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An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Show Your Industry Expertise. People love people who can help them solve the problems they may encounter in life. Can you help people making awesome meals and desserts, do? DIY videos? Not only for YouTube anymore. When you show off how you or your business can be a help to your connections builds trust and opens doors to business connections and more profits.

As a part of our series about How To Leverage Instagram To Grow Your Business, I had the pleasure of interviewing Burton Kelso.

Burton Kelso is the owner and Chief Tech Expert at Integral, an on-site and remote computer and laptop repair service company for consumers and businesses. He is also a national keynote and technology speaker, a YouTube personality, and a TV Tech Expert regularly appearing on ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, News Nation Now, The Black News Channel,Talk.TV and Newsmax offering viewers easy tips on computers, technology, Internet lifestyle, and gadgets. As computers and their related gadgets become more and more part of our everyday lives, he’s here to help you get the most out of your devices. His vision is to remove the frustrations and complexity of computers and technology and open people up to a world of new ideas, experiences, and opportunities. He loves technology, he’s read all of the manuals, and he’s serious about making technology fun. safe, and easy to use for everyone!.

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

Thanks for having me! I’ve always been a fan of computers and technology since I was a tween. My mother was the one who introduced me to computers as she somehow saw it was the way of the future. Sure, I loved playing video games, but I loved how computers and technology offered you a way to accomplish everyday tasks such as creating documents, maintaining spreadsheets, working on your accounting, and communicating with people across the globe. Plus, I always love helping people. Technology always has a way of making people feel as if they aren’t part of the cool kids. As someone who always felt like an outcast, I wanted to make people feel included and there’s where my love of helping people with technology came alive.

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

One of the most interesting stories I can share in being in the computer break/fix managed services business is working on the computers and internet service for Johnathan Badeen, co-founder and former Chief Strategy Office at Tinder father. Johnathan called our offices when he was in visiting home because his father was having issues with spotty wifi. He was one of the down to earth people I’ve met, and it was interesting to see he was willing to seek help for issues over his head. He obviously has knowledge about technology, but not when it came to troubleshooting hardware issues.

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?

Years ago when working on a computer, I failed to put my anti-static strap on to prevent from zapping computer parts. The family I was working for had a very friendly dog that kept wanting attention. They put the dog away, but it kept getting out. At one point during the appointment, the dog brushed past me and zapped me which zapped the computer. I took responsibility for the issues and got the computer up and running. The lesson I learned that day was to always be prepared for any scenerio that can arise when you’re in the progress of working onsite at appointments and in life.

Ok. Let’s now move to the main focus of our discussion. For the benefit of our readers, can you explain why you are an authority about Social Media Marketing?

I’ve been on Linkedin, Facebook and Twitter since 2009. I originally used these platforms to show pictures of my sons, but soon discovered it was an excellent tool that I could use to promote myself and my business. While I’m more of a nano or micro influencer, I’ve found that at any level you can create a tribe of followers that will help you grow your business. Like many social media marketers, I’ve delivered presentations to help businesses of any level use social media to tell their story which helps build brand recognition and profitability in business.

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, LinkedIn and Facebook have all been effective in increasing business revenues. Most businesses focus on these platforms to connect with the people to interact with other people. With my technology-based company Integral and in my speaking business, there isn’t anywhere I can go in the country without being recognized. It’s a good problem to have but can be a bit intimidating having people you think are strangers tell you aspects of your life and your company you forgot you shared on social media. The goal is to never have to be introduced when you walk into rooms.

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

  1. There are Four Parts to Instagram, Use Them All. Even though it’s one social media platform, there are Four parts to Instagram, and they all have their place to the Instagram Algorithm and your connections. There’s Standard Instagram, Stories, REELs and IGTV. You want to focus your posts on Reels, Stories, and standard Instagram posts. IGTV which is Instagram’s on version of YouTube, not so much. However, keep in mind that wherever you post on Instagram, you will get high SEO or search engine optimization which means if you choose to have a public Instagram account, you posts will be picked up on Google and other search engines. Make sure you don’t spend a lot of time trying to recreate posts for each different parts of Instagram, share the same content as much as possible to reach a wider audience.
  2. Create a Strong Hashtag Strategy. You can use up to 30 hashtags per post on Instagram. That may sound like a lot but you want to use the ones that are going to connect you with the right follows. On Instagram like LinkedIn, you can follow specific hashtags. If you’re looking to connect with a specific audience, you need to figure out which hashtags they are following. Always start using hashtags that are close to your brand, as well as your geographic location. If you’re looking for broader audience, you need to discover what the top 10 or 20 hashtags are and include those in all of your posts. This means you need to include them in the descriptions of your REELs post.
  3. Always focus on telling your story. Relationships are nothing more than two people relating to each other as people. Remember that people do business with people and of course, they will want to do business only with people they trust. Relationships don’t happen immediately. You build them over time. The best way to make that happen is to share your story on Instagram. Doesn’t matter if you’re sharing what you’re eating, where you’re traveling to or who you know, people want to feel as if they know you. The main key is making sure you’re creative in sharing your story. Video and the creative tools in Instagram Stories and Reels can make your story pop out and bring people more into the chapters of the story you’re trying to share Instagram.
  4. Show Your Industry Expertise. People love people who can help them solve the problems they may encounter in life. Can you help people making awesome meals and desserts, do? DIY videos? Not only for YouTube anymore. When you show off how you or your business can be a help to your connections builds trust and opens doors to business connections and more profits.
  5. Remember, it’s a Marathon. Think of Instagram as the ‘Never Ending Story’. Not ever post you make on Instagram is going to be a home run and that shouldn’t stop you from posting. Focus on posting on things that are trending such as holidays, local, nation and international events. It may take a while to get into the habit of remembering to post which is where tools like Hootsuite can help as far as scheduling posts weeks or months in advance. If you get bored with your posts, remember to change up what you’re posting … and yes that means try to use video in your posts. If you need inspiration to post, always remember McDonalds and Walmart consistently advertise and share content despite being billion-dollar corporations.

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. 🙂

About 10 ten years ago a movement called the Cash Mob swept the country with a goal of helping small businesses out. The goal was to gather a crowd a likeminded, friendly people to go with cash in hand to help out a small business. Think of it as a surprise party for small businesses. It would be nice to take it a step further and make a single day celebration for a small mom and pop business. Show up and buy things, but also leave positive reviews on social media and on Google. Have each person share to their community how great and special this business is. All businesses need a boost from time to time and it would be great to show our mom-and-pop businesses how much we love them.

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

Burton Kelso of Integral: Five Ways To Leverage Instagram To Dramatically Improve Your Business was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.