[00:01:03] Kassaundra: Welcome back to Schooled in Socials. I'm so excited to have Heather here with me from full sped ahead, so we can talk about using Instagram data to inform your content. So Heather, for our listeners who might not know who you are, can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your business?

[00:01:22] Heather: Hi everyone. I am Heather. I was a special education teacher for eight years. And then I transitioned to be a special education curriculum and assessment coordinator, for the past almost three years now. And I've kind of found my love for supporting other teachers when I was in the classroom and I didn't have the support that I needed.

[00:01:44] So that's where my business kind of came through. I learned a ton from social media. And so because of that I wanted to continue to share information about special education, about resources, about activities, all of those things. And so that's kind of where my business bloomed. And then of course, becoming a coordinator, I learned so much of the administration side of things, and so sharing some of that has been really helpful and eyeopening for teachers and

[00:02:12] really helpful for me too, 'cause I didn't understand it until I was on that side of things.

[00:02:18] Kassaundra: Yeah, for sure. As a former special educator, I can definitely feel all of those things too. So, Heather, how did you know it Uh, time to start looking at your Instagram data to kind of inform the content that you were putting out for your audience.

[00:02:34] Heather: I felt like there was a spinning wheel of just throwing out content and it was whatever I felt like posting that day, or maybe it was seasonal. Stuff like, cool, we're gonna, it's springtime, we're gonna post some spring things. Or like, okay, there's a random tip about classroom setup, but then the next thing I would post would be about data collection.

[00:02:52] And then people are commenting about one thing or needing a link for something and it doesn't really relate to the series of posts that I was doing. And so because of that, I really had no strategy and I knew I needed to know the data to know it. Like, again, I love the data side of special education.

[00:03:08] So I needed to know the data side of my Instagram and my social media to know , what do the people want? What do the people need? And how can I continue to build that momentum to keep people wanting to come back to learn more from me?

[00:03:23] Kassaundra: Yeah, definitely Um, with also my special educator past, that is how I kind of honed in when I started working on helping my clients be more strategic with their content as I went to the data, right? It leaves you breadcrumbs telling you where to go next, what your audience is looking for from you, what is resonating most of them, so you can create more content like that.

[00:03:44] So how has analyzing your content and having that analysis of the data supported your marketing efforts on social media?

[00:03:53] Heather: It's really helped me narrow down what people want to see more of and what I can kind of create more of in the future. If people are really liking reels this month, I can do more reels for the next month. And if those don't do well, okay, what did do well? And so it's, if it's carousels, if it's a static post, if it's, you know, me just being silly or me actually giving factual information, like I can recreate something similar to that and see how the people take it.

[00:04:21] So that's really helped me focus in on what is still needed and what I can create in the future.

[00:04:28] Kassaundra: So as teachers, just like we're looking for trends in the data on, why things may be going up or down or why as special educators certain behaviors might be happening or not happening at a certain time, it's the same idea with your Instagram data. You're just looking for those similarities. You're looking for those trends.

[00:04:45] So, like Heather said, are people really into real? Are there any trends across the media types I'm using? So are people liking reels? Are they liking my carousels? Are they liking my static posts? Or are there trends across the topics that I am talking about? So if I'm talking about data collection, is that getting a lot of engagement?

[00:05:05] Versus if I am talking about writing IEPs, right? So just looking for those trends and those similarities across those posts that did really well is such a helpful starting point when you're trying to figure out what is the next best content to put out for your audience. For sure.

[00:05:23] Heather: Yeah, definitely.

[00:05:24] Kassaundra: So thinking about your data and taking a look at the data that you've analyzed, has there been anything in your data that has surprised you?

[00:05:34] Heather: I think for me, the most surprising thing was that I really did have an engaged audience. I feel like anytime I got feedback, it was like, yeah, your audience is actually pretty engaged, and I was like, oh. I had no idea. I didn't feel like they were, because, you know, yes, people are commenting for the link or asking for something, but I wasn't making more genuine connections, I guess.

[00:05:55] It wasn't going beyond like, here's the link. Like, Hey, what kind of classroom do you teach? And so like I followed up more with people to , feel like social, right? It's social media, like to connect with people more versus , all right, here's a link, bye. Never talk to you again. No, actually, like, Hey, what are you using this for?

[00:06:12] What kind of classroom do you have? Where I feel like then people want to trust me more and I have more of that relationship with them, where I'm getting more, targeted questions of , Hey, I know you are really good with life skills. Can you share more about how you would teach this specific life skill?

[00:06:28] And so I'm getting more of those messages every day and I really do appreciate the relationships that I'm getting with people.

[00:06:35] Kassaundra: Yeah, I think that's a great point to make because sometimes diving into the data can feel scary, but it gives you a lot of clarity about where you are and where you should be going. And you might find some nice surprises in there as well. You might not feel like your audience is super engaged, but when you actually start looking at how many comments and likes and shares and saves you're getting, you might realize that you are kind of within industry standards when it comes to engagement rate,

[00:07:03] and that's great. And I love how you took that and you ran with it and you said, okay. I do have an engaged audience. Let me engage with them even more. And that is so important. You're building the trust and you're giving the algorithm a lot of information about you and who should be seeing your content because you're in the dms with people and the algorithm is like, Hmm, this is a relationship.

[00:07:25] I should show this type of content more to this person and also to more people like that person. And so I love how you kind of took that data, you celebrated the win, and then you ran with it and took it to the next level. So that is awesome. Is there anything that you have found difficult when it has come to analyzing your data and then creating strategic content?

[00:07:50] Heather: I think for me it's the time it takes to create strategic content. Actually like saying , yes, they really love this carousel. That's fantastic. Okay, now how can I recreate it for a different topic? Or how does it need to look? Right? Was it the look and feel of the carousel or was it because it was an actual carousel?

[00:08:10] And so for me it's the time it takes to then come up with a different idea or a different strategy to get to that, to relate to a different topic. Or if it was that topic, how do I say it again in a different way? Or give them a little bit more information without giving too much information.

[00:08:24] Give them the what, not the how. Right? The how is what I would give them to sell them or to have them opt in for something. But like what is the other questions that they might have about this topic? So for me, it's like the time it takes to, to figure that out.

[00:08:39] Kassaundra: Yeah. And definitely as you're starting out analyzing your data and creating strategic content that is more of, a time investment for sure. As you start analyzing your data more and more and more, it's gonna be easier to see those trends and pick up on those things and create the strategic content. But building the foundation to begin with definitely does take time.

[00:09:03] Um, so if you're someone out there listening, it is a time investment, but I think Heather would agree here, it is an important time investment if you wanna be using social media as a main way to market your resources.

[00:09:17] Heather: Yeah, definitely.

[00:09:19] Kassaundra: Okay, so I always love to ask people when we are chatting about social media together, what is your favorite thing about using social media for your business?

[00:09:32] Heather: I think for me it's always the connection. It's always the aha moments that people have, right? That we have with our students too, but also with adults of like, oh my gosh, I didn't realize this strategy might work for my student. Or, I tried this out and it really did work. Thanks for sharing that with me.

[00:09:50] And so for me it's the connection and it's , I took this actionable step or this actionable resource that you have and used it directly in my classroom and I've seen an impact. And so like that's really, what energizes me to keep coming back for social media.

[00:10:04] Kassaundra: Being able to connect with those teachers who are actually using your resources in the classroom. That is awesome. Heather, any last thoughts or suggestions for listeners out there who might want to start diving into their Instagram data to create more strategic content?

[00:10:20] Heather: Yeah, I think for me, I hear a lot of entrepreneurs who aren't consistent with their posting. And so first of all, like you wanna start consistently posting whatever that means for you once a week, twice a week, right? Once you've done that for a month or two months, and you can kind of say like, every Monday I'm posting or whatever, then you can start looking into your data.

[00:10:41] And it doesn't have to be scary, , how many clicks did you get? How many likes, how many saves, how many comments? And start looking in it that way because I think the missing piece sometimes for people is the consistency. They're just like posting whatever, posting whenever, whatever time of day.

[00:10:57] And so starting to post at times that are best for your audience and then being consistent with that posting for sure.

[00:11:04] Kassaundra: Yeah, diving into your data without consistent posting is gonna be like having data points all over the place, right? When we sit down and use a teaching strategy with a student, we know we have to be consistent with it a certain amount of time before we review that data. So I a hundred percent agree.

[00:11:21] That is step number one, just starting off with some sort of strategy. It's okay if this doesn't feel super strategic at the moment, but getting that consistency for a few months so you can look back at that and then you can start seeing what is working. And it's a journey to make your content a little bit more strategic every time based on those data points.

[00:11:47] And it also doesn't have to be scary, like you said. So there's a lot of data that Instagram gives you. But what you wanna think about was what was the purpose of that post? Was I trying to connect with my audience? Was I just trying to entertain them and give them a laugh? Was I trying to sell a resource?

[00:12:04] And then that can help you decide which data point you should be looking at, right? If I'm just there to entertain, I'm definitely looking at like engagement. I'm looking for likes. I'm looking for comments. If I'm there to sell, right, I'm looking for link clicks. Or if I'm having people comment for a link, I'm looking at how many people commented for that.

[00:12:22] So you don't have to keep your eyes on everything all the time. Just keeping in mind what was my purpose for putting out this piece of content. Thank you so much for joining me today, Heather, and chatting about how you're using your Instagram data to create strategic content. I appreciate it.

[00:12:38] Heather: Of course, thanks for having me.