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