Jan 2, 20233 min read

December IG Growth Journal

Updated: Feb 3, 2023

Hi there! In my growth diary, I will be tracking my personal IG growth, through metrics and strategies. This gives me an opportunity to look back and see my progress! I will share the lessons I learned and hopefully, you can glean some insights from my experiences as well!

December Mindset

This was my first month posting again. I woke up one late-November day and just decided I was going to be a content creator. Something about the end of the year always really inspires me to be creative, but this year, I wanted to take that creative streak and STICK to it.

One thing that inspired me was logging into IG for the first time in a while and seeing creators I had connected with about two years ago, with a similar following to me at the time (about 3k-8k), grow their followings to 10k-100k! For the first time, I found myself thinking, "How can I get there?" rather than, "Why can't I get there". This change in mindset coupled with my experience in marketing got my gears turning, and I just decided to jump in head first.

I decided my theme for 2023 was going to be "consistency". This is something I struggle with as I tend to get overly passionate about projects, work day and night, burn myself out, and then give up. This time around I still approached my IG journey with the typical zeal that I approach new ventures with but promised myself that I would pace myself. I wanted to utilize December to lay down the groundwork for 2023.

This Month's Approach, Methodology, and Strategy

I already had a small audience, but since I hadn't been posting at all my Instagram was "dead". This month was about pumping life back into my IG and honestly, it was really nerve-wracking deciding to post again! What made it scarier, was creating reels for the first time. Honestly, it was so frustrating trying to edit transitions, not to mention I'm lowkey video shy! I can take photos fine, but I get so nervous and awkward in videos, I just don't know what to do with myself. So overall, it was a month of trial and error and creative growth.

Goals

My main goal was to understand the current Instagram landscape. I experimented with different types of content and posting schedules to determine what would work for me.
It was also important for me to build and re-engage my online community. I spent a lot of time engaging with similar accounts and building relationships with fellow creators I admired and related to.

Posting Schedule

I started out with a 5-post-a-week schedule to quickly understand which days of the week worked best for my account.
Results:
- Tuesday and Thursday ended up being the best time to post on IG for me, especially for Reels.
- I noticed when I posted Reels back to back, their shelf-life was shorter, meaning they got fewer plays over the next couple of days. However, when I posted a carousel post or nothing the following day, it seemed like my reels had more breathing room and seemed to peak for longer. That said, I cannot say for sure this is solely due to my posting schedule, it could also be due to IG recognizing me as a content creator as I posted more consistently over time, or perhaps the content was of higher quality.
I posted at the uptick of "people online". For me, it was 9 AM. After a couple of weeks, I decided to vary my posting times between 8 AM and 10 AM.
- Results: I found 8 AM to be the better posting time for me!

Types of Content

I honestly kind of threw pasta at the wall to see what would stick this month! Against the advice of most social media coaches, I went with quantity over quality for 2 reasons: 1) I didn't know how to make quality content yet, and wanted to practice making content in general 2) I didn't quite understand my "niche" or my online identity! I wanted to explore different short-form content to understand what felt authentic to me.