5 Strategies for Growing Your Instagram Audience as a Dancer
In many industries, professionals who want to promote themselves and sell their services to broader audiences are turning to social media platforms like Instagram. While it is no substitute for having a professional website, having a tailored social media account with thoughtful posts can boost your presence online and ultimately help build your career - especially as a dancer. If you’re interested in learning how to grow your audience on Instagram as a dancer, read on for 5 strategies you should consider using!
Related: A Quick Guide to Revamping your Dance Social Media Profile
Use Hashtags
A hashtag is a way to categorize your posts by explaining a bit of what each one entails. For example, you may post a photo of yourself rehearsing for a performance in a well-known location. Each of those details can be used as a hashtag (#rehearsals #swanlake #newyorkcity). Instagram will show you the popularity of each one as you type it in by listing the number of posts there are for each one. Choose hashtags that best fit your post, your personality, and your brand as a dancer.
Using hashtags isn’t just a way to spice up your photo’s caption. They also help your posts be seen by new users who follow those hashtags but don’t follow you. You can also create your own unique hashtag (or more than one!) and use it for relevant pictures on your profile. If you list the hashtag in your bio, followers can click on there to easily view all the posts attached to that hashtag.
Participate in Popular Trends
Every so often, a new trend becomes popular on Instagram. Whether it be a song, a dance routine, or a specific theme or concept, these trends usually fill our timelines for weeks and weeks before a new one is spawned. As a dancer, paying attention to and participating in some of those trends is a good way to work toward building your audience online. If something is a trend, that means it’s popular, which means somehow, it captures people’s attention.
By creating content aligned with popular trends, your followers and potential followers will stay happy and entertained by your posts. Make sure you still stay true to yourself by participating only in the trends that actually seem fun and relevant to your personality.
Use Thread Posts
Creating a thread of posts, or multiple posts in one, is another way to keep followers engaged. These posts can be made up of a collection of photos, slides of text, and more. Using threads, you can explore the concept of visual storytelling while showcasing your values, personality, experiences, and more. As your followers engage with this post by swiping through the entire thread, they can learn more about you or see you as a resource. Posting quality, informative content is a great way to build an authentic audience.
As a dancer, you can share a brief experience or challenge you overcame, ending with a takeaway for others. You could also use a thread post to create step-by-step guides for other dancers to follow!
Switch to a Business Profile
If you create a business account specifically for your dance career, you’ll set the tone for your professionalism on Instagram. Using a business account, people can easily email you or visit your website, if you have one, by simply clicking the available buttons in your bio. Another huge benefit of an Instagram business page is the ability to view your “insights,” where you can learn more about your followers and the posts they like most. You can see which of your posts got the most likes and views, which ones led to new followers, etc.
This information will help you determine which content to post for the best result. You can also see when your followers are most active on Instagram, so you can use that as a time to post or interact with others with a higher chance of response and reach.
Build Genuine Connections
Speaking of interacting with others, interacting with your followers and people you follow can help build your audience. The easiest way you can do this is by liking, commenting on, and sharing content from other dancers or people in the dance industry. Interact with their stories and let them know if something they posted inspired you, made you laugh, or taught you something new.
On your own page, you can interact with your followers by sparking a conversation in your comments. As people comment, respond to them with questions or comments to keep the conversation going! In your Instagram stories, you can also ask a question or host a voting poll. All of these things keep your followers interested in you and your content.
There are many ways to market yourself as a dancer. Social media is just one of them, but with it growing in popularity and importance, we want you to know the many ways you can use it to your advantage as a dancer! What strategies have helped you grow an audience on Instagram? Let us know in the comments below!