What to post on Instagram?
Many marketers are doing 2 strategies when creating their Instagram marketing strategy.
First, they are reading hundred of articles and ebooks about what big brands are doing. The funny thing about these articles is that they are almost all on the same brands, such as General Electric, Red Bull, Starbucks, Mercedes or Charity Water.
The second thing they ‘re doing is that they’re experimenting and trying again and again and again. It’s like an A/B testing about what to post on Instagram. More than that, if their competition is posting one kind of post, they are doing the same.
And I’m not saying that this kind of strategy is bad. The only thing is that if we don’t get to the goal we want to achieve it isn’t enough.
But what I do not understand is that marketers don’t have enough time to do research and to listen.
Think about this: do you know why your consumers are using Instagram? Do you know how they are using Instagram? Do you know what kind of content do they consume on Instagram?
But what if I said you can know what to post on Instagram if you follow my 3 steps for 30 minutes per day for the next few weeks? What if I told you that by doing this tactic, you will know what kind of content to post on Instagram on behalf your brand?
When it comes to Instagram marketing, the best marketers are not working harder or smarter.
The best marketers are listening more than the other and have more patience.
1. Get deeper in your Instagram followers’ profiles
If you want to know what kind of content your audience loves the most, you should start listening more. And how you do that? Look at your current follower’s profiles.
Look at what kind of content they publish and who they’re following. Do this with 10 accounts/day and write them down. Who is your follower and what kind of content (account or photo/video) are they consuming? You can easily copy/paste the content.
After 2 weeks of 10 accounts/day of looking and researching, you’ll know the big picture. You’ll see what they are consuming more of photos or videos, landscapes or portrait, quotes or beautiful photos and so on. You’ll know more about 140 accounts than you knew before. And guess what? You’re more familiar with them because you understand their behavior, needs and what they like to post and how they like to comment/ engage.
Maybe you already knew this strategy, but if you didn’t, you should start doing it right away.
I believe that marketers have a lot to learn from Instagrammers and they need to connect more with them on the platform.
More than that, many of their followers can be micro-influencers that can help them know what kind of content to publish on Instagram.
2. Connect with micro-influencers
We’ve heard about “influencer marketing” and the importance of working with influencers. The fact is that many brands are running after the big celebrities or digital VIPs.
But what about the micro influencer? Exactly. The one that doesn’t have 100.000 followers on Instagram but they have a big impact in their community.
And where do you find those micro influencers? How do you connect with them? What do you ask from them?
First of all, you should look again at your followers. Write down their usernames and how many followers they have. Choose the top 5 most followed influencers in your list and connect with them. Tell them that you appreciate that they are following you. Ask them why they are following and how they found about you. Then see if they are open to a collaboration with your brand. If it’s yes, there you go. You have an open road to micro-influencers and they can help you leverage more engagement on Instagram.
You can try even an a/b test campaign with them. Ask them to create 2 type of contents for your brand, 1 video, and 1 photo and watch to see which one perform better. After the campaign, you’ll know which type of content creates a better engagement.
According to Gnack’s CEO Chris Gonzalez,
We see micro-influencers get an average of 2-to-5 times more organic engagement per Instagram post, compared to those with more than 100,000 followers. Their content will be organically performing better on the platform due to the inherent superior engagement.
Don’t just run after the Kardashians or other big celebrities that cost hundred of thousand of dollars. Start with the followers that already love you and see how they can help your Instagram Strategy.
Can you see how easy is to know what to post on Instagram? You just have to go into the depth strategy.
And yes, you can also do this strategy with your Twitter followers, Facebook Fans or other social media networks. Anywhere you can look a little deeper into your followers and friends.
It will be a win-win situation and more than that, consumers will know that you are creating content for them because you already know their behavior.
Now do you know what to post on Instagram?
Photo by Jen Theodore on Unsplash
For more tips on deciding what to post on the platform, check out this cool infographic from Cool Infographics: