Creating a collection, thinking up a cool, memorable name and designing a logo for your brand is only one small part of actually building your brand. Getting it out there and known to the world of fashion is a whole other story. Luckily, there are many tools that can help your brand become a household name and for aspiring fashion designers and fashionistas Instagram is one of the best. Instagram is purely focused on images and what better way to lure in an audience hungry for new trends and exclusive styles than through beautiful, captivating pictures showing off your designs in the best possible light?

With more than 400 million monthly users, Instagram can help you target your specific audience and gain a following that will benefit your business, but it won’t happen overnight and you’ll certainly have to put some work into finding momentum. Simply setting up an account, posting pictures every few days and sprinkling them with a hashtag or two won’t have you waking up to thousands of followers any time soon – consistency is key when it comes to building a brand on Instagram and these three steps will help you along the way.

Define Your Brand

When people visit your Instagram page, they want to be able to scroll through your pictures and immediately get a sense of what your fashion brand is all about without having to read your bio or visit your website. Therefore, it’s important to keep consistent with the style of images you post and make sure they are directly related to your brand or the world of fashion. In order to reach an audience of potential buyers, you must target them – either through advertising or the organic approach, the latter of which may be more time-consuming, but will ensure a more personal and interactive engagement with your followers. The best way to create an organic following is by engaging with, and following brands similar to yours.  The use of hashtags is also key to bringing the right kind of traffic to your page. Use as many as you can that relate to your brand and look to similar Instagram Influencers for inspiration. Creating your own brand hashtag and participating in “SFS” (shoutout for shoutout) will bring even more exposure and many opportunities to get featured by others.

Build a Community

Building your Instagram community will take a lot of work but it will be worthwhile! In order to really get your brand out there, you should be posting on a regular basis, preferably every day. Don’t worry, this doesn’t mean you have to come up with new content on a daily basis – you can plan ahead using programs such as Agorapulse or Buffer to create a content calendar that will post automatically. You can even opt to post your daily content on all social media channels at the same time. Engage with your followers and spark conversations through the accompanying texts in your posts. For example, when you post a new image of a dress you have just designed, address your followers directly – “Bell sleeves are going to big this season, don’t you think?” or “I love the print on this fabric. It reminds me of summer days in Kenya. What are your favourite summer prints and colours?”. In doing so you will inspire people to engage which, in turn, will bring you more exposure.

Timing

Even the most intriguing behind-the-scenes post from your collection’s latest fashion shoot will go unnoticed if your followers are asleep or out having family Sunday fun-day, at the time of posting. Again – consistency is key! Always try to post at the same time, preferably between 8am – 9am when people are getting ready or commuting to work, lunch hours and after 8pm on Sunday evening. If your main audience is in a different time zone, adapt your posting calendar accordingly to ensure you are reaching them at the right hours.