Ashley's Tip of the Week: Instagram Engagement

Hey guys, welcome back to another quick tip on the Boutique Chat podcast. This week I want to give you a quick tip about Instagram because I know as often as you are laying in bed and scrolling Instagram, I'm wondering if you are actually using Instagram to its fullest for your business. There's a huge difference. I like to think of it as are you on Instagram or are you using Instagram? So often people will come to us at the Boutique Hub and ask that question, how come my Instagram is not working for me, right? How come I don't have any engagement, I don't have any traffic, I don't have any sales? How can I get some traction using Instagram? So today the quick tip is really to define the difference between being on Instagram and actually using Instagram. So let's start with being on Instagram. This means you're probably using Instagram simply as a sales channel. Someone told you you should be active there, you should be posting there, your customers are there. So you're posting, posting, posting, trying to get somebody to engage with you and actually come back to your website or to your live sale. Now this is selling on Instagram, this is being on Instagram. You're probably posting and then leaving. You're probably not engaging with other accounts. You maybe feel like you have no engagement in stories and you're just uploading pictures of new products to stories and maybe once in a while doing your own face to camera type video on stories that's on Instagram. And now let's talk about what it means to actually use Instagram as a tool. And when I think about using Instagram, I think about being a servant leader. And really that comes to all content marketing. If you ask me. It means serving before you sell. It means offering your community something of value before you ask for them to buy something in return. So how that looks on Instagram is a little bit like this. When you make captions and post descriptions on Instagram, rather than telling someone to telling them about a product, you're asking them, you're engaging with them, you're telling a story, you're asking a question, you are giving them a clear call to action and you're inviting them to be a part of the actual photo that you've posted. You're asking them to be a part of that journey with you. And maybe that means that the photo that you post isn't necessarily always a sale product. Maybe it's more branded content or behind the scenes of your brand, or it's a question you're asking that's just engaging because you know it relates well with your target market. Maybe it's a photo of you and a reel that you made, or a video that you did, or something that's much more personal than actually posting a product on Instagram. So are you actually posting and telling them something, or are you posting and asking to build a relationship through the caption and the copy that you use? That will make a 100% difference in how you see engagement when you're telling versus asking. Another way to think about really using Instagram is the same thing when it comes to your Insta stories. Rather than just posting a photo in your story and hoping someone engages with it, give them a way to engage. So that's using the yes or no question as a poll, or actually asking them a question, using the question box to ask them a simple question. Using the little slider to say, let me know, do you agree with this or do you love this? Or how would you wear this? Or to do a side by side collage and say, which one of these do you like better? Also using the Shop Small logo or stick sticker that's in Insta Stories. Any of the copy or the hashtags or the tagging opportunities that are inside of stories, all those little buttons, the more you can use and engage with the tools Instagram gave you, those are all meant to build engagement. And what Instagram loves to know is that you know what this is a user on the platform who is actually here that people want to engage with. So they're going to start to show your content more and more. So the trick is not just to sell something on Instagram, but to serve on Instagram and to ask questions and to build engagement with those tools that are there and with the copy and the captions and descriptions that you're writing on a daily basis. Another way to think about truly using Instagram is to know what tools are Instagram really working on pushing right now? What is it that they're waiting really heavy in the algorithm and am I maximizing those tools? For example, Reels. Reels is TikTok's competition, right? Instagram wants to get as many people as they can to adopt the use of reels to compete with this rising trend of TikTok. So the more reels you do, the more weighted you're going to be in the algorithm and the more you're going to show up. So get busy being uncomfortable and creating some sort of reels or reusing reels you've used on TikTok, downloading them or screen recording them so they don't have the TikTok logo on them and then reusing them on reels. Another great way to think about really using the platform is hashtags. Simply three to five quality hashtags on your post are another great way to help you show up in search and help you find users that may love to engage with your account. I also think hashtags and the idea that a hashtag can help you get discovered and show up on the Home Discover feed is directly related to how much you're actually engaging on the platform. So. So if you're simply coming to Instagram and posting on your own profile, but you're not engaging with anyone else, that says a lot about how you're actually on versus using the platform. If you're truly using the platform, you're following other accounts on a regular basis, you're leaving comments with three to five words and emojis, and you're sending DMS to other accounts. So this is something if you have a social media intern that you could hire for just a couple hours a week to help take some of the social media burden off of your plate, this is a really great place for them to start to engage with other users to find similar accounts. And then every single comment someone leaves on your account or dm, respond quickly and with quality responses and comments back. That little move right there will help you get discovered faster than any because Instagram wants to see that you're creating a spider web of activity with multiple other accounts across the entire platform. Frankly, the more you can tag and be tagged, the better. But sometimes it has to start with you sharing some love and serving other accounts and to get some serve like to to get some of that engagement and for someone to serve you in return. So get busy engaging with other accounts. All right guys, this whole idea on Instagram goes back to again servant leadership. So the more you can show up and serve your customer, build a relationship, ask questions and talk about more than just the products you're selling, but truly caring about the other person on the other side of the screen, you. That's when true growth starts to happen on Instagram. So I hope you love this week's quick tip. We are just about to our next season's launch of the podcast. I hope that you're going to join me for that season opener. It's going to be epic. And help you plan out all the good things that are to come in 2022. So with that today's Quick Tip is complete. I did add a quick download for you in this week's Show Notes. Yes, there are show notes for these quick tips. It's a free download on all kinds of Instagram engagement strategies that are going to help you not just be on the platform, but to truly start using the platform. So go ahead, get that free download in today's Show Notes episode and I will see you back here next week. Thanks, guys.