Instagram Growth Playbook

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Instagram Growth Playbook:

We recently hosted a Social Studies Community Event with Abby White.

Abby leads social media for Inflow, an app that helps people manage their ADHD.

During the first COVID lockdown, Abby started creating TikTok content about what it’s like to have ADHD during the pandemic.

Shortly after, Inflow reached out and hired her to lead their social efforts.

Over the course of the next 12 months, she doubled their Instagram following.

Here’s how she did it:

1) Know Your Audience:

Your audience wants to see themselves in your content.

At the very minimum, they want you to know you understand them.

As a person with ADHD, Abby is able to show her audience that she really gets them.

She has an incredible line of sight to what resonates and the ins and outs of their lived experience.

2) Start Broad, Go Narrow:

Abby’s strategy was to test and experiment like crazy.

Shoutout to Inflow for giving the freedom to throw things at the wall and collect data.

Pretty soon, patterns start to show up.

Then, you lean into what works and cut what doesn’t.

3) On Point > On Brand:

You can’t just meet your audience where they’re at, you have to meet them with content that fits where they’re at.

Obviously posting a pdf to Instagram is a no-go, but so is posting a reel of the executive reading from a script. (Don’t forget the logo that takes up half the screen)

If it feels corporate, it will flop.

Sometimes the social content that takes off would make a well-trained designer cringe.

Everyone will have an opinion on your content.

The only one that should matter is the audience’s.

aaaaaaaand whoever signs your paycheck. 🤷‍♂️ 

4) Balancing The Funnel:

Tommy Clark talks a lot about this too, but basically it’s the idea that you need a healthy balance between top of funnel content and bottom of funnel content.

Top of funnel: Broad audience, mass appeal, go viral

Bottom of funnel: Narrow audience, niche appeal, make sales

For Abby this meant casting a wide net, but still establishing Inflow as experts in their field led by MD’s and PHD’s.

Doubling your IG following is great, but at the end of the day it has to have a positive ROI.

(Here’s Tommy’s newsletter btw. Not sponsored, I’m just a fan.)

5) Engagement Through Vulnerability:

My pastor says, “People may admire you for your strengths, but they connect with you through your weaknesses.”

We all know that people do business with people that they like, know, and trust.

But what about a business, not a personal brand?

Inflow is a prime example of what it looks like to personify a brand.

They’ve turned Inflow’s social presence into a personality that you like, know, and trust.

6) Repurposing Content:

If When burnout or creative droughts come, be ready to roll with past winners.

Most people never saw it the first time around and even if they did… so what?

If it’s good content, they won’t mind seeing it again.

Abby highlighted the importance of recycling successful content. During times of burnout or creative droughts, reposting popular past content can sustain engagement without the need to constantly create new content.

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To watch the full event, apply to the community:

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