Hey Madison! Everything I say below will obviously depend on your own audience, who you are specifically targeting with your posts, and what your goal is for being on social media (i.e. is it to network with others in REI, is it to bring in clients/market your services, etc.). I'll focus on Instagram in my comments below.
1) How often should you post on a feed (example: Instagram). How often do you post on an Instagram story?
For Instagram, you can definitely experiment with posting frequency. Some people swear by posting every single day. Those tend to be accounts with a very large number of followers. That works for them, but typically smaller accounts will have more of an issue of people unfollowing from posting too often. The sweet spot I've seen is about every other day (or about 3 times a week).
Instagram stories are a different game. You can (and should!) post stories often. This keeps you on people's minds. It's fast and less structured content, and people actually expect multiple posts per day on Instagram stories.
2) What types of content do you recommend posting?
Again, this will depend on your target audience and goal. If your goal is to market yourself to potential clients, then share inspirational success stories (i.e. how did you drastically improve a client's life?). Before and after photos are always a huge hit when it comes to property rehabs. People also love to see faces, so make sure to include photos of you and your team, so followers can put a face to a name. See my answer to #5 below for more on content.
3) Do you plan our your posts?
I've found when it comes to content, it's best to have a balance between having some structure, and then also leaving some room open to make non-planned posts based on the data you have from your last posts (what did people respond positively to in your previous posts that they'd like to see more of?). This could look like planning 2 posts each week, and then making a 3rd post that is planned for a certain day/time, but the content is chosen last minute. I think planning the exact days and times you'll regularly post is a good thing to do. You can look at your analytics and see what days and times your audience is most active, and then plan to post at those times each week.
4) Do you use software that schedules your posts and posts them for you? If so, what do you use? Would you recommend it?
I've done this in the past, and it can be super helpful! I used Later, which worked pretty well.
5) How do you increase engagement?
You want to focus on easy content that people want to save and share. Some examples are "Five things to look for in a property management company," "Three things to NEVER do when getting started in REI," etc. Whether you're creating a post, or a reel, it's good to start your post (or video), with something that will pique a follower's curiosity and pull them into the main focus of your post, and finally end with a call to action (usually something to encourage them to comment something below).
I'll also mention that Instagram's new Reels feature is a great way to boost engagement right now. Instagram is seriously pushing and promoting reels, because it's their response to the popular tiktok app. Their algorithm favors reels right now, so creating short and sweet 15 second videos is a great way to keep up with the algorithm, and reach more people with your content than you normally would.
