Instagram Marketing for Indie Devs¶

Part of Marketing & Social: every channel kit and how they link to each other.

Make one honest image post at a time that strangers send to a friend, then walk the people who care from the post to your website in one tap. Every rule here is labelled: Official (Instagram / Meta's own pages or Mosseri's own posts), Reported (press coverage of an Instagram announcement), or Practice (worked for others, test it yourself). Facts and sources: reference/instagram-facts.md.

image post (carousel / Reel / single)  →  reach (non-followers)  →  send / save  →  profile visit
        →  bio link or Story link sticker  →  landing (utm_source=instagram)  →  trial / email  →  paid

Two modes¶

	Starter (docs 01–08)	Operator (docs/09 growth engine)
Accounts	1 brand	brand + 2–4 disclosed niche accounts
Output	5 posts + 3 link Stories a week	40–60 assets a week from a content factory
Reach source	Your own posts	+ hook lab (10–15 Trial Reels/week), creators, collabs, paid on winners
Time / money	2–3 h/week + 20 min/day · $0	12–15 h/week + 60–90 min/day · $0 / $500 / $2k a month
Skill	social-instagram-growth	social-instagram-engine + social-instagram-creators

Start in Starter for 2 weeks (the base: profile, link path, design kit), then follow the Operator ramp.

1 CONTENT FACTORY → 2 HOOK LAB → 3 NICHE NETWORK → 4 CREATORS → 5 COLLABS → 6 DM + BROADCAST → 7 PAID ON WINNERS → 8 SEARCH

One command¶

/social-instagram today         → today's 20-minute checklist: post, bio link, replies, Story, comments
/social-instagram post <fact>   → one post built with the 10-step image flow (slides, caption, alt text, link path)
/social-instagram week          → next week's 5 posts + 3 Story sequences from your fact bank
/social-instagram month         → the 30-day plan, day by day
/social-instagram profile       → name field, bio, 5 links with UTM, highlights, 3 pinned posts
/social-instagram story <post>  → a 3-frame Story that sends a post's readers to your site
/social-instagram dm <post>     → comment keyword → DM with the promised thing + a tracked link, saved replies
/social-instagram numbers       → weekly numbers, the weakest step, what to fix
/social-instagram risk          → what cuts reach (originality, watermarks, bait, automation)
/social-instagram engine        → Operator mode: next week across 8 engines, budget, kill rules
/social-instagram creators      → creator list, DMs, deals, brief, tracker
/social-instagram hooks <idea>  → 3 hooks for the hook lab (pain · number · before/after)
/social-instagram network       → niche accounts: topics, 14 first posts, bio disclosure

Router skill: social-instagram. Installed as a plugin the command is /product-growth-hack:social-instagram post; or copy skills/social-instagram* into ~/.claude/skills/.

The image flow (the core of this kit)¶

Ten steps from one true fact to a post that earns impressions and website visits: docs/04-image-flow.md · skill social-instagram-image-flow.

1 pick ONE fact → 2 pick the format → 3 write the hook slide → 4 script the slides → 5 build on the design kit
→ 6 make the visuals (real screenshots first) → 7 export + check → 8 caption, ≤5 hashtags, alt text
→ 9 the link path (bio · Story sticker · DM) → 10 publish, answer, reshare to Story, measure

Start in 3 steps¶

Today (45 min): switch to a professional account and set up the profile → docs/02-profile-setup.md.
Once (60 min): build the design kit (colors, fonts, 3 slide layouts) → templates/design-kit.md, and a fact bank per product (the same one the X kit uses).
Every week (2–3 h): 5 posts + 3 Story sequences with social-instagram-growth, or copy posts/week-01-starter.md. Daily routine: flow/daily-flow.md.

What's in this folder¶

Folder	What's inside
docs/	The Instagram flow, one topic per file (below)
reference/	Facts with sources and dates · research log 2026-10-12
skills/	social-instagram (router) · image flow · growth · DM · engine (Operator) · creators
flow/	Daily / weekly / monthly routine · Instagram → website funnel and UTM map
templates/	Design kit · carousel brief · post file · Story sequence · weekly numbers · hook tests · creator brief · creator tracker · DM flow
posts/	Ready to copy: product rotation, week 1, week 2, 30-day Operator sprint, niche network, hook tests, creator briefs

Docs, in reading order¶

Five things to remember¶

Watch time, likes and sends are the top signals; sends matter most for reaching people who don't follow you (Reported, Mosseri, Jan 2025). Make posts people DM to a friend: checklists, before/after, honest numbers.
Post your own work. Reposts, watermarks from other apps and "mostly text" Reels get less reach (Official).
Links in captions don't work. The path to your site is bio link → Story link sticker → DM (Official / Reported); one keyword post a week turns comments into DM clicks (social-instagram-dm).
Five hashtags at most, and they help less than a clear caption with the words people search (Reported, Dec 2025).
UTM on every link, or you'll never know whether Instagram sends visitors.
Scale with other people's audiences (creators, collabs) and paid money only on posts that already won.

Keep it current¶

Monthly: re-check reference/instagram-facts.md against Instagram's blog and the Creators site, and update dates.
New research goes in reference/research-YYYY-MM-DD-<topic>.md.

_{The products in posts/ are made by the maintainer of this repo and are marked as such.}