How To Navigate Social Media In 2019 – Part One – Instagram

2019 be bringing many changes to how we use socials, the old strategies aren’t working anymore and it’s becoming more and more important to have a strategy that UNIQUE to your business that has a holistic selling system that INCLUDES socials.  Not just use socials stand alone.  I’ve said it before and I will say it again, the conversation does not start and end on socials, they are just one piece of your sales funnel.

Now this scares people who don’t know what a sales funnel is and are confused about what it means to have a ‘selling system’.  Don’t you just post pics of your stuff and people buy it?

Sorry Fred, not anymore.  So if you are someone who just gets bamboozled by this stuff then sit back and take a read, or listen, I am going to be doing these as a LIVE video in my Facebook Group in the coming weeks.

AND to hear even more you simply must get on Social Media 101 – THE 5 Day Free Programme to get you out of the social media scroll hole and into social media superstar status.  Kicks off May 27th.

But for now, let’s talk about the Gram

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Gone are the days you can start an Instagram account and whammo! New followers and new clients.  It just doesn’t work like that anymore.  Plus it’s busy on there right?  Hashtags, IGTV, Stories, Bios, Creator accounts coming out and insights that are not that easy for the average person to understand.

When every second account has a perfect feed and is promoting the same stuff as you, how the actual eff does one stand out in a sea of literally BILLIONS?

Here are my top 5 Instagram specific actions you need to take in your 2019 Insta plan

Hashtags

I am going to get them out of the way now.  While they are not the be all and end all of your Insta game they are still a part of the process of using Instagram.  So I am going to state this right now.  STOP obsessing over the small things like ‘should they be in the comments or the caption’ and ‘how many should I use.   

In short use the FULL 30 tags on every post.  Caption or comment doesn’t matter but if you are sharing directly to Facebook it’s easier to put them in the caption for easibilty of sharing. 

Follow tags your ideal client would follow (if you are unsure what they are, ask them!) so you can find new accounts to interact with.

Some of the 2019 strategies for tags that work are these:

• Use location specific tags if you are a business that services a specific area. 
• Branded tags, these are tags that are specific to groups and businesses finding tags that meet this niche for your ideal client and using them is essential
• Getting specific even if they are small use tags people are following more specific tags than ever before.  EG. #yoga and #yogabyronbay
• Use tags in your Stories!  Up to 11 (1 as the sticker and 10 in the text)

Engagement

This is also another one that confuses people.  HOW do you actually have an engagement strategy? Well, I can tell you what it is not.  It is not just scrolling and liking posts, it is speaking with people…. Particularly your ideal client or accounts who have the same client (but non-competing business to you) and interacting with them.

One example of this would be a florist who does bridal flowers engaging (and I mean commenting on their content!) with a photographer in her area who does wedding photography.  Interacting with that business not only gets them on your radar to potentially refer people to check them out BUT get’s you in the line of sight of others commenting on that content.  WHO ARE YOUR IDEAL CLIENT!

This example is a 100% win-win on both collaboration and engaging more of your potential audience.

The other thing you MUST be doing is engaging with your existing audience.  So your ideal client who follows you – COMMENT ON THEIR STUFF!  If someone engages with you – REPLY TO THEIR COMMENT.  It’s pretty simple, right?

Lastly, if you are following my advice from step one and following tags your client would follow when you see new accounts show up in your feed – engage with them!

This should not take hours but 10 mins every few days (or every day if you can) to strategically engage will be so useful

Stories

Stories are where it is at in terms of Instagram in 2019, EVERYONE LOVES THEM.  So you need too also.

Firstly, you can use up to 11 tags in your stories, 1 with the sticker and 10 with the text, you can pinch them down so no-one sees them but they help you get seen by more people

Secondly, share content on your Stories.  Use the paper airplane icon and share posts to your Stories it directs people back to your feed.  Better yet share others content and tag them!  It is one of the best ways to get in the eyes of another account.

Thirdly, engage with others Stories, it gets you right into a DM with them which is a much more intimate conversation and will allow you to form more of a relationship with them.

Basically, I find that tagging people in posts gets almost ZERO response anymore.  But tag them in a Story and you are their best friend and hello…. A new conversation is started!

Your Web Link

Instagram still only has 1 place you can direct people off the platform and that is your website link.  The problem is most businesses have more than one place they want to direct their audience for specific things.  For example.  Mine has links to new events, new offers, my Facebook Group, my online school etc.  Makes it easier to say ‘head to the link in my bio and click on this heading’

I use a platform called LinkTree to do this. It’s FREE and the paid plan is $6 a month so super cheap.  If you are MailChimp user you can have an email list header on the paid version.

Some do this as a dark page on their website and optimise it for mobile and make it pretty and styled to their brand and business.

Whichever you choose just invest in one, it is so damned versatile.

Captions

Insta is no longer JUST a visual platform.  Your captions matter.  People are wanting and craving MORE connection online than ever before and it’s IMPERATIVE as a business you give them that.

So investing in crafting your words is important, don’t just do a ‘Here is my service book me here’ and run.

This also means having a well-rounded content plan is also ESSENTIAL.  Meaning you need to have a value based content plan with a good ratio of value to selling content.  (I recommend the 80/20 rule – 80% be value add and 20% be sales)

It also means investing in different styles of CTA’s so soft CTA’s that nurture them into your funnel, like directing them to a blog or to grab a freebie which could just be more value or could have an upsell in it.  AND using sales copy that is designed to convert rather than the drop a book me now described above.

My blog The Art Of Social Selling covers this in more detail and I teach my specific steps to learn this in the Selling On Socials Masterclass and to members of The Social Superstar Formula (due for next enrolment end of May!)

It’s quite the art and something that is unique to each person, definitely head to the blog to hear more about CTA’s

Lastly, captions need to have personality!  In 2019 it’s all about the authentic, real you not a version you want people to see.  So using words and phrasing you would use, even if you are like me and make up words.  Talk with your audience NOT at them this makes them feel like you are in a conversation with them.

BONUS TIP

Ok, I couldn’t keep it to five points as this one is super important too.  SHOW YOUR FACE!

This is one of the scariest things for some people particularly those that are uncomfortable with being on camera.

But your audience wants to see who you are and who they are engaging with.  PLUS adding in content that shares more of you and what you stand for shows them the person behind the brand.

Best tips to getting over the ‘I don’t like to be on camera-itis’

Get a brand shoot done so you have professional images to use that you like!  It’s an investment that I encourage everyone to make.

If you are taking pics yourself, then get creative.  Grab a friend, get dressed how you want to portray yourself and go somewhere cool with a nice backdrop and snap some images.  There is plenty of editing apps and software that make crisping these up easy (I recommend you check out Amanda Campeanu and her Lightroom Presets, they help you take an image and edit it to be pro style with the click of a button)

But most of all show yourself!

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So there you go some of the ways you can increase your visibility and use Instagram to grow your business and be part of your sales funnel.

If you want to see MORE of this then head to Social Media 101 and register for the 5 Day FREE Programme that will show you more of this.  Plus it’s going to be super fun.

Next up on the blog is Part Two – Facebook coming in the next couple of weeks.

Until then,
Stace x