Creating a Social Media Plan {day ten}

Welcome to Day Ten of the Write 31 challenge!  If this is your first time stopping by, head over to Day One to get started from the beginning, and now on to Day Ten…

We’ve covered Twitter, so now it’s time to start talking about Instagram…my other favorite social media platform! We are going to go over some great information about Instagram the first two days and then on the third day we’ll put together a plan!

Pros and Cons of Instagram

Pro – One of the easiest ways to let your customers and followers see YOU in real time!

Con – Linking to your blog can be a little tricky because you can’t leave links in the comments or caption

Pro – Gives you a more intimate glimpse into the lives of bloggers and businesses

Using Instagram

The first thing you want to think about to help you decide what to share on Instagram is what you are trying to achieve? Look back at your vision printable at your overall social media vision and see how that works for printable. If you’re vision is to be a community for new moms then it might not be a good fit to post pics of you out to dinner every night…most new moms can’t relate! I would also encourage you to think about your brand when deciding what to post on Instagram…not everything has to fit perfectly, but again…

Instagram is a little bit like dating…you want to put your best foot forward! I’m not suggesting that you share untrue photos but there are some great photo editing apps (VSCOcam, AfterLight, etc) that can take your good pictures and make them great. I would highly suggest doing a little editing before you post your picture.

Whether you are a blog or a business, Instagram is a great place to give your followers and customers a behind the scenes peek at what you do. If you’re a crafter, you can post a picture of a craft in progress that will be up on your blog soon. If you’re a business, you can post a picture of your office, headquarters, factory, etc…let people see where their eggs come from!

If you haven’t already done so, link your Facebook and Twitter accounts to your Instagram profile so when you share a picture on Instagram it will also post to your Twitter timeline and Facebook feed…helps with cross promotion!

Limit what you share on Instagram! Did you go to an amazing concert on Saturday night?!? You shouldn’t have so many pictures posted that I don’t feel like I missed anything. I think generally with events you should limit yourself to 3-5 pictures and if you have more you want to share…use an app like PicCollage to create a collage with your pictures!

Tomorrow we’ll have more Instagram tips including suggestions for growing your followers!

If you have any questions about this, please feel free to leave them in the comments below or email me at girlonthemoveblog01 {at} gmail {dot} com

I would love to connect with you on Instagram and I’d love to hear, what questions do you have about Instagram? What do you love about Instagram and what about it is difficult?