If you're looking to optimize your Instagram content strategy, look no further than creating an all-encompassing publishing schedule. Here's the lowdown on how.
As a social marketer, you have a lot on your plate. There are a million things to prep and plan for as you liaise between the marketing and creative departments to ensure that your most important visual touch points are relaying the right on-brand message through a carefully crafted narrative.
While everyone is out there thinking you have the easy fun job, you're here struggling to try to make everything look effortless while strategizing and staying on top of a sleepless Internet. Little do they know that every IG post is the result of a thoughtful, intentional brand message.
To manage social media accounts is to be on 24/7/365, making the existence of social media publishing tools and an Instagram post planner vital to survival. When you develop an Instagram content strategy, devising a game plan for your ensuing social posts is de rigueur.
Keeping a social media posting schedule is about both organization and the ability to stay nimble, while simultaneously executing your visual brand strategy. You're serving much more than just photos and videos—you're thinking about the bigger picture and the ongoing brand story you're telling through those Instagram posts. Social media content is your strategy's culmination, and those visuals must deliver. No pressure.
Because Instagram automation is not an applicable solution, you'll want to opt for a comprehensive set of social content scheduling tools that will support your social media marketing strategy while also doubling as an Instagram post planner. The Dash Hudson's Social Media Scheduler is the complete package when it comes to planning your calendar, essentially stopping short of telling you how often to post on Instagram.
Planning everything provides social marketers a bird's eye view of their Insta flow at all times. Nothing plagues the Instagram manager more than the fear of running out of content, or worse, missing National Siblings Day (jk, but not). In keeping with your brand's marketing initiatives, the social media team would be remiss to not keep a fully stocked, all-encompassing posting calendar, complete with all scenarios of optimization.
Which we're about to lay out below with these 7 tips for how to plan Instagram posts for business.
Before filling that content calendar with all those great branded visuals you've been producing, you need to nail some assistance. The tools you're using can determine your results, so make it count. Without a solid arsenal of them in your kit, your social media life can get very, very difficult.
A scheduling tool that fulfills your business needs is vital, and Dash Hudson's robust scheduler is a superstar solution for brands. Here's why:
As you know, posting on social media is not just something to do at your whim—strategery here is highly important in all matters of posting frequency, best publishing times, and aesthetic consistency. To that effect, the key to nailing your visual identity is to first devise a content strategy in which to anchor your efforts.
You're going to want to establish content pillars, each one derivative from your bigger brand narrative. They will serve as the vehicle for your company's tone of voice and visual point of view.
Decide what holidays and events you want to include in your activities—ask yourself which collective conversations you want your brand to be a part of and what makes sense for your business. Weave those into your calendar.
The same goes for your collection drops and influencer activations. Be sure to pencil those in as far in advance as possible to keep your head above water and to know what you'll be posting to promote your campaigns. Build your calendar around them when you create your social media posting schedule.
Repurposing high-quality user-generated content is hugely beneficial and adds a ton of media value to your social marketing. The main reason is that it's a reciprocal act of love that lets your followers know you notice them, further encouraging the creation of more content around your brand, and consequently receiving more organic exposure. But how do you create a social media posting schedule?
The best way to schedule your social media posts is with Dash Hudson's content scheduler. Our top-rated social scheduler makes regramming an easy, seamless process by allowing you to input UGC into your social calendar directly from your DH Dashboard. Here's how:
Incorporating UGC into your Instagram content strategy is a super smart way to show your fans some love while also generating more organic exposure for yourself by encouraging others to tag you in hopes of a repost.
Think of a link-in-bio solution to fully optimize your Instagram content. Not only will it help bring your audience more value, but it can also potentially turn your IG account into an additional revenue driver. Redirect your followers with external links to increase web traffic and convert sales by adding URLs to your media before publishing.
You can do this for all your photos and videos before posting them to better capitalize on the first few moments after publishing. Just click on any of your unpublished posts in your scheduler and follow the prompts to add a LikeShop link.
You can also add links to UGC posts you are repurposing in the same step mentioned in point #3. As you're scheduling the post you want to re-gram from its global pop-up, just add the type of link—whether it's to a product page or a content page—to the scheduled post by inputting it into the LikeShop space.
And voilà, you'll be monetizing in no time! Just remember to add a strong CTA.
Our scheduler drag and drop functionality makes curation intuitive. Easily play around with the order of your posts to make sure that your grid flows nicely and echoes your aesthetic. Be mindful of the dates to ensure that your marketing initiatives, special collaborations, and notable events are scheduled on the right days, and get a full preview of your feed's appearance.
Once you're happy with how everything looks, drag the thumbnails in order directly onto the calendar. Double optimization whammy: the time slots darkened in blue are your best times to post based on your engagement history. This is an incredibly useful functionality to make sure you're getting the most bang for your post.
Planning is winning, especially as it relates to what your Instagram profile will look like. Aka your homepage.
For anyone with a DH High Growth package and above, the Scheduler is now equipped with Visions' performance predictor tool. This is a game-changer. It will give every prospective image a real-time performance forecast indicated by a little icon in the top righthand corner of the post's thumbnail, allowing you to ax a visual and replace it with one that is likelier to succeed.
Like I said, a game-changer.
You can also store your pre-produced Instagram Stories in the Dash Hudson Scheduler and add them to your calendar to receive a posting prompt. Once you go into the DH for Brands app to post, you'll be asked if your visual is for your feed or your Stories. Tap Stories and proceed as usual.
Approaching Instagram scheduling from an all-encompassing standpoint is the best way to ensure you tick off all the required boxes, bringing you one step closer to total social domination. In all seriousness, that means reaching all of your goals and then some.
You're only helping yourself, your team, and your brand by doing the work ahead of time, as a thoughtfully organized schedule makes strategy execution a seamless task. Keeping things tight will help you establish a process and streamline your workflow, enabling you to visualize and focus on the bigger picture.
And you know what they say, go big or go home.