converting Instagram followers to customers With Outbound Engagement

Isn't that kind of the whole point? We're all here to sell something on social media.

Raise your hand if it's turning out to be a bit harder than you thought 🙋

You're certainly not alone. There's more to it than you might think. One really overlooked aspect is engagement.

I'm not talking about getting people to engage with your content (though that's important for other reasons), but we need to remember that we're forming relationships with real people here. You need to give to get.

Inbound Vs Outbound Engagement

Inbound engagement is probably the things you think of when you hear "engagement". It's the interactions from others with your content and account on social media platforms. Likes, shares, comments, and saves.

Outbound engagement is your interactions with others' accounts and content on social media platforms.

Why is it important?

Community

To convert social media followers to your customers you need to create a sense of community among your audience (If you've been following me for a while you've definitely heard this before). No one wants to be in a one-sided relationship. Authentic engagement builds that trust and that relationship and is key to creating that community.

Growth

Some of your outbound engagement should be with non-followers. By leaving valuable comments on non-followers' content you can show off your personality and your authority so when other people see your comment they think, "oh man, I like that. Let me go check out their account".

I know what you're thinking, "what non followers should I engage with? Which hashtags should I follow?"

This can be tricky but soooo important for audience growth. And not just growth, but ensuring that your new followers are actually in your target audience, not just internet randos that will drag down your engagement.

So how do you find them? This is something I do a lot of research on so I can make sure it's included in my clients' Personalized Social Media Strategy.

Basically, you can find the right non-followers by following hashtags your target audience would use or search for.

These accounts you're going to interact with could be meme accounts specific to your niche, a service provider that helps the same target audience as you, etc.

By interacting with these complimentary accounts that also serve your target audience, they you can be sure that it's something your target audience would see in their feed.

And when I say valuable comments, I don't mean random emojis. I mean add to the conversation in a helpful or relatable way.