My Instagram Strategy for 2022 EXPOSED!

Buckle your seatbelts, everyone, it’s the podcast you have all been waiting for - today I will be sharing my Instagram Strategy for 2022! I am laying it all out there. We will be chatting about the algorithm, post formats, mental health, and … we will be chatting about both my personal brand and my business, Creatorly Media. Two totally different strategies, exposed! Let’s do this!

Will the Instagram algorithm be changing in 2022?

When talking about the Instagram algorithm, my first question is … which one? There are multiple different algorithms doing their thing on the Instagram app - but they all have one goal - and that goal is to deliver the content it believes we want to see. This topic could be a full podcast on its own, but today I will break it down into two points.

Point one:

What is Instagram's number one goal? It is to keep people on their platform. So, no matter what post formats they launch or what changes are made, the goal never changes. Your goal should be the same - if you base your entire strategy around keeping people on the platform, you will please the algorithm.

Point two:

Instagram is always changing, and so - the algorithm will grow and develop with the platform. Every time Instagram launches a new posting format, as they did with Reels in 2020 or when they recently recommended only using 3-5 hashtags, things changed and we adapted. We learned about the new features or suggestions and how we can incorporate it into our strategy. This is how it will always be. We should always be aware of changes in Instagram - which go hand in hand with the algorithm.

Finding balance between my personal brand and business, Creatorly Media.

One of my main focuses going into 2022 is finding the right balance between my personal brand and my business brand. In 2021, I split my business in half and created a separate entity for my social media agency, now known as Creatorly Media.

Personal brand versus Creatorly Media.

With my personal brand, I will still be talking about Instagram, but it will be more in-depth strategy and experimentation - I will also be talking about the other facets of being an online creator - which might include posts about securing brand deals, dealing with burnout, and more. My personal Instagram will also be a place where I am just… me. I want it to be a place where I share a little about myself and my thoughts, so my community can continue to get to know me as a person.

With my business, Creatorly Media, our focus will be providing tips and inspiration to content creators. These topics might include Instagram, YouTube and Podcast tips & strategy- and everything you need to know to run a content creator business on these platforms. I will chat more about our plans with Creatorly Media throughout this podcast episode.

This really leads me to the next point in my 2022 strategy, which is …

Make myself (and my mental health) the most important part of my strategy. 💖

In June of 2021 - I posted a video on YouTube letting my community know that things were going to be changing. I decided to take my personal brand in a new direction and quickly made a hard pivot away from the content that I had been making the last few years on both YouTube and Instagram. I hit a breaking point and was miserable. Because of this, I started making content similar to those creators I had been admiring for so long. I thought this would make me happy, but it didn’t.

A few months later, I realized I just needed a break - I didn’t need to completely change directions. This entire experience taught me that I am always the most important part of my strategy. If I need a break, I am going to take a break. Instagram will be there tomorrow (though after the big shutdown in October of 2021, who knows) … and Instagram can wait if my mental health needs some love and self-care.

Now that we have talked a bit about the algorithm and mental health, let’s start diving into how I will be using the platform in 2022.

Use insights to better understand my audience. 📈

If you have been following me for a while, you know my main focus has always been (and will continue to be) building relationships with my community, that’s number one. But part of that is making sure I am posting what you enjoy the most - the best way to figure that out is by asking (of course) and by digging deep into my insights.

Instagram analytics help you better understand who your audience is, when they are most active and what type of content they engage with the most. As I post new content throughout the year, I am going to track the performance and make sure I am creating content that my audience wants and needs.

Become the Nancy Drew of Instagram 🕵🏼‍♀️

I love experimenting and investigating, hence the Nancy Drew reference. 🔎 Going into 2022 - I want to keep up with the trends and updates on the platform and play around with different ways of implementing them, so I can find the best methods to share with you.

Instagram is releasing new features all of the time - recently they released a feature we are all pretty familiar with - the ability to add a user comment to a video. Now, if a user comments on something you’ve posted, tapping the “reply” button will let you add a sticker of the comment into a new reel, which you can then move around or change its color. This is eerily similar with the existing TikTok feature that has been around for quite some time, but now that it’s on Instagram - I wonder how this feature will perform on this platform. It’s things like this that I want to play around with and report back.

Using little to no hashtags. #️⃣

Recently Instagram provided some information regarding their tips for using hashtags - and we were a little surprised by some of the details they shared. They recommend only using 3-5 hashtags per post and they encouraged us NOT to use 10-20 hashtags (or more), claiming it would not help get our post additional distribution.

As content creators, we are being pulled in a thousand directions and if there is an area in my content creation process where I can save myself some time - I am going to take it. If Instagram is telling me to stop using 10-20 hashtags, I am going to listen. We actually did a test for one of our clients, some of the posts we used 10-30 hashtags, on others we used 3-5 … the posts with more hashtags did not get more impressions, likes, comments, or engagement. The time spent trying to find 20 relevant hashtags did nothing to improve the performance of the post.

On both my personal Instagram and the Creatorly Media Instagram, we have been using 0-5 hashtags, most of the time … none at all. 😯 If you go check out our Creatorly Instagram page, you will see we rarely ever use hashtags and yet - our follower count is growing daily. Hashtags aren’t everything, so I will no longer be giving them as much time.

Let me tell you a story … about stories. 📖

I have always considered stories one of the most important parts of my Instagram strategy and though I am not always consistent, I have been making a huge effort these last couple of months to be present in my stories each morning, Monday-Friday. Something I noticed towards the end of 2021, is that posting a photo with text and a poll sticker first thing in the morning, really increased my story views. It is easy to absorb in the morning for your audience and allows them a simple way to interact with your story - it also shows Instagram that people are interacting with you, which means they’re more likely to show your story to more folks in your audience.

I will also continue to take weekends off from my stories, unless I have something I really want to share. As mentioned earlier, breaks and focusing on yourself are also very important - so having the weekends without the pressure of posting is crucial. Taking breaks can actually sometimes boost your story views as well - if you take a couple of days off and then post again, you might notice an influx of views. Going into 2022, this will hopefully continue…

With the Creatorly Media page, (as mentioned in our last podcast episode) - we would like to be even more present in our stories. Currently, we have pre-created stories that go live each day around 9am, but I believe adding one or two more stories each day would be another great way to connect with our audience. This might be sharing our posts from that day, sharing a post from another creator (maybe one from one of our followers), or making a quick story about a new update we learned about that day. We could also make some engagement with our current audience on their own profiles, giving back and showing our support.

Instagram stories are a great way to build your relationship with your current audience, so it is definitely something you should consider adding to your strategy this year.

Jumping on the minimalist trend, but for my Instagram! ✨

We all remember when infographics on Instagram blew up - since then, in my opinion - the performance of graphics leveled out and are now falling behind the more popular video features, like Reels. Because of this, and my personal branding preferences, I am switching to a more simple, minimalist style of carousel graphics. The goal with these graphics is to keep things neutral, clean, and make the focus providing value - not adding unnecessary elements.

I am also going to be putting more focus into photos and videos - when you’re a personal brand I believe adding your face to your feed is key! 🔑 When you go to my Instagram page, it’s flooded with my face - not graphics - which I feel is how it should be with a personal brand.

With the Creatorly Media gram’ - we are using a completely different strategy. We are posting a mixture of memes, tweet graphics, and TikTok reshares. Though going into 2022, we will be adding Reels created by the team - giving our page a personal touch and posting carousel graphics when needed to update folks on changes, current trends, and social media news.

Be relatable and vulnerable. 🙈

I have always preached that you should be vulnerable on Instagram, it allows you to build a deeper relationship with your audience and sets you apart. I want to continue sharing what being a content creator truly is all about - the good and the bad. I also want to continue sharing more about me as a person - my passions, interests, and more.

On the Creatorly Media page, we want to really connect with our content creator audience - which is why memes have been such a strong performer in our feed - we create memes (and other posts) that our audience relates to first hand. This is something we will continue to do this year.

The frequency of my posts. 📅

If you currently follow my personal brand on Instagram, you might have noticed my posting consistency has been, well… off. I could tell you now that I am going to commit to posting a few times a week on my personal Instagram, but from my many years of experience - I know consistency is a struggle for most. I would definitely love to post more often and find a schedule that works best for me and all of the other facets of my business, but I am also not going to put too much pressure on myself in 2022.

With the Creatorly Media Instagram, it’s a totally different story. We pretty consistently posted twice PER DAY for a large chunk of 2021 and plan to continue this strategy throughout 2022. We might switch around the types of post we plan to create, but the goal is to keep the frequency the same.

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At the end of the day, make a plan for 2022 that works best for you, but also remember that things change throughout the year in our lives, on social media, etc. So, it’s okay if your strategy changes too!

I still can’t believe we are now in 2022, but I am actually really pumped about this new year and the direction my personal brand and Creatorly Media are going. I look forward to spending another year with all of you! We got this!