If you have an Instagram account for your business, I'm guessing you are posting content with the aim of generating sales, right?
Instagram is an incredible sales tool for your business.
It gives you the opportunity to showcase what you do and express your message in a really creative and exciting way.
It gives you direct contact with your perfect client too.
But how many followers are enough to generate an income from the platform?
The Myth
If you feel your follower growth hasn't been fast enough, I have some good news for you!
The number of followers you have doesn't matter.
In fact, having followers doesn't necessarily equate to sales.
It's the quality of followers that matters.
Think of it like this; which is more valuable to you as a business;
a) someone who takes your phone number and never calls you
b) someone who takes your number, and calls you to place an order every week
It's obvious right? Well a follower is just someone who has taken your information. It's what they do with that information that determines whether or not they are your ideal client and a potential sale.
Vanity Metrics V Sales
Vanity metrics are likes and follows. They are easy engagements that can have little weight behind them.
What you want to get are engagement metrics that convert.
If someone goes to the trouble of writing a thoughtful comment, saving or sharing your post or reaching out to you privately, these are all signals of warm followers. Warm followers are people who are engaged with you and your message and want to learn more. These are where your sales will come from.
Influencer V Business
Businesses and influencers behave very differently on Instagram.
An influencer wants to show that they have a huge following so that they can prove they have 'influence'. This is how they get brand deals and make their money.
A business exists to solve a problem for a specific group of people.
They are two very different objectives.
So as a business you only need to worry about your follower count going in the right direction. How fast it grows is less important than the quality of followers you are gaining.
In recent times even the value of a high follower count for influencers has shifted.
Brands are no longer happy to work with an influencer based purely on the number of followers they have. Brands have realised that having a million followers means nothing unless those followers are fans and listen to what that influencer says. This has led to a shift towards the micro and nano influencer accounts getting brand deals. These are influencers with less followers and higher engagement.
Do The Maths
So how many followers do you need to monetise your Instagram account?
Well, let's do the maths.
If you sell a product or service for €50 and €5000 sales a month is your goal then you need 100 followers to buy from you every month.
One hundred. Not ten thousand!
So if you have 1000 followers, that's a pretty steady income isn't it?
You just need to make sure that those 1000 followers are the right followers.
This is why, as a business, you need to forget the vanity metrics and focus on the quality of your followers.
To Recap (screenshot this to remind yourself!)
- The number of followers you have doesn't matter. It's the quality of followers that matters.
- Forget vanity metrics (likes & followers) and focus on engagement metrics (shares, saves, comments, private messages.
- To find your magic follower number, do the maths.
Are you looking for one to one support on growing your business on social media?
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