One of the biggest challenges a business faces when it comes to structuring its social media scheduling strategy is balancing quality and quantity. Being over-ambitious with the amount of content you plan to share could risk impacting the overall quality and real value of each post for your audience. And in the competitive world of Instagram, quality trumps quantity every time. #instagood #followme #baycolor
Instagram has evolved over the years to become more than just about posting photos to your feed. Now your Instagram strategy needs to include your Instagram feed (photos and videos), Instagram Stories (images or short videos), and your IGTV channel (longer-form content). When you’re coming up with ideas for your Instagram account, you should think about these three channels separately — Instagram feed posts, Instagram Stories, and IGTV. Depending on your business goals on Instagram or content styles, you may want to dedicate more time to content creation for Instagram Stories than feed posts, or vice versa. Plus, this gives you a chance to brainstorm for any regular content features you’d like to produce each week or each month.
While your brainstorm around your content ideas, you should also plan for creating a balance with the type of content you produce, like photos, videos, carousel posts, collages, and GIFs. For example, did you know that engagement rates on videos are growing faster than images? To have an engaging and healthy content mix, you’ll want to have diversity in the type of content you produce. So while your brand aesthetic may favor flat-lay product images or video content, you don’t want to post the same thing over and over to your Instagram or you’ll risk losing followers. If you have different types of content — like carousel posts, videos, IGTV videos, or shopping posts — within your Instagram scheduling strategy, you’ll be able to maintain a higher engagement with your followers.
Also, try to avoid posting too many products or shopping posts in succession. While the Instagram Shopping Sticker and product tags are great drivers for converting followers into customers, you want to make sure that you’re maintaining a balance between inspirational posts, great imagery, and sales opportunities.