The 4 Tasks You MUST Do Before Posting to Instagram
Instagram is now one of the most popular and influential social media platforms, and if you have your business on Instagram, I bet you’re fighting to be noticed!
To stand out ahead of your competitors, here are your 4 tasks.
- Curate an eye-catching photo or graphic. This might sound obvious or easy, but you really need to curate a great photo or graphic to attract your tribe. The more professional it looks, the more it stands out. Selfies in your bathroom will not cut it. Always take a photo in natural lighting. It’s also a great idea to hire a pro to take some really great head shots for your business and Instagram account.
Here are some things to think about when curating your photos. Does your photo/graphic match your brand? Does your photo/graphic match your personality? Will your photo/graphic relate to your audience? Try to stick to the same style. Do you use photos that are bright and whimsical, or do you use more edgy, urban, dark photography?
To create graphics, I use Canva, a free online design tool. Remember to keep to your brand!
- Killer captions. Captions seem to really stump people. Time and time again I see great, curated photos, but then there’s no caption. What? In my opinion, this is a BIG no-no! You started to take your audience on a journey with your photo, so continue with a killer caption. How, you ask? Here are a couple of components your caption should have.
- Start each caption with an attraction-grabbing headline. Remember in Instagram, when you are scrolling, you only see the first 87 characters on a post! So right at the get-go, be clear and to the point. Make your tribe stop their scroll.
- Be relatable and provoke interest. This is your opportunity to relate to your audience’s problem or pain point. Ask yourself, “Why should my audience continue to read my post?” Why should they care?
- Relate to your audience’s dreams, aspirations, and desires. This will make them WANT what you have or offer!
- What should they do next? Be very clear on what you want your audience to do next. Do you want them to read your new blog post? Do you want them to sign up for a freebie? Give them clear and specific directions.
- CTA. It’s very important to not only have a call-to-action in your post, but double check your link (definitely have one) in your bio! The next step is to take your audience off of Instagram and on your website, or Facebook group, or email list.
- Hashtags. Oh yes, the good-ole hashtag debate. If you want to grow on Instagram, you NEED to use hashtags. To save you time, have all your hashtag categories saved in your ‘notes’ app on your phone. When it comes time to post, you simply copy and paste your hashtags from your notes. For more hashtag do’s and don’ts, click here.
So there you have it! The 4 tasks you must do before posting to Instagram. Follow these tasks and your posts will be powerful, attractive and ultimately grow your business.
Bonus tip: Use Planoly to plan, design and schedule your Instagram posts! I use Planoly daily and absolutely love it. You can also create hashtag categories within Planoly! Check out my Insta-account!
If you’re ready to take your business to the next level on Instagram, grab my Instagram Makeover eCourse!
Thanks so much for these helpful tips. One of the first things I’m going to do is save my hashtags!
Yes yes!! Saving hashtags makes life so much easier!!
I definitely agree ~ having the hashtags already done and ready in your notes can be a huge time-saver! It also helps to ensure you have the RIGHT and consistent hashtags when working with a sponsor.