Instagram Followers to Loyal Customers and Income

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Building a successful brand on Instagram isn't just about the numbers—it's about cultivating a community that genuinely connects with your content. Imagine turning a modest follower base into a six-figure income. That's precisely what I did by focusing intently on my target audience. In this episode, I share my personal journey and the critical steps to nurturing a quality following that is eager to engage and invest in your offerings. Learn how you too can convert your followers into loyal customers, elevating your income and impact.

Follow Dr. Sheena Howards' socials:
@drsheenahoward | Power Your Research

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
People were there that wanted to buy my stuff and
work with me.
They were my target audienceand because of that because I
was laser focused in speaking towriters and people who wanted
books written that smallfollower count that was quality
got me to six figures Now, ofcourse, not just Instagram on

(00:22):
its own, but that small followercount was a big part of me
getting to six figures in mybrand.
I don't want my work to bestuck behind an academic paywall

(00:46):
.
I want to leave a legacy, Iwant to reach my potential and I
want to change lives.
This podcast, power yourResearch, is my attempt to help
the smartest people in the worlddo that very thing.
My hope is that you use thelessons I share to make more
money than what your higher edjob can ever pay you.
I've done it, my clients havedone it, and so can you.

(01:08):
My hope is that you'll applywhat you learn here and one day
join the Power your Researchprogram where you can work with
me one-on-one Follower countdoes matter, but there's two
parts to what I am going to talkabout Quality of your followers

(01:31):
and quantity of your followers.
Now, I've invested a lot intotrying to understand
particularly how to grow myfollowers on Instagram
particularly.
But one of the things thatseemed to be consistent in the
advice that I got for all of theprograms I paid for, all of the
coaches that I've paid for, theone thing that I would hear

(01:51):
rather consistently is that thenumber of your followers does
not matter.
But I do not agree with thatand I had never agreed with that
even when I was coming up.
But now that I'm on the otherside of having 10 times more
followers than I had a couple ofmonths ago, I'm here to tell
you that follower count doesmatter, but there's some nuance

(02:12):
to this.
There's some nuance to this.
So when I had 5,000 followerson Instagram and I guess like
7,000 on LinkedIn and Twitterbut let's just stick with
Instagram for a second, becausethat's the platform that I work
the hardest at when I had 5,000or below followers on Instagram,
I had what we call qualityfollowers.

(02:34):
People were there that wantedto buy my stuff and work with me
.
They were my target audienceand because of that because I
was laser focused in speaking towriters and people who wanted
books written that smallfollower count that was quality
got me to six figures.

(02:54):
Now, of course, not justInstagram on its own, but that
small follower count was a bigpart of me getting to six
figures in my brand.
So quality of your followersdoes matter.
So if I were teaching someonehow to grow their Instagram, I
would tell them in part one ofthis process be laser focused on

(03:17):
the content you're creating fora target audience that cares
about the thing you care aboutand wants to exchange money with
you to pay you for yourservices or the thing that
you're selling.
But the second step to what Iwould teach is that, after you
have successfully proven thatyou can take your followers and
turn them into customers andmake six figures doing that, now
I need you to focus on thesecond part, which is your

(03:40):
follower count, which is thequantity of followers, because
the quantity of followers, moreso than anything else, is a
perception thing.
Hey, everyone, real quick.
I don't run any ads on thispodcast, so I have to rely on
word of mouth.
If this podcast has helped youin any way, please share it with
a friend and follow me, drSheena Howard, on LinkedIn,

(04:03):
where I give more free contenton building your brand as an
academic.
If you tell me you came to myLinkedIn from the podcast.
I'll make sure I accept yourrequest.
Nobody's going to give youthousands of dollars if you only
got 4,000 followers and a fewpeople are engaging.
They're just not going to do itmost of the time.

(04:25):
Now, if somebody comes to yourpage and you now have 50,000
followers and some engagement,people will pay you thousands of
dollars for you to promotetheir thing, wear their shirt,
whatever.
Give you a brand deal.
And so for the second part of anInstagram strategy or a social
media strategy, if you want toincrease your income and attract

(04:46):
more opportunities, followercount absolutely does matter,
because it's common sense.
The more people that can seeyour stuff, the more people you
reach, the more opportunity youhave to sell stuff to people.
Now, when your follower countis high, it's not going to be
all people in your target market.
So you got to move, adjust yourstrategy a little bit, because

(05:09):
your strategy when you have5,000 followers ain't going to
be the same strategy when yougot 50,000.
So that is the nuance that Ihave learned on this side of
things.
I think that this is importantbecause I do think if I had a
ton of followers first anddidn't understand how to
activate them to make money, Iwould be broke.
I would have a broke brand,okay, and so I do think the

(05:32):
sequence of things matters.
Focus on quality, focus onbeing able to sell and love up
on the smaller followers thatyou have.
Be grateful for the smallnumber, so that you know what to
do when you 10X your following.
Everything is a process,everything takes time, and you
have a master's degree or PhD.
I would love to talk to you andhear your story, so jump on a

(05:53):
call with me.
I hope somebody out there foundthis useful.
You.