The Perfect Instagram Strategy for 2024

2023 was one for the books… 

We had our sweet baby TZ (after which I had an infection that landed me in the hospital for two weeks) and I took over 4 months off of social media while my business continued to hit $60-80k per month! 

On top of all of that, we plugged in a social media system that got us: 

• 100s (and sometimes 1,000+) of comments on a single post
• Converting 1,000s of Instagram followers into new email subscribers
• 20% click-through-rates to our sales pages
• Sales. Glorious sales of our products and offers.

(More on that below!) 

So rolling into 2024, I’m looking at Instagram (and social media as a whole) MUCH differently than previous years. 

After over a decade as an online entrepreneur, I ended 2023 feeling like I ~finally~ had a business that allowed me to truly relax and go offline – with a proven and profitable social strategy… 

…and that’s just part of what I’m sharing with you today!!  

I’ve rounded up the PERFECT Instagram strategy for 2024. 

Read on to find out what I’m doing and what I’m telling my students to do to increase ease and revenue on social media. 

^ This will be you by the end of this blog!! 

Instagram Strategy #1: Value

Your Instagram strategy for 2024 doesn’t matter unless you do one thing: Provide value to your audience. 

Now, I’ve seen countless coaches hype up the importance of value, but I HAVEN’T seen many definitions of value… So let me start there. 

I define value in three ways:

1. Inspiration. If you inspire a follower to take action or have a new thought, that’s value!! 
2. Entertainment. Let’s be honest: a lot of us scroll on Instagram to kill time. So if you make someone laugh or smile, that’s value!! 
3. Education. If you’re teaching your followers something new they didn’t know before, that’s value!! 

Easy, right? 

Every piece of content you publish, no matter if it’s a Story, Reel, or Carousel, should in some way give VALUE. 

In a feed full of overly curated and often shallow content, substance stands out. If there is a “magic bullet” to growth on social media in 2024, it’s providing things that are actually useful to your audience. 

Instagram Strategy #2: Carousels & Graphics

Not long ago, I challenged myself (and my team) to stop caring about quality content and start focusing on quantity. 

Yes, really. But NOT permanently!! 

See, a while ago I was shown a Tweet by Sean Cannell showing how he posts on average 328 pieces of content across all platforms per week.

He was growing his following fast with this method of QUANTITY first, so I set out to put this to the test. What really matters more on Instagram – quality or quantity?

As part of this experiment, we posted 12 Reels and 3 carousels over a period of 5 days. 

While the Reels did outperform the carousels in engagement, our carousel posts did consistently get people talking (our last one had 47 comments)! 

Another plus for the carousel column, is that you can whip up a post really, really quickly. 🙌  In fact, sometimes we just use a screenshot of the Notes app. This can be helpful to your audience if they’re on-the-go and just want to scan through something.

Posting something of high value doesn’t have to mean it takes you a long time to put it together. 

Instagram Strategy #3: Reels 

To know me is to know my love for being On Video (why yes, that is the name of one of my programs!). And for good reason. 

Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, has consistently stressed the importance of videos. In fact, he recently revealed that Reels account for 50% of all time spent on the app. 

So yeah, they’re kinda a big deal! 

For the perfect Instagram strategy for 2024, I recommend posting at least three times a week, but five is even better! (That’s why I provide five fresh prompts per week for my On Video members.)

The easiest way to do that many videos every week is to designate filming days, editing days, caption days, and scheduling days. This is called “batching,” and it’s a MAJOR time saver. 

As you’re scheduling your Reels, you may wonder when the best time to release them into the world is. 

There is no simple copy-and-paste answer to that question, but there are two ways you can find your optimal times:

1. A report from Later.com, the social media management tool, analyzed 9 million posts to find the best time to post on Instagram for every day of the week.
2. Your unique time to post. A deep dive into your Instagram analytics to find out when your audience is most active and ready to engage. To learn this, you have to be ACTIVELY POSTING. So get out there! 🙂

Here are a few more things to keep in mind when it comes to creating Reels that generate views AND sales (yes please!)…  

Instagram’s main goal is to keep people on the app, and they do that by serving you content they know you’ll like. They decide that content by measuring things like: 

• Whether you watch a Reel all the way through
• If you like, comment, save, or share the Reel
• Whether you visit the audio page for the audio used in the Reel (they want to know if you’ll make your own Reel – BIG WIN!)

This means starting your Reel with a great hook so people will keep watching is really important! 

You should also make sure to end your Reel with a call to action so you’re taking full advantage of views. Tell people what you want them to do next, whether that’s sending your Reel to their friends, commenting with their thoughts, visiting your bio, or something else.

Instagram Strategy #4: Collaborations & Engagement

Consider this our petition to make social media SOCIAL again!!   

When I sat down to plan this blog post, I pretended I was going to grow my own Instagram account in 2024, and think about what I would do first. One of the top things that came up was collaborations. 

Connecting with people who have a similar audience as you (but aren’t direct competitors), interacting with your ideal customers or clients, and staying plugged into your community are all ways to increase your engagement on social media in your Instagram strategy for 2024.

Now, before all the introverts run away, collaborations don’t always require a lot of face time. Keeping up with a few key accounts and responding to whatever comments you can goes a long way. 

In fact, there’s actually a way to AUTOMATE that process for even bigger results… I’ll get into that next. 

(This is what helped me consistently hit $60-80k months even WHILE I was on maternity leave!) 

Instagram Strategy #5: Stories & DM Automation 

The other feature of Instagram that Adam Mosseri gives a lot of love to is Direct Messages. In fact, he recently said that more content is shared over DMs than in posts! 

That means that DMs are the BEST place on Instagram to build a deeper connection with your ideal customer.

The problem is… none of us are online 24/7. 

So when a potential customer is messaging my account, I’m likely not seeing it right away. And even if I am, I’m likely spending a lot of time typing the same things over and over. 

Enter… ManyChat. 

As I mentioned, when I went on maternity leave, I was able to keep generating $60-80k per month – even while I was totally offline.

Aside from my rockstar team, automated DMs are how I held those numbers month after month. 

These automations are triggered by a “code word” (like DECK for Deck The Vaults). Once a customer comments that word, they’re sent a DM like this: 

Yes, it really is that simple AND effective (remember, this is part of what kept my social media up and running while I was away on maternity leave). 

The bottom line is that automated DMs give someone a reason to start messaging you. Think of it as your “opener” for more sales, better relationships, and engagement.

Plus, the algorithm values an Instagram Direct Message above likes. It views DMs as a more personal interaction and, as a result, will start to prioritize your content in their feed.

And it isn’t just me who has had success with Automated DMs… 

One of my students, Becky Keen, sold over $100,000 on Instagram by focusing on her DMs. 🤯

So if you turn your attention to any Instagram strategy for 2024, let it be your DMs! 

Instagram Strategy #6: SEO 

BIG NEWS: Instagram is starting to function like a search engine.

Yep. Like Google! 

According to Prabhakar Raghavan, the Senior Vice President of Google, “Something like almost 40% of young people, when they’re looking for a place for lunch, don’t go to Google Maps or Search. They go to TikTok or Instagram.” 

Bottom line? In 2024, it’s critical to work SEO into your Instagram strategy! 

But don’t stress, improving your searchability on Instagram doesn’t have to be hard.  

One of the easiest ways to stay at the top of relevant searches is to include strategic keywords in your profile name and bio. 

(If anyone types in Business Tips or Social Media Marketing, I should pop up in their results!) 

Remember, Instagram WANTS to get your content in front of the right people. And in order for it to do that (in Suggested and Explore), it needs to have a clear understanding of who your account is for.

That means you want all of your content to speak to your niche!

If you want more help with Instagram SEO, check this out. 

Score 16 FREE Instagram Story Prompts 

What if you could boost your visibility, engagement, leads, and SALES… just by posting on your Instagram Stories?! I’ll show you how AND give you 16 prompts (ideas or suggestions) in this FREE resource! 

Here’s a peek inside:  

• 8 Business-To-Consumer prompts covering Visibility, Engagement, Leads & Sales
• 8 Business-To-Business prompts covering Visibility, Engagement, Leads & Sales
• 4 Visibility prompts to get new eyeballs (and followers!) over to your IG profile
• 4 Engagement prompts to connect deeper with your current Instagram followers
• 4 Lead Generating prompts to see which of your followers is ready for your offers
• 4 Sales-Closing prompts to help your followers get off the fence & join your programs, services, products, or offers