David Speed from Creative Rebels podcast gives us his refreshingly honest strategy for growing an Instagram account in a tactical way which will support your end goal.
And if your end goal is to get your podcast to the number one spot on iTunes then you're in luck, because that's exactly what he did. Here's how…
Subscribe now on your favourite podcast player:
- So yeah, we built our following in order to launch the podcast. It was very calculated.
- The name of our show is Creative Rebels and I am a bit of a rebel in that if you tell me not to do something then I’m probably going to try to do it.
- When I first thought about doing a podcast, I started searching around and looking at blogs for advice on launching. I stumbled across this blog post and when I’m reading through the comments, I find someone who said ‘there’s no point in starting a podcast in 2019’. So of course, we launched the podcast.
- Our goal from the beginning was always to launch a podcast to number one on the iTunes Business Chart, and we succeeded in that. But we had to get tactical.
- The first thing to do
is start with ‘why?’. Why do you want to create a podcast? - Is it because you want to entertain people, help people, make money from podcasting, what is your goal? Once you know that you can go from there.
- The reason we started our company Graffiti Life nine years ago was that as young artists, we found that there weren’t any platforms out there for us. So, we created our own thing and our goal was always to provide opportunities for artists and creatives.
- As the company grew and was more and more successful, I started getting invited
into schools and universities and events to speak. I would go in and talk for an hour and I would be reaching 30 people. - So, I thought that if I put the same amount of time into something that could go online, then I could reach 300 people or 3,000 people. The possibilities are endless for that.
- The why behind out podcast was that we want to help people, unlock them and get them to rebel against the 9-5 and
realise that they’re in this wonderful age where there are so many ways to make a living doing what you love.
- We wanted to build an audience before we had a podcast.
- So rather than putting a podcast out there and people listening to it because it’s a brand-new podcast, we wanted people to want to listen to it before it existed.
- Our primary social channel for doing that was Instagram.
- The first thing to understand is that it’s hard to build that Instagram following. It can be hard, boring work and a lot of people get bogged down and give up because it’s probably a 6-month process to build a decent audience.
- Everyone wants a quick win or a big break, but don’t go looking for that because you’ll just disappoint yourself. There are no hacks.
- It’s more about providing quality and value to people and targeting the right people.
- My business partner actually has a business called InstaGrowth which is based around Instagram growth that can automate certain parts of the process, and we have used some of that for building our accounts.
- We would never buy followers, but we do target specific users and have real engagement with them.
- When you start with a blank Instagram account you should start posting relevant photos that you know your ideal audience
are going to be interested in. - Target people based on location and interests, find their accounts and interact with them by liking their photos, leaving comments (genuine comments!) and following them. More often than not, they’ll follow you back.
- I think it comes down to patience, everyone wants to launch their podcast now, now, now!
- The first steps of a business are the hardest because no one’s paying attention and no one’s listening. That was certainly the case when we launched Graffiti Life and that’s why we’ve adopted this strategy now.
- You need people’s attention and you have to get people to look at you.
- So, with the podcast we realised that in order for anyone to pay attention to this, it has to be a number one show!
- Our approach to that was now I know I want a number one podcast, I know what a number one podcast looks like. I know what the thumbnail image looks like, I know the calibre of guests you get on a number one podcast and so we knew what we were aiming for from the beginning.
- We knew that influencer marketing was going to be super important for the podcast. We spent about six months fostering relationships with big names to have on the podcast which has been amazing because now we’re friends.
- The influencer side of things also meant that when we launched the podcast, it was shared across all their social networks and reached 1.5 million people when we added up all of their audiences. The beautiful thing is that they didn’t just share it once, they shared it three or four times because they’re our friends now and they want to see us succeed.
A book that you would recommend…
Mindset by Carol Dweck.
What is your top success habit?
I take a cold shower every morning, which is horrible, but it means that when I do it it’s like a small victory every day and it reinforces with myself that when I say I’m going to do something… I do it!
Who do you look up to?
Other than you guys – I look up to my business partners first and foremost and my team because they’re amazing. In terms of famous guru type people, I think you can learn a lot from people like Gary Vaynerchuk and Tim Ferriss.
What are your favourite apps right now?
My favourite app currently is Medium, I think it’s such a great place to just be inspired every single day.
Here’s the big one…who do you like more, Rob or Kennedy?
You’re like one entity, so I can’t really pick a favourite.
Finally, where can folks go to find out more about you?
You can listen to our weekly podcast Creative Rebels or you can get in touch with me on Twitter and Instagram.
Leave a Comment