Leading a team through the ever-changing world of Instagram can be a daunting task. Luckily, PLANOLY has streamlined the entire process to help your team run effortlessly. We have created a system where the administrator is able to assign team members in a very specific way. Depending on your company, you might want different team members to work on different aspects of the Instagram process. It's very important to make sure you clearly define what each team member is in charge of so there's no gap. The process of a typical Instagram post is usually a 5 step cycle that includes creating creative content, planning/curating content, posting, analyzing engagement, and managing comments. Let's break down the process so you can clearly see what goes into an Instagram post.

Create

A picture is worth a thousand words and visual marketing is one of the most powerful marketing strategies for brands and businesses in this digital age. Your Instagram is a reflection of your brand and represents your digital presence. Viewers or followers should be able to look at your Instagram and instantly understand what you are all about (your story, style, beliefs, etc). This first step includes creating creative content such as images, gifs or videos; editing them in Photoshop or other applications; and making sure they are post-worthy.

Creating content is one of the biggest hurdles, so if you have a creative person on your team who is great at graphics, photography, or any sort of styling, let them take the lead. You can have design/creative meetings to talk about inspiration, create mood boards, talk about the focus and topics for the week and upcoming month.

Plan

This is where PLANOLY comes into play. In this step, you're able to curate your feed, draft captions for your content, add hashtags, and schedule the exact time and date for your post. If used effectively and creatively, you can plan weeks or even months in advance! Once creative content is created and your content calendar is planned out, you can plan your Instagram accordingly. If you have a writer, editor or content moderator, they would be great in this area. Create a dialogue with your team so you're all on the same page with product releases, sponsored posts or blog features.

Post

You've already created your content and scheduled it out, so this is an easy part. Posting the content might be a good step for the administrator to be in charge of until the other team members gain a better understanding of the community and brand. PLANOLY allows you to choose which team members and devices receive the push notifications. Make sure to assign a certain person to receive the push notifications to post. Assigning the posting role to one individual is a safe way to ensure that no one posts twice on the same account.

Analyze

This aspect of the process is what makes PLANOLY so unique. We make it easy for you to check your engagement and analyze how well your posts are performing all on one platform via iOS app and web dashboard. This step is especially helpful in pointing out similarities in the posts that receive the most likes or caused the most conversation. When analyzing your Instagram metrics, you should have an open team conversation about what is performing well and what is not. You can give better direction to your creative team by keeping these analytics in mind for future content planning. Tutorial video here: Analyze WEB and iOS APP.

Comment Management

The final step to a successful cycle is to manage the engagement that you receive. It's very important to reply to comments and create a dialogue with your community. Doing this helps your followers feel included and keeps them coming back for more. Viewers will respond better to your brand if you make an effort to build a relationship with your followers and show that you care. Someone can be in charge of replying back to comments and we've made it easy so you can do it all on both the web and on our iOS app. Tutorial video here: Comment management WEB and iOS APP.

Don't Rush It

We recommend not giving your team members posting authority until they fully understand how you operate your Instagram. PLANOLY allows you to give them access to collaborate and plan content, while still allowing you to oversee and review posts before they are published. Each separate team member is able have their own PLANOLY login to help plan and manage content. However, posting authority requires the Instagram login and password. These diversified options allow you to customize PLANOLY to better suit your company and brand. You have the option to make changes on every step of the cycle as you navigate through the process of getting your team members acclimated with your brand.