Leveling Up Your Instagram Strategy

In today's digital age, social media platforms like Instagram have become essential for businesses to reach their audience and grow their brand. However, mastering Instagram strategies can be daunting, but it doesn't have to be. By learning effective tips and tricks to help businesses leverage Instagram to its fullest potential and achieve their marketing goals, you can enhance your Instagram game and take your business to the next level. Here are the five steps you need to take to get your strategy to work for you:

Step 1: Optimize your profile

Do an Instagram self-audit. As simple as this step may seem, it is imperative. The simple act of auditing and optimizing your profile alone can gain you more quality followers and, in turn, result in more engagement. The following audit checklist will help you make the most of your update:

• Strong username and image combo

• You’ll want this to be clean, simple, easy to remember, and easy to recognize.  

• Make your nameplate SEO-focused. Instagram is searchable, and this bold nameplate section is the most search-friendly. Keywords that people would be looking for are the most important. For example, a successful nameplate would read L.A. Social Karma | Social Media Marketing

• Accurate categorization 

  This helps the algorithm identify and categorize you and your content to show it to the right audience.

• Well-written bio and call to action

  Utilize Instagram SEO to communicate clearly 

• What your business is

• The reason why someone should follow you 

• The next step you want them to take. 

• Highlights

  Treat your highlights as easy-to-discover resources. Think of them like website pages that you want people to navigate to. Some ideas for these could be:

• Your story

• Products/shop

• Tips

• FAQ

• Mission

• Testimonials

• Review Content

  Do a little experiment. Scroll past the top of your profile to where you only see the first six posts on your page and no other info. Now ask yourself, can you tell what your business is about and the value you provide by JUST looking at the content you post?

Step 2: Set Your Goals

Based on research, some of the most common top goals of social marketers include organic growth, increased engagement, and conversion of followers to customers. Take a deep dive into what would best serve your business and think about which ONE of these three goals is most important to your social media effort. Once you have settled on one, this should be your only goal for the next 60 to 90 days because the actions you take on Instagram moving forward should directly reflect that goal.

Step 3: Utilize the right features the right way

There are a lot of features on Instagram, but not all of them will align with every goal; identify which features will best benefit your current focus.

• If your goal is growth, you will want to focus on the following:

  • Reels (2x a week) - these are designed to reach new eyes. Most of what we see on reels are from accounts we don't follow. Instead of approaching it in a way that says, “Here is my business, and this is why it’s amazing,” focus on “Do you have XYZ problem? Here is how you solve it.”

  • Sharable Content (2x a week) - What content is your audience likely to share with their friends? This is important because that increases the eyes on your account and increases your chances of gaining new followers. Check your analytics to see your most shared and most popular content and lean into that.

  • Collab features (1x a week) - Going live with another account or posting a collaboration post will help you reach 2x your audience.

  • Unconnected engagement (daily) - Engagement strategies that connect you to accounts that don't follow you but may be interested in following you. When you interact with people outside of your followers with intention, it tells the algorithm that you and that individual or business have a history of interacting. It will then be more likely to show your content to that person on their explore page even if they don't follow you, which keeps you top of mind and increases the chances of them becoming a follower. To find people to engage with, browse your “niche neighbors” and search specific hashtags.

• If your goal is engagement, you will want to focus on the following:

  • Stories (daily) - this content should show the behind-the-scenes of your business. The “raw and real” content. Treat stories as a “what I do in a day” log, repost customer tags, or do a poll.

  • In–feed posts (3x a week) and lives (1x a week) - These features are the classics and help you maintain that personal connection with your audience.

  • Connected engagement (daily) - This strategy focuses on building a deeper connection with the accounts that already follow you.

  • If your goal is conversion of followers to customers, your strategy focus should mainly be on a strong account setup and consistent CTA’s throughout your posting strategy. Make sure your bio link and CTA are clear and working.

Step 5: 30 Day analytic check-in

After implementing a new Instagram strategy, it is important to check the KPI’s (key performance indicators) in relation to the goals you set. What you're going to pay attention to for each goal is as follows:

• For Growth

  • Followers

  • Shares

  • Mentions

• For Engagement

  • Likes

  • Comments

  • Story replies

• For Sales or leads

  • Website clicks

  • Sales revenue

  • Email signups

  There you have it! Incorporating an effective Instagram strategy into your social media marketing plan can greatly benefit your brand's online presence. By consistently posting high-quality content, engaging with your audience, and utilizing Instagram's various features, you can increase your reach and drive more traffic and sales to your business. Don't underestimate the power of Instagram, and start implementing these strategies today. If you need a helping hand or just a bit more information, please reach out. We are available to help in any way we can.