INBOX INSIGHTS, March 29, 2023: Staying Productive, Instagram Engagement - Trust Insights Marketing Analytics Consulting

INBOX INSIGHTS: Staying Productive, Instagram Engagement (3/29) :: View in browser

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Tips to Stay Productive and Motivated – From Real People!

Staying productive and motivated is hard for most of us. I thought I could save some time and have ChatGPT tell me the best productivity tips, but honestly, it was generic and I felt talked down to. Here is what the system told me:

Set clear goals
Prioritize tasks
Create a schedule
Minimize distractions
Take breaks
Get enough sleep
Exercise regularly
Delegate tasks
Use productivity tools
Stay motivated

Not super helpful, right? The content that ChatGPT wrote gave more explanation for each item, but it was still very condescending. It reads very impersonal and matter-of-fact, like being productive is a switch you can just flip on and off. I don’t know about you, but that’s not how I operate.

Instead of asking a computer, I thought it would be useful to you (and me) if I asked real people how they stay productive and motivated. This is what our Slack Community, Analytics for Marketers had to say:

“I handwrite a weekly to-do list. Something about the tactical nature of a quality pen and paper helps me to center and really focus on the essentials for the week. I turned off new email pop-ups and check email at selected times throughout the day. Same thing for new Slack messages. I block chunks of time throughout the week for focus work. I usually do this on Friday for the following week. I virtually co-work in flow club for accountability. I take screen-free breaks, preferably outside, to help recharge my energy”

“I’ll turn emails in Outlook into appointments to block chunks time to do them. I keep a daily update in OneNote of what I need to do and what gets done (comes in handy when the boss wants to know what I’ve been up to)”

Now, this advice is much more helpful and actionable. I like the tip about turning your emails into calendar appointments. Then you can more easily set expectations with the recipient about when you’ll get back to them and get answers. Personally, I also really like handwriting a to-do list.

The only other piece of advice I would add is to prioritize your task list by effort. You can assign sizes like small, medium, or large. This helps you internally set your own expectations of what you can accomplish given the time you have available.

To round out the practical advice on productivity and motivation, I would be remiss if I don’t mention that there are lots of tools that can help. You can customize these tools to mirror how you work. This is by no means an extensive list – but these are some of the tools that I’ve used and have found helpful:

Asana – This is the app we use at Trust Insights. We like that it can integrate with Slack and can easily handle repetitive tasks. It’s also easy to organize by project and invite collaborators.

To-do (from Microsoft) – This is the app that I personally use for my own lists. Yes, lists. It syncs between my desktop and my phone. I have shopping lists, packing lists, to-do lists, and ideas.

Trello – I don’t currently use this but I have found it an effective tool for keeping a larger team organized. I used to use it when I ran morning stand-up meetings. These are meetings where every team member takes a minute to say, 1) what they completed yesterday, 2) what they are working on today, and 3) where they are blocked. If you have a larger team, whether in person or virtual, you can set up Trello to mirror your daily stand-up.

Pomodoro timers – There are a lot of versions of these timers. The idea is that you work for 25 minutes and then take a break for 5. If you use a system like slack there are integrations that are helpful for keeping your head down to get things done.

How do you stay productive and motivated?

Reply to this email or come tell me your tips in our free Slack Community, Analytics for Marketers.

– Katie Robbert, CEO

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In this week’s In-Ear Insights, Katie and Chris talk through a half dozen practical use cases of ChatGPT, why they work, and what you can do to make generative AI tools more useful and powerful in your own work.

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In this week’s Data Diaries, as we close out the quarter, let’s check in on how things are going on Instagram. How are brands and influencers faring on one of the world’s most popular social networks?

Let’s first look at brands:

This quarter we’ve seen a slight sag in brand performance, with a small rebound to basically end where the quarter began, at roughly a 0.22% engagement rate for brands.

We see that albums – carousels – still remain the most engaging content format for brands, followed by images, then videos. Remember that video content also includes Reels.

What about individual influencers?

Influencers saw their performance sag to just below 0.6% for the quarter, in a similar level of performance compared to brands.

After a brief convergence, albums remain the top content for influencers, followed by individual photo posts, then videos. Remember that video content also includes Reels.

In both cases, Stories are not counted because they are not provided in the Instagram data API.

What do we make of this data? Well, it’s a mixed bag. There’s nothing in the data that shouts for a major, drastic change in strategy. Videos continue to underperform other content types; across all different accounts, carousels of multiple posts continue to lead engagement. When you think about it, this makes logical sense from a behavioral perspective. Carousels inherently have the ability to pique curiosity – as long as the first image is eye-catching, it intrigues users to want to swipe to the next piece of content.

Should you focus on Instagram as a social network for your business? That always depends on where your audience is. If you haven’t run a survey to your audience asking them where they spend their time (especially where they spend their time when considering purchases), that should be your first priority.

Disclosures and methodology: Trust Insights extracted 487,307 unique brand posts and 177,994 unique influencer posts from Instagram using the Crowdtangle service. The timeframe of the dataset is 2023-01-01 to 2023-03-27. Trust Insights is the sole sponsor of the study and neither gave nor received compensation for data used, beyond applicable service fees to software vendors, and declares no competing interests.

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