Here are 5 tips on how to up level your Instagram social media game.
1. Optimize Your Insta Bio
Your username is searchable. So it’s important to go by your personal name or your business name. This isn’t a place to get creative. For instance if you are a photographer, I would recommend using your photography name. My photography business includes my name so mine is Brooke Janae Photography.
Your bio allows you to use bold keywords. Put something in this space that is searchable like “Business Coach” or “Texas Wedding Photographer.”
Instagram Bio formula:
Who you are + Who you serve + How you serve them
Give a clear CTA (call to action) and point them in the direction of your freebie/lead magnet.
Website:
2. Create an Aesthetic Feed
People are drawn to aesthetically pleasing Instagram feeds. You can achieve this in a couple ways. You can either use a filter or preset on all of your images that you use on your feed. This allows everything to look cohesive. There are free apps you can use to create presets for your images such as SnapSeed, Color Story, Lightroom Mobile, etc. You can also purchase presets to use on all of your photos from someone and then apply it to your images.
3. Write Captions with Value
Your captions matter as much as your images do. The more vulnerable you can be from time to time, the better. People are longing to make a connection. Once they make that connection then you start building your know, like, and trust factor. You should be giving free value through tips, insights, personal stories, and transformation.
The structure of your caption should look like this:
A catchy blog post title (attention grabbing)
The body or story of your caption
A call to action with a clear direction of what to do next
Examples of call to actions: double tap, tag a friend, read the blog, DM me, etc.
Lengthier captions > one liners.
4. Quality vs. Quantity
There is no one size fits all posting strategy. What works for me may not work for you. You need to be super engaged with your audience and know what their Instagram habits are. Do they like to connect in the morning or on their lunch break? Do they enjoy the tips more of the vulenrable stories more?
With that being said, there are a couple tips that can help you plan your strategy. Instagram posts have a life of about 24 hours. So you should be spacing your posts out about every day. If you are just starting then you can get by with two posts per day if they are spaced out enough. This will allow you to build your content without feeling like you are spamming the gram multiple times a day.
5. Use Hashtags Correctly
While hashtags don’t hold as much weight as they once did, they are still a tool you should utilize. Think of hashtags as an organization tool. You are organizing your post into different folders like a filing cabinet. You need to use hashtags that are relevant to what you are talking about in your caption, relevant to your industry or lifestyle, and relevant to your ideal client. This allows you to use hashtags strategically.
When you use hashtags correctly, it increases the amount of people who can find you. Engagement ranks higher than hashtags in the algorithm so you need to build your engagement rate up first before relying on hashtags to bring in new eyes on your account. Be sure to interact with those that are already following you. Spend 15-20 minutes a day engaging.
If you follow these 5 tips, you will be able to up level your Instagram game.
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