Your Instagram isn't a Beauty Contest (It's a Business Tool!)

Today on the podcast, we're tackling a question straight from our WhatsApp podcasting community that I know many of you can relate to. Someone's struggling with an all-too-common Instagram dilemma: which account to focus on when building their professional brand as an actor, writer, host, and podcaster.Here's the gist of their situation:They have two Instagram accounts. One has 301 followers, more engagement, and all their major milestones like podcast launches, awards, and film academy graduation. The catch? It's a bit of a hot mess, unorganized, and growing slowly.The other account has 384 followers, is super clean and structured, but lacks past content and currently has low engagement, even though it's growing rapidly.They're torn: Do they try to fix the messy, engaged account? Or start fresh with the clean, but less engaging one? And can they even migrate posts between them? They want to know what decision will best support their long-term growth.My Take: It's All About the Right AudienceFrom a sales and business development perspective, here's my honest advice:First things first, what decision will best support long-term growth?Whatever you do, you must be focused on the relevant audience. If the point of your Instagram handles is to monetize engagement, then you have to nurture the account with the relevant audience. You can't sell something to an irrelevant audience, no matter how large it is.Think of it this way: If I have a 5-million-strong community of people who love French cuisine, I can't suddenly start selling them Efik dishes. They'd likely be put off! The relevance of the audience, not just their size, is the main thing.Is there a match between what you're selling and what your audience is interested in?Why the "Clean" Account Might Be a TrapNow, let's look at the idea of building up the 384-follower account. If it has a higher follower count and seems to be growing rapidly but lacks engagement, it means people are piling on, but they're not really interested in your content. This will seriously affect the algorithm and deliverability in the future. That large audience won't even see your content because they're not engaging, and Instagram will show it less and less. Switching to this account might actually be a bad idea in the long run.Why Your "Messy" Account Is Your Best BetAnd finally, should you restructure the existing 301-follower account (the one with more engagement and past milestones)?YES! The engagement is the main thing to pay attention to. It might be growing slowly, but it has high engagement – that means you're on the right track! Plus, it already has the content related to the services you're selling, like voice acting and podcasting.Having a well-engaged and nurtured audience will make it much easier to monetize in the future.Key Takeaways for Creatives (and Everyone Else)Here are some interesting things to consider that apply to all creatives and businesses: * You're in business. We should not be focused on building a huge fanbase, but rather a huge bank account. * To get to a huge bank account, we need a highly engaged and nurtured audience. Those are the metrics to truly track on Instagram. * Remember, this is a business, not a popularity contest. * Always remember we're making BUSINESS decisions here, not just aesthetic ones, when it comes to our social media.