Instagram is an effective marketing tool for brands, primarily due to its high engagement. But, it can also be a complex platform to navigate. Have you noticed that some accounts get a lot of engagement irrespective of what they post? And others seem to disappear into oblivion? The truth is, if you want success with Instagram, posting awesome pictures is not the only ingredient for victory. It would benefit you if you had a strategy for your content.
Having an Instagram content strategy will help you reach your target market, boost engagement and grow your following.
How To Determine What To Post On Instagram
For instance, you can take a short phrase and post it on Twitter. If it gets a positive response through shares and likes, you can expound on that idea, convert it, create carousels, and share them on Instagram.
If you pay attention to your audience, they will tell you what they want to see more of if you listen to them. And you will find people sharing your posts on Twitter and Instagram. But first, you need to articulate those ideas.
But How?
The first step is to note it down. You gain clarity through articulation. Most successful entrepreneurs insist on carrying a notebook and noting down ideas whenever they flash through their minds. Writing is the fastest way to determine what they know for most people. You can choose to articulate your thoughts in the form of a tweet, book, novel, social media post, or blog article.
Other forms of expression are art, including dance or performance, video clips, photography, podcasts, class discussions, or lyrics.
Benefits of Sharing Your Ideas With the World
- Authority – As you share your thoughts, you gain credibility and become an authority in your industry. People begin to look up to you as an expert.
- Inspiration – sharing your thoughts is not only for inspiration but a form of service to others.
- Feedback – people share ideas, recommendations, and honest opinions about your posts.
- Knowledge – you help people by sharing informative content.
Why Some Instagram Carousels are Impactful While Others Remain Ineffective
There are too many slides posted daily. Everyone will want to try it out to receive similar results when one works for one person. People want to put in the least effort but get good results. We copy content from others, and progressively, the message is watered down. We use an unsuitable color combination, awful stock photos, or inappropriate fonts.
Why Do We Do It?
The main reason is that most of us want great results but are unwilling to put in the effort. Taking someone else’s content and passing it as your own is stealing. For instance, when you see a quote posted by so many people but yields no positive results.
To be more creative, you need to draw inspiration from different sources. The answer is to look outside Instagram and attract creativity from other sources such as literature, books, photography, or films. Instead of regurgitating the same kind of content that looks derivative, you could watch videos or get inspiration from audio.
It is okay to learn from other people’s content, but make sure you cite your source when you use it. A significant reason people steal other people’s content and pass it as their own is insecurity and a lack of confidence in abilities.
Original content is always valuable, impactful, and appears fresh. Over time, stolen content reduces its impact and finally becomes irrelevant. It’s ok to draw inspiration, to admire, or to be a supporter of others. However, if you agree with or feel strongly about information, instead of plagiarizing, just repost it. Please don’t change it. Cite the source, mention them, but don’t hide that fact.
Repeating the same kind of content makes your work look plagiaristic. The solution is to explore, look outside Instagram to draw inspiration.
Original content is always valuable, impactful, and new. Overusing content reduces its impact, message and finally becomes irrelevant. It’s ok to admire and be a fan of someone else’s work. If you find something impactful and want others to learn from it, repost it. Please don’t change it. Don’t pretend the content is yours.
When you take content, modify it and make it your own. Misuse degenerates the message, and the content loses fidelity, sharpness, and integrity over time.
Read: How To Charge Clients If You Have No Clue
What’s The Alternative to Copying Other People’s Content?
Don’t copy results. Instead, copy the process, thinking, and framework. Try to understand the author’s thinking process. What were they reading or watching; what was their motive or intention, their creative process, or the tools they use?
When you get informative content, you need to understand and appreciate the author’s motive that led them to create that content. Think of how you can project the same information but in your voice.
If you want to create impactful, high-value content, make a habit of tracing it back to the source. Discover it for yourself, then present it in your unique way.
What Does It Mean to Create High-Value Content?
We are constantly under pressure to create content that is new and unique. But, how many new ideas are out there? We are obsessed with creating original content. It is very challenging to develop an idea that has never been done before. What may be new to you may not necessarily be new to someone else. Most of the content we see is not new. For instance, you may ignorantly share content without knowing the origin and pass it as your own, but someone else may recognize the source.
When we talk about new, we are not necessarily referring to something that has never been done. But, we are talking about making old things unique. It means bringing freshness to an old idea or identifying a new way of telling an old story.
Why Do People Who Refer to The Source Make More?
People who create content by referring to the source make more money than the original content owner. The key is to transform an initial idea into something else. The more you can do that, the better the idea seems to be.
Take something familiar and add your individuality to it. If you copy an idea and share it as it is, you are not transforming it at all. It tends to be dull and lacking in originality. Also, if you stretch the idea too far, it breaks, becomes abstract, and is difficult to understand. The best is to find a balance somewhere in between. The further you can stretch and transform it while still not breaking it is the key to creating impactful content.
How Do You Do It?
- Big/small strategy: Get people to see something they’ve always seen in a new way. For instance, take something small and make it big or take something big and simplify it. This will force you to reexamine thoughts you’ve had for a long time. Shifting scale is one way to make something old appear new. If you’re thinking about how to write a post for Instagram or present a concept that everyone’s taking for granted, just experiment, test it and observe the outcome.
- Remix – combine or fuse different ideas or concepts.
To create high-value content, look elsewhere and draw inspiration from unique places that aren’t directly in front of you. When everyone is feeding on the same source, what happens is that everything becomes putrid. It would help if you went far away, and the further out you go, from where everyone is looking, the more original your idea seems.
Other places to draw inspiration from include the museum or taking a walk, which enables you to draw creativity from what you see. Through art or observation, you can identify how it relates to you. You personalize it.
That way, you own the story, and no one can take it away from you. For instance, you can search the internet for writing prompts or ideas. Writing prompts are thoughts that make you think about what you want to write about.
For instance,
- What’s the big failure you’ve had in your life? From that, ideas will come and make you start writing.
- What’s the turning point in your life or career?
- You can talk about a hero in your life – parents, coach, teacher, mentor you admire. It doesn’t have to be someone you know.
Posting quotes from other people are not attractive. However, if you take that quote, apply it to your life or create your version and present it differently, that is one way to make old new again. One way to prosper on Instagram is to take a quote or content, personalize it and make it yours. People want a more personalized connection.
Why Do You Remember Certain Things and Forget Almost Everything Else?
Three things that help our memory are:
- Emotion
- Images /visual
- Story
For people to remember your story, it needs to be emotional and visual. Most of us fear saying something that will offend others, so we play it safe. Unless you say something that unsettles people, you aren’t saying anything.
Summary
If you consider yourself an expert in a specific field, you must have a comprehensive understanding and insight at your fingertips. Can anyone pay to learn from you? Compile your ideas and test them to determine their viability. If you receive positive feedback, develop the idea further and create a sequel or series. Don’t randomly pick any content but the ones your audience likes the most. This is how you put in minimal effort and get the most out of your work.
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