If you have an Instagram account for your law firm or are thinking about setting one up, make sure to consider some of the points on how best to use the app, writes Eileen Donaghey.
I love Instagram, but it is a very different beast from other social platforms and can be tricky to grow accounts. As a verified Instagram user with over 20,000 followers, I wanted to share my knowledge of how I grew my account and how this can be related to professional services firms.
Before you get started, planning your content is the key to success on Instagram. Unfortunately, there are multiple content types that need to be considered including static posts (images), videos and reels, Stories, and IG Live.
These multiple types mean that you can’t simply recycle the content from other platforms and you will need to create Instagram-specific content. For example, you should post to stories every day and use some of the engaging features like polls or quizzes. It’s also likely the types of images you are sharing on LinkedIn won’t translate well to Instagram. The banner-style images with a person’s professional photograph with text overlay that are popular on LinkedIn at the minute do not work on Instagram because there is usually too much text and quite frankly, it’s a bit boring.
Here’s what an average schedule could look like:
- 3 x stories per day
- 2 x reels per week
- 1 x static post per week
You could go over this but with all social media platforms, the Instagram algorithm craves consistency so make sure you stick with the same days. The app now lets you schedule directly so this can be done in advance.
Dancing videos
I am going to dedicate this section entirely to reels. As it is a new feature, Instagram favours accounts that are using reels, which means that your content will be promoted more widely.
This does not mean you have to start asking partners to do silly dances or trends. What it does mean is if you are serious about growing the account, then reels must be part of the mix. You would be surprised that some of the short three-second videos can be highly effective with low effort. For example, it could be a video of a partner walking/looking at the computer/drinking tea with a text overlay saying ‘Three things an employment lawyer says you need to do at work.’ Then in the caption you can include the three tips.
The key to popular reels is having a good hook, a call to action and trending audio. A call to action could be save/like/share the post. For example, the caption for the above reel could start with ‘Save this post for when you start your new job’ followed by the three tips.
Trending audio should always be added to reels, even reels with original audio or voiceovers. You can adjust the volume so that the audio is 100% with the trending audio at 1%. This helps with the algorithm.
General tips
Some of the main things that can help grow your page and engagement include:
- Replying to all comments under posts.
- Interacting with similar accounts in your industry.
- Hashtag research – done properly with a mix of small, medium and high sized hashtags.
- Try and use the live function once every two weeks.
- Keep people engaged on your page instead of sending them to the website. If you do want to share a link, it must be for something that can’t be translated into content on the page. The main thing I use links for is to get people to sign up to my newsletter. People won’t keep following a page that says ‘go to this link’ several times a week.
Instagram is a highly successful platform and can be used to great success by professional services firms, however it does take some planning to get your strategy and content right.
Eileen Donaghey is the founder of Donaghey & Chance and helps lawyers with their marketing and business development. She can be found on Instagram: afternoontealondon
