Instagram is a very popular social media platform, especially among businesses, lifestyle brands, entrepreneurs, influencers, and bloggers. It has a large user base, which is always growing. For many, using Instagram for their business is a no-brainer, but many find that keeping up with all the changes and trends too overwhelming, which leads them to give up on the platform. 

In this blog post, we’re going to discuss how you can maintain sustainable habits on Instagram for your business. 

Plan Ahead by Creating Content Pillars

Content pillars are a way to plan your Instagram posts in advance to help you create content consistently. Content pillars can be a theme, topic, idea, or style of content you want to focus on as part of your overall Instagram strategy. For example, if you’re a tax professional looking to grow on Instagram, your pillars could be: 

• Tax preparation tips for freelancers
• Business expense tips
• Financial tool tutorials
• Client Testimonials
• Finance and tax myths

Based on your content pillars, you can create content that fits into these categories, knowing that you’ll work to get closer to your goal while educating and engaging with your audience. 

Creating content pillars allows us to remain consistent without being overwhelmed. It doesn’t mean that you have to post every day or only create a certain format of content, i.e., videos. You can use it as a tool to aid in your creative efforts. It allows you to have a solid foundation and build consistency for your audience since audience members are great at identifying patterns and if they love your content, they will come back for more. 

Leverage Your Existing Audience

Don’t underestimate the power of your existing audience. Your most loyal fans are already on Instagram, waiting for you to share new content. There’s a common saying in marketing that your most loyal buyers are often silent followers, and it’s true. In many cases, the audience members who purchase from us watch silently from the sidelines. 

To ensure that you create content sustainably on Instagram, you can use your Instagram stories to ask your audience members what they want from you. Create polls to ask them what they want to see next, what they want to learn next, or ask if they have any questions. Collect these answers and see how they fit into your content pillars. 

Giving your audience members a chance to communicate with you by proactively asking questions often helps our audience members who are watching on the sidelines open up and tell us how we can help them. 

On the flip side, we also must consider how we retain our audience members. Regularly introducing yourself and highlighting ways for new and existing audience members to interact with you and the unique value you offer can help with retention.

Use Calls to Action

A call-to-action (CTA) is a statement that prompts the reader or viewer to take a specific action, such as making a purchase or signing up for a newsletter. While CTAs are frequently associated with sales, they can also be used to grow your audience and drive engagement sustainably. 

Here are some example call-to-actions to help you grow your audience, engagement and traffic sustainably while not feeling like you’re always selling. 

• To learn more about XYZ, visit the link in our bio. 
• Save this post for the next time you [enter action here.]
• Sign up for our newsletter to stay informed on the latest industry trends.
• Click the link in our bio to join our Facebook group to connect with like-minded individuals.
• Download our [enter resource name] to learn more about our approach on [enter topic.]
• Watch our webinar to discover new ways to boost your [enter the goal.]
• Did this resonate with you? Tag a friend. 

Call-to-actions don’t have to be directly related to sales, and can help you make the most of your experience on Instagram. They can significantly contribute to your traffic and audience growth. When we ask our audience to take a specific action, they are more likely to do so. The more engaging call-to-actions we use, the more our current and new audience members will take action. And yes, even when we don’t post every day. Remember, we never know who’s watching. 

Many businesses don’t enjoy CTAs since they associate them with pushy sales tactics. By diversifying the types of CTAs used, we can contribute to our growth on Instagram while promoting a community feel. 

Make Use of Instagram Analytics

The most important thing you can do is use Instagram analytics. You’ll be able to see what is working for you and what isn’t, which time of day your audience is most active and where they are from. This information will help you decide when to post and identify content that resonates with your audience. 

When you identify a specific content type, format or even a content pillar that drives the most engagement and potential leads, this is where you should shift focus. 

Here are some great Instagram statistics to look at: 

• Content Saves
• Content Shares
• Comments 
• Audience Growth 
• Profile Visits
• Website Taps
• Email Button Taps

These great metrics can help you identify what resonates with your audience. 

Repurpose Your Instagram Stories

Even though Instagram Reels are really popular right now, you should still focus on leveraging your Instagram stories. Instagram stories are great for showing what you’re working on and sometimes don’t require much planning. Another great thing about Instagram stories is that you can easily reshare your archived stories. You can also schedule your stories in advance in the Meta Business Suite. 

Here are a few Instagram story ideas that require little to no planning: 

• Share a quick update about your plans for the day. 
• Do a quick product demo. 
• Host a “work with me” series where you share a few daily stories, talking about your work processes. 
• Share a customer testimonial. 
• Reshare a popular post from your feed to your stories. 
• Share a post from an industry professional that you admire. 

It doesn’t feel overwhelming when you start using Instagram stories to build connections and take your audience on a journey. Dedicating ten to fifteen minutes per day, a few days per week, to your Instagram stories can significantly impact your community building on Instagram. 

One thing that is easily missed when it comes to Instagram or most platforms is that consistency doesn’t mean more. It doesn’t mean showing up aggressively and feeling burnt out. Consumers are adept at observing patterns. They will come back for more if they follow you and learn to understand your pattern and posting frequency. As long as you establish a posting consistency and a system that works for you with your audience in mind, you’re already a few steps ahead of your competitors. 

In summary, Instagram is a great way to connect with audience members, build relationships and be creative. It can also be a tempting place to get lost in the numbers game and compare yourself to others. But, if you follow the tips above, you’ll find that Instagram can be a valuable tool for sustainably building your brand and community.