Ep #338: How To Create Quality Content That Actually Works

Hey, guys.

Welcome back to the podcast. This week, I am so excited to be joined by someone who is such a leader in not just our industry, but for marketers in general. Many of you already follow Jasmine Star across Instagram and all socials, maybe even her program, Social Curators. Well, today we are deep diving into all things content creation, how to cut the overwhelm, how to maximize Instagram, how to create reels, and how to make sure you're creating quality content that actually works. And I'm so pumped to have Jasmine on the show. She's someone I've admired in this industry for such a long time and I know you are going to get a ton out of this episode. Enjoy. Guys, meet my friend, Jasmine Star. Let's talk about your business strategy and the juicy details of what actually works. From mainstream fashion to fashion on Main street and the entire ecosystem behind it. How do we scale your company and do it with the balance and the happiness that we all seek? Let's hear from those insiders, experts, and strategists that actually make it happen. I'm your host, Ashley Alderson from the Boutique Hub, and I can't wait to chat. Hey, guys, we're back. I'm so pumped that Jasmine is with us today. And I think, Jasmine, you've got a special guest that may make a cameo appearance in the background today, right?

Oh, Ashley, I'm happy we're starting there because you might hear the voice of like a 19 month old in the background. So we're just gonna own it. We're just gonna own it and let you know that this interview just is not with myself. It's also with Luna Soul, so you'll hear her in the background. So we're just going to own that and completely address it.

On the front side, we'll put Luna, like, in the byline of the podcast. Like, you know what?

You know, her ego can't even take this. Maybe I should say my ego can't even take this. She's been bound to make this podcast interview way more interesting.

Oh, man. Well, you know why I love, like, just the authenticity of this so much is you and I both know that when it comes to content and social media, no one likes perfect. Like, we're over perfect. We're over this, like, veil of social media. We all just want authenticity. And I think you do such a great job in everything that you teach about just coming as you are and being so real and authentic. So today, I mean, just for a brief minute, give me, like, why you love this. Topic so much. Why you love social media, why you love content creation. What is it about this that sets your soul on fire?

You know, Ashley, I'm going to differentiate a couple things that you had put in there, and one of them was like, why are you passionate about social media? Why are you passionate about creating content? And I'm actually going to focus on just the creating content. I'm actually not passionate about social media as much as I am passionate about creating content. And so if you were to tell me that the next requirement for creating content to grow a business would be to stand on two wild ponies dressed as a clown bleeding a kazoo, watch me buy two ponies. So it's about the content, because the content, in and of itself is an expressive, creative, artistic division of who we are, even if we do not feel that we are artistic, creative creatures or beings. And beyond that, I am passionate about the art of creation in that it becomes a passport for us to move from one destination to another. And right now, we are living in an unparalleled, unrivaled time in human history where we are the creators of our passports, and we decide where and how we want to move. Now, the people who feel suspended in midair are simply not the people who are not talented or don't know how to dance to a reel or don't know how to point in an Instagram story or go live. No, not at all. It's the people who have a hard time moving in a direction for fear of making mistakes. So we're going to get to that. I mean, we hit the ground. We hit the ground running. So the big push, the big passion for me is creating content, because content will be a defining factor for the success and growth rates of a boutique owner.

Period.

The end.

Yes.

So good.

I love that you made that differentiation, because so many times people feel trapped, like, oh, it's the algorithm's fault, or it's social media, or it's whatever. You know, the algorithm's holding me back. But when you make that distinction about creating content and that content being a creative expression of yourself and serving other people, it gives us a direction to go, even when we felt stifled by what's happening, you know, with algorithms and everything around us.

Okay, Ashley, I mean, you're not even getting to your questions, and I'm taking on these detours, but I think that it's really important for me. It's really important for me for people at the outset to know who I am and what I believe, because it's easier for you to get a very clear idea of whether or not you're going to like me right now and stop listening. Or you're going to say, she makes me feel a little certain way, but I'm going to continue to listen. And then there's going to be a group of people who say, I just like her. She's my folk. I don't want to be liked as much as I want to be trusted. And I want to be trusted because you must believe that I want every boutique owner in this country to succeed. So if you know my intention is to get you to your success, then I'm going to say things what might make you uncomfortable. And so if you're a boutique owner and you feel like the algorithm's out to get you, I need to stop that lie right now. Because the algorithm is not the boogeyman. The algorithm is not out to get you. And in fact, it's the opposite. The algorithm is the friend who will tell you your white shorts are too tight and you got spinach in your teeth. The algorithm tells you the truth. What you don't like is the truth that the algorithm's telling you. And if you're not getting engagement and you're not getting what you want, the algorithm is just saying, boo, boo. You gotta try harder because this content that you're creating for your boutique, it's not working. So right about there, we lost about half the audience and the other half. Welcome. Welcome aboard. Welcome to The Truth Train 2.

Get on.

Get in the bed, get in the.

Here we go. I love that. Yes. And it will, it will spit the truth. So the question is, the right question is, after everything that you just said is how do we know from the start if what we're doing is working or not working? And how do we start to make the adjustment so that the content is reaching and working with the algorithm? How does someone make the distinction, here's where I am today and here's where I know I need to go tomorrow and how do I start creating better content to get there tomorrow?

Engagement. Engagement is clean. Engagement lets you know. Now you might think, but Jasmine, I only get 2 likes and I never get a comment. Well, that's still engagement. It's still going to give us a starting point. So for us to be super analytical. And this is the part I don't know, my experience is that when it comes to boutique owners, they are a unique breed of beauty dwellers. They look at the world as what can we do to make it more beautiful? And oftentimes Making it more beautiful is dressing the moving creatures out in the universe. Great. So when I tell boutique owner, let's get analytical, they're like, no, no, not that. So actually, if you want to continue making the world a little bit more beautiful, we got to go back into quant. So let's make this as easy as possible because I want to give actual tips for the podcast listeners to start taking action right now. And that would be to look at the last 30 posts. Just look at the last 30 posts. And what I want you to do is to look at how many likes and comments and saves that post got. Now I want you to take the top three of those 30, regardless of how many likes or comments, regardless, it's just those at the top. You take those three and recreate that post. Now, I don't mean copy the same caption, I don't mean use the same photo. I mean if you were having a flat lay and you were talking about fall styles and the caption was talking about what are your fall things you're looking ready or things you are getting ready for fall, then it's time for you to look at that and say, well, could we do fall part two? Could we do preparating for preparation for winter? Should we do preparation for holidays? And it's a flat lay? Okay, we can try that. If it is happens to be a hashtag that your boutique is owning. So that when ladies and gentlemen are in the dressing room and they're taking photos of themselves and using the hashtag and it's user generated content and you notice that that was one of the highest rated things, you got to ask yourself, well, was it that person, was it their look or was it just the outfit? So then you have two options. Maybe you can get a similar outfit with somebody else in the dressing room to see if a cross comparison or if that person really was driving it and somebod she or he really popped, why not invite that customer back in to say, would you try on a few clothes, tag us in a few stories and then we'll add on an extra 5%. Or we'll give you a little this or we'll give you a little bit of that. All I need you to do is take the top three performing posts and see if you can recreate them to prove your thesis. Right.

I love that. So we're looking analytically at what's working for our content and then how do we take that back to a formula to sit down and plan content and get more done with less time? So we aren't just throwing things at the wall every single day. When it comes to content creation, how are you helping people just like sit down and make the plan with what they know is right?

So, okay, before I answer this, I need us to embrace the idea that there will always be an element of throwing mud on the wall. Because if there was a clean, clear equation and every boutique owner was using it, you would not stick out. So there is an element of planning and then we must add a little bit of spice for the throwing of mud on the wall. So once we know that, it allows us to take a deep breath and get grounded for actually creating a content plan. Now, I know that if you talk to 10 different people, they're going to be 10 different pieces of advice that I am the founder of Social Curator and I believe in methodology. I do not believe that any of us should aspire that social media is our second full time job. I want it to be a piece of what it is we do without us being shackled to it. So what I propose to business owners, and let's use this as boutique owners, is seven caption categories. Because what we want to know is we want to be able to speak to specific categories that we know have been proven to drive engagement on social media. Let's not reinvent the wheel. So inside of Social Curator we have seven categories that we know are proven for engagement. And if you would like, if you give me a second, I can go through and read all of those out for you. And this is going to be the thing that's going to have a really profound effect when it comes to planning people. Ask Jasmine, how many times should I be posting in a day? Well, the answer is, is that it's different for everyone. But push comes to shove, if you want to grow, I believe that posting every day is going to be a good thing. I believe that social media is very much like working out. If you wanted to lose ten pounds and I wanted to lose ten pounds and you went to the gym and you meal planned every single day, you're going to lose the 10 pounds faster than I will. Now I can go once every other week and I'll lose my ten pounds, but I'm not going to get it as fast as I want. So social media works very much in the same way. So when we think about captioning categories, we want these things to fall in so that our followers know who we are and what we do. Number one, behind the scenes, what does the behind the scenes of your store look like? And People are like, I would never show my, like my store, like my warehouse. I would never show the bathroom. That's okay. I used to work at Nordstrom Retail. I was a manager at Nordstrom. Everybody knows you do not want to show that backroom. However, are there unique ways of showing how you package your products? Maybe. Maybe the unglamorous could actually be very intriguing. As a side note, I get targeted by Instagram ads. I often find myself buying things directly from Instagram. And there was a company in Los Angeles who created sweatpants. And all they did is they did time lapse with their iPhone and they just walked up and down the aisles as the sweatpants, as the athleisure wear was being created. And then it showed it putting in a box and the box goes into the truck. And I was captivated. This ugly, nonsensical. I would never show. That actually was a thing that made me want to buy it. So let's not underestimate beauty and what that looks like. So behind the scenes, category number two, my why. Why did you and your co founders or just you or your partner start the boutique? It is okay for you to remind your customers why it is that you started. Number three, personal insights. And this could be from you. It could be from the team. Do you have like, are you team Bachelor? Who. Who on your staff is Team Bachelor or not? When you have these conversations, you can get into the cultural conversations and then say, did you see Stephanie's outfit? We have a lookalike outfit for all you bachelor lovers. Start hashtagging Bachelor in Paradise. Bachelor. What is it? Bachelor Nation. I don't even know. I don't watch that show. But this is us using these things. Capture category number four would be encouragement. Now, I think for boutique owners, you could speak to such pressure points that specifically females face as they shop, sizing, not feeling like their best self. Postpartum, flat chested, big chested, big feet, small feet, big nose, small nose. Everybody has an issue. But what could you do to drive encouragement specifically around what it is that you are selling? Perhaps you in your store, you sell pendants that have encouraging messages, cards that have encouraging messages. Maybe your team sends thank you cards with like little inspiring notes. Maybe you have stickers in the dressing room that remind people that they are perfect. Exactly. Exactly as they are. Whatever the case may be, we're going to visually show a form of encouragement to their followers. Then we can get into the about us. It's about you and your team. It would be so crazy. Now here's the Thing. I'm not going to give a shout out to this particular boutique in Newport beach, but I find myself going there about twice a month and there are, based on social media alone, certain sales representatives that I want to work with because I know about their kids, I know where they went on vacation, I know like what kind of books they like to read. Now you might be thinking, wait a minute, who cares about the books? No, no, no, I want to shop with somebody who gets me and in the passing of the jeans to the thing through the door, she'd be like, well, did you see that new book? Yes, that's exactly what I want. Personal relationships with the people I'm buying clothes from. Number six, benefits. When we talk about benefits, people are like, jasmine, we sell T shirts. What's the benefit of a T shirt? Like you could say, like, hey, people wear T shirts. They're not naked. Fine, but what, really, how many, how many different vendors of T shirts are you carrying in the shop? Do any one of those vendors have like a give back campaign in any way, shape or form? Perhaps the benefits of the T shirts is if you're having like a buy one, get one 50% off or perhaps during the holidays you're having shirts with inspirational messages. And this could be a small thank you gift to the person who's hosting Thanksgiving so that you don't have to cook a turkey. Lastly, lucky number seven. This is every boutique owner's favorite to showcase the product or service. So this would be a great opportunity for you to ensure that this goes as a heart hard right hook to what it is that you sell. But those seven categories, if you wanted to post one of those seven categories every single day, so then you have your caption category. I would then advise boutique owner, as we're strategically showing up to create content and that would be to focus on visual topics. Let's just assign one visual topic for each day of the week. Now do you always have to post this visual topic on a Monday or Tuesday? Not at all. But if you were to say we have like styled flat lays, if we were to say user generated content, if we were to say the team does try ons, if we were to have the plus size member of the team does our curvy size team member does a try on, you're going to be creating visual content categories and then lastly you're going to choose the type. Specifically, boutique owners are killing the game on Instagram. So we'll use Instagram as an example. Now Instagram, you can go live, you can Have a video under 60 seconds, a video over 60 seconds which then turns into an IGTV. You can do stories, you can do reels, and you can do photos. There is so many options. So as you're content planning, make sure and ask yourself, do we want to create a reel with our plus size sales associate modeling clothes that day or do we want to do a photo? Do we want to do a live? And if we do a live, are we having three of our sales reps coming in off the floor changing into multiple outfits? Like what then are we doing and how are we leveraging that on the back of stories? It is just the plan. Making the plan is the heavy lifting. Creating the content then becomes a joy.

Yeah, let's talk more about the plan. I'm curious when you're looking at those seven categories and deciding, okay, am I going to do it this, this, this and this way? How can I better plan to use one piece of content seven different ways? So for example, I'm going to do this try on session, but I want to do this try on session for Instagram. But I'm also going to reuse it and I'm going to put it with like several different little try on sessions, patch it into a bigger video, make it a reel. I'm also going to do it on TikTok. I'm also going to put it on YouTube. Do you have a methodology for just maximizing every single piece of content so we can reuse it in multiple different ways?

Well, I'm going to answer it two ways. I'm going to answer it in the get her done way and then I'll answer it in what I think is truly the most effective way. And the get er done way is sure you can do, you can do a try on and then splice out pieces of the try. If you do a try on live, right, and you decide we're gonna do the top 10 outfits for fall, the top 10 back to school outfits that every mom wants to wear and you do those and then you could splice out that video and then have every outfit be two seconds a piece and get a 20 second reel. Do I think you're gonna get a lot of views on it? Probably not, because the clips don't look like they're native to the actual app within your creating it. You could absolutely do that. However, if you spent about 10 to 15 minutes more planning out the reel in conjunction with the live. So if I were, if I was a boutique owner, I would be like, we're Talking about the 10 outfits that we have. And depending on how many models you can get, perhaps you get five. That means that there would have to be enough time for everybody to try on two things. Or maybe you have five looks and then a second five layered looks. You add on a blazer, hat and scarf. You can do the upsell at point of sale, whatever the case may be. If you were to do the live, you have your team members come off, and then you could record on a separate camera what you would want them to do in the real. Because the real versus the live is like, as you're doing a try on during live, that person's going to stand, twirl, perhaps hold it out, show like, you know, draping or showing buttons, come up to the camera, do something a little bit closer. But on a real, it's more about how does the outfit look and move. And so after the live, you can have another camera set up and be like, girls, come over here. I want you to do like a hit, hit, hit. Great. Next. And when I say hit, hit, that's a little more of like a video. It's like, here, here, here. And it's a good trend. And on this backside of the trend, you can hear the song playing in the backside and the girls in the outfits are hitting it. So it looks native to the reel itself.

I love that. Better, better. Just like planning for time and then creating multiple pieces of content. Okay, so if I am a boutique owner and I'm a mom, I'm busy, I have limited amount of time, what is the best way for me to sit down and plan all this? Like, map it out and then second to that, come in and batch create it.

I do believe that the boutique owner is the best person to spearhead, at least initially, spearhead the vision and the planning for the content. Do I think it's imperative for the boutique owner to execute on that content? I think that's a bonus. I think it's a bonus because there's a good chance that there's other team members in the store who have a skill set that is at your level or above, or somebody who has the capacity to learn what it is you do when it comes to creating the content. And they could take over the reins. So I don't want anybody to feel like you have to do all the things. But in the beginning, as you come up, creating the plan, create the plan, create the vision, know who you're targeting, know who you're speaking to, know the words that you use, know the songs that you use. And then over time, when you build that plan, you can bring somebody else to execute against the vision and the execution, moving you out of the content creation and you're just supervising it.

Yeah, that's so important because you have to outsource. You absolutely can't do it all yourself. But I think as the visionary of the business, like, the content comes from you. It has to come from your heart, your soul, your. Why all of that do you use, like, when you're doing content planning, do you sit down? Do you map it out in a spreadsheet? Do you map it out in an app? Do you journal it in your notebook? And then you're like, okay, here's the plan for the week. Or what's like, the mechanism to plan it that you use?

So when I'm following the seven categories, I'm going to go in and I'm going to follow what are the categories to make sure that I'm hitting them. And every week, I don't always have to include all of them. There might be one week that I have two about me, depending on where I am and what promotional cycles look like in the business. And then the next thing I'm going to do is going to be choosing the visual topic. I have seven visual topics. Things like coffee, my family, my dog, my photography, my work life. So things of like that. And then I go into the type. Once I know the type and the visuals that I need, I then create a content plan I can when I go into a heavy promotional period. So if you're going to go into a Black, you're going to go to a Cyber Monday or a Black Friday sale, if you're going to go into Christmas, if you're going to go into Mother's Day, if you're going to go into maybe Valentine's, and you know you're going to be doing like a big push visually, I would recommend planning out a month of content. Now, I know that seems crazy, but I promise you, one day I don't. I don't even spend a full day. It's just one day planning the contents. And then all the entire team knows. Oh, exactly what they're doing. And then you could actually see like, wow, this reel for how to dress from night from day to night for Valentine's really took off for us. Well, then you could turn that into an ad two days before Valentine's to get people into the store. When you have a plan, you really know how to measure where it is that you're going. So on average, I am planning about two weeks of content because I batch my content every two weeks. So I want to know how many reels do I need for this next two weeks, how many photos do I need for the next two weeks and videos, things of that nature. Big promotional periods, 30 days at a time. On average around 15 days at a time because I like to batch most of my visual content two days a month.

Okay, got it. So batch creation two days a month, one full day planning and then pulling in team to help where they can execute. Digital Boutique Co is a group of professionally trained women who specialize in creating Instagram and Facebook ads that bring your brand to life. They bring you increased web traffic, higher live video views, app installs and more purchases. And they've been working for hub members for a long time. Digital Boutique Co has brought converting funnels to 200 plus member boutiques. They're partners of Commentsold and Vazro and they stay up to date on how to bring you the best results. Get 50% off when you sign up of your first month and you mention this podcast, schedule a call with Regan at digitalboutiqueco.com backslash let's chat. If someone's new to pulling in team to executing that, where do you think are some like low hanging fruit or easy places to bring in your team to help? Is it like I think about our business Pinterest, easy to outsource, right? You can come in, you can manage Pinterest, YouTube, easy to outsource, manage LinkedIn, easy to outsource and manage. But there's some things Instagram, content creation, it's a little bit harder. Where do you look to outsource first?

It depends on the needs. Like some boutique owners, their strength is not in writing captions. In that case you might want to over index on a virtual assistant who has a skill set that you don't have. Or perhaps you can really talk about your product in a way that feels really good and then photography just isn't your jam. You could bring somebody in and outsource. I say you outsource at your weakest points, not at your strengths. And then also it's entirely okay to get creative in who you are working with and why and how. Like I have seen boutique owners like do trades for girls to come in and shoot product photography on iPhones and edit it on their iPhone and the product photos look freaking amazing and that's like their skill set and sometimes they're paying them a much smaller fee than they would pay a professional photographer or they're doing trades for product within the store so you can get really creative on how you can afford out outsourcing and then looking within the community of who's around you to actually film those gaps.

Yeah, do what you do best and hire the rest. That's always our, our motto. I love that some of the boutique owners you work with and you don't have to name names, but I'm just curious, the most successful ones that you see, that you shop with, that you work with, what do you think they they have in common? The most successful ones, what do they have in common?

That they actually share their story. Because as much as boutique owners really want to pr no Tino Shade boutique owners want to pride themselves in their aesthetics and their taste, how they curate their store. But at the end of the day, Hamid, there are so many other boutiques buying the same product in the same store. And I can buy from any boutique in all of the US and in all of the world. And if we're just a segment, I only want to buy from boutique owners in the US of A. My options are hundreds of thousands. So how then regardless of the most brilliant photo that you took of that graphic tee and pastola Holy jeans, regardless of how great that photo is, why am I going to buy it from you? And it's truly when you share behind the scenes, when you're going to the like the product shows and you're talking about doing a poll in a booth, be like, we really like this vendor, but we can't tell which ones we should go. What should we get? You're getting real time feedback from future customers who want to buy what if you sell why guess why hold your opinion of what's going to be hot in the fall instead of asking your followers who are going to buy your product, it is the people who bring people along the journey. 100%.

I love that it has to be the journey, it has to be the why, the thing that sets you apart. I always tell boutique owners, people don't remember what they bought from you, but they remember how you made them feel. And I think great content creation involves so much emotion in bringing people along that journey.

Right, Correct. One of the things too when we talk about the journey is it's not just about the product. This goes back very much to a Maya Angelou quote. Like they don't remember what you said. People won't remember what you said, but you'll remember how you made them feel. And this is so important on social media that I follow a couple boutiques and one of the boutiques, as we went into summer, one of their curvy associates said, I'm going to do something that makes me feel really uncomfortable. I'm going to be doing bikini try ons. She's like, I have a hard time being in a bikini with just my family and I can't believe I'm going to do it in front of thousands of people. She's like, but I'm doing this. I'm going to write myself a note. And she wrote herself like a sticky note, put it on the mirror, and she did a try on of five different bathing suits. And a couple stories later she came on and she's like, you guys, we sold out of the bathing suits. And what was happening was that people were going back into the store and they were adding their own sticky note to the mirror. And it became a summer movement of self love. Regardless of how you felt in the bikini, man, I'm like, that's just good marketing. It was so good and juicy and tangible and women felt empowered and then they just wanted to support that story because of how they, how they felt. They did a swipe up from stories they sold out. That's how it works.

I love that. So powerful, happens by accident, but so tangible. And it just comes from being vulnerable, being real. Yes. If someone's listening and they feel like, man, Jasmine, like, I can do this. You've inspired me to do this. But now let's talk about Instagram specifically. Maybe some people are late adopters to Instagram specifically and they feel overwhelmed by reels. Let's talk about two main things, growth and engagement. Right. Because we have to have both to be successful. Let's start with engagement first. If I'm thinking about the anatomy of.

A great deal, actually, Ashley.

Yes.

I'm going to pivot here. One of the things that you had said, if I'm going to repeat it back, so I heard it clearly, is you need engagement and you need growth. What if I just lifted half of the burden by saying I actually just think you need engagement because we know in sales that your hottest customer is somebody who's already bought from you. Is that if your average sale is 125 and that person follows you over on Instagram like their LTV as a customer isn't 125 if they continue to shop for you through the swipe up and Instagram, if not now, it's coming by the time maybe this podcast drops, they will add the sticker link feature to all accounts, not just accounts over 10,000. So even if you're boutique owner and you have 2,000, well, game changer right there. The sticker is going to change that. So if what we're really focusing on is do I want boutique owners to have tens of thousands of followers? Of course. Do I think it's needed? No, I don't. So if we're going to wait one. Engagement.

Engagement.

Engagement. Do I want you to go?

Sure.

But I don't think it's necessary to actually double or even triple what your store is doing based on serving a small audience. Well, again and again, I love that.

That actually does lift a huge burden because when it comes to just engagement, I mean now we can sell so much easier with product tagging and with the stickers. All of the things. Talk to me about the anatomy of good post and maximizing engagement. On that post, is there caption layout? Is it hashtags? Is it time of day? Like the the ins and outs of just good post for engagement.

Great. So on the inside of Social Curator, we follow a methodology that's called the HIC method. H is hook, I is insights, and C is call to action. I believe every boutique owner should start off with a hook because specifically on Instagram, your captions are truncated to different two lines, which is about 100 to 120 characters. So your followers are going to have to click on the Read More to actually see anything else you say. So in order for them to click on the read More, I do not want like outfit of the day. Okay, fine. But in order for them to get to the rest of the caption, you have to hook them in. And even when somebody clicks on the read More, it might not be a like and it might not be a comment and it might not be a save. But that clicking on the read More is an indication to the algorithm that your follower is one willing to read what you have to say. That's a positive thing. So let's focus on getting that hook and then the insights that you're sharing. Two to three insights. This is to build the know, like and trust factor. These are things that if you want, could be talking about the particular item that you're showing in the photo. It could be talk about the culture or the ethos of the business. It can be talking about your why things that are going to draw somebody personally to your store. And then C is the call to action. Oftentimes boutique owners are like, people aren't talking back. But I'm like, did you ask a question? Did you ask for Advice? Did you ask for suggestions? Do you put a poll? Did you put a quiz? How are people going to talk back to your post if you just say, I love X, Y and Z? Fall is coming. Crunchy leaves, big socks, cable knit sweaters. Okay, what do I say to that? Right? Like you have to say, what color are you going to wear this year? Choose between chambray or ivory. We need to tell people what they want to say back to us. So that's going to be the anatomy of the caption. When it comes to hashtags. Oh, I'm kind of just like split down the middle. I half love them. I have to test them. And I did test them on behalf of the fact that people think that it's like a silver bullet. Like a boutique owner says, I'm going to use 30 and it's going to save the day. Or worse, even be way worse. It's like to use the same 30 hashtags thinking that those same 30 hashtags are going to provide any sort of difference or movement in the business. A hashtag is for discoverability, not necessarily for engagement. You are rewarded with engagement if the hashtag pertains to what is in the photo and or caption. If you are hashtagging JLO because JLO wore a white cable knit sweater and it has no reference to it, chances are that hashtag's not going to do much for you. So we have to really, really be cognizant about the hashtags that we're putting out so that we then, number one, make sure that that post is so, so pertinent to that actual caption that people can't help but wait. Pick out of a sea of other posts in that same hashtag, click on that, which is a good indication to the algorithm, and then be inclined, after using the HIC method, to leave a comment like and or follow. There was a third thing that you had mentioned in there. So it was the anatomy of the caption, it was hashtags. And the third one was, I think.

It was just maximizing engagement. But where my, where I want to take this is, okay, so you're maximizing engagement on your own posts, but one thing Instagram wants is not just for you to come and hit it and quit it and post and jump off the platform, but to engage with other accounts as well. So talk to me about the best way to engage with other accounts that ultimately is going to lead to growth overall. More people are going to discover you because you're actually engaging and building relationships with Other people on the platform as well.

Okay, so I love how siloed this conversation is because we are specifically speaking to boutique owners. And ideally, sure, anybody online can from. Buy from. Can buy from your boutique, but there is a higher likelihood that if you are engaging with geographic based hashtags in your town, city or county, there's a higher likelihood of somebody feeling known, seen and heard. So if you are in Conway, Arkansas, and I know Conway is very, very, very small, but if there are other local towns and you have a very small hashtag and you're like, jasmine, this hashtag has 137 entries. Guess what? That's 137 opportunities for you to meet somebody in your hometown, make them feel seen, make references to the football games or the football teams or your favorite ice cream in the town over and say, that's it. You are creating a social connection on social media. And then over time, when these people realize that you and your team are human beings and they have a dollar to spend, they get to choose. Are they going to buy from your store? Are you going to buy from the store down the street on Main Street? They will choose your store because you saw them first. Period the end.

Yes. So engaging local hashtags. Also, I think about like, local businesses like where's the salon down the street that I can collaborate with? Or what other accounts can I collaborate with? Do you think those types of collaborations with other accounts or doing giveaways with other accounts, is that still super relevant for growth and engagement on the gram?

Well, I don't think it hurts. I just don't think it moves the needle the way that it used to. You know, I think that giveaways have really become tainted on Instagram because they become like, follow all 30 of these accounts for a $200 giveaway tag. 18 friends jump through fiery hoops. Kind of like, doesn't really work all that well. You know, I mean, I do think that. I do think that there is the opportunity for a group of people to like do like a makeover for Mother's Day. And then you kind of like follow them throughout the day where they get an outfit at a boutique and a haircut and they get their nails done. I think those are cute and they're interesting. I don't necessarily think that they turn directly into hardcore customers as a result of that. I just think that, like by you connecting, even if you're in a college town and your demo could be those younger girls and that's who you're serving, follow like, like obviously you could follow hashtags from the local college or university, but there's sub hashtags, people of groups. If you are in a specific major in that, you can hashtag, you know, X fashion design or whatever the case may be, you can be pulling for possibilities for employment, endorsers, co collaborators, evangelist. I just think that there's endless possibilities to go really local and siloed with those hashtags for boutiques.

Yeah. And you bring up another good point, which is just like those local ambassadors, those local apps that are just advocates for your brand. And I think sometimes it's easy to get lost in thinking I have to work with an influencer who has thousands of followers. I just don't think that's the game anymore. That doesn't work.

It's not. No, no, it's totally. It's totally and completely not. I firmly, firmly believe that if you were to gather a couple, I. Number one, I wasn't in the sorority scene, so I can bring up a sorority. And if people say that's the wrong sorority, I mean, grab a couple of girls from Delta Delta Delta, have them come in and you say, pick three outfits and then you send one of your store associates with his or her iPhone and you follow them to the house or you follow them what they do, and you're just taking photos and the girls get to keep one or two pieces. You take the rest of the pieces, you steam them, put them back out on the floor. They have collateral so that they feel really great and they can tag your store and then you have collateral so that you can create content. I just think it's a win, win, win across the board. And all the girls, even the girls in the Nemesis Beta Beta Beta, are going to look at that and be like, I can't believe she wore that. Now where did she get it? But that is a hundred percent how it works. Now if you're like, I don't live in a college town, guess what you have PTAs. PTA mamas. Let me just tell you, that crew rolls deep. There's always a queen bee in every social circle. And whatever the queen bee is wearing, all of her other bees are going to be like, buzz, buzz, buzz. Where'd you get it? I won't tell anybody, but tell me where you got it. That right there is a network that a boutique owner can pop into.

Yeah. Amen. You're just dropping some heat today. I love this.

Dropping some heat.

Tell me, what is the most interesting thing you Instagram right now that you're like, ooh, that's, that's a new take. What's. What is something they're doing.

I really do applaud and appreciate. Oftentimes people say, oh, Jasmine, you know, it's so great to see you, like, raw and authentic. And I'm like, thanks. But I know myself. I know it's. It's a very strategic what I show from behind the scenes. I am not as open as some other people are, and I always measure it against what it does for my business. I do have a daughter and she occasionally makes appearances on social media, but she's not a major factor in it because I decided early on and I don't want to use her in that capacity. Not that anything's wrong. I have zero judgment about it. It was a personal decision that I had made. I do really find it intriguing seeing how so many people are showing so much of themselves in a really open and vulnerable way and still have it be like really, really, really resonating. I think it's like a key to like freedom, acceptance. I just think it's like really unexpected. Coming off the heels of like 2017, 2018, where everything felt like it was a magazine spread to it's okay to show up as who you are and create content. I just felt like it's been a really beautiful, like, renaissance to that. So I have mad appreciation for it.

Yeah. How do you think, and I don't know if you've experienced this. I'm sure you have. I feel like we all have. Living through 2020, there's like a balance between showing that realness and not being eaten by it. Not being eaten by people's judgment of it. Because anymore, like, we're living in the land of keyboard jockeys and just heated opinions, how do you guard yourself from that and still find that energy to show up with love and to serve your real why every single day and not be eaten by what the feedback can be?

You know, Ashley, everybody has an opinion. If you sit at home on a couch with orange stained fingers from Cheetos, people have an opinion about that. If you're on a 10 mile run, people have an opinion about that. You decide to wear thigh high boots, people have an opinion about that. You decide to start a business, people have an opinion. So if you know and I know that everybody has an opinion about everything, why not pursue the thing you want to do, knowing the opinions will be there? So are we going to let somebody else's opinion stop us from doing the thing we've been called to do? If it does stop you. No problem, no judgment. But you cannot complain that you're not getting the results that you want. That's it. So if we say I will stand in my purpose and I will show up on behalf of my boutique and I will do things that make me a little bit uncomfortable, but I'm going to step into it knowing that that Mean Girl in 10th grade follows our account. And I know that I've put on an extra 27 pounds after baby number three that just won't come off three years later. And I added another five because of COVID We know that those people are going to have opinions about you. And if you say that my mother in law, my cousins, that girl, my husband's co workers are going to have an opinion and you still do it, Good for you. You're well on your way. Don't let somebody else's opinion of somebody who's not doing what you do have any credence or hold on your life because they're telling you to stop doing something because they themselves don't have the courage or the wherewithal to do it.

Yes. Oh man, that's so true. So powerful. And I think the more we talk about it, the more everyone knows they are not alone in it.

Correct.

And there is a path forward. So powerful. All right, last Instagram question for you because I know you're the queen of reels on the gram. Some people are in, some people are all in, some people are dabbling, some people are scared to try something new on Instagram. What are your three best tips for maximizing reels right now?

Just. Number one is just to start and when I say, like, are you doing reels? And people say, yeah, I'm doing reels. And I look at their account and they've done two, I'm like, no, no, no. Like are you doing like, it's not, have you done reels? Like, are you doing reels? So that would be the first thing is that like, no matter what I say, like you and I can have a conversation about reels for 16 hours and it will still not make any sense to you on how to make them better until you actually do them. So advice number one is to make them with consistency and you're gon teach your dang self. And then number two, it's really, really, really important to understand that any, any sort of technology, any sort of education, any sort of like content creation, any sort of creativity, there is a sharp learning curve where people will do the basics. And then immediately, the only way you move beyond at that point is if you elevate with things as they change. So in the beginning, if you're a boutique owner and you really just want to start off with the basics and you want to point out the three things you need for fall. Wear scarf. Doo doo doo doo doo. Hat. Doo doo doo doo doo. Chunky socks. Doo doo doo doo doo. Swipe up here. Like, you'll get away with that for a while. But you have to understand that as people innovate with transitions, with trending songs, with moving pieces, that it would be in your best interest to start getting more and more uncomfortable faster, because that's what's going to make your reels stand out. And then the third and final piece is having a plan really stops it from being overwhelming. On the inside of Social Curator, we walk people through. I created a tutorial how to batch three reels in less than an hour. And I had a timer going, and I'm like, okay, this is how I prepped. Here are my clothes, here's my text, here's my tripod, here's my light. Let's go. And we literally recorded the whole thing because people will say, oh, I made a 15 second reel. It took me an hour. And I'm like, oh, oh, Lord, ain't nobody got time for that. So I wanted to show behind the scenes. If you got to create the plan in order to execute on the plan in the amount of time that you want. So those three things, I think, would have a pretty profound effect on how boutique owners are showing up on rails.

All right, you've dropped lots of bombs today. Lots of tips. Hopefully everyone has tons of notes. Last question I want to ask, and this is always the last question because I know that we both believe that we're here with a much bigger purpose than just selling a product, selling a service, selling whatever it is we're selling, but it's truly serving people and living in our why. So I'm curious. I mean, you're a mama now, and. And let's just say 30 years down the road, when you're a grandma and you're sitting on the front porch and rocking grandbabies and you're talking about the life that you lived and the businesses that you built, what is the thing that you want those grandbabies to remember the most about you and what you created and who you were as a person?

Ooh. I think I would want them to know that their grandma gave more than she took and that I want the same for them.

I love it. Jasmine Star, you are such a light. Thank you so much for being on the podcast today and we will definitely give all the links in the show notes for you guys so you can follow up with Jasmine. You can learn more about Social Curator. I don't know that everyone knows this but we were supposed to have you on our stage at Boutique Summit 2020 before the World shut down. Dang it. So hopefully we will have that opportunity again in the future to get to see you face to face. Hey guys, thank you so much for listening to this episode. We hope that you loved it. Don't forget to hit subscribe and leave a rating and review down below for a chance to be one of our featured listeners each and every week. For more information on our spirit of community over competition and how to access complete show notes and bonus downloads from our guests, head on over to the boutiquehub.com and join the community. We'll see you next week.