My approach to Instagram in 2023
An Instagram community is a huge business asset, especially when you build an engaged following of people who love what you are sharing.
As of writing this post my business page @thelittledesigncorner has over 100,000 followers and my personal brand page @clareleroy is close to 10,000 (make sure to follow me on both if you’re not already!).
In this post I’m sharing my approach to Instagram in 2023 and how I’m planning to continue growing (and adding value) on the platform this year.
1: CONTINUE TO PUBLISH EVERY DAY
I generally post at the same or similar time each day on both pages. This means people start to expect my post around that time each and it also helps me build a habit in my routine for posting.
I don’t worry about the ‘right time’ to post to get the greatest engagement (maybe I should), but instead I post at the times that work for me, which is during the period when I’m doing all my Daily Non-Negotiable tasks. On a normal day this is around mid-morning.
Over the years I’ve experimented with scheduling posts (e.g. using a platform like Later or even on Meta’s own scheduling tool) but at the moment I’m posting natively as I feel it gives me better engagement that way.
To make daily posting easier I have lots of templates created inside Canva so I just have to plug in my content and post
I also use Notion to schedule what I’m going to be creating each day, which means I don’t have to think about what to post - I just have to make it.
I don’t always create what’s on my Notion schedule as sometimes I’ll have a better or different idea that day. But the schedule helps me to come up with an idea on the days I’m not feeling creative.
If you want to get a copy of my content planning schedule in Notion you can do that here.
2: BE AS HELPFUL AS I CAN
I share as much of my knowledge as I can for free and always think about one specific person I’m trying to help when I’m creating my content, especially on my business Instagram page (@thelittledesigncorner).
My page aims to help designers and architects grow more profitable businesses so when I’m creating or planning my content I always think about:
what problems do these designers/architects have when it comes to growing their business?
what might be helpful to fix those problems?
I also always do a gut check on posts before I publish them.
I ask myself whether the post is actually helpful or is it just "filler” stuff that isn’t adding any value. If I decide it’s poor quality filler stuff then I won’t post it.
3: GET PEOPLE OFF THE PLATFORM
Instagram (and all other social media platforms) are not owned by you and so you have the potential to lose your entire community in a second.
To combat that I spend a lot of time providing value on my Instagram page but also trying to get people off Instagram and over to platforms that I “own” myself - and my email list is one of those assets.
I’ve written about why you need an email list and how to get started with it before.
You can read about that in this post.
And the way I get people off Instagram and onto my email list if via all the free downloads and lead magnets that I’ve created.
I am often sharing information about those lead magnets on my Instagram page itself, to encourage people to give me their email addresses in return for something of value.
In return I’ve built an email list of nearly 50,000 designers.
I then send these subscribers a helpful email every single week, which I’ve been doing for nearly 3 years now.
I talk more about my email strategy in this YouTube video if you’re interested.
This is a good risk management strategy in case anything ever happens with Instagram and I loose my community (which did happen a few years ago).
It’s also a great way of building a stronger relationship with my community as well.
4: BUILD RELATIONSHIPS IN THE DMS
I often encourage people to reach out to me in the DMs and I have made lots of lovely ‘instagram friends’ this way.
I have also grown a closer connection with lots of my followers as well.
Remember that people are more likely to buy from those they ‘know, like and trust’ and the DMs are a great way to build up all of those things.
I don’t try and sell in the DMs, I just try and behave like a normal human!
I figure that if and when someone is ready to purchase something I’ve got to offer then they will - I’ve got no interest in trying to push them into that sale.
And I honestly have no issues if people never buy from me either. I am happy for them to make use of all the free stuff I share and if they can grow their business with that free help alone, then that’s fantastic as well.
5: REGULAR CONTENT BRAINSTORMING
Every few months I sit down for a few hours and brainstorm new content ideas.
I get ideas by going through:
posts I’ve saved as I’ve been scrolling social media
the accounts of creators I enjoy
breaking down the longer form content I’ve created into short form content pieces
thinking what stops my own scroll when I’m browsing on the platform (and creating more content like that)
I never copy the work of others. I use it as inspiration to tell my own story or share my own perspective on topics I think my community will be interested in.
I document all of this in my Notion content template.
6: STOP WORRYING ABOUT THE ALGORITHM
This year, particularly on my personal brand page, I’ve decided to stop creating for an algorithm.
As I wrote about in the post below on my personal page, I’m so over creating for an algorithm and trying to always be ‘niching down’.
I love heaps of different topics, so I’m going to use 2023 (and my personal brand page in particular) to share about them.
I’m going to put more fun back into my Instagram creation and do it for me - not for an algorithm!
So if I feel like posting, I’ll post and if I don’t then I won’t.
I won’t push myself to be on a schedule or feel that I have to post regularly.
In 2022 I got burnt out trying to run two IG pages because I was doing it for the wrong reasons and trying to do what the “experts”always suggest (ie niche down, only talk about one topic, post every day), rather than just experiment and make stuff I want to make.
So in 2023 I am going to go back to creating content that I want to make with the aim of keeping a record for me - not doing it to impress an algorithm (or other people!). Plus actually doing it for fun!!! 🎊🎉
I figure the worst that can happen is that this time next year I’ll have a great record of what happened in my year 😀 and perhaps I will have taught myself some new content creation skills along the way.
So that’s my plan for 2023 on @clareleroy
[I’m aware that this contradicts some of the things I’ve written about above - but the plan I’m outlining here is for my personal brand page, not my business page which I’ll continue to run more strategically]
So that’s my approach to Instagram as we head into 2023.
By the way, if you would like to learn more about how to improve your Instagram strategy this year then you may find my short course - Instagram for Designers - helpful.
Thanks for reading and catch you in my next post :)
Clare x
Dr Clare Le Roy
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