Whether you’re a small business, a brand, or an entrepreneur, an Instagram profile is as essential as a good logo in 2022.

In fact, it’s likely more important. While we may have an unhealthy addiction to the Instagram feed, it’s the lifesource for most brands. Providing free marketing and advertising, access to an insta-community, and the chance to build a unique brand personality, getting a handle on your handle is a no-brainer.

But if you hear the word ‘algorithm’ and shudder, or if you don’t know your reels from your IGTV, then you’ll want to read on. We spoke to social media expert Shirley Mosad (find her @so.me.social) about how to roll out the perfect Instagram strategy for you.

Shirley Mosad

1. Get comfortable with video

A few months ago, Head of Instagram Adam Mosseri announced that “Instagram is no longer just a square photo-sharing app.” And this caused a lot of stress amongst businesses and brands on Instagram, who relied heavily on aesthetically pleasing square photos which made up their perfect profile grid.

What Adam was referring to was that Instagram is stepping up its short-form video game and allowing for a fuller-screen experience. Single image posts and carousel posts can still be very successful if done well, and I would encourage anyone with an Instagram account to use ALL post formats. But, it is important to heed the advice which comes straight from the horse’s mouth and to get comfortable with entertaining, educational and inspirational short-form video.

The biggest change I’ve seen on all social media platforms - Instagram in particular - is the way users are choosing to consume content. It’s no longer enough to post a pretty picture with a one-line caption. Why? Because users have indirectly told the algorithm that that isn’t what they enjoy consuming on the app anymore. They spend a longer time on the app when they are scrolling through the reels tab on a Tuesday night while enjoying their binge-worthy Netflix series in the background.

Back in 2016, TikTok came along and blew everyone’s socks off. Users themselves were shocked at how long they were spending on the app, watching these short video clips of other people.

Reels are Instagram’s way of ‘keeping up with the times’, in response to the successful reception of the TikTok app.

So, really, it all comes down to the user. The audience. The viewer. The reader. The community. They are the driving force behind all changes across all platforms. It’s all about them. And it always will be.

2. Know your WHO, WHAT and HOW

In my opinion, there is no hack or formula for a viral post. There are steps you can take to make sure your posts will be well received by your community and this in turn pushes your post out to the discovery page, the hashtag pages and audiences which are similar to your own community.

If you consider (and I mean really consider) the WHO, the WHAT and the HOW of every post, your post is likely to be well received by your community.

The WHO is 2-fold. Who are you as a brand? Describe your brand personality and how you’d like to be perceived online. Then, who are your audience? Describe their deepest struggles, their lifestyle, their ages, their life stage.

The WHAT is your niche. Always stick to your niche in your feed posts. If you start posting photos of your dog on your feed, after you’ve promised to post ‘funny mum’ content, you’ll have a lot of confused followers – or worse, unfollows.

The HOW is the value you give in each post. HOW will you present the information – will the post be educational, entertaining, inspirational or promotional? HOW will you move your audience? Which struggle of theirs will you be speaking to through this piece of content. Which question of theirs will you answer?

Sometimes, virality is completely random – as if the algorithm is pushing out a piece of content into the viralsphere to ‘test the waters’. Then if engagement increases, then the virality continues.

This is why it’s so important to post both good content, and consistently.

3. Perfect your captions

The main aim of any caption is to ensure the reader reads the caption all the way to the end. If you can master this with a long caption and keep viewers on the app for longer, you’ll be rewarded by the algorithm. If not, your content will be penalised. So, it’s important to write with intention!

For carousel posts with text on them which clearly tells the story from beginning to end, there is nothing worse than making your viewers read a lengthy caption on top of swiping through your carousel post. So keep these ones short.

Short-form video (i.e. reels) doesn’t usually allow for enough time for the WHOLE story to be told. Therefore, if your reel is meant to be educational, you may need a more substantial caption to get your whole point across. However, if it’s a funny, super relatable reel, you won’t need much of a caption at all!

Single image posts usually require a longer caption too, unless you post an infographic, a quote or a meme – these usually speak for themselves and having a shorter caption often adds to the theatricals of it all.

4. Use emojis intentionally

I love emoji use to break up the text in a caption. My only recommendation would be to keep the emojis relevant and develop a set of 5-10 emojis that you will become known for using. Emoji placement is also important. Choose either the beginning or the end of each line and don’t place emojis in the middle of your sentences – this can be quite distracting!

5. Use reels for greater reach

There is a consistently, significantly higher outcome for one particular metric with reels than with any other post format. And that is reach. If you want to reach more people with your content, use reels. It’s as simple as that.

In saying that, in order to convert that reach into engagement and subsequently follows, the content needs to be good, and your bio needs to be optimised.

People want to consume short-form video. They want to be entertained. They want to learn new (bite-sized) concepts and hacks. So they scroll. And they scroll. And they scroll. So, with reels you have this incredible opportunity to reach thousands - potentially millions - of new accounts with your content, which you otherwise may not if you don’t use reels.

6. Stand out if you want to gain followers

It all comes back to what the user wants. The standards are sky-high these days. Everyone is catching on and it’s becoming crowded. Never overcrowded though. There is space for everyone to thrive on social media and grow their business using the right strategy.

So, my best advice for everyone right now, whether starting out and even if you’ve been in the game for a while now, is STAND OUT. The only way to be seen in a crowded space is to be unique enough to stand out from the rest.

Find your YOU-nique. Know who you are as a person, as a team, a business, a brand. Find your strengths and make sure these become known. How? By including your tone consistently across all your posts, by posting consistently and frequently and by making the effort to find out exactly what your audience wants to see and giving them just that (also consistently).

I would also question why we want growth. It’s great to have a goal of ‘increase by XX followers by XX’ but business growth is a much more productive goal in my opinion! So, while it is important to see some sort of growth over a period of time in your follower count, it’s more important to focus on warming your current audience up and then converting them into customers or clients when the time comes.

Nurturing your audience is so important – stories are a great way to do this. Stories help show the behind-the-scenes, the human factor and the uncut, non-curated side of the brand or business. They are a powerful tool for building that trust with your community.

7. Build trust and relatability

Although you don’t HAVE to show your face, it is advisable to do so. This is because people connect with people. Not brands. Not logos. Not products. People.

The main aim of most content you put out on Instagram is to build trust and relatability with your community. To do this quickly and efficiently, you need to show the human(s) behind the brand. But, there are most definitely ways to build trust and relatability without showing any faces. It is an art and takes a longer time, so perseverance is required!

8. Know the difference between hashtags and keywords

Users are still searching for keywords and hashtags, however, because Instagram is becoming more and more like a search engine, use of keywords is where the focus has now shifted to. Hashtags are now used more for categorising content. If the content is good, then engagement will be good and the algorithm will push the content out to the hashtag pages. If the content isn’t good, there isn’t one hashtag on Instagram that can help.

It's important to keep hashtags as specific and relevant (to niche and content) as possible. If you combine this with use of keywords in your caption, you’re winning.

9. Optimise your bio

Optimising your bio is essential to convert people who land on your page into followers.

The number one missed opportunity I see in bios is not maximising use of the Name field. The Name field is the only searchable field in your bio. This means that you should include keywords that your ideal client/customer is searching for here. It should explain very briefly exactly what it is you do. Don’t replicate your handle, as the handle is searchable too.

You can only change your Name field twice in 14 days though (and there is a 30 character limit), so have a good think before changing it.

The rest of your bio should tell your audience what you can do for them (not as a paying client/customer, but on your page). Tell them what they can expect to see if they do follow along and give them something to look forward to. 

10. Post consistently

Post as often as you can while maintaining consistency indefinitely. This is my advice to all of my clients. If I had to put a minimum number on it, I would say post 3 times a week to your feed and keep your stories LIT (meaning have a story or two running all of the time).

It’s such a shame when Instagram is no longer enjoyed because of the pressure to post daily or even multiple times a day. So, whatever is doable for you, do that. Just keep it consistent for at least 3 months before assessing growth or changing frequency.

11. Give the people what they want!

My strategy is based on the answer to one question – what does my (amazing) community want to see from me? They’ve made a commitment of time to me by clicking on that ‘follow’ button and I respect that, so I do my absolute best to keep up with their struggles, so that I can genuinely help them grow their business using Instagram. It’s all about them.

So, as a certified expert, what are Shirley’s favourite accounts to follow?

I love following all of my clients’ amazing content (cheeky)!

This is such a good question, because I follow the accounts I really love from my personal account – that’s where I enjoy my scrolling the most! I’d say accounts with motivational and entertaining content are my favourites. I’m a huge fan of Kristina Kuzmic. I also thoroughly enjoy seeing clips from Maverick City Music come up on my feed! I absolutely love funny mum stuff too, but I can’t list the accounts I love because I’m worried I’ll miss some amazing ones. There are quite a few out there!