The Dragons Method to Grow Your Instagram, from Dot Lung

Dot Lung, Mother of Social Media Dragons, shares her tried and tested method to grow your business on Instagram

“If you don’t show up on Instagram, you’re leaving money on the table,” explains Dot Lung (@dotlung), calling me from Tel Aviv, one of the many places her social media genius allows her to work from. “Social media has given me everything.” Over the last 8 years, she has given talks in over 30 countries and worked with a whole host of multinational brands.

While TikTok is exploding for Gen Z, “Instagram is still where your business happens.” It is the place to exhibit your brand visually on social media, most of all to millennials, but also to an ever-growing and varied number of people. A direct path to your client that lets you work out what they want and how, it’s about time we learnt how to use it.

Her Dragons method is a simple recipe to promote your business or product on social media:

Dialogue

Dialogue is what social media was made for so get speaking to your community. The first step for any strong social media strategy is working out how to create and strengthen a dialogue between you and your target audience.

Nowadays, it’s called conversation marketing but it’s really just having a chat and developing a relationship, like you would in the real world. “It’s not about you, it’s about other people. It’s not about your Instagram, it’s about other people, the community.” You can have the most beautiful “pixel perfect” feeds in the world, but you’ll only really make social media work for you when you reach out to people doing similar things, support them, comment on their work, chat to them on your posts, even collaborate with them.

A clear and productive dialogue allows you to get closer to people and them to get closer to you. This familiarity will build trust, help you learn their needs and wants, and give you ideas of how best to meet them.

Relatability

Successful social media content is relatable. From memes to emojis, gifs and viral videos, if someone can identify with your content, they are more likely to feel comfortable, connect with your product, follow you, or buy your product.

But how do you make relatable content? Storytelling. Work out the story behind your brand, what the message you want to transmit is and how to tell it. If you have your story straight, users are more likely to buy into it too.

Authenticity

Users aren’t stupid. They can tell if an ad agency is trying to be down with the kids or appeal to a demographic’s tastes without understanding them. “If #yourvibeisyourtribe, then a #fakeittillyoumakeit policy is just going to get you fakes.”

Be your true self. Honesty is currency on social media and authenticity will ensure your fans are the real deal, the type that’ll support you and stick around. If you’re comfortable in front of a camera or can’t make a million jokes, that’s fine. Work out what works for you and put the time in to reveal that character to the world.

Give

“Give, give, give, give, give, before you take.” Just as in real life, you are far more likely to receive if you’re prepared to give something of value in the first place. Value is anything that makes a person’s life better, “Can you save them time? Money? Inspire them? Make them laugh? Or teach them something new?”

This will draw people in and open them up. You won’t have to look far. People will pop up who can help you in return, whether as a client, a friend, an adviser, all of the above or something totally different.

Opinion

Everyone has one, don’t be afraid to share yours. Your opinions are what will best communicate who you are. “Contrary to what people might believe, you don’t get a million followers without a hundred thousand haters,” says Dot. “Brands that make a stand are rising so share what you think, good, bad or ugly. Haters just mean that you’re being seen and you have a presence.”

Niche

It might seem counterintuitive but “when you target everybody, you target nobody”. The trick is to think of your SVA, smallest viable audience, that one person or group you’d like to work with or sell to. That’s who you’re marketing to. “You really don’t need more than 250 people to like your stuff if you can actually offer them something amazing.”

Sales and Scales

You can only think about selling once you’ve got these first six elements covered, and you’ve established your identity, your value, your community, and your friends.

Social media is like a cocktail party. If you’re not introducing yourself, finding common interests, developing relationships and enjoying yourself, you’re not going to get much out of it. If you do all those things, however, what you are likely to receive–whether that’s money or something else-grows exponentially. It can be a grind, you’ve got to keep at it, but, eventually, it pays dividends.

“Just because you have a million followers doesn’t mean you’re making a million dollars,” says Dot. Learning to take advantage of the brand you’ve built and the inbounds it generates will ensure you get as much out of social media as you’ve put in.

Finally, scales, all dragons have them. Now, the question is: “Can your business scale?” Scalability is a big concern for many startups and investors but the beauty of the Dragon method is that it can grow with you. If you maintain your relationships with your followers and understand your community to better, there are no limits to how your brand can grow on social media.

One final tip from Dot

If you’re going to do it, stick to it. If you commit to your social media consistently and take it seriously, you will succeed and will see the results in the real world too.

“There are so many resources you can use: up to date live resources, likes, comments, shares, engagement, blah, blah, blah… But what’s really important here?” asks Dot.

As always, deep, productive conversations and open, vulnerable sharing is where the real magic happens. That is where social media’s humanity lies, it stops being about the number of likes you have, and becomes something more real altogether.

Learn the ins and outs of the Dragon method in Dot Lung’s course Instagram Strategy for Business Growth and start building your brand.

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