients with the least amount of donations include overseas charities, the arts and nature related organizations.

So, out of 1.5 million charities, how does one stand out and get more recognition than another? How do you convince people that your charity is worthy of their money?

Individual Americans do not have that much money to donate. Therefore, you must find a way to compete for their donation. You must find a way to show your cause is in the most need.

Celebrity influence, and having a celebrity advocate is one of the best ways to do this, to garner attention for your cause. Celebrity influence offers many benefits in assisting non-profits in gaining monetary donations. A few are listed below.

Celebrity Influence

No one will ever forget September 11, 2001. People will also remember that George Clooney and 21 other artists performed on National Television to raise money for the United Way. In just a few short hours, over 200 million dollars was donated for the cause.

People around the world look to celebrities as role models. Whether they are famous musicians, writers, politicians or athletes, millions of people make decisions after what their role models encourage them to do.

This is also why celebrities participate in product endorsements. Celebrity influence encourages people to purchase a product, leading to millions of dollars in sales.

Celebrities can do the same for charities. Speaking on behalf of a charitable organization, celebrity influence can encourage all their fans to pledge to a worthy cause.

Celebrities Can Relate to a Cause

Celebrities are not superhumans. They are not robots, they are normal people with problems, just like everyone else. They just happen to have a huge fanbase by working in an industry that requires public recognition.

Connecting with a celebrity who shares in a common cause can give your charity the same recognition.

For instance, a celebrity with diabetes is the perfect person to help your diabetes charity get receive awareness and funding.

Celebrities suffer just like everyone else. And they are willing to use their status to prevent others from suffering.

Congress Listens to Celebrities

Want to make a significant difference like having bills passed into laws? Celebrity influence can help to speak before congress.

Celebrities have been influencing Presidents and politicians all the way back to Louis B. Mayer. Yes, that Louis B. Mayer, of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). He was a close advisor and friend to President Herbert Hoover.

Hollywood and Washington have a close relationship. By working together, things happen. A charity could benefit from gaining both monetary and legal support from Congress with the help of celebrities.

Celebrities are Social Media Superstars

Social media is the most powerful tool you can use to gain support from people around the world. Through social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, celebrity influence helps to bring awareness and garner many followers who are interested in your cause.

Add a celebrity representative to your social media campaigns and you can increase your following. Because of this, you can go from hundreds of followers to millions in a very short period. All the followers and fans your celebrity has will be your followers as well.

In the world of social media charitable campaigns, the number of followers equals the number of potential donors. This is all more possible with celebrity influence and endorsement.

Celebrities are Sincere

There are many celebrities who are advocates, and they have no desire to throw around their celebrity power. They simply have a sincere need to help others. Because of this, they are the advocates who will work on the front lines with you, with no publicity shoots.

Many celebrities feel their position allows them to give back to special causes. Celebrities want to make a difference. As a result, they want to use their celebrity influence to help you reach your goals of healing those in need.

5 Ways to Take Your Music Career to the Next Level with Artist Representation

Post author By Jason Swartz
Post date November 9, 2017
Categories In Music

You are on the right track with your music career. You have a natural talent and your fanbase is growing. In this industry, you have paid your dues in the industry and it is paying off, but it doesn’t seem to be moving fast enough. You may be thinking now is the time to take your music career to the next level. You want to reach a larger audience and have greater career opportunities, and now you can with artist representation.

Deep down, you know you can offer just a little bit more.

To do this, there are steps you can take with artist representation to transition to the next level in the music industry.

Know Where You Want to Go

Before you start rising to new levels, it’s important you know exactly where you want to go. What dreams do you have? What path do you want to take to get there?

If you have no direction, it will be easy for you to get lost and lured by the wrong influencers. Artist representation can help with this by steering you in the right direction. Your talent representative can help you establish yourself even more, and their supply of connections can help you get there; but only if you know where you want to go. Being strong in knowing the path you want to take can keep you from veering away from your values just to reach the next level in your career.

Establish Short-term Goals

You need short-term, realistic goals to help you reach your ultimate desire. It’s impossible to start at one point and jump immediately to your end goal. There are many steps in between that are valuable to your journey. Artist representation helps you to reach these short-term goals, which then leads to reaching long-term goals as well.

Short-term goals help you stay focused. Artist representation helps you accomplish the important projects that can help build your reputation and make you necessary in the business. Their established list of contacts creates a network of people to help you. This in turn leads to you attending more events and gigs. Each small goal accomplished is one step toward the large end goal.

Work Smarter, Not Harder

Strategic planning in the types of gigs you take can skyrocket your career. While you may want to say yes to every job offer you get, you must start turning down some of the jobs. Luckily, your artist representation will help you with this. They fully understand what is best for you, and which events and gigs will help you to reach those goals. Artist representatives understand that not every gig is right for you, and some of them will not help you reach your goals. These are not the gigs you want to be taking. The jobs that will not open you to a wider audience are the ones you may need to put on hold.

Say yes to the career boosting opportunities involving the media. Say yes to being the opening act for larger names in the business. Agree to artist representation networking opportunities that allow you to meet influencers in the business. All of these things will help you to boost your music career.

Enhance Your Music

First, write great music. Your music will establish the foundation for everything that follows. Create the way that is best for you. Choose methods that make you comfortable but also encourage you to take risks.

Participate in activities that will improve your craft.

Make time to record in a professional studio where your music will be produced at its best. This is another aspect that your artist representation will be more than happy to help with. The days of recording in someone’s basement or garage are over. As a professional, your work needs to sound professional, and your artist representation can do this. This means it must be as crisp and flawless as possible to get the attention of producers and music companies.

Seek advice from other recording artists and studios. They know what you want, they know how you can get it. Take all opportunities available to learn from the best. Luckily, with artist representation, you are more likely to meet such influencers, which helps you to gather insight behind the necessary steps.

There is always room for improvement and putting in the effort to improve how your music is created and recorded will be noticed by everyone in the industry, from executives to fans.

Improve Your Social Game

Social media platforms are one of, if not the best way to take your music career to the next level, especially if you have artist representation. You could be the most naturally talented artist on the planet but without a fanbase, your success will be limited.

Social media outlets like Twitter, Instagram and Facebook are the most powerful tools to get you noticed. It is practically free and with just one viral video you can gain millions of fans. With artist representation, they can help with your social media management strategy. Representatives help with posting strategies, brand management, technology opportunities to strengthen your brand awareness, and build a loyal following.

Check out the biggest names in the industry and you will find they are social media all-stars. They know how to please their fans with small glimpses into their world of music. These musicians know how to gain fans by using smart social media marketing techniques.

Social media allows you to showcase your image and your music on a large scale.

There are multi-millions of people on various outlets of social media. They all want to be entertained. You can do just that with your music.

Taking your music career to the next level does not have to be complicated or time-consuming. You are already on a successful path. Taking the steps listed here with artist representation will strengthen your path while also boosting your impact.

You deserve to reach goals you have set for your music career. Your efforts will pay off in the end. Focusing now on positive ways to grow in the business will be rewarding and satisfying for and your team.

Why You Need Talent Representation

Post author By Jason Swartz
Post date November 8, 2017
Categories In Music

You are an entertainer, an artist who has a lot to offer the world. Your creativity not only shines through your work, it touches others. Your work can have an impact on people around the world. Being given such a large platform to express your creativity means you need to prioritize the development of career. You need people in your corner who can move your career forward. You need people to help you complete the day to day tasks of running you, the business. Luckily, talent representation does just that.

As an entertainer, it is important for you to focus on honing your skills. This can include anything from writing, singing, modeling, dancing to sports practices.

Rehearsals, media training, interviews and press junkets are just a few of the activities you will be participating in and there can even be multiple activities to complete in each day. In addition to those, you have responsibilities to your family, friends and social acquaintances.

Making time for stress relief and just plain fun is a must for busy entertainers. It gives you time to relax and recuperate so you can maintain focus and passionate about your goals.

So, when will you have time to promote yourself, book jobs across the industry and know which events to attend? How will you get invites to the biggest red-carpet events and schedule events for performing?

Whether you are just starting out in the entertainment industry or are already at the top, talent representation can benefit your career. Here are a few reasons why it’s so important to have a talent representative.

Talent Representatives Have the Contacts

Knowing who to contact to seek professional jobs is key to making your career a success. Even though you are multi-talented, you can’t just sit and wait for jobs to fall in your lap. You must chase the dream gigs or the coveted roles.

Talent representatives can help you do this by using their extensive rolodex to make the right contacts. They know the directors, the right press members, the publishers and others who can make a difference in your career. By utilizing talent representation, and therefore their vast number of contacts, you better your chances of finding the best gigs around.

Talent Representatives Get You Gigs

You need jobs. If you are not a household name already, it will be difficult to get the interviews you need to establish a history of solid work. Talent representation can do this for you. They know how to charm the big names in the industry.

Talent representatives can get you in front of the people who hire entertainers and turn them into big stars. Where it may be an exhaustive process for you to accomplish on your own, your representative can make it happen with just a few phone calls. With their large number of contacts, you can rest assured that your talent representation will get you gigs that will help your career.

Talent Representation Creates a Network for You

Attending social networking events sounds great in the beginning. You are somewhat star struck yourself and it’s fascinating to meet others, possibly role models, in your same industry. After a while, however, you realize you do not have the time to attend every event during a week or even a day.

Talent representatives attend meetings with executives on your behalf. They also schedule the myriad of essential activities you need to do. These include photo shoots, screen tests, auditions, coaching, style sessions, demos and other portfolio building necessities.

Talent representation take this burden from you and do all the networking for you. They represent you. Instead of juggling a million things to do, your representative will help manage your schedule, create the network, and represent you.

Talent Representation Negotiates the Best Deals

After networking for you and getting you the contracts you need to grow your career, your talent representation can also negotiate the best deals on your behalf. They have extensive experience in making sure you get the best deal for your career.

They understand the fine print of every contract, ensuring there is no hidden content that robs you of money or harms your reputation and brand. After all, the contract received affects you both. Your representative understands the contract and can determine whether it is in your best interest or not.

Talent Representatives Get Paid When You Get Paid

Working on commission inspires talent representatives to work hard at getting you the most money possible for every contract you receive. They literally do not get paid until you get paid.

You are not responsible for paying a your representative up front. Instead, you pay them after you get paid. Essentially, you have someone working for you and promoting you for free, until you get paid.

The need for talent representation is necessary whether you are starting out in the business or have a well-established portfolio. Doing the right research can help you choose the best representative for your career.

The Top Social Media Platforms for Business You Should Be Using

Social media platforms for business have proven to be the best ways to build your brand and market to target audiences. You can reach thousands of people in just a few minutes. Promoting yourself or your brand has become inexpensive and extremely effective using social media.

With so many social media platforms available, it can be confusing when trying to create a plan to market your brand. The best advice is to stick with the platforms with the largest audiences, the easiest posting tools, and proven results.

What Are the Best Social Media Platforms for Business?

By utilizing multiple platforms, you can reach a multitude of people in different ways. Below is a list of the social media platforms for business that meet those guidelines. They are at the top right now and should be considered by everyone trying to grow their market.

Facebook

Facebook is the social media outlet that has everything you need, including over 1.5 billion users. That is a huge target audience and if you decide to advertise through Facebook, you can target them in any way you choose. It is very simple. You tell Facebook who you want to see your ad, they get it to the masses.

Facebook lets you post pictures, live and pre-recorded videos, or just messages. You can private message businesses and individuals. Or, you can post it on your public page and let the billions find you.

Facebook is a must use social media platform for business!

YouTube

YouTube is a video based marketing tool that is growing businesses quickly all over the world. Due to it’s popularity, it is also a billionaire platform. Meaning, it gets over 1 billion visitors a month.

Not only that, it is used as a search engine. Just as someone uses google to make an online search, they also use YouTube. In fact, it’s used as a search engine is second only to Google.

If you are great at capturing videos or better yet, starring in videos, YouTube is one social media platform for business that you must add to your marketing plan.

Instagram

With over 400 million active users, Instagram is becoming a contender in the race for best social media platforms for business. They are constantly adding cool features. Instagram is the eye candy of the internet.

Yes, Instagram is technically owned by Facebook. This makes it even more attractive. There is hope that one day these two mega monster outlets may have easier crossover, giving you access to an even larger audience.

In its beginning, Instagram was used mostly for posting personal lifestyle photos. Now, it has adapted for use by businesses too, allowing videos and shared stories and advertising opportunities. Instagram allows you to share personal insight and stories into brand, which helps to grow your Instagram following.

Twitter

Twitter requires a lot of posting and reposting due to the continual streaming of post. Meaning, it’s easy for your post to get lost in the mix in a matter of hours. And not to mention every post has a limit of 140 characters per post.

Before you start thinking these are negative factors, think of it this way. Smaller posts make it easier for people to engage with you. Longer posts are not as attractive. Also, it is easy to schedule your posts to retweet throughout the day, making sure it is available to the early morning audience through the night owl audience.

Plus, twitter has over 320 million users just waiting for a tweet for you. This is another essential social media platform for business.

Snapchat

Registering over 100 million active users, Snapchat is becoming a true contender. If you want to reach the younger generations, this is where you can do it.

Snapchat is an image based platform, allowing you to share pictures and videos with other users. Not the photoshopped, embellished pictures, however. Here you share the real deal kind of pictures, totally raw and totally honest.

Users love to snapchat because it is real-time and users cannot “save” it. But, everything you post can be shared, and shared, and shared. Posts are temporary, setting it apart from other social media platforms for business.

Hear me out. Pinterest is no longer for the crafty stay-at-home mom. It is for everyone — it is a social media platform for business that should be utilized. Pinterest is rocking it when it comes to growing markets for businesses. With over 100 million active users, it is a viable option for networking.

Pinterest is moving into advertising also, but it is not hard to get your information pinned and shared with millions of other people. If it is attention you are seeking, Pinterest is the place to get it.

Any professional wanting to connect with other business professionals should check out LinkedIn. There are over 400 million accounts on LinkedIn and it is available in 24 different languages. That’s a cool feature, if you speak other languages.

LinkedIn is professional networking on steroids. It is the place to go to connect with others in the business.

You can share statistics, data and information about your business. Because networking is a huge key to social media marketing success, it’s important to include LinkedIn in your plan for building your following.

Periscope (New Contender)

Periscope is not as well-known as the other social media platforms for business. However, it is relatively new and may soon be surpassing other outlets. Twitter bought Periscope a few years ago and in a short amount of time had over ten million users.

Periscope was even named App of the Year in 2015 by Apple.

It continues to grow and those who love posting live stream videos, this is the place to do it.

Luckily, it’s free and super easy to use. With the tap of a button, you can begin and end your live stream. The only tool necessary is a smartphone.

Keep your eyes on this up and coming social media platforms for business.

If having more than one social media tool seems overwhelming and time consuming, don’t worry. There are apps out there that can do all the work for you.

Signing up for Hootsuite, Tailwind or Everypost. Apps like these merge your social media accounts into one, allowing you to post just one message while the app sends them to all your accounts at once.

Becoming a master of multiple social media platforms for business has never been easier. So easy you can start growing your market today.

11 Benefits of Social Media Marketing

Post author By Jason Swartz
Post date November 2, 2017
Categories In Social Media
2 Comments on 11 Benefits of Social Media Marketing

If you have a goal of increasing brand awareness, revenue, and loyalty, social media marketing is a must. It’s harder to find someone not using social media platforms than those who are. In fact, many people use multiple social media outlets, and for good reason. There are many benefits of social media marketing.

Facebook, twitter, Snapchat, Instagram and many other platforms can help you directly connect with fans and potential fans.

There are many benefits of social media marketing, most of them resulting in increased sales for you. Who doesn’t want to make more money? Here are the top 11 benefits of creating a social media marketing campaign.

Lead Generation Benefits

If you have products or services to sell, you need leads. Getting leads means you are finding new people to become customers. One of the benefits of social media marketing is that it can do this for you.

If you created a new song and are trying to get new fans, offering discounts or freebies is a sure way to accomplish your mission. You can even host a live streamed launch of a new product. Your fans want to be a part of this. Offer them a refer a friend discount on the product and you can double your fanbase.

There are many lead generating ideas proven to boost your numbers.

Custom Market Exposure

There is no other way to reach a massive, diverse population as with social media platforms. In just one Facebook ad, for example, you can target specific audiences, as well as the number of people you want to target each day.

This means if you want to advertise that new Romantic Fiction book you just published, you can target groups that are listed as romantic fiction book lovers. It is simple and effective.

Ultimately, your main goal is to bring in more revenue through the products or services you offer. Targeting audiences can do just this in a brief period. Social media outlets make it easy to analyze your target audiences also.

Meaning if you need to adjust your marketing, you will be able use the feedback you get from custom target marketing for improvements.

Increased Sales

One of the main benefits of social media marketing is the increase in sales. Research from Forbes has shown businesses who use social media marketing increase sales by 78 percent above similar businesses. Another study makes those numbers seem small when one online business increased sales by over 700 percent.

What would such a substantial increase look like for your brand? This is possible for you too through social media monetization. It can happen for you by using varied strategies on social media platforms.

Loyal Followers

Increasing sales comes through increasing loyal followers.

People on social media want to feel like they know, understand and relate to the artists they follow. They want to know the why behind the service or product.

Social media gives you the opportunity to introduce yourself to the world. You remain in control of how you are represented to the public.

Even some of the biggest brands are taking advantage of these benefits of social media marketing to gain loyal followers.

Saves Money in Marketing

Advertising on social media outlets is relatively inexpensive. You get a higher return on your investment too.

One study showed that 84 percent of those studied found that spending one hour a day drastically increased the online traffic they received. Increasing revenue while decreasing expenses is simple with social media.

Communication with Consumers

One of the main benefits of social media marketing is that it allows you to communicate directly with customers. You don’t have to send out a survey and wait for feedback about your performance. There is little wait time to hear what your followers like or don’t like.

Instant feeds on all outlets gives you raw feedback. Within minutes, sometimes less, you can ask a question and receive answers. This means you can make changes and improvements in a short period of time and report your progress to your followers, giving them value.

Staying Modern

Change is hard for some. Staying active on social media helps you keep up with followers of all ages. It makes you relevant to many generations, not just your own.

Keeping up with modern advances lets followers know you care about them. So much so that you are willing to grow and adapt with them. This keeps fans of all ages interested in you and your creativity.

Easy Analytics

Other benefits of social media marketing includes access to easy analytical reports. Platforms such as Facebook allow you to specifically review the groups of followers you have through analytics. This data provides you with statistics and data. With this information you can monitor patterns within your fan base.

Accountability

Social media marketing is a terrific way to keep you on target and in line with your original goals and dreams. If you steer off path, your followers are sure to let you know it.

Accountability to your fanbase helps protect you from making impulsive and negative decisions. You know any negative behaviors will be called out on social media. This gives you the ability to think before you act, keeping your image and business goals on track for success.

Accessibility

Connections are everything today. Social media platforms such a Facebook, twitter and the likes were established mainly for that one purpose, to connect with others.

The more accessible your followers feel they are to you and your work, the better.

The more your fans see you as a real person, the more they will want to support you and your brand. They begin to feel as if they are part of your team, promoting you to their friends and to friends of friends.

Fun

One of the other benefits of social media marketing is that it’s not all business on social media. It can be fun. Promoting your latest ventures can be exciting for both you and your followers.

You can showcase your personality, or your brand’s personality using fun strategies. Not every part of branding and promotion needs to be serious. Fans can become bigger fans when you give them a fun experience.

Having fun on social media shows your audience you are just like them. It shows them you love life and get excited about sharing your joy. Your creativity can become contagious.

Because there are so many benefits of social media marketing, it’s important to have. Start today, use social media to wow the masses and increase your brand.

6 Ways to Grow Your Instagram Following

Post author By Jason Swartz
Post date October 24, 2017
Categories In Instagram
1 Comment on 6 Ways to Grow Your Instagram Following

Instagram rocks! It is consistently adding users, especially ones that are young, engaged and ready to follow someone great, like you. There are millions of Instagram users just waiting to see more of your personality, buy your product and follow you around the world.

It is a platform that wants to showcase the best, the best of you.

Instagram stats show the top ten celebrities with the most followers for the month of October 2017. In the number one spot is Selena Gomez with 128 million followers. Yes, million.

Close behind is Ariana Grande with 115 million followers, Cristiano Ronaldo with 113 followers andBeyoncé with 107 million followers. Also on the list with millions of followers are, in order, Taylor Swift, Kim Kardashian, Kylie Jenner, The Rock and Justin Bieber.

These celebrities turn those millions of fans into millions of dollars, right there from their Instagram accounts. Companies pay celebrities to promote their products in their Instagram photos.

Celebrities and non-celebrities are finding fun ways to promote their own products, whether it is a new record, jewelry, beverages or clothing. With a big enough Instagram following, you can leverage your Instagram account into an extra revenue source.

Your name could be on this list. You could be like these top ten celebrities. You could grow your Instagram following and it is a lot easier than you think.

Follow these six steps to grow your Instagram following and start becoming your own Instagram millionaire.

1. Location Tags

If you are visiting some place amazing, let others know about it. Use the location tags in Instagram. This is a creative way to give attention to the local community, as well as promote what you are doing there.

When local people hear of something fun going on in the community, they tend to want to check it out. And when they start spreading the word through Instagram, people start showing up.

Whether you decide to leave before the crowd gets there, that’s up to you. But you are doing an admirable thing by highlighting the community you are visiting. You are also gaining new followers.

2. Hashtags

Hashtags can be confusing. They can even make you think of breakfast hash browns if you haven’t eaten in a while. Just like breakfast is the most important meal of the day, hashtags are the way to grow your Instagram following.

Checkout the most popular Instagram users. You will see multiple hashtags under each of their posts. They do this to target groups and companies they want to attract.

The key is to tag people, products, places or corporations that will share your photo with all their followers. First, let’s be clear. You can’t just tag a random company with any old photo and expect it to go global.

Your photo must be beautiful and include their product or service. Make the message positive. Make it fun and inspiring. For example, if Dr. Dre is your all-time favorite and you want to get noticed by him and his billion-dollar empire, post an inspiring picture of you using one of his products during an event, or at home, or anywhere.

Hashtag Dr. Dre in the post and see what happens. Chances are he could re-gram your photo and that gives you access to all his followers, which would be awesome.

3. Giving is Good, Tagging is Better

Giveaways are a popular thing to do on Instagram. Giveaways work, temporarily, and it is recommended to include them in your growth strategy. However, you want loyal customers. Once people find out they didn’t win the giveaway, what are you going to do to make them stay?

You want your followers to ask their followers, or tag a friend, who will connect with your page. It is like word of mouth referrals but for techies. It is up to you to provide interesting content, incredible photos and follow that up with a “please tag your friends” suggestion at the end.

4. Notice Others

Posting once a day is essential. Posting once a day and then jumping off Instagram or jumping to another social media platform will not get you a lot of quick growth.

Part of your strategy should be showing the love to some of your followers, or to Instagram users you think are shareworthy. Make their day by liking one of their photos. It would be very cool to randomly pick a photo and share it with your followers.

By doing this, you have tapped into hundreds, maybe even thousands of other potential followers.

5. Be a Guest Contributor

Find those Instagrammers who have massive followings and ask them if you can be a guest contributor on their account for a few hours or a day. This is one strategy Melyssa Griffin advises you to do, and she is an Instagram guru.

Provide guest posts that are relatable to the followers on that account. Win them over with your charm and by showing them you like what they share.

6. Videos

The use of videos is on the rise. People love to watch great videos, especially when they are brief, engaging and show your personality.

Videos don’t have to be complex. A unique way to use videos is to introduce a contest you are sponsoring. Your video will announce the contest, the rules and the reward. For example, if you are a cat lover, ask your followers to post their favorite video or picture of their cat, dressed up for Halloween.

You review, choose the winner and reward the cat with the best outfit. Do not spend a lot of money on a reward. People love to participate in contests and sometimes do it for a shout out.

Video is a terrific way to speak to your followers and gain new followers who were tagged to enter the contest.

Start Growing Your Instagram Following Today

These are just six strategies to help grow your Instagram following. There are many more but starting with these tips will give you a great head start. #You’veGotThis