How to Master Social Media Growth

Welcome Back

Today we're answering your social media questions from our Q&A sticker. We'll cover brainstorming content ideas, platform selection, hashtag strategy, collaborations, and more. Let's dive in.

Brainstorming Content Ideas

First, how do you brainstorm content ideas? We recommend a structured approach. Create a source list. This is an inspiration list of brands, creators, and accounts that speak to your target audience. It serves as a go-to resource for ideas and information. We include this in our client strategy documents. Have a dedicated place, like a content tracker or notes app, to jot down ideas. When you see inspiring content, save the link, note what you liked, and how you might execute a similar idea. Spend a couple of hours upfront building this idea bank. It makes monthly planning much easier. For finding ideas, platforms like Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest, and YouTube are excellent. Pinterest is underrated. YouTube is great for discovering audience questions. The informal method is to always be a user of the apps. Save inspiring content directly within the app using features like Instagram's saved collections.

Platform Selection: Is Instagram Still the Best?

Next, is Instagram still the best platform to grow on? The key question is: where does your target audience live? If your audience isn't there, you're wasting time. For example, gamers should focus on Twitch or Discord. From a global perspective, Instagram is arguably the gold standard in 2024. It has 2 billion users and 500 million daily active users. At the time of filming, Instagram and Facebook are growing faster than TikTok. Furthermore, TikTok faces potential restrictions in the U.S., highlighting the importance of diversifying your social presence. Don't rely on a single platform. Have an email list and a presence on multiple platforms. Instagram offers significant discovery opportunities and constantly adds new features. It operates like a digital business card. However, it's high effort, high reward. You're competing with many people, but with great content and community focus, you can win. It requires patience and consistency.

Hashtag Strategy for Reels

Now, how to find the best hashtags for your reels? There are paid software tools, but we often find them too broad. We use a free, manual method. Use Instagram's search. Type in a keyword related to your content. Look at the posts that appear and see what hashtags they use. Tap on a hashtag to see its usage volume. As platforms get more competitive, using niche, specific hashtags is better. Prioritize smaller hashtags. You can use one or two larger ones as you grow. Meta has suggested using up to 10 hashtags, which we use as a standard, though we sometimes go up to 30 for specific accounts. The most important thing is that hashtags are targeted and relevant to your content. Keep them in the caption, not the comments, based on current Meta recommendations. Check for banned hashtags using sites like metahashtags.com. We're also testing Meta AI for hashtag suggestions. You can ask it for niche hashtags for a specific post topic.

Collaborating with Other Creators

How often should you collaborate with other creators? As often as you can. Collaboration posts are a powerful feature. Aim for mutually beneficial partnerships. If there's a significant size difference, the larger creator might collaborate if they genuinely love the smaller brand's work. Collaborations provide a co-sign to each other's audiences, leading to cross-pollination. We've seen great results from influencer marketing for our clients. Even a single collaboration, like a joint live stream, can bring in new followers. Look for creators with shared audiences but different angles.

Balancing Work and Partnership

Finally, how do we balance being a couple and working together? We've been together for 13 years and run a business. For us, it's less about balance and more about integration. We have shared goals and interests. We enjoy working together and talking about ideas. We've defined roles—one handles more client-facing work, the other operations—which helps us avoid stepping on each other's toes. We ensure we have downtime together, like cooking a meal and watching a show on weekends. It works because we both care deeply about our work and are naturally curious, forever students of the industry. The key is having defined responsibilities and a shared vision.

Closing

We host bi-weekly live Q&As for our members where we review profiles, content, and strategies. Thank you for watching.