Recently I have had so many conversations regarding social media posting, Instagram posting in particular. There are so many business owners lost in the matrix that just do not know what and when to post.
Generally they do not want to, or do not have the time to post many times per day. But they do feel that they need a clear plan to mark a strong Instagram presence for their customers. Usually, that’s one of the reasons why they come to me.
That’s why I’m here today writing this blog post for you, to share few steps that will help you make a plan of action, in case you also feel a bit lost.
Here it is: “IG posting made easy”!
To be efficient, you need a simple, easy plan to follow!
Before you start, ask yourself few simple questions:
- Who is your target audience?
- Do you have a clear guidelines for your brand? Clear guidelines for your product or services?
- Do you know when there is most activity on your IG profile?
- Do you know how often do you want to/need to post to stay relevant?
- Does your audience know you? Do they know who you are? What you stand for? Why you do what you do? What are your core values?
Take just couple of minuets to answer those questions. Write 2 – 3 sentences for each question. Got it? GREAT! You are doing great!
The wonderful news is that you do not need to complicate things!
Simple, easy to follow plan can do wonders for your visibility on Instagram. Sharing 1 valuable and relevant to your potential clients post is better than none, or too many posts with unclear or overwhelming messages.
This blog post is here to help you get started with confidence and actual joy of knowing how to do it well.
To make it very clear and easy to understand I’m going to share with you how I planed one week for my Instagram posts for my portrait photography business. Once you see how it works, translate/readjust it to fit your business profile.
1ce a week I sit down and plan Instagram posts for the upcoming week. Best is to do it on Friday at the end of the day, or on Sunday afternoon { as much as I do not work on weekends, somehow I loved that option}. This way everyday you will have a clear view of what you need to share. Also, this will prevent you from posting to much of the same content.
My advise for you is to try it out for a month. After 4 weeks revise this planing system. See what worked for you, what people responded well to, and what you could do more of. At that point implement changes if you need to.
So, here we go!
As you can see on the picture below, I created 11 different topics/ subjects to post about. I’m a visual person and it really helped me out to print few copies of each.
On my list I have:
- Work {video, studio: behind the scenes (BtS)}
- Work {BtS shooting on location}
- Work {client portraits}
- Work {video promotion}
- Work {Studio: BtS}
- Work {share information on: how to prepare to a photo session, etc}
- Personal {books I love}
- Personal {my story, who I’m, how did I get here}
- Personal {food, drinks, life}
- Personal {city I live in, travels}
- Quotes {thoughts, quotes I love}
Now, pose for 5 minuets to create your own list.
Grab a pen and paper and create a list of topics for your own business. You can use my list just as an inspiration or follow it really closely , adjusting only what you have to. Even if you chose to make exactly the same plan as me … your profile will be still unique, hopefully presenting your product, your offer, your skills and your personality with clarity and ease.
Don’t get stuck on details. Your list doesn’t need to be perfect. You can always come back and verify the topics at the later stage, after posting for couple of weeks and knowing what actually works and resonate with your target audience.
What is important at this point, is that you have a clear plan to follow and that you know what to post and when.
Since you know now what you going to post about, what your clients need to know, it’s time to organize it and make a plan.
If you want to have a little fun, print your post topics and start looking for a pattern that will resonate with you and your brand.
No matter how often you are ready to post on your Instagram profile, keep in mind that you need to find a good balance between your work posts and personal posts. It is important that your followers, potential clients know who you are but you need to make it easy for people to know what you offer. How to find you, and how to hire you or buy from you.
I wanted to post 3 times per day, 5 times per week. And this is how one of my 1 week plan looked like:
Monday:
- Work {client portraits}
- Personal {books I love}
- Work {video, studio: BtS}
Tuesday:
- Work {video, studio: BtS}
- Work {client portraits}
- Quote {inspirational quotes}
Wednesday:
- Personal {my story}
- Work {Studio: BtS}
- Personal {my story}
Thursday:
- Quote {inspirational quotes}
- Personal {food drinks}
- Work { client Portraits}
Friday:
- work {Studio: BtS}
- Work {client portraits}
- Personal {share a picture of our kitten}
As I mentioned once a week, usually on Sundays afternoon, I would sit down for 5 – 10 minuets and play with my Post’s Planing Cards to create fun and easy to follow plan for the upcoming week. This change the whole experience of posting on social media, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter… you name it I was there.
So here you have it! Now it’s really up to you to make it work! Just one more thing, Don’t forget to have fun!
You can’t use up creativity. The more you use it, the more you have.
With Love,
Marta
Stay connected:
Website: martahurtado.com
Instagram: instagram.com/martahurtadolife