How to make money on Instagram by writing? If you also think that Instagram is a visual platform, not making it the best platform for writers to get clients, you couldn’t be more wrong. Many content writers have been leveraging Instagram and getting clients from it. It’s a great platform to explore new opportunities and build a personal brand. You can use Instagram too to get clients. Today, we are going to discuss:
- Why should you explore Instagram as a freelance content writer?
- How to write an Instagram bio for writers and set yourself up for success?
- How to come up with Instagram post ideas for writers?
- How to distribute content consistently and sustainably?
- How to grow your account quickly?
- How to get clients for content writing through Instagram?
Are you excited to learn all the tips and tricks on getting clients through Instagram? Let’s dive in without further ado.
Why should you explore Instagram as a freelance content writer?
Before we jump into the nitty-gritty of understanding how to optimize your profile and write content for Instagram, it’s crucial to understand why you should explore it as a freelance content writer.
You build an online presence.
Most millennials and GenZ use Instagram. Brands want to leverage their attention and are active on social media. Since they are active on social media, they are looking to hire talented individuals who can help them market their brand. Building an online presence on Instagram means publicly showcasing your skills and work. Moreover, the more you build an online presence, the more relevant people will come to you to ask for your services.
Moreover, when you are the person crafting the presence, you control what goes and what doesn’t. Therefore, your public perception is in your hands. Therefore you can build a more trustworthy and likable presence.
Get An Exposure To New Opportunities
Many brands have started running paid ads for content writers on Instagram. Once you optimize your profile and start posting content about writing, you will start to see those ads. When you see such ads, you see which brands are looking for writers. And since they are paid, they are urgently looking for one. You can pitch your services to the brand until they find a full-time writer. Some brands look for freelance content writers, too, so you can directly apply. You would have an edge since you have a profile that shows your achievement, knowledge, skill, and expertise.
Less Noise Than Other Social Media Platforms
Other social media platforms like Twitter and sometimes Instagram can be too cluttered and noisy. Since there is always some controversy or the other making rounds on Twitter, it can get pretty noisy and unproductive. The same can happen on LinkedIn, too, although the frequency is way less than on Twitter. On the other hand, Instagram is calmer comparatively. Moreover, freelancing sites are crowded, too, where freelance content writers compete by lowering their service rates. Therefore, those platforms result in toxic competitiveness.
More Features On Instagram
When it comes to creating content or building a profile, Instagram offers some of the most diverse features. As a content writer, you can utilise it to increase engagement, offer a variety of content, and have fun with the platform.
Easy To Use Platform
The chances are that you are a GenZ or millennial who has been using the platform for a fair amount of time. So you must be familiar with how it works and how to use it. But even if somebody told us to use it from scratch, you would agree that the interface is extremely easy to use. The rise in its popularity has been due to its ease. Therefore, when you start your journey of building your Instagram, you don’t have to worry about not understanding the platform and its intricacies.
You Can Use Instagram To Capture Potential Corporate Clients
As discussed, brands are increasingly concerned about their presence on social media. Even corporate brands are slowly becoming aware of this platform’s potential. Therefore, you can approach these brands and work with them once you have a strong presence. However, it will take time, but working with big brands will help you gain credibility and trust. Moreover, their pay is huge and that never hurts. So aim for the moon. Who knows if you do end up landing on the moon.
Switch To A Business Account
Many people decide to use their existing personal accounts as their professional profiles. You may, given you archive your previous posts if they are personal. Others create a new account to separate both aspects of your life. If you choose the first option, you need to switch to a business account to access all the business tools like insights and analytics. If you choose the second option, you need to open a business account to have all the benefits.
The Perfect Instagram Bio For Writers
Optimising your profile is key to setting yourself for success. One of the key things about optimising your profile is writing an Instagram bio. And Instagram bio for writers is different compared to any other artist. The bio should be shorter than the elevator pitch since you have a character limit for your bio. Therefore, you need to mention your service and how it helps your clients.
Okay, hold on? How do you write that?
There is a very simple way of writing the perfect Instagram bio for writers. It is best explained with an example. If you are a content writer who writes blogs that increase web traffic, your Instagram bio will be: I am a content writer that helps businesses increase their web traffic through blogs and articles.
Suppose you are a social media content writer that helps brands create consistent content. In that case, your Instagram bio will be: I am a social media writer who helps brands dominate social media consistently with powerful content.
You need to mention who you are, who you help, and how you help them. It concisely communicates your services.
You can also add the number of clients you had in the past or anything that helps establish trust.
The next aspect of optimising your profile is to have a clear username with the keyword “writer” in it. You may even add “content writer” in your name, which would help your clients find you faster when they search for writers. You can add a content writer in your name too. It just helps Instagram figure out who you are and which audience will like your content. Adding keywords in your profile is the best way to appear at the top and lets your clients discover you easily.
The next part of optimising your profile is to add your portfolio to your bio. If you don’t have a portfolio yet, you are missing out. Check out our blog Complete Guide To Make A Content Writer Portfolio That Will Blow Your Client’s Minds. It has everything you need to know about making a portfolio. After you make your portfolio, add it to your bio. You need to paste the link in the website option else it won’t be clickable.
The Basics Of Creating Instagram Posts As A Writer
How to Come Up Instagram Post Ideas For Writers
Content writers worldwide struggle with ideation, whether for tier work or their social media content. However, I will share an easy hack of coming up with ideas with you. Always create broad content pillars and then make several ideas underneath them. Your content pillars can look like this:
- Your recent learnings
- Client experience
- Achievements
- Testimonials
- How you are improving your skills as a writer
- Behind the scenes
- Tools you use as a content writer
- Myths about content writing
- Milestones
- Stories and anecdotes
- Tidbits of your personal life
- Thought of the day
- Daily to-do lists
These are just some context pillars that will tell you how to come up with Instagram post ideas. You can make it a series with different parts, so your profile has a general cohesiveness. Addition and subtraction to the list will help you find the right balance between attracting new people and retaining your followers.
You can even check out other content writers and the kind of content they are producing. You can jump on trends and mould your content accordingly. Once you know your content pillars, you will know what content can suit a current trend on Instagram.
Above all, when you are coming up with a post idea, always remember to be authentic. Yes, you can take inspiration from other creators on the platform and jump on trends to gain reach. However, if you try to copy someone’s style or content type, it would not give you the results since you cannot sustain that long term. The secret to staying on Instagram is to build your presence is to stay authentic so you can do this for longer.
Design Your Posts Using Canva
Once you have your content pillars and ideas, it’s time to write and design your posts. Static posts are posts where you post one picture. However, carousel posts are posts that have multiple images in one post. A carousel performs better than a single one since you can fit more information. Listicles work great on Instagram, too, so use carousels extensively.
Your post content should be short since people tend to read short-form content. Always start with a hook or something attention-grabbing to stop the user from scrolling and reading your post. Moreover, when writing a post, define who the post is for and choose the language or hook accordingly. When writing posts to attract your clients, start with a common problem they face. It will make them stop, and you can continue sharing valuable information on how they can solve them. You can end with a CTA, like contacting you to help them.
You may also write content to attract other content writers who have surplus work. In that case, you can share some productivity hacks that can help them work faster and better. In the end, you can ask them to contact you if they need an exceptional content writer.
If your post is about your work process, it shows how you work, which adds to your credibility and builds trust. Therefore, not every post will be about getting clients. Some stay there to show you as an authentic human being.
Next, you need to use Canva to design your posts. Canva has ready-made templates for you, so you can pick one and copy-paste your content, and it is good to go. However, there are few options for carousel posts, so you may have to make your own. However, Canva is very easy to use, and it won’t take you long to master it.
You can keep a consistent colour scheme or design. The choice is completely yours. However, I suggest that you stay away from grid posts where a single post is divided into grids to give an aesthetic feel to your Instagram page. Avoid that because it can hamper your engagement, and as a new account, you don’t want that.
Use Hashtags
They aren’t as effective as they used to be, but they still get the job done for small accounts. Hashtags can put your content in front of the right eyeballs, and engagement can soon snowball. Therefore you need to use hashtags in the right way.
The first way is to look at how many posts are there with the hashtag you want to use. If it’s between 100K-500K, use that hashtag extensively. If the hashtag has millions of posts, see it relevant to your content and use it cautiously. If the hashtag has less than 100K posts, use it only if it is relevant. The posts between 100K-500K posts are the sweet spot because there’s not much competition, and at the same time, people are following the hashtag. That’s the reason so many people are targeting it.
Hashtags with millions of posts have too much competition, and ones below 100K have few followers. Therefore, you should only use these hashtags if they are wildly relevant to the content.
Stick To 80/20 Rule
Do you know what happens once you post too many posts about buying your service? They leave because nobody likes posts of a person that goes overboard every time they see their posts. Therefore, follow an 80/20 rule. Promote your service 20% time and provide value 80% of the time. Therefore, you need to majorly focus on helping your prospective client or stir emotion in them. You can tweak this formula as per your experience to retain followers.
Schedule your content
You need to be consistent with your content posting, which is only possible when you schedule your posts. It will help you stay away from the platform to work and let you be consistent. You can use a tool like Buffer to help you out. It is free when you only connect three profiles to it. Scheduling also means that you need to prepare before you post them. Thus, batching your content is essential. You can do it once a week or once a month.
Use Every Surface Of Instagram
As discussed, Instagram has many surfaces like Stories, IGTVs, Reels, Posts, and Lives. So to increase your rate of growth, you should use all the surfaces of Instagram. You can also repurpose your old content by changing its format. What is the ideal ratio? It depends from person to person, but a sustainable way of doing it would be:
- Two reels per week
- Two posts per week
- 2-5 stories every day
- One Live per week
- One IGTV per week
Even this may not be sustainable, and that’s completely fine. Figure out what works for you without exhausting you.
How To Grow On Instagram Organically?
Understand Your Audience
You can build the best profile, create amazing content, use the right hashtags, and utilise all surfaces, but you need to understand your audience to grow organically on Instagram. You can use the poll or questions feature to directly ask them what they link about you and what they don’t. You can also gamify the experience for them and ask for it in a fun and quirky way. You can ask what they want to see from you next, so you post ideas that your audience will love.
Moreover, never buy followers for your account. Many people will DM you and try to sell your fake followers. These people have bot followers, and once you buy followers, your follower count will rise drastically. It only takes a couple of minutes, and you might think it’s a wonderful way of growing. However, it is a short-term solution with terrible consequences for your profile. The engagement on your profile will drop, and your account will stop growing. To grow your account, you need to remove bot followers from your profile and pump content daily.
Find your niche & engage.
Your niche is content writing. However, you can find a sub-niche too. You might be a content writer for SaaS companies. Thus, you can also explore that niche and engage with the audience there.
But wait, what do I mean by engaging?
In simple terms, engaging with people on social media means finding other creators and liking, sharing, and commenting on their posts. The other creators can be your audience members who produce the same content as you or a different person with a similar audience. Therefore, engaging with the content will show Instagram that you belong in this category.
Engagement also means replying to your comments, DMs, and questions. As soon as you post, be active for another hour on the platform and reply to the comments. Even if you have scheduled the post, get on the platform and engage with the audience. You can even ask them a question to get more engagement further. The more engagement your post has, the more the algorithm will push your content. The more reach your content has, the more people will know you and follow you.
Another way of engaging is through direct messages. When somebody asks you something over DMs or sends a compliment, reply to them. These users are the ones who like your content the most or are interested in availing of your services. Therefore, keeping in touch with them will help you generate leads and retain followers.
When you post a story with the question sticker, try to reply to them since it sends a notification to the user. It will increase your story views and help you stay in touch with your audience.
Staying in touch with your audience is crucial because your audience follows multiple accounts. The ones they engage with the most appear on their feed first. Therefore, the more you engage and acknowledge them, the more you appear on their feed.
How to get clients for content writing on Instagram?
Inbound Clients
Once you are using Instagram the way I showed you above, you will get an influx of inbound leads. People would reach out to you to work with you, which is one way of getting clients. Yes, people are constantly looking for great writers. Once you post content that shows you have content writing skills, your clients will come to you.
Many freelance content writers think you can only get clients once you have thousands of followers. That is a myth! You can start getting clients even when you have only a few hundred followers. Therefore, you should not worry about the number of followers but the quality. They may have some follow-up questions, so be prepared to answer them.
Cold Email
But it is possible that the brand doesn’t reply to your direct message. You can use the next best tool available to you: cold email. Cold email is a great way to reach out to clients and ask if they are looking for a freelance content writer. Many Instagram profiles have email IDs. You can use email-finding tools to look for their email if they don’t. If you don’t know how to find emails and send cold emails, check our blog: 10-Step Guide Of Cold Emailing.
Conclusion
We hope the blog helped you understand how to get clients for content writing and how to make money on Instagram by writing. As a freelance content writer, it is tough to grow on Instagram, but with our tips on writing Instagram bio for writers, Instagram post ideas for writers, how to consistently post, how to engage, etc. we made it easier for you.
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