A Super Basic Introduction to Instagram

Before I start this post, full disclosure: I am hardly an Instagram expert! I have a little over 500 followers, am not an influencer and it’s not a channel that drives business my way.

I’m a firm believer in picking one or two channels you like, getting good at them and driving them hard. Instagram isn’t one of those channels for me, but I think it’s fun and I have my own brand building use for it. 

I’ve picked up some knowledge about it along the way. Many of my clients aren’t that versed in how it works, so I thought I’d do a brain dump of everything I know and post it on this here blog.

I’ve tried to create some logical groupings for said brain dump. Here they are:

Your Objective 

Before going wild on Instagram decide what your objective is. Do you want to increase brand awareness? Get more sales? Become an influencer? Find and connect with like minded people? This will determine your approach. For example:

• More brand awareness: Post content that visually and conceptually aligns with your brand as well as ‘lifestyle adjacent’ content.

• More sales: Post content that helps solves your ideal customers problems. Link the content to your website then add calls to action or crosslinks to a sales page.

• Amassing followers/becoming an influencer: Think about things like contests and ads

I use instagram as an extension of my portfolio and brand. Another place for potential clients to check me out in the ‘know, like & trust’ process. I have no dreams of amassing followers and it’s not a big part of my sales strategy, which takes the pressure off. 

Decide what you’re trying to do with your IG account and then proceed accordingly. Otherwise you will just end up wasting a lot of time, posting willy nilly and spinning your wheels with not much to show for it.

Content Strategy

Once you’ve got your objective, you’ve got to decide what kind of content you want to post.

I mentioned ‘lifestyle adjacent’ content above. What I mean by this: My ideal client is a female creative business owner. Yes she wants business tips and website help, but she probably also enjoys recipes, home decor, discovering other inspirational creatives, design-y stuff, jokes and humour she can relate to.

How can you find this stuff out? Research by snooping around the accounts your direct competitors followers.

I have really found the content bucket approach helpful for coming up with and scheduling content. Think of a few buckets of content types you want to post regularly. For example: promotion, behind the scenes, connection, lifestyle.  Rotate posts/content through these buckets. 

You can see how I do this on my account. My content buckets are:

1. Connection: My kid, my dog, humour, recipes, me and my home 

2. Promotion: Client testimonials, website project case studies

3. Creativity: Inspirational creative people and products

4. Education & Help: Tutorial/how-to blog posts (like this one), books, productivity quotes, etc.

There are a variety of post types within each of the buckets. Having these broad categories makes it easier to come up with post ideas and not feel like I’m starting from scratch or always trying to figure out what to post. 

Tell a story. I like the bite-sized chunkiness and immediacy of Instagram. You can use the caption to create a mini blog post to tell a story about whatever image it is your posting. How is it relevant to your customer? What does it reveal about you?

Gallery Block

This is an example. To display your Instagram posts, double-click here to add an account or select an existing connected account. Learn more

Use your captions as an opportunity to authentically and casually introduce yourself to your audience. The caption doesn’t have to be a novel. Little by little, people will get to you know who you are by the captions you write.

It bears repeating: People work with and buy from people they Know, Like and Trust.

The Algorithm

I hate algorithms. One of the things that drove me out of e-commerce was that I was constantly trying to stay on top of algorithms: the Google algorithm, the Pinterest algorithm, the Etsy algorithm.

I started out to design and sell cool stuff I loved and ended up frantically attempting to churn out a constant stream of content to please the algorithm gods. Not fun. So I stopped.

Now, if your goal is to amass a zillion followers, sale lots your services or products or to become some kind of influencer, you’re going to have to learn how to constantly game the Instagram algorithm. Here’s what I know about it.

Pay to Play

Instagram, like most other social media is ‘pay to play’. The way you get in front of more people (even your own followers) is to promote or boost your content and/or pay for Instagram ads.

Engagement is key

IG wants people to engage with your content. Likes = ok, comments/conversation threads = better. The more an individual post gets, the more it will get shown. Instagram won’t show your content to everyone who follows you. First it will check what the engagement level of a piece of content, if it’s high it will then be shown to more of your followers

Use the newest features

For example IGTV and Instagram stories and whatever else they come up with next. Basic image posts rank the lowest.

Post a lot and regularly

Instagram will show your content in your followers feeds less if you don’t.

Tactics

Here’s just a  list of tactics you can use. Keep your objective and strategy in mind when deciding what tactics make sense for you.

1. Collaborations: Find people on IG who also have products/services/content that your ideal customer is into, figure out a way to collaborate with each other. Find ways to get in front of other people’s Instagram audiences to increase your followers.

2. Use your profile! Add links to relevant pages on your website, write a short and snappy profile. Linktree is good for directing people to certain web pages or other places on the web you want them to go too.

3. Use scheduling and analytics software. I LOVE Later.

4. Ask questions Comments/answers up engagement score.

5. Host a contest same as above about comments and engagement score.

6. UGC (User-generated-content) Ask your audience to post images with your product and using a hashtag.

7. Respond ASAP to comments on posts

8. Speak at live or online events  This has gotten me the most followers. I include my @eleanormayrhofer at the beginning and end of my presentation, and like clockwork the entire audience will pick up their phone and follow me. Same thing on a smaller scale at IRL networking events (not so easy right now, I know).

9. Hashtag formula: Use some with high search volume, some with general relevance to your product or service and some that are super-specific to your product/service/name etc.

10. Use your existing networks If you’re in any online groups/ IRL networking groups, post asking for everyones instagram accounts and suggest everyone follows each other.

11. Promote your posts and buy ads There is an entire science to this and is successful for many people. I’m sure it’s also a good way to lose a lot of money. I would research thoroughly before spending on this.

Further Reading

1. Hubspot Instagram Marketing Guide 

2. I really liked this post by Tom Froese an illustrator who is very successful on Instagram.

3. Later Blog - Up to the minute info and advice on IG Here’s a good place to start: How to get more followers in 2020.

Hope this helped demystify Instagram a bit.  Now get out there and start posting! And don’t forget to follow me at @eleanormayrhofer !