A solstice review
Your free mid year Instagram checklist and strategy session
I stayed up waaay past my bedtime this winter solstice. We had friends come to celebrate with us and there was a bonfire and sparklers, homemade lanterns (made from pickle jars and pressed flowers) and smores. Under the brightest full moon the children ran around and made fireworks with branches pulled from the fire and the delight in the whole thing was palpable. Needless to say no one really wanted to go home and it was rather a late finish to a beautiful evening.
Which is all to say I did nothing the next day except basically lie in my warm bed or under a doona and labrador on the couch. And finally after a few days off I’m full of energy again and excited for things to come (not least the return of the sun as I always find short days a little challenging come two thirds the way through winter…)
Which is all to say it’s the middle of the year and it’s time for middle of the year things.
At the end of every quarter I always try to take some time out to review the previous three months of business and get ready for the ones ahead.
One of the parts of this process for me is a short Instagram review and strategy session, and I thought you might like to do the same.
It shouldn’t take too long, so if you can set aside 1 hour this week to address it (pop it in your diary) you will know you are going into this next quarter well prepared.
What we are going to do:
Revisit the purpose behind your account and remind ourselves why we are there and who we are showing up for.
Revisit our current IG strategy and determine if it needs a revamp.
Set goals for your Instagram presence this quarter.
Do an IG Bio audit with that in mind
Revisit our hashtags.
Do a security audit of our account.
Ok lets get started. Grab a pen and journal, something warm to drink and pull up a chair..
Revisit the purpose behind your Instagram account. Are you trying to reach new audiences or create deeper relationships with old? Who are your people? Does your content talk to them? If yes, great, if not you may want to take some journalling time to work through why not and what you are going to do about it.
When you are clear about the purpose behind your posting to Instagram and who you are talking to you can take a look at the strategy you have been using and appraise if it is working or not. Are you meeting your goals? Or have the goal posts moved, in which case how are you going to make sure going forward that the strategy you are employing is working?
Setting goals for your Instagram presence this quarter. How often do you want to show up on Instagram in the next 90 days? How many Reels a week will you make? How often will you show up in Stories or in your Main feed with Still images? How many weeks do you want to show up consistently before you take a break? How many new Followers do you want to attract this quarter? Now, how are you going to go about achieving that?
Lets audit your Instagram bio. Double check the words you have used are still relevant in your Bio and that your links all go to the places they need to. Does your Bio clearly set out what your account offers for prospective followers? Do you have your location included? Tweak it as need be.
Hashtags are still relevant. Revisit your hashtags lists. Are they all aligned with your strategy? Do you need to collect new ones to add to your collection, or remove old defunct ones? If you are not feeling super confident about how hashtags work, pop through here to grab your free copy of my ‘How to hashtag’ ebook.
Finally, last but most certainly not least, do your Instagram security audit. This will probably take the longest amount of time of all the suggestions today, but it is also probably the most important thing for you to do. Pop through HERE to revisit my post on Instagram security and follow the instructions in the second half to make sure that your account is secure and you have back ups of all the content you have posted in the past.
Brilliant! Congratulations on completing your mid year Instagram audit and simple strategy session. Hopefully this has brought your some clarity around what you are doing in the months ahead, and refreshed for you how to keep your content safe and secure after all the work that has gone in to building your thriving Insta account.
And if you found yourself with more questions than answers after doing the first few steps I have 2 spots left for my 1:1 90 min + 30 days coaching and accountability packages next quarter and a handful of my 1:1 60 minute sessions. I sometimes open these up again if I have space during the quarter but at this stage after they have sold out I won’t be able to guarantee availability until the following quarter.
Send me a DM if you would like to find out more.
X Ilona
