Managing Instagram has never been more interesting
Understanding social media marketing on Instagram goes in line with creating a strong content plan. Now, let’s talk about the types of content you should include in your Instagram Content Strategy in 2021.
Feed Post: Posting random pictures, quotes, and posting for the sake of posting is not going to cut it in 2021. Frequency does not matter as much as the quality of your content. It doesn’t mean you can publish something once a month and be able to grow your page, you still have to make sure you have a stable schedule. But you can’t afford to not have any strategy behind it and not bring value to your followers, because your competitors will do just that and outshine you.
Story/Story Highlights: Stories were adopted from Snapchat back in August of 2016 – the concept is essentially the same as then – stories are short 15-second-long videos or images that disappear within 24 hours. This creates urgency around the content. Stories have become a huge part of social media strategy and content strategy for many businesses. The Highlights are created of the stories that you choose to display permanently.
Instagram Reels: In 2021 Instagram has made it very clear that Reels are one of the features that get supported and emphasized by the platform. If you live under a rock and have not yet heard of TikTok blowing up during the COVID-19 quarantine, and Instagram adopting the concept of that platform, Reels are 15-30 second long videos, that you can add text, music, effects to, make them funny, educational, cute, and everything in between. Reels are gaining massive popularity amongst Instagram users, and you should definitely utilize them in 2021 as much as possible.
Guides: Think of guides as “Pinterest-like” blog posts. Creating guides is simple – you click on the “+” button in your account and select the “guide” feature”. You then will be able to create an album of posts made by other creators or a collection of your own posts, write captions for every single one of them, and group them as a specific topic guide. As a business, you can leverage guides by promoting your services – say, you’re a plastic surgeon. You can organize your own before and after pictures into guides and create one for every procedure you offer. If you’re a hair-care brand, you can organize your guides by topics such as “Hairstyles”, “Hair Types”, “Hair Products”, etc. Once your guide is created, you can share it in stories and encourage your followers to check it out.
IGTV provides an opportunity to share longer video content with your followers – similar to YouTube. IGTV videos are over 60 seconds (or one minute) long. In 2021 you can post both vertical and horizontal videos on IGTV, which is great! There are plenty of ways you can utilize IGTV to benefit your brand. Instagram allows organizing IGTV in different series based on the theme, so if your business has several aspects you wish to highlight (the how to’s, behind the scenes, blogs, etc.) – definitely use IGTV, and if your content is engaging, and people invest time in watching it from start to finish – great! The time spent on your account is higher, and the algorithm will push you up in the discovery feed.
Engagement and important metrics of 2021
Saves are the most valuable metric on 2021 on Instagram. By clicking the “save” button you’re telling the algorithm “I will return to this content later”. Saves are also important for the “guides” feature (and we all know Instagram always favors new features) – saving posts you’re interested in helps organize your guides later on.
Shares: A “share-worthy” post means you think it’s interesting enough to send it to your friends via the DMs or post it to your story. The more people share a post with someone, the more likely it’s going to be displayed to a higher number of people. Again, the algorithm uses a snowball effect.
Comments and likes used to be the main metrics. These days, emojis and short comments don’t make too much of a difference for engagement, because there were too many people abusing likes and comments via engagement groups, bot engagement, etc. In 2021, a comment has to be at least 3 words or longer and actually be relevant to the post to make a difference. Authentic engagement via comments remains a very valuable metric.
Likes do not matter as much in 2021. Although it’s still an important metric, simply getting a lot of likes without getting other types of engagement will not do much for your posts.
Types of Content in 2021, and how to use them to leverage your business. As Instagram put it, your content has to be “good creative is simply good creative”.
Content values that matter in 2021
- Quality – nowadays, content development doesn’t require high investment for you to stand out. Great quality content can be created even with your phone and/or other tools such as Canva, mojo, InStories, etc.
- Variety – photos, videos, IGTV, Reels, guides, stories, story highlights
- Purpose – entertaining, education, inspirational, informative, etc.
- Tailored for the audience – specifically created for your target group based on their interests
- Consistency – posted on a schedule
Instagram Growth Hacking Tricks 2021:
Hack #1 Avoid spammy content and habits. There are certain types of interactions that if you do too much of all at once, Instagram will detect spam-like behavior. The actions include but not limited to:
- Following and unfollowing too many people
- Message people who you do not follow
- Leaving a lot of similar comments
- Buying followers and engagement
- Posting too often
It doesn’t mean you can’t ever reach out to people who are not your followers or follow and unfollow accounts. The key is to not do it in a way that can potentially be recognized as spam-like behavior. If you copy/paste the same salesy message and send it to 50+ people within just a few minutes – it will most likely put your account at risk of being shadowbanned. (Shadowbanning is when certain features are blocked on your account – you may not be able to leave comments for a few days and engage with posts). To avoid this type of situation, stick to generic user behavior.
Hack #2 Engage with other people as well as your audience. When your followers leave comments, send messages, etc., make sure you’re not just sitting there farming the numbers – engage back, continue the conversation they’ve started with you. Don’t just ignore someone, who has invested time in writing a paragraph about how much they like your services or product.
The same goes for giving attention to the accounts you follow – explore your feed, pay attention to what other people are posting, provide support to the people in your community. Social Media is a two-way street. What goes around – comes around. If you acknowledge other people – they will gratefully do the same for you.
Hack #3 Remove fake followers. Clean up your account every here and there. Removing bot followers will help the algorithm display your content to the right audience and increase your engagement.