What to Post on Instagram to Grow Your Audience

We have all been there - staring at our phones with the Instagram app open wondering what to post that day. First, you have to find the right picture to plug into your carefully curated feed. Then you have to come up with a caption that will sound clever, but not like you are trying too hard. Finally you post it only to watch it fall flat. It’s gut-wrenching. Well, you're not alone! Time to rethink how you use social media.

One of the biggest reasons businesses have turned to social platforms like Instagram is to connect with their audience in hopes of driving product sales. That being said, most companies don't sell their products directly on the Instagram app so in order to convert eyeballs to dollar bills you need to post something that will make a person leave the app, go to your website and click buy. That’s going to take much more than a cute pic and a clever caption.

Here is how to work smarter not harder when it comes to Instagram.

1. Show Up...Intentionally

‍

Posting a random photo and caption to your Instagram and holding your breath hoping for engagement is kind of like throwing spaghetti at a wall to see if it will stick. The first thing you need to do is take a step back and create a framework for your feed. You want to decide a few things:

‍

How frequently you want to show up on the platform
Who you are trying to reach?
What are you trying to say?
What do you want your feed to look and feel like?

‍

Instagram is a great platform for directly engaging with thousands of potential clients. Use this as an opportunity to educate people about who you are and what you can do for them. A great way to do this is to mirror the categories you plan to cover on your blog, and post about those categories frequently, this will help your brand look and feel connected across the board.

As you build your audience's trust over time by providing them with valuable information, they will start to hang on your every word and be willing to take the time to visit your website for more of the same high-quality content.

2. Develop a Posting Flow

Just like your editorial calendar, you want to literally map out your Instagram Editorial Calendar. For starters, let’s decide what topics you are going to post about. To do this, create a grid - let’s say you want to post once a day - your grid will be 7 squares across and 4 squares down.

Now take a look at the editorial calendar for your blog and the categories you have chosen to cover. These will also be the categories you want to post about on your Instagram and will help you create a posting flow. Let’s take our Fashion Blogger example again, her categories were: Fashion, Beauty, Travel, Fitness, and Shopping. So her grid would basically mirror that order and then repeat itself. Since there are 7 days a week, you can also add a few ‘fun posts’ into your feed that you might not necessarily cover on your blog like personalized posts, mood board inspiration, your animals etc. Something to help your audience get to know you better.

‍

3. Plug and Play

We talked about batching your blog content, but you can also batch your Instagram content as well. Now that you know what kinds of content you will be posting to Instagram and when, you can start to generate a list of assets you will need to plug into each slot.

First, start with the photos you want to use and curate your feed. I personally use the app called UNUM to plan my grid. You can literally upload the photos you want to post, and move them around the grid to make sure the flow of your images are aesthetically pleasing to the eye.

Next, create the captions and hashtags for your posts. In UNUM you can also add your captions and hashtags to your photos. Ditch the clever captions and remember to post with intention. Imagine your ideal client is looking at this post and talk to them. An easy way to do this is to look at your blog posts and pull out some really juicy pieces to share on Instagram. This also gives you an excuse to direct people to your blog for more goodness.

4. Engagement Isn’t Just for Marriages

When you post your photos, don’t just shut the app and walk away. Now is the time to engage with your audience and beyond. If you are someone who likes to aimlessly scroll the ‘gram when you are bored you are missing a huge opportunity to connect with potential clients. Rather than just scrolling your feed, use this time to actively engage with your ideal audience.

Start following/liking/commenting on people’s pages and get them to sit up and notice you. Remember, there is an actual person running each of these accounts so make the effort to genuinely connect with them. If you follow an account, and begin to consistently like and comment on their photos, chances are the person running their Instagram account will take a look at your profile. Which leads me to your bio...

5. Create a bio fit for a boss.

Your bio is probably the most important piece of information on your entire Instagram Feed. It tells people who you are and why they should care. If you are looking for potential clients, it is literally your first impression and you want it to scream “hire me because I’m a boss”! So how do you do this?

There are 5 key things you want to tell people with your bio:

Who you are
What you do
Why you are unique
How you will change their life
Where they can find you
BONUS - If you have free resources (i.e. your lead magnet) use this as an opportunity to draw them in by sharing it here.

‍