How to Audit Your Company’s Instagram Account: 15-Step Checklist
To ensure your company’s Instagram profile is optimized and effective, we’ve gathered insights from 15 industry professionals, including founders, CEOs, and marketing managers. They’ve shared essential steps to take when auditing your profile, ranging from auditing your branding to focusing on visuals and graphics. Dive into their expert advice to elevate your Instagram presence.
How to Audit Your Company’s Instagram Account: 15-Step Checklist
One step you should take when auditing your company’s Instagram profile is to audit your Instagram branding. When people land on your Instagram account page, what’s their first impression?
Begin by taking an overall look at the visual elements of your profile and assessing whether it accurately represents your brand identity. This includes reviewing your profile photo, bio, highlights covers, and overall aesthetic. Additionally, consider your Instagram content strategy and whether it aligns with your brand’s mission, values, and target audience.
By conducting a brand audit, you can ensure that your Instagram presence accurately reflects your company’s identity and resonates with your target audience.
Keep an eye out for brand references in articles and comments to discover what people are saying about your brand. Respond to comments and messages quickly and professionally to demonstrate to your audience that you appreciate their participation.
Use social media listening tools to monitor mentions and uncover potential opportunities for interaction or customer assistance.
I can’t stress enough the importance of getting your hashtags and keywords right. With carefully selected hashtags and keywords, you can expand your audience and build an engaged and active community.
Rather than competing with industry leaders and top influencers for premium or trending hashtags, use less competitive niche-relevant alternatives that will ultimately deliver better results.
When auditing your company’s Instagram profile, one important thing to look for is consistency. Consistency in your brand aesthetics, posting schedule, and messaging can help establish your brand identity and increase follower engagement.
When everything looks visually cohesive and branded, it can help users feel confident in your company and make them more likely to engage and convert. Additionally, having a consistent posting schedule can improve your Instagram algorithm ranking and increase your overall reach.
Examine your most recent posts to ensure they are consistent with your brand and business goals. Check to see if your posts are consistent in terms of tone, style, and messaging. Examine the types of content you post, such as photographs, videos, and text-based postings. Consider your posting frequency and whether you should publish more or less frequently.
Remove all fake accounts that follow your company during your Instagram audit. Fake followers can have a damaging effect on your page’s reputation. It’s common practice for rival companies to create fake accounts to flood the competition’s profile and make them look less credible.
There are free online tools that can audit your company’s account. While checking your list of followers, you’ll see authentic profiles that display how well you connect with your target audience. Getting rid of the phonies is a must for an effective Instagram audit.
One important step in auditing your company’s Instagram profile is analyzing your engagement metrics. Track likes, comments, shares, and overall reach for each post to identify what content resonates best with your audience. Utilize this data to refine your content strategy and optimize future posts for higher engagement.
One of the first steps I always recommend when auditing your company’s Instagram profile is conducting a thorough competitor analysis. When I was first building my brand’s Instagram presence, I found it immensely helpful to study successful accounts in my field.
I took note of the types of posts they were making, their post frequency, and engagement levels. I even dug deep into their hashtags, captions, and the overall aesthetic of their page. This helped me understand what resonated with our shared audience and informed my strategy moving forward.
So, don’t shy away from a little friendly snooping; it’s all part of the game!
Tip 9
Survey Customers For Feedback
Joe Kevens, Founder and Director of Demand Gen, B2B SaaS Reviews
One step to take when auditing your company’s Instagram profile is to survey your customers and ask them where they learned about your business. This will help you gauge how many people discovered your brand through Instagram, providing valuable feedback on the platform’s effectiveness and informing your decision on how much time and effort to allocate to your Instagram presence.
You can also add a question to your contact us form, “How did you hear about us?” to gather this info.
Tip 10
Update Your Instagram Bio
Daniel Climans, Senior Manager, Digital Marketing and Partnerships, StickerYou
When you’re auditing your company’s Instagram profile, it’s always a good idea to re-look at your bio and see exactly what you have in this space. Since social media audits are often done quarterly, a lot can happen in those times in which you aren’t focusing on the finer details of your Instagram.
Your bio might no longer reflect your company, or you want to highlight a particular product or promotion. This is where your bio comes in handy as it’s a great spot to attract immediate attention as it’s often the first thing consumers look at when on your Instagram page.
And no, the goal shouldn’t just be to have a popular Instagram account. If you’re a business with a presence on Instagram, you should have a strategy in place that your account is helping you accomplish.
Is it to drive attention to a new marketing campaign? Is it to serve as a good representation of your brand values to potential customers? Is it a method to bolster recruitment efforts? You should always consider the end goal when making posts and choosing the content you want to curate.
Tip 12
Review Profile Info And Metrics
Evander Nelson, NASM-certified Personal Trainer, evandernelson
Review your profile information and ensure that it accurately reflects your brand and messaging. This includes updating your bio, ensuring that your website link is working, and verifying that your contact information is correct.
It’s also important to evaluate the overall visual aesthetic of your profile and ensure that it aligns with your brand identity.
Additionally, analyzing your engagement metrics, such as likes and comments, can help you understand what content is resonating with your audience and what changes you may need to make to your posting strategy.
Tip 13
Analyze Demographics, Content, And Profile
Himanshu Sharma, CEO and Founder, Academy of Digital Marketing
One critical step when auditing your company’s Instagram profile is to start by analyzing your audience demographics. Data shows that 68% of Instagram users are female, while 59% of all U.S. internet users aged 18 to 29 use Instagram. Understanding your target audience’s preferences and interests can help you tailor your content to maximize engagement.
Next, evaluate your content strategy. Posts with at least one hashtag receive 12.6% more engagement than those without. Use relevant hashtags to increase visibility and attract new followers. Example: @CocaCola’s Instagram page showcases a consistent visual style and utilizes branded hashtags such as #TasteTheFeeling to create a cohesive brand identity and boost engagement.
Lastly, ensure your profile is visually appealing and user-friendly. A profile with a clear bio and profile picture receives seven times more visits. Optimize your profile by using high-quality visuals, an informative bio, and a clear call to action.
From my perspective, analyze the performance of your Instagram advertising. Examine your ad targeting, creativity, and messaging to evaluate if they’re reaching your intended audience.
Examine the return on investment (ROI) of your ad efforts to assess whether or not they are producing the expected results. Consider experimenting with different ad types, such as video or carousel advertisements, to find what works best for your audience.
When auditing your company’s Instagram profile, keep in mind the attention span of your followers. Studies have shown people tend to spend less than a second looking at the average social media post.
Too many companies are trying to cram informational content into their captions, unaware that no one is even reading them.
Instead, focus on the image itself. If you have something to say, use graphics to convey the message. The text should be minimal and superimposed on the image whenever possible. Infographics are a great way to make your point briefly.
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