How to Sell on Instagram

Is your business on Instagram?

Do you want to use Instagram as a revenue stream?

To find out how to use Instagram for sales, I interview Jasmine Star.
More About This Show
The Social Media Marketing podcast is an on-demand talk radio show from Social Media Examiner. It's designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing.

In this episode, I interview Jasmine Star, a professional photographer who specializes in Instagram marketing. Her story starts with law school, transitions over to photography, and ultimately goes to Instagram. Jasmine is sure to inspire you with ways to sell with Instagram.

Jasmine shares how to sell your products and services via Instagram.

You'll discover the advantages of using Instagram for selling.

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Here are some of the things you'll discover in this show:
How to Sell on Instagram
Jasmine's Story

In 2005, Jasmine was in her first year of law school at UCLA when she got the news that her mother's brain cancer was in the final stages. She left school and moved home.

Jasmine knew she didn't want to go back to law school and decided to give photography a try. For Christmas, her husband gave her her first digital camera and she started her wedding photography business. When her business exploded that first year, it helped her identify as an entrepreneur.

Jasmine joined Instagram six years ago but says she used it haphazardly until just a few years ago. When she learned how to use Instagram strategically as a marketing vehicle for her business, it was a game-changer. Since then, she's been named one of the top 10 wedding photographers and one of the most influential photographers, which she believes is due to her varied and intentional use of Instagram and other social media platforms.

Listen to the show to discover more of Jasmine's backstory and why she believes she was called to live a passionate life.

Why Instagram Works for Selling

Jasmine shares one of her favorite quotes from author Simon Sinek, "People don't buy what you do, they buy why you do it." In her opinion, there's no better platform than Instagram to showcase why you do something.

She believes Instagram's powerful storytelling components give you the ability to make customers loyal before a purchase has been made. If you can tell a powerful story in fewer than 87 characters (the caption limit), along with a photo that matches and elevates the storytelling component, you'll win at Instagram.

Listen to the show to learn what Jasmine says makes Instagram different from other platforms.

How to Get Seen on Instagram

It's no secret that people are seeing the effects of the Instagram algorithm on their visibility in the news feed, and that's why Jasmine says it's more important to build an audience of the right kind of followers than to collect followers just to increase your numbers.

Visibility in the news feed comes from having engaged followers who care about your business, leave comments and likes, tag their friends, and share your posts. An account with a lot of followers who aren't engaged won't be indexed high by the algorithm. This results in fewer people seeing that account's posts, which then results in fewer people liking and commenting.

So, all things being equal, if one account has 200 followers and another has 2,000 followers, and each account routinely gets 20 likes and two comments, the account with fewer followers is more likely to be seen, because it's perceived as more relevant.

To build an audience of the right followers, Jasmine suggests creating an ideal client profile. Figure out where your ideal client is on Instagram and why, she says. Then figure out how to serve the people who follow you. Creating value will nurture and grow your audience,...