My Instagram is dying...

It's been 3 months since I've posted on Instagram or this newsletter.

Where have I been?

It's a pretty short story actually.

I've been growing my business behind the scenes.

2025 has been a year that really puts this quote into perspective for me:

I've been working harder than I've ever worked in my life.

This is made easier because I'm also doing this full-time for the first time in 3 years.

Rounded up my service year about a month ago, and University is long behind me as well.

No distractions or excuses, just the work that needs to be done.

I'll probably write another newsletter on the biggest lessons and breakthroughs I've experienced in this time.

But the topic of this specific newsletter is my Instagram account.

I started posting on it again last week and realized something.

It's dying a slow death.

Engagement is lower than it's ever been.

Losing followers daily.

If nothing changes, then it'll die.

So I've come up with a game plan to save it.

I'm sharing that with you for 2 reasons.

Let's dive into it.

Here's how I plan to revive my Instagram account

Step 1: Account Analysis and Overhaul.

This includes a few things, which I'll walk through one at a time.

First, clearing out the list of people I follow. I make it a point to only follow people who post consistently as I need to be able to engage with and take inspiration from their content.

A lot of the people I followed previously are no longer active on Instagram, so I'll remove them and find new accounts to follow.

Finding new accounts is the priority because I don't really mind if my following number goes way higher than before. The key thing is for me to have a steady supply of new content from my niche and related niches on my feed.

Once that's done, I'll be checking my profile to see if there's anything that needs to be updated.

Things like my bio, profile picture, highlights, bio links, and so on.

It's important to make sure they're still serving their roles and delivering the message I want them to deliver.

The next stage of this is actually going through my insights and seeing what kind of content has worked well for me in the past.

This, in conjunction with other strategies, will give me valuable data on what type of content to create moving forward.

I specifically want to see what type of content has gotten me the most shares in the past.

Instagram has made it clear that shareable content is key on the platform right now, so I'm going to optimize for that.

Once I analyze and figure out what has worked, I'll test it, and if it hits again, then I'll double down on it.

Step 2: Competitor Research.

3 months might not sound like a long time to be inactive, but social media moves fast.

While analyzing my content can give me an idea of the type of content that has worked for me in the past, there's no guarantee that those content pieces will still work.

So I need to know what's working right now.

The best way to do that is by looking at people in my niche, seeing what kind of content they are currently posting, and what's working for them.

This is why I made sure I followed enough of them in step 1, so I have a large set of data to pull from.

Taking inspiration from content that has already worked well helps me move faster because the audience has already shown they like that type of content.

I like to find accounts that are in the exact same niche - Instagram marketing that I'm in, as well as accounts in broader niches like marketing.

Steps 1 and 2 will help give me direction on what type of content to create, which is the most important part since that's what will attract new people to my account.

Step 3: Content Creation and Posting.

You might have thought this would come first, but jumping into posting headfirst without a strategy is a rookie move.

This will be the most time-consuming part of this process, but thankfully, I now have some help with it.

The plan is to post 7 times a week (might take some time to ramp up though)

This is important to build momentum, get as much data as possible, and give me more chances for my content to perform well.

These posts will be a mix of:

I'll also be testing out all the content formats - single posts, reels, and carousels.

The goal is simple: To get more reach and get my account growing again.

All content that goes out will be focused on this singular goal.

I'll not be posting sales content for now.

If new leads come in (and they already are), that's awesome, but it's not the priority at least for the next 2-3 months.

Sales will happen in the background - DMs, this email list, and maybe stories (still considering)

The feed content is just for growth right now.

Step 4: Daily Engagement.

Besides posting content, engaging with other accounts is huge.

So many people forget about the "social" part of social media.

Especially since I've been inactive for a while and people have moved on with their lives, I need to be really intentional about this.

This will include engaging with my competitors by liking and commenting on their posts...

And engaging with my audience by responding to their comments and commenting on their own posts when I have the chance.

I see every comment basically as a small advertisement saying: "I'm back."

It'll let my audience know that I treasure their feedback and let my competitors know that I'm back in the Instagram game.

I'll mainly be doing this immediately after I post new content as well, so that some of these accounts will reciprocate and engage on my recent post.

This will drive up the post engagement, which will ultimately help the post perform better.

Step 5: Consistency

This isn't a game plan that I expect results from in a week.

or 2 weeks.

or 1 month.

The plan is to commit to this for at least 3 months because I know it takes time to get results.

The results might come in before then.

But I'm not changing any core part of this strategy before trying it for at least 3 months.

And if that doesn't work, then I'll make some updates and extend the timeframe to 6 months.

I'm in this game for the long run, so I'm not looking for fast or overnight results.

Good things take time.

You could have the best strategy in the world, but if you stop before the results come in because you were impatient, then you'll never get the results you want.

That's it, that's the strategy for IG.

I'll also be going back to sending weekly newsletters to you with the best IG, Social media (and sometimes business) tips.

If you're still reading at this point, I appreciate you.

I don't take your time or attention for granted.

Stay awesome,

Niyo