If you want to give your posts the best chance to get the most reach and boost your engagement
at the same time, then you gonna wanna watch this video!
I’m sharing all the things you should do BEFORE you post on Instagram to get the best
results possible.
Ready?
Let’s do this!
Hi my lovely people, it’s Natalia and welcome back to my channel where I share super-actionable
ideas on content creation for entrepreneurs and creatives!
Today, I’m coming back with a video I promised you not too long ago, talking all about what
you should do BEFORE you post on Instagram.
We all focus on our content and how to make it as good as possible, but there are actually
some things that you can do before you hit publish that can really boost your reach and
engagement so it’s important to pay attention to this too.
The last thing on my list is a really juicy one so make sure you watch the whole video
to find out my absolute favorite tip!
You know me, I’m all about sharing no fluff content so let’s get this thing going!
1.
Check if it fits the strategy
The absolute very first thing you should do before you publish each of your posts is to
check if it fits your strategy.
Have you ever gotten into a creative code, you got very enthusiastic about getting your
content ready, went completely with the flow, only to see that what you’ve created is
nothing like what you’ve expected when sitting down to do it all?
I know I have and before I say anything else, it’s usually a good thing.
But!
Getting super creative can mean that you have a few fantastic ideas that don’t really
go well with your tribe or your brand.
But what does it mean exactly?
Well, for me, the two best questions to ask here are: does the post tie to the values
my brand is representing and does it serve my audience well.
Let’s break these two down a little.
Sometimes, an idea is great but it’s feels very much out of place with everything else
your brand is doing.
As an example, if you run a cottagecore fashion boutique and post a lot of content that’s
flowy and aesthetic and gives this like slow-life vibe, it would be so out of place if you jumped
on a dancey Reel trend with trap music in the background.
No matter what story you come up with for it, it just doesn’t go well with the style
of your brand.
Even more important is keeping your audience at heart.
Something may be super useful or helpful to you, but if the post is not matched with what
your audience needs and finds valuable, than that post is poorly matched.
If you publish enough of the non-targeted posts like that, you risk the algorithm not
favoring your content because people will not resonate with it and not engage actively.
This of course leads to an account with a poor engagement rate and one that’s not
really growing much.
And mind you, there can be many ways in which your post is bringing value, it doesn’t
necessarily need to be educational, but it can be useful in some way, entertaining, inspiring,
etc. etc.
Now, I like to check whether all my posts fit the strategy at the stage where I’ve
mapped out my content for an X amount of time like a week or two.
This way, I’m not spending too much time trying to make an idea work that ultimately
is not right for my brand or my audience.
Of course, as I mentioned, the creative process is a gimmicky one sometimes and it can take
you places, so I always read and watch my posts before I schedule or publish them.
That’s how I know my strategy is well-executed and each post is in line with my marketing
goals and with what my audience needs to hear from me.
This process is much easier when you batch create content ahead of time because you can
analyze all your posts against each other.
With a bunch of posts created or even planned beforehand, you’ll be able to see clearly
if they convey all the important themes your brand represents, if they hit your objectives
and if something stands out in the wrong way.
With all that being said, executing a strategy through your content is not about obsessing
over each and every one of your posts and putting everything under intense scrutiny.
There will be times when you really feel like posting something because it flows from your
heart or you’re stuck a bit and just need to put something out there.
And that’s absolutely fine.
The key here is balance and knowing that not every post is going to be an instant hit.
As long as you’re not posting something that’s going against your brand’s values
or is completely irrelevant to your audience, then you will be fine.
2.
Optimize your post
Now I know I always talk about optimization, whether it’s your Instagram Bio, your YouTube
videos, your channel, or frankly ANY OTHER profile you have online, but I feel like it’s
still massively disregarded by creators on social media.
But this is so important and no different when it comes to posting on Instagram.
For quite some time, we’ve known that keywords are important for Instagram now.
If you’ve performed a search in the last months, you might have seen that Instagram
shows a more detailed search view that feeds you different content that matches your query.
And how do they do it?
Well, through keywords!
You need to understand that putting those key phrases in your caption is going to inform
Instagram what this post is about so that the algorithm can show it to relevant people.
Let’s say I’m looking for a winter bridal bouquet.
Now, that’s a very specific search and it’s not just about the previous options that we
had in our search like accounts or tags etc.
These are unlikely to return any relevant content.
But we now have this top section where you can find posts, and reels and videos and it
makes the search function on Instagram so valuable.
But let’s look at the individual posts here.
As you can see, you have the keyword “winter bridal bouquet” in the caption and in some
cases in the hashtags as well.
That’s why you definitely want to include a relevant keyword or two in your post.
And while we’re on the subject of hashtags, I know it’s easy to get frustrated over
them, but this is one of the key reasons why it’s still essential to include them within
your posts.
Specifically within your caption because that's where they can function best.
Now that Instagram SEO is becoming more and more important, hashtags are a sure way to
provide the algorithm with essential information about the post.
That’s how it knows what the content is about too and can push it not only to people
who follow specific hashtags but also suggest them to people who follow or like content
from similar creators.
Not only that, but hashtags are a must if you want to land on the explore page and can
still boost your reach.
From my personal experience with my account, it regularly gets me anywhere from 5 to 20%
impressions and that’s a number that still matters to me and makes me include hashtags
in my posts.
On one occasion, with a post that wasn’t a popular one by any means, I had 50% of my
reach coming from landing on the Explore page via a specific hashtag.
If that’s not convincing you that hashtags can still give you a good boost from time
to time, I don’t know what will!
And staying in our captions for a moment longer, before I post on Instagram, I always make
sure it has a strong hook and a call to action.
A hook is meant to draw the attention so that people click on the Read More and consume
the whole thing so it’s very important that the first sentence of your caption is enticing.
And a call to action is a must because it prompts your followers to perform an action
you want them to perform, whether it’s answering your question to engage with your post, saving
it for later, sharing it with a friend who may need it or signing up to your course.
No matter what this activity is, your conversion rate is not going to be big without a strong
call to action so always check that you have one within your caption.
Before you post, I’d also always check that you have a location set if that’s relevant
to your business - super important if you have a local business.
And, my absolute favorite little option, adding an alt text, which not only helps with SEO,
again telling the algorithm what the post is about, but more importantly, it makes your
content accessible and makes sure that people who are visually impaired know what your image
or graphic is showing.
If you don’t add an alt text, it’s definitely not the end of the world, but you are relying
on Instagram to do it automatically for you and you won’t know how accurate it is because,
well, you won’t see it unless you look at Instagram with accessibility features turned
on.
So be a good creator and include alt text with your posts.
3.
Figure out the best time for posting
The best time to post on Instagram is at 6am, sometimes a bit earlier at 5am.
That’s your problem sorted and that’s when you always need to post.
*EYE ROLL*
Nah, there’s no one perfect time to post on Instagram and if someone is telling you
you have to post at 5.43pm on Mondays and Saturdays than they’re lying to you.
Even back in the early days of social media when we used to manage content as a social
media agency for different brands, there were different times for different profiles because
the audiences were different.
And that’s the clue here - there are so many people in this world who have varying
lifestyles and when they often open up the app to consume content depends on who they
are and what they do as people.
That’s another reason why you really need to focus on figuring out your audience!
But hold on, the numbers I’ve just given you here so 5-6am are not just a figment of
my imagination, but actual data taken from Later’s own research.
They’ve analyzed 35 million Instagram posts around the world and came up with these results
here meaning that globally, it’s best to post at 5am in your local time on Mondays
and Thursdays, and for all the other days, it’s 6am.
I highly recommend you check out the full article because Later’s team share some
really interesting insights about posting and engagement rates at different times.
I’ll link it for you in the description box below.
You could say, hey, that’s great, that’s what research shows so my posting times are
sorted, right?
And yes, you could do that, but you have to remember that this is generalized data that
may not necessarily be true to your account for the reasons I’ve stated a moment ago.
You may have a completely unique audience that hangs out on Instagram at different times.
So what’s the solution?
Check out your own unique analytics in your Instagram Insights tab.
If you go there, you’ll know when your audience is likely to be active on the app which will
tell you with a level of certainty when your best time to post is.
If you go to your profile, click insights in the middle, go to total audience and scroll
all the way to the bottom, you’ll see the graphs for your own tribe.
For me, that time is around 3pm but I always post before that peak so that my post can
get there before the main wave hits.
This way, my followers can get on the app and start engaging with the content straight
away without me hoping to catch them on the feed again later.
4.
Activate your audience
Now, my absolute favorite thing to do before posting on Instagram is to activate my audience.
Not only does it help boost your engagement rate, but it’s also a great way to connect
with your followers and build rapport with your audience.
And what do I mean by “activating my auidence”?
Let me help you visualize it.
Imagine it’s the middle of the day, you’re about to go on your lunch break, you’re
getting some rest from work and you get a notification to say someone responded to your
comment.
You click on it, read it, it resonates with you, you reply.
You’ve just engaged with that account and then this person posts.
You see it on your feed.
Again, it resonates with you, and since you’ve just exchanged a few lines with this person,
it’s natural to comment on this post too.
See what happened here?
When you, as a creator, take a few minutes BEFORE you post to respond to some comments
or some DMs too, you’re activating your audience.
You’re creating small prompts for people to jump on the app and continue a conversation
with you which then signals to the algorithm that this person will be interested in your
content because they’ve just engaged with you.
For bonus points, you can go outside of your followers and your inbox and chat to other
creators in your niche.
My favorite way to do it is to check some of the hashtags I know my audience finds relevant
or actively follows.
This way, I can spark conversations even if there are no outstanding comments under my
posts or DMs in my inbox.
And of course, we don’t want to be cynical here and do these things only to get more
people to see our posts or create inflated engagement.
Think of this activity as your way to build an engaged community and learn more about
your audience.
This, in the long run, is going to positively affect your strategy because you’ll understand
more about what makes your audience light up and what problems they may be experiencing.
I know a lot of people crave more engagement but they don’t understand what it’s about
and I always always talk about how each number that shows up on your follower count represents
an actual human being.
A living, breathing person with their own set of interests and reasons why they followed
you out of all people.
Cherish that connection and take a moment before you post to nurture those online relationships.
Now my question is for you: do you have a mini routine for when you post?
Have you been doing any of these things I listed here?
If not, I’d love to hear which one resonated with you the most so share it with me in the
comments below.
Now you know what you can do BEFORE you post on Instagram to boost your reach, but do you
know what you can do AFTER?
I have a video on my channel that talks exactly about that and I’ve shared 5 really good
actionable tips so make sure you watch it next.
And if you want to create content that hits all the important spots in your strategy,
then check out this video here to find out what 3 types of content you need to be creating
to get results.
Thank you so much for watching, leave a thumbs up if you’ve found this video helpful and
I can’t wait to see you next time!