Consistency is key. You’ll hear many social media experts saying it – including myself. But sometimes, you need to break from your usual and challenge yourself to try something new.
That’s exactly what Angela at Light Spanish has done. She challenged herself to post every day on Instagram!
“It sounded crazy at first, but I decided to try it before finding an excuse not to do it. It would potentially keep me top of mind for my audience (which is the rational reason). And also it would prevent me from finding any plausible reason to keep postponing the task.” -Angela
Why are you setting yourself that challenge?
The first thing to think about is why you’ve set yourself that particular challenge. What do you hope to achieve? What outcome would you like to see? It’s worth making a note of it so that at the end of your challenge, you’ll remember exactly how you felt when you started. I find it can be even more powerful if you tell others about your goals. This is something I’ll be supporting my members with when I launch the Ace Group (if you don’t know what I’m on about, message me!)
“I have been working on my Instagram profile for 2 years already, and I used to be extremely consistent at first. Yet, I started to lose the plot along the way, as social media can be daunting at times. However, I had the opportunity to travel to London in May to attend AdCon 2023. During the networking, the constant recommendation from people with big audiences was to post daily.” – Angela
What will you need to achieve it?
Before you start, make sure you have all the tools and knowledge you’ll need. The last thing you want is to achieve half the challenge and then realise you physically can’t complete it.
“Canva for my individual posts, such as memes and motivational quotes, as well as for carousels. CapCut for editing my videos, as my audience loves subtitles. That is all I use. My recommendation is to avoid recording or editing clips on Instagram. It has caused me some headaches. Use your phone’s camera app always, then edit on CapCut or similar and finally post on Instagram.” – Angela
Challenges aren’t meant to be easy!
The whole point of a challenge is to challenge yourself, to step outside of your comfort zone and to attempt something you hope you can achieve. But it’s usually not going to be easy. That being said, it doesn’t have to be time-consuming. I recently challenged myself to do my first ever live, it was terrifying and way out of my comfort zone, but it only actually took me about 30 minutes.
“I have two challenges: (1) organising my time for recording and editing videos, and (2) not taking the cyclothymia algorithm personally. Despite my complaints, committing to daily posts has helped me to systematise the process. I have organised a list of topics for 15 videos per month and recorded them all at once! That’s something I only dreamed of doing months ago. I have to admit I still take it personally sometimes when I spend hours preparing something I am proud of but don’t get the expected results. In terms of posting hours, I rely on my Instagram analytics, but the results are still unpredictable.” – Angela
Was it worth it?
Setting yourself a challenge is all about figuring out if you should be doing things differently. It’s important to take a moment when you’re done to look back on some stats and decide if it was worth it. Unfortunately, not every challenge you set yourself and achieve will have the expected outcome.
“Absolutely! Besides creating a habit (my personal biggest outcome), I have increased my engagement. I have reached 80.4% more accounts with both reels and regular posts. And also increased my engagement by 47.8% compared to the previous months. This experiment has also helped me realise the mistakes I have been making. I am more aware of the importance of working on my message. And now I know I have to transmit my value proposition more clearly to reach my ideal audience. Once I “polish” these aspects during the next few months, I believe my Instagram profile will generate more valuable leads.” -Angela
Will you incorporate it into your strategy?
Sometimes a challenge might have great results but you know it won’t be sustainable long term. That’s okay – and I’m sure you’ll have still learnt a lot even if you decide not to stick with it. After doing that live I mentioned earlier, I know now I can do them. I won’t be doing them regularly, and I don’t think you’ll ever catch me live on my actual page, but I am more than happy to go live in groups to talk about a given topic!
“Yes. This posting rhythm accelerates my learning curve and I really appreciate that. Now it’s easier to know what my ideal audience wants. And posting daily allows me to engage more with previous, current and potential customers. Consistent posting has really helped me learn faster what works best, expand my reach, and keep sharing valuable content. Plus, it gives me the opportunity to post some guilt-free, sales-related calls to action.” -Angela
My Featured Guest
Angela Blanco, founder of Light Spanish, helps adults around the world to speak Spanish fluently and confidently thanks to her specialised learning system. She helps you discover your brain’s superpower so that she can help you learn the language in a way that makes sense to you.
If you want to hear more from Angela, find her on Instagram!
If you’d like to be a Featured Guest on this blog, please send me a message. I’m looking for people who have experiences or thoughts on various social media related topics, but you don’t need to be an expert!
