Important Steps You Should Never Miss - Adding Posts To Your Instagram & Facebook Stories, Tagging Others & Checking In

So, I’ve covered the basics of the importance of creating a post of the day, which social media accounts you should have and the order that I personally choose for my own daily posts. Now, it’s time to dig a little deeper and look at some key steps you should NEVER MISS when conducting your posts.

So, let’s break it down!

Why Should I Add My Posts To My Instagram & Facebook Story?

Good question….I never saw the importance of this, as I was personally not one to look at stories. Sometimes we forget that there are so many different age groups on social media. Sometimes we don’t think about the fact that everyone has different taste and not just about which social accounts they personally have, but also how they use each of those platforms.

Hit it all, I say!

Why miss out on fully utilizing each platform (especially when you are already logged in…it takes literally 5 more seconds). When conducting a little experiment, I found that around 80% of friends in my age group don’t look at the facebook or Instagram feeds…they look at the stories and the newly popular reels. It’s almost as if Instagram, Facebook and TikTok all had a baby. We will get into that a little bit later. I further investigated this, as it shocked me a bit. When really diving in, my findings were that the older generations stick with the feeds. The younger generations are addicted to the stories and reels.

Think about it this way…

Growing up, I had to read a book, use a rotary telephone, had no internet access until my later years. I don’t mind waiting. I don’t mind researching, or physically going to a library to find out more. As technology has really taken over the world personally and professionally, we are creating what I like to call Verucas.

Remember back to Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory?

I’m talking the one with Gene Wilder…if you are too young to remember this, please rent it (or for you youngins…stream it) . The character Veruca Salt was always going to Daddy, screaming that she wanted this and wanted that…and no…not in a week…not in a day…I WANT IT NOW! Our addiction to this technology driven world has created pure Verucas out of so many of us.

I am one that loves technology, especially when it comes to business and simple ease of access. We are walking around with these little devices these days, that give us the power to properly research anything that comes to mind. We have access to remotely work (and even from just a little device many times). We have access to promote our businesses with free and paid avenues. We don’t have to buy an ad in the paper anymore…we can just throw up a facebook or Instagram ad. We have the world at our finger tips. But, it has also created monsters out of so many of us (yeah…me included). I try to always have times/days where I don’t look at social media, or my phone really in general. I love the Amazon Kindle app, but nothing beats the feeling of a good book in your hands. Alright, enough with my little tangent.

The point I’m trying to make here, is that you have literal seconds to catch a millennials attention. You have seconds to show what you are trying to convey, promote, suck them in, etc. You have to be on it these days! The attention span of most and overabundance of pertinent and not so pertinent information has made us hungry for constant little bits of information at a time.

You ever scroll through your feed and then all of a sudden stop? What caused that reaction? Really think about it.

Whatever THAT is, is what you need to create in a matter of mere seconds to your viewers, potential followers and hopefully future customers/clients. That is what should be your post of the day, up front and center. You want to create content that is going to make others stop while thumbing their smart devices.

Hit EVERY aspect you can when it comes to utilizing social media. Think out of the box and create engaging posts. I will go more into depth on this later, but at least get your brain’s wheels pumping. When it comes to your post of the day, make sure you are also catering to the younger generations. Once you hit post, be sure to also share to your stories.

Not sure how to do this?

Once your post is published, look 3 icons in from the left.
You will see a little paper airplane icon. Click on that icon.
Choose Add post to your story
From here, you will see some icons in the upper right hand corner
1. The first is Branded Content
  - Here you can add a paid partnership label if this applies to you
  - Then add brand partners
  - Setup branded content tools, if you have not done so yet and if you are eligible
  - Request approval by searching for their name in the search field
  - You can also approve content creators from there
  - Now this may not be something of use to you right away, but as things build and once you form more relationships with others, you may find it useful and beneficial to your goals
1. The next icon in from sharing to your story is the text tool
  - You may or may not want to use this. Here you can add text to draw people in. Explain something about the image, put your URL, etc
1. The next icon is the sticker
  - This icon has multiple options
  - I like to use the location sticker and check in
  - I also use the @mention sticker a lot as well. This is tagging the person, business, etc in your story
  - You also have an array of options such as a poll, questions, a gif, music, link, hashtag, etc. You will want to spend some time trying that one out, but is useful and I do recommend it
1. The next icon looks like little stars
  - This will allow you to add some effects, snow, rain, glitter, etc etc
1. The last icon is the 3 dots
  - This icon lets you draw on the post or save it
Once you have everything the way you want it (at least just share to your story, but also I do recommend diving in a bit and seeing what options you have. Really utilize it), now it is time to share to your story.
I choose to share to both my facebook and Instagram story at once
Then choose, Add to Highlights
Once you have some highlights created, they will all show up there. The highlight area shows toward the top of your Instagram and facebook profiles
- A few of mine are, Tattoos, Book with Us, Fun Times, Piercings, Drawings, etc
- I highly recommend the use of highlights
- Even after months of adding content, when someone comes to your account and follows you, they are going to see those stories categorized nice and neat with their labels
- They can then click on a highlight of their choice and then all of the highlights within that highlight category will come up. If one peaks their interest, then they can click on it and it will go back to that original post.
- Let’s say you were promoting a new herbal bath product one day, you then added it to your highlights under the category herbal baths. Joe comes along a few months later and sees the category herbal baths. It peaks his interest and he views that highlight category. The highlights are going through for him and then he sees one called Everything Hurts. His body has taken a beating lately and all he wants to do is relax. So that highlight naturally peaks his interest. He clicks on it and he sees the description about it and how to purchase it. You not only have a new follower, you also have a potential sale.