You done messed up.
You left your account on the back burner and now you’ve realised that was not a smart move. The few posts you’ve attempted have gotten little to no engagement, reach & impressions and you’re beginning to wonder if it’s just easier to pretend IG isn’t relevant anymore or start a new account.
It happens. A lot.
Is my account like, dead dead?
Probably not, but the longer you’ve been low effort or quiet on your channel the harder it will be to revive i.e. this is a commitment and will take consistent effort over a long period of time. There are no shortcuts, we repeat: NO SHORTCUTS.
Account CPR – How to do this.
Post regularly.
Honestly, if you can’t commit to this first ‘do’, this might not be the job for you.
Not posting is what got you’re here, so being a superstar on the ‘gram is what is going to pull you back out. Give yourself a schedule for on channel posts and plan these out each week. Make sure your content for these are high quality & captioned well with appropriate hashtags. Utilise stories for behind the scenes stuff or for content that’s not quite good enough to be posted on channel. Create highlights on your page using these stories and label appropriately. Make sure you use any new features that pop up.
Don’t trust yourself to post every day or every other day? Invest in a scheduling program. We use Sked Social to schedule Instagram content in advance.
Be social.
Turn your notifications ON and when people start interacting with your posts, interact right back. Respond to every comment, DM and repost. Outwardly seek engagement by liking and commenting on your followers’ content. Make yourself known & be an active part of their Instagram experience.
But don’t feel limited to individuals – Interact with other accounts from your niche. Accounts that would likely be interesting to your potential audience and get yourself seen every way you can.
Repost, Repost, Repost.
UGC – User Generated Content. Gold, pure gold. Tagged in a story? Share it to your story. Tagged in a post? If it’s high quality, repost it. If it’s low quality, share it to your story.
Poll your audience.
IG stories have lots of interactive stickers that are great for this. Set up an industry-specific ‘this or that’ type poll series on your story, and watch your engagement go up. Alternatively, post a carousel up of your best selling items and ask your audience which was their favourite, a, b, or c?
Account DNR – How NOT to do it.
Buy your way like Bloomberg
Followers, likes, comments. If you buy these it will stamp a DNR on your account and IG will most likely delete it altogether. Remember no shortcuts.
Be annoying.
You know those accounts that comment a million emojis on every post? Or constantly comment on things like “follow us!”. Don’t be those guys. Don’t over-tag other accounts, don’t post multiple times in an hour or even a day. Anything that you would find personally annoying – don’t do that.
Repeat yourself, content-wise.
It might feel like your killing it by taking 20 photos of the same lunch special and posting it every day at lunchtime, but you’re not. It is repetitive and boring. Want to promote your lunch special? Take a short vid of it getting plated, a longer video of it being made for IG-TV, a BTS story of the chef explaining the ingredients, a photo of the dish itself, and a couple of pics with the staff serving it and your customers enjoying it. Use different formats and come at your content from different angles to keep your audience interested.
Reviving an account is a lot of work, and if you can wrangle some help either from your staff or an agency we strongly recommend you do so. But the most important thing is to not get discouraged. It will feel like you are getting nowhere for a long time. Keep going, put in the effort & you’ll bring that bad boy back to life.
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