How To Craft A Instagram Strategy
When it comes to any social media platform, a strategy is essential. With Instagram spearheading the user experience, we wanted to dedicate a blog post to reviewing the aspects of an Instagram strategy and help you increase your returns on this platform. Keep in mind, considering every person reading this post will have different end goals for their social media, our breakdown will focus on integral aspects that should be part of every strategy, and you will need to structure your own strategy accordingly (or you can call us, of course!). We broke this down into simple trains of thought: what, how, when, and who.
WHAT
As with most things, content comes first. Determining what you want your content to be is vital. If the content you post isn’t relevant to your audience, you will struggle to find success on the platform.
The best place to start is to figure out what kind of images/videos you want to share. Generally, they revolve around:
Product - your content will focus on the products or services you offer
Culture - company or brand culture (ex: fitness)
Combination of Product and Culture (ex: running shoes that promote fitness)
UGC - We have an entire post That will be dedicated to this topic coming soon!
When deciding which to utilize, keep your businesses goals in mind. Are you looking to create more conversions? Product may the way for you! Want to garner more trust between your brand and your consumers? UGC would be best! Maybe you want to implement all four, and just gain online presence - that works, too! Start creating or sourcing content that fits your brand and overall goals.
HOW
Editing - Your content needs to be quality - or at least look it! This doesn't mean you need to run out and buy a fancy camera, just utilize what you have! Use apps like Instagram, Snapseed, or Enlight to make your photos look high quality, and professional. Natural light, interesting angles, simple and cheap backdrops, and always take more pictures than you plan to post - you need a variety! Small changes like this can turn a post around!
Captions - Make the captions catchy, and have appropriate links to direct them to your website (a shortened link, of course! - we love Bitly) or any place you want to increase traffic.
Hashtags - Keep in mind, one of the biggest aspects of your caption is the hashtags. With many Instagram users following tags rather than pages, you NEED to utilize them. While focusing on hashtags, take the time to create your own branded hashtag. This is can be campaign specific, product/service specific, about an event, or generic with your company name. Branded hashtags encourage people to talk about your brand and products. You give them an avenue to express gratitude and excitement, and sometimes their frustrations (which is even more important feedback!). If you have a branded hashtag, you need to keep this visible in your bio!
WHEN
Where to schedule - Some popular platforms are Buffer, Hootsuite, and Sprout Social. We have an entire blog post dedicated to how to set up direct posting from each!
Time - Once you have a posting platform, be sure you are posting at the times when your audience is most active. Is your audience predominantly on the west coast? Are they night owls? Is your audience global? Account for that when setting up your posting times. The great news is most publishing platforms offer integrated metrics along with their posting platform! You can use these to predict the best posting times. And if you consistently post when they are online, your engagement is sure to increase!
WHO
Check your metrics to see who is engaging with your content. Use this information to help you adjust your strategy to work best for your audience. If you notice that certain posts gain more traction than others, find the commonality, and promote that to your audience.
This post can't give you all the answers, and if it could, social media would be boring! It’s the creativity and the personality in social media that makes it interesting. Keep these tips in mind, and create content that inspires you! We can’t wait to hear your success stories! Comment below, or visit our website if you have any social media needs we can help you with!
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