Day: January 3, 2019

How to Use Instagram To Dramatically Improve Your Business: “Know Your IDEAL Audience”, With…

How to Use Instagram To Dramatically Improve Your Business: “Know Your IDEAL Audience”, With Candice Georgiadis & Yahya Bakkar

Know Your IDEAL Audience: Before you start posting, you have to know who you are speaking to. You need to know who your message is for and who it ISN’T for. Don’t try to please everyone.

I had the pleasure to intervoew Yahya Bakkar. Yahya is a family man, speaking coach and online business consultant.He’s the secret weapon behind many successful entrepreneurs, celebrities and influencers when it comes to taking their speaking game and personal brand to the next level. The meaning of Yahya’s name in Arabic is “alive” and he’s made it his life’s mission to help other leaders become more A.L.I.V.E. — Authentic, Likeable, Influential, Vulnerable and Empathetic — in everything they do. He’s also the co-founder of World-Class Leader which is a 90-day online business program helping successful entrepreneurs and thought leaders build profitable personal brands while creating a movement around their message.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?

When I graduated high school, my dream was to become a personal trainer.

Because I was the first person in my family to ever get an American education and the fact that the parents who raised me are middle eastern, they pressured me to become a doctor so I could make them proud

After spending 4 years taking my prerequisites to one day become a doctor, I realized that it wasn’t my path and I was only doing it for the acceptance and approval of my parents. So I dropped out with one semester left, no degree and over $50,000 of student loans.

My father was disappointed in me and wouldn’t allow me to stay in his house so one of my best friends heard about my situation and invited me to stay with his family until I could get myself together.

Feeling depressed and not knowing what to do with my life, my friend suggested I become a motivational speaker and life coach for young people.

I thought it was a silly idea but he told me to sleep on it.

Next day, I went on Google and looked up “motivational speaking and life coaching programs for young people”.

I found two online coaching programs that would teach me how to build my career as a paid speaker and coach.

The total cost of both programs were $9,000 at the time.

There was no way I was able to afford that.

I had no degree.

No job.

$50,000 of debt.

And $47 in my checking account.

Despite the fact that I was broke, I figured I only had one shot to go all in.

I got 2 jobs and raised $4,000 from family and friends to pay for both programs.

Within one year I was a full-time speaker and one of the youngest graduates in the coaching program.

Fast forward to 2016, I traveled all around the world with over 100 speaking engagements.

I built a 6-figure career traveling the world as one of the highest paid motivational speakers for high schools and college students and I’ve spoken on more than 500 stages including platforms like TedX, Harvard and Yale.

But after years of traveling and speaking on the road, I was burnt out. I wanted a better way to share my message while one day raising my own family…

I trusted my gut and I literally walked away from a lucrative speaking career after 8 long years without a “plan B.” I created a life on my own terms that would allow me to figure out a way to make an even bigger impact while being their for my family and achieving lifestyle freedom.

I leveraged my experience speaking on the world’s biggest stages and have now built a 7-figure coaching business helping celebrities, millionaires and entrepreneurs build profitable personal brands.

I co-founded World-Class Leader and I now get to help my clients create REAL impact on the world while they build their own profitable personal brand and create a movement around their message.

Can you explain to our readers why you are an authority about Social Media Marketing?

When I left my career as a full-time speaker, I used the resources I had available to me. I’ve not only built a 7-figure online business using Instagram (@YahyaBakkar) and Facebook, but with my new program World-Class Leader, my team and I have helped our clients leverage social media to generate over 1.3 Million Dollars in less than 4 months.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started this career?

You know what’s interesting? Initially I thought people’s motivation to grow their social media following was all ego driven. And while that still exists, what I’ve found is that people have a story and message they want to share, stories that will impact lives and change the world.

Whether it’s on stage, online or offline, I’m blown away by the impact of each person’s unique story.

I have seen first hand how entrepreneurs and thought leaders take that unique message to the next level.

By sharing their story on social platforms they are scaling their ability to impact people and are leaving a living legacy.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

A mistake I see entrepreneurs make is building an empire on quicksand. What I mean by that is they see online celebrities like Gary Vee, Lewis Howes, The Rock, etc and think “they are so famous and influential, I need to do that too.”

I’ve seen people trying to become Instagram “influencers” who start posting content everyday with NO clear direction or roadmap. Their content doesn’t align with who they are or their ultimate impact goals.

What they don’t realize is there’s a system, a strategy, a process to creating content on any social platform that will increase impact, influence & income.

Most people are doing the right things in the wrong order. It’s kind of like having the right numbers to a locker combination in the wrong order.

Don’t compare your chapter 1 to someone else’s chapter 20. If you’re thinking “Why isn’t that working for me, why am I not good enough?” STOP. You’re likely doing the right things in the wrong order. All you need is a better system and a step-by-step process that can hold you accountable.

Which social media platform have you found to be most effective to use to increase business revenues? Can you share a story from your experience?

The most effective platform for you, depends on who your ideal audience is.

Instagram is great to reach a more millennial audience, Facebook targets the Baby Boomer generation and moms between the ages of 35–50, professionals and executives are best attracted from LinkedIn, YouTube is very search driven and is great for solving problems…

You need to take all of this into consideration.

A lot of “gurus” will say to use all platforms all the time. I say pick the platform that feels most natural to you, where you feel your voice can be heard by your ideal audience. Focus your time, energy and business there.

Let’s talk about Instagram specifically, now. Can you share 6 ways to leverage Instagram to dramatically improve your business? Please share a story or example for each.

Before we dive into this, remember 2 overarching themes.

Instagram is a SOCIAL network — make it social. Create content that balances connection and information. Show your character, personality and who you are but create content that can help your ideal audience solve a big problem.

You need a good balance to both in order to grow your business and brand on Instagram.

1) Know Your IDEAL Audience: Before you start posting, you have to know who you are speaking to. You need to know who your message is for and who it ISN’T for. Don’t try to please everyone.

2) Get Clear on Your Direction: When you get clear on your ideal audience, this will streamline who you’re speaking to and the direction your messaging and all of your content will take. One of the biggest mistakes I see is people share everything on Instagram with no specific direction.

3) Treat Instagram like a Business: If you understand that Instagram is a tool to grow your brand and business, not a hobby, that’s when you’ll see growth. You need to approach Instagram and everything you do on it as if it’s a business.

4) Problem — Outcome — Solution: Speak to the problems of your ideal client. Lay out the outcome if they continue down that path in your messaging. Know their challenges, speak to that THEN layout a solution. The #1 mistake most influencers make it not speaking to a direct solution. Don’t leave them hanging.

5) Call to Action: Have a clear message at the end. Clearly tell them HOW to reach out, message or connect with you. Do you want them to send you a DM? TELL THEM. Do you want them to leave a comment? TELL THEM. Give a clear call to action.

6) ENGAGE — The whole purpose of Instagram is that it’s a “social” platform. Make it social. Engage with people. Don’t feel like you’re ‘too good” to direct message them back or respond to their comments. Engage Engage Engage. That conversation can convert them to grow your business

Be patient with the process and have good intentions. Rome wasn’t built in a day. When you can master delaying that instant need for gratification online you’ll master Instagram.

If you’re building your business, you need to think of Instagram as a long term strategy that focuses on adding value.

Because of the position that you are in, you are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂

Let’s all leverage social media & technology as a TOOL for connection instead of as a reason to disconnect.

It’s a double-edged sword. Without social media I would have never found birth mother after being separated for 25 years. If your intent and heart is in the right place, social amplifies who you are and your deepest desires.

What breaks my heart is seeing the other side of social media. Many people are concerned only about vanity metrics, follower counts, number of likes and friends they have, etc.

It can be so superficial. There is a depth and power of how it can affect your professional career and personal life on both sides.

Use it as a way to connect.

Some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them 🙂

I’ve ALWAYS said if…

The Rock

Kevin Hart

Will Smith

Oprah Winfrey

Ellen Degeneres

had a love child, it would be ME.

They are living legends, leaving their legacy while they are alive.

They are all using media to create a powerful movement around their message — kindness, trust respect, motivation, positivity , joy, depth, laughter.

I love how each and every one of them leverages mass and social media to create a positive force to be reckoned with

Thank you so much for these great insights. This was very enlightening!

How to Use Instagram To Dramatically Improve Your Business: “Know Your IDEAL Audience”, With… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

How to Use Instagram To Dramatically Improve Your Business: “Build a community and have fun first…

How to Use Instagram To Dramatically Improve Your Business: “Build a community and have fun first, then sell” With Candice Georgiadis & Jenn Herman

Build a community and have fun first. Then sell — but not often. I don’t know how many times I can stress that “social media” is about being “social”. It’s not a billboard and it’s not about selling as a first priority. It’s about building a community around your brand and Instagram is probably the best platform for community building. It’s arguably the most interactive platform and drives great engagement, making it easier to connect with your audience and build relationships. Those relationships will lead to sales but the focus should be on your community and how you can serve them, not how you can push another sale on them. While my account is far from the ideal template for most, I rarely post anything promotional on my account. I don’t often talk about the services I offer or how to book consultations with me. Instead, I share breaking news and updates about Instagram or social media. I host an Instagram live every other week that is webinar style, where I interact with my audience while talking for 45–60 minutes on a topic that matters to them. And every week, I get people emailing me or direct messaging me asking me for advice, signing up for my newsletter, or asking to work with me. Because they see me regularly and have built a trust in what I offer, the sale happens naturally.

I had the pleasure of interviewing Jenn Herman. Jenn Herman is a social media consultant, speaker, and globally recognized Instagram expert. She is the forefront blogger on Instagram marketing and her blog, Jenn’s Trends, has won the title of a Top 10 Social Media Blog in 2014, 2015, and 2016. Through her blog, consulting, and speaking Jenn provides tips, resources, and training for small to medium sized businesses that need to structure their social media strategies. Her business background includes Administration, Sales, Human Resources, and Marketing and she enjoys bringing all these skills together to help you grow your business. Jenn has been featured in Inc., Fox News, Yahoo Finance, HuffPost, The Verge, CBS Radio LA, and numerous other podcasts and publications. She is the author of “Instagram for Business for Dummies”, “The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to Instagram” and “Stop Guessing: Your Step-by-Step Guide to Creating a Social Media Strategy”.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?

I was working at my corporate day job in the aerospace industry and trying to get upper management to understand the value of social media while getting them to open the curtain, so to speak. In that industry, privacy and security is paramount, so sharing things publicly is a hurdle and changing their mindsets was a challenge. I learned a lot and overcame some hurdles that I figured others could probably learn from. So, I sat down on my couch one Saturday and launched a blog. Just like that, Jenn’s Trends was born!

Can you explain to our readers why you are an authority about Social Media Marketing?

When I started blogging, it was a hobby and I was a nobody. But I fell in love with Instagram about 6 months after I started my blog and started writing about how to use Instagram for business and marketing. It was all very experiential — I shared tips I learned, tactics that worked, or didn’t work, for that matter. I took my readers on the journey as I explored the app. In the process, and because at the time, there really wasn’t anyone else blogging consistently about Instagram, I gained notoriety. I started getting invited onto podcasts and interviews and speaking at conferences to teach instagram marketing. In 2017, I was approached to co-author “Instagram for Business for Dummies” which published in 2018. As a result of my presence in the industry over the years, I have become friends with many of the experts in the social media space and have gotten to know the people behind many of the third party tools available. This network of people has allowed me to stay abreast of all the latest news, updates, and trends in the industry.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started this career?

A few years ago, I was called to be an expert witness in a court case. I was requested by the defence attorney to speak to the use of the defendant’s social media and the possibilities that someone else could have posted on his profiles. I warned the defense attorney that I might be a better witness for the prosecution but it didn’t matter since the case never made it to court.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

Early on when I started appearing on podcasts, and Google Plus Hangouts (back in the day!), I had some slower internet speeds. I often had a bit of a lag in the audio when being interviewed. Well, on one interview, right before we went live, the host asked if everyone was ready. We all said “yes” or a variation of that. I said something “yup”. But because of the delay, my “yup” is the first piece of audio in the live broadcast and the recording. The whole video starts with my “yup” then the host introducing the show. It was so embarrassing and now I always nod in agreement rather than say anything out loud in these situations!

Which social media platform have you found to be most effective to use to increase business revenues? Can you share a story from your experience?

This is a bit of a complicated question for my business… Overall, I would say Instagram has been my biggest reward for generating revenue. I have the largest audience there and I host live broadcasts every other week plus I share Stories and posts that educate my audience. This is how I build trust and community with my audience. Which, in the long run, drives consulting clients and strategy support my way. This is where I get my largest revenue conversions. But this often takes months or years of relationship cultivation.

Additionally, I have a strong presence on Facebook, specifically my Facebook group. While I am building a community there just as I do on Instagram, the audience is smaller and more devoted so they convert more quickly in general. But this is usually on lower ticket items. I don’t get the same conversions on the larger package and consulting services I offer to this audience.

This is why it is so important to know your audiences on each platform and craft strategies for each. I know what to sell and how to sell it on each platform — and they are completely different in every way.

Let’s talk about Instagram specifically, now. Can you share 6 ways to leverage Instagram to dramatically improve your business? Please share a story or example for each.

Use keywords in your username. The only two searchable criteria on Instagram are the Name and the Username. The bio and everything else is irrelevant for search. Therefore, to be found by potential customers and new followers looking for you, you want your business name (or whatever brand name you are known as) in at least one of the two fields. Then, include other keywords that your audience is likely to be looking for. For example, my username is @jenns_trends (my brand name) and my name is “Jenn Herman | Instagram Expert” (my actual name and what I do). This way, if anyone is searching for my brand name, my actual name, or an Instagram expert, chances are I will appear in the search results!

Write a really good bio that appeals to your audience. Your bio is the equivalent of your 30-second elevator pitch and it’s your first impression to new visitors. Most of the views on your bio come from first-time visitors so the bio should be directed towards them. It should tell them who you are, what you do, and why it matters to them. It should include a call-to-action corresponding to the URL in your bio. It should also be full of your personality and not reek of corporate jargon. Use emojis and characters to add color and dimension. Use spacing and formatting to make it visually appealing and not simply one long run-on paragraph. One of my favorite accounts that always has a great bio is @thelovebombco — her bio tells you who she is and what she does, with her personality, and the call-to-action to get a free product!

Set up the Action buttons on your profile. Convert, convert, convert! Yes, you can drive conversions from Instagram! But you need the Action buttons set up for best results. Having these buttons front and center on your profile makes it easy for your customers to connect with you, contact you, and even reserve or purchase from you directly. You can have up to three Action buttons on your business profile. The default options to choose from are Text, Call, Email, and Directions. You can set these up by going to “Edit Profile” and selecting the “Contact Options”. If you complete any of the basic info (email, phone, or business address), the corresponding Action buttons will appear on your profile. If you don’t want people to have directions to your business, simply delete the business address info. You can also add third-party integration Action buttons by selecting the “Add an action button” option and adding a button for “Buy Tickets” that integrates with Eventbrite, or any other variety of options from the list of approved partners.

Build a community and have fun first. Then sell — but not often. I don’t know how many times I can stress that “social media” is about being “social”. It’s not a billboard and it’s not about selling as a first priority. It’s about building a community around your brand and Instagram is probably the best platform for community building. It’s arguably the most interactive platform and drives great engagement, making it easier to connect with your audience and build relationships. Those relationships will lead to sales but the focus should be on your community and how you can serve them, not how you can push another sale on them. While my account is far from the ideal template for most, I rarely post anything promotional on my account. I don’t often talk about the services I offer or how to book consultations with me. Instead, I share breaking news and updates about Instagram or social media. I host an Instagram live every other week that is webinar style, where I interact with my audience while talking for 45–60 minutes on a topic that matters to them. And every week, I get people emailing me or direct messaging me asking me for advice, signing up for my newsletter, or asking to work with me. Because they see me regularly and have built a trust in what I offer, the sale happens naturally.

Have a content strategy. If you don’t have a strategy, you’re basically throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks. But then when it does stick, you have no idea what you did to make that happen and you’re left floundering to capitalize on it. To start your strategy, you need to know your WHY. Why are you using Instagram and why is it of value to your audience? When you answer those, you can start to create content that supports that end goal. Your strategy should focus on creating QUALITY content that appeals to your audience (in reference to building that community I talked about in point 5 above). Quality means high resolution images/videos and your own images or videos. Not taking something off of the internet and posting a meme or random stock photo. But taking relevant photos and videos of your business, product, or other related aspects of your business. This may mean you need to schedule and plan photo shoots (even in your backyard with your phone) in advance. If so, do that! People on Instagram want pretty pictures, not memes and lots of text. Your photo should capture their attention and the caption is where you should speak. Your caption should have a strong opening sentence that grabs their attention and takes the message of the post that much further, including a call-to-action (like “click on the link in the bio” or “email us for more info”) if appropriate. Your strategy should also focus on posting frequency. These days, less is more on Instagram in general. So posting a couple times a week is completely ok. You should only post as often as you have quality content to post. If you can only create one high quality, relevant post a week, then stick to that. Don’t force yourself into posting mediocre content merely to say you posted “something”. That actually hurts you in the algorithm.

Use hashtags for exposure. Hashtags on Instagram absolutely work, but you have to be strategic with their use. My recipe for success recommends using at least 15–20 hashtags per post (you can use up to 30). Combine 3–5 popular hashtags (these are hashtags with upwards of about a million posts), 3–5 moderately popular hashtags (those in the low hundreds of thousands or tens of thousands of results), 3–5 niche specific hashtags (those with less than 10 thousand results but that are hyper targeted to your industry), and 1–3 of your own branded hashtags. Additionally, all of the hashtags on your post should be directly related to the content in the post and/or your industry. You are not hashjacking popular or trending hashtags just for the sake of it. A great example of an account that uses hashtags well is @octonation. They incorporate a variety of hashtags that appeal to their audience and reflects their content. As a result, they frequently rank highly in various hashtag searches and reach hundreds of new users. And finally, don’t just use the hashtags that you want people to look for, use the hashtags that your audience is actually looking for. For example, if you’re an insurance broker, people on Instagram aren’t looking for insurance brokers — that’s what Google is for! But, they are looking for cars perhaps, and people with cars need insurance. So you can tap into some targeted car related hashtags where your content fits in relative to that market.

I’m super passionate about education and really teaching everyone — kids, college students, and adults — tangible and practical lessons. If I had a magic wand to grant a wish, it would be to find ways to provide more affordable education to more people. It could be classroom education, or practicum or internship opportunities, or seminars and online trainings. Education is the key to success and changing our lives for the better.

I would love to sit down with Bethenny Frankel. I think she’s incredibly smart and business savvy and just crazy enough (like me) to be fun! Lol! But I have huge respect for how she’s built her businesses, is incredibly charitable with her time and resources, managed being an incredible mom through a contentious situation, and that she continues to be fabulous and down to earth all at the same time.

Thank you so much for these great insights. This was very enlightening!

How to Use Instagram To Dramatically Improve Your Business: “Build a community and have fun first… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.