Insights from Dain Walker, Myriam Jessier, and Demand Curve.

<aside> 🚨 Note: We update these cheatsheets each time we run the Un-ignorable Challenge. So you should bookmark this page—rather than duplicate it—so you always have the latest version available.

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<aside> 💡 Table of Contents

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📆 Posting Frequency Guidelines

A good cadence for Instagram is 4-5 posts per week and 1-2 story posts per day (at minimum). Posting more stories doesn’t hurt your engagement.

🧠 Important Context about Instagram

Instagram users want both education and entertainment. While the app also offers shopping features, shopping isn’t the main intent of users. Example: If you’re a makeup company, teach viewers how to use your makeup. Maybe that’s how to blend colors, or how to choose the right shade for your skin tone.

🖼️ Content Design & Optimization

1. You can’t include links in Instagram posts or Reels. The only you can do is direct people to your profile to click your link. If you have numerous products, you need to use a service like Linktree to direct people to different places.
   • You can, however, have links in stories using the Link sticker. But stories are mostly only seen by current followers.
2. Create a cohesive aesthetic for your profile feed. Despite Instagram moving toward Stories and Reels, you still need a well-curated profile feed.
   • Imagine this: you just discovered a really great Reel, you click on the account’s profile, and they don’t have any posts. Are you going to follow them? No.
   • Consider posting successful Stories to your feed as well.
3. Experiment with caption length. Some research suggests that longer captions lead to higher engagement rates, but many conflicting reports suggest the opposite. We recommend that you try both and see what resonates.
   • Example: Start with short captions for a few weeks. Then try increasing the length by 25% to 50%. Evaluate the difference in engagement rate. Then go with the length that’s seen better results.
   • For long captions, use line breaks and emojis to make them easier to read.

⭐ Generating Content Ideas