Growing Your Influence on Instagram
Instagram is a growing platform and it's important more than ever that we use it to build our customer base. We need to make sure that we're putting our business on social because we need to consistently be present. Even if you don't want to sell online, even if you're working your business using home parties, trade shows, vendor events, personal shopping experiences, and more, you need to make sure you are marketing yourself on social media.
The main reason being that you need to find opportunities to build friendships with your customers. Why? Because people do business with people they know, like and trust.
And in order to grow that friendship exponentially faster, we need to use social media. And if you decide not to use it, your customers will build friendships at faster rates with other people than they are with you.
So, even though I still believe that Facebook should be the area you focus on most, I wanted to go over Instagram because we are seeing more people spend more time there, especially as the younger generations are starting to look for business and income opportunities. They're coming into the direct sales industry and they're spending most of their time on Instagram versus Facebook.
Facebook is still the number one used social app today, and interestingly enough, Instagram actually isn't even number two, yet. Twitter is still sitting at the number two spot, with Instagram landing at #3. However, I don’t believe it will be long until Instagram surpasses Twitter (who still uses Twitter anyway? Lol!), and really goes head to head with Facebook.
I believe there are a lot of misconceptions about Instagram and whether or not you can be successful online. Many people believe that in order to grow on Instagram they need to be a fitness model, living in Bali selling fit tea. But that is not the truth.
How to Use Your Instagram Page
The way to use your Instagram page is just like your personal Facebook Page. Focus on people getting to know you and like you.
The key is to create your curb appeal for you and your business. Remember, this is the front of your house! You’re not necessarily inviting people to the BBQ yet; you’re helping them decide if they like you enough in order to come.
Instagram is going to help build your business by building your likeability.
It is really important for us to be focused on Instagram because it's going to build our brand, and this is the best place for them to see our lifestyle and our mission.
So, in terms of what you should be doing on Facebook versus what you should be doing on Instagram, I want you to think of Instagram more as sharing your lifestyle and your mission.
Your Facebook, on the other hand is more about content.
Top 5 Things You Must Know About Instagram
Instagram can be overwhelming. There’s a lot to learn and so much to do, especially if your goal is growing a huge following. While we are going to cover some of that in this Chapter, I want you to remember the goal of this book is to help you find leads that will turn into customers.
Having 10,000 followers on Instagram could be really awesome, and of course, the more eyes you have on your content the better. However, as business owners, I know you are more concerned with the sales in your back office over the number of vanity likes your last selfie just got.
At the end of the day, it’s important that every move we make on social media is helping us get closer to our income goal; and that can be achieved with even a very small following.
So, let’s dive into the top five things I want you to pay attention to on Instagram!
1.A Strong & Compelling Bio. One of the most important things you need to do on Instagram is to have a super strong, super specific, super compelling bio. Why? Because anytime someone comes across your content in their feed, if they don’t know you, they will likely go to your profile to learn more about you.
They will give your profile a quick scroll to look at the content, but the major area they will focus on is your bio.
2.Instagram Stories. The second thing to pay most attention to on Instagram is Instagram Stories. Daily stories help you showcase your lifestyle and who you are. Plus, 20% of all Instagram Stories that you post will result in someone sending you a direct message (which we know by now is the GOAL of all social media marketing for direct sellers. Why? Because that’s where you can close the sale!).
A conversion rate of 20% is pretty much unheard of in any other area on social media, so Stories is 100% a strategy you do not want to overlook.
3. Long Form Copy. Each time you post on Instagram, look at it as an opportunity to blog rather than just post a photo. Multi-paragraph captions on Instagram are doing significantly better than captions that are 1-2 sentences.
When you offer longer posts, people have more to engage with and read vs. a one-line caption or an emoji. Not only is it more engaging to read something with substance, it also takes longer to read it. The reason why that is important is because how long someone hovers over a post on social media is picked up by the algorithm. The platform thinks, “If someone is slowing down to read this, it must be an engaging post.” Facebook and Instagram do not just only measure comments, likes, and shares. They are, of course, weighted the heaviest on both platforms, however, they do look at a magnitude of actions the user takes, like slowly scrolling over a post to read the caption.
All of this is being taken into account, so, just because someone doesn't necessarily like or comment on your Instagram posts, it doesn’t necessarily mean they're not engaging or interacting with it. All of those actions and behaviors are still being counted towards the algorithm, so typically the longer the posts, the better we're seeing them do on Instagram.
I will be testing this on my own page!
4.Consistent Theme. The fourth thing I want you to pay attention to when you are trying to attract customers on Instagram is to have a consistent theme across the platform. On Instagram, you need to become the creative director and really have a vision for how you want your platform to look. You can’t just post and not think about how your graphic, photo and caption work together with your posts on your profile; they need to look cohesive with each other.
The reason why is that when you are on Instagram and you go to somebody's profile, if it's totally chaotic, there's colors everywhere, and their content doesn’t have a flow, it's hard for our eyes to adjust to it.
So, we will do a quick scroll and then we will get off their page. The more white space there is or the more that there's a consistent theme going on, it's easier for our eyes to read and we are more likely to spend more time scrolling through and looking at posts.
Social Interactions. In order to grow on social and find new customers, you need to treat it like a social space. So many of us are looking for the right word, the right graphic, the right photo and the right hashtag to get our content seen. However, the hands down, most important aspect of social media needs to be how we are engaging and connecting with others online.
Instagram Bios
Let's talk about bios! So, this is Sara Blakely, and if you are unfamiliar with her, she is the founder and inventor of SPANX and she's super fun to follow on Instagram. She is funny, authentic and focuses on showing more of who she is as a person, than who she is as a CEO. Not only does it make for a hilarious feed, it allows people to get to know, like and trust her.
So, let's break down her bio.
"Mom of 4, inventor of SPANX."
You can see that she's tagged SPANX, because she knows that if somebody comes to her page, decides they like her and want to learn more, they can click @SPANX and be taken directly to shop on the main bio.
“Loves fries, afraid to fly, refuse to give up my scrunchie and believe it's my calling to support women”.
Right away you roughly know who Sara is; you know what she's going to talk about and what she is interested in.
You start asking yourself things like, "Am I like-minded?" Even her throwing in something as irrelevant, as “love fries” makes her what? Human.
She's not coming on here and acting like somebody that she's not, she's trying to be real and authentic because people do business with and attract like-minded people. We manifest people that are similar to us, so in order for her to put herself out there and gain the following that she wants to, she is making sure that she's her true authentic self. She's not positioning herself as the CEO or Inventor of SPANX as being the most important role in her life. Mom of 4 is the first thing that she posts. So, you know that she values her family, and that she values being a mom over even her business.
Lindsay is another great example of a strong bio.
“Helping busy women eat well, ditch diet guilt and #makefoodfeelgood. Videos every Wednesday The 321 method
New recipe below.”
Her Instagram bio lets you know what she talks about and is very specific. She's not just helping anybody eat well, she's not even helping women eat
well. She is helping busy women. Right away, you're like, "Oh my gosh, I'm busy, too," this is for “me.”
Because she knows her target audience and that she's not going after people who have hours to spend on cooking, you know that her recipes are going to be quick and easy to make. Lindsay also knows her target audience; she's not going to go after people who have hours to spend on cooking. Her bio is saying, "These recipes need to be quick and they need to be healthy, because the people who are following me have better things to do than spend hours in the kitchen."
She knows her community is interested in meal planning; they're interested in recipes; and they're interested in health and wellness, but it’s not their entire life. They have a variety of other things that they're doing and thinking about.
She also knows that like herself, many women are struggling with dieting and feeling guilty over food. And this is something that is obviously important to her. So, when you come to her page and you’re looking to get healthier without being restrictive, you know that Lindsay right away, is a great fit for you.
There's nothing more powerful than feeling like me too. Anytime we have inner shame about something, when somebody else says, "Hey, me too," you instantly release shame and you instantly feel better. And this builds trust. And when you have trust, you can create customers.
For example, if you said, I have a lot of diet guilt and she goes, "Oh girl, me too, and I'm talking about it and I'm trying to share more about it on my page.” Then all of a sudden you
start to feel at ease. She knows this about her followers, so she’s being very specific about it in her bio.
She is also letting you know when to expect content from her, which can really drive traffic to areas we are trying to build, like a YouTube channel or your VIP Group.
She is specifically telling you what content/recipe is new. That way, when you come to her page, you will know if she’s posted new content or not. You may think, oh last week she posted a Spaghetti Squash recipe, and that’s the last thing I saw, so I better go check out this new recipe.
If you’re creating weekly Facebook Lives in your VIP Group, you could say something like “NEW JEWELRY STORAGE AND DISPLAY TUTORIAL BELOW!”
Then, in your linktr.ee, you could add a link to your VIP Group but name the title “Jewelry Storage Ideas.” That way, you are always leading people to your Group. Plus, when people end up in your group, you know they are serious about your content and are the best people for you to reach out to personally to talk about your products.
The key to having a successful bio is to be very specific with it. Don't just say, "I'm a mom of four." You can say you're a “hot mess mom of four.”
Tip:
You only have a certain number of characters for you Instagram bio so always play around! See what words you can swap out for an emoji, how you can cut the sentence down, etc.
Instagram Stories
Instagram Stories are going to be the number one strategy that you need to utilize on Instagram this year. With stories, you're really able to show off your personality – whether that be your funny side, your vulnerable side or your serious side.
One of the things that I love for the network marketing industry is to do a day-in-the-life of your business. You really need to give people that full VIP access and you can use your stories to do that.
Plan it in advance. Market it. Say, "Hey guys, tomorrow I'm going to be doing a full day in the life of my business. Join me. My day starts at six in the morning; follow me throughout the day and see exactly what it takes to be a busy mom of three, run a business, be a school teacher, and still put food on the table for my family every single night." Show people how you fit all that in, because they are interested in knowing if they can pull it off, too.
Now, this is especially true when it comes to recruiting. When we are recruiting and people are stalking us or creeping us on social media, they're watching. It takes people up to 20 times to see something before they even make a decision. And we need to make sure we are consistently putting ourselves out there. We also need to make sure that we're showing that we're working.
Why? Because most people that are interested in doing business with you, especially joining your team, have already been in direct sales before. Now, if I asked you, if you were to leave your company and go with someone else, what is one of the top things that you would look for?
You would look for a leader.
You would look for somebody who is working their business, because you know that you wouldn't want to sign up under Sally Sue down the road who’s not really doing anything. You know she's not going to create that culture and she's not creating the momentum.
Leaders that are working create people that are working. And leaders that work make us work; and that makes us money.
Those of us who have been in the business and in the industry know that you want to be a part of the best team. You want someone who's consistently working, and people are paying attention to that.
It doesn't matter where I speak or what I do, if I post a company online, people message me and they go, "Girl, checked out their product. Comp plan, programs, super into it. I'm looking for a new home, but you got to tell me, who are the top people? Who are the up-and- coming? Who are the rock stars? Who are the people that are working? Who wants to run as fast as I do?"
Because if someone is going into their second, third or fourth direct sales company, what does that mean? It means they have failed multiple times. And it means they don't want to fail anymore. People who are interested in joining a business want to partner with people who want to be successful.
However, as direct sellers, we’re often too afraid to share on social media because we don’t want to be spammy. But do you know how many times I see somebody on Instagram, or on Facebook, and I go to their page and I can't find anything? I know they're a direct seller, but I can't find for the life of me what company they're with. I would look for someone who is clearly working their business and building their brand.
So, don't be afraid to share about your business. Remember, people are mindless on social. They're scrolling. They'll scroll right past you so many times before they connect. But there's a difference between posting a lot and being authentic, versus being spammy and just posting “Join My Team” “Buy This Product” “Help Me Earn My Incentive Trip” and more.
You don't have to say "Book a party" to get a host. Show that you're doing parties; show that you're working and show them that everything is fun. Don’t tell them – show them!
Stories Vs. Posts
Instagram stories versus Instagram posts. What is the difference? When should I use them?
The best part about stories is that they don't have to be professional. You can post pretty much anything in there. In fact, typically the more “amateur” the content is, the better it will land with your followers. So, if you don't have great lighting, if its dark, things aren't looking good, definitely put it in a story.
Instagram posts on the other hand do need to be more aesthetically pleasing. They need to have more intention and thought behind them.
Instagram stories, you can totally do on the fly. In fact, you should be doing them all day long. You should try posting around 5 to 15 times per day in your Instagram story.
It could be:
A shot of your wine glass or coffee cup
A boomerang of your notebook and you taking notes
A selfie
A picture of the screen (or if you printed this, of the book itself)
The view you’re looking at
What food you’re eating
And more
As long as you're sharing throughout the day what it is that you’re doing, people are connecting and watching those. And 20% result in a direct message, which is where you get to take the conversation further.
Even though I want you to post daily to your Stories, you don’t have to post to Instagram daily. Your goal should be to post 3 to 6 times per week. Some people find success posting every day.
I wouldn’t suggest posting multiple times a day unless you have a large following that's already highly engaged with you. Otherwise, three to six times a week is totally fine.
Stories are also great for bite-sized information. You don’t want to have 10 posts of just you being a talking head, otherwise people will swipe away. Instead you want short, diverse clips of content for them to quickly engage with. So, now that we know what to post to stories, what do I post to my feed?
Here are some examples:
Posts that show transformation (can be a before and after of a renovation for example)
Posts that show vulnerability (maybe how it’s hard for you as a single working mom)
Posts that create community (posts that allow the follower to engage)
Posts that elicit emotion (a really great quote post for example)
Photos that are clear and “not sloppy”
Now when I say, “not sloppy” I don’t mean professional. I’m not saying you need to hire a photographer to make really cute Instagram posts. What I’m saying is, they need to be good enough to post on Instagram. That means things like:
Using a tripod instead of taking a selfie
Using a ring light or natural light
Should always be about who you are or what you offer.
Flat lays (google if you don’t know what that means. It is essentially a bird’s eye view)
Tip: Here are two quick tips
1) Always put your hashtags in the comments section. You can use up to 30 of them but make sure they are relevant to your content.
2) Use apps4lifehost.com to create paragraphs that you can post to your caption
Getting More Visibility on Your Instagram Post
Getting More Visibility on Your Post
So, you posted a new photo to IG but you’re not getting the engagement you hoped for?
While lack of engagement can be due to many factors (like time of day, type of content, your audience, etc.), one of the ways to help boost this engagement is to market your new post in your Stories!
Instagram stories are a GREAT way to connect with my followers, because stories continuously outperform posts.
Here is a step-by-step tutorial to help you market new posts in your Stories.
1. Upload a new post to your Instagram
2. Click your photo and select the arrow icon. Then, click “Add post to your story”
3. Once you have posted your photo to your story, click the Stickers Icon at the top right hand corner
4. Select the GIF sticker option
5. Type in “new post” in the search bar. Select the one you like the best.
6. Add a caption to your story that lets viewers know what your post is about.
7. Select the GIF sticker again, and type in “tap here” Select the one you like the best
8. Add the “tap here” sticker ON your photo. When someone taps on it, it will take them to your post.
Getting Social
The last main aspect of Instagram is just like Facebook, you need to get social. You absolutely have to use this as a social platform and get out there and connect with other people.
The more quickly you can get into someone’s DM, the better. Once you start having real conversations with people, you will be able to turn them into customers much more quickly. If you are just trying to post a graphic to Instagram (or even Facebook) with a link to your website, it’s going to take you a long time to ever get a sale.
Instead, if you can focus on finding new friends to have one-on-one conversations with, you will start to see real growth in your business.
Remember, if you comment to 10 different people’s stories a day, then you will be well on your way to generating some real conversations. However, if you are looking for new people to engage with, follow these tips below:
Find a hashtag that your community uses. For example, #handmadejewelry
Look up that hashtag, then pay attention to the others at the top that Instagram is suggesting for you. that hashtag has millions of uses so you want to find something smaller.
Click a smaller one, like #uniquejewelry
If it is still too big, continue to look for ones that have the 50,000 to 100,000 mark
Click on a recent image of someone using that hashtag
Find someone that doesn’t have too big of a following (the bigger they are the less likely they are to talk to you)
Someone with 500-2000 is great
Once you have found someone, follow her, then engage on a few of her posts
Wait. (You are waiting because you don’t want to seem too eager, let her check out your page too. You can also jot down her IG handle in the notes section of your phone to follow-up with).
If they have a story, respond to it!
Have a conversation, then introduce yourself!
This is a strategy you can use to build following and acquire new customers. I suggest trying to allocate at least 30 minutes a day to this action so that you can grow on a more consistent basis.
Your goal here is to provide them content to engage with and then for you to start an authentic conversation, so you can eventually lead them to your VIP Group or directly from Instagram retain them as a customer!