Is Your Instagram Ready to Go Viral?

Hey friend, I’m so happy you’re here. As we all know, Instagram is a fantastic tool for growing our business. There are many ways to spread awareness to potential customers through reels, stories, and more. And if you’re strategic about it, you could have your Instagram explode into an amazing success. So, is your Instagram ready to go viral? Let’s find out. 

 

 

It’s possible to have a reel or post go viral, but how do you keep getting your content to go viral repeatedly? I don’t want you just to go viral once, but to keep doing it consistently because that is a sign of a successful marketing plan and business. The tips in this post will help you know how to prepare your account for going viral and what to do once it does. 

Before we jump into the tips I must remind you that Instagram is an amazing free tool to help run your business. However, it should not be THE business. Instagram is just the handshake to meeting new people. Your website and other content should be at the base of your business success. Read more about what I’m talking about HERE. OK, let’s talk Instagram!

 

 

Is Your Instagram Ready to Go Viral? 

Maybe you’ve already had a post go viral and it made you gain 10 thousand followers within a couple of days. But then what happened? Do you know how to convert your followers into buyers? That’s what truly matters. Of course, we want to keep spreading valuable content to our followers for free, but at the end of the day, you are a business owner and need revenue to keep running your business successfully. 

 

Instagram Tip #1: Niche down. 

This one is SUPER important. I had a friend DM on Instagram letting me know she had a reel go viral and she got all of these new followers, but she didn’t know what to do about it. She was in a little bit of a pickle because the reel that went viral wasn’t exactly what she teaches regularly in her business. So now she has all of these new followers that will never buy from her because they followed her for the reel that wasn’t a part of her content pillars. 

I don’t want this to scare you or anything, but you do need to be aware of it. So niching down your content is the best thing for you to do. This means talking to “one” person with one problem that you can solve through your product(s). 

Think about the content that you’re posting on Instagram. Does it have a clear purpose and a clear message? It needs to be extremely clear that your products or services will solve your ideal person’s problem along with a promise of transformation.

For example, my audience is business moms. And my product is Business Mom School. And I’m talking about it all of the time–in my posts, my reels, my stories, everywhere. My promise of transformation is that these business moms will finally have the tips and practical steps they need to grow a business and still have time to spend with their kids and do their mom duties. 

So, look at your content and determine if it speaks to your ideal person. A lot of times we get hung up on what kind of content to create when in reality, the content we need to create is one that serves our audience in a really good way. We want to take them from an Instagram follower to a customer, and the more you speak to their truths, the more you will convert them into loyal customers. 

 

 

Instagram Tip #2: Optimize your Instagram account.

Instagram is becoming more and more of a search engine. Optimizing your Instagram account means if someone were to search for your type of business, your business would be one of the first ones to pop up. But how do we make sure you will be one of the first results? Through optimization. 

Make sure to include keywords (words people use to search for your business) in your bio, tagline, content, caption, hashtag, and alt text. I have a YouTube video you can check out HERE that explains Instagram SEO in more detail. This will help you a ton!  

Once you have a basic understanding of all of these different places you can include your keywords on your Instagram account, go to each one and make sure you’re including the keywords that you would want to show up for. For example, if someone searched “business moms” I would want to be one of the first businesses to pop up as a result, so I am using that keyword phrase all over my account. 

If you’re unsure of what keywords to use, go look at Instagram accounts that serve a similar audience as you and see which words they are using in their content. You can get ideas from those words and see which ones you could use for your own brand. 

So, make a list of the keywords for your business and start adding them to your captions, posts, and hashtags. Doing this will greatly increase your chances to go viral on Instagram! The more content you create around your niche and include those keywords, the more Instagram will understand who you are and the kind of content you create, and who it’s for. And once Instagram figures this out they can put your content in front of people who are going to love your content. (See, the algorithm can be your friend sometimes!) 

 

Instagram Tip #3: Link to your email list.

Do you have a planned way to get people from Instagram to your email list? (Don’t have an email list? Click HERE to get started!) The easiest way is to leave a link in your bio. What other places do you want to send your audience to? Maybe it’s to your YouTube channel, a freebie, your podcast, etc. Create a short list of places you want to send them, but keep it short so your links don’t lose power. Having too many options may have your people turn away from it altogether. 

A great option is to have the link in your bio send people to your website. Because that’s a page view! And every single one counts, right? Maybe the link goes to a blog post that gives a freebie or shares more about how you can serve them. (I  especially recommend this if you are a blogger and depend on page views as one of your main sources of income.) 

 

 

Instagram Tip #4: Have a clear and crisp bio.

Your bio should say really specifically who you are, how you serve your audience, and what you want them to do. Your bio acts as an extremely condensed resume. Whenever anyone comes to your Instagram account, they say, “Is this person for me?” And we need to make it very clear who we are for and not for because we want people who we can actually serve. 

Remember, your bio is a living breathing thing. It’s not like you post it and can never touch it again. You can post one version of a bio, leave it for a couple of weeks and then decide to tweak it a little bit. This is natural to do, especially as you keep leaning into who you are as a brand and are pivoting into the next version of it. 

 

Instagram Tip #5: Have a content strategy.

What is your goal with Instagram? Think about why you have an account and how you intend to move your followers on their customer journey to becoming your loyal buyers. Have you seen my content marketing funnel? Here’s a graphic of it, but you can click HERE to learn more about what each level means. 

 

 

This funnel is super important because this is how we use our content to move our followers down the funnel to where they become our “raving fans.” So, what type of content do we need to create to make this funnel process work? The answer is actually simple. Create valuable content that people want to read, share, save, like, etc. 

Stories are another great way to turn your followers into customers. They are a way for you to show up and let people see you are a real person, living a normal life just like them. You can also show up and sell your products. You don’t have to be selling all of the time, but know this is a connecting piece that makes sales happen. 

 

Instagram Tip #6: Monetize your Instagram account.

Is your account set up so that you have a clear path to get paid? This tip connects to some we’ve already mentioned. The link in your bio will send people to your email list which is a way to lead people to buy your products. Your content strategy will help attract the right audience who will want to purchase your products. 

Make sure you’re talking about your products and how they are transforming the people who have purchased them. I love to share screenshots of people who send me messages thanking me for my services. This is one of my favorite ways to sell products because it’s coming from people who have already used it and love it. 

 

 

Is Your Instagram Account Ready to Go Viral?

Alright, friends, is your Instagram account ready to go viral? Following these 6 tips and checking them off your Instagram account to-do list will get you there. I know we can’t predict or control the outcome. But we can control how strategic we are and how much work we put in. 

So, don’t stress about how many followers you have or how many you want to get. Instead, stress about being strategic and converting your followers to customers. I know you will do great things! I am excited for you. If you want more tips and tricks like these, come follow me on Instagram @iammichellegifford. We have a lot of fun over there and I’d love to have you!