Make a Greater Impact with Instagram Stories

Make a Greater Impact with Instagram Stories

Alex Beadon | Make a Greater Impact with Instagram

Have you met the InstaStories Queen?

 

Alex Beadon is an online business coach for entrepreneurs who want to make a full-time living doing what they love.

 

Over the past few years, I have been following her journey and let me tell you, this girl is making an impact when it comes to helping business owners gain their confidence on camera.

Her podcast, On-Purpose with Alex Beadon is like having a chat with your Biz Bestie every week and is always filling me with inspiration for growing my business

There is no doubt in my mind that she can help you make a greater impact with Instagram Stories which is why today, I am so excited to share with you some exciting news!

 

With that introduction out of the way, it’s time to get down to business.

Let’s admit it,­ Instagram Stories are the “coolest” way to communicate with your audience, and you want to be a part of it.

But if you don’t know the shortcuts to create quick & easy Instagram Stories … they can feel like a total waste of time.
 

Alex and I don’t want you to hold back from posting quick & easy Instagram Stories *just because* you aren’t sure how to make the greatest impact.

That’s why we are inviting you to Alex’s FREE Instagram Story Workshop where she shares her top 10 tips, tricks & hacks for the busy entrepreneur.

As always, I would NEVER recommend anything to you that I haven’t tried, tested and LOVED. This training is jam packed with the greatest tips/tricks when it comes to making a greater impact with Instagram stories and I know that you will love Alex as much as I do.

For anyone following me on Instagram @KateeBlizzard and wondering how I learned how to use InstaStories for my business, it’s from Alex Beadon (The Instagram Stories QUEEN!)

What are you waiting for? CLICK HERE and get ready to show up on Instagram Stories like never before!

3 Steps to Grow Your Instagram Following

3 Steps to Grow Your Instagram Following

Does it seem like for every new follower on Instagram you have 10 people unfollowing?

I wish I could tell you it’s not you, it’s me, but in reality, with Instagram’s current algorithm, it takes a lot to be seen nowadays. BUT… There are ways to make it happen! And you CAN find people who would love to hear about your business and its mission. Today, I want to share with you 3 SIMPLE TIPs that will help you be seen more on Instagram.

Step 1: Use Keywords in the Name Field.

Instead of repeating your Business’s name, which is most likely already your username (@orgname), choose some keywords to describe what you offer, where you are based, and who you help. This is one of the only “Searchable” sections of your profile so by utilizing keywords such as “Sydney Hair Stylist” or “Byron Bay Wedding Coordinator”, you will have an edge amongst the competition. Because when people search for hashtags with those keywords, GUESS WHO POPS UP?!?!

Step 2: Use ALL 30 Hashtags

Yes! DO THIS! I am telling you, so many people worry that they clutter their posts but there are ways around it! By not using all 30, you are losing out on searchability potential. Think of hashtags as the SEO of Instagram. You want to make sure that you are using hashtags that are relevant to your target market. Stay away from hashtags that are overly popular like #coffee with nearly 80 Million posts. Yours will get lost super fast, unfortunately. Look for ones with 20K to 100K if possible. One way is to make your hashtags less cluttered is to post them in your first comment. I have done tons of research on this and so far there is no evidence to say it has a negative effect on your account.

Step 3: ENGAGE for more ENGAGEMENT

You’ve got to give in order to get with Instagram. Go through hashtags relevant to your target market. Try to think about these questions: What other businesses might they support? What sorts of restaurants do they go to? Where are they based? The answers will help you focus in on exactly where your IDEAL FOLLOWERS who are hiding on Instagram. It is much easier for you to go find them and comment on their photo than it is for them to find you if they have never heard of you before. For example: If you’re targeting runners for your organization’s next 5k, search #GoldCoastRunner and various other forms of that. Then, go out and engage with them! Be sure to leave authentic (NON-SPAMMY) comments on their photos. They will check you out!

So, in a nutshell for those who scrolled straight to the bottom:

  1. Add Keywords to your Name Field to increase searchability.
  2. Use 30 Hashtags specific to your target follower
  3. ENGAGE authentically with people you wish would buy your product/services!

P.S. If you have a business or tech question on your mind that you’d like me to answer? Leave a comment below! Most likely, someone else has that question too!

Back by popular demand, we are offering our signature Social Greatness Audits which leave you with a Personalized Action Plan that will let you make a greater impact online. 

INCLUDES:

  • Your personalized online presence audit recorded and sent to you within 1 Business Week after payment.
  • An in-depth audit that will include all of your social profiles as well as your website.
  • A 3-5 page action plan with personalized steps for you to take to make a greater impression online.

Learn more at https://socialgreatness.co/sg-audit/

5 Steps to Create the Perfect Instagram Bio

5 Steps to Create the Perfect Instagram Bio

Crafting an Instagram bio can be quite aqonizing. This is your one shot to grab someone, engage them, and get them to click that coveted “Follow” button.

What do you say? What do people actually care about seeing in this little box that’s supposed to convey so much?

A great bio should showcase the personality and uniqueness of the business while prompting the consumer to take an action. Here are the components of a great bio section:

1 | A clear photo – whether this is of you or your logo, this should accurately convey the business

Instagram is all about imagery. While the image in that little bubble in the bio section seems small, it can convey a lot. When looking at the profile, if the image appears blurry or grainy, then that will reflect poorly on your brand. Whereas, if you place a strategically selected image or even just a clean shot of your logo, it will speak to viewers.

 

2 | Name as a subhead – utilizing the name space to showcase your tagline or 2 to 3 main keywords will help your account show up in more searches

By utilizing the namespace to insert keywords around your business’ purpose and products, your page will be able to appear in more searches. It’s good to use words here that captivate and don’t come off as just keyword stuffing – shoving certain words in as much as possible to appear more. Make this choice wisely and based in purpose and strategy.

 

3 | Two main messages – your bio should communicate your business’ purpose or meaning and how a call to action

It’s best to craft this in a notes app on your phone and then copy and paste it so that you can break up the lines well visually. There should be two pieces of information – Your purpose and a CTA. Are you offering a freebie? Do you want them to email you for something? Maybe check out your new blog post? Have your CTA clear and easy to follow through on, which brings me to my next point:

 

4 | A link – providing a link with a Call to Action

This is a must! The most frustrating thing Instagramtagram sometimes is that they only allow you ONE link. There’s this really great app, LinkTree, that allows you to create buttons for other links. Utilizing a platform like this lets you provide more options for your audience. Do you have a few main products your pushing? How about a freebie AND a service you want people to check out? Want your contact page always linked? LinkTree provides these options and makes it so easy. On top of that, you can see how many times the button was clicked!

 

5 | Contact – your viewer needs to easily know how to contact you when they come into contact with your page

When an account is moved over from personal to business, new buttons appear and a location can even be added. By easily adding a form of contact, a potential client or partnership is able to quickly and easily reach out to you to inquire about anything they may be interested in. Also, by adding a location, it can help with search results. This is mostly beneficial if your business is associated with a particular location or you have a brick and mortar store. This is less applicable if you have a service-based business that is mostly done online.

Bonus: Story highlights – this is more of a bonus, but once you’ve moved into curating beautiful stories, it’s great to add those highlights

Nowadays it seems everyone is all about the stories, especially when you have really strong ones! Instagram offers a feature to add highlights to the bio section in little circles. If you post around certain themes this can be really great. For example, if you have some great shots of product, that can be one highlight circle.

Are you ready to step up your Instagram Bio game?

 

Building Engagement and Followers with InstaStories

Creating Instagram stories for business is a challenging and ongoing learning process. Just like all the other social platforms, Instagram constantly changes its algorithm. It can be difficult to keep up with the most current best practices. Below are some tips you can use to make sure you are creating great Instagram stories for your business that move your audience through the purchase funnel with clear engagement goals.

1 | ADD TEXT TO YOUR VIDEOS

While Instagram is a platform for photos and videos, text is a vital part of your stories for building engagement. Without text, your audience will be lost as to the purpose of why you’ve added something to your story.

It’s important that your story is a curation of helpful content intended specifically for your audience. If the story is only self-serving for your brand, viewers are sure to swipe away. Adding test to your images and videos will surely add clarity, helping your audience members know exactly why you’ve shared specific visual content with them.

Madewell does this exceptionally well. Every image they share has some sort of text on it, whether it’s something that is typed in the actual story or part of the image itself. Either way, they’ve curated and explained helpful content to make sure that their viewers swipe up.

2 | ASK QUESTIONS AND THEN FOLLOW UP

With Insta’s new poll feature, it’s easy to ask questions and see what your users think. However, it’s very important that you avoid controversial questions and make sure that there’s a follow up to these questions.

Canna-Pet has done this in an engaging way via a contest. They’ve encouraged users to tag their pet pictures with @cannapet and then utilized those pictures in a poll of which dog was cutest. Users then vote for the dog of their choice, and the owner of the most popular dog gets a $25 gift card. This encouraged engagement through tags, shares, and votes, all of which helped grow their follower base and got their stories incredible engagement.

There are many ways in which to use the poll feature. However, the two answer option can feel very limiting. Sometimes it can be beneficial to ask an open-ended question. This gives your brand the opportunity to open up the conversation with your clientele. Make sure, however, that you reply to a majority of the responses! If you don’t, your audience will surely feel as though their response went into the abyss and will let others know. Never underestimate the power of digital word-of-mouth.

3 | BREAK UP THE CONTENT

E! News does this best to garner clicks, which is what we all want as brands, right? They’ve taken pieces of intriguing headlines and put them together with a photo of the celebrity that the article is about in order to peak interest. This set up breaks up their stories and allows for users to click through to find the celeb they’re interested in or a headline piece that they want to know more about.

How does this work for products instead of content?

Well, your brand can use it in one of two ways. First, you can show new products and then break up the story around how that product came to be. As a socially responsible organization, this is something that would really intrigue your followers. They want a clear view into either how it’s made or how you came up with it. The Behind-the-Scenes look is very popular with all influencers and brands right now.

Also, you can link to your own content. Content is king in the digital world and as a growing brand, you already have or will need to build a blog around the industry you are breaking into. By building up this flow of content, you will be able to build up more traffic and shares by breaking up the information throughout your stories.

4 | HAVE A CALL TO ACTION

The most common Call To Action (CTA) is to encourage your viewer to go to your profile and click on a link you’ve strategically placed in your bio (i.e. “link in bio”). This will get more eyes on your profile and you will garner more traction to the most necessary pages on your site this way.

Make sure that your CTA and the action taken are clearly linked to the photo in the story. RedBull has done this really well. They show short clips of extreme sports videos while encouraging viewers to go to their site to see the full video.

This is your best way to get your viewers to your website or other action that you may want them to take. Just as you have CTAs in your other marketing efforts (i.e. emails, display ads, etc), you’ll want to make sure that the action you request of your audience is clear and beneficial for them.

 

5 | TEASE ’EM A BIT…

Get your audience pumped up about your story by saying something that makes them want to keep clicking through instead of swiping away. Travel + Leisure is one brand that has done that really well. They encouraged viewers to guess where they were based on hints in their pictures AND words with a big reveal at the end. This got their viewers excited about where they may be adventuring as well as getting them engaged in the game and finally, a new place to venture to!

This is something really great for your brand when launching a new product, project, or freebie that you want to build excitement around within your audience. When posting teasers, it’s best to use your words (as mentioned in rule 1) to explain to your viewers what they’re seeing and why it’s exciting for them. Break up the content and take them through the story as you build this excitement. You can also break up the content over days and not just one story so that your viewers are eager to check back to your story for updates.

Which of these strategies are you most excited to try out in your next story?

An Entrepreneur’s Guide to Instagram Marketing with the Creator of Plann

Episode 02: Instagram Marketing to Find Your Ideal Clients with the Creator of Plann

An Interview with Christy Laurence

 

Today I had the pleasure of chatting with Christy, the Wonder Woman behind the app Plann, about the importance of Instagram Marketing. Plann is an app that completely revolutionizes the way you create and schedule content. In our chat, we discuss everything from the importance of utilizing the right hashtags to the need for understanding you brands story before attempting to do so with photos.

 

 

This app is everything you need to achieve InstaGreatness and it’s now a part of my daily Insta routine. Christy is such a beautiful human and she truly cares about every person who uses the app. She is constantly updating it to keep up with the latest trends and Instagram features including the new release of Story Planning!!!

Take a listen to our chat to hear more about the incredible features as well as Christy’s tips for your own Instagram success.

Show Notes:

Connect with Christy:

Hang out with her on Instagram @plannthat

Read the blog

Visit plannthat.com

Hey Everyone! My name is Katee Blizzard and I am the owner and lead strategist behind Social Greatness. I have a passion for helping purpose-driven entrepreneurs achieve the success they deserve through strategic planning, social media management, and impact-driven outreach. I’m a firm believer in you get what you give and I know that together we will leave a great impact on this world.

What the heck is Social Greatness!?!

To define Social Greatness, we must start with defining social good.

Traditionally, we could define “social good” as an action that benefits society. Now, however, thanks to the rise of Social Media, nonprofits and governments are no longer the only sole driver of a cause.

Today, businesses large and small can become changemakers by adding a social responsibility component to their business models.

Adding a charitable component to your business will do a ton of good for not only the charities that you support, but also for brand recognition and your sales.

That sounds pretty GREAT to me!

The purpose of Social Greatness Strategy is to help you dive deep into your business and find its true potential in order to maximize its growth and elevate its greatness. Together, we will tackle the world of Social Media, Media Relations and Launch Events that will have your business seen by people you could only dream of getting in front of.

You are an amazing human being with an incredible business, now it is time to take it and make it GREAT!

If you are ready to take your business to the next level, click HERE to sign up for a Free Strategy Call with Me! 

So what do you say? Are you ready to take your next step towards getting in front of your DREAM Clients? 

Hey Everyone! My name is Katee Blizzard and I am the owner and lead strategist behind Social Greatness. I have a passion for helping purpose-driven entrepreneurs achieve the success they deserve through strategic planning, social media management, and impact-driven outreach. I’m a firm believer in you get what you give and I know that together we will leave a great impact on this world.