Questions to Ask Instagram
For working out whether Instagram is worth your effort and what you would do with it. These 20 questions suit a business owner, a solo creator or whoever runs the account, covering goals, capacity, formats, moderation, access and security.
The questions
Open any question for the note
What is this account supposed to achieve that nothing else does?
Why ask it
If the answer is presence or awareness, there will be no way to tell later whether it worked. A usable answer names an outcome: bookings, applications, sales of one product, recruiting.
Who exactly are we trying to reach, and are they here in numbers?
Why ask it
Plenty of audiences are not on Instagram, or are but never buy there. Being specific keeps you from producing work aimed at people who will never see it.
Which single number will tell us in three months whether this is working?
Why ask it
Follower count is the easiest number to grow and the least connected to outcomes. Saves, shares and taps through to a link usually sit much closer to intent.
How many hours a week can we honestly give this?
Why ask it
Capacity decides format before taste does. Two hours a week rules out anything that needs regular filming and editing, and pretending otherwise is how accounts stall.
Who is actually making the content, and what happens when they are away?
Why ask it
One person doing this alongside their real job is the usual failure point, and holidays and busy quarters are where accounts go quiet. Settle the fallback before the first post, not after the third silent month.
What do we already have that could be posted this week?
Why ask it
Starts from existing photos, footage, customer questions and archive rather than a production plan. It is also the fastest way to find out whether there is anything to say.
What would we post if reach dropped to nothing tomorrow?
Why ask it
Separates content that stands on its own from content that only works when it is distributed. Whatever survives is also what you can reuse elsewhere.
Where does somebody go after they see a post, and does that path work on a phone?
Why ask it
A slow or broken landing page wastes the attention a post earned. Walk the whole route yourself before sending anybody down it.
Which formats are we choosing, and which are we deliberately not doing?
Why ask it
Reels, stories, carousels, lives and DMs all at once with one person is how accounts quietly stop. Naming the exclusions is the actual decision.
Who answers comments and messages, and within how long?
Why ask it
An unattended inbox costs more than no account at all, because people read the silence as the service. Agree a response time and decide who covers weekends.
What do we do about a complaint in public?
Why ask it
Decide the policy while nothing is happening. Reply, move it to DM, or leave it up are all defensible. Improvising at eleven at night is not.
Which competitor accounts should we look at closely, and what are they actually doing?
Why ask it
Look at cadence, format and who appears on camera rather than at aesthetics. It also shows what the audience in this category already expects.
What claims can we not make here?
Why ask it
Regulated fields have real limits, and paid partnerships need disclosure. Getting this wrong costs more than any growth you might miss.
Who has access to the account, and how is it secured?
Why ask it
Recovering a hijacked business account is slow and often fails. Two-factor authentication, a named owner and at least two people with access should exist before the account matters to you.
What is our position on paid promotion, and what would we test first?
Why ask it
Paying to boost content that does not work organically usually just buys a larger sample of the same result. Decide the test and the stopping point together.
What are we prepared to spend before deciding this is not for us?
Why ask it
A budget and a date protect you from indefinite drift. Write both down now, while you are still enthusiastic about it.
Which of our posts did much better or worse than we expected, and do we know why?
Why ask it
Reviewing the surprises is where nearly all the learning is, and it takes an hour a month. Accounts that skip it repeat their weakest format for years.
Are we willing to put a person on camera, and who?
Why ask it
The decision most accounts avoid and most growth depends on. If the answer is no, pick formats that do not need a face rather than pretending you will get there.
What would make us stop, and what would make us commit harder?
Why ask it
Naming both in advance keeps the decision away from whoever happens to be most tired that month.
If the account disappeared tomorrow, what would we still have?
Why ask it
A mailing list, a customer list, a site, the original footage. Instagram is rented ground, and this question decides how much you are willing to build on it.
Deciding what the account is for
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Before the first post
Pick one outcome and one number
Choose the outcome the account serves, then the single metric closest to it, and write both somewhere you will still see them in three months. Everything else is diagnostics.
Set capacity from a bad week
Count the hours you will have in a busy week, not a quiet one, and choose a format that survives it. One post a week for a year beats five a week for a month.
Secure the account first
Two-factor authentication, an owner of record, and at least two people with access. Businesses lose accounts to a single lost phone far more often than to anything dramatic.
Check the destination
Open your own link on a phone on mobile data and try to buy, book or apply. Fix whatever is slow or broken before you spend attention driving people to it.
Running it week to week
Batch the making, spread the posting
Filming and editing in one session and posting from a bank is the difference between a habit and a scramble. It also keeps quality steady during a bad week.
Answer the inbox
Reply times shape what people think of a business more than the feed does. Set a target, and decide deliberately whether weekends are covered.
Review the surprises monthly
Spend an hour on the posts that did much better or much worse than expected, and ask what they had in common. Ignore everything that landed near average.
Keep the raw files
Footage and photographs outlive any platform and any format. Store them somewhere you control, organized by date, so a change of strategy does not mean starting over.
Decide these in advance
- Who answers a public complaint, and whether anything ever gets deleted.
- What claims cannot be made, and how paid partnerships are disclosed.
- Whether anybody appears on camera, and who that is.
- The budget and the date on which you review whether to continue.
- Where a viewer is sent, and who checks that page still works each month.
- What is deliberately kept off Instagram: the customer list, the mailing list, the archive.