1. Get Some Insight(s)

Knowing your numbers is more important than ever. The first step to planning high-quality content is knowing your audience. You’ll want to know who is viewing your content and when they are most active on the platform.

While some platforms are moving away from chronological feeds, this doesn’t mean ‘anything goes’. The key is knowing how to engage with this structure so that you can plan your most effective post.

Instagram decides what content to push to the top of a user’s feed based on a variety of elements called an algorithm. This is how Instagram decides how likely it is that you’ll find a particular piece of content interesting.

Much of this is based on engagement and user interaction. If users are double tapping on your post and feel compelled to comment, Instagram will believe that your content is more worthwhile.

While this method helps users find quality content more easily, users who believe it no longer matters when they post may be missing out. Users who choose to ignore the chronological element entirely may miss out on the initial engagement push needed to get their quality content seen at all.

Most platforms offer users the chance to view their engagement and follower statistics. This may include how long a user views your content, how many impressions you receive vs. likes or engagement.

In addition to creating more engagement on your planned posts, this can help you discover just what it is that your followers enjoy most. These tools can help you plan a high-quality post that your followers care about, see, and engage with.

2. Productivity Hacks

Okay, so you want a great social media presence, but you’re overwhelmed with the time-consuming nature of creating each post. So, what now?

Let’s talk social media plans and productivity hacks. By now, you’ve probably heard of Tim Ferris’ book ‘The 4 Hour Workweek’. You might even be a devoted follower of his podcast, but if you’re not that’s okay too. Many of the ideas presented fall in line with Henry Ford’s Assembly Line method.

Instead of spending an hour creating each post, begin your content strategy by spending a couple of hours planning multiple posts. These will be the posts that you set live throughout the week. Create a content plan that can serve as your guide and you’ll feel the burden of daily content creation lifted off your back.

These planned posts can be interrupted with real-time posts about relevant or newsworthy topics, however, creating a schedule that aligns with your brand and is scheduled to mirror your audience’s activity preferences can help you take your content up a notch.

3. Spy on Your Competition

Sometimes finding inspiration for content that connects doesn’t mean that you have to start from scratch. Fashion marketing/social media maven Luna Vega regularly recommends that companies looking to grow their online presence check out the competition.

This can mean keeping a running tally of what works (and doesn’t work) as well as keywords and hashtags regularly used on competitor accounts. Look for major fluctuations in engagement and follower count.

Are they retweeting or engaging with influencers? Are they capturing attention by capitalizing on market trends?

Another great source of insight is monitoring the mistakes made by your competitors. Be sure to read the comments made on their posts so you can judge what content matters to their target audience and what seems to fall flat.

This can be even more important when ascertaining a company’s big mistakes. Rather it’s an insensitive ad campaign or an employee who’s gone rogue on social media, learning from their mistake can help you prevent a big one from happening to you.4. Team-Up: Influencer Partnerships and Campaigns

Investigating your competitor’s influencer campaigns can be a great source of information about the relevancy and ROI of paid influencer campaigns relative to your brand or product. It can also give you insight into what influencers they believe resonate with their target demographic.

If you’re running short on ideas for your planned posts, you may benefit from collaborating with another brand or even a social media influencer. This can be a great opportunity to interested in creating influencer campaigns, take the growth and engagement data from their profiles into account before beginning your own influencer campaigns and content partnerships.

You can create these partnerships by reaching out to influencers personally or through paid partnership platforms. This can mean creating partnerships that hinge on shoutouts if you’re a blogger or looking to grow a personal social media account or promote your product if you’re a brand.

These influencer partnerships can translate into a myriad of posts and content that you can add to your list of scheduled posts.

5. Major Key(word) Alert

Using keywords and relevant hashtags can help you expand your impressions and get your content out seen. While many readers may already be familiar with SEO content and what search engine optimization means, you may not be familiar with how this translates in the social media world.

Some platforms, such as the Google-owned YouTube, function similarly to a standard search engine. Because of this, YouTube video descriptions can often be optimized by using high impact keywords and phrases.

Some social media planning apps will give you the option of saving hashtags to instantly add to your post, but be wary. You’ll want to vary your hashtags from post to post to hit the optimal amount of impressions.