Day: July 16, 2019

How to Use Instagram To Dramatically Improve Your Business, with Josh Thompson and Candice…

How to Use Instagram To Dramatically Improve Your Business, with Josh Thompson and Candice Georgiadis

Video — Advertising on Instagram with video assets has been the most cost-effective content for us compared to images. We’ve found videos allow you to connect emotionally with people to tell a much better story.

I had the pleasure of interviewing Josh Thompson. Josh is Senior Social Media Strategist at Portent — a Clearlink Digital Agency. Josh is Facebook Blueprint Certified and has worked in social media advertising for seven years; he’s worked with clients of all sizes — including notable brands such as Pepsi, Patagonia, Amazon, Mountain Dew, and Boost Mobile.

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

My path into advertising and marketing was a complete accident. I played professional golf for about 4.5 years around the United States, but my playing days were cut short due to injuries. After hanging up the golf clubs, I joined a friend at an agency in New York, and the rest is history. I’ve always been a curious person, wanting to learn as much as possible and continue to find new ways to improve. I think that’s one of the main reasons I’ve enjoyed digital advertising. We’re able to push a campaign live, track the results, and improve in such a short amount of time. That’s pretty amazing when you think about it. I’m glad I found the career as its been very fulfilling and enjoyable helping other companies.

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

Social media marketing in the big picture hasn’t been around that long. Facebook was founded 14 years ago, and advertisers have only been able to run ads on the platform for the last ten years. In that short time, I’ve been able to positively help a lot of companies, both small and Fortune 500 companies. While helping clients, I’ve seen a lot of different scenarios and solved a lot of problems while managing millions of dollars of ad spend. The combination of experience and always wanting to learn to stay ahead of trends have helped me out tremendously in social media marketing.

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

One of the most interesting stories is probably the first office I worked at in New York City. There was a large production company that let us work out of an empty room in their office. The room was very small and tight at times with four employees, but it was a lot of fun. We made a rule after the first week that you couldn’t eat lunch in the office. The office only had one tiny window for air circulation, and that window faced a dark alley, which didn’t help much with circulating air at lunch.

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?

At one of my first jobs, we would often bring physical presentations for quarterly or yearly in-person client meetings. We’d use a local printer in the area to help with printing and binding the presentation to ensure everything was high quality. One of the times, we sent our files to the local printer the day before the meeting and towards the end of the day they informed us their printers broke and will not be repaired for 24 hours. We were able to find another printing company in the area, but there was a lot of unnecessary scrambling as a result. I learned quickly to control what you can and give yourself enough time to solve the uncontrollable.

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 best social media platform depends on the goal of the business or campaign. Then you work backward to determine the best strategy and ultimately the best social media platform(s). As of right now, the most effective social media platform for us has been Facebook and Instagram. The platform still depends on the goal and where their audience is spending most of their time, but Facebook and Instagram ad technology is well ahead of other platforms. We can now reach and acquire new customers at a much lower cost, often 3–4x lower than other social media platforms.

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.

● Video — Advertising on Instagram with video assets has been the most cost-effective content for us compared to images. We’ve found videos allow you to connect emotionally with people to tell a much better story.

● Native Assets — Catching user’s attention is critical for success on Instagram. Maximizing the placement (Newsfeed or Story) with the appropriately sized asset will improve performance.

● Stories — More Instagram users are consuming content through the Story placement. Ensuring the Story placement is enabled with your campaign will lead to most cost-efficient results.

● One Call to Action — People are busier than ever, and it’s becoming more challenging to have them complete multiple actions. Keep it simple and have one clear call to action to increase the likelihood of them to finish.

● Targeted Content — Creating content that speaks directly to your target audience versus the masses will improve overall performance and help avoid being lost in the newsfeed.

● Think Mobile — People are viewing content on the mobile device and not the desktop. The Instagram content needs to be mobile friendly as a result. That means tighter shots, easier to read and video transcriptions.

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. 🙂

If I could inspire anyone, I’d encourage people to always be kind to others and do the right thing no matter the situation. Doing the right thing is always the right thing.

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 🙂

Having lunch with Tiger Woods would be great. I still enjoy playing golf and following the golf tournaments. He’s one of the best golfers of all time and has gone through a lot in his career. He made a lot of significant adjustments to his golf game to improve even when he was the best in the world. That approach to consistently want to improve while being the best is fascinating in a good way to me.

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

How to Use Instagram To Dramatically Improve Your Business, with Josh Thompson and Candice… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The Future of Travel: “Personalization will be key” with HomeAway’s Ajay Waghray

Expectations from customers will get higher: they’ll demand the right experience at the right time, and it will need to be seamless. Personalization will be key.

I had the pleasure of interviewing Ajay Waghray, a senior product manager at HomeAway, part of Expedia Group. Ajay and his team focus on developing products that help travelers have amazing experiences when shopping, booking and staying at vacation homes around the world. Joining HomeAway in 2012, Ajay and his team have been instrumental in developing the e-commerce and mobile experiences for HomeAway and Vrbo. The HomeAway and Vrbo mobile apps are among the Top 20 travel apps in the App Store and Google Play store.

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

My love and curiosity for technology started when I was a kid. One of my hobbies was taking apart the family computer — I messed with graphics cards and performed unnecessary software upgrades so I could experience the latest and greatest updates. The computer was often out of commission during some of my experiments, but it really stoked my fascination with technology.

I graduated from engineering school the month before Steve Jobs announced the very first iPhone. I felt like the world was about to change — and it did. Today, I work as a product manager for HomeAway on the mobile team. I love that product management marries technology and design to create experiences that customers really love: every day I work to make that little rectangle in your pocket more useful and fun.

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

When I first started at HomeAway, lots of people in my life told me that mobile would never become a “thing” and that I should focus on desktop web apps instead. I wish I could tell you that only happened once! Today across all industries, there’s much more focus on disruption and how new waves of technology can be used to create the best customer experience 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?

Early in my career, I was asked to present some fairly complicated material to hundreds of people at a company-wide meeting. The problem was I hadn’t had that kind of experience yet. A combination of feeling very nervous and unprepared made my sweat glands go into overdrive — our chief product officer later told me it looked like I had run a full marathon in the Texas heat.

In our line of work, they say having a plan is less important than planning itself. Now I make it a point to be very prepared every time I have to step up to a mic.

What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?

I think HomeAway is unique in that the scientific method isn’t just a tool we use: It informs everything we do as an organization. We’re always trying to understand our customers by marrying qualitative insights with quantitative data. We run all the traditional tests: A/B product tests, customer surveys, usability tests… we even collect behavioral and biological data in our Innovation Lab, where our team of scientists use neuroscientific research methods to work with volunteers to find out which parts of booking a vacation are frustrating and how we can make them better.

Which tips would you recommend to your colleagues in your industry to help them to thrive and not “burn out”? Can you share a story about that?

It’s a marathon, not a race. When I first started out as a product manager, I wanted to prove myself by making everything happen all at once. What I didn’t realize at the time is when you’re trying to do everything, you’re really doing nothing. Anything good takes time and effort: when you’re busy burning yourself out, you don’t have enough in the tank for what lies ahead. Investments in the future take time and making sure you’re investing in yourself and understanding that is one of the most important things you can do.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?

There are so many people that helped me along my way. If I had to pick a few, I’d start with my parents. They came to the U.S. to get a great education and to give me and my sisters a better life. They taught me the value of hard work, grit and remembering to have fun along the way! I wouldn’t be anywhere without them.

An honorable mention would also go to Tim Ferriss. I read “The 4-Hour Workweek” on the flight back from a trip with my family in India while I was still working at my first job. I still remember that chapter about quitting and following your passion. After reading that book, I walked into my boss’s office first thing Monday and quit. Best thing I ever did.

Let’s jump to the core of our discussion. Can you share with our readers about the innovations that you are bringing to the travel and hospitality industries?

We are always thinking about what new technologies and experiences are going to disrupt our industry over the next ten years? What expectations are going to change from our travelers as a result? In travel and hospitality I’d boil it down to four core innovations: adaptive experiences, virtual assistance, group travel and augmented & virtual reality.

The rise of mobile devices has truly changed the way we have to think about building products today. Because there’s only so much real estate on a small screen and customers interact with you in small micro-moments, machine learning has to be an integral part of our products. Customers don’t have patience for brands that treat them like a first-time visitor. And now you have a limited amount of space to interact with them. The great thing is that machine learning allows us to provide that just-in-time experience that adapts to your needs, wants, and preferences on mobile devices in a way that wasn’t possible before. We view that as a huge opportunity to invest in.

Virtual assistance is also critical in a world where mobile devices and voice are fast becoming the primary way customers interact with technology. Devices like mobile phones thrive in cases where you can provide simpler input. And voice is one of the simplest of inputs, but the bar is very high. Investing in this space we believe is the key to creating those great travel and hospitality experiences of the future. Imagine you could book a boat rental at the lake house you’re staying at by asking Google Home! That’s the experience of the future.

Trips with your group are precious moments for you to spend time with your loved ones. Planning that trip can be a real hassle though, and we believe it’s our job to make that process as easy as possible. Our focus is to deliver products that really help make that as painless and fun as possible. We actually just launched a collaborative trip planning tool that allows folks to like and save properties they’re interested in, then share the list with their family or friends, who can then vote on their favorite properties and add comments. We call this new tool Trip Boards.

Finally, virtual and augmented reality have a special place in travel and hospitality. They provide our customers with ways to experience their future and past trips that were not possible before. HomeAway is already leveraging some of this technology through virtual tours: an increasing number of the properties on our site include 360 degree immersive walkthroughs that provide more depth and clarity about a home, allowing travelers to look before they book.

Which “pain point” are you trying to address by introducing this innovation?

Travel is a very personal experience for connecting with loved ones and experiencing new things. We believe these innovations address various pain points in the shopping experience: everything from helping the group pick a rental that makes everyone happy to experiencing a property before you make that huge purchase through a virtual tour, all the way up to knowing everything you need to know about the place before you book and having everything you need for your stay through the help of a 24/7 virtual assistant.

Can you share 5 examples of how travel and hospitality companies will be adjusting over the next five years to the new ways that consumers like to travel?

Expectations from customers will get higher: they’ll demand the right experience at the right time, and it will need to be seamless. Personalization will be key.
Travelers are going to expect best-in-class recommendations from travel companies: brands who don’t come armed with excellent advice will lose credibility fast.
Travelers are going to expect better tools to help make planning a big group trip easier and more fun.
Travelers will expect these experiences to work seamlessly on any platform they are using. Thinking cross-device will have to be even more of a priority as new devices become available.
Life is going to happen; plans and life situations are going to change. As travelers increasingly expect more personalization and customization, they will also expect more flexibility that mirrors the way they live their lives.

You are a “travel insider”. How would you describe your “perfect vacation experience”?

One of my favorite things for my wife and I to do is experience cities and cultures by being in the heart of things. That means walking around, ducking into cafes and restaurants without a plan, experiencing art and architecture in different neighborhoods and seeing how people live. We also enjoy the outdoors and lately have been looking for more opportunities to stay in vacation homes that allow us to “nature bathe” and truly decompress.

Some of this may change when our son is born in June. I think that’s part of the fun and challenge in travel: the way you travel changes as your life changes.

Can you share with our readers how have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?

Working in travel is meaningful because at the end of the day, you know that the work you do helps people connect with their loved ones and find a place that helps them enjoy traveling together. I’ve also helped people on the other side of our business: homeowners who use vacation rental income they earn on our site to pay bills, enjoy retirement or even send their kids to college.

You are a person of great influence. If you could start 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. 🙂

If I could start a movement, I would start one around creating simple, easy and effective ways to make a positive impact when you travel. How can you help the people in the destination that you’re traveling to live a better life? How can you leave the place you’re traveling to better than you found it? How can you reduce your impact on the environment when you travel? I think that would be an amazing movement to participate in.

How can our readers follow you on social media?

I’m on Twitter @ajaywaghray, but I mostly post on Instagram and Medium @ajaywaghray. Would love to see you there!

Thank you for these great insights!

The Future of Travel: “Personalization will be key” with HomeAway’s Ajay Waghray was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

“Educate: giving education on a topic you’re knowledgeable about is a sound way to drive traffic…

“Educate: giving education on a topic you’re knowledgeable about is a sound way to drive traffic to your business” with Brenda Schamy and Candice Georgiadis

Educate: Social media has become a go-to source for education, giving something of value to your audience like education on a topic you’re knowledgeable about is a sound way to drive traffic to your business, educate them on your brand, and make you a credible authority in the space you want to build.

I had the pleasure of interviewing Brenda Schamy, a founding partner at DiSchino & Schamy, PLLC. She practices a blend of litigation and transactional work. Brenda concentrates her practice in the areas of entertainment, hospitality, branding, startups, and general business dealings. She skillfully uses effective negotiation tactics and creative solutions to further her client’s interests. Brenda, an active entrepreneur, has been a business owner for many years, owning both brick and mortar and online businesses in the fitness, music, and travel industries. Due to her extensive entrepreneurial experience, Brenda understands the different issues and challenges that businesses face. Her entrepreneurial ventures have taught her valuable business management skills and how to be a strong, out-of-the-box thinker, which has allowed her to actively anticipate the needs, concerns, and opportunities of her clients. Brenda excels at looking beyond the legal scope of business and working closely with clients to actualize their goals. Born in Argentina, Brenda is fluent in Spanish and English. She received her undergraduate degree from Northwestern University and her Juris Doctor degree from the University of Miami. Prior to founding her own law firm, which subsequently merged to become DiSchino & Schamy, PLLC, Brenda was a Miami-Dade Public Defender. She is comfortable in a courtroom and is always ready to fight for her clients’ interests. Having a passion for travel, Brenda feels privileged to have the opportunity to work with international as well as domestic clients from all over the United States. Helping people connect and working with creatives is where Brenda thrives.

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

Well, as a kid everyone assumed I’d become a lawyer because I was always about what was just! Having been an entrepreneur my whole life owning all types of businesses in the fitness, travel and entertainment industry and growing up as a dancer it was a natural progression that I would combine both the law and my passion for creative industries into one.

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

I’ve been fortunate to interact with social media as a lawyer, business owner and consumer. As a lawyer on behalf of my clients negotiating deals for clients as well as brands, advising on FTC regulations, protecting content and more; as a business owner interacting with influencers for marketing, brainstorming and executing strategy, and creatively creating content (that’s a mouthful!); and finally as a consumer, I’ve watched social media affect how we consumer products, services, and how it affects our daily lives. Having interacted with social media from so many different ways has given me some insight others may not have.

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

That’s a tough one! I worked in criminal defense before opening my own law practice, so I’ve had some wild stories when visiting jails! More recently, I’ve gone to see some of my music clients in the studio and may have ended up doing background ad libs on a track or two!

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. Interact with your audience: Interact with your audience and get to know what they like what they don’t like, what they want to know, what the care about, etc. One of the most valuable things about social media is the immediacy of information and answers from your target audience.

2. Familiarity: a psychological phenomenon that claims that people tend to develop a preference for things merely because they are familiar with them. Social media allows you to get your brand in front of your audience several times therefore causing this familiarity effect so that later on this brand seems familiar to them and therefore prefer it.

3. Educate: Social media has become a go-to source for education, giving something of value to your audience like education on a topic you’re knowledgeable about is a sound way to drive traffic to your business, educate them on your brand, and make you a credible authority in the space you want to build.

4. Use it to network: Use it to network with strategic partners. Social Media allows us to reach out to people and companies that we may not otherwise have access to. Know your audience and think of it as the world’s largest professional happy hour.

5. Marketing: As simple as it sounds, use social to market your business, expose your brand. It allows you to reach an audience that you wouldn’t be able to reach otherwise, the amount of money required to reach that type of audience on another medium is near impossible (i.e. a $5 Million dollar commercial for the super bowl which is viewed by only 98 Million would get you 1.7 Billion, with a B, impressions on instagram.)

6. Call to action: Using your social media audience you can get your target market to do certain things, things as simple as repost to broaden your network, come to an event, raise awareness about a cause, or even promote your company!

I think education is fundamental. Not in a conventional sense but real-life education changes lives.

Probably Jay Z or Kris Jenner. Their mix of entertainment, culture, and business is admirable.

Thanks for all of the great insights!

“Educate: giving education on a topic you’re knowledgeable about is a sound way to drive traffic… 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, With Keicia Shanta and Candice…

How to Use Instagram To Dramatically Improve Your Business, With Keicia Shanta and Candice Georgiadis

Being a social media maven is a full time job! Be sure to respond back to comments on your page and also to engage with others online as well.

I had the pleasure of interviewing Keicia Shanta , Fashion Editor at FashionCrushWeekly. Keicia Shanta began covering fashion and style events before the “social media influencer” was a thing. Hailing from Birmingham, Alabama , she knew that fashion blogging was a new profession that people from her hometown knew absolutely nothing about. With a drive to cover street style fashion from New York to Paris she found her calling. Keicia Shanta began writing for a lifestyle website and that quickly transferred into her creating her own blog FashionCrush. Luckily for her local retailers hosted fashion previews and she fell in love. Keicia Shanta started to attend every fashion show Alabama had and that created an opportunity to attend New York Fashion Week in 2013. That’s when she knew being a fashion influencer was real! Keicia Shanta realized she could make a career out of this without having to move to New York or Los Angeles. Now retailers began to reach out to her! Keicia Shanta and her in-house team began creating seasonal look-books for retailers such as Belk, Saks Fifth Avenue and Nordstrom to name a few. Keicia Shanta does seasonal style segments for TV networks such as Fox and ABC. Keicia Shanta loves working with up and coming fashion designers and has turned into a new role as Fashion PR and PR Director for Magic City Fashion Week in Birmingham Alabama.

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 always loved fashion and styling. It’s like second nature to me. I was the kid that grew up daydreaming a lot. I always made clothes for my barbies in looks that I wish my Grandma could buy me. Not having access to certain brands growing up it made me want to learn more and research the fashion houses from back in the day. I kind of became this walking encyclopedia of fashion designers and their creative directors. That’s when I noticed that fashion trickles down and retailers manufactured their looks off of what came down those runways. I could and can still till this day know off the top of my head who designed a certain dress without having to look at the tags.

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

Of course ! Having access to exclusive events and fashion previews gave me a springboard to create a social media page ie. FaceBook , Instagram , Twitter that was curated with fashion news and style influence. With the rise of social media and the ability to go live from an event or fashion week became a game changer for me and countless others. To be able to reach our readers/followers with real time fashion show coverage and reviews made me an authority in my field , especially in BIRMINGHAM. Thus being able to show what was the next big seasonal trend and that quickly opened up a lane for me to style and work with some of the biggest retailers in the country. Also keeping abreast of new technology that allows me to track the metrics behind my social media provide much needed data to back up any campaign that i may be apart of .

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

I can say by far the most interesting story that happened to me since starting this career was running into Tim Gunn. I began my career in fashion as a stage mom! My oldest child wanted to pursue a modeling career and being the vigilant parent I wanted to make sure my baby girl was dealing with reputable people in the business. Keep in mind the fashion industry was a non factor in Birmingham. So my daughter was booked to walk the Lucky Brand Jean fashion show and unbeknownst to us Tim Gunn was a consultant and stylist to the event. My daughter didn’t know who Tim Gunn was but when I saw him I was floored. I didn’t fan girl out but I had an amazing convo with him and it solidified any doubts that I had about pursuing fashion from a southern city.

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?

The funniest mistake I made when I first started out was that I had to learn the hard way that not everyone shares your vision. It’s the funniest to me because I should have already known this bit of wisdom.

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?

Instagram ! When it comes to Instagram VS Facebook , Instagram wins hands down. I had to learn early that having a cohesive, clear and concise Instagram account is a game changer when it comes to any type of marketing online. I am the research queen , and with that being said I always tell my younger influencers to always stay educated on the wave of what’s the next big thing when it comes to social media platforms. For example, I hardly ever do sponsored post unless I use a particular brand or service in real life. My readers wanted to know my skin care routine. So I did a simple Instagram story on my morning face routine along with tagging the company. In return their PR team reached out to me about doing a collab with them. I was able to increase my business revenue by securing a paid sponsorship , free product, plus a slew of new followers all by simply posting my skincare routine on my Instagram page. Plus I was already a consumer so it seemed organic and a natural fit.

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.

Hashtags are your bestie !

Hashtag and tag everything ! If it seems organic brands will come to you.

Cohesive Content !

Make sure your Instagram is cohesive in color schemes and filters. It’s most definitely a stand out.

Authenticity !

Be your true and authentic self. There is data to prove that people love real people. We have enough social media wanna be’s !

Clarity !

Be sure that your social media is clear and to the point.

Research !

You are never to old to learn! THIS is also for researching different brands that may reach out to you. Every brand collab is not a good fit.

Stay Active ! Stay Engaged!

Being a social media maven is a full time job! Be sure to respond back to comments on your page and also to engage with others online as well.

That would be creating a more sustainable fashion industry and supply chain. Sustainable is a word that has become popular over the last year and for good reason. The fashion industry is one of the leaders in top polluters in the world plus we have an ugly history of paying people bad wages and un humane working environments. We only have one planet and we as consumers have to reduce consumption, hold our designers/retailers accountable on the front and back end.

I would love to have dinner with Fern Mallis ! She is the mother of New york Fashion Week and I would love to pick her brain on the future of fashion shows and if they are even relevant in this new digital age.

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

Thank you so much for including me !

How to Use Instagram To Dramatically Improve Your Business, With Keicia Shanta and Candice… 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, With Catherine Campbell and Candice…

How to Use Instagram To Dramatically Improve Your Business, With Catherine Campbell and Candice Georgiadis

Leverage your content! Instagram posts should come FROM somewhere and keep going TO other platforms. Use existing website content such as product descriptions, customer testimonials, blog post excerpts and more to inspire your captions (you can even just copy and paste). After it’s published to the feed, publish your latest post in your IG stories to encourage more feed visits and interaction. Publish it to Facebook and Facebook stories. Make sure you have a social feed embedded on your website. Tag influencers or other brands mentioned in your post so they share it to THEIR audiences. Include your favorite post in your next email newsletter as an embedded graphic that clicks back to Instagram. Each post should be lifting 10x its weight. Make it count!

I had the pleasure of interviewing Catherine Campbell, director of strategy at Bright Planning, a national marketing and PR agency for eco-friendly and socially responsible brands. Since 2006, Catherine has created story-driven marketing strategies for a national clientele.

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

No one in my generation said, “I want to work in social media when I grow up,” because it didn’t exist yet! When I started college, we had MySpace. But after I earned my BA and then my MFA in creative writing, I knew I wanted to tell good stories about good people in the world and realized very early on that social media would become one of the most powerful ways to do that.

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

I’ve been in social media since social media was an AOL chatroom. But professionally, I’ve been working with social as a core business strategy since 2006. My agency has worked with clients of all sizes, from fast-growth startups to Fortune 500 brands to help them integrate social media into their marketing strategy and focus on not only growing fans but also engagement and customers.

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

I think the most fascinating and exciting time has been watching Instagram grow from just another social platform into a huge revenue driver for businesses, including some of our clients. Where it was once just a place to raise awareness, now it’s THE place to sell, too. The growth rate is staggering.

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 blindly used hashtags. I didn’t do the 5-sentences-long hashtag thing, but let’s just say I unknowingly used some hashtags that would you should never, ever look up. They would make Urban Dictionary blush. Always research your hashtags, people!

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 B2C brands, we’ve seen a lot of revenue growth from Pinterest. For example, we have a modern office furniture client, StrongProject. Because StrongProject’s products are so visually appealing, we determined that Pinterest could be a healthy traffic driver for the company if we set up “office design inspiration” and office product boards and pins with detailed descriptions and longtail URLs (leading Pinterest browsers to a product’s detail page rather than the home page). Within the first 90 days, this strategy led to $132,000 in sales leads for StrongProject. Today, Pinterest drives an average of 2,000 unique visitors to StrongProject’s site each month, with an average viewing time of 5 pages and a 24% goal completion rate.but I think Instagram is catching up to this really quickly and will overtake that position this year.

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 Stories for real-time updates to keep customers happy and informed. Because it’s not a slave to the algorithm, IG Stories are one of the best ways to update your customers throughout the day about important things. We work with restaurants and services that have really improved their overall communications with customers by using IG Stories to post daily specials hours before each meal service, fire sales, inclement weather closings and even celebrity sightings or event opportunities.
Save mental stress with a link app. If you have lots of content and website pages to share with your audience, use a link app like Linkt.ree so you have one link in your profile URL that serves as a master link: this link then opens up a “landing page” with your chosen links. You can even schedule these chosen links, such as limited-time sales pages or your latest blog posts, to auto-expire from the landing page after a certain amount of time so you don’t have to worry about keeping track of what was posted, what needs to be changed out, etc.
Save hours with a scheduling app. It’s okay to post in real-time, but for busy business owners, I strongly recommend a scheduling app. Buffer should do the trick but if you have multiple locations (such as our restaurant clients), you may want to look at a more robust calendar tool such as CoSchedule.
Separate curation from creation. It’s fine to go “au natural” on your IG stories and IGTV while posting in the moment throughout the day…in fact, your audience will love it. They want to see your company without fancy lighting, without makeup, without the perfectly positioned hand reaching for that cookie product or whatever. But when it comes to the feed, curation is queen. This is where it will help to give some thought and a few hours of monthly planning to your IG feed. Ask yourself, “What is the most important message that will bring value to my audience right now?”
For captions, use the Goldilocks method. Captions that are too short can be perceived as too hip to care and withhold vital information, and captions that are too long look self-obsessed and indulgent. Like Goldilocks and the three bears, aim for the middle and get it just right: 1–4 short sentences, bullet line breaks if necessary, emoji sprinkled throughout, or a call to action at the end. For example, if you’re a skincare company, you can post a beautiful photo of your latest eye cream to the feed and use the caption space to educate your audience about one little known history fact about eye cream (which famous rulers used some version of eye cream to look younger and more powerful). Then apply appropriate hashtags, hit publish and sit back and relax.
Leverage your content! Instagram posts should come FROM somewhere and keep going TO other platforms. Use existing website content such as product descriptions, customer testimonials, blog post excerpts and more to inspire your captions (you can even just copy and paste). After it’s published to the feed, publish your latest post in your IG stories to encourage more feed visits and interaction. Publish it to Facebook and Facebook stories. Make sure you have a social feed embedded on your website. Tag influencers or other brands mentioned in your post so they share it to THEIR audiences. Include your favorite post in your next email newsletter as an embedded graphic that clicks back to Instagram. Each post should be lifting 10x its weight. Make it count!

My agency works with food brands and restaurants because food has always been an important and personal issue for me. More specifically, food security. The U.S. has too many food deserts and one of my goals is to raise awareness around food production and sustainability, reducing food waste and improving access to good healthy food in these deserts. We need to have this conversation so we can continue to innovate solutions. Fortunately, I think it’s starting to gain some traction on the scene.

I would love to have breakfast with Chrissy Teigen — she knows how to fight for something but while keeping a sense of humor. She’s a badass mom, public figure, and author. Want to know how to rule social? Study her.

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

How to Use Instagram To Dramatically Improve Your Business, With Catherine Campbell and Candice… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.