Guest Bio

Jenn Herman is a globally recognized Instagram expert and a forefront blogger on marketing on Instagram. As the founder of Jenn’s Trends, she works as a social media strategist, consultant, and author. She specializes in Instagram marketing and helping clients find effective ways to use Instagram and social media to drive results for their business.

Jenn has authored three books and is also the director of Marketing and Communications at PKL Services, a global aerospace maintenance, and training company. She is also a mom to a beautiful baby girl and a collector of stilettos.

Website:https://www.jennstrends.com/

You Will Learn

• How Jenn Started Jenn’s Trends
• Whether Your Business Should Be on Instagram
• Jenn’s Thoughts on the Instagram Algorithm
• Why You Are in Instagram Jail

Key Takeaways

Shane and Jenn Discuss Their Thoughts on Coronavirus

Jenn’s Story

Interesting Facts about Jenn’s Family

Transitioning from a Biology Degree to a Social Media Expert

Jenn’s Trends and How She Became an Instagram Expert

Tools Jenn Would Recommend for Instagram

How Jenn Manages Her Time

Instagram Strategy: Should All Businesses Be on Instagram?

How to Conquer the Instagram Algorithm

Instagram Jail

Dinner with Three People

Contact Information

Resources

Agorapulse

Tailwind

Iconosquare

Photofy

Shownotes

Listen to Shane Barker and Jenn Herman discuss Instagram marketing. Discover how to grow your business on Instagram and crack the Instagram algorithm. Jenn is a globally recognized Instagram expert. Her company Jenn’s Trends, helps marketers handle their online marketing strategy.

Listen as she talks all about it on my podcasthttps://shanebarker.com/podcasts/jenn-herman/

Want to revitalize your Instagram growth strategy? Check out this post for insights:https://shanebarker.com/blog/instagram-growth/

Blog

Instagram Marketing 101 with Globally Recognized Instagram Expert, Jenn Herman

Alternative Title: How to Grow a Powerful Brand on Instagram with Jenn Herman

Keyword: Grow your brand on Instagram

Meta: Are you using Instagram to grow your brand? Check out the global Instagram expert, Jenn Herman’s insights on how to successfully do Instagram marketing.

Did you know that Instagram currently has over1 billion users?

Also, of all those users, 90% follow a business on the platform.

Instagram is now a platform where brands can get in front of their target audiences.

But how do you grow your brand on Instagram?

To help us with this, I’ve got with me Jenn Herman, a globally recognized Instagram expert and a forefront blogger on Instagram marketing. She discusses Instagram marketing and how brands can grow on the platform.

Growing Your Brand on Instagram: A Marketing Guide

Instagram offers you the opportunity to showcase your business while creating a buzz on the products and services you provide. It helps you connect with people who share an interest with you and who love seeing the content you share.

The following are some tips to help you grow your brand on Instagram:

1. Have an Instagram Strategy

An Instagram strategy enables you to define your goals and content strategy. It allows you to identify who you are, your goals, audience, and how you can use Instagram to achieve your goal.

But, should every business be on Instagram?

According to Jenn, any business can be on Instagram, but not every business should.

Also, to be successful on Instagram, you need to do it the right way. You need to have the right strategy and a target audience that’s on Instagram. You need to pick and choose it based on your audience and bandwidth.

For example:

If you are a solopreneur or small business, don’t add the platform if it will take another ten hours of your week. Instead, think logically on who you are as a business, the kind of goals you have, and content. Then decide on whether Instagram is a platform you need to consider using.

However, it’s possible to grow your brand on Instagram if you have a strategy.

What should your strategy include?

Goals and objectives: What do you want to achieve with your Instagram account? Do you want to increase site visits, create awareness, increase sales, or increase engagement? Knowing your goals helps you with your content strategy.

Target audience: Who do you want to see your content? Are they on the platform? Are they looking for what you have to offer?

Industry: What is your target niche? What is your competition doing differently? What can you do to stand out? How can you become the go-to brand or thought leader in your industry?

Content strategy: Do you have a schedule for your content? What do you plan to post? How many times a day or week will you post? When will you post? What kind of hashtags will you use?

Tracking and Measuring: Track your account and posts for engagement. Have you noticed changes in your sales or conversions? Are you achieving your goals?

Once you’ve defined and outlined a strategy, now it’s time to brand your business and increase engagement with your posts.

2. Brand Your Business

Who are you as a business?

Understanding your business gives you an idea of the best way to attract people to your products and services and keep them intrigued. It also allows you to show value with your brand and the content you upload.

Your content should stand out in the feed, according to Jenn. People must literally stop to scroll, like, comment, click, and share.

You must also remain consistent in tone, theme, and style. Have a unique personality that helps your audience identify you from other similar brands. It means having consistent quality content that sticks to a specific style and theme.

Choose a color palette that suits your brand and a consistent theme that represents who you are as a brand. Using inconsistent styles and themes can confuse your audience.

@takearecess is one of the brands winning at this. They are a sparkling water brand that you may consider a boring product. But their Instagram presence is excellent. They use a consistent color palette of rosie pinks, lavenders, and light tangerines. They also share creative product shots, illustrations, and text posts while applying a humorous brand voice.

Image viaInstagram

3. Increase Engagement with Your Audience

You need to engage your audience in your posts. Reply, comment, and like their posts too.

You also have to consider the Instagram algorithm when growing your Instagram account. It determines what content your audience sees from you, which means it also contributes to the kind of engagement you get. The more people see your content and like, comment, or share, the more your engagement increases.

TheInstagram algorithm works to ensure that content your audience sees is timely and fresh so that they don’t miss moments they care about.

Image viaTwitter

Your content strategy should, therefore, provide users with what they want to see more. Check out your analytics: what kind of content drives the most engagement?

Instagram will rank the content based on what matters to the user, including past behavior and content. They also consider recency and how close the user is to the person who shared. Has the audience interacted with your content before? Have they ever commented, liked, or tagged your account?

So how do you combat the Instagram algorithm?

According to Jenn, you have to be strategic with growing your Instagram account. What is your end goal? How do you want to achieve it? How can you create content that serves this end goal for you?

Some of the factors that could affect your engagement and ranking include:

• Getting flagged for spam or inappropriate content by users. It can happen when people tag your account in spammy content. It could also be because people think you have poor content, or that you spam them with inappropriate messages.

Once flagged, you stop appearing in search results, so most people don’t see your content unless they are following you. They will also not engage your content, which means you get a massive drop in engagement.

• Content that may have been working well previously may stop working anymore. It could be that your content is not what the AI is looking for or that you are no longer showing up in hashtag searches.

Your content should stand out. It should make your audience stop scrolling to comment, like, or share on their Stories.

• Your posting frequency could also affect your ranking and engagement. If you post daily, you compete with your content for placement. Casual followers and those who don’t log in often will not see your posts.

The algorithm will choose what to show them higher in the feed, and if your content falls lower in their feed, they may only see one of your five posts. However, if you’d posted once that week, all your followers may see your posts leading to increased engagement.

• You could also be neglecting your feed and directing all your efforts to stories. Doing that means your feed content ranks lower as people are not engaging your content.

Are You Ready to Grow Your Brand on Instagram?

It may take some time for you to grow your brand on Instagram, but you can do it. Remain consistent and actively engage your audience.

Offer them content they want to see and that provides value. Being consistent will help with your visibility and help you stay on top of mind with your audience.

What tactics do you use to grow your Instagram account? Let us know in the comment section below.

Tweets

Shane’s Pre-Launch Tweet

How do you grow your brand on Instagram and combat the Instagram algorithm? Jenn Herman of @jenns_trends and a globally recognized Instagram expert, tells us on my next podcast episode. Stay tuned to find out more.

Shane’s Launch Tweets

The Instagram algorithm gives many business owners sleepless nights. How do you combat it? Listen to Jenn Herman, a globally recognized Instagram expert explain how to grow your brand on Instagram:https://shanebarker.com/podcasts/jenn-herman/

Find out why your content may not be ranking well on Instagram and receiving high engagement on this podcast episode with Jenn Herman. She is a globally recognized Instagram expert and founder of @jenns_trends:https://shanebarker.com/podcasts/jenn-herman/

Jenn Herman talks Instagram marketing, the algorithm, and how to escape Instagram jail on this week’s Marketing Madness Podcast episode. She runs @jenns_trends and helps businesses successfully handle their online marketing strategy:https://shanebarker.com/podcasts/jenn-herman/

Jenn Herman Pre-Podcast Tweet

I had a fun time discussing Instagram marketing and how to combat the algorithm with @shane_barker on his latest podcast episode. It will be going live soon, so stay tuned.

Jenn Herman Post-Podcast Tweet

To grow your brand on Instagram, you need a strategy, goals, and an audience looking for your kind of content. I discuss all this and how I started @jenns_trends with @shane_barker. Discover it all here in this podcast episode:https://shanebarker.com/podcasts/jenn-herman/

Follow-Up Email

Email 1

Hi Jenn,

I had a great time interviewing you for Shane Barker’s Marketing Madness Podcast.

Thank you for taking time out from your schedule. I know our audience is going to learn a ton about Instagram marketing and how to combat the Instagram algorithm.

Your episode will go live on [DATE].

I think your audience would love to listen to the podcast episode as well. It would be great if you could help spread the word about it on social media.

Here is a template that you can use (if you want):

“I had a fun time discussing Instagram marketing and how to combat the algorithm with @shane_barker on his latest podcast episode. It will be going live soon, so stay tuned.”

Thank you once again for your time!

Shane Barker

Email 2:

Hi Jenn,

Drum roll, please!

Your podcast episode for Shane Barker’s Marketing Madness is officially live.

Here is the link to the episode:https://shanebarker.com/podcasts/jenn-herman/

I think the episode turned out fantastic. I’ve also learned some new things about Instagram marketing and how businesses can grow their accounts on the platform. It was a pleasure to have you on the podcast.

The episode is already receiving some love from our audience.

I think your followers are going to be thrilled to learn more about how you started Jenn’s Trends and how they can escape Instagram jail.

Here is a template you can use (if you want) to share the episode on social media:

“To grow your brand on Instagram, you need a strategy, goals, and an audience looking for your kind of content. I discuss all this and how I started @jenns_trends with @shane_barker. Discover it all here in this podcast episode:https://shanebarker.com/podcasts/jenn-herman/”

Thank you again for your time. I had a blast on the podcast.

Looking forward to more collaborations in the future.

Thanks!

Shane Barker

Medium Titles:

Jenn Herman’s Tactics on How to Grow a Powerful Brand on Instagram

How to Grow a Powerful Instagram Account with Expert Jenn Herman

Jenn Herman on How to Grow a Powerful Brand on Instagram

Newsletter

Subject

Jenn Herman explains how to grow your brand on Instagram

How to grow your brand on Instagram: tips from Jenn Herman

Global expert Jenn Herman explains how to grow your brand on Instagram

Preview

Hey, [name], are you ready to grow your Instagram account?

Banner

Grow Your Instagram Account with Jenn Herman

Content

Hey [name]

Instagram currently has over1 billion users, with 90% following a brand.

Your business should be on the platform!

But how do you grow your brand on Instagram?

How do you combat the Instagram algorithm to rank high and increase engagement?

How do you avoid getting into Instagram jail?

To answer all these questions and more, I had with me Jenn Herman on my recent podcast episode.

She is a global Instagram expert and forefront blogger on Instagram marketing.

Jenn provides insights into Instagram marketing and how to crack the Instagram algorithm.

Based on our conversation, I also put together this blog post on:

How to Grow a Powerful Brand on Instagram with Jenn Herman

Check it out!

Instagram Post Quote

Quote 1

“A lot of times, what happens when people think there’s been an algorithmic change, is more likely they’ve been flagged for spam or inappropriate content.”

… Jenn Herman

In most cases, users tag your account in spammy content, or people think your content is poorly formatted. Other times you spam followers with inappropriate messages or use the wrong hashtags. You could also be sending too many dm’s.

The huge disadvantage is that, you can’t tell when the flagging happens. You just suddenly see a drop in your likes, engagement, and stop showing in search results. Most people stop seeing your content unless they follow you.

Check out the latest podcast of Shane Barker’s Marketing Madness Podcast to learn more: https://shanebarker.com/podcasts/jenn-herman/

Quote 2

“Any business can be on Instagram; not every business should.”

Jenn Herman

Every business can succeed on Instagram, but you need to do it the right way. You need to have the right strategy and the right audience.

Choose Instagram as a marketing platform based on your bandwidth and audience. Can you afford to add another platform that will take ten more hours of your week? Is your audience on the platform, and are they looking for the kind of content you offer?

Check out the latest podcast of Shane Barker’s Marketing Madness Podcast to learn more: https://shanebarker.com/podcasts/jenn-herman/