If you haven’t been under a rock lately, someone has probably told you that you should network on Instagram. The digital world is bigger and badder than ever! That means it’s getting harder and harder to keep up with all the competition. There are so many solopreneurs fighting for business that we feel we have to be everywhere at all times. While this isn’t actually true, tools like Instagram help us to look like we are.

But it’s not enough to just post on a social media platform and hope that turns into results. You have to go the extra mile and actually NETWORK with your contacts.

What is networking?

A network is an arrangement of lines that interconnect. Networking is creating these interconnections. When we apply this to the business world, the lines become relationships. Networking is arranging connections into relationships for the greater good.

Social media has a way of being very one sided. You post content like it’s a billboard or TV commercial. Unfortunately, that’s just not effective. To get the most out of your social media marketing, you have to network.

Why network on Instagram?

First, let me say, Instagram isn’t right for every business owner. It’s the most visual of all the platforms. An effective Instagram strategy means you are willing and able to create a very visual story of your services.

Another thing to keep in mind is whether or not your target audience is hanging out on Instagram. If you work with female millennials, you are in. Old tech guys? Not so much.

We’ve written about some additional tips on how to find the best social media for your business.

But why is Instagram so great?

It’s free

There are several ways to network offline. You could choose to go to a networking event or a seminar. However, these events are seldom free to attend. Even if they are free, you will have to pay for your transport there.

Most social media sites are free to use and even free, to an extent, to market your business. Of course, being free means there’s more competition but we’ll get to that later.

Great way to get referrals

One of the greatest ways of boosting your businesses is to get more referrals. Instagram can help you do just that. Imagine you are a life coach and someone puts up an Instagram story about something depressing. You can approach this person tactfully and help them improve their mood. Once they find out you are a life coach, you already have a potential advertiser.

About a billion users!!

Yes, that’s 1 followed by nine 0s. About 15 percent of the world population is on Instagram. This means that people from your target audience most likely have Instagram. Thus, it will be easy to connect with them and have them on as clients.

Of course, not the whole billion will fit into your target audience. But, even in the worst case scenario, about 0.0001% would still fit into that category. That is still close to 1000 clients that you could approach if you put in the effort.

Everything is online

If you try any of the offline business mixers, you will have to do the tedious tasks of putting on pants and shaking hands. Instagram makes this pain go away. All you need is your smartphone and you can start networking from the comfort of your couch and boxers.

It is also great for people who have major anxiety issues, especially when it comes to dealing with people in person. On the internet, these people can put their best foot forward and help their business grow.

Finally, doing everything online means you will be saving a lot of time. I mean you wouldn’t have to wait for long speeches, deal with traffic or pretend to laugh at that one guy’s horrible puns.

You can get straight to the point.

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Lower restrictions

My favorite thing about Instagram is that there are fewer restrictions on who can contact you. In other social networking sites like Facebook or LinkedIn, the user you are trying to connect with will have to approve your request before you can do anything.

On the other hand, most of the accounts on Instagram are public. You can even message them without following. There are a few private accounts where you need their approvals first. However, people hardly ever reject a follow request unless they have a personal vendetta against you. Exes probably aren’t getting approved any time soon.

Facebook monitors your friend request activities and suspends your activity if it sees too many friend requests being sent out. On the other hand, LinkedIn allows other viewers to see who viewed their profiles. So, if you do try and analyze a potential client’s profile, you might get called a creep or a stalker.

There is no such problem on Instagram, you can freely browse other profiles. The only thing you need to be worried about is accidentally liking your crush’s photo from one year ago.

I could go on and on about why you should network on Instagram. However, let’s get to the crux of the article - how to do it.

How to Network on Instagram

Add people to your “following” list

Are you ready to learn how to network on Instagram? The first step is to build a network in which you can socialize with people. Think about it, you can’t network during a seminar where you are the only attendee. In Instagram, there are two kinds of people associated with you. The people you follow or “following” and the people who follow you or “followers”.

Odds are, you aren’t an Instagram influencer (or you probably wouldn’t be reading this right now) so we won’t focus on getting more “followers”.

So let’s figure out who the heck we need to follow. Start with the basics, feel free to follow your friends and family. If you connect your account to Facebook or your email, Instagram will also make recommendations for other people to follow.

Analyze accounts

Once you start on square one, you will see that your feed starts filling up with posts from the people you follow. Every now and then you will come across a post that relates to the kind of business you run.

For example, if I’m looking to connect with other women business owners, I will look for posts that connect with that audience. It might be something like this one from my friend and client, @DebbiekPage:

View this post on Instagram

You didn't start your business because you knew how to be a CEO. You started your business because you are good at what you do and have a passion. Dedicate time each week to learn how to be a CEO. How do you build your CEO muscle.

A post shared by Debbie Page (@debbiekpage) on Oct 26, 2018 at 9:43am PDT

This is when you start analyzing the people who have liked and commented on the post.

A person takes more effort while commenting on a post than when liking one. Thus, commenters are more active on Instagram. They also probably care more about that niche. That makes these individuals great people to follow and connect with.

With any luck, their profile will be public or you will have enough mutual connections for the person to accept your request. Either way, you need to focus on the three things beside the profile picture - number of posts, followers, and following.

Firstly, the number of posts needs to be high - this means they are relatively active on Instagram. Then you also need to see that the number of followers and following are roughly the same. This kind of translates into that person interacting with their followers. If their followers are significantly higher than their following, they are generally going to be less engaged with you and your content.

If all these things are good to go, add the person and move on to the next profile.

Search Hashtags

Another great way to search for relevant people would be searching for posts with relevant hashtags. Fortunately, only a very small fraction of the Instagram users don’t use hashtags.

You can use this feature in a very simple way. Imagine you run a travel agency which also sells adventure goods. Searching for the hashtag “#wanderlust” will give you millions of results. Then all you need to do is analyze the results and voila! You have officially increased the list of people you follow.

Instagram has a new feature that allows you to follow hashtags. Thus, your feed will have posts from new people of interest as well. You can then proceed to add them as well.

Use Explore

Instagram has a cool feature in the search section called “Explore”. Essentially it is a collection of posts that you might be interested in. So, Imagine you follow accounts usually under the auto industry category or the adventure sports category. You will get a series of similar posts. They are super easy to browse through too!

As you start exploring, you can find out which profiles are the most active and then start following them.

These tips should help you increase your following list quite a bit. You now have a network to finally start socializing in and soon get more connections. Let’s get down to it.

Start with comments

There are several accounts on Instagram with over a thousand followers. Accounts like these usually tend to get a lot of likes - more than they can be bothered to look at. However, only a fraction of these people who like a post, take the effort to comment on it. Thus, if you are ever trying to get someone’s attention, comments are usually the best way to go.

But remember, only the correct kind of comments is going to get you the attention you need. One of the biggest mistakes that businesses make while commenting on others’ posts is that they start marketing in the comments section.

This will most likely get you flagged for spam. Thus, please try and avoid it. You are only using the comments section to start a dialog with the person. Networking and marketing can come later.

Thus, you can comment something relevant to the post. For example, if it is a post about dogs, you could compliment them. Or, if the post is something about being stressed, you could try and empathize with the person.

When in doubt, throw in a meme reference. You will be surprised how far humorous comments can get you as long as they are relevant to the post.

Use Instagram stories

Instagram stories are a kind of temporary post that stays up for 24 hours after it has been posted. I prefer networking through Instagram stories because they offer more interaction with people when compared to normal posts.

There are features that allow people to play games, take polls, do ratings and even ask questions. Such things can help you network even more as they provide more topics of conversation.

There are two primary ways of using Instagram stories for networking. One is to reply to others’ Instagram stories. The other is to put up Instagram stories of your own. Let’s look a bit more into these.

Be creative with your replies

When you reply to a story, your reply is sent to the user in the form of a direct message. As DMs are a bit more personal than comments on the photo, I suggest you start with comments first - just so they know you exist.

Again, you need to use a similar strategy to the one you used for commenting. Come up with creative replies to their stories. Try and notice things others aren’t so they notice you. Of course, you would also like to put the marketing on hold while replying to these stories.

When someone puts up a story that allows you to ask a question, try and ask something insightful. Something to make the other person think a lot before they reply. Or if you have analyzed their photos and profile well enough, you should be able to ask them something specific about their interests. For example, if a person is interested in classical music, you can ask their preference in artists.

Put up your own stories

The second way to network stories would be to put up your own stories. You should know that stories are only visible to your followers. Thus it is important to have a lot of followers which increases your chances of interaction.

The content you put up on stories will differ depending on the type of business you run. However, a good practice would be to put up an attractive background and maybe a call to action. Ask their opinion on something in a picture or comment on something you witnessed today.

My suggestion would be to use the interactive features as much as possible. Starts polls or ask people questions and make them use the slider rating to choose an option. It’s not always important to get them to reply to your stories. Just getting them to engage with you is good enough for a start.

Slide into their DMs

You can use posts or stories as great excuses to start a conversation with someone. Sometimes, you don’t need an excuse, you can directly start talking to them. Sometimes, you just need to walk up to the girl and start talking to her without using an excuse to do so. However, this works best if that person is an acquaintance and not a complete stranger.

But, you need to remember to be courteous and follow all the guidelines discussed in the article thus far. An important tip here is to be a good conversationalist. There is no point of getting into someone’s DMs only for it to end up as awkward as middle school prom.

Sometimes, you need a little something to grease the wheels of conversation. Just send them a meme or a hilarious post to get the conversation going again. Just be careful not to offend them with the joke. I know that is super hard in this day and age, but you have to try your best.  

If that doesn’t work, as a last resort you can always bring up the topic of your business and how someone could benefit a lot from your services 😉

Go Live

Instagram has a new feature that lets its users perform a live webcast to connect with their followers. Of course, going live yourself is a great idea to engage with your followers. But it is an even better idea to join someone live on Instagram.

There are tons of people who join the live streams of popular accounts. You can comment while you are streaming. The trick here is not to connect with the person doing the live stream but to connect with the hundreds of people who are watching the live stream along with you.

I know tons of people who have met each other on Instagram live and are close friends now. So, remember to socialize and try to connect with the people watching with you. With any luck, you will generate a rapport with the people there and probably even slide into their DMs soon after.

Conclusion

Networking on social media can be a tough task. You might be reaching out to a thousand people a day but only a few people might be responsive. Even fewer would generate actual leads. With practice, you will gain an understanding of which people are more likely to respond. Just remember to hang in there and keep trying.

If you ever get tired, there are thousands of memes on Insta to brighten up your day. There is no reason you cannot mix a bit of business and pleasure. To summarise, remember to follow the tips below.

• Don’t start off by marketing yourself
• Do not send out general and cliched messages.
• Keep it platonic - You are on Instagram, not Tinder.
• Use hashtags, posts, stories and live streaming to your advantage
• Keep increasing your following count so you can network with more people

There are several things to consider while you are networking on Instagram. You would need your own virtual A team to make the most out of it. But, the most important thing to remember is to follow up after networking. Don’t be that boyfriend who suddenly ghosts the girlfriend for no reason.

Well, don’t wait any longer. If this article gave you any new insights, then go open Instagram now and give us a follow @virtualateam! Oh, and start networking for yourself too, that is important as well 😉

Whew, it’s tough out there. Being a solopreneur isn’t easy, especially when you want to expand your client base. The business of coaching people in various aspects of life makes this task an even harder one. A great way to help accomplish this goal is to get referrals for a coaching business.

A referral is when someone you know suggests their friends or family to go to you for some problem that they have. There are two main advantages to using referrals to rope in new customers.

1. You do not need to invest a lot of time and money into it. Instead, all you need to do is follow the tips that we will discuss later in the article.
2. Even if you invest money, you will get guaranteed returns. The referrer gets paid only when their acquaintances help you generate a sizeable income.

However, many coaches face a problem of getting more clients using this method. They either do not know how to go about it or feel bad about asking. Either way, in this post, I'll let you in on a few secrets on how to get more referrals for a coaching business. If you like what you read, remember to refer your friends to our site 😉

Create Referral programs

A referral program is something that rewards a person for asking another person to hire you. Of course, there are several referral programs that you can go with. But, the type of coaching business you run might limit you to a select few.

For example, you could waive off some of your coaching fees for every referral you get. If you want higher returns you could offer a waiver only for multiple referrals.

Another possibility is to give commissions to people who send others your way. I know it is hard for you to part with your money, but it is well worth it. At the end of the day, it is the same as giving a concession to that customer. This is exactly how affiliate programs work.

If possible, you could also try and give something like a premium membership. You can give them priority bookings, free cancellations, or an option to visit you during your holidays.

The problem with referral programs is that you need to keep a track of all the people who are coming to you and who they are bringing in. Another problem that might occur is that two people might refer to the same mutual friend. This will put that mutual friend in a very awkward position. Of course, he or she will claim that the more intimidating friend was the original referrer.

You can solve these problems using certain IT solutions. That is why it is easier to build such systems online than maintaining one offline.

You can also ask your customers to give the contact information of their friends who might be interested. Then, you can contact them - either by call or email and see which contacts generate a lead. Accordingly, you can reward the clients who helped you out just like we reward our clients who help us out

Have a business worth referring

Of course, this seems like a no-brainer. Unfortunately, many people rely only on marketing to get more referrals. If your business doesn’t live up to the reputation that you or your promotional partner have been hyping it up to be, it would reflect badly on both of you. This prevents more people from referring to your practice in the future. It may also damage your reputation as a professional.

Thus, it is super important to live up to standards that are worth mentioning to others. The easiest way to do this is to deliver on the challenge you were offering to help them overcome. Let this be any kind of life problem or even helping their business grow. If you guarantee results, then people will flock to you.

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Once you have the core goal nailed down, it is important to start focusing on the entire experience of your customer. You need to make them feel good about you from the minute they walk in through your door till after they step out. You can try doing this in the following ways.  

• Punctuality - No matter what kind of a coach you are, everyone values punctuality. If a client has booked an appointment with you, then ensure you stick to it. Remember to give your client the full duration of time that was promised to them.
• Going the extra mile - While punctuality is important, you must also show your clients that you are willing to go the extra mile for them. If the client is facing a crisis, you can’t possibly show them the door. Imagine you work all night with a client and turn their business into a success. This client will then go and tell his or her friends how dedicated you are as a business coach.
• Privacy - In the coaching business it is extremely important to maintain the confidentiality of your clients. Thus, you should do everything in your power to be as discreet as possible when required. Some people really value their privacy, so don’t go using their face for your marketing campaign.
• Comfort - As a coach, one of your primary duties is to make your client feel comfortable.  Fill the room with comfortable furniture of different sorts. Ask your assistant to deliver some refreshments to the clients waiting for you.

If you concentrate enough on building your practice into something worth sharing, then half your work is done. You don’t need anything like referral programs to get the word out. Your services will get advertised through word of mouth from many satisfied customers.

Start building relationships

One of the key practices to getting more referrals is to build relationships. Now, before you get any crazy ideas, I mean professional relationships. What you need is a general sociable attitude that gets your customers looking at you as a platonic friend. Sure, you could try and take it further. But don’t blame me when you lose your license or you’re sitting in a prison cell.

Jokes aside, you need to start building relationships with your customers so you can try and ask a favor of them. If they love your personality from the get-go, then a simple “If you liked my service, please tell your friends” can help you get referrals. But people don’t usually start liking someone from a single interaction. So take every chance you get to display your most sociable self. These clients may become your promotional partners in the future.

It is important that you don’t stop building relationships after you get promotional partners. You then need to deepen that relationship more so they want to help you out further when you need it. Inviting them over for coffee or sending postcards or sending greeting cards on special occasions might do the trick.

This will help you do two things. The first one is that your current promotional partners will want to help you out more when you need it. The second one is that they will encourage others to become your partners since they love doing it so much.

Your business isn’t the only place where you need to build relationships. It is also important to build relationships with your friends and family. They are the ones who are most likely to do a favor for you. Yes, this means that you will have to end up going to Thanksgiving with that annoying aunt or attend that intolerable friend’s birthday. But when you ask them for a favor of referring their friends and family to you, and they come through, all this torture will seem worth it. All you will hear at the Thanksgiving dinner thereafter will be the sound of money entering your wallet.

When you work on building all these relationships, you will see that people start hiring you without much effort from your side. The ‘friendly coach’ will become a part of your personality and it will all come naturally to you.

One of the golden rules of building relationships is to always thank your referral sources for the people who they sent your way. Remember to do this whether their referrals were a solid lead or not. Posting a thank you card or a similar gesture would be perfect for this, but a simple thank you in person or call will work too.

Pro tip - You can use Cloze.com to manage all your professional relationships with your clients and promotional partners with ease.

Start networking wherever possible

This point is a bit like building relationships. But, for this you do not need to put in that much amount of effort. All you need to do is mention that you are a coach working in your field. But, the timing and location are important.

Imagine, someone dear to you is having a heart attack and you ask the crowd around you if there is a doctor present. Then, a person steps up to the plate brimming with confidence and announces that he is a life coach. Now I don’t know about you, but if that happened to me, the crowd would have to call an ambulance for not one, but two people. I’ll let you guess which ones.

You should focus your networking tactics in more social settings. Parties or business seminars are a great place to do this. You can introduce your profession when asked - a common ice breaker at several social gatherings.  

Unfortunately, this doesn’t create the best opportunity for people to refer you to their friends. Sure, when the time arises and someone asks for a coach, your name might be at the top of their heads. But think about it, they do not want to refer someone questionable to their friends. And neither would you.

That’s why you might sometimes need to display your skills, even if it is for free. I know that parting with your money is hard, but you are playing the long game. Fortunately, you will not have to do conduct an entire session to display your skill. All you need to do is show them a part of what you can do to help them. The great thing is that you can use this as a way to attract people just like a magician.

Imagine you are at a business mixer of some sort and you somehow get to talking about your profession as a business coach. You now have the stage to exhibit your skills and possibly draw in an even bigger crowd. You must have seen the ending scene of ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’ where Jordan Belfort teaches others about businesses by asking them to sell a pen to him. You don’t have to pull off the same trick, but if you can sell a used tissue to an unwitting guest for over $100, I’d be super impressed.

Once you leave the crowd awestruck with your selling skills, try and slip in a word about how they should come to see you if they want to learn to do the same. While you’re at it, ask for their contact information and remember to follow up after networking with them.

Social gatherings are not the only place where you can put your skills up for display. With the boom of social media, there are a lot of opportunities opened up to you online. For example, if one of your acquaintances on Facebook puts up a status about going through a bad break up, as a life coach, you can share some wisdom. This will help you stay longer in their minds as a good coach who can help out others when needed. Networking like this has the added advantage of making new friends. This, in turn, can contribute to my previous point on building relationships.

Help your partners help you

The person who is lobbying for you at social gatherings can only do so to the best of their talents. Sure, your friend might know that you are a Business Coach by title, but what does that job title entail? If your friend doesn’t know about you or your services they won't be able to advertise it properly to their friends. Moreover, they wouldn’t be able to suggest you to their friends who might require your services.

Hence it is important to always have your partners informed about what all services you offer. As a business coach, you might specialize in startups. However, you can also be experienced in dealing with marketing, production or many other aspects of a business. But your partner who has attended your sessions about startups won’t know of your other services. Thus, when that person is asked if they know anyone good in marketing, their mind will be drawing a blank. Hence, you need to keep all your clients informed about the various services that you offer.

Unfortunately, even if your customers know which services you offer, they may not be able to explain each one of them in detail or how these services may benefit their friends. Hence, it is a good practice to share something like a brochure (explaining your services in detail) with your customers. This enables them to share these brochures instantly with people who might need them. Hence your chances of lead generation will increase.

Printed media is something that people with offline coaching businesses can share. If your business is online, you can share links or even newsletters with your current customers to help them spread the message. This is much easier as it saves a lot of time and money.

Another great way to help your partners would be to organize free (or low-cost) events. This way, rather than just mentioning your name or handing out a brochure with your name on it, they can bring their friends and family along to get an example of what happens in your sessions. Every person has attended some boring event just because someone they knew asked for a favor. This is their chance for some payback.

The best part about these events is that you will receive a wide audience. This will consist of your customers, their plus ones, and strangers who have come in only for the snacks. As long as you provide useful content for free (along with free food), people will flock to you. Thus, you get a chance to market yourself and improve the possibility of someone referring to their friends and family to you.

Pro tip - Remember to keep your social media (everything from Facebook and Instagram to Twitter and LinkedIn) updated about your profession. You don’t need to market it, just highlight the services that you offer in your “About Me” section.

Conclusion

The best kind of advertisements are the ones that seem organic and genuine. That is why you should try and get referrals for your coaching business. Just to summarize, you can do this in multiple ways.

• Creating a referral program that benefits those who help you.
• Improving the overall standards of your practice so people genuinely want to hire you.
• Build relationships with your clients, promotional partners, and your friends and family.
• Start networking online and during various seminars.
• Keep your partners well informed so they can help market your services.

If you start following the tips given above, I am sure the number of referrals will keep rising. It might take some time, but don’t lose heart. The most important qualities that a solopreneur can have is patience and perseverance. So don’t worry and keep trying; soon, you might just get more customers than you can handle.