March is over and with that my “Show up every single day for 30 days” challenge! Here is what pushing myself every single day to show up Instagram taught me.
Show up everyday challenge
I’m actually quite a fan of content challenges like this. They push you out of your comfort zone and you suddenly see what is possible and what you could be doing.
This challenge was an assignment in the course ”Influencer Vibes” by Erin May Henry that I’m currently taking. The goal was – and this is important! – NOT to achieve a certain result, but to work out who you are as a content creator. What makes you tick, what you like and don’t like, when you create easily and when you struggle.
So, I’m sorry, if you’re looking for the ”amazing 10k new followers and 6 figure income” post, this is not it.
What I learned from showing up everyday for 30 days
I like going live!
Shocker, I know. But teaching live with people hopping on and off was such a rush. And talking something out also made me realise I actually had some strong feelings about my topic.
That live then turned into a blog post (you can read it here ”Why you as a coach should leave WordPress in 2022”), one reel and I cut the live into a IGTV. And of course some heated Stories. I should’ve done a feed post as well. Content workflow at it’s best!
Actually this is a content workflow that I talk more about in my free guide “20 ideas to drive traffic to your website”! You can grab it here!
Stories are soo easy – but is there always value?
I love Stories. I love sharing glimpses of my life and being mini creative. But I also noticed how easy it is to just create a story with a pretty picture, and then leave like that. I don’t like when people show up with one story about their coffee, and that’s it for the day. But this is so easy to do when the day runs away from you. So how did I tackle this?
Planning, planning, planning
I have two kids. They are noisy and they don’t stick to plans. Batch creating stories and saving them to my camera roll is a lifesaver. Not only can I as an introvert use days when I’m high energy to create lots of valuable talking stories, I also don’t have to stress to ”just put something out” when life gets busy.
Batch creating feed posts and reels is also key to constantly putting out content:
Reels: Every time you see a reel with a sound or style you like, save the sound and the reel in an inspirational folder on Instagram. Then when the light is good and you’re in a good mood, take one hour and work through as many reels as you can. Save as drafts – AND to your camera roll.
Feed posts: I write most of my captions in one go and I create most of the actual images in one go. It allows me to stay in the flow of writing or in the flow of creating images and graphics. I plan out all my posts using Planoly, it makes it so much easier to see the final look and to plan multiple weeks ahead.
Stories: Yes, I batch my stories too! Value giving stories I record multiple in one go and save for a day when I don’t have the time/energy/life to show up. But stories from my day and random thoughts are created on the go. I’m actually thinking of doing less stories, but with more effort. My Close Friends list are about to get spoiled as well. Want to join? Send me a DM on Instagram saying ”Close friends”.
What about TikTok?
As the end of March grew closer, I noticed my screen time on TikTok going up and up. From almost nothing at the beginning to splurge nights with over 2 hours.
Will TikTok overtake Instagram?
Some are saying that Instagram is moving more and more into becoming and e-commerce platform, and that TikTok will be the new big social media platform.
I caught a story from a coach that I really admire, she was saying as TikTok rolled out their new Story function: ”I’m not sure I can handle these little highly curated squares (on Instagram) anymore”.
I feel that. Publishing a carousel on Instagram has become this massive pressure to create a perfect valuable beautiful square that works in your curated feed and gets lots of saves and shares. TikTok is a lot more create on the go and ”rough”.
One thing is clear, TikTok will only grow bigger and bigger. And it’s time to start putting some effort into that platform as well.
The reels thing
We are all getting really tired of lipsync reels. Yes, they might attract new eyes to your profile, but what type of eyes? Are they your ideal client or are they just eyes that got entertained with that one reel?
The reels that get fewer views might actually be what is attracting your ideal clients, instead of just random people that will boost your following. The amount of followers is a vanity metric and NOT what decides whether your business is successful or not. You want that following to be full of potential clients, not just numbers.
With that said, I’m so bored of lipsync. They are SO easy to create really quickly – but is that a good thing? Is jumping on trending audio and just throwing your spin on it to post it as quickly as possible so that it’s still trending, really what we want?
When I scroll through Reels I just see the same thing again and again and again and again…
Being a web designer, my job is to help coaches and their brands stand out in the crowd – not reproduce the same content as everyone else! So creating reels with trending audio feels just… wrong.
This is one of the reasons I’m looking more at TikTok, there is so much more play and testing and creative content there and I am not seeing the same thing again and again.
I’m not a comedian – I am a web designer
I’ve been feeling a bit frustrated with Instagram lately. I used to see lots of growth and engagement, and now things are just standing still. The value posts are not seeing as much love as they used to, while funny reels are climbing high. That’s not what I want my brand to be about. I’m not a comedian, I am a web designer.
And on some reels I did forget that during this month. Some content was just to produce content. Because it was so easy and quickly to do a lipsync reel and be done with it.
This is not a rant on Instagram algorithm not loving me. This is a rant on what I want moving forward and what actually should matter.
Providing value, building community, teaching and talking.
I’m about building your dream coaching business. Helping you realise how much of a support having a website is. How much it will help you grow your confidence, authority and client rooster! Custom webdesign, not “reproduce everyone else’s content”-websites.
What’s next for me on Instagram
Here’s my plan moving forward:
- Focus a little bit less on Stories. More batching, more value to my “Close Friends” and less randomness.
- Spend more time on creating in-depth valuable feed posts and reels. Taking time from Stories and putting that extra time into feed posts.
- Phase out the lipsync reels. I’m bored and so are you.
- Don’t care if my following grows slower if it’s growing with my ideal clients.
I’d love to hear your thoughts! Slide into my DM’s on Instagram and let me know, do you agree? Are you getting a bit bored of Instagram as well?
