Ashley Alderson breaks down the 5:3:1 method to hit Instagram's Discover page: follow 5 relevant accounts, comment substantively on 3 of their posts each, and send 1 thoughtful DM weekly. The algorithm rewards genuine engagement over sales pitches, so building real relationships signals to Instagram that your account deserves visibility.
Questions this episode answers
The 5:3:1 method (also written as "531 method").
Each week: follow 5 relevant accounts, leave 3 quality comments on each of those accounts, and send 1 quality DM.
Less than 20 minutes.
June 7, 2024.
Chapters
Business can be a lonely game, but it doesn't have to be. Welcome to Boutique Chat where we explore community over competition and how to scale your company with the balance and the happiness that we all seek. We'll hear from product based businesses of all types, retailers, e commerce and wholesale brands, along with industry experts shaping the future of our industry. I'm your host Ashley Alderson from the Boutique Hub and I can't wait to chat. Hey guys, welcome back to 5 Minute Friday. Today I want to talk about all things the gram. And really when I think about how this works on the gram, I think the same process and concept is really true no matter what social media channel it is. So I want to talk about the 5:3:1 method of how to grow on Instagram. But before I get into the how, I want to first start with the why. So how do any social media companies make money? Facebook, Instagram, meta, I guess, TikTok, Pinterest? Well, they make money through advertising and the way they can sell more ads is to show the amount of time that viewers are on the platform. So they're incentivized by sharing content that they think people are really going to like. That's why we get so many, you know, real suggestions. And all the tiktoks on the for you page, things are selected just for us because they think it's going to hook us and keep us on the platform easy, longer. So the question is, how do you get your brand to be featured in some of those suggested videos or posts or groups? How do you show up on the Discover page on Instagram and how do you actually grow and meet brand new eyeballs? Well, again, you've got to show the algorithm that people actually want to communicate with you and you're connected and building relationships on the platform. These are built to be relationship platforms, not sales platforms. If anyone's going to sell on the platform, it's going to be meta, it's going to be TikTok, right? It's not going to be you organically unless you can get your way around this algorithm with this method. So inside of the Boutique Hub, inside of Retail Bootcamp and inside of our Instagram Masterclass that we host, I want to show you something that we've showed thousands of different of account, different accounts and that's called the 531 method. So if you want to really build a network and build engagement specific to Instagram or again any of these channels, the 5:3:1 method will show the platform that you're there to build relationships, build Community and connect with others. So how do you do it? Well, it starts like this. Every week we're going to really pinpoint how do we want to grow. Where are ideal customers really hanging out on these channels? So we're going to start with first five comments on different accounts. We're going to find five different accounts that our customers are hanging out with, and we're going to first start by following them. Right, five accounts, pick up five accounts we're going to follow. Then we're going to leave three quality comments. With each of these five accounts, it's got to be more than three words. It can include a couple of emojis if you want, but at least three words. And then we're going to end with one quality dm. So again, each week we're going to ask ourselves, where's our ideal customers hanging out? Where else are they? If we're a local brick and mortar business, this might be other local salons or flower shops or other similar businesses. If we're online, it might be other online businesses or vendors or influencer accounts or just other, you know, fun spaces that are for moms or women over 40 or whatever it might be on the ground. There's all kinds of themed accounts on Instagram. So five, find five of them every week. It'll literally take you less than 20 minutes to do this entire exercise. Find 5, follow them, leave 3 comments on each of those accounts. Quality comments actually work on building the relationship. And then send one DM in the DM to that account. You don't want to be asking for stuff. No one likes someone who just, like, is a cold call. And that's what it can seem like. So I always think about how can I serve before I sell? So inside of that DM to that account, it might be like, hey, I'm Ashley. So nice to meet you. I think we have a ton of people in common that might follow both of our accounts. Just wanted to let you know I'm here if you ever want to collaborate. Or maybe I could, you know, share you on my story, just to give you a quick shout out. Maybe it helps, you know, us mutually, whatever it might be, but try to offer something rather than asking for something. So the purpose of this entire exercise, once you're doing those things on a consistent basis, it's showing Instagram that you're not just here to post on your account and then walk away and hope that somebody buys something from you. Instead, you're here to show Instagram that you want to build a spider web. Of relationships that you want to connect with all kinds of different people. When Instagram starts to see the accounts that you have in common and the followers that you have in common and hey, if they like this boutique, they might also like this brand. Hey, if they like this boutique, they might also like this other local business, then it's going to start suggesting and showing you in the feed to people who have those sorts of things in common. So remember, don't just get on a social platform to post and walk away and hope that someone buys something. You have to be invested enough in the platform to do your homework and build relationships and build community by connecting and collaborating with others. Community Over Competition all right, if you guys love this tip, there's tons more like it. Not only here on five Minute Friday, but inside of our membership at the Boutique Hub inside of Retail Bootcamp, our premium program for businesses seriously ready to grow. And those who are already growing and scaling past, whether it's brand new, a couple dollars in your account, or millions of dollars in your account, those are who are serious about growth are inside of Retail Bootcamp. So if you've got questions, let me know. Let me know what you think in the show notes or by leaving a review on the podcast this week. But I hope this was helpful. Get to building relationships and as always, thanks for tuning in guys. We'll see you next time on five Minute Friday. Thanks for listening guys. I hope you took away all kinds of nuggets and new ideas from this week's episode. Don't forget to subscribe and leave a rating and review. We love to hear your feedback and give you a chance to be featured on the show each and every week. For more information on our spirit of community over competition and to access guest downloads and bonuses and all the resources we talked about on the show, head on over to the boutiquehub.com and join the community. We'll see you next week.
