Instagram is for freelancers of all types, and not just meant for fashionistas, food bloggers, pout posers, photographers or the travel bugs. Instagram, after it went through great many changes in the last 2 years, such as 1 minute videos, multiple photos, image effects, insta-stories and great privacy policies,saw a surging rise in its account users.
Today, over 500 million people use Instagram on a monthly basis and around 80-85 million users scroll through their feeds everyday.
Freelancers, who are always on the lookout for more work, inspiration and networking, should make Instagram their best friend and make every chance they see an opportunity to market, improve their brand and increase their bank account balance.
Freelancers are Good Hustlers and What Better than Instagram?
A freelancer will have so many things in mind apart from his core skills, like marketing, branding, promotion, featuring and accounting. When all of this is a continuous mind-boggler, then what better way to feature your creative skills than social media platforms, loaded with creative people hunters?
So, when the talk is about Social Media Networking, and if you are ready for some amazing action, then why choose anything else when we have Instagram – a site that generates 60 times more users than Facebook and 120 times more than Twitter?
So, here are ways that can make Instagram any new freelancer’s best friend.
3 Ways Freelancers Can Make Instagram Their Best Friend
1. Instagram Needs Picture Posts – What Can You Post?
Freelancers, unlike regular work professionals, are most of their times confined to the four corners of their homes and offices – that doesn’t sound overly glorious, right? So, what can you post as a freelancer?
If you think only food posts and celebrity pics are what instagrammers like and accept, then you are wrong. Most people, as in 80% of the Instagram users log in to scroll down their feed for inspiration and motivation.
That’s why you will find thousands of inspirational and good quotes posts on the site. Such content, however simple and non-glamorous they look often works as a stimuli for many followers.
However, as a freelancer, your primary focus would not be posting inspirational quotes to motivate people, but something that you do should work as a motivation, if not for all but at least for few thousands out there.
Post your Lifestyle….
To answer your question– Post your life. Freelance is all about professional independence, something like ‘in your underpants you are creating a $100,000 project’.
Now, if this isn’t motivation what else could be? Your everyday occurrences can be extremely appealing to many. Instagram is all about fun and light hearted content; so you get an advantage here if you are a writer.
Post pictures of your day to day activities – like watching TV while baby sitting or finishing off an entire plate of French fries while waiting for client. Feature your work from time to time.
Artists, photographers, and fashion stylists use this platform as it gives them a chance to show what they really can do. However, if you are none of the above, you can still put up a pic or sample of your work on a full display for all to see. Make sure that you insert at least 10 – 15 common hashtags to garner positive views.
2. You Want People To View Your Post – When Should You Post?
You are a freelancer where time is your companion. You can lie on the bed, prop up few pillows and watch few hundred cat videos at 10 am, no one will question you. But not everyone’s got this kind of freedom, right? There are still millions of people who work 50 hours shift a week.
Unlike you, they have someone who is constantly watching over their shoulder. Although, it’s not a bad thing, but it definitely means they cannot scroll through Instagram all day.
High level of Instagram engagement during working hours cannot be expected. So, the trick of Instagram is to find and appeal your clients during their office downtime, when they can readily access their smartphones.
So, you should know the timetable of Instagram users, the peak hours, when they hit the scroll button the most. (Understand that this is a trial method and not a stringent time table).
- 7:30 am to 9:00 am – Early in the morning, users, when they have breakfast or get stuck in traffic or just wait for the work to start in full force, usually check their Instagram account for latest news and posts. This is a great time for you to reach potential clients.
- 12:30 pm to 2:30 pm – Well of course, its lunch time. As you sit down to eat, you pull out your phone to check mails, accounts and notifications. So, simply put, this is also a high traffic driving time.
- 7:30 pm to 9:30 pm – Your work day just ended. You are back home, had dinner and now lazing around. You look for a bit of a relaxation and unplug your phone from the charger. Got the drill? You hit the nail on square with your post, this is the time most people, from teenagers, moms, pregnant women, professionalsto the celebrities and politicians check their phone, before they pass into a deep sleep.
You have to follow a schedule; the more you do the better number of viewers you will garner. You will quickly find out which time works best for you. From there, it would be up to you to post strategically and make adjustments.
3. Show The Real You – Instagram is a Hidden Business Account
As a freelancer, you have an advantage over other brick and mortar companies you’re your Instagram account; your Instagram account is not completely a business one, you can switch it to a normal personal account, anytime you want. Don’t post business always; viewers are most often fond of the regular and mundane things.
Use this as an advantage; find a medium between work-related posts and those that are related to you, the Real You – what you do, what you eat and who you are with.
The more you are willing to expose the real side of you, while keeping things professional, the greater will be the chances of being followed by genuine clients through your Instagram activities.
