Endless scrolling is about to meet its maker! We’re getting real around here today. I know you’re not being as efficient as you could be with your time on Instagram, or you’re wondering how you can continue to grow your account, even when you have a limited amount of time.

I’m here to tell you, spending endless hours on Instagram every week will not guarantee your success in growing your community or your business. Not to mention, as entrepreneurs, we often don’t have the time for it to begin with! While I will praise delegation and outsourcing all day long (it has been my actual lifesaver), if you’re not yet ready to do that, there are still ways you can increase your impact without getting lost in the scroll.

Often times, we think that we need to be online for hours each and every day, but that really isn’t the case. Most of the time, you just need to instill boundaries (ie. no mindless scrolling!) and a little strategy (which I will be covering next)!

Routine

Let’s say that you’ve managed to carve out 30 minutes a day for growing your business on Instagram. It may not sound like a lot, but I’m about to show you how you can make the most of that short burst of time! What you’re going to need is a routine.

For example, 10 minutes will be spent engaging with your current community members. Go through your list of followers and leave genuine comments on their posts and reactions to their stories. The next 10 minutes will be spent engaging with new and potential community members via hashtags, similar accounts, or however you like to find new people. The final 10 minutes will be spent responding to messages or starting new conversations in the DMs. Set a timer for each 10-minute period in order to help keep yourself accountable and on-time! 

Setting up a routine will help keep your time on the Gram focused and productive. It can be so easy to get sucked into an endless scroll, and comparisonitis is a hole you definitely don’t want to fall into. Keep those blinders on, and with a solid routine, you’ll be able to focus on what really matters – your community! 

Spreadsheet

Create a spreadsheet in Google Sheets or in Excel for you to track leads in. If while engaging on Instagram someone really catches your eye as a great potential client, add them to the spreadsheet. Include information like their Instagram handle, what they do, their website, and keep a record of each time you interact with them. 

Using a spreadsheet will help you save time, as it will help you keep track of the people you are engaging with the most, and which leads you haven’t interacted with for a while. 

Here is a super simple example of a Leads Tracker spreadsheet:

Batching (yes, like cookies)

A big part of growing and nurturing your community on Instagram is producing content that will serve, entertain, inspire, or educate them. I think we can all agree that content creation can take up a ton of time, from brainstorming, to writing, to creating graphics or taking pictures, not to mention scheduling and implementing your strategy. Thankfully, there are ways to cut down the amount of time it takes to create new content for your account, and it is called batching.

Batching your work means that you are creating content in bulk, focusing on one element of creation at a time. Similar to making cookies, you wouldn’t bake 3 different kinds of cookies in the oven at once, so you want to avoid this while creating content, too. Let’s break it down!

For example, after thinking about the topics you’d like to cover over the next few weeks or over the next month, sit down and write out all of your captions, scripts, etc. Any and all written content, you will write it all at once. That is one batch.

Next, find or take the photos or create graphics for each post. You will want to create or source all visual elements in this second batch. 

Finally, schedule all the posts at one time using an app like Later or Planoly. If you’re not familiar with these yet, I’ve written a post on my favorite tools and systems I am using in my online business that you should check out once you finish this post!

You may split up this process across one day or multiple days, whatever works best and serves you the most! While you don’t need to follow these steps in the same order as I’ve listed here, I hope it gives you a good idea of what I mean by “batching” your work. This process is extremely helpful for keeping you on-task and focused. When your mind doesn’t need to switch from “writer mode” to “graphic designer” and back to “writer” again ten times, you will be amazed at how much more productive you can be!

I hope you’re as excited as I am about working smarter instead of harder to grow your community this year! Growing your Instagram doesn’t have to take up your entire day with the right strategies in place. If you’re just starting out running your Instagram as a business account, make sure to snag my free Instagram for Business checklist, to make sure you have all the essentials in place for you to easily grow on the Gram! 

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