Instagram is an important platform for every business today.

Today we have the pleasure to have Dot Lung to share the screen with me.

Dot Lung is one of the most influential people I know and is one of the best social media experts in the world. In this conversation, she shares with us a lot of tips, tricks, and tactics about growing Instagram and her “DRAGON” method for growing Instagram following.

Time-stamped keynotes-

[00.11]- Gerard introduces Dot Lung.

[00.49]- Dot got started in Instagram 7 years ago and now has become expert at it

[01.20]- Dot talks about her “DRAGON” method of community building.

[02.40]- Dot grew an Instagram account from 0-40,000 in just nine months

[03.00]- “D” in Dragon stands for “Dialogue.” Have a dialogue/conversation with like-minded people and your target audience. These days it‘is more about having conversations with people.

[03.53]- Using direct messaging, private messaging and having a conversation on the post.
If you have a conversation in the post, then it puts you up in the algorithm.

[04.30]- “R” in “DRAGON” stands for “Relatability,” which means how relatable is your content is?

[04.49]- How relatable is your content with the audience it reaches? Does it invoke any emotions in them? The more relatable you are, the more likable you are.

[05.25]- A in “Dragon” stands for authenticity

[05.53]- If you have fake followers, you will attract more counterfeit followers. If you are authentic, more authentic people will follow you.” Your vibe attracts your tribe.”

[06.40]- It is not about vanity metrics anymore. It doesn’t matter now how many fake followers you have.

[06.57]- Real numbers that matter is the numbers of conversations you are generating, number of people you are engaging with.

[08.21]- There is a limit to the number of people you could be connecting within a day, kind of content that you are generating

[08.54]- If someone who is interested in the services that you provide, this is really a high conversion and Instagram keeps a count on that too

[09.50]- Fake it until you make it does not work on Instagram anymore.

[11.14]- Sometimes how many real followers you have is the only thing that matters.

[11.24]- People use bots to get more fake likes and comments to get on the discovery page, and this is wrong because Instagram is penalizing it

[12.26]- Do not try to play with Instagram’s algorithm using Bots and engagement groups, because you might be banned altogether.

[13.14]- “G” in “Dragon” stands for giving. It is more about “paid media” v/s “earned media.” When you earn more engagement by giving “value,” you will be awesome on Instagram.

[14.09]- Try to give all the valuable stuff and content that helps you create a relationship with the community.

[14.33]- You have to think what you are going to give the audience(tips/tricks/masterclass). When you give your best, you get a lot of engagement in return.

[15.07]- Dot talks about Gary Vaynerchuk ’s book “jab, jab, jab……”. It is important to give away regularly and driving people to take action.

[15.56]- O in “Dragon” stands for Opinion.” It is important to stand for something so that you can generate some conversation. So, make your opinion known.

[16.28]- N in “Dragon” stands for “niches.” Be very specific in your niche. You should know everything about your target market and target audience. Niche down from there if possible.

[17.51]- Think and research about what is your target audience is already engaging with and talking about. Think about what kind of community you can create for them.

[18.11]- “If you target everybody, you get nobody.” So, start niching down right today.

[18.30]- You only need a limited number of people to engage with your content, because they are the biggest potential customers. They are called Minimum Viable Audience.

[19.20]- Social media is all about connections and having meaningful relationships.

[19.30]- Start getting like-minded people into groups, into different pods, encouraging them to use specific hashtags, etc, are some of the methods to get started within the Instagram community building.

[21.15]- Gerard used hashtags in his stories and had amazing results depending upon the time and place.

[22.00]- If you want to reach the audience out of your current following, use Instagram live- this is going to be the fastest way to grow.

• Use location and a lot of hashtags in your Instagram stories. Hashtags that you use should be relatable to your niche.

[23.31]- Gerard shares his own experience with hashtags in stories. It highly depends in the area you are in. So use hashtags based on that.

[24.58]- You can get “swipe up” feature in Instagram stories only if you have 10k followers

[25,27]- Keep your account personal until you have built a desired organic audience.

[26.05]- If you want to get insights about the content you are posting, you have to convert your personal account to business account.

[26.50]- Gerard shares his personal experience with the Instagram and highlights the importance of being patient with your Instagram growth.

[27.10]- Dot recommends not to use any bots for growing Instagram.

[28.18]– Dot has been testing some bots in different countries.

[28.50]- Do not rely on automation for Instagram.

[30.14]- Before you jump down on ads, make sure that you have an organic strategy for it. Test what works, then you amplify it with automation or bots.

[30.55]- Have an organic strategy, have a funnel set up for all your content and then later automate the process within the permissible limits. You must know how to collect leads.

[31.40]- Gerard expresses his views about numbers/what matters most. Making amazing content is more important than the number of opinions on it

[32.50]- Have your aim clear with the channel you are going to be promoting your content.

[33.10]- There are influencers with hundreds of thousands of followers but still don’t generate any business. Numbers are just vanity metrics, and they don’t depict everything.

[33.35]- You also need to do outbound marketing and generate P.R

[34.14]- Gerard’s girlfriend’s Instagram account has all organic following, but still her Instagram’s engagement is not that great. Instagram is “pay to play” platform for a business account.

[35.30]- If someone need help with Instagram, they can contact Dot.

Key Takeaways-

1. Dot’s website
2. The book suggested- Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook: How to Tell Your Story in a Noisy Social World
3. The “DRAGON” METHOD