@Askamillionaire’s Unintentional Origin

A question I’ve been hearing a lot from people lately is, “how do I turn my brand into a business on Instagram?”

It’s a really great question, and unfortunately there isn’t one straightforward answer. When I think about my own story and how I launched @Askamillionaire it’s incredible how much content had an effect on the account’s growth.

As I began diving into the world of Instagram, I really didn’t intend for @Askamillionaire to become a business or even it’s own brand.

At first it started with me just getting curious about the platform and checking out the different types of content I was seeing people post. What I started finding was that there was a huge demand for motivational content geared towards entrepreneurs.

And I said to myself, “heck, I’m an actual millionaire! I’ve done it, I’ve been incredibly successful in business. I can offer that same motivation, but I can also back it up with real world experience and advice.”

I’m telling you all this not to brag, but because a big reason why my account has been so successful is that I found a real need in the community I could meet.

Not only that, but I was offering more than the other accounts! I was spending sometimes up to 18 hours a day responding to comments and DMs!

The 3 Rules Of Great Instagram Content

I knew it was unsustainable to answer every single message all the time. (Although I still answer most of them!)

I had to produce my content in a more systemized way if I wanted to help the greatest number of people.

What I found after consulting with some of the experts behind the biggest Instagram accounts was that in order to be most effective content needs to be:

  • Relatable – The content has to be something that is going to hit home for your audience. In the beginning before I tightened up the branding on the account I was posting a lot of photos that were “off brand.” Pictures from around my home, the cars I was driving, basically showing off the lifestyle I’ve achieved as a millionaire. What ended up happening was that these photos upset a portion of my audience. They thought I was showing off my wealth and success too much when they had been coming to my account for their own motivation. What I ended up doing was making another separate personal account for people who did want to see what the lifestyle of being a millionaire was all about. By keeping @Askamillionaire purely to advice and inspiration and my personal stuff separate I’m able to serve both sections of my audience at the same time.
  • Consistent – I mentioned this a bit above, but you have to keep the branding on your account consistent otherwise it confuses your message. I’ll make up an example here, if I’m following an account that’s all about sports and then all of a sudden they start posting about movies I’m going to say, “oh gee there goes my great sports account. I’m not really interested in movies.” I might not unfollow them, but they will definitely lose status in my mind as a sports authority. This is another reason why it makes sense to have a defined brand and business purpose in mind when you first create your account.
  • Frequent – The more often you post, the more opportunity you’re providing for your audience to find you and connect back. I’m used to old school business where you just use the phone and make deals happen. This is a different world now where you’re putting out content and then waiting for the customers to come find you. You have to trust that if your content is great and you’re meeting a real need for your “tribe” they will begin to show up and want to connect.

Instagram is a 24-hour platform and it takes a lot of attention and energy if you want to continually grow your following but it’s absolutely worth it.

 

Action Steps

  1. Look at your last 5 posts on Instagram.
  2. Write down how you could improve the content and branding to be more:
    – Relatable
    – Consistent
    – Frequent
  3. Create your next post that follows your new guidelines.

 

Result You Will Achieve

A set of brand guidelines for great Instagram content.

Mentor: Shawn Thomas

Shawn Thomas has vast experience in starting and scaling a business. He started a company with $500 and 11 years later the company had 100 employees and annual sales of $20,000,000.

 
This article is based on an EHQ interview with the mentor.