Better by the Gram

10 Steps to better Instagram Engagement. Step 9: Create Organic Follower Growth.

April 6 2023

Better by the Gram: Organic Follower Growth

Michael BeebeBetter by the Gram, Branding, Business, Business Strategy, Consulting, Marketing, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Spark Plug Strategies, Uncategorized Better by the Gram, Organic Follower Growth

I wrote a book! The book, Better by the Gram: Ten Actionable Steps to Increase Your Visibility, can be pre ordered or (depending on when you see this) purchased by clicking the link HERE. My birthday is April 7, so I decided what better birthday present to myself than to release a book that day so I really have something to celebrate? A new chapter will post daily through April 6th and on the 7th the book will be available for immediate purchase instead of just preorders.

I also released the rough drafts of the book chapter by chapter on my website and you can read what I wrote and get the gist of the chapters. Honestly, you don’t even need to read the book. There is enough information between the blog postings and the resources pages found HERE that the rest of the book might just be fluff.

With that said, the blog is a very first draft, mostly notes, of the final book. It’s out of order and a tad messy. The book itself its a much easier format to read and honestly, I would truly appreciate your purchase.

This is an easy, but time-consuming strategy. You have to comment on other people’s stuff for one hour per day, every day. One hour of time should be spent offering value to people that do not follow you. Go to hashtags on your niche or market and answer people’s questions or comment on things posters say. This gets them interested in you. This is a long and tedious process and an hour feels like it takes forever.

Also find frequent commenters and like nine or ten posts they have made in order starting from the most recent. Don’t do more or fewer than nine or ten and don’t do it to the people you a know personally and already follow you.

This is a discipline few have. So—got $5? I recommend going on Fiverr and hiring it out to a virtual assistant. Many times you can find a decent VA working out of The Philippines for $5 for 3-hours of work. You can create the static responses or tell her to improvise so it doesn’t sound pre-written.

10 Steps to better Instagram Engagement. Step 6. Add Alt Text.

April 5 2023

Better by the Gram: Alt Text

Use alt text! It’s free and helps increase engagement because Instagram “likes” the use of alt text. Instagram’s artificial intelligence uses the alt text to find out what the picture is about so you don’t write your caption in the alt text spot, you write a description of your photo and Instagram likes to push out what it can understand. It’s under the “advanced settings” area of your post. You will find the textbook to type it in to and remember to be keyword heavy in a verbose description of your image. This isn’t paraphrasing, but an entirely new description.

In essence, an algorithm scans each photograph that is posted on Instagram to determine what is in it. Based on what you've liked, shared, and what appears to be your interests, Instagram has been attempting to forecast whether you're going to interact with a post or not. An Alternative Text, a description of an Instagram image, is the output of this scan.

In terms of an SEO strategy, Alt Text is crucial. Since you probably know more about what's on your photo than any artificial intelligence system. The quality and accuracy of the generated Alt Texts are unknown. They are inaccessible to us in any way. However, an algorithm is unable to understand your intentions, your niche, or the value you provide to your audience.

Generated Alt Texts are therefore highly general and descriptive, which is something that can be relied upon.

After writing your caption for each picture you share, scroll down and select advanced options. You'll be able to create your own Alternative Text this way. Consider your alternative text in the same way as you would your SEO plan. Add keywords, places, cities, your industry, your specialization, your target market, your brand, and so forth. Try to fit as many relevant keywords as you can while being as specific as you can.

Keep your search terms and areas relevant. Although you shouldn't count on alt text to treble your account's traffic or interaction, it is a wonderful addition to a successful Instagram strategy and is a relatively untapped tactic. Utilize it and gain from it. You'll definitely obtain unexpected outcomes if you use this approach.

10 Steps to better Instagram Engagement. Step 4: Separate Captions from Hashtags.

April 4 2023

Better by the Gram: Separate Hashtags From Your Main Work

Remember how I said to use your notepad on your phone to wrote your post? This is part of that. Put your hashtags at the bottom of your post. No one needs to directly see them because Instagram gets the keywords in front of the right audience for you.

Also, don’t include the hashtag on the wording on a post on Instagram. With 3,000 characters of space per post, you are not hurting for room as you are on Twitter so don’t act like it. The argument can be made that Millennials are used to reading hashtags in sentences and that’s great, champ, but not everyone reading the hashtags is the targeted age group and there is nothing edgy about not getting a recommendation for product you are selling because a Baby Boomer couldn’t read a bunch of lower case letters all shoved together. As a greater curtsy, I tend to post my hashtags with the first letter of each word capitalized just to make it easier to read because if they stop reading, they never see your call to action and all you showed them was a pretty picture they will disregard as soon as they see the next pretty picture.

10 Steps to better Instagram Engagement. Step 1: Use Portrait Images.

April 3 2023

Better by the Gram: Image Size

Michael BeebeBetter by the Gram, Branding, Business, Business Strategy, Consulting, Marketing, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Spark Plug Strategies Better by the Gram, Image Size, Instagram, Michael Beebe, TheMichaelBeebe

Using portrait-proportioned images makes your post look bigger because it takes up more real estate on the screen when viewed by the user. It takes up nearly the entire screen and that’s all the users sees for that moment. Obviously you need an engaging photo, but this reduces the competition for the user’s attention to zero if the user can’t see anything else on the screen but your image.

So what if you’re making an infographic? Same portrait size. Instagram and many social media influencers will tell you 1080 by 1080 1:1 square pictures work best but the data simply doesn’t support that. 1080 by 1350 or a 4:5 ratio seems to be the best option for overall engagement based only on image size. Upon discovering this, I was shocked too after years of being told to turn my phone sideways or to crop my post to a square. Sometimes to be fancy, I’ll post in landscape, which I assume means no one can see shit in my image and I’m wasting my time. Landscape is 1080 by 566 or a 1.91:1 aspect ratio. If creating a digital image, use 1080 as your baseline width in all cases. I would suggest that landscape is the worst option since it takes up the least amount of real estate of the viewable area.

Use this as a quick guid, from best to worst ,for Instagram posts:

Portrait 1080 X 1350 4:5 Ratio

Square 1080 X 1080 1:1 Ratio

Landscape 1080 X 566 1.91:1 Ratio

Above I stated that Instagram suggests using 1080 X 1080. In fact, they’re default settings for images used to want you to crop image to that size. I have seen no indication that they give any preferential treatment to any specific image size.

10 Steps to better Instagram Engagement. Step 7: Tag Everything.

April 2 2023

Better by the Gram: Tag Everything!

Make sure you tag everything that’s taggable. If you are in Las Vegas and take a picture in front of the Volcano Show at the Mirage, both the Mirage and the Volcano show have their own accounts so tag both. If friends or celebrities appear in the photos, tag them. If there is a restaurant in the shot on accident but it’s an otherwise good photo, tag that restaurant. Your picture then shows up in the tagged photos section of each of those accounts and guess what, it gets noticed. The primary goal here is to increase engagement and this is just one more way to do it.

Let’s go a step farther. Who was the photographer? Tag them and thank them for taking the picture. If you have a clothing brand, thank the model for being in the shot that way her fans see her wearing your logo and it creates a subliminal endorsement even though the model is just modeling for the paycheck. Hell, tell people what brand camera was used to take the photo and tag the brand. Don’t be stupid with it, but go crazy. Just remember, there is a difference between crazy and stupid.

10 Steps to better Instagram Engagement. Step 2 Create Good Captions.

April 1 2023

Better by the Gram: Good Captions

Michael BeebeBetter by the Gram, Branding, Business, Business Strategy, Consulting, Marketing, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Spark Plug Strategies Better by the Gram, Good Captions, Instagram, Michael Beebe, TheMichaelBeebe

Make sure your captions are good quality and engaging. I know that sounds like common sense, but it’s not. Hell, I ignore it frequently for a quick image and a short couple of words just to say where I was and I do mine, largely, as a memory book. I travel for work extensively. In fact, part of the definition of my regular job is travel and I want to be able to look back like old people do in a photo album and remember the time and place I was and I want to just share my experiences through my own eyes. Those posts get the least engagement online. Ironically, when I see my friends in person, those tend to be the posts they mention and ask about, so there is a level of in-person social currency I receive from those posts where I will get asked about it, largely because I didn’t write a lot. The purpose here is to engage with audiences of your brand.

*Start off with an idea you want to portray.

*Your first sentence should be something that is a pattern interruption for the viewer. You need to give them a reason to pause their scrolling to read what you have to say. I often start a post or a blog piece with something that has absolutely nothing to do with the photo. For instance, I have started off mentioning New Orleans while the photo I used was clearly taken in Las Vegas. Then I will draw from that pattern interrupt to bring it full circle to the photo at hand.

*Make sure the caption used offers some form of value to the reader.

*End the posting with a call to action of some sort. It can be “like, share, and follow” or “go to the following link.” It doesn’t matter what you ask people to do, they will be more likely to do it than if you didn’t ask them to do anything. In fact, they will, many times, finish readying and be confused as to why they read it in the first place. Out of curiosity, I tried two posts discussing social media probably two years back. On the second d post I asked people to save it if they got any value from reading it and sure as shit, I had three people save it compared to the other post which had zero saves and an equal number of likes. The first post, without a clear call to action, left people asking “so what?” They wasted their time reading it because I didn’t ask them to engage farther. This is actually quite genius. It’s like when a door-to-door salesman comes knocking and he sees your mildly receptive, he will ask for a glass of water. The water is a small ask, but it conditions the perspective buyer to say “yes” to a request by the salesman and more difficult to say no. Some of the best are politicians and a politician is selling themselves. They start off with asking of the person has a minute. Then they may ask for a glass of water. Next they ask if they can hand the person business card or a handout. The asks get bigger and bigger till they ask for a vote, a donation, a yard sign location, or all three of those things individually. The next time a politician comes to your door, pay attention to what they ask that you don’t even realize you’re being agreeable to. Emulate that in your social media postings. Ask and ye shall receive!

When writing a caption natively in Instagram, you cannot just hit the “return” button and skip a line on the app. Write your caption in your phone’s note pad and copy and paste it to the Instagram post. This will help with spelling and grammatical errors as well. Yes, for all the errors I make, they would be far worse if I wrote them directly in the post.

10 Steps to better Instagram Engagement. Step 3: Use Hashtags.

March 31 2023

Better by the Gram: Use Hashtags

This cannot be stressed enough. Instagram allows up to thirty hashtags. DO NOT use all thirty on every post!!! That is a great way to drop engagement rates. I suggest using no more than fifteen to twenty and on very rare occasion, use all thirty. As an example, I plan to release a book in the next twelve months about my travels. Each state is its own chapter and I am releasing the unedited version as individual blog pieces. I will use the thirty hashtag limit for each state chapter and they will be scheduled in advance, BUT I will also schedule a minimum of two additional posts per day with no more than fifteen hashtags in them. This will keep my total daily average of around twenty and won’t look like I am trying to game the algorithm because Instagram HATES when someone does that.

When researching your hashtags to use, look on Instagram at the numbers of instances the hashtag was used in each. Anything over 500,000 is bad to use. Target hashtags between 100,000 and 500,000 uses. That should be the sweet spot on getting noticed and being relevant. It shows too large of an audience and won’t get noticed in the ocean. You need a pond. Smaller, more localized hashtags are better. It is analogous to niche websites where “niches get riches.” Using my travel book example, I will search smaller hashtags within communities in each city I want to tag. There are times to break this rule, such as the hashtag #NewAuthor, for instance. It is very important to spend the time to find hashtags in your niche.

Hashtags are keywords. If you have done any website development, you know the importance of using keywords for searchability. Why wouldn’t you want to use this fantastic tool?

The following are some rules that should be applied to your routine hashtag usage:

-In the first remark on the post, avoid using hashtags. With practically every update to the app, they appear to work and don't work at different times. In any case, it doesn't appear any more clean. So don't do it and don't take the chance.

-Keep hashtags separate from your caption. Your point will be more clearly conveyed.

-Use only hashtags with 500,000 or fewer posts. Simply put, your material will go into oblivion, and your hashtags will have been wasted. Fewer than 100,000 is fine. You may earn a smaller, more dedicated audience.

-Use a maximum number of thirty hashtags, but I recommend fewer, no more than twenty except for special occasions.

-Use a hashtag that is pertinent to the image you are publishing. That means, use hashtags for your individual postings rather than your entire account. Don't #PalmTrees and post a photo of you and your friends in front of the Flatiron building in New York City if you have a NYC-based post.

-On each post, use a different hashtag. Instead, periodically rewrite them with the aforementioned factors in mind. Instagram may consider your use of the same hashtags repeatedly to be spam and may remove your content from hashtag searches if this happens. The Hipsters and other mod folks call it being “shadowbanned.” With this in mind, a few repetitive hashtags are OK, such as the use of your personal hashtags moniker, such as my use of #MichaelBeebe and #TheMichaelBeebe.

I can guarantee that if you take the suggested actions, more people will notice, like, and share your posts. Obviously, hashtags aren't the only way to be found, but they're arguably the simplest technique, however, some individuals don't use them effectively enough and certain marketing authorities consistently advise them to cease utilizing them. Those marketing authorities are wrong, in my less than humble opinion.

10 Steps to better Instagram Engagement. Step 5: Add Location.

March 30 2023

Better by the Gram: Location! Location! Location!

Wherever you are, check in to the location! Geotag the location. People looking at the location will potentially see your post, which goes from a short time engagement, to being evergreen content. Small and medium sized businesses love reposting positive customer experiences or cool things that happened at the location and those reposts are a great way to get new followers and increased engagement.

There is a local bar that I go to for dinner frequently and I am friends with the owners. The husband has been a friend of mine since high school and his wife is a great person whom I met along the way and she handles their social media. I generally try to get a picture of dinner when I’m there and post to my Instagram and Amanda will generally repost it and thank me in person when she sees me the next time. Guess what. Her doing that gets me to post more often. For the Christmas holiday of 2021, I took three weeks off work and I think I went there for dinner every night if not just a drink, because of the warm reception and because of their frequent thank you’s and reposts, I posted from there nearly every night on one piece of social media or another. I should have thanked them in the inscription because my first book was written there. In fact, by the quality of my first book (published over the aforementioned three week break of 2021), it might be obvious that bourbon was present during the entirety of the editing process and part of the actual writing process.

10 Steps to better Instagram Engagement. Step 8: Don't Post When it's Busy.

March 29 2023

Better by the Gram: Posting Times

Every social media outlet has a best posting time and some accounts will even show when you’ve had the best historic engagement on your posts. These posting times are offset. Let’s say 4PM is the best posting time for Instagram. Do you really want to post when everyone is sitting on the can reading their Instagram? No. You want to post at 3PM so it has time to start showing up in their news feeds. Do not hold me to those exact times. I always have a “best posting time” cheat sheet nearby with the latest data for posting times. These posting times are offset to get you into the time when people are engaging with their social media so you don’t post too late and get overrun by the masses of people online.

I provide an easy to follow infographic on Instagram posting times at: https://themichaelbeebe.com/learn-stuff/learning-social-media/instagram-posting-times. It should be of some use as is the text on the page. As an easy guide, please feel free to download the image.

Anyone in the restaurant industry that had to learn what HACCP was in their foodservice sanitation class will understand the next concept automatically. Your posting time is the last critical control you have on your post. It is the final point of failure so please make sure that doesn’t happen. Everything else can be fixed until the post online, which is why it is mission critical to select a good posting time for you and your post. Every Instagram is different and it’s not just tattoo shops or auto detail shops. Every business has a specific industry standard that is the perfect time for social media.

10 Steps to better Instagram Engagement. Step 10: Instagram Reels.

March 28 2023

Better by the Gram: Reels

Why should you post Reels on Instagram?

Reels are vertical, looping video snippets that range in length from 15 to 90 seconds. These videos serve as a blueprint for the brief, compelling content seen on TikTok. The advantages of Instagram Reels for brands are well known and excellent for engagement. Reels are also ideal for businesses that have never used video material before. That is because they are simple to produce!

I'll explain why brands should post Reels in this chapter as well as how to make them from scratch.

Major Advantages of Posting Reels.

Reels Allow Companies to Use Creativity in Product Promotion.

Looking for a novel method to display your products on Instagram? Post your reels now! By doing this, your products will have more life than just still images. Here are a few typical formats for brand-related videos that we see:

Placing goods in innovative or distinctive environments.

Displaying a product from many perspectives or uses.

Tutorials and how-to videos.

Commercials for products.

The creative freedom the format offers you is among the main advantages of creating Reels for Instagram. This is crucial for businesses who wish to use social media to boost their sales efforts.

The New Instagram Algorithm Loves Reels A Lot.

Think about how Instagram Stories seldom go popular and how static photo postings do. The closest thing to a "sure thing" brand accounts have for generating engagement are reels. Now that the algorithm is so unpredictable, this is especially true.

Hell, we frequently saw Reels gain popularity. You only need to look at your Explore page to find proof.

Brands cannot force their own virality, but Reels are currently the Instagram post format that brands are most likely to use when they do go viral.

Brands Can Streamline Their Social Selling Activities With Reels.

Don't discount the ability of short-form video to sell. In fact, 81% of marketers concur that video marketing directly and favorably affects sales.

Social selling is greatly aided by posting Reels on Instagram. Reels offer a structure where businesses don't have to be shy about showcasing things, which explains why. Once more, the Reels of numerous brands mainly highlight their products.

This brings up an additional significant benefit of Instagram Reels over TikTok. In other words, Instagram does allow you to tag products in postings. And this is a sweet spot for marketers to do brand deals with bigger companies.

Reels Don't Need a High Production Value or Big Budget.

The fact that Reels on Instagram require very little resource usage is another underappreciated advantage. Reels can be made even if you are short on time or have little to no money for content. To get started, all you need is a smartphone. This equalizes the playing field for both large and small brands.

Reels are really more effective when they are informal and spontaneous, as opposed to conventional video posts or advertisements that call for extensive editing. A music library and a variety of creative tools are currently available for the format, which makes videos pop.

Remember that brands and creators alike enjoy basic how-tos and tutorials. The reason Instagram Reels are so successful is because of their genuine, unpolished nature.

Reels Have Been Shown to Increase Engagement and Reach.

The popularity of short-form video cannot be disputed. Both Reels and TikTok can attest to this and this is a competition.

Instagram Reels are involved in 20% of all Instagram activity. Short-form video content is in high demand, and brands who produce it benefit from increased reach. Look at the Instagram feed for any brand right now. Reels probably dominate it, don't you think?

Making Your Reel.

Physically Creating Reels is a simple task. I could do a step-by-step guide, but with as fast as the internet changes, whatever I write on how-to might not be the case when this book publishes.

In my opinion, the best practice is to have a dummy Instagram account on which you can post to see how things work, but Instagram want’s you to create content for them and use their features so they make exploration rather simple. It shouldn’t be difficult to create a new Reel and get it posted.

What Else About Posting Reels Should Brands Know?

Post Reels to your main Instagram feed to increase the number of people who see it. When you publish a Reel, you'll get the option to "Also share to feed." There is no justification not to. This enhances the likelihood that both regular viewers and newcomers will see your video posts outside of the Reels tab.

-Promote your most recent Reels via Instagram Stories. Stories are ideal for ensuring that your followers don't miss your most recent videos, just like any other sort of Instagram feed content. Whatever you can do to increase the number of people who see your posts is a benefit given how obstinate the present algorithm is. A simple method to do it is via Instagram Stories.

-Pay attention to the hashtags, captions, and descriptions you use. The Instagram algorithm "tells" what your post is based on these details. The Explore page may also propose your Reel based on these details.

-Post them without hesitation! You may essentially post Instagram Reels as frequently as you choose, which is one of its major advantages. You may have noticed that Reels are frequently published on Instagram by large firms as opposed to other types of content. Although there is no ideal frequency, these are my suggestions:

Three to four of your posts on Instagram should be reels if you post to the platform seven days a week.

Two or three Reels per week are OK if you only publish throughout the week.

If Reels are outperforming posts on your Instagram grid, change this frequency.

A balance of three (3) Reels and four (4) In-Feed Posts is acceptable if you publish seven days a week. If you observe that Reels are outpacing posts on your grid, you may also change this frequency. If you only post during the week, a decent place to start is with a split of two (2) Reels and three (3) In-Feed Posts.

But what is the truth? The real deciding factor in “Post or Reel” is your own analytics. Stick with it if you discover that a particular format generates more reach or engagement. You can try converting your Carousel concepts into Reels, and vice versa.

-To improve your Instagram Reels ranking, interact with other users. Reels are ranked by Instagram's algorithm in a somewhat convoluted way. Having said that, your captions, conversations, and platform engagement are all important. Simply put, interact as much as you can with other accounts and Reels. You might have moments when your degree of engagement seems arbitrary. This is quite normal, so trust us.

-Reels can increase engagement by include artists and influencers. Fact: Before making a purchase, 62% of shoppers want to watch videos of real people using the product. Once more, the top Instagram businesses share Reels with actual customers and influencers. This clarifies why companies use influencer whitelisting in their Instagram marketing plans.