Alphabet Blog

How is your organic social media engagement looking lately? If it resembles anything like rollercoaster or landslide, you're not alone.

If you rely on Instagram to market your businesses, the reality is that you are at the mercy of the algorithm. Especially if you're not investing in paid ads.

If you want more potential customers to see your content, you're going need to signal to the algorithm that it's YOUR content your followers want to see.

How on earth do you do that? 

By creating content people engage with in the form of: 

Likes

Comments

Shares and Saves

Messages etc.

Do you know what also counts as engagement? Interacting with Instagram Story Stickers!

These are some of the most underutilised but best features for driving new engagement on your account.

They're also a gold mine for finding out more about your audience, and them about you!

ENGAGEMENT DRIVING STORY STICKERS INCLUDE:

QUIZ STICKERS

Instagram’s Quiz Stickers allow you to ask questions...

It all started on Sunday when I noticed the Instagram app crashed every time I opened it.

Then, on Monday, I opened the app and was greeted with this panic-inducing message:

I was then prompted to put in my email address to receive a 6-digit code and then another notification asking for my phone number to receive another 6-digit code to log in to my account.

I did both those things (stupidly, in hindsight) and then was greeted with just a blank screen and the panic that my account had just been hijacked by hackers (even though I have two-factor authentication turned on).

My colleague searched my account and it couldn't be found. *poof* GONE!

Like many, I rely heavily on Instagram to market my business and the thought that 7 years of hard work had just *vanished* was terrifying.

Fortunately, within a few hours my account was back as Instagram rectified the situation. But I was also seeing reports of people losing followers by the bucketload.

*WHAT WAS HAPPENING?!*

I don't know...

We often hear social media gurus saying we need to create content our audience “finds valuable” in order to get engagement and grow. 

That’s all well and good, but the difficulty is figuring out WHAT to post! There’s nothing worse than having to schedule content for the week and then you have no cooking clue what to talk about. Right?! 

Well, today I want to show you my fool-proof method to find the hottest topics related to your niche or industry that your ideal customer is actively searching for and asking for. GOLD! 

Then you can go forth and confidently create content because you KNOW this is what your audience actually wants to see. 

So what are these gems, you ask? 

Google Trends 

This website is amazing for uncovering what people are searching for as it relates to your industry. You can plug in a term and Google will show you search trends related to that term, broken down by region, timeframe, category and search...

I often get asked whether it’s important to still include hashtags in your content… 

What type of hashtags should you use in your posts? 

Do they help or are they a waste of time? 

The short answer is YES! You should still be using hashtags.   

Why? 

Because hashtags help your content be discovered by NEW people who aren’t following you and so help to increase your brand’s reach and awareness. 

Even ONE new person per post is a GOOD thing right? 

Ok, hashtags are probably not going to shoot the lights out in terms of getting you lots more engagement of followers but the way I see it? 

Every little bit helps and it’s better to include them than to not use them at all. 

Ok, so how do you know if your hashtags are actually working? 

Easy! On Instagram, you can click on “View Insights” below your post and scroll down to see how many impressions you got from the hashtags you used. Like...

Today I want to touch on something I know many are struggling with currently. That is, getting engagement and being ‘seen’ on Instagram. It’s getting TOUGH out there, right? 

It is a topic that came up in our recent coaching mastermind session and I know it’s a source of frustration for many small businesses. 

There’s nothing worse than spending an hour perfecting a reel and then you post it and… *crickets*! Ugh. 

But the good news is, there’s always a solution!! 

So today, I thought I would share WHY this may be happening to you and WHAT to do about it if you’re experiencing this. 

But first, it’s important to note that the algorithm doesn’t ‘punish’ you. 

To put it simply, Instagram makes money from our attention by selling advertising targeting its users. 

Like it or not, the more time we spend on Instagram, the more money they make. 

If we create content that users...