The Easiest Way For Mediators To Create Content For Instagram
Getting set up with the basics will set you up for success for your first few posts and beyond. (If you haven’t already set up an Instagram page, you might want to go back to one of our previous articles).
Instagram may not be the first social media platform you think of for marketing a resolution practice, but it’s a very highly-used platform with steady user growth. Over 1.2 billion people use Instagram worldwide on a monthly basis, and the user count is expected to grow by around 5.4% in 2023. It’s also popular around the world, as 87% of Instagram users live outside of the United States. This high count of regular users leaves the potential to reach a relatively large audience.
Additionally, the global presence of the platform can make Instagram a good choice if you think it could work for you, and you’re looking to expand the global outreach of your brand or your practice.
As a quick recap of Instagram’s user demographics, most users are under 34 years of age, with the most popular cohort being between the ages of 25 and 34 years of age. There’s also a pretty even gender distribution, with similar percentages of male-identifying and female-identifying users. Instagram can be especially effective if your target audience aligns with this.
Finally, Instagram has high engagement rates, so the people that see your page are relatively likely to engage with it. Generally, for the resolution industry, Instagram is a good supplement to an existing social media marketing strategy, rather than your only social media platform. If you want to take advantage of this and think Instagram would be a good platform for you, keep watching. In this video, we’ll discuss content topics, different forms of content you can use, and tips to keep yourself on track with posting consistently.
First, content topics will be based on three things: your industry, your specialties, and your target audience.
● You want to choose topics that are relevant to your industry, as these are likely to be more interesting to people that are involved in the space. In turn, this is more likely to generate higher activity and engagement rates.
● You want to choose topics that align with your specialties, because these will be more relevant to your practice, and you’ll have more background knowledge about them.
● Finally, you want to choose topics that your target audience is likely to be interested in. For a more in-depth review of how to map out your target audience, check out this video A Niche To Scratch. For a brief recap of it, however, this will represent the general interests of people you want to view your content or who are most likely to view your content.
● Focusing your content mostly on these key areas can help you build your online niche, and help keep your content consistent and interesting to your target audience.
Next, when discussing forms of content, it’s important to note that Instagram is going to be very unique. It’s more visual-focused, and when you post, the image often gets more attention than the caption itself. Although this could minimize the effectiveness of your caption content, it leaves the opportunity to make impactful and informational visual content.
● One really strong medium is infographics. When done correctly, these are a great way to get information across to your audience in a simplified, visually appealing way. If you have a visual arts background or would consider outsourcing this, this can help your profile really stand out.
● You can also include photos with relevant captions if you think they’d be a good addition. You can also include engagement-focused captions or anything unbiased that would drive productive discussion in the comments section.
● Instagram also has a stories feature, where you can post a piece of visual content for 24 hours only. People typically scroll through these pretty quickly and they tend to get a lot of views, so if you’re able to make something eye-catching, that could get a lot of attention. You can also pin stories to your highlight reel on your profile, and these stories won’t disappear until you delete them. Some great ideas for Instagram stories include short, informative videos (under 30-45 seconds), or polls.
Instagram’s content and interface differ a lot from other social media platforms, and putting these posts into a schedule can help keep you focused and on track.
● Making a schedule of how often you would want to post, and the dates/times you’d want to post, can be helpful for time management. With Instagram, you can also draft posts and stories in advance, and this can be beneficial if you happen to be on the go during a post day.
● You can also consider mapping out content ideas in advance, with the idea that you can change these if you want to. The point of this is just to keep your content balanced, and ensure that your content doesn’t stay too centered on just one topic.
With this information in mind, you’ll hopefully feel more equipped to start creating appealing, engaging, and informative Instagram content, and have one more tool to market your resolution practice and personal brand.