I recently began offering eCommerce brands a free 30-min social strategy session (if you’re a brand, here’s a link to book a free session).

I genuinely enjoy doing these and know there's solid value in these risk-free sessions for early-stage brands. It's a win-win. I get reps while brands get free value.

My goal is to spend at least the first 50% going through quick, easy tweaks that will immediately improve their page overall.

So I’m sharing a handful of real recommendations I’ve recently made to brands on these free social strategy calls.

My hope is that a few of these recommendations will resonate and inspire you to make a few changes of your own.

Let’s dive in…

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Trim followers to 100-250 (or less)

No matter what you're selling or your price point, make a Follow from your account worth something.

I'm not suggesting you follow 0 accounts, though I respect that strategy; follow collaboration partners, press accounts that featured you, influencers you work with, the brand founder(s).

But I don't see the point in following pages you have no connection with. Even aspirational pages. Follow them on your personal if you must.

Highlight press features

Press is important credibility, especially in the early days. If you get featured in any press worth bragging about, create a simple socially-native graphic and highlight it.

Pin it to your profile using the logo of the press outlet that featured you. This is super easy to create in Figma or Canva.

If you're getting multiple features, use the biggest one and replace it when you top it. By pinning it to the top of your profile, visitors will see it right away.

Your bio is always important and always evolving

Make it punchy.

Be confident. Include relevant information, but no need to overdo it. Include at least one link in your bio.

New product just launched? Mention that in the bio for the time being.

Your bio is something that can and should change from time to time.

Set up IG Shop

Shopify makes it very easy to connect your product catalog to your Instagram account.

Connecting your catalog lets customers stay in the app to purchase, greatly reducing friction. IG Shop should be an incremental sales channel for your brand.

And anecdotally I think the Instagram algorithm pushes in-feed posts and stories more when you tag IG Shop products.

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Research your direct and indirect competitors

Every time I onboard a new client, I build out a competitive analysis.

I keep this internally and reference it often, especially in those first few weeks.

View it here. Copy it over and use it for your brand. I guarantee doing this will help you gain clarity in some way, shape or form.

You'll find something a competitor is doing that you can take and put your own spin on - whether it's their links strategy, highlights strategy, how many accounts they follow, etc.

Your wordmark or logomark should be your profile pic

Generally speaking, of course. There’s exceptions. But don’t get cute here.

I saw a few accounts that didn’t use their logo and it was confusing to me and came off unprofessional.

Pay $15/mo for the IG Verification

Here is a recent blog post on why I think it's worth it.

Create a brand hashtag

What that hashtag is depends entirely on your brand. But use it in your bio, at the end of social posts.

Hashtags aren’t a growth tactic anymore, more of a brand moment.

They’re easy. Create one.

Leverage the founder(s), but not too much

Your founder(s) should be on the page, but not on every post.

Feature your founders here and there, and use it as an opportunity to collaborate with their personal account when you do.

But make sure other humans are on the page - whether that's UGC, models, influencers, etc.

Not even celebrity brands feature only the founder, so you shouldn't either.

Shoot me an email ([email protected]) if you have any questions.

If you want me to dive into any of these more, let me know!

And don’t forget to download my competitor analysis google sheet here. Block off an hour this coming week to fill it out. Let me know if it helped (or didn’t).

And, again, if you’re a brand, I’d love to spend 30-minutes with you giving my thoughts on ways to improve your Instagram. Here is a link to grab something.

See you next time ✌️