How do I create an
instagram strategy
for my small business?
How Do I Create an Instagram Strategy For My Small Business?
Instagram is the fastest growing social media platform among the “Big 5” (others being Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube) and it’s one of the best places to build relationships with your customers. Through two-way conversations with your followers and behind the scenes content, you’re able to humanize your brand and showcase the people behind the business. With 25 million businesses active on the platform as well as integrated ad opportunity (through facebook ad manager), a robust Instagram strategy is a must in order to grow your small business ….and with so many management tools and platforms out there, it can be overwhelming to know where to start.
Perhaps you don't have time or resources to keep up with consistent posting? Or maybe you don't know what to post at all! Or... it could be that you already have great content on Instagram but you have no idea how to track or measure how you're doing in order to make adjustments and improvements to your content mix.
What are some first steps I can take to improve my instagram right now?
First let's look at some important steps and tips to help you get the most out of your Instagram and help you build a loyal following and build a great relationship with your customers:
1. TAKE INVENTORY
Make sure you are using an IG for business account and that it is linked to any other social media accounts. Here’s a quick 5 minute video on how to set up Instagram for business and why you should do this now: How to switch to IG business- Utilize IG highlights and make sure your profile gives viewers a compelling initial overview of what your page has to offer!
2. SET GOALS
- Create specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, time-bound (SMART) Instagram goals. Make sure you are using the SMART goal format and be as specific as possible. Check out how to create SMART goals here. SMART goals are not just for Instagram. Free tools like Asana can help your team tack all your goals over time, allowing you to map out your company’s next steps while staying organized.
3. KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE
- Consider them as your tribe when you're publishing your content. Think of their daily habits, how are they thinking and feeling? What struggles do they face? You can find out about your audience through IG insights or other platforms that we will discuss within this article.
What Is My “Instagram Content Strategy”?
Your Instagram Content Strategy is an overview of the content categories that will act as your guiding principles and help clarify in your mind what to post. When brainstorming these categories, consider content in the following categories and customize to what is more relevant to your business.
Once you have brainstormed your content you can create a strategy overview. For example, say you are a trucking company that employs a higher percentage of females than males and your goal is to build brand voice and amplify your messages of the community.
Tip: coming up with a frequency and cadence on when you will post from each category will help you stay consistent in your posting.
What Tools Should I Use For My Business Instagram?
Next let's take a look at some tools to help you action your IG strategy
How Do I Use Instagram Analytics?
Instagram Analytics will help you track your profile visits, high performing posts and begin to understand how your consumer is engaging with your content. The best part is that it's free! Start exploring Instagram Insights now by clicking the into the top left icon on your profile.
Click the hamburger icon on the top right of your profile
Click on Insights
View Dashboard and data
To learn more about how to use Instagram Insights and what kind of things you can learn from it, check here.
What Tools Can I Use to Create Content?
Now that you have an Instagram strategy and content pillars in mind, you might be wondering, how do I create high quality content? Photographers and graphic designers are expensive!
Canva is an easy to use graphic design platform with an extensive library of templates and free images that are customizable with your business in mind.
While the basic version of Canva is free, there are limitations to the flexibility and ease of the platform, you might be better served by opting for the premium version, Canva Pro version, which costs $119.99/ year (or $9.99 per month) with the option to pay yearly or monthly. If you are a mid-sized company with multiple people possibly collaborating on creative branding, you might want to look into the enterprise version at $30 per month per person. The enterprise version has additional features like team dashboards and comment and editing tools to help manage assignments and collaboration across your organization.
How Do I Manage and Track My Content?
If you have your other social media and marketing platforms like Facebook, Google Analytics, Google my Business, Pinterest, LinkedIn up and running, we recommend using a productivity platform like Sendible which allows you to manage all your platforms and social networks together in a centralized hub.
Sendible is a super straightforward program that will help you bring your Instagram game to a seriously professional level. You’ll be able to enhance content by scheduling posts to publish at times where you are likely to get the most likes and comments. It also gives you helpful data on what kind of posts perform well and allows you to build custom reports and so much more.
- Free trial- yes
- Startup: $59 per month
- Business: $99 per month
- Corporate: $139 per month
- Premium: $499 per month
Track, Adapt and Grow
Remember to learn and adapt your Instagram strategy as you grow. There is no one size fits all approach and often trial and error is a necessary strategy. Instagram continues to roll out helpful tools for business owners so it's important to stay current and follow and monitor competitors posts. If you see cool or new kinds of posts in your feed, do a quick search on how they might have been created and then repurpose with your own twist.
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