Boutique Summit 2019 - Boutique Owner Panel

Taylor, talk to us about Instagram.

Okay, so how many people absolutely hate the algorithm? Hands. Oh, that's it. Nobody hates the algorithm.

It's bad.

Oh, yeah. Like, algorithm on literally anything. So Instagram, you guys know, is a pain at a lot of times, and I have done a ton of research on it that literally, like, I'll take certain Fridays and being like, okay, what's the algorithm doing today? What can I learn today? So I know you mentioned earlier about you use that later planner. Yeah. Well, they actually have a blog, and on their blog, they have, like, the top 10 things that are happening with the algorithm in Instagram in 2019. The best times to post on Instagram in 2019. There are tons of information on that website, and we found it. So with our Instagram, we started saw that there needed to be engagement always. And a lot of times, millennials don't want to be sold to. That is the weirdest thing I'm going to tell you. But they want to think that they did something for you, not that you did something for them. So it's you trying to be like, yes, thank you so much for buying from me. Oh, my God, thank you. You just. You hung the moon. Like, they want you to, like, kiss their ass, basically. So that's what we've had to do. We have had to be like, oh, my God, you guys won't believe what we just saw. It's coming and it's for you. And they're like, yes, cool, that's mine. I get to decide if I'm gonna give you that. Like, and I get to decide if I'm gonna give you that comment. And that sucks. So there's a lot of stuff that we do that we're not trying to sell to them. Like, recently we learned that there's a lot of stuff that Instagram does now. Like, you think that it's just likes and comments that are getting your engagement, and it's not that anymore. So how many people have a ton of, like, requests in their DMs or have a bunch of unopened DMs that is hurting your engagement really bad? Instagram wants you to have lifelong relationships. And when you're opening it and you're looking at it and you're ignoring it, Instagram is like, oh, you don't want them to see your content? Cool. We won't show them. When I read that, I was like, cool, let me go through these feedback 50 requests and say, thanks. No, we no longer have it. It's sold out. Yeah, it comes in Three different colors. Which one would you like? An invoice. So that does it. And in your stories, when you have a location anywhere you are, make sure that you are posting that location. That is going to throw whoever is around that location on their Explore page. And you get on that Explore page and it's like somebody new has found you. When you use Instagram's mention sticker, you know how you can do apps and then you can just type their name. Well, on Instagram they have their mention sticker and that shows Instagram that you're into Instagram and you're going to use their stuff hashtags in stories are going to throw your stuff everywhere. Like, there is so much stuff that I was just like, are you kidding me? I've been doing this wrong. I just thought it was likes and comments and it's not. So what we started to do was do like fun questions. Like I think one of our questions in our polls, instead of saying which one would you rather have? It was literally like, we which one would you shoot? Vodka or tequila? And we had 2,000 people poll when we usually have never had 2,000 people vote on that. And then I was like, would you rather go to New York? And I did the New York one or Los Angeles and people would pick that poll. And so people in New York saw our stuff, people in Los Angeles saw our stuff. You have got to do so much things to it. But it's. Yeah, exactly. Instagram is because, you know, everybody wants to be Insta famous now. Everybody wants to be YouTube famous. So Instagram is trying to weed out those people that aren't serious about it. My other question, how many people is using IGTV? Okay, not a ton get on that. Because one, YouTube does it to where you can monetize videos and you can start doing ads. Instagram is getting to that point with igtv. They haven't done it yet, but they are to where you're going to get ads on those IGTVs. And it's easier to do. Like we posted that we got a new bus and we had over 10,000 people look at it like, and that I've never had on igtv. I don't have that many on just like feed posts. But because it was something that continued to be seen, it pushed it everywhere. So if you don't know igtv, it's basically you can do videos, but you can do it for longer amounts of time. We basically are doing like behind the scenes and we're putting a bumper so that Way you can see it and then you can let it preview on your feedback. And so whenever it comes up on your feed, all of a sudden it's thrown and they get to watch the rest of it. So there's a lot about Instagram. If you have questions about it, I can't answer them. I literally have some days where I'm in bed and I'm like, I wonder what Instagram's doing today. Three days later, I'm still trying to figure it all out.

Did anyone just learn something new about Instagram?

Awesome. Well, good. I'm glad.

That's really good.

Those hours and 3 o' clocks in the mornings helps. Perfect. We'll keep.

If you have questions, which reminds me, you just raised your hand. Ask them in the app. Sarah will come up and we're gonna. I know you're gonna have questions for.

These guys, so put them in the app. Yeah.

All right. Mindy, you're the queen of live sales. I looked.

All hail the queen.

All right, talk to us about strategy.

Okay, well, when you first start out, and I still do this sometimes today, not on my main live cell, but if I'm gonna have a mini and nobody knows it's happening, make sure you always do a preview. Post it in your stories, post it everywhere. Be there at 8 o' clock, at 12:30 the day of the main live sale every Thursday. And they know at 12:30 I'm doing a preview. No one can buy one thing off the preview, but I'm going to show them almost everything and they're going to be begging for it. They're going to be messaging us, going, can I get this? I'm going to say, oh, no, you can't get it. You got to watch it on the sale. You've got to watch it on the live sale and every day. And on that preview, I tell them to tag their friends. S H A R E this post and then comment Summer is here. Three words and an emoji and that will change it sometimes. We forgot one day we had 90 less viewers on a live sale because we forgot we didn't do our 12:30 post. So that post is so, so important for your live sell. So you obviously want to keep your engagement up all the time, but the day of the live sale, do one live and tell them to share it. And like that video, also fake it till you make it. If you're just starting out with live sales or even if you make a post, this is all about Facebook. You get your three best friends, your mom, your sister, I don't care who, and go get on there and comment Sold for something, or comment, hey, I want that in a large. I'm not going to put it in your basket. You don't have to buy it. But people are so scared to do something wrong that they're not going to go out there and say, oh, my God, I want that. But I don't know what to do. I don't know how to start it to buy it. So you're going to have your friend, you're going to show this top, and they're going to be like, you tell them ahead of time, hey, this is the first top I'm going to show you. You're going to go on there and say you want a large in it. So then they go on there and go, sold large. And you go, okay, Jojo, we'll get you that large. What's your PayPal email if you're not using comments Sold or something like that? Well, then you got the other friend that you've already talked to ahead of time, and you go, you tell her, well, you're going to get a small. So she's going to go on there, oh, yeah, I love that top two. I want a small. Well, then they see exactly how you want them to comment because you've already trained these two people and how to do it correctly. Well, then they go on and do it, and you're like, nobody wanted this two minutes ago, but now two people said they want it, everybody wants it. I'll even have my mom. I'm like, hey, something's wrong with the algorithm. Go on there and say, hey, Mindy, did you put mine in the back? And then my sister will go, oh, yeah, did you get mine, too? It's gone in five minutes. After, my mom and my sister go on there and say, hey, I got mine pulled back. Right? They're like, oh, well, I have to have that, because they need that, you know, so it's definitely faking it till you make it. That goes for post, too. But you can say, I'm gonna give you even customers. I'll give you 20% off. It just helps.