Day: February 22, 2019

How to Use Instagram To Dramatically Improve Your Business: “Have a deep strategy that goes beyond…

How to Use Instagram To Dramatically Improve Your Business: “Have a deep strategy that goes beyond simply posting product images” With Joe Gagliese & Candice Georgiadis

Have a deep strategy that goes beyond simply posting product images. Be sure that a good portion of that content is high quality video — video is far more engaging and people are more likely to like, comment or share it. It also allows for the opportunity to speak to people and relay your message.

I had the pleasure to interview Joe Gagliese. Joe is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Viral Nation, one of North America’s fastest growing digital agencies specializing in influencer marketing. He created the social-first agency to help brands tell engaging social media stories through an amazingly eclectic network of influencers. Through his passion and determination he has developed deals with numerous Fortune 500 brands and more than 300 social influencers from the worlds of sports, gaming, and lifestyle. A 30 Under 30 winner for Marketing Magazine, Gagliese is frequently quoted in the press for his take on influencer marketing and social strategies.

Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?

I remember like it was yesterday walking up to my business partner Mat (the other founder of Viral Nation) and saying to him, “I really think that companies would pay to sponsor influencers posts on social because they are getting millions of organic views.” At that time, influencer marketing wasn’t a thing and we were in a completely different business. About 6–8 months after the initial idea, we began to seriously look into it. We started with a simple idea and attacked it head-on. It was a feeling in my gut that there was something there and we went for it. We stopped the business that was thriving in hopes we could trump it. Thinking back on it, it was a crazy decision but we are glad we made it.

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

Viral Nation was a first mover and over the past 5 years our campaigns through social have surpassed billions of views. Being the first movers gave us an opportunity to work with some of the largest brands in globally and bring a new era of marketing to life. I have worked on almost every industry with social and have developed deep knowledge from the top social personalities in the world. Campaigns have had every KPI imaginable and my company has executed and over delivered on all of them thus far in our history.

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

Prior to Viral Nation, I had little experience and knowledge in marketing, so for me it was about proving I could make a difference and drive real results for brands. I think the most amazing story would be a Crayola campaign that we ran early on in my agency. It was a holiday campaign focused on driving to E-com and the posts were about to go live. I remember being so incredibly nervous that something would go wrong and on such a big account. The posts went live and within a few hours, we got an email saying the site had crashed from the traffic. I remember thinking first “how do we get the site back up quickly” and second was the realization that we were really on to something special. I was working so hard to earn my spot as a thought leader in the space and prove that what we were doing was groundbreaking and disruptive.

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?

This is an embarrassing one! About a month or two before we launched the business I was on a call with a marketing professional to get advice on what I was about to embark on. During the call she used the term KPI and I didn’t have the slightest clue what it meant. I came to find out that KPI (key performance indicator) is the most used acronym in marketing. To say the least, I was a little embarrassed but I now get to tell people and brands I work with this story which is always a comical experience.

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?

I truly believe that over time YouTube is the platform that drives the most value. Instagram is extremely close, however. Youtube has a different type of consumer behaviour at its advantage. When consumers are on Youtube they are not only generally locked in at home on a desktop but they are committing more attention and time. This is because Youtube is long form content. Therefore advertisers can tap into long form content ads that will be consumed by a consumer that is in a different state.

I have seen brands, big and small, capitalize on the power of Youtube. If you look at Carpool Karaoke that was the single most impactful marketing move for CBS and its growth overall.

Can you share 6 ways to leverage Instagram to dramatically improve your business? Please share a story or example for each.

1. Grow your community

● Growing your community is one of the most important things you can do;

● Invest in the time it takes to build a strategy and weekly/monthly plans

● Ensure you are posting high quality content

● Engage with your audience

● Implement paid into your plan to reach new audiences

2. Post Call to Action Content

● Whether its instagram story, link in bio ensure that you are providing incentive and a seamless path to convert you’re tuned in audience, the content needs to speak to people and show them why they need to act now and how to do it.

3. Create a personality that represents your brand

● Whether your the owner or simply a passionate employee, having a face for your marketing initiative on social helps to create a deeper connection your audience. It then becomes more than just a brand and people become interested and invested. Providing value beyond your product or service can help differentiate your brand and have audiences coming back for more!

4. Be consistent

● Although this is touted repeatedly, the message still remains pivotal — be consistent with your posting schedule. Have a plan and ensure the right steps are taken to make this happen.

5. Have a deep strategy that goes beyond simply posting product images

● Be sure that a good portion of that content is high quality video — video is far more engaging and people are more likely to like, comment or share it. It also allows for the opportunity to speak to people and relay your message.

6. Activate influencers

● Source influencers that align with your brand and create amazing content. The power of social (whether organic or paid) is undeniable and having people speak authentically about your brand is a great way to improve your potential customer base.

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.

I have thought about this a lot in the past six months. I see how powerful social and the influencers are to everyone in the world. I think it would be world changing if somehow we could get every influencer in the world to come together and spread something globally in a meaningful way. Imagine millions of influencers with billions of followers all coming together and posting about a single initiative.

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?

I have two! One for a brand and one for an athlete.

My first choice would be Mark Parker, the CEO of Nike. It has been a dream of mine to do the social and influencer marketing for Nike since the start. I believe that if I could walk through all that we do and how we do it that he would be as excited about the opportunity as me.

My second choice would be Tiger Woods. If given the opportunity to work with him I could show him how to make social his retirement plan.

How to Use Instagram To Dramatically Improve Your Business: “Have a deep strategy that goes beyond… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Five Ways to Use Instagram to Dramatically Improve your Business: “Correlate online campaigns with…

Five Ways to Use Instagram to Dramatically Improve your Business: “Correlate online campaigns with in-store purchases” with Courtney Blount & Candice Georgiadis

Correlate online campaigns with in-store purchases. The antidote for social media metric myopia is to draw a line between social media buys and consumer purchases. Programs like Facebook’s Offline sales measurement and Snapchat’s Placed acquisition allow us to help tie back social to brand ROI. Until fairly recently, marketers didn’t have these kinds of tools that connect online exposure to offline purchases. So use them. Action step: When you run a campaign, set up a mechanism to see if it’s affecting offline sales.

I had the pleasure of interviewing Courtney Blount, Group Director of The Media Kitchen where she manages multi-channel media strategies and planning for clients in retail, alcohol and CPG.

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’ll say my path has been an interesting one. I never set out to become a Digital/Social Media marketer. My path was anything but conventional. My original plan was to become a professional ballerina. Instead, I decided to attend Howard University, where I got a B.S. in Health Science, thinking I would become a Physical Therapist. However, towards the end of my schooling, I realized that wasn’t for me. I was familiar with the advertising industry because my mom was in the business. So, I decided to try my luck, head straight to New York and land a job at a great agency. I had no clue at the time what a recession was and that 2008 was the worst year to graduate. After seemingly positive interviews that resulted in calls that confirmed hiring freeze after hiring freeze, I received a call from an agency under the same holding company of one of my prior interviews. They wanted me to come in for an interview and the rest is history.

While my career didn’t begin with a heavy digital or social footprint, over the course of the last ten years, I strategically maneuvered myself to take advantage of opportunities that allowed me to stay close to what’s next.

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

I’ve been very fortunate in my career to have the opportunity to work with brands that were going through a rebranding of sorts, launching a new product or had a target audience with evolving media consumption habits. The common thread across all of these was the need to prioritize innovation. This prioritization pushed me into immersing myself within the social media ecosystem. Clients rely on me to be a thought leader on all media channels. Social media, I feel, is the one channel where one day you have mastered it all and the next day the entire interface has changed, every placement name is completely different, there’s a new way to measure it all and your client is coming to you that same day for your point of view! There isn’t any time not to become the authority. I have to know it like the back of my hand to ensure all of the strategies built can actually result in positive business outcomes. It’s a channel that doesn’t allow brands to get it wrong — consumers will let you know right away. My immersion into the channel has allowed me to build results-driven strategies.

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?

Well I have made some mistakes that are funny in hindsight, but weren’t funny in the moment; we won’t get into those. This wasn’t really a mistake but rather just a learning opportunity. I’ve never been fearful of presenting, largely due to the fact that I grew up on a stage. However, I always tried really hard to emulate someone else during my presentations. When you’re starting off in your career, you get blown away by powerful speakers. All of a sudden you think you can go from three years of work experience to Barack Obama. During a presentation skills workshop, I put on my best, or what I thought was my best Barack hat. My content was strong, I had rehearsed ad nauseam and as always I was comfortable.

I got up and nailed the presentation and got decent feedback. The one piece of feedback I got that changed my approach to presentations from that point forward was, “You were great, but I wanted you to show a little more of you. I like you when we talk one-on-one, but up there you weren’t as likable.” From that I learned it’s okay to let me shine through. I can still be as prepared, but the ability to allow my personality to shine through is what makes people say, “Now that was awesome.”

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?

I think it’s a bit hard to make such a general statement because effectiveness varies based on a few things such as category, target audiences, messaging. I believe the most effective platform at the moment is Instagram. When you think about the reason you go to Instagram, it’s to take a minute or sometimes hours away from your normal life. You go there to read that inspirational quote to make it through the rest of the day, to get some fashion inspiration for that weekend trip you have with your girlfriends or to see what new health-food trend you can try for the week. My point is, you’re going there already in that exploration phase and most times you don’t know what you want until you see it.

For brands, this is the most ideal state. The consumer is in the consideration phase and can be heavily influenced if your targeting, messaging, visuals are right. Even as a marketer I still log on to Instagram and an hour later I’ve bought a candle I’ve never smelled, shoes from a brand I never heard of and a skin-care serum that will make me look like Jennifer Lopez. This is all due to the right targeting and eye-catching creative at the right time. What makes it so easy on Instagram is the heavy focus of shopping features. It’s any ecomm marketers Candy Land. I think it also explains the success of so many DTC brands. If you take a look, Instagram is a core if not the sole piece of their marketing strategy.

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

Pick the right goals. Too many social media strategies are based on reaching arbitrary metrics that don’t intersect with business goals. Likes, retweets and comments are all irrelevant if the goal is to increase traffic to your website, gain visibility, generate leads, prompt app installs, boost event attendance or increase sales. Ignore such proprietary metrics and focus instead on the objective for the campaign. For instance, If you’re looking to drive traffic to your site, set a site traffic objective that will optimize towards driving the most efficient traffic to site Action step: Decide on your objective and then use randomized controls to test whether your campaigns are meeting them.
Correlate online campaigns with in-store purchases. The antidote for social media metric myopia is to draw a line between social media buys and consumer purchases. Programs like Facebook’s Offline sales measurement and Snapchat’s Placed acquisition allow us to help tie back social to brand ROI. Until fairly recently, marketers didn’t have these kinds of tools that connect online exposure to offline purchases. So use them. Action step: When you run a campaign, set up a mechanism to see if it’s affecting offline sales.
Use third-party data, depending on your needs. Ideally, firms would have a critical mass of first-party data that helps them identify their customers on social media platforms. Such data can be used to increase loyalty, retarget or upsell consumers. But third-party data can help boost acquisition efforts by using first-party data to create look-alike audiences. Look-alike audiences are new customers who are statistically likely to be interested in what you’re selling because they share many traits with your existing customers. Pairing one data source with another can also yield insights. Articles that are read, for instance, can be an indicator of interest and intent. When coupled with location data or shopping data, they can expose new occasions for serving up marketing messages. Action step: Use third-party data to create look-alike audiences.
Work with your social media partners. Social media is constantly evolving. Maintaining communication with your social media partners will help you stay up to date on the newest placements, understand their applications and negotiate inclusion in beta programs. Action step: Form strong relationships with social media partners to take part in their new initiatives.

I feel given our societal climate these days, this is a question most millennials ask ourselves daily. There are so many great movements currently that I proudly stand with. This is a tough question because I want to do so much! If we’re speaking on bringing about the most amount of good to the most amount of people, this goes back to the establishment or rather re-establishment of our government. When you take a step back you can make waves at the grassroots level, inspire change, build activation, but, ultimately, it’s the laws passed that govern how we operate. I think we’re slowly beginning to understand the importance of this, especially given that younger and more diverse politicians are emerging. This has to continue. We have to take a step-by-step approach to essentially rebuild a government that never intended to see the world in the way we do today. That’s the movement I want to inspire.

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 U.S. with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with and, if so, why? He or she just might see this if we tag them.

This is probably a bit greedy, but it’s honest and I can’t just pick one. I would ask for a lunch with two friends — Jay-Z and Michelle Obama. Jay-Z because I respect his foresight as a businessman and I know he would have a book full of business gems to help catapult me to the next level of my career. He’s also a New Yorker and hustle is in his DNA. I would love to understand the vitamin regimen he uses to keep on his A game all of these years. I don’t think I have to explain much as to why I would want to include Michelle Obama. I’m intrigued specifically by her poise, charisma and patience throughout her eight years as the First Lady. It takes a special kind of woman to make an impact on so many diverse people — who doesn’t aspire to operate at that level? Of course, I would also need a nice hug to soak up all of her amazing vibes!

Five Ways to Use Instagram to Dramatically Improve your Business: “Correlate online campaigns with… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Five Ways to Use Instagram to Dramatically Improve your Business: “Use User Generated Content”…

Five Ways to Use Instagram to Dramatically Improve your Business: “Use User Generated Content” With Tiffany McEachern & Candice Georgiadis

Use User Generated Content. UGC saves businesses money because they aren’t creating the content and it gets them exposure when people tag them in their posts. I have shared content on my Blazers and Blue Jeans Instagram handle and tagged businesses and they will share my images on their Instagram feed. I will then share their post on my Instagram stories, getting them more exposure to my audience. They don’t have to spend money to create content and my Instagram handle gets exposure to their audience so it is a win-win.

I had the pleasure of interviewing Tiffany McEachern, a Social Media Specialist for PSCU, a payments provider credit union service organization. Tiffany has undergraduate degrees of Marketing and Business Management and her Masters of Business Administration with a concentration in Marketing. She has worked in the marketing departments of several Fortune 500 Companies and also runs an online lifestyle blog called Blazers and Blue Jeans.

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 started college, my heart was set on majoring in advertising. I had these big dreams of working at an ad agency in a big city and helping Fortune 500 companies develop marketing campaigns. When I didn’t get accepted into the advertising program at Florida State University, I changed my major to the next best thing, marketing. As I took more business and marketing courses, I realized there were so many areas of marketing that I loved like social media, analytics, and content marketing. It wasn’t until graduate school that I really fell in love with social media marketing. Social media marketing encompasses a lot of marketing aspects that I love like content creation, graphic design, and analytics.

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

I started my marketing career while I was in graduate school interning for Bloomin’ Brands and then interned for Raymond James Financial and Coppertail Brewing Company. Each one of my internships had a different focus, one was focused on market research, another was heavy on social media, and the last one was focused around PR and Communications. After completing my MBA, I worked for DR Horton doing their social media and marketing for the Tampa/Sarasota division. I now work for PSCU, a payments provider credit union service organization, and oversee our social media strategy and help manage our social media product that we offer to credit unions. I currently oversee 10 social media channels, both B2B and B2C. When I am not at work, I am creating content for my lifestyle blog, Blazers and Blue Jeans, where I share recipes, career tips, style advice.

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

Meeting Guy Kawasaki earlier this year was the most interest experience I’ve had since starting my career. He was a keynote speaker at PSCU’s annual user conference and I got the chance to speak with him and we talked about social media marketing and Canva. It was just so crazy to me to speak with chief evangelist of Canva, a graphic design tool that I use all the time to create content!

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?

It’s not really a funny mistake but somehow, I landed a social media internship at Coppertail Brewing Company and I knew nothing about beer. The extent of my beer knowledge was drinking Bud Light out of a keg in college. During my first week I was taking pictures of this dark porter in a glass at the bar and after a while the beer started to lose its head (foam at the top). So I post some of the photos on social media and the bartender later tells me, “So usually with dark beers, you want to photograph the glass while it still has the head on it because porters have thick foam when you first pour them. You can tell that beer has been sitting around since there is no head on it.” Since I knew nothing about beer I had no idea. The biggest lesson I learned from this was to understand your product before you start promoting it on social media and if you don’t know something, ask!

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?

It really depends on the audience. If you are trying to reach millennials, Instagram is your best option. If you are trying to reach Baby Boomers, then Facebook would be a better option. I think the best social media platform to use in general is Facebook because it has the largest number of users and the widest demographic. Many of the credit unions we work with, have a strong Facebook presence as their membership and target market fits squarely in the age-range demographic.

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.

1. Use User Generated Content.

UGC saves businesses money because they aren’t creating the content and it gets them exposure when people tag them in their posts. I have shared content on my Blazers and Blue Jeans Instagram handle and tagged businesses and they will share my images on their Instagram feed. I will then share their post on my Instagram stories, getting them more exposure to my audience. They don’t have to spend money to create content and my Instagram handle gets exposure to their audience so it is a win-win.

2. Partner with other local businesses

Follow other local businesses on Instagram, like their pictures, and comment on their content. By building relationships with other local businesses, you can cohost future events or even do a giveaway together. This ensures that you are both getting exposure to each other’s audiences. I frequently see giveaways on Instagram where several local businesses will giveaway a gift card or merchandise and all you have to do is follow each businesses Instagram handle to be entered, that’s it!

3. Collaborate with Influencers

Collaborating with local influencers can really impact your business if you are trying to get exposure to your business or are trying to break into a new demographic/audience. If you are trying to find influencers to collaborate with, many influencers use this hashtag on their content: #[city]blogger (For example: Tampa would be #Tampablogger). Also consider using unique codes for each influencer to help you see which influencers have a bigger impact over others. That way for future collaborations, you can work only with the influencers that bring you revenue.

4. Use the Instagram stories feature

Using the stories feature helps show content that might not be as ascetically pretty as the content in your newsfeed. This is an especially valuable feature for retail stores because you can show new merchandise, limited time promotions, and new markdowns to your followers. I can’t tell you how many times I have gone into a store specifically because they had an Instagram story that said an item was almost out of stock or was just marked down. You can also use this feature to ask your followers poll questions like “what types of content would you like to see more of, would you rather wear a top that is solid colored or has a pattern?” and learn about their preferences.

5. Engage with your audience

If people are commenting on your posts and tagging your business in their content, engage with them! It could be a simple like or even a compliment, it shows them that you’re appreciative for doing business with you. You can also learn more about your customer base by looking at the types of content they create with your products. Did they wear heels or sneakers with the dress they purchased at your store? Did they pair the top they purchased with jeans or a patterned skirt?

6. Understand linking

Since links don’t work in Instagram captions, use Linktree or LikeShop in your profile bio to drive your followers to the content they are looking for. The more clicks it takes for someone to reach a specific web page, they more likely they are going to leave before reaching the desired web page. Real Estate Agents could really benefit from this since they are constantly sharing their listings. They can just link each photo in their feed rather than constantly changing the URL in their bio.

I would love to see more companies and organizations that give back to others as a part of their business model. There has been a rise in companies that follow the One-For-One Business Model but I feel like there is more room for companies to give back to the community and others that are less fortunate.

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 🙂

That would have to be a tie between Sophia Amoruso and Emily Weiss. Sophia Amoruso is someone who created a multimillion dollar company unintentionally, failed, and is still incredibly successful with her new venture Girlboss. I am a huge fan of Girlboss and listen to Girlboss Radio on my way to work. She really wants to help other women be successful and start their own companies and I admire that. Emily Weiss is also someone I would love to sit down with. Her company, Glossier, and blog, Into the Gloss, really resonates with so many women and focuses on helping them look and feel their best and I really respect that.

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

Five Ways to Use Instagram to Dramatically Improve your Business: “Use User Generated Content”… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Five Ways to Use Instagram to Dramatically Improve your Business: “Schedule Posts” with Ali Zabel…

Five Ways to Use Instagram to Dramatically Improve your Business: “Schedule Posts” with Ali Zabel & Candice Georgiadis

Scheduling Posts — They say a picture is worth a thousand words and I do believe that. It’s also great to use a service such as Later.com or Tailwindapp.com to pre-schedule your posts so that you can have your content prepared for the week, month or quarter ahead! I have been in to theming my weeks lately and repurposing the content for different social media platforms. Having a theme that I am going Live about has also helped with content creation for my posts.

I had the pleasure of interviewing Ali Zabel . Ali is a lifestyle coach for new moms transitioning from the corporate world to motherhood so they can monetize their passions while also spending quality time with their families.

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

During college I was the type of woman who was driven by her career. Every part of me thought that I would never want to put my career aside to raise my family. I figured that’s what daycare centers are for. After college I owned and operated a 10,000 sq ft gym for 5 years with my family and after that my sister and I opened a boutique personal training studio; where I was a Health Coach and Behavior Change Specialist for 3 years.

2 ½ years ago my son was born and as I was driving to and from the studio I realized that I was missing out on quality time with my family. I also realized that there was not much support for new moms who are career driven during such a vulnerable time in their lives. This is where my major epiphany came in to place and I discovered my true calling as a lifestyle and business coach for mompreneurs.

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

When you have an online business you become savvy with how to best utilize Social Media Marketing to grow and nurture your community. I am active on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. I have created a workflow that allows me to create valuable content for my community and repurpose it across all platforms in just a couple hours a week, which is huge for mompreneurs. I also find it great to be able to share the content through both video and text because I realize my niche audience has mostly young children and the way that they consume the content can vary quite a bit.

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

I grew up in a smaller town in Northeast Ohio, where I still live now. I find it so interesting how much impact I am able to make by putting myself out there with a super specific niche. The best part about it is that I am doing exactly what I feel aligned with and my brand is my authentic self. There’s nothing more rewarding than knowing how many people out there truly need what you are offering to them. It’s very special and I look forward to continuing to grow and make a difference.

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?

Technology is a great tool when it works the way it’s supposed to or rather when you use it the way you’re supposed to. My biggest mistake since starting my business was not thinking that the names of my services were creative enough. So I had everything in place, but changed a few names around which royally messed up the links that I was using and I had to redirect everything. It was a time consuming mistake, but a solid reminder to make sure that all systems are synced up prior to making them go live!

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?

I have 2 that I am absolutely loving right now. Pinterest is huge in increasing business revenues and wonderful when generating passive income. I also love my Facebook Group, She Does It All, which allows me to connect directly to prospective clients and build relationships with them. Pinterest is great for my course style services and Facebook Groups have been wonderful in nurturing my 1:1 clients.

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.

Instagram Live — I am truly loving Instagram Live right now. It is making collaborating with other influencers much more attainable and casual than it has been in the past. Long gone are the days of formal interviews when you can check in for a quick chat with a virtual friend. I feel like this brings a lot of personality to brands as well. It’s allowing you to be you in a more laid back setting. Whether you are going live by yourself or inviting guests to join you; it is just such a great way to reach your audience. Also, if people are unable to catch you live; they are still able to view it for 24 hours, which is great!

Scheduling Posts — They say a picture is worth a thousand words and I do believe that. It’s also great to use a service such as Later.com or Tailwindapp.com to pre-schedule your posts so that you can have your content prepared for the week, month or quarter ahead! I have been in to theming my weeks lately and repurposing the content for different social media platforms. Having a theme that I am going Live about has also helped with content creation for my posts.

Stories — Stories are such a fun way to go behind the scenes with your followers. You can post video or still photos that you can get creative with captions and hashtags to draw more attention to them. Similar to Instagram Live, but in just a short 15 seconds. I do wish that people would use Instagram Stories more for snippets into their lives and go Live when they have a longer story to tell so you don’t have to click through multiple stories that seem redundant. I feel that Instagram has both Live and Stories for a reason and if utilized properly can be very beneficial to your brand.

Hashtags — Hashtags are king when it comes to Instagram. You can even follow specific Hashtags now, which can dramatically increase your visibility. If you’re using Tailwindapp.com for scheduling your Instagram Posts they allow you to see which Hashtags are trending to help you gain visibility. It is important to do a little bit of research so that you can use specific Hashtags to help grow rather than just picking and choosing them at random

IGTV — This is another way to reach your audience. You can have IGTV Episodes that will stay on your profile as well as on the actual IGTV App itself. This is great if you have a specific theme or series that you are sharing with your community. If you are going Live on Facebook or uploading videos on YouTube you can also download those videos and upload the files to IGTV so you can maximize your exposure.

Links — Instagram allows you to use 1 link on your profile page, which is great because all the above will help you to drive traffic to your profile and increase your visibility. Once they’re on your page it is nice to give them a way to learn more about your specific products and services. Using a custom link from a service like Linktr.ee allows you to add multiple links so you can point your followers directly to what they may be looking for.

My mission is to help moms with young families realize that it is possible to achieve work/life balance. I think being a mom can seem overwhelming a lot of times. Sometimes we may feel that we can not be a person too; however, it is truly possible to be there for your family and be there for yourself. In fact it is so important to take care of yourself both personally and professionally so you can show up in the best way possible for the people who are counting on you.

I’d love to have Brunch with Reese Witherspoon. I love everything that she stands for as a mompreneur. Her passion for both her children and businesses are truly inspiring and I think we would have a great chat about balancing work and life over some mimosas!

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

Five Ways to Use Instagram to Dramatically Improve your Business: “Schedule Posts” with Ali Zabel… 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: “Make your Instagram about your…

How to Use Instagram To Dramatically Improve Your Business: “Make your Instagram about your audience, not about you” With Jamie Blades & Candice Georgiadis

Make your Instagram about your audience, not about you. It’s okay to promote your business in your social media channels, but the last thing users want to see is a sales pitch. Since most of the users in Instagram are between 18 to 29 years old, bombarding them with advertising is a no-go. This demographic is not a fan of ads in general, and so you need to promote your business through content they actually want to see.

I had the pleasure of interviewing Jamie Blades, the founder and CEO of Homicity, a real estate platform. Jamie is an executive specializing in UX and branding who started his career in real estate before turning to digital initiatives. He has helped businesses build user-friendly websites, drive traffic, and offer unique web experiences. After 14 years of experience as an award-winning mortgage broker, Jamie became the founder and CEO of Homicity, a proptech startup that harnesses the latest technology to improve the lives of home buyers.

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 never had a specific career path in mind when I was younger. Now, I consider myself an entrepreneur. I started out as an undeclared major in the University of Ottawa, but after seeing that I could make as much money as a mortgage broker (as well as attend significantly fewer lectures!), I dropped out and joined the real estate industry. For many people leaving university seems like a dead-end, but it forced me to become a self-learner.

I began working as a mortgage broker in 2004. I took pride in helping my clients make an educated decision about their finances, but on the side, I started learning about marketing, UX design, and web development. My first experience as an entrepreneur was when I started a digital marketing agency. Our only purpose was to connect brands to people through stories and creative marketing solutions.

After some years helping businesses build easy-to-use websites, I realized real estate was lacking innovation. So, as any entrepreneur would, I set out to start a company that would change that. I took the skills I learned as a mortgage broker and as a marketing consultant to create Homicity, a new real estate platform that uses the latest technology for the benefit of home buyers.

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

An authority in social media marketing is simply someone who drives traffic using digital initiatives. Thanks to my years as a consultant, I know the key to success in social media marketing. It’s simple: the only thing you need is good content.

Of course, what exactly makes content “good” is hotly debated. For me, good content is content that is in demand. I have seen it plenty of times. When users get what they want, it drives them to the website, it builds your brand, and it turns them into leads. At Homicity, we focus on providing our audience with content they actually want and then retaining them as leads with demonstrations of our value.

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

This is a bit of a loaded question as my career is already 20 years old. In the tech startup world, I’m practically a dinosaur, although I like to think of myself as someone who merely has been here for a while. That being said, this story is about connecting with the right people to achieve my company’s goals and objectives through social media. We had a top level executive that would bring great value to our service offering. After a number of failed attempts at connecting with him (darn gatekeepers!), it was time to be creative. First, we found his Instagram and learned that he loved Canada and fancy socks. Then, we found him on Twitter and finally LinkedIn. After spending $300 on socks and starting a brief career as a foot model, the efforts began to pay off. He liked a couple of my posts, so I struck while the iron was hot. I sent one email with the subject line “nice socks,” and our business relationship started.

There have been many interesting stories along the way; however, this one goes to show that if you use the tools of the day, meeting anyone is possible.

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?

Bootstrapping a business is a challenge for most, which is where our story started. Getting a group of friends together to build something great can either be magnificent or a complete disaster. Most times, it’s the latter. I would call this mistake funny because now it seems so clear to me that working with friends isn’t the best way to build a business. Always find talent outside of your personal network, especially if you want to remain friends with them down the road.

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?

For Homicity, Facebook has been the social media platform that leads many users to us. We share different types of content from blog posts to listings, which highlights us as a leader in the real estate space.

At first, our content was dull. I have to be honest about that. It was not engaging or interesting in the least. After trying out different combinations of content, our team found the perfect formula to increase engagement (or at least the formula for us). The analytics show our following is growing organically and our audience is engaging with our content again and again. Thanks to our creative content, we retain them.

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.

Instagram has proven to be a powerful tool for us. As a startup, our following is still growing, but every day we see how our efforts have paid off. First of all, we developed a game plan. In the earlier days, we were just throwing content out there hoping it would stick. Of course, this didn’t work! We had followers, but not quality ones. To use Instagram and improve your business you need a plan. You need to sit down and think strategically.

We leveraged Instagram in 6 different ways to improve our business:

Post frequently. I can’t stress this enough: Never let people forget you are there. To increase engagement, use regular posts and Instagram stories. Since Instagram is not chronological anymore, the more engagement you get, the better your chances are of showing up on the feed.
Use quality media. When people scroll through hundreds of posts, yours needs to stand out. In Instagram’s algorithm, quality reigns supreme. Media with eye-catching visuals and storytelling has more weight. Right now, we are posting good quality images of home interiors because we know interior design has more appeal to users. Have well-written captions to complement the visual and engage with the user!
Make your Instagram about your audience, not about you. It’s okay to promote your business in your social media channels, but the last thing users want to see is a sales pitch. Since most of the users in Instagram are between 18 to 29 years old, bombarding them with advertising is a no-go. This demographic is not a fan of ads in general, and so you need to promote your business through content they actually want to see.
Try to be creative. Getting creative is easy with Instagram. There are many features you can take advantage of. From boomerangs to stories to live video, every feature is there for you to extend your brand’s creativity. Choose the right ones for your brand and join trends whenever they make sense with your brand. As long as you keep your content original and human, lack of authenticity won’t be a problem. As a startup, we know how to use the few resources at our disposal to create engaging content. There are many tools you can use like Sketch, but even free ones like Canva and Unsplash are a great alternative.
Stay on message. The fact that you get to be creative doesn’t mean you have to deviate from your brand’s message. It doesn’t have to be explicit. In fact, subtle is better. For example, our use of interior home shots gives people a glimpse into which houses they can find with Homicity.
Use hashtags to your full advantage. Posts with at least one hashtag have more engagement than empty ones. They help you connect with your target market, and with each hashtag, you can target users that might engage with you. However, don’t go overboard with it: #hashtagging #everything #is #just #annoying!

Helping entrepreneurs, whether they are starting a small business or a large-scale tech startup, is a movement we should all support. These are the people that not only bring innovative ideas to the market but also lead others by example. Nobody works harder than someone who is just starting a business. I want to encourage both young and old, those who already have a career, and those who just graduated, to jump into the waters of entrepreneurship.

I work at an incubator, and I see this every day. I’m lucky to be surrounded by hard-working men and women who are committed to achieving something together and grow a company that they believe will bring benefit to others.

Let’s empower the next wave of entrepreneurs in every way we can. It will not only bring the obvious economic benefits, but it delivers good to all of us.

I’m waiting for Richard Branson to invite me for a weekend on his island. I could learn a lot from a legend such as himself. He continues to break new ground in everything he does and inspire the people around him whether he is doing business or philanthropic efforts.

I look forward to meeting with him one day… Richard?

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

How to Use Instagram To Dramatically Improve Your Business: “Make your Instagram about your… 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: “Want to make a great first impression?

How to Use Instagram To Dramatically Improve Your Business: “Want to make a great first impression? Have a strong bio.” With Adria D. Hookes & Candice Georgiadis

I had the pleasure of interviewing Adria D. Hookes, a Certified Business Coach, Speaker and Social Media Strategist who maintains a portfolio of businesses, including the Divine Success Sister Network, The Business Bae™, Powerful Men In Style™, and Co-Founder of The Business Besties Society. Adria was the recipient of the 2015 Global Award Winner of the SheRo Award, the 2016 Unstoppable Woman “Female Entrepreneur of the Year” Award Nominee, 2017 Woman Who Soar Award Honoree and 2018 Exceptional Women Award.

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 started my journey in women’s empowerment — yes, I said journey — I had no clue how much hard work it was going to take to Empower! Seriously. I first started my journey 15 years ago. I was the Vice Chair of the Metro — Atlanta Chapter of the National Congress of Black Women (NCBW). That role fell into my lap. I was simply this 22-year-old young woman that was trying to change her street life and figure out my purpose.

From that point, after many more moons, I started my first association called the National Association of Professional Black Women. It was so scary taking that leap to start my women’s association. I had experience with the NCBW chapter, but I was little afraid that I didn’t have enough experience or even education to start my own association. You see, back then, that was a big deal. Also, the association market wasn’t so saturated as it is now.

However, my thinking was: Someone started one, so why can’t I. So I studied and researched and researched some more and meditated on my vision. In fact, my vision was to create a network of women around the world to come together and not only assist each other in becoming successful but give back to the community as well. The vision was bigger than me.

A little scary, to say the least. But I wanted to do it, and so I did. Years later it evolved into a global movement called Powerful Women in Business, and now recently renamed to The Divine Success Sister Network with over 10,000 women. Which led me into the Business Coaching Industry in which I was able to create a 6 figure brand.

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

I became an authority after being able to grow a women entrepreneur tribe to 20,000 in less than two weeks a few years ago. Back then, that was unheard of. Not as mainstream to grow large Facebook groups as it is today. It was definitely a huge feat! Every since then, I’ve been able to not only make 6 figures from social media working from home but help other business women become profitable online as well.

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

I believe everyone most glorious moment is when they get their first favorite celebrity or influencer like, comment or follow. There’s a book that I love titled “Don’t Settle For Safe” by Sarah Jakes Roberts @sarahjakesroberts. I follow this woman religiously! I made a post about how this book was such a great read while traveling. Guess what? she commented and liked the post! I dropped my phone and cracked the screen. That one acknowledgement from her made the new finger scroll cuts I had so worth it!

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?

I’ve made a slew of mistakes getting adjusted to social media. There is one that stands out the most among others. When I first started on Instagram. I thought that when I joined, I could just take all of my Facebook pictures and just upload them back to back on my Instagram to make sure that my IG matched my Facebook personal page. OH Boy! Was I wrong! I ended up annoying my FB friends because every time I posted a pic on my Instagram, which I was posting back to back for like 30 minutes now… I didn’t realize that somehow they were posting to Twitter which was auto posting to my personal page on FB. Yeah, I lost a lot of FB friends that day! One lesson I learned was to turn off auto-post from Twitter to FB personal page in IFFFT! I believe it’s not very beneficial to use through and was hurting my audience more than helping them. YIKES!

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?

In 2017, Facebook was the most profitable for me. My experience with Facebook was all about relationship building. Connecting with the people that were aligned with my business goals as well as people of my direct target audience. I shifted my friends list from a bunch of random people that I have absolutely have nothing In common with and replaced them with people that had similar interest and could be a potential client. Once I shifted my friends list, that would look for the content I posted and focused on relationship building. My bank account changed drastically.

As of 2018, I moved over to Instagram and the strategy is a little different but now I’m averaging 5,000 followers a month. I’ve been able to sell out of digital products and increase my attendee rate to my local events.

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.

Consistency:

Staying consistent with engaging and posting on IG is one of the main strategies that’s helped my business on Instagram. Once I decided to focus on my Instagram 100%, I made it a priority to post at least 1–2 times a day and engage with other Instagram users every day. I use tools such as Planoly and schedule my post ahead of time to make sure I’m posting every day. I also love this too because it allows me to preplan all the post but I can move my images around before I post to make sure my Instagram Aesthetic is nice and on brand.

Engagement

Speaking of engagement, just posting on Instagram and walking away isn’t going to cut it. You must spend time engaging with your followers and other IG’ers!

· Responding to comments on your post in a timely manner.

· Liking and commenting your IG following post when scrolling your news feed.

· Searching through your target audience hashtags and liking and commenting on post of your potential clients and customers.

· Engaging with Influencers by liking and following their comments. Eventually you’ll get notice!

· Reposting content from major influencers or brands

Another great engagement idea that works well is creating engaging content. As you can see in the image above that I created a post that allows my followers to comment with their business information. This allowed me to learn more about what type of followers I have and to help me understand who they are better. My engagement on this post was through the roof. The more you understand your followers, the better engaging content you have on your page.

Hashtags

Instagram posts with at least one hashtag have 12.6 percent more engagement than those without…according to “Why its time to update your hashtags” (Smith, 2018). Using the right hashtags can place your content in front the right people that use the same keywords to find businesses like yours. How do you know which hashtags to use?

Great question. I find it easier to write out a list of keywords that represent the industry your business is in, that describes my target audience demographic, what they’re searching for online to find businesses like yours and even what they’re hobbies are interest are. For example:

As you can see, I’m a business coach that helps women entrepreneurs. So a lot of the different hashtags I use are keywords that my target audience will search for in Instagram to find post that can motivate, educate and engage them. I recommend not using the same block of hashtags on every post. Try different blocks of hashtags of different post you make.

Your Bio:

Want to make a great first impression? Have a strong bio. I love the personality that I have on mine.

A strong bio includes these features:

· A great profile picture

· Branded highlight buttons

· Describe who you are and what you do.

· Emoji’s

· Your branded hashtag

· City or State for Business profiles

· Call to action

Know Your Instagram Insights

Instagram Insights is a native analytics tool that provides data on follower demographics and actions, as well as your content. This information makes it easy to compare content, measure campaigns, and see how individual posts are performing

Staying on top of your numbers is the best way to know well your business profile on IG is doing. You can tell if the content you’re creating is driving traffic to your website. You can also see which content is doing better than others and what type of audience is engaging with your content every day. If you use your insights to create great content, the more adjustments you make according to your numbers, the more traffic you’ll drive to your website.

Content

Which leads into my favorite subject! Content. Have you ever heard that Content is king? It rules social media. Without great engaging content, your success on social media will be hard to obtain. So, here’s some ways you can create great content on Instagram that can increase your engagement, your followers and drive more traffic to your website. Here are my top 3 content tips:

1. Come up with a social media content strategy. What is your overall goals for Instagram? Is it to sell your products and services? Are you looking to become instafamous! Whatever it is you need some type of plan. Outline what your goals on what you’re wanting to achieve with Instagram and create a social media content calendar that match your goals.

2. Change up your content. Yes, we understand this is a business account but your followers love an account that brings great energy and aesthetic. Instead of promoting the same product every day. Share content related to your products, share client testimonials, behind the scenes photos, etc. Show more than your 10% sale that you’ve been pushing for a year now!

3. Use your content insights to see which post are working and which aren’t. As mentioned above, staying on top of your insights will help your business Instagram success! Go to insights and click on the content section and see which post your audience engages with the most. These are the type of posts you should use more often. The goal is “Stop The Scroll” So maybe your dull picture of your feet isn’t getting any likes but the post you made of your dog wearing the hats your selling is a winner! Makes you think? Posting your dog in your hat products for most of your post really isn’t a bad idea. Check out the image below:

As you can see for my content a lot of my followers love the inspirational post that I make. So making sure I have inspiration on my page all the time keeps my followers engaged with my profile every day! Makes them want to come back.

Great Question. I’m starting a movement next year that I can’t make public yet but it will help more women and girl entrepreneurs become more tech savvy! We can’t wait to release it. I believe that as of 2018 going into 2019. It’s important to have basic tech skills to save cost in your business but to keep up with everything around us! My new company will provide that support and educate women on how to support themselves in such a techy world!

Oprah Winfrey. I have to meet her. It’s on my bucket list. Her story is so inspiring and watching her grow into the billionaire she is, assures me that I can become a billionaire to.

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

How to Use Instagram To Dramatically Improve Your Business: “Want to make a great first impression? 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: “Nail a niche; everyone’s bored of the…

How to Use Instagram To Dramatically Improve Your Business: “Nail a niche; everyone’s bored of the generic coffee shots.” With Henry McIntosh & Candice Georgiadis

Nail a niche: everyone’s bored of the generic coffee shots. Instagram is about creating a visual identity. Show personality in your imagery and captions and make sure it is always relevant to your niche! If you’re in fashion don’t start randomly posting about food, always have an element of relevance to what you are doing. People follow you for a distinct reason.

I had the pleasure of interviewing Henry McIntosh. Henry is the Co-Founder of Twenty One Twelve Marketing, an agency which creates strategies to help businesses reach and engage niche target markets. A former journalist and award-winning blogger, Henry’s worked with startups right through to major corporations on digital projects.

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 was younger I wanted to be a screenwriter but my path to get to where I am has been a bit all over the place.

For a start, I did History & Politics at university. It was interesting but I didn’t want anything to do with politics and history wasn’t getting me anywhere fast.

One thing I have to thank my degree for is the fact I managed to get an essay published as an undergrad. It led me to think maybe writing was still for me and helped me land my first real job as a copywriter for a big ecommerce retailer. It was a low-paid, high responsibility type gig and I loved it.

It gave me plenty of editorial, copywriting and digital experience, which I harnessed to go freelance. I worked for a number of tech and digital publications before landing a gig at Luxurious Magazine by sending an article in. I got a call from the owner the same day, he hated the article but liked my style.

All of a sudden, I was on his roster, flying around the world, staying in ridiculous hotels, getting invited to exclusive nightclub launches and eating in the best restaurants. I landed on my feet and was well out of my depth. I remember eating in Michelin starred restaurants for the first-time and not knowing how to eat food which resembled miniature pieces of art; I had to watch the PR to see how they ate it before I dived in.

At the same time, I was working for Ryan Irving at the web design company, Ri Web. We decided to start a blog and a year later we won the UK Blog Award in Digital & Technology category. The blog was just a catalogue of the techniques we used to grow social media audiences and generate leads, we thought there was a business there but didn’t want to be another generic marketing company.

So we started Twenty One Twelve as a niche marketing agency, initially as a marketing company just for luxury brands. Soon we were being asked to fulfil briefs from a variety of different industries and it’s hard to turn good projects away, so we’ve now branched out a little. The key is that all our clients tend to need to target a very specific or niche target market because their offering is quite complex.

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

The simple answer is that I attain my clients a strong return on investment through social media practices.

The longer answer is that we’ve used social media to get startup companies international press, generate B2B businesses thousands of leads, sold products in a variety of niches, filled events and created a number of companies highly-engaged audiences.

In essence, we deliver results.

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

Ryan and I started the business by investing £300 each. Our first port of call was to put ourselves in the right room. By chance, The Luxury Network were looking for a new website at the time and responded positively to our outreach. We built them a website in return for a year of membership, which normally goes for around £5k.

Two months later we found ourselves on-board a superyacht at The Monaco Grand Prix. I was 24 years old, still living at home and rubbing shoulders with multi-multi-multi millionaires, it’s safe to say i felt out of my depth… but the free Champagne did help.

We took our first client, Eight Ray Music, along. At the time, we didn’t have a lot of money so they had to pay for themselves. The guys from Eight Ray loved it and they’ve since gone on to provide music for the likes of Red Bull and the Princess of Monaco, I like to think that first trip (alongside some great marketing) helped propel them there.

I’ve had a knack of getting myself into these situations ever since, mainly thanks to my work as a journalist. The imposter syndrome is huge but you’ve got to believe you belong.

We managed to snag a client from our time in Monaco. Lesson learned: always aspire to be in the right room, among people who are way out of your league. Then it’s all about the hustle. Eventually you will feel right at home.

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?

How much time have we got here?! There’s too many to name but the funniest one? It’s still a little raw for me but other people find this story pretty hilarious.

When we hired our first employee I was pretty proud of my myself, Ryan and I had spent a long time creating the hiring process and took candidates through from the CV/cover letter stage to phone interviews, group interviews and then face to face interviews. Essentially, we spent a lot of time on hiring.

I was even consulting my business coach on tactics to keep employees happy and motivated during their first few weeks.

The candidate who won through? They lasted five days before we parted company.

It was humbling, a little embarrassing but it’s pretty funny to look back on the time we spent on it. Especially in relation to the outcome we achieved. I’d love to go into more depth but I’d rather not end up in court as a result of this interview!

The lesson learned in this instance was to hire on cultural fit and a candidate’s attention to detail, not their CV. We can train them, we can’t change who they are.

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?

LinkedIn is by far the most effective. I love Instagram and we still get clients through Insta despite being a B2B business but the platform that has a truly incredible affect on Twenty One Twelve’s bottom line is LinkedIn.

Other platforms are hard to build meaningful relationships on, when you reach out to someone on Instagram they just perceive it as spam.

On LinkedIn, when you connect to someone relevant who truly represents your target market and send them a personalised message the responses you get are amazing.

The best story I can tell you is based on stats, I am a marketer after all. The stat is that we generate two long-term clients a month from LinkedIn, their average spend isn’t bad either because we’re targeting decision makers at sizeable businesses.

So for me it’s LinkedIn and for my B2B clients it’s the same story. In B2C right now, you can’t ignore Instagram, however.

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 Influencers: you don’t need to pay thousands to work with influencers, trust me — that doesn’t deliver a return on investment (on its own). Instead, find influencers who operate in your niche and are legitimately influencing your target market. Build a relationship with them on the platform and then offer to gift them a product in return for some exposure, most will work with you for the free product alone. A good way to start the relationship is to interview them on your business’ blog, they will nearly always then share the article with their audience. Then gift them a product as thanks, again they will then share this with their following. We’ve got influencers with hundreds of thousands of followers to work with unheard of startups for free because they love their ethos and products. Make sure you add a pixel to your site so you can re-advertise to the influx of traffic this will generate.

– Use hashtags properly: most people’s hashtags are too generic. Look at how many times the hashtags you are using have been used before, if it’s 10 million times, your content is never going to get seen. Instead, select highly relevant hashtags which have been used 5,000–200,000 times where you’re more likely to rank in the explore page. Also, engage with other people who are using your hashtags, it shows you are relevant in your niche. That’s a Connor McCreesh trick and it works.

– Don’t automate DM’s and comments but consider follow/unfollow: DM’s and comments are boring, spammy and they don’t work. But you know what? follow/unfollow still works if you set the right parameters around it and make it look human. I might get a lot of stick for saying that but it’s a good way to gain traction. Don’t use third party apps though, do it yourself.

– Use new features: Stories are already becoming saturated but IGTV remains relatively underutilised. As soon as Instagram brings out a new feature adopt it early, even if you don’t understand it properly. Social media platforms love early adopters and will push the content further.

– Nail a niche: everyone’s bored of the generic coffee shots. Instagram is about creating a visual identity. Show personality in your imagery and captions and make sure it is always relevant to your niche! If you’re in fashion don’t start randomly posting about food, always have an element of relevance to what you are doing. People follow you for a distinct reason.

– Showcase your brand using highlights: one of 2018’s great developments was Highlights, the permanent stories that reside beneath your bio. Use this as a chance to show-off, make sure all the stories you save are on-brand and position you in a good light.

It sounds ironic but a digital detox day would probably do people the world of good. No phones, TVs or devices of any kind for a day each year. It might get kids outside and push people into the face to face interactions which are becoming increasingly rare. The impact of digital isn’t always positive and it would be good to be mindful of its affect on society.

That’s a tough one. I admire a lot of people but Tim Ferriss and Seth Godin would be right up there.

Also, Jose Mourinho and the Glaziers so I could get to grips with what’s going on at my beloved Manchester United.

Equally if anyone has read this and would like to get in touch with me please do!

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

How to Use Instagram To Dramatically Improve Your Business: “Nail a niche; everyone’s bored of the… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.