Today I’m going to show you 4.5 things you can do this week, as a mortgage adviser, to increase the number of people that see YOUR business on Instagram.

Instagram has 35 million users in the UK, 29% of these users are 25 – 34 year olds, so if you fancy missing out on a potential audience of 10 million clients, then STOP READING NOW!

Instagram is a powerful tool, if you know how to use it, but with ‘Hashtags’ this and ‘Instagram Lives’ that- most people get paralysis by analysis and never start.

Instagram isn’t all about posting images!

1. Put down your camera! ❌

The first one may surprise you, it’s not about posting at all!

Instead of reaching for the camera, follow these steps to help your local audience discover your business:

1. Pick 10 social media accounts in your town (local cafes, pubs, estate agents, hairdressers etc)
2. Find a post from the last week
3. Write a question or a positive comment that relates to the post – be genuine
4. Respond to the answer from the business to engage in conversation

Why Does This Work?

• The audience of the business will see your company name in the comments 👀
• The business owner will be notified that you’ve commented, bringing your business to their attention – remember business owners need mortgages too!
• Engaging with local businesses can lead to introducers further down the line or helping promote each other’s content

2. Liven it up with Instagram Lives 💃

These are hands down the best way to reach an untapped audience, just follow these steps:

1. Agree on a time and a date with another business in your sector to hold a live, where you’ll both be on video (an estate agent, solicitor, surveyor?)
2. Have 10 FAQs about mortgages/property that you and your co-host can answer on the live video stream
3. Invite your audience to ask questions and answer them then and there
4. Ask everyone watching to follow you both

Why Does This Work?

• Your business will be shown to your cohost’s audience, increasing your reach and hopefully followers
• Both of your audiences will be notified that you’re going ‘Live’ – a great way to get your business name on their screen!
• BONUS: This video can then be kept and shared as a Reel on your channel, creating another piece of content! 🎁

3. 10x your engagement with Instagram Stories 📈

If you’re just uploading photos of your dog or your desk to your stories, you’re doing it all wrong!

Use these tools in stories to make your 💥 ENGAGEMENT EXPLODE 💥

1. Use Instagram Polls to ask questions – Upload that photo of the dog, but then add a Poll saying “Cute / Not Cute” Who could resist that?
2. Q&As – The “Questions” box is a great way to invite questions from your audience that you can answer privately
3. Links are the BEST way to help direct your audience back to your website. How about providing them with a link to your handy FTB’s guide?

Why Does This Work?

• The more your audience interacts with your stories, the more likely they’ll see your next story or even the next photo you upload
• Engaging with your stories makes you more familiar, making your audience more comfortable to reach out to you in the future
• More conversation means a better chance of converting them into an appointment

4. Hashtags are dying a death! ☠️

The CEO of Instagram said himself:

“They do help us to understand what a post is about, which means it might be more likely to show up in a place like a hashtag page, for instance, but in general, no, I wouldn’t try to think of hashtags as a way to get more distribution”

So as they’re not the be-all and end-all, what should you do instead:

Use keywords in the written part of your post, like you would do on your website to optimise it from a search engine point of view.

And make sure your content sounds like a human and not a badly composed paragraph full of the words “NHS mortgages!”

You’re probably wondering what the last .5 point is? (remember I said we’d deliver 4.5 things you can do this week)

The last .5 point is: actually set up an account! If you haven’t done it yet go and do it RIGHT NOW now!