Pro tips from a social media manager

2026 Trend: Keywords over Hashtags

Have you noticed that you can have only 5 hashtags on a post now? Gone are the days of a herd of hashtags taking up more than half of a post. Honestly, I'm cool with that. And this change is a strong signal that the Instagram algorithm is deprioritizing hashtags and valuing something else -- keywords.

When people search in IG, they can write an entire sentence or just a few keywords -- exactly as they would for a Google search. No more searching by hashtags. This makes the words you use in your post even more important.

For example, I can search "how to fix a leaky faucet" and all of the posts that have the words fix, leaky, or faucet will show up.

So, how do you use keywords to your advantage? There are several places you can add keywords. Try to get yours in as many as possible. Including:

✅in the text

✅as text overlaying a pic or video

✅as a hashtag

✅within a sticker (like the Quiz sticker)

So, happy keywording and may the algorithm bow to your will! 

2026 Trend: Zero-Click Content

The "link in bio" trick may take a big hit in 2026. Industry analysts report that the Instagram algorithm (which is kept under lock and key in an underground vault guarded by rabid mice and their stash of stinky cheese) the algorithm will favor keeping readers inside the app and not sending them to other web pages. This is a bummer for businesses, as many of us use the link feature to drive traffic to our websites or sales platforms. Our social media has been key in getting buyers to learn more about us.

So what can we do?

Well, a good start is to pull individual sections from your website and make social media posts out of them. Use the same picture or video, along with accompanying text from the webpage. Let's say you parse out your webpage into a dozen sections. Now you've got 12 new posts! Cycle through the lot, running one every week, and you've got 3 months' worth in your back pocket.

Another idea, if you blog on your site and have only ever teased the readers by sharing just the first paragraph in a social media post, now is the time to let that go and include the entire blog in the text of the post.

Should you stop using "link in bio?" Will the algorithm penalize you for using it? Honestly, we don't know. The best advice is what we keep hearing over and over again: share meaningful content that's relevant to your followers and they will go looking for you when they want to know more. 

How Do I Get More Sales?

• Hey, Shelby from Missoula Social Media here, and I'm going to start a new educational series every month where I answer common questions that I get from clients and other folks. I have my little bag here of common questions. I'm going to pull out a question and give you my thoughts on it. [pulls card] "How can I get more sales?" I get this question a lot, but there's one main factor that is often overlooked, and it's known as Nudge Theory. Nudge theory is a term from behavior economics and is one of my favorite ways to market. It was created by Richard Thaler, and how he likes to describe it is "choice architecture."

• So how do we build and organize things to make it as easy as possible for someone to make the choice that we want them to make? As business owners, it's easy to want to put as much information out there as we possibly can, so they know how good our product is.

• But, in this day and age, where there is so much information out there, that actually works against us. A glutted website page means an ineffective website page, which means less sales. Let's say you have a gym and you're selling online memberships and you do all the marketing, all the emails, all the social media, all the website, and it all leads to this page where people sign up for their membership. Now, if that page has all the information about the membership -- what could happen if you cancel, what could happen if you stop. Yes, we want a contract, a membership agreement, but if that page is so full of legalese, someone might just think, gosh, if there's this much up front, what could I miss in the back end? Then you lose a sale.

• To make Nudge Theory work on your website and make more sales, start with something you already know. Let's say, what are the top three questions that your customers usually ask you? (Those are probably right off the top of your head.) Now, make those three leads into a multiple choice or a poll and let those customers choose which need they are looking for. Now, that's a nudge because they already know and it's easy for them to choose. Go ahead and use your same point of sale system that you usually do, but change that structure on the web page to make it simple as possible for the user to get there.

• Here is where it's tempting to over-glide your page and lose that customer. Keep in mind, you can always add more information by making a link to a Frequently Asked Questions page. Once you have that understanding, you know you're not going to leave them without any information, but you leave it up to them to click on the Frequently Asked Questions.

• I hope that's a good balance for you between wanting to include all of your information that is relevant to sales and making it as easy as possible for your customers to buy.

Link to Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5QmmzAWb7KTpDMSeJTo6o5?si=gd9ptwMbRoe7S4tvizOYeA&nd=1&dlsi=1ba9605b08f342f5

4 Easy Ways to Use AI Right Now

#1: Blogging

The first way to use AI --  blogging. It seems to be the consensus among marketers that blogging is the easiest way to use AI. However, watch out for one thing: don't just copy and paste from what AI gives you. Number one, there's copyright issues, and number two, pretty soon all of us are going to be able to recognize whether or not something has been written by AI. So my tip -- share your opinion. No one else owns your opinion and it can't be copyrighted. Use AI as a launching point to give your ideas about a subject. People want to know what you think anyways. AI does a good job of brainstorming those first thoughts for you.

#2: Picture Descriptions

AI can be a great tool also for describing pictures. Now, most website services, they allow you templates for wonderful, beautiful pictures, but it's not real obvious about where you enter the description of those pictures. The description is super important because it's one of the things that Google uses to rank your website page. So here's what you do. You go into AI and you say, "please describe this picture." Then, you upload a picture. Then you can copy and paste the text that it gives you into the picture description on your website.

This is also really handy for social media. If you want to make your posts more accessible, you can do the same thing. Use "describe this picture," and paste the result to the bottom of your social media posts. That way, people who use alternative reading software will know what your picture is all about.

#3: Check Your Website for Typos

This saves you tons of time! Check your website for typos. You can literally type in check this website for typos, give the website address, and it will come back with a list. of mistakes that you can then fix.

#4: AI-ify Your Pictures

One of the funnest things I've found to do with AI is to AI-ify pictures. Try it out at nightcafe.com. Just play with it and find out what it does to those pictures. It's kind of fun.

One of the best types of social media posts

One of the best things you can do on social media right now is be the real you. For example,

YOU behind the scenes (In the accompanying video, this is me heading to a meeting most days. I have curlers in my hair while I'm driving into town and I'm also listening to a podcast about the latest social media trends.)

YOU sharing a favorite thing (One of my favorite podcasts is Hubspot’s Marketing Against the Grain - check it out.)

YOU standing out. These days, where there are tons of ads a dime a dozen, being real and showing who you are really makes an impact on your customers. 

How to Prioritize Post Elements

Here’s what to do first, whether you have 5, 10, or 15 minutes to create a post.

5 MINUTES

~Timing: schedule the post for when your followers are online the most

~Media: match the format to fit your message. You might consider posting reels with your phone and photos using Meta Business Suite, just to save a little time with picture posts.

10 MINUTES

~Tags: invite another account to collaborate on a post whenever possible – you’ll double your reach!

~Keep a library of tags that you use for every post and always include your hometown

15 MINUTES

~Extras like emojis and audio/music can make posts more easier to read and more entertaining. When using emojis, choose the same symbols for important bits of info every time.

📌 for event dates

➡️ for calls to action
✅ for benefits 

Best Time to Post

When to post? It's one of the top questions I get asked all the time. Here's a few pointers and a strategy I use.

No matter when you choose to post, the goal is to be online at the same time as most of your followers. That way, your posts have the greatest chance of being seen.

There are a couple of ways you can find out when your followers are online.

1) If you post to Instagram from your phone, go into Settings - Insights, then scroll down to view the bar chart of times. Scroll through the week by tapping each day.

2) If you post to either Instagram or Facebook using Business Suite on your laptop, first choose to schedule your post , rather than sharing it right away. When you go to pick a date and time, click into the suggested popular time box that pops up. Simply click the suggestion, then click schedule.

✨Bonus strategy: I always post on Sundays. That's the most popular day across all industries -- makes sense, people are winding down their weekend but not ready to go to bed yet, so they often scroll their socials for a bit. 

Should I Use a Phone or Laptop to Post?

People ask me "Should I use a phone or laptop to post?" The answer is really an individual one -- I always encourage people to do whichever is easiest for them. But, there are some instances when one is better than the other. For me, I use both phone and laptop. Below is my strategy for posting, plus a bonus tip...

For videos, I use the Instagram app on my phone. It took some getting used to, after 30+ years tied to a desktop, but it's my preferred method for videos. You get access to all of the bells and whistles, and the more of those you use, the more "points" you get with the algorithm and the more reach you get. Instagram has really designed the app to prefer videos, so I say why fight it. Taking the time to adapt is worth it.

However, for pictures I use Meta Business Suite on my laptop. There's not a lot of bells and whistles for pictures, so I'm not missing out on anything. And, let's face it, it will always be easier to type on a laptop verses giving our thumbs rigor mortis by tapping on a phone.

BONUS TIP: if you're looking for a video editor that plays well with Instagram, download Edits. It makes the editing a little more user friendly than trying to edit a video inside the IG app. 

How to Use Instagram Stories

What are Stories? What's the best way to use them? Let's answer these questions PLUS I'll add my favorite Stories hack.

First, what are Stories? Simply put, they are another place you can post things on Instagram. The major differences: they stay up for only 24 hours, are only 8 seconds long, and they never show up on your regular feed. It's like a digital version of "What are they up to now?"

So why use Stories then? Often, Stories get more reads than regular posts. Instagram encourages this because when you add a new Story, your profile bubble shows up at the top of your followers' feeds, announcing that you posted something new. Also, my theory is that the shorter length of a Story is not as much of a mental commitment compared to scrolling, so people tend to tap into them more.

How best to use Stories? I like sharing a post to my Stories the day after the original post runs. That way, people who saw the post will get a second impression and folks who missed the post might get a chance to catch the Story version. TIP: if your original post has lots of information you'd like to share, you can add a sticker to encourage people to tap into the Story, which will open the post and all of your info. Just add the sticker "tap for details."

BONUS TIP: You can see a list of people who liked your Story and interact with them. The list is available for up to 48 hours after the Story runs. To get there tap the 3 lined hamburger, then archive. Look for likers who you want to form stronger relationships with - now is a great time to DM them current news about your biz or just a simple "thanks for the like." By doing this, you're using even more IG tools which gets you points with the algorithm and (cross your fingers) greater Reach! 

Best Ways to Use Hashtags

Hashtags are how people stumble across you on Instagram – with the emphasis on “stumble” because these are folks who may not know your account name but they’re interested in the topic you’ve tagged. It’s also more likely that they are not currently following you, so hashtags can help you reach outside of your follower bubble. Below are the two best practices I’ve learned for using hashtags, plus a bonus tip that will save you lots of time.

When selecting tags for that post’s topic, choose tags between 100K and 1 million uses. This means that they’re popular enough to get noticed but not so overplayed that your post gets lost in the deluge. To find out how popular a tag is: start spelling it, then matching tags will begin to pop up as you continue. The tags are sorted by the number of times they’ve been used, with the most at the top. This is useful for Missoula-related tags which may not have a lot of uses just because we’re a smaller market.

I get asked all of the time about how many hashtags should be used. Truly, it's up to you. I prefer around a dozen with three being related to the specific topic of the post plus more that I use every post. Mostly I pick this many because a big-ass list of tags gets annoying.

✨BONUS TIP: always include a “library” of tags related to your business that you use all of the time. Save time by keeping the list handy to copy/paste into the text whenever you post. 

Personal Posts Vs. Sales Posts

When social media is one of your main marketing channels (if not your ONLY marketing channel), it can be super easy to feel the pressure to make every post about sales. After all, that’s why you’re on social media – to market, right? Except, there’s different rules when it comes to what viewers like on Instagram, Facebook, etc. Social media is, well, social. That means that the majority of your posts should feel fun and light and – most importantly – share something about YOU.

Think about how you scroll your own feeds. You probably stop to view a post longer if it's about someone you know or the business owner of your favorite shop. Most of us can spot a “sales” post from a mile away and probably scroll right on past it without a second thought. Your customers are doing the same.

I recommend this formula for post content: 50% personal + 30% educational/entertaining + 20% sales. That means half of your posts will be about you at work, you out in the community, or you with your hobbies or special interests. Only two of every ten posts will be sales.

So keep this formula in mind next time you’re out of ideas for what to post. It will keep your feed engaging and keep your customers coming back for more. 

How Often Should I Post?

How many posts should I do per week? I get this question a lot. So, I decided to do a study of Missoula businesses to find out what worked best. I tracked 3 businesses (each having around 500 followers) and watched their stats over 3 months. Here's what I found:

They each had different strategies.

👉Business #1 posted everyday but didn't have time to follow up with any background engagement (liking, following up with comments, engaging with other accounts, etc.)

👉Business #2 posted everyday and did full engagement.

👉Business #3 posted only 2-3 times a week and had extra time for engagement. But they also did something else: once a month they would have a week-long campaign focused on a theme -- a few more posts than usual that celebrated something about the business.

What were their results?

👀Business #1 had good stats for a while, but because they weren't engaging with anyone, their reach stagnated and they couldn't get outside their follower bubble.

👀Business #2 -- exhaustion.

The poor social media marketer was doing all of the things all of the time. While their stats looked good, I could see that all that effort was not sustainable.

👀Business 3 hit the perfect balance. While their stats didn't increase as fast, over time they saw a stair step effect. The algorithm took notice every time they ran their monthly campaign, and their stats would get a bump. And they weren't exhausted!

The lessons here?

✅First, do as much as is reasonable for your time and budget so you don't burn out.

✅Second, definitely take time to engage. If you don't have time to follow up with followers, it's a good idea to shave off one post a week so you do have the time to engage.
✅Third, a monthly campaign is not only a fun way to switch things up, it will increase your stats over time.