Just like with anything else in life, it’s very easy to get lazy on Instagram. If you
notice that people would follow you no matter what, it’s very easy to backslide.
Seriously.https://playgroundai.com/post/clgfxj6g803ues601wsg1lb8a
Instead of insisting on posting only the top-notch niche-specific photos and
videos, you start developing a “good enough” mentality. You say to yourself, “That
photo is not really the best, but that’s good enough. That video leaves a lot to be
desired, but that’s good enough.”
Well, you have to understand that your account has competitors. You may not be
aware of them. You may not have a clear idea of the full extent of competition
your Instagram account is up against, but the competition is there.
Guess what? They are eager to eat your lunch. They are eager to grab your
followers. If it turns out that you only post substandard, dated, grainy, or
otherwise low-quality videos and pictures, eventually, they will find their way to
your competitors. They will leave you in the dust.
These are people you could’ve turned into buyers. If you’re going to be on
Instagram, focus only in producing the very best content. It’s an arms race out
there. It’s not pretty.
Sooner or later, your competitor will bury you. Don’t let them do it. Don’t give
them the opportunity. Publish your very best.
’m telling you, if you think that a certain type of photo is going to be hot, you
might want to pour some ice-cold water on that idea.
Seriously
. My rule of thumb is simple. The more excited I get about a particular
content idea, the more I hold off. Why? I’ve been down this road before.
I get all excited about a hot new content idea. Maybe it’s a picture or video on
Instagram or maybe it’s a blog post or article.
Whatever form it takes, I know now that there is a disconnect between the things
that I think are hot and what my actual target audience thinks is hot. Focus on the
needs of your actual target audience members.
Don’t go with your gut feelings. You may be thinking that a particular type of
content is the best idea, but you might want to hold off. Focus instead on what
they already like.
The good news about social media is that this is very easy to see. Either a post
gets a lot of thumbs up or some sort of indication of approval, or it doesn’t. Either
it gets shared a lot and reposted, or it doesn’t.
Use these objective metrics of quality to help you come up with your content
strategy. Focus on topics and content that already work.
Don’t reinvent the wheel. Don’t come up with something earth-shattering or
ground-breaking because chances are, your content will fail.
You probably don’t need me to remind you that content can be quite expensive.
You might be producing these photos, videos, and articles yourself, but guess
what? Your time is precious. Guard your time. Watch your time investment.
When I first got started on Instagram, I noticed that some accounts that I followed
kept posting the same pictures on a fairly regular basis. Maybe they had 50
pictures and they would just rotate among them.
It turns out that these accounts simply did not have the budget to come up with a
whole lot of content. They can’t keep stuff fresh. They can’t even publish 365
pictures with one picture per day.
What do you think happened? That’s right. These accounts started losing
members. They stopped growing and they started shrinking. Eventually, the
novelty wears off.
Don’t let this happen to you. There is a simple fix to this. It doesn’t involve you
taking out a bank loan or sitting down and sweating over ways to come up with
original pictures and videos. You don’t have to do any of that.
What is the secret? Repost other people’s contents. That’s right. On Instagram,
there are sure to be other accounts that feature original content that is highly
targeted to your niche. Better yet, this content already gets a lot of love.
Some of their content is very viral. You take the very best content and then,
publish it on your account. Why would you want to do this?
Well, first of all, it prevents your users from burning out. They see new stuff.
Most
importantly, they see high-quality stuff that is directly tied your niche.
Next, you are able to keep your followers engaged. This gives you the opportunity
to blast out your own original content on a repeating basis.
Few people would mind because you have enough content in between your own
content. Also, you might want to step it up and publish more of your original
content.
Whatever the case may be, curating or reposting other people’s niche-specific
content goes a long way in helping you build credibility and maintain your users’
engagement levels.
As a consumer on Instagram, I can’t even begin to tell you how many time I have
seen posts where the promoter published one awesome picture after another.
This is all well and good, but I’m also a marketer.
I know that at some point, this person needs to make money. Unfortunately,
they’re not making things easy on themselves because there’s really no way they
can make money from the photo.
How come? They just post a photo. The description is really flat. There is no call to
action. You’re not aware that you’re supposed to do something else.
They just post photo after photo of one amazing luxury watch after another.
These are real watches, mind you, worn by real people. What a waste of time.
If only this person said, “Check on my profile,” or “Get this watch at an 80%
discount by visiting this website,” if they only did that, but no. They just posted one
gorgeous picture after another and a couple of lines of text.
None of these words called anybody to action. When people do this, they’re
leaving a lot of money on the table. They’re not encouraging engagement. Their
post, no matter how awesome the quality, simply fall flat.
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