Food Brand Instagram Followers: Quantity, Quality or Both?—Part 1

Is your “new follower” count down?

If you’re paying attention to your Instagram analytics, you may notice that your Instagram posts are being seen by less than 5% of accounts that are not following you, and that might be stressing you out a bit. After all, you’re creating content to get new followers, right? Well, maybe, but hopefully that’s not the only reason. Here’s why:

Unless you’re a brand-new account, gaining followers shouldn’t be your main priority. If you aren’t already having meaningful relationships and really engaging with your current audience, you don’t need new followers, what you need is to engage with the audience that is already following you. They are already interested, and that’s half the battle!

As Seth Godin once said,

“A group needs only two things to be a tribe: a shared interest and a way to communicate”

You have the “shared interest” part down. Now let’s talk about the way you should be communicating.

Chalene Johnson hit the nail on the head when she said “Better to go an inch wide and a mile deep than to go a mile wide and an inch deep. Become a master; an expert in your field.”
This builds trust.

The goal is to spend more time speaking directly to customers/current audience than creating content to gain more followers/larger audience.

Meaning you want to eventually be spending more time communicating with your followers one-on-one via Direct Message than creating new content to spew to an unfamiliar audience to gain new followers. That being said, you can’t go silent on your feed. Here are some great ways to engage your current audience in a way that will make them feel connected, and is beneficial to you too!

Use your audience as your focus group. Ask your audience:

• what should be the name of this new product?
• What should the price be?
• What features should be included?
• X price for these features or Y price for more/fewer features?

Tip: Using the stories feature with polls is a great way to interact with your audience about the above items.

Remember:

Attraction marketing

is like people who only talk about themselves (I know someone just popped into your mind just then)

Curiosity marketing

is about making people curious about your product…They ask questions/investigate your product

The power of curiosity is stronger than the fear of loss. There is a reason that TV shows leave you hanging before a commercial break. When creating a post or video, don’t give your audience all the info upfront. Leave them something to ask about to start a conversation. Leave out the info you want people to ask about.

I know what you’re thinking: That is going to create a LOT of work if I have to respond to every DM or comment. And you’re right. But it means you get to have a one-on-one conversation with that person. And you are your best salesperson! It’s ok to prepare responses for most popular questions that you can tweak to personalize when needed, then let the conversations go from there! I promise it’s worth it. These conversations lead to sales!

For some more tactical IG advice, stick around for part 2.

If you would like to learn more about this topic, or how we can help with your social media strategy or ad creation, please reach out to the NewPoint team. If you are interested in more food marketing topics, please visit our “Food for Thought”page. Alternatively, check out NewPoint’s book: Moving Your Brand Up the Food Chain.