Truth Be Told In my opinion, the most difficult part of building an audience is actually telling the truth. In all honesty, my blog is one big experiment. A way to see what works and what doesn’t when building an audience. This is why I don’t always reveal what I really think about various topics. After the results are in, I will either stick with that approach or revise my approach accordingly. Today we’re going to examine this strategy further. I started my Instagram channel back in 2011. I made two promises to myself before I even uploaded a picture to my account. 1. Only post original content. 2. Only post content that was relevant to my target audience. 3. Only post content that was something I was really passionate about. 4. Only post content that I had a degree of expertise about. 5. Only post content that wasn’t already being published on other websites, blogs, and social networks. 6. Only post pictures that could give me a bit of a head start on my competition. 7. Only post pictures that I could reasonably expect my audience to like and share. 8. Make sure that every picture is accompanied by a caption. These were the only promises I made to myself prior to creating my Instagram account. If you can keep these promises, your content will be relevant and your community of fans will be loyal and engaged. Don’t make promises you can’t keep. Now, on to the results. I started posting pictures of my family every day. I knew my community was getting bigger and bigger, but I wasn’t exactly seeing the results I had hoped for. Over time, I learned that the content strategy I had started out with had some flaws. I stopped spending time on people who were not engaging, I stopped posting pictures of me just because I liked to take pictures of myself, I stopped trying to sell the world on my life and my family, and I stopped trying to force my brand into the hearts and minds of others. I realized that it’s better to engage with those who are already on board and then convert a small handful of people every now and then rather than having a whole lot of people, who, one by one, are falling off your radar. I’ve started to focus more on developing a genuine relationship with my audience. I’ve discovered that people will continue to engage with me and my content if I remain honest with them. They’ll continue to engage if I don’t try to play the role of their mommy or daddy. I have to assume that when I post a picture of my family, the picture is not about me; it’s about them. My viewers don’t want me to entertain them and it’s not my job to persuade them into believing everything I’m saying. Instead, my community wants me to tell them the truth. My community wants me to be genuine with them, they want me to be a human being and they want me to stay humble. Posting pictures is just one part of the game. Posting pictures that people actually want to see and responding to people when they ask a question is the other part of the game. They have a genuine interest in what you have to say. You have to be engaged and genuine, the same as you would when speaking to a friend or a family member. If you’re not genuine, you have nothing worth saying. It’s the same on your Instagram page as it would be on your blog or Twitter page. If I only post pictures of my family once or twice a week, I’m more likely to get engaged by a variety of people. They will want to know more about me. What’s more, the only person I’m competing against is myself. No one else can post pictures of their family, so they are not my competition. People who are posting pictures of their family are sharing their family, and they are being open and honest about the way they are living. People who aren’t posting pictures of their family want to be honest, but they don’t want to share everything. So their followers see the picture without any distraction, just a post that provides an update to their Facebook and Twitter feed. The pictures that I have decided to put up on my Instagram account have a very specific purpose. My family are a big part of my life, but they don’t consume my entire day. I use my iPhone to take pictures all day long and I share them with my community when I’m ready to. They’re just there if you care to see them. So I post about my day and whatever is happening. I post something silly and I share it with the world. I use Instagram to share my favorite moments. If you spend less than ten seconds on your Instagram page every day, there’s no way you can make any kind of decent impact. Every minute you spend on Instagram counts. A few weeks ago, someone took a picture of a woman breastfeeding her toddler on a plane. She wasn’t spitting in anyone’s face, so what was her crime? She could have sat down quietly and weathered the criticism, but no, she just went ahead and posted a picture of her breastfeeding and called it a day. As a matter of fact, most celebrities who are the victims of online bullying do exactly what that woman did. They post a picture of themselves trying to enjoy their day and then they proceed to tell the world that they aren’t going to be bullied anymore. They post a picture of themselves trying to enjoy their day. It’s too bad that you can’t share everything on Instagram. You can’t show everyone how you’re feeling. You can’t show everyone how you spend your free time. You can’t show everyone your every waking moment. You have to show people your best moments. So that’s what I do. I try to show my best moments and my best angles. I want to make sure I capture the best possible quality pictures and use them properly. Don’t post pictures of people who don’t want to be in those pictures. Only post people who genuinely want to be in your pictures. Not everyone who wants to see your pictures is going to want to see you in the background. Most people who aren’t comfortable with their bodies don’t want to be in the background of a picture. If you want to include yourself, make sure you try to make it something very special. And even then, only post the pictures you feel comfortable sharing. I have pictures on my phone that I keep for myself. Pictures of people I’ve forgotten about and my baby pictures, which I’ve been trying to get my husband to share for quite a while now. When it comes to posting pictures of others on Instagram, the key thing to remember is respect. If I see a picture of someone else, and I think that person might want it shared, I usually will ask their permission before posting their picture. I don’t like to bother other people. I never do that. I don’t feel it’s my job to have someone else’s permission. That’s their business. Some people don’t care if their picture is shared, and that’s their prerogative. Other people might be a bit reluctant, but I’ve learned that if I want the picture to be seen, I can always ask permission, and if the person gives me permission, I will continue to respect their wishes. If you’re looking to improve your social media following, spend less time posting pictures of yourself and spend more time engaging and posting pictures that will provide value to your audience. If you’re trying to build an audience, remember that your followers are not your competition. When you spend your time focusing on the work you do and on your audience, that’s when you will see the real results. Stop worrying about your competition and remember, they aren’t your competition. Focus on the real competition: yourself and your values. When I started this blog, I made a promise that I would never buy backlinks or “follow” my posts with a plug. However, I realize that by following your blog and liking your content on other social networks, some of the people you follow may start following you back and begin commenting and linking to your content. It’s a natural reaction to do this if you have a lot of people sharing similar content. In the world of blogging, this is called “link juice”. It’s natural for people to share each others content, which is why it’s important to have a diverse pool of people linking to you and giving you this link juice. Every person who wants to blog has to do it the right way, and there is no right way. Everybody is different. You just have to give it your best shot. The most important thing is that you are having fun! If you’re not looking for some free link juice and you really want to know more about how blogs