February 18th, 2025

How PR & Content Strategies Might Benefit From Insta’s Actions

By Catapult PR’s managing director, Jane Hunt

Only a few weeks ago, I proudly took a screenshot of a client’s Instagram grid. It looked amazing.  The design elements I had created for them blended beautifully and in an attractive fashion.  The colours were considered and on-brand.  Posting was regular and the posts themselves remarkably better than when I’d stepped in.

And then the roll-out of the new Instagram grid format hit it, almost overnight.  With new dimensions applied from above, the previous posts – on everyone’s grid unless they are remarkably lucky – are now cut off and less than aesthetically pleasing.  Rather than taking a broader view of anything, we’ve gone narrow, vertical and look like we’re shoving content in a postbox.

There is, supposedly a fix for this irksome development,  but I haven’t yet found it available on any grids that I manage.  And, even as a person suggesting that fix says, it would mean having to physically amend and resize every single post and then mess around with the backgrounds too.

So, a lot of content will now have to be quickly posted on my Instagram pages, so that the wrongly sized material gets shoved down and off the grid view, where it will hopefully not cause offence.

Whilst this is, in one way, truly annoying, particularly when good Instagram practice was to make a grid look beautiful, in another way, I’m secretly pleased.

Why?

Because it will now allow me to reinforce a point I’ve been making for a long time.  The truth is that, if you are building your brand through social media, and are wholly reliant on it, you are at the whim of the people who own your brand.  Because, fundamentally, if that’s what you are doing, you don’t own your brand, they do.

‘Owning’ your brand through PR and content

Let’s just consider this in context. TikTok has already faced a USA ban, even if that is being watered down now, as Trump desperately tries to place it under US ownership.  Australia has prohibited under-16s from using social media (something I applaud, although I suspect the Aussies want to get all kids outside, playing sport rather than fiddling with buttons and screens, so they can beat us Poms at cricket for decades to come!)  Everyone is moaning about the politicisation of Twitter under Musk, although it’s still the best way to get in the know about anything, on a need-to-know super-speedy basis.

Brands who poured thousands into Facebook advertising have suddenly found themselves punished and unable to place ads, with no explanation and nobody to contact at Facebook.  Influencers have suffered similar bans.  It instantly cuts off their route to market and, even if they do eventually manage to get through to a Meta god, it has meant weeks or months of suffering.  This whole strategy is just far too unpredictable and risky.

What does social media actually do for you?

At the same time, I truly believe that far too many companies have just jumped on social media because they think it’s the thing to do.  For some brands, it may be.  For many more, it just isn’t.  For the majority, I would say it’s a credentials-checking tool, at the point when a potential buyer decides to consider a purchase, a working relationship, or spending time and money with that social media owner.  It should not be viewed as being the way to bring people to your door.

So what is that way?  So many potential buyers are out there in the ether, circling around and yet not landing on our information, aren’t they?

Well, that was the case with Catapult PR too, until I decided to practice what I preach  and took up the “physician heal thyself” motto.  This involved actually finding time to do my own marketing, rather than just everyone else’s.

Since I took that decision, Catapult PR’s Google rankings have gone from nowhere to page 1 for most of the keywords that really matter to me, like tourism PR, heritage PR and insurance PR, for instance.   At one point, this Lancashire PR agency and content writer, appeared in the AI generated box at the top of the page, as the number one authority on one topic and is still cited there now.  And the number of enquiries and website visits has rocketed.  It’s taken me probably a good six months of solid effort but it’s now paid off in a very big way.

How keyword strategies got me to page 1 of the web rankings

So what did I do?  Spend thousands on Google Adwords?  Spend even more on Facebook or Instagram advertising?  Let me tell you, I didn’t spend a penny on online advertising.  I simply dedicated myself to a strategy that I know, quite categorically, works.

And it’s not just my own example that works.  A quick look at what had happened to the web traffic of the brand with the very lovely grid showed me that, having applied the same strategy to them, their web traffic also climbed month on month.

Another client has apparently started to see great traffic for a brand-new website.

Some hints at the strategy underlining all of this actually form the basis of my latest YouTube video but basically it’s a combination of PR and online website content.  It’s about carefully crafted PR campaigns and pieces of copy – of the right sort.  It’s not about SEO word-stuffing at all, so please don’t get that impression. It’s just been about working hard and really owning what is owned – a website, blog (on the website) and, to some extent, messaging in PR outputs.  It’s also about being creative with the PR, to generate widespread exposure.

I know that convincing some clients of the efficacy of the approach will be hard. Many cannot be shifted from either old tactics or shiny new social media.  If only they put their money into the right strategies, they would see the difference.  But even brands that do follow the strategy get it very wrong.  I suppose my PR and copywriting skills have been the vital ingredient.

So, am I overly worried about the Instagram grid?  Hugely annoying as it may be, it may just now send a strong signal to potential clients that there is more to life than social media and that there really should be, if they want to be successful with their marketing.  Social media is not the only fruit, especially when those harvesting millions from it can suddenly decide to close the orchard overnight.

I’m not saying don’t do it, because another part of my strategy has been that of “showing up everywhere” and, whilst I don’t see social media as the holy grail, it’s another place to show up.  But, choose a juicier variety of marketing overall and you might just find your brand health soaring too.  I’m here to help with that, if you need me and want to tap into the skill set that has already done Catapult PR’s marketing such a lot of favours.