How to network via Instagram Direct Message

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Instagram is undoubtedly one of the largest social platforms of our time. With over 800 million accounts, there is pretty much unlimited opportunity to grow your music brand within the platform. Therefore, in this article, we’re going to discuss how you can use the Direct Message feature to network within the application.

Finding accounts within your niche is a fairly simple process that can be done via a quick search within the application. You can search by hashtag, name, and even location. Focus on keywords related to your niche. For example, an EDM producer may want to find music promotion accounts on the platform that upload drops. Therefore, keywords/tags such as “EDM” & “Dance Music” could allow you to find these types of profiles.

Likewise, if you’re playing a show in Los Angeles (as an example), you could search for large accounts within the city. This allows you to network, and potentially use them in the future as part of a promotional campaign for your song/tour.

If you’re wishing to establish a relationship between yourself and another account, we highly recommend taking some time to evaluate what their interests are, and the type of language they are using within their posts. By identifying with the account and developing an understanding of their interests, it can seriously help with the wording of your first message/pitch.

Next, you want to give the influencer some kind of value. There is literally no point in spamming their direct messages asking to promote your new song for free. Chances are they won’t – as they probably have busy lives. Instead, you want to provide a benefit to them within this relationship. Here’s an example of a good pitch:

“Hey (influencer name),
How are you? My name is (insert name) and I’m a music producer. We have over (x) amount of views. Anyway, we know how expensive LA can be to have a good lifestyle in. And therefore, we would love to invite you to come to our event that we’re playing in Los Angeles next Friday. Of course, we’ll pay any expenses you incur on the night.
Let me know if you’d be able to come? Talk soon.”

So let’s go through a couple of reasons why this message was a good example:

  • It was short and precise. Get straight to the point.
  • You are positioning the event as value to them. They get a free night out.
  • As they’re a social influencer, the chances are high that they’ll naturally want to advertise it.

It is likely that the majority of accounts will not reply to your messages. After all, people with large followings could be receiving thousands of messages per day. Therefore, the more messages you send, the better. It’s simply a numbers game. Likewise, you can use this strategy to send your music to influencers for them to use in their social media content. The opportunities are literally endless of what you can achieve with networking on Instagram Direct Messages.

The quickest way to grow your following is to engage with your future followers. If you wish to be absolutely amazing at Instagram networking, create a list of 50-100 tags that are extremely relevant to your niche. Spend at least 10 minutes per tag engaging with the top posts in that section. After all, if they’re accounts with high followings, your comment will get more impressions – leading to more traffic on your page. Simple.