Kassaundra 0:00
So what happens if you decide that analyzing your Instagram data just isn't for you? I mean, can it really be that big of a deal? You're gonna find out right now.
Kassaundra 0:14
So teacher authors go ahead and reheat that cup of coffee, because I'm your host, Kassaundra Foster. And we're about to get schooled in socials.
Kassaundra 0:24
Welcome back to schooled in socials. We've made it to the third episode in our Instagram data series. And I'm ready to play a little devil's advocate. Okay, here it goes. Kassaundra, up until now, I haven't even opened my Instagram insights, and I have no desire to - my social media marketing is going just fine. So why in the world would I put another thing on my plate? What really happens if you don't pay attention to your Instagram data anyways? It's probably not the end of the world, right?
Kassaundra 0:59
Convincing? Maybe what some of you are feeling and thinking right now? No worries, I don't take offense. If it is, all of those feelings are valid. So let's take a little adventure. I'm going to be your guardian Social Media Manager on this trip. And just like in the movies, when the guardian angel comes to the main character, to show them what it would be like if they had never been born, I'm going to show you what it would be like if you've never paid attention to your Instagram data.
Kassaundra 1:34
If you can't tell the former ELA teacher me is super excited for this little journey we're about to take. In fact, we're going to take three journeys together today. So let's not delay and jump right in. In this first tale, we find you at your desk, staring at a blank page with the cursor blinking insultingly at you. It's Instagram post creation day again, you sigh heavily and reach for your phone. But unfortunately, you're not headed to the insights dashboard. Who needs all those numbers anyway, right? You've got to figure out what you actually want to talk about on your Instagram page, and then create static posts, carousels, and reels to keep the algorithm happy. Instead, you start to scroll under the guise of research. An hour later, the cursor on your blank page is still mocking you. Finally, you just say, Okay, I've got to get this done. And you create posts about the first topics that come to your mind, in the media types that you find easiest to create. Doesn't sound like too much of a cautionary tale does it? But what if I told you that you were caught on the hamster content creation wheel, every week, every month, you're running and running and running, to create content and just get it out there. But it didn't have to be that way. Because with a little effort, you could have taken a peek at your Instagram insights, and seen what topics your audience engaged with most, and what media types they were gravitating towards. And you could have skipped the rabbit hole scrolling session, and the coffee fueled create whatever I can montage, and instead gone into content creation with an idea of what you could talk about, and how you could present it to your audience.
Kassaundra 3:29
Now, let's move right along into our second tale, shall we? It starts out much like our first tale with you at your desk ready to create content. But this time, you're less frantic about what to post. In fact, you have a plan. You've decided to post a quote, one of your resources and a post about one of your blogs each week. Sounds peachy keen, huh? I mean, content creation doesn't take too long. And you're getting your brand out there. So this plan can't be bad. No, as your guardian Social Media Manager, it's not bad. But unfortunately, it reeks of missed opportunities. If you've taken some time to look at your post Analytics, you could have seen that your quote posts are barely getting any engagement and reach. Your audience just wasn't resonating with them. And you could have seen that your audience was really loving the strategies you were sharing from your weekly blog overviews. They were sharing and saving those posts like crazy. You keep up your plan. And soon your followers start to fall off. What happened? Well, you missed an opportunity to truly serve your audience. Sure, it was easy to create a quote graphic each week. But what your audience really needed more of was education. And when they couldn't get enough from you, they decided to go somewhere else. That know, like and trust journey was cut short.
Kassaundra 5:05
And finally, for our third and perhaps most frightening tale of the bunch, the tale of the missing ROI. So you decide to rotate through your resources and blog posts creating beautiful graphics to post each week, life is good, you're starting to see some ROI from your account. Until a few months in, when you realize all of your posting doesn't seem to be getting you anywhere anymore. There are crickets coming from your TPT dashboard, you declare it's too hard to market on Instagram and that it just isn't right for your business. Little did you know, though, that buried in your data, if you had just taken a peek, was the information you needed to sustain that ROI you first experienced. You see, you picked an arbitrary schedule of topics and resources to share with your audience. But your audience didn't need everything you were offering. In fact, you would have seen that all of your posts about the science of reading and resources about the science of reading, are getting the most engagement and click throughs. And you would have known that your audience needed help in this area, you could have made more posts about SOR, maybe even written a few new blogs about it too. You could have featured a variety of your science of reading resources that you had in your store, instead of just posting about it every now and then. Dare I say you could have even created more of those types of resources for your store to help serve your audience. Without taking a peek, you left money on the table.
Kassaundra 6:44
And there you have it. Three cautionary tales. To help show you what happens if you don't pay attention to your Instagram data, you might become caught up on the hamster content creation wheel, and not realize there is a better and easier way, you might miss very important opportunities to serve and connect with your audience. And finally, and perhaps the most scary tale of all, you might miss out on potential ROI from your marketing efforts.
Kassaundra 7:14
And though it might feel hard to get started tracking your data, I promise you keeping tabs on it does not feel as scary as the alternatives. So as your guardian Social Media Manager for today, I want you to go straight to your insights and see if there's one piece of information you can pull out to help inform your content plan and then share it with me over in my DMs.
Kassaundra 7:41
All right, cold coffee friends. Thanks so much for listening. If you're loving getting schooled in socials, make sure to subscribe so you don't miss an episode. Also, I would love it if you left a review so that other teacher authors like you can start getting schooled in socials too. All right, I'll see you in the next episode.