5 Steps To Build Your Perfect Instagram Strategy
A “QUALITY OVER QUANTITY” APPROACH TO POSTING ON INSTAGRAM
At the time of writing this I have 1,509 followers on instagram, which is basically basically nothing when you look at influencers and small children reviewing toys. Which means you’re probably thinking “why the fuck should I listen to this girl for advice on social media?”. If your goal is to gain as many followers as possible, maybe you don’t want to listen to me. Go chase the trends. But I’ve also built a successful business from scratch and all of my clients have come from word of mouth or by discovering me on Instagram. A good portion of my income has come from posting some carousels and reels. And I did that with a social media strategy that didn’t include going viral or gaining as many followers as possible. So let’s break down my social media strategy so you can create one that fits your goals.
#1: I GOT TO KNOW MY TARGET AUDIENCE
The first thing I did when creating my strategy was think “what does my target audience actually care about?”. My audience wants to build their business. They want their business or personal brand to be more successful. They want to make more money. They want to look more professional. At its core, my instagram strategy has to be about addressing these issues. If they don’t care about the content I’m putting out, it’s useless content. Even if I’m putting out a random Canva tip on how to place your text behind images, I need to bring that back to how it affects their concerns and goals.
GET TO KNOW YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE
Most PTs assume their audience’s primary goal is to get out of pain. You’re probably not wrong, but can we go deeper? Are they scared of injuring themselves again? Do they want to feel more confident and independent in the gym? Are they concerned about their kid getting a scholarship? Do they just want to get back to what they love? Think deeper to find that true motivating factor so you can address it.
#2: I FIGURED OUT MY SOCIAL MEDIA GOALS
Most people want to gain followers or go viral on social media. I actually don’t care about that. Sure, I want people to discover me on Instagram but that will always happen organically. You’ll build slowly and if you put out good content, it will be shared far and wide. My primary goal with social media is education. If I reflect more on my audience, most don’t know shit about branding. They probably conflate it with marketing and don’t actually have a clue what I do.
When I’m generating content, I’m providing a ton of education on what branding is, why it’s important, and how to implement it. No one is going to invest in branding if they don’t see the value. So while I hand out a ton of free information on instagram, and a lot of people would tell me that’s a shitty strategy, it pays off for me. I’m not spending any time convincing clients why my services are worth it because they already understand why it’s valuable. Similarly, the education I put out on how to implement your brand means that once I hand off logos and a brand guide, my clients are set up for success and will confidently be able to use their deliverables. My goal here is happy, educated clients.
DETERMINE YOUR UNIQUE GOALS
A similar strategy may work well for you. Think about how much time you spend educating patients on the importance of rest or nutrition. Or maybe you find yourself really having to preach why cash pay PT is worth the investment. What if you had a new patient come to you and already knew that? You could spend your eval really getting to know them and showing them what they can do on their own instead of wasting time convincing them that they’re getting better care with you than down the street at a PT mill. Education is overlooked when it comes to an Instagram strategy but there’s a huge benefit to building your perfect patient and building trust with them before they even walk through the door. And if education isn’t your primary goal, what is? Are you building a community? Are you looking to promote yourself more? Are you trying to inspire others? There’s more to instagram than just followers.
#3: I CREATED CONTENT BUCKETS
If you find social media as much of a drag as I do, it’s easiest to come up with content buckets. What I mean by that is choose 4-10 different types of posts that will work for you and then do it over and over again. With my instagram strategy, I have 4 buckets that I pull from:
Education: on the importance of branding, Canva tips, website guidance, branding implementation
Self-Promotion: logo designs, website previews, blog posts, new courses or templates
Color Wednesday: sometimes to bring a little bit of life to my feed
Get To Know Me: photos of my life, videos of my dog Dave
By creating buckets, it tends to make generating new content a lot easier. I already know where to pull from and I can spend less time thinking of what to post next.
FIND YOUR CONTENT BUCKETS
Your content buckets should expand beyond “exercise videos”. Do they tend to do well on instagram? Yes, take advantage of it. But also think outside of the box. You can do exercise tips, exercise myths, exercise Q&As, exercise cues…or you could get away from exercise entirely. You could promote new things in your business (sales, events, injury screens, etc), highlight your athletes with testimonials or spotlights, show your audience behind the scenes of your business, feature some business partners or fancy tech you’re using…I don’t know, get creative.
#4: I BUILT DESIGN TEMPLATES
Social media templates are your best friend. It makes it easy to change out the content so you know it’ll be consistent and you won’t waste time doing something new with every post. Templates might start to feel boring if you do the same thing over and over again BUT IGNORE THAT PART OF YOUR BRAIN. It might feel boring to you but your audience thrives on consistency. It makes your content recognizable and gives your brand a stronger feel. I created templates for each of my buckets and I use them all the time. Maybe a bit boring but efficient and on brand. All the things I care about
CREATE TEMPLATES FOR YOURSELF
Canva is a great resource for this. And if you don’t know how to use Canva this whole blog post is a tease to say “hey I’m creating a Canva tutorial course so you can build your instagram templates”. Stay tuned for that but if you want to start with some of the pre-designed templates I have created for health and performance practitioners, you can check them out at the link here. Get familiar with Canva, choose or build your templates, and then stick with them. You don’t need a new template for every post. That’s actually the worst idea you can have from a branding standpoint.
#5: I TRY MY BEST TO POST REGULARLY
In theory you should have all of the skills to now easily implement your strategy and generate posts. It’s still the worst part of my job, I hate it here, but this strategy does make it a bit easier and a bit less horrible. And you can steal it. My hope is that if you’re also someone who struggles with generating content this both helps streamline it and is a kick in the ass to do better because I know how easy it is to just go quiet on instagram because it’s better than putting out content.
POST WHAT’S TRUE TO YOU
My primary suggestion when implementing your strategy is to always remain authentic. Don’t try too hard to perfectly control your image. It’s exhausting and honestly people like a bit of humanity and authenticity. The internet is filled with perfectly put together influencers and AI so it can be refreshing to show that you’re a normal human being. Don’t worry about perfectly editing your videos. Don’t try to curate yourself to the point where you become one dimensional or unrelatable. And if you’re thinking “oh I’m in the medical field, I need to be stuffy and professional” cut that shit out. Unless you’re stuffy and professional with all of your patients, use social media to show them the type of practitioner they get when they work with you.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
ERIN KELLY-SULLIVAN
When you bring someone in to help with your business you really want them to understand your needs. My time as a PT gives me that background to truly understand your business, your target audience, and the field. If you want to work with someone who gets you, my specialty is helping fellow physical therapists, strength coaches, and anyone in the health and performance field reach their branding goals.
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