Creating instagram content 101.

Let’s talk Instagram. Starting a social media account for your business can be scary and timely, let alone the imposter syndrome that often comes with the territory of who wants to hear what I have to say and do they even want what I’m offering.

Can you relate? It can be hard to know what exactly to market on Instagram and perfect the fine art of the ever changing space of Instagram. Overall though, if you do Instagram right you build an audience, engage and convert for the purpose of new business which then leads to repeat business and more business through social proof and referrals. 

So let’s just start with why you might be worried about taking the plunge with starting an Instagram or giving more time to Instagram for your business.

1. You get intimidated by the quality of content of competitors 

2. You don’t feel you have the time 

3. You get overwhelmed with all the things you can talk about and don’t know what you should talk about 

You then think to yourself, can my own business see the kind of growth and success like my competitors? While every brand is different, regardless of what stage in business or the niche you’re in, you can reap benefits by leveraging Instagram. 

Let’s look at creating content for the purpose of building an audience, entertaining them and engaging them as a loyal community.

1. Focus on sharing solid content by understanding your business and competitive edge you have within your market. Are you the best at what you do? Do you have a set of knowledge or skills that makes you stand out as an expert? What’s your jam!?

2. Create macro content which can be made into micro content. You don’t have to spend every waking minute creating content. You can create something macro which can be repurposed in micro content ie a blog into a newsletter which can be shared on your Instagram directing the traffic back to the blog. Or a video recording of you talking to the camera chopped up into 3 different reels and then made into story teasers.
   Our top editing app for high quality photos: Lightroom
   Our top editing apps for high quality videos & reels: Capcut, Splice, Videoshop

3. Want to make professional content? Compel and convert with captions: Your visual content is crucial for attracting and entertaining your audience. Your captions can engage and eventually help convert. To convert prompt with a follow for more, direct to a link link in your bio, dropping an email in a lead gen for more or even a purchase. Try to engage through the caption and frame the image or video with some sort of context. Remember, your audience will see only the first two or three lines of your caption. So, you need to be quick to grab the attention of your audience to then give more or sum up.

4. Post often: If you’re just starting out, begin with at least 9-18 posts on your grid as your foundation posts and then aim to post at the very least daily to build your audience and engagement. The more you post, the faster you’ll grow and the quicker you’ll be able to see what times of day and types of content are drawing the best responses. Use an application like Social Sprout for instance that can help with scheduling and also reporting. Hot tip: Don’t just post just to post. All content must be on-brand, high-quality, and targeted to your audience.

Consistency is key here!

Struggle with engagement or don’t know where to start with your marketing strategy? Chat to our expert team.

We love using a program called Milanote to just dump ideas under our content pillars to use as a jog sheet when creating content. Do the same, have brainstorming sessions with your team, mentors or on your own researching, collating and having a creative moment so you have lots to pick from when the time comes to create content. 

Want to increase your engagement? Try these little tactics:

• Giveaways 

• Reshares of your community prompting more tags for shares from your clients 

• Q&A on stories 

• Polls on stories 

• Overall just using stories to drive traffic to your page or site 

• Staff/team takeovers 

• Hashtags 

• Collaborating posts 

• Collaborations with influencers (through gifting) 

• Shoppable images for ecommerce 

Genuine engagement 

Reply, comment back, interact with questions and comments. Pay attention and show you’re a human brand. 

View your Instagram as part of a marketing funnel. Make your audience aware, allow them to take interest in your brand followed by a decision then action. You can then see how what you do at the awareness stage as far as educating and captivating your audience makes the trip down to a decision all the more important. 

Don’t forget to measure your success!

For an in-app reporting tool, Insights provides some great data and is available for business accounts - so make that switch! It measures your account views and displays it right on your profile, and it links each post’s insights right under the image, making it easy to see the number of comments, likes, saves, as well as reach and impressions, from both your followers and new users. You are also able to use the glossary that explains what each metric means.

Instagram is an instrumental platform to grow your business and one of the best places to build your audience. Instagram rewards consistency.

Want to have success with your social media? Chat to our expert team.