Learn what works to grow your bookish IG in 2024 from these Meta approved tips + tricks pt. 2

 

Ready for more Meta tips? 

 

Last week, I jumped on an IG live to share more of what I learned from my call with Meta, and so many of you asked such great follow up questions that I decided to comb through that live and make a part two post out of it.

 

I want you to have a space you can come to when figuring out IG gets really overwhelming (because it does for everyone), as well as to celebrate and learn together.

 

Speaking with Meta has been super helpful in cracking myths and standing out from the noise when it comes to the “this is how you grow on IG” chatter, so let’s jump into it! 

 

Myth or fact: I need to post at the same time every day.

 

Meta said it’s important to utilize your insights to find out what the best time to post is because the optimal cadence is different for every creator (based on factors like your audience and the type of content you’re making). 

 

So, no, it really doesn’t matter that you post at the same time every day because your goal should be to find what works for you and your audience and to follow a strategy that’s sustainable long-term. Hopefully, this unloads a weight for you.

 

I do recommend looking into what times of the day your audience engagement is spiked the highest on the bar in your insights and then posting right before then. 

 

For example, if your highest bar is between 3-6 pm, post closer to the beginning of the spike around 3:00 or even 2:45. Again, if you post at 3:30 one day and then 4:17 the next day- that is completely fine. As long as you are somewhere in that vicinity. 

 

Optimal posting times are different for everyone and there’s nothing wrong with posting at different times of the day on different days. I post between 6:45 – 7:30 am because that’s what works best for me. 

 

Technically, my “spike” in my follower’s most active times is 6-9 a.m. So, optimally, I’d post at 5:45/ 6 a.m. but bestie is still sleeping so I’m not going to be disrupting that.  😂

 

Instead, I post at the tiny sweet spot between waking up and getting my 3 kids ready for school.

 

If I schedule my posts, will it hurt my engagement?

 

Meta highly encourages creators to use the features of Meta Suite (which makes sense!) If a business is actively creating tools for other businesses and creators to use, why would it dock you in performance? 🤔

 

Technically, scheduling your posts to go live when you are not active will not hurt your engagement from an algorithm standpoint. 

 

However, I personally highly recommend for you to be online when your post goes live IF you can. Or, be online when your post goes live more often than not.

 

Why? 

 

Because your community likes to see that you engage with them and it encourages more engagement on your post, overall (if you are actively liking comments, posting on other friends’ content, responding to comments, even for only 5 minutes.)

 

If you’re going to use a scheduler, use the internal scheduler within IG instead of scheduling a post with a secondary source. 

 

Myth or fact: I’ll grow faster if I post reels every day

 

This is another “it depends” answer because it’s neither good nor bad to post reels daily. 

 

Essentially, you can post every day and see a lot of growth, or you can post 3-5x a week and see a similar kind of growth (not always very helpful, I know). 😂

 

When I started my account at the beginning of 2021 and decided to post reels every day, I experienced what I consider a high volume of growth (90k followers in 12 months). 

 

But 2021-2022 on IG was also a different time on social media as reels had just been released, and there was a lot less saturation then. 

 

It’s not necessary to post every day, but you definitely can if you have the bandwidth for it and if it makes sense for you.

 

In all transparency, there is no one right way to grow on IG, and there’s not one “hack” to reach 20K, 50K, or 100K+ followers. 

 

No matter what your goals are, it takes time to implement these habits and strategies, and you could see growth faster or slower than others, but that’s okay! 

 

If you stay consistent and slowly implement strategies you learn here, you’ll see results, but if you’re struggling with stagnant follower growth or feel like no one is engaging with your content, grab my free Bookstagram Engagement Boosters Guide here! You’ll get 150 plug-and-play hooks, stories, CTAs, and QOTDs that you can add to your content to boost your engagement and following.

 

My personal advice: If you want more (keyword) chances to grow faster, posting more reels more frequently can definitely help. 

 

There is no one size fits all, but posting 5 reels a week is plenty to give yourself experience and chances to grow and learn from your content.

 

I posted reels often in the beginning stages of my account and saw growth, but I also burnt out and knew my posting schedule wasn’t going to remain sustainable long-term. 🤷‍♀️

 

What works for me may not work for you, and what works for you may not work for another person. I know I may be sounding like a broken record by now, but there are so many factors to take into account when trying to grow online. 

 

It’s not always about frequency because frequency is a really small part of it all. 

 

Growth comes from your content, the type of content, how you’re presenting your content, and what kind of value you’re bringing to the table. It also comes from your willingness to evolve as IG and your audience evolves. 

 

Do my hashtags need to be in the caption or the comments?

 

Meta recommends using 3-8 narrow hashtags in the caption itself, but it also doesn’t necessarily matter. 

 

I see a lot more evidence supporting hashtags in the caption over using them in the comments, but when I was experimenting with hashtags last year and placing them in the comments, my performance and engagement didn’t necessarily go down, but I do see a lot more engagement when I utilize them in the caption itself. 

 

The bottom line is that you can put them in either, and they will work. But if you had to pick, I’d point you to the caption to be safe. 

 

The most important thing is to be within the 3-8 range and that the hashtags you are using are specific to your content, niche, and audience. Even though I don’t personally use hashtags currently (and haven’t for several months), I still think they’re helpful!

 

The only reason why my content is reaching my target audience without hashtags is because I am intentionally utilizing SEO keywords in my content and I’ve already done a lot of the work in building a community of my target audience. 

 

What does posting 3x a week mean (reels, posts, or carousels)?

 

Meta encourages posting 3-5x a week as a baseline, and this includes any content you’re creating. So as long as you’re putting content out at least 3x a week, you can still see results (my last IG live covers this topic where I share the optimal posting time depending on your growth goals). 

 

The nice thing is that you don’t need to post more than 5x a week to see growth; it just depends on what you can and want to do! 🙌

 

Remember that posting more doesn’t always equal better, and if you want to post more than 5x a week, I recommend posting more gradually instead of right off the bat. 

 

Meta explained that if you post at least 3x a week, you’ll most likely see growth, but if you post less than 3x a week, the algorithm can essentially penalize your account and “reset” you by not pushing your content as quickly or as often. If your account gets stagnant, it can be a lot harder + slower to grow. 

 

How to increase or decrease your posting schedule

 

Gradually! Take a few weeks to get to your optimal posting schedule instead of doing it all at once. When it happens that way, it may take some time for your audience to catch up. 

 

When I was posting 6-8 times a week, my following went from 0-100K, but I’ve also continued to see significant growth in reducing my schedule by posting 3x a week. 

 

Your posting schedule is completely up to you and what works for your content and audience, as well as your goals. 

 

How do I grow the interest of my followers through stories?

 

Meta and I didn’t discuss this (if I get a follow-up call, I promise I’ll ask), but in my experience in my business and working with others, I’ve learned that it’s really important to have engaging stories. 

 

Story content that decreases people’s interest in watching your stories:

 

• Only re-sharing your feed posts or other creators’ posts (especially with no additional context).
• Sharing the same thing in your stories over and over again.
• Not giving any window into your life or what your account is about (for example, if you only post random photos of your food and nothing else as a book account – this would be great if you were a food account though!)

 

Stories are meant to get more personal because people want the inside look into your life and brand. It’s important to keep things interesting and different for your viewers because this is what ultimately humanizes your brand and makes you more relatable, approachable, and credible. 

 

Also, if stories are used strategically, it is, in my opinion, the best place to sell your offer (your book, book merch, services, etc) on IG (second to email marketing).

 

Ultimately, stories should have a strategy behind them in the same way your feed posts should (I talk a lot more about this in my offers like Bookstagram 101 and Expand!) 

 

• The more stories you post, the less they’ll get seen.
• 1-3 stories everyday =  more views + engagement.
• I recommend anywhere between 2-7 stories a day, depending on your time and energy constraints.
• People like interacting with features (polls, questions, etc).
• The more views + engagement you get, the further up the algorithm will push your bubble on your follower’s feed/timeline.

 

I know that the information I’ve shared with you over the last few weeks will continue to help you move in a productive and confident direction when growing your bookish brand over the next year (be sure to grab your free Bookstagram Engagement Boosters guide for extra help!) And if you’re ready to take a deeper dive into these topics and get a few other burning questions answered, you can read my last blog post on my conversation with Meta here.