The Ultimate Instagram Engagement Strategy 2024: The Dream 100

When you log into your Instagram account, are you just scrolling through your feed and the hashtags, randomly reading, liking, and commenting?

Or, do you follow a solid Instagram engagement strategy that maximizes the exposure of your account to your most desired audience while minimizing the time you have to spend on the platform?

It's 2024! That means it's time to review and create an Instagram Engagement Strategy that works for your life and business!

So, if the sound of that kind of Instagram engagement strategy just made you sit up, then listen up! Because this is exactly what the 'Dream 100' can do for you.

Your Instagram Engagement Strategy is Way More Important than Follower Count

Most of us have heard by now that we need to be engaging on Instagram every day, and that these days if you want your account to grow, you should be more focused on Instagram engagement than on collecting new followers.

But as busy business owners and creatives, we don't want to spend any more time on social media than we absolutely have to to get the results we're after.

We need to cut out floundering efforts that get swallowed up in the digital nethersphere. Replacing them with efficient systems and strategies that catapult efforts for maximum results is what we're all about. This way, we can spend more time doing the work we're best at and that we enjoy the most.

Enter the 'Dream 100' Instagram Engagement Strategy 🪄

Originally devised by sales expert Chet Holmes but made famous by rockstar-level marketer Russel Brunson, then made into a whole book by copywriter and goat-herder Dana Derricks, the Dream 100 is a method of targeting the top 100 people who already have the audience that you want to have. Then systematically schmoozing them until you gain some of their audience as your own. It's mainly used by marketers like Brunson and Derricks for affiliate marketing programs, and they both claim it is the ultimate secret sauce in their multi-million dollar success stories.

When I first read about it I immediately saw the potential of applying it as a social media engagement strategy, primarily for Instagram where daily engagement time is a must. However, it can also be applied to all other social media platforms.

What counts as an Engagement on Instagram?

When we talk about Instagram Engagement, we are referring to any likes, comments, shares, and saves that our posts, videos, and stories get on Instagram.

To take it a step further, your Instagram Engagement Rate is all those likes, comments, shares, and saves divided by your number of followers.

By analysing these numbers, we can better understand how well our audience is interacting with us online. We focus on the important data. This way we aren't swayed by vanity metrics like follower count.

But just checking likes and comments is not enough.

The 'Dream 100' takes this idea a huge step further and allows us to create an intentional Instagram Engagement Strategy.

The 'Dream 100' Is A Systematic & Measurable Instagram Engagement Strategy

Unlike randomly liking, commenting, or following hashtags, the 'Dream 100' strategy has something we social media managers and data-crunchers love:

All milestone interactions are recorded, tracked, and measured, and it's easy to see if time invested is bringing in results.

Specifically, increased quality engagement on our own accounts by the right kind of people.

As any business Instagram account owner knows, you can often attract likes, comments, and follows by people who are not your target audience. While this activity may help increase the reach of your posts and stories, it's not going to bring in conversions. Spending your valuable time interacting and engaging with non-ideal followers is not the best use of your time on Instagram.

Instead, with the Dream 100, you can narrow your activity to primarily the top 100 who hold your desired audience. This is not to say you shouldn't reply back and engage with people who are not on the Dream list; you absolutely should not ignore engaged followers. But the activity you track toward definite desired outcomes should be strictly limited to the top 100 accounts.

How To Increase Engagement on Instagram in 2024

As you systematically engage with influencers, you record milestone interactions that map out the genuine relationships that you're building.

So, documented in an Excel or Google Sheets tab, the milestone progression goals could look like this:

• Goal #1: They reply back to you on a post of theirs
• #2: They reply back to you on a Story of theirs
• #3: They comment on your Instagram post
• #4: They follow you (yay!)
• #5: They DM you via your Story or directly
• #6: They reshare a post of yours
• #7: They agree to do a mutual promotion with your brand

Now, can you see the powerful impact reaching Goal #7 would have for your brand awareness and reach on Instagram? If you build a genuine friendship with this person, you don't have to swindle, manipulate, pay, or bribe to get your brand noticed by all the followers that follow them. You simply systematically and intentionally build a real relationship, chart it's progression, and achieve a very specific outcome as a result.

Why the Dream 100 works

The beauty of this strategy is that you don't need to get to Goal #7 before you begin to see an increase in brand awareness among your Dream list's audience. By simply interacting with the list, you are putting your account profile in front of the eyes of their audience. And whenever your Dream 100 leaves a comment on your account, you gain social proof in the eyes of their audience.

Meanwhile, the people on your Dream list receive the benefits of an active and engaged follower (you), helping them boost the reach of each of their posts and increase the general enjoyment of time spent on Instagram.

The 'Dream 100' is a win-win strategy.

Outsourcing and Tracking Instagram Engagement

Here's another thing that makes the Dream 100 the ultimate Instagram engagement strategy: you can outsource it.

Not knowing the effectiveness of outsourced engagement is frustrating for most business owners. Because seriously, who has time to count or track down where someone has randomly liked, commented, and replied all over Instagram?? I'm sure it could be done, but ain't nobody got time for that! With the Dream 100 documented system, you record only the engagement milestones you are focused upon.

After you build a system for any repeatable, tedious, or time-consuming activity, delegate it - especially if you hate doing it!

So there's a big advantage to documenting exactly how your brand will use the Dream 100 to engage. Anyone you hire will know exactly what to do!

It also allows you to see when something gets done and to chart the progress of the hired help's activities.

Be careful who you hire

Just a caveat on outsourcing engagement: do not hire a non-fluent English speaker or someone who cannot communicate like you.

They need to be able to adapt you or your brand's 'voice', message, idioms, and personality.

Ideally, this would be hiring a professional social media manager. The next option is to hire a locally-based virtual assistant. Find someone who can work within your time zone, has great communication skills, is sociable, friendly, and who enjoys Instagram. This is because they'll be spending a lot of time on it! Train this person to understand your brand's 'voice' and give them a list of phrases to use or to avoid.

If you have a personal brand, let them know important facts about yourself. You don't want them to comment on a picture of a steak with "that looks delicious!" if you're a vegetarian, for example. Let them know your lifestyle preferences and hobbies. You want this person to 'be you' as much as possible while building relationships. It's also a good idea to step in when the relationships with the influencers advance to mutual promotional activities.

Start Building Genuine Relationships With Your 'Dream 100' Today & Optimize Your Time On Instagram

Building genuine relationships on Instagram is un-arguably the primary goal of daily engagement. But without a strategic system in place, the platform can become a black-hole, sucking away endless time and energy.

With the 'Dream 100', you have a step-by-step approach to check-off and complete. You log in, go through your list, and track all the activity associated with each account. Not every account will have new posts for you to engage with every day, of course. But if you go through just 20 accounts each day, you can know you've used your time at maximum efficiency.

In a way, the 'Dream 100' is a way to gamify the nebulous and tedious work of engagement on Instagram. It's especially fun for those of us who are social media managers managing multiple client accounts!

If you have any questions about how to set this up, shoot me a question below. I'll be happy to help you.

If you enjoyed this blog, you might also enjoy reading about some digital marketing secrets you NEED to know to sell online successfully.

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