How to Get Your First 1K Instagram Followers- Chiropractic Edition

Instagram- a great place for pictures of food and selfies or a great place for business?

As a chiropractor, it's a GREAT place for business and building an audience of people who know, trust, and like you.

Today we're going to break down five things you can do starting today to get your first 1,000 followers on Instagram. We all know to be an influencer you need to be on Instagram. There are over a billion active users! So regardless of what demographic your targeting of your specific healthcare niche, Instagram is a place where you should be to build, connect, and ultimately grow your brand.

And there are five things that you can start implementing right now to get on your journey to that first 1,000 followers.

1. Consistency Wins

The first step is to post consistently. Consistency wins the game whether you are posting once a day, or even if you only have the time twice per week. Staying consistent with your post is a great way to start expanding your brand and expanding your message on Instagram.

2. Tagging People and Places

Your second step is to tag people and places. If you stop by a healthy restaurant; tag that restaurant! If you're hanging out with a colleague, be sure to tag that person! Tagging others can accomplish a couple of different things. First, if you tag a specific business or place it "geo-targets" your location which means people searching for that business or place will be able to see your post — more opportunities for exposure= more followers. So tagging the places you visit is crucial.

It not only helps people find you through research, but it is much more likely that those businesses are going to share your post/content across their platform which will further amplify your message and get more new eyes on your channel, your content, and your profile. So be sure to tag people and tag places.

3. Collaborations

Collaborations with influencers can really explode your follower count. Search out the popular people in your community and reach out for a collaboration. Perhaps it's a post that both you appear in. Maybe it's a story, or it could be just sharing content back and forth. And remember micro-influencers matter. You probably won't be collaborating with Jay-Z or Beyonce anytime soon- so but that doesn't mean it isn't worth it. Micro influencers in your community 5,000-20,000 followers will be happy to do collaborations with you because they are also trying to grow their audience and profile. So find collaborators do collaborative stories and host to help expand your message.

4. Engage With Others Content

Number four engage with other people's content. The more engaged you are on the platform, the more likely it is that people are going to notice you, recognize you, and follow your profile. So engage with other people's content. One way to do this is to find five hashtags that are relevant to your industry and add a comment onto the top 10 posts with that hashtag each day. Once you do that for 30 days, I can guarantee you boost your follower count and be "known" in that circle of influence.

You will become somebody that everybody recognizes by name, and in turn, you will have people coming back to your profile following you and engaging with your content. So take five to 10 minutes at the beginning or end of each day, search up you hashtags that are relevant to your business, your industry, your circle of influence comment and engage on that content.

5. Hashtags

Number 5 is hashtags. Hashtags are not dead; they are a great way to search out relevant content that you can contribute on and also for other people to find the content that you are putting out. So one best practice that I've seen lately is to create the first comment on your post and load it will up to 30 individual hashtags. You don't need to do 30 every single time, but if you choose appropriate hashtags, it helps amplify your message people will see your content and again more people will follow you.

Those five steps will help you get as quickly as possible to 1000 Instagram followers. It's how I've done it. It's how thousands of other people have done it. When you get started on Instagram, it can seem daunting to get the first 50 or first 100 but if you follow these five steps- post consistently, tag people and places, do collaborations with other influencers, engage with other people's content, and use hashtags; you will be well on your way, and you will be smashing a thousand Instagram followers before you know it.

Instagram for Chiropractors: A Quick Tip to Get Started

How's it going? I wanted to give you a quick two-minute tip on how you can use Instagram to start new conversations with people in your community other businesses as well. 

Are you using Instagram yet? If not, you should be. Instagram has hundreds of millions of users, and many fall into the exact demographic that utilizes chiropractic care. It is great because you can search people close by (to your location) and start conversations with them. So here's a quick way to do that. 

First, open up Instagram, and you will see a magnifying glass at the bottom. Click on that. It brings up a screen that says "search." You click search. Guess what it now says at the top? It says "near a current location." Click that near a current location tab, and it is going to bring up a variety of locations and businesses. Hopefully, your practice is right there or perhaps its the place you are grabbing lunch. Well, here comes the magic.

Click on the location where you are at, and lo and behold what happens? Instagram gives you a map of top posts and most recent posts directly arranged as a perfectly curated feed. 

It's called geotargeting when you find people based on their location. And it's an absolute gold mine of people in your community. If you're searching the right places (the gym, a healthy local restaurant) and finding a feed of people who are posting pictures at that exact location. Now it's time to simply comment and engage with them. You will notice that your followers start to go up as you engage- which gives you a greater ability to tell your chiropractic story. Showcasing the healthy lifestyle that you advocate for your community and inspiring people to take action with their health and wellness. 

So there it is- a quick, practical tip to use Instagram to get more eyes on your practice so you can tell your story with more impact. 

10X Your Next Seminar Using This Instagram Hack

At Rockstock in Huntington Beach, one of the big things that I noticed was that it seemed like everyone knew everyone. But, there are many events and seminars that feel a bit lonely. It can make you feel like your in a silo. But, I want to tell you that you can use Instagram to connect with other docs that are close by to you and make connections, so you're not feeling alone or siloed at the events and seminars you attend.

And the easiest way to do it is when you take out your phone, go to Instagram. Then search by "places." And when you search by locations you can tag precisely where you're hanging out. So recently I was at the Hyatt Regency in Huntington. I can tag that location and Instagram will give me a list of everybody that's posted (in chronological order) and tagged the Hyatt Regency. So I was able to find a bunch of other docs that were posting pictures from Rockstock. And then I can comment on the photos, shoot them a direct message, follow them, etc. If you go to a unique event and you don't know anybody there whatsoever you can just hop on Instagram. 

Especially if it's an event that has a couple of hundred chiropractors- you'll notice that quite a few start to post pictures. People are engaged. People are pulling out their phones and taking photos of slides, and many of them are then putting those on Facebook or Instagram. 

So I just want to give that quick tip for you. If you're at a seminar or a conference, and it feels like you don't know anybody,  Instagram can make it a lot easier to connect with like-minded docs and make a few friends in the process.