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Instagram has been my biggest headache.

Whilst managing so many different social media accounts, the last thing I want to do in the evening is to sit down on the sofa with a cup of tea and log into Instagram for another hour to increase my own engagement, followers and likes. 

Let ALONE manage all the unfollowers that day!

I find it a tedious process for a small business so I have 3 tips below that are guaranteed to increase your growth, engagement, followers AND the development of partnerships with other brands.

Turbogram

If like most founders, you have time constraints AND a tight budget then Turbogram is for you. Yes, it is a follower and engagement bot, but unless – as a busy founder -you have at least an hour every evening to spend liking hundreds of photos in your niche and commenting on them, then this could be PERFECT for you. 

First of all I have to say I am stunned with the amount of apps out there charging extortionate amounts of money to auto like, follow and comment on photos. Some are charging up to £90 a month! It seems Apps are really taking advantage of the downfall of instagress.

Turbogram is based in Ireland and charges just £10 a month. You can pick hashtags to target your niche and follow them and you can also create your own comments to send to this specified niche. Did I mention it also auto follows and unfollows? I have tested out AND paid for multiple autobots and so far, this really has been hard to beat.

Followers Assistant

I have tested multiple free apps to manage my followers but the vast majority flood you with ad pop ups and a minimum amount to unfollow. 

Followers assistant will quickly scan through your instagram and you can unfollow in bulk by a click of a button rather than manually pushing unfollow on each one. You have a limit per hour of 200 unfollows. Anymore than this and Instagram will start getting suspicious. 

This App is great if like me, you feel uncomfortable following and unfollowing people once they have followed you. Yes, it is the fastest way to grow your account and even the biggest bloggers do it, but I also see it as a bit of a douche move and it will get you blocked by other users in the future or even worse, called out over it!

If you would like to connect with each other on instagram, Here is my account : ) 

Business Development 

I think Instagram direct messaging is a brilliant way to build on connections. Obviously the bigger the brand the more likely they are to be flooded with messages but as a digital marketing specialist, I have managed to connect multiple clients to new distributors, connect to magazines for PR and also send out products to influencers thus skipping on paying their agents a small fortune by complimentary gifts that they are later seen wearing.

If you are looking for PR, then I would suggest googling to start with magazines in your local area and messaging them directly on Instagram.

You can often skip the advertising fees if you offer to write up your own interview. For example, we targeted female founder magazines and websites through Instagram and then offered to create an interview about our busy mum of 2 and female founder and how she started her own business.

As the idea for the interview fitted into their niche, it was publishes and alongside links to her products on her website. It increased sales AND traffic.

If you would like more information on how to manage your social media account and branding with packages starting from as little as £175 a month, click here.

Successful SEO practices can be hard to pin down because things changes so quickly that what worked last month might be redundant now. However,  it is vital that you make a real effort to implement good SEO practices if you want your website to be easily found with prominent search engines like Google and Bing.

To ensure that your website isn’t left to languish, here are some tips that should help you achieve better SEO success right now:

Use a Better CMS

If you switch to a better content management system like Umbraco, which has built in SEO features, you will always know whether the content you’re producing is optimized for success or not.If you have little experience building an umbraco website, there are professionals who can help you with this. It’s worth it to ensure that you’re using today’s best practices on your site

Optimize for Rich Answers

Right now, optimizing for rich answers is something that a lot of SEO experts are focusing on because they tend to rank in organic search results already and Google has made it clear that they intend to favor content that provides rich answers and very clear information to its users, making it likely that rich answers will do even better in Google’s rankings in the future.

Boost User Engagement

User engagement is not only important for converting visitors into buyers, but it can make a real difference to your search engine rank too. The more time people spend on your website reading and commenting, the more favorable you will be seen by search engines, so use tools like CrazyEgg to see which of your links are the most popular and create more of them, encourage comments by running giveaways, and ensure that your website is setup to encourage people to keep clicking your content. It will make a difference!

Make Mobile App Optimization a priority

If you haven’t already, you should ensure that your website is easy to navigate on mobile devices. More and more people are accessing the internet on phones and tablets,and you will turn them off and be penalized by the search engines if your website isn’t optimized for them.

Once you’ve done that, think about creating your own app to make it even easier for your readers to visit your site. There is lots of evidence to suggest Google looks more kindly on sites who also have apps in their store, so it should see you in a much better position in the future.

Speed Up Your Site

With internet speeds getting faster and faster, the internet using public’s tolerance for slow websites is getting lower and lower and search engines will penalize your site if it takes a long time to load. That means it’s time to get rid of those pointless plugins, use lighter CSS and HTML and perhaps even think about using AMp to store caches of your website’s content in the cloud.

Getting to the first page of Google isn’t easy,but if you implement all of the above, you’ll be one step closer,and at the very least, you should see an increase in your traffic over the coming months. So, what are you waiting for?

In terms of marketing, the dream is to have a thirty-second advert play during halftime of the Super Bowl, your business being hurled in front of almost every person in *the world (*America). Even with a 4% conversion rate, business will start booming. The problem is, not everyone can afford to spend $4 million on a TV advert where a scantily dressed girl eats a burger or whatever they are doing.

In fact, not every business can even afford a marketing consultant, which begs the question: how on earth are you meant to get your name out there (aside from going down the Facebook-slash-Instagram route, which is nowhere near as effective as Facebook-slash-Instagram would have you believe)?

Well, the answer could be offline marketing. If you are big on ideas, bravery, and creativity, then you could achieve huge marketing success for very little cash, which is because great offline marketing is all about achieving conventional goals through unconventional methods. It is about spending energy not funds.

Of course, we’re not just going to leave you to dwell on that little piece of wisdom. No. Instead, we have spent a little bit of time pulling together a list of unconventional marketing approaches that should get your business noticed. Just remember, be brave and have fun.

Business Cards Provide A Great Opportunity

Business cards still have a huge role to play in the world of marketing, especially when it comes to networking events and things like that. The problem is, hundreds of business cards tend to get thrown around at these events, which is why you need to make yours as memorable and standout as possible. If this is something that is right up your strasse, but you don’t have the funds to spend on a design agency, then perhaps you could hold a competition at the local university and see what comes back.

Big And Bold Branded Merchandise

If you’ve ever been to a networking gig, or an industry event or a just a business fair of any kind, then you will know first hand just how much branded merchandise you tend to walk away with. Well, it is time you started joining them. We’re talking about getting infusion bottles from Dynamic Gift all branded up with your logo, and coffee mugs, and pens, and mouse mats, and bookmarks and everything. That way your brand will be seen everywhere, from people holding your bottle while running in the park to local libraries handing out your bookmarks to companies drinking from your mugs. Yeah, the merchandising route is an epic one.

Make Your Mark On The Community

There are a thousand ways for you to become celebrated by your community through subtle marketing techniques that will get chins wagging and make your brand stick. It could be that you and your staff get involved in a charity cycling event, or you do a fun run, or set up a stall at a local fete or sponsor a local sports team. The list is long and extensive, and each entry provides you with a chance to become part of the local community. That is such a great way to build trust because trust is what creates customer loyalty. Period.