You may have heard us harp on strategy once or twice *erm, endlessly* but that’s because it’s one of the most crucial elements to true social media success as a business owner. It’s great to get the followers and the likes, but if they don’t directly translate to the type of traffic you need to boost sales, they’re worthless.

Here are a few key elements of a great Instagram (and social media in general) strategy:

Know your Target Audience

We can’t say it enough – knowing who you’re trying to reach on social media is one of the top tools for a successful account. Your target audience will drive everything about your content creation.

Set Goals

Our clients come to us with all different kinds of goals – whether it’s sales, brand awareness, followers, etc, getting clear on what their goals are (and why) helps us figure out what strategy is working, and what needs to be tweaked through the process. Too many people approach social media just wanting more – of everything. But the reality is, more followers doesn’t actually always serve your business goals. So getting clear on goals that will actually support your business growth is a huge step in true social success!

Track Progress

Tracking your performance and metrics with measurable statistics that directly relate to your goals will help you gauge whether your strategy is working well – and this is where having specific goals becomes incredibly helpful. We recommend tracking overall metrics, as well as specific posts to see what performs well and if there are any trends in performance that stand out.

Use a Content Calendar

Having a bird’s eye view of what you’re planning to post will help ensure that you’re checking all of the boxes of your business strategy, and doing so in a balanced way.

Hashtag and SEO Strategy

Finally, using hashtags and SEO is a crucial part of a strong Instagram strategy – whether you’re using a wide reaching set of hashtags to try to get as many eyes on on your page as possible, or using a smaller but more specified group to really hone in on a certain niche.