When you have an Instagram account, it can seem like your posts, stories, and reels are getting lost in the sea that is social media. Save, perhaps, for those posts you pay to promote, you might as well be sharing to a social network of one—you.
By considering insights into your social media platforms, using market research to target your ideal audience, and more generally improving your social media marketing strategy, you can stand out from the crowd (in a good way!) and get your updates in front of the Instagram users you’d love to see them.
Develop a consistent strategy.
If you ask any content marketer, they’ll tell you: consistency is key to success on social media and other creator-focused platforms. When you promise to post a blog post every Tuesday morning, your target audience will expect new content on Tuesdays. If you don’t deliver, they’ll stop expecting it and seeking out your new post.
To maintain consistency beyond your simplest scheduling efforts, consider creating an Instagram template to help you streamline your content creation process and ensure that each Instagram story, post, or reel is instantly recognizable as one that comes from your brand.
Incorporate your passions & beliefs.
As you plan your Instagram feed, you know you’ll use your new template to promote a new product, podcast episode, or other item or service you’re hoping to market. However, you might consider adding a few Instagram posts (or posts on other social media platforms) that add a personal touch of passion to your profile.
For example, consider the efforts of Alamos Gold, Turkey. Their company paid for reforestation of the area around their Turkish mine, demonstrating their commitment to environmental sustainability. As a social media best practice, consider what you value as an individual influencer or company and how you could promote a particular cause through a social media post.
Offer your followers value.
When you sit down to develop a marketing strategy to manage your presence across social media sites, it’s easy to fall into the trap of non-stop promotion. While, ideally, your product or service will certainly provide value to your target audience, you’ll need another type of content to draw them in and help them to create a positive association with you or your company.
A great way to do this (perhaps even the best way!) is by offering valuable information or resources free of charge. This might be a helpful infographic or a free download, for instance. By giving your potential clients or new customers a taste of what you offer, they’ll know what sort of quality work you produce for your paid offers.
Upgrade your imagery.
No matter how valuable the information in it, you’ll find that it’s hard to sell or promote even free downloads or infographics if they aren’t visually appealing. If you’re posting to a social network like Instagram, Pinterest, or Snapchat, your content is inherently visual; TikTok, YouTube, and certain portions of other social media sites rely similarly on video content.
Whichever platforms are your social network(s) of choice, pay close attention to the photography or design quality accompanying each post. From the fonts you. choose to the background of the image, you’ll catch their eye with the visual appeal long before they even consider reading your caption.
When your potential customers are passing time on their mobile device, scrolling through a social media platform, you hope to catch their eye, show them a new way to do something or new product to try, and encourage them to take the next step towards buying or trying your service or product. To do so, you must showcase great content and let those posts stand out amidst a sea of tweets, snaps, pins, and other posts.
