Some of these tips may be unpopular, but I promise to never tell you to do something (or NOT do something) arbitrarily!
I will always give you a [good] reason for my advice.
AND WITH THAT, LET'S DIVE RIGHT IN!
DON'T POST TO YOUR FEED MULTIPLE TIMES PER DAY.
Back when Instagram sorted what posts you saw chronologically, it was beneficial to post to your feed every day and even multiple times per day (yikes). Thankfully, Instagram's algorithm has changed that so it prioritizes feed posts based on these factors:
- Interest: What type of content you have interacted with before
- Relationship/Following: Who you're following, how many people you're following, and how often you interact with them.
- Timeliness, Frequency, & Usage: When a post is made and how often you are on Instagram.
With your feed posts, the object is quality over quantity. Don't waste your (and your audience's) time and energy on a crap ton of lame posts that deliver ZERO value (I swear to gahd if I see one more "rosé all day" post...). Instead create 2-3 value-packed posts per week!
DO POST TO YOUR STORIES MULTIPLE TIMES PER DAY
Statistics show that 500 million people watch stories every day and 62% of people say they've become more interested in a brand or product after seeing it in stories. And, unlike the feed post, which must be carefully written and planned for maximum effect, Instagram stories are so much more low maintenance. Each slide need only be 15 seconds long and they last only 24 hours, so you can experiment more with tone and imagery than you can with a feed post!
Don't split your feed photos into multiple posts
Sure it looks cool when you go look at your profile, but most people don't pay attention to the way your grid looks; they are more interested in whether or not your content is going to entertain, inspire, or educate them (i.e. give them value).
By their nature, you must post these all in a row, which will annoy the hell out of your followers who are all of a sudden getting spammed by a bunch of photos from you that literally don't show the whole picture unless you look at the grid. This will wreck the algorithm for you, as Instagram will see your audience scrolling past your posts without engaging and will be like "this account doesn't post anything valuable" and will stop showing your posts to your followers.
Do create carousel posts
So, instead of annoying the f**k out of your audience, instead offer them something valuable in the form of a carousel post (a single post with multiple images you can scroll through--see this post for an example)
This will satisfy your desire to share a ton of images or videos at once and give more context to your post, especially if you are showing the step-by-step process of something.
Furthermore, each time your audience scrolls past the same carousel post, Instagram will show them a different slide from that post, effectively doubling (or even tripling) the chance that they will stop scrolling and actually engage with your post!
DON'T Autopost
Some social media planners like Planoly & Later allow you to "autopost" any posts you have planned. I don't recommend autoposting for a couple of reasons:
- I always recommend engaging with your audience about 5 minutes before and 5 minutes after you make a post so that when those people go to reciprocate and check your recent posts out, they are more likely to engage with it (which makes the Instagram algorithm happy.)
- But more importantly, sometimes we plan posts and when the date rolls around to post them, the message is no longer appropriate. An example of this is when we first went into lockdown in March due to COVID-19, many brands had already scheduled posts with messages telling people to visit. They had to scramble to delete those posts, which is time consuming and looks unprofessional.
That said...
DO schedule posts in advance but manually post them.
I do highly recommend scheduling your posts ahead of time using social media planners like Planoly & Later [I personally use and love PlannThat]. By batch planning your posts ahead of time, you free up your time to get back to doing what you love most! (Click here for a blog post about how to plan 16 posts in less than an hour!)
DON'T Post & Ghost
I see this all of the time and it is so frustrating: brands will make a post on Instagram to "fulfill their social media marketing quota" for the week and then disappear until they make their next post! When you just disappear from the platform instead of responding to comments and DMs, you are communicating to your audience that all they are to you is a number. Yuck!
Instead...
DO stay on the platform for at least 5 minutes after posting to Respond
As I mentioned above, I always recommend engaging 5 minutes before and 5 minutes after you make a post. Remember that social media is intended to be social! By engaging with other users, you are showing your audience that you're accessible and responsive, which makes you more trustworthy. People are more likely to make purchases from brands they trust, so by responding to comments and DMs, you will have a higher probability of making a sale!
Finally,
Don't get discouraged if something you are doing doesn't work right away
Social media is a marathon, not a sprint. I always tell my clients to not expect huge results for at least a month; but if you're being consistent and having fun, you will see some pretty major results!
DO learn, adapt, and HAVE FUN!
While social media can be an amazing marketing tool, it wasn't originally intended for brands to sell shit on. Always keep in mind why people are on social media in the first place!
They are there to be,
- Entertained/Inspired
- Educated/Informed
- Social
So long as you're doing at least one of those three things you will be good to go! Be consistent, learn what your audience likes/doesn't like, and enjoy yourself!
Heather Daenitz is the founder and photographer of Craft & Cluster, a wine & beer photography and social media marketing company based in Santa Barbara County, California.
When she isn't photographing and teaching you what NOT to do on Instagram, Heather can be found hanging out with her husband, two dogs, and three chickens in their backyard garden.
