How I Plan My Instagram Content for Growth (fresh ideas, no stress)

[00:00] Thanks to HubSpot for

[00:01] sponsoring today's video.

[00:02] Okay, so I know you think being

[00:03] consistent on Instagram is

[00:05] impossible, but I promise you,

[00:06] you can do it. You just need the right

[00:08] routine. And today I

[00:10] thought I would show you mine.

[00:12] For the past several weeks, I've been in

[00:13] the routine of posting

[00:14] about four times per week

[00:16] on Instagram. I know that might not sound

[00:18] like a lot compared to the

[00:19] 15 posts per day that you

[00:20] hear from some gurus on YouTube, but

[00:21] these are four pieces of

[00:23] intentional and strategic content

[00:25] that align with my brand and my current

[00:28] goals. And in fact, the way

[00:29] I've been posting lately has

[00:30] allowed me to get out of a bit of a

[00:31] growth threat and finally hit 200,000

[00:34] followers over on Instagram.

[00:35] But I think most importantly, this

[00:37] posting schedule has

[00:38] also allowed me to maintain

[00:40] some work-life balance. And in fact, I

[00:42] kind of have a bit of a

[00:43] weird schedule for the past

[00:44] three months. I've been road tripping

[00:46] through Scotland in my

[00:47] camper van. So I usually spend

[00:49] about 50% of my time exploring and 50% of

[00:52] my time working on my laptop. I'm

[00:54] actually currently in an

[00:55] Airbnb in London though, because I am

[00:57] going to be heading home to Canada in

[00:58] just a few short days.

[01:00] But I wanted to show you the content

[01:01] planning routine that I've

[01:02] been using on a weekly basis

[01:03] throughout my travels to stay consistent

[01:05] and grow on Instagram while

[01:06] still also having a life. So

[01:08] today is actually going to be part one of

[01:10] my series where I'm going to take you

[01:11] behind the scenes of

[01:12] my Instagram content creation workflow.

[01:15] And we're focusing

[01:15] specifically on planning content,

[01:18] how I consistently come up with ideas to

[01:21] stay consistent and to

[01:22] actually grow. So I'm going

[01:23] to take you along with me and hopefully

[01:25] we'll have some Instagram

[01:27] content planned by the end of it.

[01:28] So let's get started. Okay, so the very

[01:30] first step in this

[01:31] process is to select the formats

[01:34] that we're going to use for our content

[01:36] this week. I have personally

[01:37] found that the best way to do

[01:38] this is by using a format menu. Just like

[01:41] options of food at a

[01:42] restaurant, this is a list of options

[01:43] of different formats of short form

[01:45] content that you can create. It's

[01:47] basically the packaging that

[01:48] the content is going to go into. And

[01:50] we'll worry about like the

[01:51] subject matter of that content in

[01:52] just a few minutes. So here's a look at

[01:54] my format menu. We've got

[01:56] voiceover vlog, a chat to camera

[01:58] video, a tutorial or a trend. These are

[02:00] just four formats that I

[02:02] have found work pretty well with

[02:03] my audience. You could definitely have

[02:05] some other options on your format menu

[02:07] like get ready with me

[02:08] or green screen videos or different types

[02:11] of carousels. I find it's

[02:12] helpful to have a format

[02:13] menu like this because it provides

[02:15] creative constraints. It

[02:17] might seem counterintuitive,

[02:18] but it's actually really, really helpful

[02:19] to your creativity to have some

[02:21] boundaries around what

[02:22] you're going to create. If you just tell

[02:23] yourself to come up with

[02:24] Instagram ideas, that is so broad

[02:26] and open ended. It's really hard to even

[02:28] start. But if you tell

[02:29] yourself, okay, I need to come up

[02:30] with a voiceover vlog, it gets you

[02:32] started down a path, which is just way

[02:34] easier than, you know,

[02:34] starting from a blank page. So for this

[02:36] coming week, I think we'll do two trend

[02:39] videos. I definitely

[02:40] want to do one voiceover vlog and one

[02:43] carousel as well. So as for the strategy

[02:45] of how I'm selecting

[02:46] these formats, one consideration is just

[02:48] variety. I haven't done a

[02:49] voiceover vlog in a while, so I

[02:51] want to do one again. Another

[02:52] consideration is ideas that I already

[02:54] have floating around, which

[02:55] we're going to talk about in just a

[02:56] second. But I have a couple things in the

[02:58] back of my mind that

[02:59] I think would work well as trend or like

[03:01] text on B roll format videos.

[03:03] So I want to make sure I add

[03:04] those to my calendar so I can make use of

[03:05] those ideas. KV from the

[03:07] future here to interrupt myself

[03:09] very briefly. So I want to let you know

[03:11] that if you want to schedule

[03:12] your content in a structured

[03:14] format similar to how I do, then you

[03:16] should check out HubSpot's

[03:18] free social media content

[03:19] calendar template. It's a completely free

[03:22] resource that helps you

[03:23] plan your content strategically

[03:24] month by month. It basically covers every

[03:26] platform Instagram

[03:28] YouTube TikTok Snapchat

[03:30] Facebook, LinkedIn. So no matter which or

[03:32] how many of those you use,

[03:33] it's got you covered. All you

[03:34] need to do to get started is add it to

[03:36] your Google Drive or

[03:36] download it as a spreadsheet if you

[03:38] prefer. Then you can pick the platform

[03:39] and content type, write the

[03:41] caption, and if it's sponsored,

[03:42] you can track those details as well. The

[03:44] template even helps you track your

[03:46] engagement rate over

[03:47] time, which is super helpful when it

[03:48] comes to pitching for

[03:49] those brand deals. My personal

[03:51] favorite part is this calendar view

[03:53] because it helps you keep track of all

[03:54] your planned content

[03:55] across formats. As I mentioned, this free

[03:57] guide was developed by

[03:58] HubSpot who sponsored today's

[03:59] video. You can get it for yourself for

[04:01] free using the link in my description.

[04:03] The second step is to

[04:05] choose a goal or a focus for the week.

[04:07] Now, admittedly, you could

[04:08] definitely do this first.

[04:09] In fact, a lot of the steps in this

[04:10] process, you could kind of scramble them

[04:12] around and do them in

[04:12] different orders. I find it helpful to

[04:14] start with picking the

[04:15] formats because it provides

[04:17] those creative constraints. With those

[04:18] formats or that packaging in mind, now

[04:21] we're going to come up

[04:21] with what our goal is, the cohesive theme

[04:24] or the purpose behind the

[04:25] content that we're making. Some

[04:27] examples might be promoting your

[04:28] affiliate links, growing your email list,

[04:31] selling your digital

[04:32] products, getting people to watch your

[04:33] YouTube videos or listen to

[04:34] your podcast. There's lots

[04:36] of different results that you can get if

[04:37] you craft your Instagram content

[04:39] strategically. So just

[04:40] consider what you might want that to be.

[04:42] Other than that, you might

[04:42] just be aiming for audience

[04:44] growth and that's totally valid too. So I

[04:47] think for myself, I want

[04:48] my content for this week to

[04:50] generate new email list subscribers.

[04:53] Honestly, I know this is

[04:54] something that I can neglect and I

[04:55] have been neglecting for a long time, but

[04:57] it's actually like so

[04:58] easy to connect it into a lot

[05:00] of content, you know, basically telling

[05:01] people about like my free

[05:03] offers that will get them onto

[05:04] my email list or even like promoting my

[05:06] weekly creator letter to

[05:08] send it every Monday. So this

[05:09] is going to be my personal guiding

[05:10] principle for the content that I'm going

[05:12] to plan today. Remember,

[05:13] just because you're setting an overall

[05:15] goal for your content

[05:16] doesn't mean that everything needs

[05:17] to feel like it's out of a marketing

[05:18] campaign. The goal tie-in can be as

[05:20] simple as making the

[05:22] caption of your real a call to action to

[05:24] joining your email list. I

[05:26] personally think it's really

[05:27] important that we don't let strategy take

[05:29] out all the fun of content

[05:31] creation, partially because

[05:32] that's why most of us got started in the

[05:33] first place, but also

[05:34] because I think that's really

[05:35] where the magic and authenticity comes

[05:37] into play and what makes

[05:38] people actually like consuming your

[05:40] content. So it's always a fine balance,

[05:42] right? Having some strategy and

[05:43] overarching purpose to

[05:44] what you're making so that you can work

[05:46] towards your business

[05:47] goals, while at the same time,

[05:48] leaving things open ended enough that you

[05:49] can really let your

[05:50] creativity shine. So yeah,

[05:52] don't let the goal setting like take

[05:53] over, but just something good

[05:54] to keep in mind. The next step

[05:56] is to reference our existing list of

[05:59] ideas, which admittedly is a

[06:02] bit of a cheat code. I know,

[06:03] but this is part of my regular practice

[06:05] as a content creator. I

[06:06] just keep an active note in

[06:08] my notes app on my phone where I add

[06:10] ideas as I come across stuff when I'm

[06:12] scrolling or something

[06:14] just pops into my mind or shower thoughts

[06:15] or whatever. Okay, but I

[06:16] get that just like telling

[06:17] you to look at your previous list of

[06:19] ideas is not super helpful.

[06:21] So while I am going to do that,

[06:22] I did want to share some tips with you in

[06:24] case you're starting from

[06:25] scratch and you need some

[06:26] guidance for coming up with your first

[06:28] ideas. Okay, so here are a

[06:30] few things you can do. One thing

[06:32] is set yourself some limited scroll time,

[06:35] set a timer for like 15 or

[06:37] 20 minutes and scroll through

[06:39] your Instagram reels feed or even your

[06:41] TikTok for you page

[06:42] intentionally looking for content

[06:44] inspiration. You might want to keep an

[06:45] eye out for audios that

[06:46] you're seeing again and again,

[06:48] or formats that seem to be going viral

[06:50] right now. Like if everybody's

[06:51] using the same structure of a

[06:52] meme, maybe you could find a way to use

[06:54] that too. Second thing you

[06:56] can do is to scroll through your

[06:57] recent comments or DMs keeping an eye out

[06:59] for frequently asked

[07:00] questions or common themes that

[07:03] just pop up again and again. That's a

[07:04] good indication of

[07:05] content that your audience would

[07:06] be interested in seeing. And the third

[07:08] thing that I would recommend you do is

[07:09] look back through your

[07:10] past content and see what has performed

[07:13] the best for you. Now,

[07:14] depending on that goal that we were

[07:16] just talking about what the best is might

[07:18] change. If your main goal

[07:19] is audience growth and reach,

[07:21] then of course, you can look and see what

[07:23] reels got the most views.

[07:24] However, remember that a lot

[07:25] of reach doesn't necessarily equal

[07:27] audience growth. So if you're

[07:28] specifically looking to gain

[07:30] followers, what you might want to do is

[07:31] go into your Instagram

[07:32] insights, go to the professional

[07:33] dashboard, tap into content you shared,

[07:36] let's maybe look at like

[07:37] the last three months to get

[07:38] a broader sense of it. Then you can

[07:40] change your filter for the

[07:42] metric to be follows instead of

[07:44] views. I recommend leaving as sort by

[07:46] highest and then tap apply. Now we can

[07:48] actually see the content

[07:49] that generated the most followers for me,

[07:52] not just the most views.

[07:53] So I'm going to take a look

[07:53] at this content and think why do I think

[07:55] that it generated more

[07:56] followers for me and how can I use

[07:58] that same strategy in the content that

[07:59] I'm coming up with for this

[08:00] new week. So in this next step,

[08:02] we get to play matchup. We're going to

[08:04] connect the ideas that we came

[08:05] up with to the formats that we

[08:07] chose earlier. Now I'll be honest with

[08:08] you. Normally I would

[08:09] just do this in my head or on

[08:11] my computer, but I wanted to make this

[08:12] really clear because I honestly feel like

[08:14] if you can understand

[08:15] how to strategically mix and match the

[08:18] ideas that you have for content with the

[08:20] way that you package

[08:22] those ideas, I think that's like a

[08:24] superpower for content creators.

[08:26] Oftentimes we have one idea,

[08:27] we share it in one way and then we kind

[08:30] of just let it go and try

[08:31] to move on to coming up with

[08:32] something new. There's actually so much

[08:33] potential in each idea to

[08:34] package it in multiple different

[08:36] ways. So let me give you a real life

[08:37] example of this. After I

[08:38] made a video about how to write

[08:40] better voiceovers and that performs so

[08:42] well for me, I wanted to do

[08:43] more content about voiceover

[08:45] tips. So I had the idea to share five

[08:47] different voiceover prompts

[08:48] to give you a starting point

[08:50] for like writing your voiceover and I

[08:52] ended up making two pieces of

[08:53] content out of the same idea.

[08:54] One was a carousel where I put each

[08:56] prompt on a different slide

[08:57] and the other was a trending

[08:58] reel where I had the prompts listed in

[09:01] the captions. So you can

[09:02] see how this is the exact

[09:03] same subject matter. I've just packaged

[09:05] it in two different ways.

[09:06] You'll get way more out of each

[09:08] individual idea if you start approaching

[09:10] it like that. I've written

[09:11] down the ideas that I came up

[09:12] with through scrolling, through just like

[09:14] writing down my shower thoughts

[09:15] throughout the week and

[09:16] what I also have here are the different

[09:19] formats from my format

[09:20] menu. When you realize that you

[09:21] can take one idea and match it up with

[09:24] several different formats and create

[09:26] basically four pieces

[09:27] of content out of one idea, that is such

[09:30] a hack for consistency

[09:32] without so much effort and stress.

[09:35] Especially when it comes to getting inspo

[09:38] from content that we see

[09:39] online. I think the best

[09:41] magic happens when you see something

[09:43] creative that somebody else made and not

[09:45] only do you put your

[09:46] own spin on it, your own unique take, but

[09:48] you also do it in a slightly different

[09:50] format or packaging.

[09:52] So one example I would say for this is I

[09:54] had seen this trend going

[09:55] around on reels that was like,

[09:56] "I'm not scared of aging because this is

[09:58] what my mom looks like at

[09:59] 50." And the trend in this case

[10:01] was a video of basically showing off how

[10:03] young and hot your mom

[10:04] still looks, how like she still

[10:06] looks like she's 25. That was the

[10:07] inspiration for this post that I made

[10:10] that first of all I did as

[10:11] a carousel rather than a reel. So I

[10:13] changed the format or the

[10:14] packaging, but I also had my own

[10:16] fresh take on it, which was, "Guys, why

[10:18] do we care so much about whether or not

[10:20] our mom has wrinkles

[10:21] or gray hair? There's so much more to

[10:23] life than our appearance."

[10:25] And so that's what I was trying

[10:25] to highlight with that carousel. So

[10:28] that's where I took the inspiration. Not

[10:30] only did I put my own

[10:31] perspective on it, but I also put it in

[10:33] new packaging. Okay, so

[10:34] let's do that with the ideas

[10:35] that I came up with this week. Okay,

[10:37] starting with the best phone tripod.

[10:40] Basically, I got this

[10:41] new mount for my tripod, which is like a

[10:43] MagSafe adapter. I was raving to Dan

[10:46] about how much I love

[10:46] this thing and he was like, "You should

[10:48] make real about that." So for

[10:49] example, I could do this one

[10:50] as a tutorial, right? I could kind of

[10:52] demonstrate setting it up, all the

[10:54] different features that it

[10:55] has. And I may do that at some future

[10:57] point, but I think for this

[10:58] week, I would like to do it as a

[10:59] trend kind of video. Basically what I

[11:01] mean by that is just showing

[11:02] B-roll of me like setting up the

[11:04] tripod, my phone, maginating to the

[11:06] mount, probably with some text on screen

[11:08] that's something like

[11:08] POV, "You found the best tripod for

[11:11] creators," or I'll come up

[11:12] with something better than that,

[11:13] but that's the concept. Another one that

[11:15] I think is going to go in

[11:16] the trend category here,

[11:18] I wanted to talk about the fact that

[11:19] unfortunately, consistency does work for

[11:23] content creators. I was

[11:24] inspired by this reel, though I know many

[11:25] take this format,

[11:27] basically saying, "Yeah, you know

[11:29] that thing that we all know that we kind

[11:30] of need to do? That's

[11:31] annoying, but yeah, unfortunately,

[11:33] it does really work." Next up, I thought

[11:35] I would talk about whether

[11:37] or not van life is worth it. I

[11:39] feel like a lot of people have a lot of

[11:40] opinions about traveling,

[11:42] doing van life, is it really as

[11:44] glamorous as it seems. And recently I was

[11:46] talking to some van life

[11:47] friends of mine, and we were

[11:48] discussing how van life is really a trade

[11:50] off between like comfort

[11:51] and freedom. And I thought

[11:52] that was a really interesting concept. So

[11:54] I kind of wanted to talk

[11:55] about that in a reel. I could do

[11:56] this as a little chat to camera where

[11:59] I'm, you know, just discussing this

[12:00] stuff, FaceTime style,

[12:01] but I think it would be much more

[12:03] effective as a voiceover vlog.

[12:05] I have so much B-roll from my

[12:08] time traveling in the van, and I want to

[12:10] make use of it. So I'm going

[12:11] to write a voiceover script,

[12:12] and then basically put it over all of the

[12:14] cutesy B-roll that I captured. And

[12:16] finally, we have this

[12:18] concept, which is, I really think we need

[12:20] to rebrand trying and make

[12:22] trying cool, because a lot of

[12:23] people see trying as being cringy. Like

[12:25] basically, if you're doing

[12:26] something, but you're not good at

[12:27] it yet, it's like cringe. I think it's

[12:29] very cool. I think it's very

[12:30] admirable. I think this is very

[12:32] relevant to my audience of content

[12:34] creators. So I could do this as a little

[12:36] voiceover vlog, you know,

[12:37] a script over top of clips of me doing

[12:40] creator stuff. I could do

[12:42] this as a chat to camera,

[12:43] or even maybe I'm like getting ready and

[12:44] doing my makeup or making a

[12:45] coffee and talking about this.

[12:47] I think what I actually want to do, and I

[12:48] don't have this format here

[12:50] right now, but I think I'm

[12:51] going to do it as a carousel. Carousels

[12:53] have been performing really well for me

[12:55] lately. Like they're

[12:56] actually getting more views than my reels

[12:58] have been, which is kind

[12:59] of crazy. And I kind of want

[13:00] to try out this format of carousel where

[13:02] you have like a little

[13:03] screenshot of like basically text

[13:05] bubbles over top of pictures. So yeah,

[13:08] hopefully you're able to see

[13:09] how any of these ideas could

[13:11] be matched up with these different

[13:13] packages. I'm just choosing to take this

[13:15] approach because, you

[13:16] know, I feel like it this week and for

[13:19] the other reasoning I've

[13:20] shared. But if there's one message

[13:21] you take away from this video, I want you

[13:23] to know that you could take

[13:24] this one concept and pair it

[13:26] up with any of these formats. And it just

[13:29] unlocks the door to so much

[13:30] more content that really makes

[13:32] the most of those ideas that you're

[13:34] having rather than just throwing them

[13:35] away off of one format,

[13:37] one time, you can reuse it and reach more

[13:40] people and reach people

[13:41] in different ways because

[13:42] everybody has their format preferences,

[13:44] right? All right, we have

[13:45] reached the final step in the

[13:48] process. I would personally say that the

[13:50] most difficult work is

[13:51] behind us because I feel like

[13:53] we've got some momentum at this stage.

[13:55] I'm going to script and outline this

[13:57] content because basically

[13:59] when I actually go ahead and set up and

[14:01] film, I want to be able to

[14:02] do it in the most efficient

[14:03] way possible. I don't want to be thinking

[14:05] about, well, what should I

[14:06] say? And what was my idea

[14:07] about that? I'm going to write out the

[14:08] scripts for the voiceovers. So then

[14:10] basically I'm ready to go.

[14:12] Okay, so I've got some of my scripts

[14:13] written and this time

[14:14] around I just have like the one

[14:15] voiceover and then the trend one. So it's

[14:18] actually not a ton of writing, but I

[14:19] thought I would show

[14:20] you quickly what I like kind of format

[14:22] these like. This one's quite

[14:24] straightforward. It's literally

[14:25] just the text like the script of the

[14:27] voiceover. And then I'm going to go

[14:28] through my B-roll library

[14:31] and pick out some clips of like van life

[14:33] and travel that I think

[14:35] will work well with what I'm

[14:36] saying. I also wanted to show you a

[14:38] script from a reel I did a few weeks ago

[14:40] to give you a better

[14:41] example when I'm like planning out more

[14:43] of the visuals. Here's a

[14:44] look at a tutorial that I did

[14:45] a few weeks back about how to make your

[14:47] footage less shaky without using a

[14:48] gimbal. This also gives

[14:50] you a good sense of what this looks like

[14:51] filled out in Notion. So

[14:53] you can see like I typed the

[14:54] caption into this form here because it's

[14:56] so easy to just copy it and

[14:58] then put it into my Instagram

[14:59] caption. But yeah, here's what the script

[15:01] looks like. So you see I

[15:02] have the text all down the left

[15:04] hand column and then on the right hand

[15:05] column I have my visuals.

[15:07] They're just descriptions of the

[15:08] clips that I wanted to get that would

[15:10] explain what I'm talking

[15:11] about in the script. So there

[15:13] we go. That is another week of content

[15:15] planned. All that's left to

[15:17] do is film and edit and write

[15:19] the captions. Obviously there is still

[15:21] quite a bit of work left to do, but I am

[15:23] planning to bring you

[15:24] along with me for that. So make sure

[15:26] you're subscribed because

[15:27] next week I'm planning to

[15:28] show you my process for batch filming

[15:30] reels. So you won't want to

[15:32] miss that. I hope you're having

[15:33] adventures and following your dreams and

[15:35] I'll catch you in the next video. Bye!