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- Instagram is all about the visual appeal to the viewer.
The platform is easy to use
and posting beautiful photos may seem like no big deal.
But take a step back and think about a few things first.
To really rock Instagram,
you need to build a cohesive visual and content strategy
that takes into account a variety of factors.
First, consider your buyer persona
when thinking about how you want to develop
your brand aesthetic.
Is your audience young or old?
B2B or B2C?
Are they thrill seekers or bookworms?
Take a look at their demographics,
their likes and their interests
when considering how to align your own content.
One way to get started is to take a look at your competitors
and other brands that are doing well in this space.
How did they present themselves?
How did they unify imagery with fonts, filters and colors?
Brands should also think about their tone and voice.
Voice is the distinct and steady personality
or style of your brand.
Tone, on the other hand, is a subset of voice.
It refers to the moods
and attitudes of specific content pieces,
which can change depending on the channel,
the situation and the audience.
Figuring out what the right tone is for a given post
will vary depending on your audience,
your message and its purpose.
Check out the resources section for a link to a video lesson
on developing tone and voice.
- Creating a visual theme, a visual story,
a visual brand on Instagram is where you need to start.
That is number one hands down.
If you don't have a cohesive look and feel
that captures someone's attention
and keeps your business top of mind in your niche,
you're kinda losing out on what Instagram's all about.
And I always go back to that magazine look and feel.
It's the promise that you make in your bio,
does it match up to your feed?
And if your feed is confusing
and it doesn't have an overarching look, feel or theme,
then people are gonna be confused
and most likely not follow you.
- Take a cue from some of the best influencers on Instagram
and consider theming your content.
What does that mean?
Let me show you.
You can create themes based upon color,
subject matter, fonts and more.
Toy with using specific borders on every image,
grouping them by specific shots
or using certain Instagram filters.
This sort of creative aesthetic
takes some thought and planning.
Put together guidelines for your team to adhere to
when planning your Instagram posts.
One thing to keep in mind.
Puzzle layouts like these may look pretty cool,
but they aren't easy to do nor to maintain.
Additionally, since most people are viewing
individual photos in their feed,
seeing a partial picture may be off-putting.
There are a number of tutorials and tools you can use
to plan your Instagram aesthetic.
Check out the resources section for more details.
Before we start talking
about the content of your posts themselves,
let's talk about your content calendar.
A content calendar is key.
It will help you plan your content,
make sure you take into account holidays and events,
and help you stay organized.
You want to plan your posts
for the time when your audience is most active.
If you're just starting,
CoSchedule found that Mondays and Thursdays
are the best days to post between eight and nine a.m.
Avoid posting at three to four p.m.
You can also check the link in the resources section
for some help on determining the best times.
If you've been on Instagram a while,
dig into the audience section of your metrics
to see when your audience is primarily online.
You might also want to consider a third party
to schedule your content automatically.
There are several companies that offer this
as you can see from this slide.
So let's think about the content itself.
There are four main ways that your images can help
or engage your followers.
They can educate your followers,
entertain your followers,
assist your followers in solving a problem,
motivate or inspire your followers.
To attract attention,
make sure your images align
with at least one of the categories below.
Timely, post about an upcoming holiday or event
that connects to your following.
Trending, post the type of content that's currently hot
and trending on Instagram.
Original, post unique, beautiful and interesting content
that can't be found elsewhere.
Snackable, post content that's easily digestible
while your followers scroll through their feeds.
Actionable, include a call to action in your post
directing your followers to like,
share or comment on your image.
But above all, you want your images to tell a story.
The best way to establish a loyal and enthusiastic following
is to use your Instagram images to tell a story
that captivates and engages your followers
and allows them to be part of the adventure.
- A brand should think about what type of content to create
that really is based not only on being educational
or entertaining or inspiring someone,
it really is based on emotion
and the feeling that people get
when they look at your posts
and how can you connect to someone's emotion deeper.
I think that there's a huge movement with the whole feeling
and this is why you see so many posts and pictures
of people not looking directly into the camera,
but they want you to feel like you're experiencing
what they're experiencing.
- Need ideas on the types of posts to create?
You're in luck because we have a few ideas you can run with.
Behind the scenes posts.
Post events, video shoots and more.
Repost from employees.
Share the fun things that your employees love
about working at your company.
User-generated content.
User-Generated Content or UGC
is curated content from your fans and followers
that capture your brand style.
Educational posts.
These are quick tips on how to do
or make something with easy-to-follow instructions.
Influencer posts.
These posts piggyback on the fame of a celebrity
or well-known public figure to draw attention to your brand.
Note that you may need to pay influencers to work with them.
Motivational posts.
These posts are simple visuals
with some kind of uplifting text or quote overlaid on top.
Post these sparingly to avoid looking cheesy.
News jacking.
This refers to developing content
based on a local, national or world trend
or by jumping in on other trending topics.
I asked David Meerman Scott
who wrote the book on news jacking to explain.
- So news jacking is the idea of every new story
breaks in exactly the same way.
It grows in importance.
It peaks at some point, drops off.
As a new story is breaking,
journalists and analysts
and people on social media
and possibly people who wanna buy products and services
are looking for somebody who is an expert
in that particular topic.
So if you happen to be somewhere
where something is happening
and you can create an image around it
or if you happen to have an expertise on a breaking story
and you can do a real quick video
or you can do a real quick update
maybe with a photo of yourself
or a photo of something appropriate,
you can do a really great job
into getting your ideas into the market.
A friend of mine's name is Mitch Jackson.
He's a lawyer so what he does
is comment on the legal aspects of news stories
providing the legal ramifications
of what's going on out there
and he often does that using social media.
Anyone can do that,
getting their expertise out at the moment that's right.
- Along those lines,
it seems like there's a holiday for everything these days.
Fun events like National Sibling Day
and National Ice Cream Day
generate a ton of engagement on social media.
Develop content that fits in
and make sure you tag your content appropriately
to connect to the conversation.
Now that you have these content strategy tips in mind,
you're ready to start creating posts and videos
that will help your business grow better on Instagram.
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