We continue on the Instagram for Business Series and this week we learn the three best practices for curating a monetizable feed.

We all want to have an illustrious Instagram feed.  But not everyone is aware of the best practices of curating the perfect Instagram feed.  I often cringe at some decent accounts that could have a stunning well composed Instagram Feed if they only deleted some of their randomnesses.  

Then there are those who reach out to me and ask me “when can I start monetizing on Instagram?”  Oddly enough, you don’t have to have over 10K followers to start monetizing your Instagram account.  What you do need are some basic best practices that are in line with your brand and brand message that allow you to become monetizable.

I also get direct messages asking me to help grow accounts.  The first thing I look at is the profile bio, then the feed, and lastly highlights.  The main focus is on the feed. However, if the feed is not enticing, consistent, or attention-grabbing rarely do I proceed to finish a quick audit of their account.

Everything needs to be tailored and optimized for people to easily and quickly digest on their phones.  That is why the feed needs to be focused to attract your target market as we learned at the beginning of the series.  As we continue on the Instagram For Business Series, this week you will learn how to curate a follow-worthy Instagram Feed you can start monetizing now.

Here Are The Three Best Practices That Will Help You to Monetize Your Instagram Feed.

Be Specific

Unfortunately, you can’t be everything to everyone.  Likewise, posting without being specific is like throwing darts at no target.  They simply will never land. It’s highly important to research your community and that of your competitors.   Find out who exactly is your audience and what exactly are they wanting from you. You will begin to provide value only when you start becoming a resource for them.  To do that, you must answer the questions and concerns of your audience.

Look at the trends in your industry on Instagram.  What are your competitors doing that is gaining traction and engagement and model after these trends.  Don’t forget to look at who is following your competitor and what they are following to gather insight into your audience interests.

Be Consistent

From a marketing perspective, there are several ways to employ the term “be consistent.”  The first one is in regard to consistency in posting content to Instagram. To gain followers, grow your audience, and influence you must post at the times when your audience is online.  

If you do not have a business account I strongly suggest converting your account into one so that you can gain access to analytics.  Instagram analytics tells you exactly who your audience is, what time are they on Instagram, and more specifically what posts they really like.  In other words, Instagram analytics even tells you what posts on the feed receive the lowest likes, engagement, and impressions so that you don’t post that type of content anymore.

I consistently posted from March 8th when I restarted my Instagram posts through July 4, 2018.  During that time I went from just over 2000 followers to 5000. Regrettably, from July 4th through August 7th I gained a whopping 200 followers.  I know for some this may seem like good steady organic growth. However, people on Instagram forget you quickly. During the last month, I have consistently posted and strategically chosen a mix of tags, mentions, hashtags, and timing to go back to that high organic growth.  Sadly, it takes 10 times more work, effort, and strategy to produce the same effort you had before if you stop your consistent posting schedule.

Also dove into analytics heavy.  I found that my text heavy post was not performing as I wanted while my lifestyle and business related posts receive the most engagement. Yet another indication that I need to consistently post only visual images.  Currently, as of August 7th, my feed has no text on any posts other than in Instagram stories.

Be Highly Visual

In regard to your Instagram feed, curation of content is highly important.  The theme, style of your pictures, and color choices all have to be consistent because Instagram is a visual platform.  

Only use high-quality images.  

I have a process to determine whether or not an image should get posted on the feed.  I worked on a brand refresh for a client and during the process, we did some brand photography for them.  Our client took some behind the scenes pictures of themselves during our shoot that she later posted on her Instagram feed.  However, while finishing her website the client wanted their Instagram feed on her website so clients can reference products when ordering.  At that point, I asked her to please remove all the pictures from her feed that were not product shots. I also recommended to her that she only post product pics.  Her feed now serves a purpose both on Instagram and on her site.

Lastly, don’t overwhelm your followers with ads within the feed.  That’s a sure way to lose followers quickly. What I mean is… Do not have a beautiful feed them drop a text-heavy ad style post to the feed.  Consider only posting these on your stories. I can’t stress enough that you should be very thoughtful, careful, and consistent in the look, feel, style, and theme of our Instagram feed.

There are 3 types of feed templates to consider when creating your feed for your business page.

1. Inspire/Motivate/Educate/Entertain:  These types of feeds are text heavy. They can either be memes, pictures with quotes, or backgrounds with text.
2. Connection/Transparency/Authenticity:  AKA the Lifestyle grammer. These feeds are created to generate an authentic connection to a person that is creating an influence through their value posting.  See below for examples of a lifestyle, food, or product feed.
3. Value Driven: This theme is the one I use for my personal account as well as for @francoinnovate my media and marketing agency.  The feed has a consistent theme of visuals of the person or brand in business or professional settings with business captions.

Choose a theme type that best suits your business and your target audience.

Your Instagram feed needs to be targeted to a niche.  You can not say you are attracting everyone that is not a strategy to employ on Instagram, any platform, or as an overall business marketing strategy.  Remember that our goal is to monetize not share randomness. Therefore, keep your Instagram feed simple and your visual message clear. High-quality content is still the winning strategy on social media.

Next on the Instagram for Business Series we continue on the Instagram feed.  You will learn how to automate it, ways to preplan and brand your layout with the top automation tools.  This week begin taking pictures that you would like to post.

Use the Instagram feed strategy download to go through the checklist and determine which pictures make the final cut.  Remember to be consistent, clear, and command attention with each picture that makes the cut.  You’ll soon be on your way to creating an illustriously coveted feed that can be monetized.