The majority of our Design on Retainer clients hire us to manage their Instagram feeds, often when they sought our services for a different reason. Why? Because as many business owners have come to find out, posting consistently on social media is hard. It seems like it should be easy to come up with an image or graphic and a simple caption a couple times a week, but anyone who has made a real effort knows that it’s easier said than done. Here are some major advantages to planning out your monthly schedule ahead of time.
1. Save Time
This the single most important reason to plan your Instagram posts ahead of time. Have you ever sat down to craft the perfect caption, only to find that your mind is blank and you’ve wasted an hour of your life that you can never get back? Yeah, it doesn’t feel great. And, chances are, you’ll get sick of it quickly and then your feed goes completely untouched until you get brave enough to try again. Instead of chicken pecking your posts, try carving out 2-3 hours once per month to plan your posts in bulk. This gives your brain a chance to fully immerse in the task without distractions, resulting in an efficiency high (that’s a thing right? Just us?) that will have you looking forward to the task instead of dreading it.
2. Grid Aesthetic
Have you ever come across an Instagram account that makes you take a deep, cleansing breath? You know, the ones that look like your Pinterest board came to life? That kind of beauty doesn’t happen on accident. If you want your grid to look like you planned it, you need to actually plan it! The goal is to create a strong enough first impression when people stumble upon your feed that they can’t help but follow you.
3. Cohesive Strategy
We’ve all been there – you’re out of time and need to post something to promote your event that’s happening the next day. Because of the algorithm Instagram uses to prioritize what you see in your feed, a small percentage of your followers will see that post and, if you’re lucky, an even smaller percentage will actually attend. If you know your event is coming up and you’re planning ahead, you can plug your event several times and dramatically increase the chances of your target audience seeing it. Planning your feed ahead of time also gives you a big picture view of your content so you can make sure you don’t have three black and white photos clustered together, or 5 text-based posts in a row. Variety is the spice of life, after all.
4. Peace of Mind
Having your Instagram posts planned and scheduled a month at a time is one of the best feelings you can have as a business owner who is trying to improve their social media presence. Not only will you be able to focus on your to-do list without wasting time on your phone, but you’ll also know that your followers are seeing your name multiple times throughout the month.
When used properly, Instagram can be a major asset to your overall marketing strategy. The catch is that posting willy nilly or “every once in awhile” is a waste of time – precious time that you could be spending actually running your business. If you don’t have 2-3 hours to carve out each month, give us a call!