Your Social Team's Instagram Guide to Success

5 tips to Up Your Insta Game in 2018

2018 has barely started and it's already such a tough year for us boss ladies on social media. And by social media, we mean Instagram (is there any other, really?).

We're brilliant, resourceful and very busy women. Juggling a full time job, a side hustle, school or kids. We thought we had out Insta game on check, and then everything changes. Engagement is down by a ton percent, we gain 10 followers and lose 9, everyone is pulling their hair out. 

But we assure you, there's no need to panic.

First of all, it's been more challenging for everybody, not just for you. So there's a new norm and that's just fine. Second of all, and more importantly, there are things we can do. So here are our 5 tips to stay relevant and grow your Instagram this year:

Provide value:

With 70% of all american business, countless influencer accounts and the personal profiles on Instagram, the competition is FIERCE! And I don't mean business competition, because we are all for #communityovercompetiton and believe there's space for everyone who does things well. But competition for screen real state. People follow too many accounts and will only really notice you, follow, engage and care IF you're providing real value. So make your account be a service of its own. Offer tips, resources or entertainment. Offer them all and you'll go far. 

Invest in content: 

You may have many strategies to grow your account, use and abuse of those giveaways, but in the end of the day, nothing will help you if you're content isn't good. So my tip is to always focus on content first (and forever and ever). Work with a photographer whenever possible, learn to use the latest apps, curate beautiful images, create videos and boomerangs for stories, learn to tell a story and craft better captions to generates real engagement. 

Collaborate:

Once your content is top notch, you should try to get it in front of different audiences. It's like inviting people over: we always want to do it after the house is clean, right? (On that note, everyone is invited to come visit me on Wednesday night!) So collaborate with other brands, work with influencers, go takeover someone's account, participate on events, anything that will bring new visitors to your clean and beautiful profile. 

Stories are your besties:

With the new algorithm hitting our feeds HARD, we should shift our focus to stories. By that I mean, stories can no longer just be whatever, but a thought out mix of content that both looks great and adds value. And yes, you can still get away with posting some whatevs in the mix!

Promote posts:

I was never a big fan of paid social, because I always thought (and still do) that it was better to put your $ on influencer marketing. But with the new Instagram algorithm, I do think some paid posts can help with awareness and remedy the current situation a little. If you're a beginner on social ads, you can just promote your posts that did the best. Most likely new audiences would enjoy them too.

xoxo,

Manu, founder of Your Social Team