Amp Up Your Instagram - Part 2

Welcome back to the Business freedom Podcast. Lars Hedinburg here, founder, Real Estate B School. This is how to amp up your IG with an expert in the space. Donna Bowling. And you guys are in for a treat. If this is the first time you're you're checking into the podcast or you just missed part one, make sure you go back one episode. This is part two of three. And at any point, if you're interested in, like, what would it look like to get access to everything real estate B school has to offer without paying for it, go to rebs Case study dot com. It's our case study program that's R e B s Case study dot com. So stay tuned for part two of how to amp up your ig.

Okay, next we're going to talk about confidence. Okay, you guys, confidence. So I'm a former casting director, so I'm curious from you guys. I'll kind of just like scroll through, raise your hand if you struggle putting your face on camera and talking to the camera in, like, video form. Yeah, yeah. A lot of you guys, or some of you guys, I should say. It's awkward. Look, it is awkward as all to talk to a camera, to talk to a phone. You know, you're like looking at a phone and it's not giving you any verbal cues back and it's not getting any visual cues back. And, like, you don't know if people will like it. It's awkward. The only way to do it is to consistently do it over and over. And remember that the definition of confidence is a feeling or a belief that you can do something well or succeed at something. It's not proof that you can. It's just the feeling or belief. So this can go for anything you're doing. If you tell yourself you suck, you'll suck. Right? You've got to. You've got to really get yourself into that framework that it's going to be awkward and you'll get better and you'll feel imposter syndrome. Whenever you start showing up in any way, whether it's on Instagram or Clubhouse, you're going to feel like people are going to think you don't know what you're talking about. There's other people out there that do it better. Maybe your friends are going to judge you, but you got to keep working on it and consistently doing it. So I have a 3P. Prepare, practice and post is my way to get you really confident on camera. Going on stories is a little bit easier because you can delete and rerecord oh, sorry. You can delete and rerecord if it doesn't go so well. But going live is really hard because you can't do that and everyone's looking at you. So what I really suggest when it comes to going on camera is getting really prepared. Meaning know what you're about to talk about. Have sticky notes. I would not get a script. I would not read off a script ever. But have bullet points. Practice it over and over, especially if you're uncomfortable. And then finally, once you're done recording, you gotta post it because you're gonna go crazy looking at any video content that you do and you're gonna wanna pull it away and you gotta post it. And let me just be very clear. You cannot succeed on Instagram unless you're talking to your audience, your face to the audience. Your work will not sell yourself enough. I have to be honest, not in this market. People buy from people, right? You could have the most amazing inventory of homes. But I think people want to work with a certain person over what they've sold. That's my opinion. That's at least. I mean, I own two homes and I own an apartment building here in Los Angeles. And we would never have hired a realtor based on what they've sold before, only we would hire someone based on who they are and how much we connect with them and how much we feel that we like them, right? So Instagram builds know, like and trust. Those are the three things that you really got to develop here on social media, finally or not finally. The fourth is community. Okay? Community is about your audience. It is not just you speaking to people, it's you getting to know your audience so that not only do they feel like they know you, but you know them. So there's a few ways to communicate. I mean, to engage with your community. And you want to make sure Instagram is not a one way street. It is not you on a pedestal, just teaching. It is people communicating back and forth. So there's a few things on your stories. There's options of polls and stickers. This is a way to engage your audience. For example, you could say a picture of, of something in a house. Like, just say, you know, my sink right behind me. And you could say, are you more into. And your poll could be farmhouse stinks or metal sinks. I mean, like, I don't even know what I'm talking about because this is not my world. But I'm just assuming it's something like that. Or do you like contemporary or, you know, colonial Homes or whatever. I don't know. I don't know exactly. But the point is that you're getting people to press a button. And what that does is it engages them with your community, with you on Instagram. And it teaches Instagram, hey, people like this account. We're going to push it out to more of their followers because I just want to remind you guys, I have 15. No, I have 12.5000 Instagram followers. And do you know how many people see one of my popular posts on my feed? A popular post meaning something that's been seen by a ton of people, been shared by a ton of people? 2,000. Something of my Instagram audience actually sees it. So only 10% of your audience is actually seeing your content. So remember that if you only have 100 people following you, only 10 people are seeing your content out of those hundred. So think about that. You have to engage so that Instagram learns. Plus, another option is that if they press something on a poll, you can now go and send them a message. Direct messages is a huge way to connect with your audience. If there, if you ever get a direct message, respond always. You guys, if you're in a growth pattern and you don't have a lot of followers yet, you can still. I'm growing really fast right now and it's getting harder to respond one on one. But I make it a point every single day to sit and respond to my DMs. It's really important to me so that my audience doesn't feel like I'm just like, mia, I hate writing messages to people and they don't respond. It. It doesn't feel good. And then of course, in stories, you want to be able to ask questions, you want to be talking to them. And if you're finding that no one's responding to your stories, no one's ever sending a DM or a message back, you're probably not being engaging enough. You're probably not interesting enough on your stories. I mean, I hate to say it, but people want to engage with engaging people and then comments. When you post something and you get a comment, you want to make sure you're responding to all of them. Okay? The true meaning of community is not you speaking to them. It is a back and forth conversation. And you want to feel like, just like they get to know you, you know, who they are. I can pick out like 20 people in my audience that engages with my content. I know so much about them. I follow them back, I engage on their content and then finally is conversions. So conversions is selling on stories. Okay, Selling on stories is the best way to grow your business a hundred percent. So there's a few ways. The first way is, you know, when you're talking on stories about something, you want to ask questions. For example, if I'm selling my next course of Amp up your ig, I'm not just going to say, hi, I have a course called Amp up youp ig, I'm going to say, are you guys struggling with getting your face on camera? Or do you wonder what it would be like to open up Instagram and see 300 direct messages? Or imagine this. You know, imagine you open your DMs and you realize that you just made a sale and now all of a sudden people are like, yes, I want that. Because you're triggering that emotion. You're going to talk about transformations. So just say you're talking about someone that bought a house from you. You're going to talk about the experience that they felt when they got to get the keys of that new home. You know, that feeling of walking into their brand new home and sleeping in bed in the first time. It's more than that. Then I make sure to do all the paperwork. It's less about that. You want to trigger emotions in your audience. You want to show social proof. So you can't really see it here, but these are direct messages or comments on my feed. I screenshot every single positive thing I get. And I have a folder on my iPhone in iphoto and it's called Client Love. And basically what happens is in that folder, I put everything that anyone has ever said nice to me, even if it's just like, you really inspired me today on your stories. And now when I feel like crap about myself, I can go in there and read it. But also when I'm selling a program, I can now go and be like, look at all these people that said that. They took it and they loved it. So you just have a place for all of that and you want to be showing those things on your stories, any sort of testimonials, because people are on your feed because people believe other people before they believe you. Other people can sell you better than you can sell yourself. And finally talk more about your business. Okay? Whenever you think that you're not. That you're talking too much, the most likely you're not talking enough. So it takes about 7 to 12 times for people to hear things, for them to, you know, fully, fully, like, believe or understand, you know, what you're talking About a lot of people, believe it or not, do not know what you do. I think we always think that people know what we do and they don't. They don't. So that, my friends, is my five Cs. Okay, I'm going to pause because it's a lot of information. I also talk really fast. It should have probably lasted 40 minutes. But I just. So I want to make sure that you. I get to ask answer questions because I love doing Q and A. That's why I love Clubhouse so much. I get to chat with everyone. So are you guys ready to ask some questions? Yeah, they have some that they typed in the chat and so we can start with those and then if anybody has something else, we can and go over that. Okay. Said. Can you add a cover picture to reels that then ends up in your feed? Yes. So every time that you create a real you, every time you create a real. You have the option of creating a cover photo. And what's cool about that is I'm trying to think if I should just try to share my screen on my phone really fast. Let me see if I can. I don't know if I can. I don't have the meeting info. Okay. I'm not going to do it because it's going to take too long. But the point is, is that you will. You will be able to create a cover photo. I have a reel that teaches how to do that. So that's what I was trying to show you. But essentially, the COVID photo is what lives on your page. So when you go on my Instagram page, my reels are there with COVID photos. You want to make sure it's not like a random moving image. You want to make sure it's maybe a picture of you and it has the title of what that reel is about. So people know that they should watch it and they do end up in the feed. Okay, how do we find a person to help execute this and manage it? If you're struggling with social media and you don't know how to create social media well, and you're just. It's not in your repertoire. And also you don't have the time for it and you don't feel like it, you hire a social media manager. I have a fantastic one that I just started working with. Now she's not going to help me with my Instagram content, but she's going to help me go viral on TikTok and she's going to help me with Pinterest because Pinterest is a huge Way to grow your Instagram. And then she's also going to help me with LinkedIn. Those are three ways, three things that I don't know well. So I'm hiring her. But she has, she has an. Like I have her specifically. But there's so many out there. So I, if you want to shoot me a DM or something, I can probably connect you with some. You can find some really great ones on Instagram if you just Google or search Social media manager. Okay, 60 seconds on clubhouse. Is that cool, Stacy, that I give a 60 second on clubhouse. Okay, so raise your hand if you know Clubhouse. Okay. Okay. Raise your hand if you, if you're active on Clubhouse. Okay, so not a lot of people. You guys, you guys, you guys. Clubhouse will change your business. I will take this to the bank. If you can speak, if you have charisma and you can speak to people, which I think you probably all can, if you're in this business, you need to be on Clubhouse. So Clubhouse is an audio only app that takes you. It's only right now on iOS it doesn't. It's not for Android until May. So I apologize Android users. But if you have an iPad, you can do it on an iPad. Clubhouse looks like this. It's an app that. This is what the main screen looks like. This is my hallway. So basically these. And I have a whole course on Clubhouse if you guys want more. But these are the rooms that are currently happening. So the best way to describe it is have you guys gone to some sort of like big conference? Right, Like a convention center. A conference. And you're walking down a hallway in Las Vegas at the hotel and there's this ballroom and then there's this conference room and then there's this ballroom and you're looking at the panels. Oh, this person's talking in there. And then over there they're talking about that. Which one do I want to go in? That's Clubhouse for audio. So you follow people and if you're following someone, you get, you get to see which room they're in. You have to follow the person to see the rooms. So encourages to follow a lot of people. And so if I'm following someone, these are examples of some rooms that are happening right now currently. The first is marketing, branding and business. It has 490 people in it. There's a traffic generation for leads and sales. The social media show how to run a successful business take messy action. Personal branding and marketing on Clubhouse. Social media mindset and motivation for entrepreneurs. And I don't follow a lot of people in the real estate world. I only have a couple of those, but there's so much on real estate. So the option is going in there and using it like an interactive podcast. And not only are you able to establish your own authority and expertise, because people will start to hear you speak on stages, but you also can learn so much. And then finally you meet people that you would never have met in real life or on Instagram. It takes relationships that would have taken maybe a year to build in a week. I mean, I legit have like best friends that I've met on Clubhouse that I'm traveling to Vegas with to go to the National speaker association. And I met them on Clubhouse. Never have met them before. They're just entrepreneurs, women all around the country. It's amazing. I've grown my Instagram community over 5,000 followers in three months. And let me just tell you, I was showing up on Instagram since April 2018 every single day, and I only had 7,000 followers after three years, almost three years. Okay, is there a way to share a professional video we shot on Instagram? Absolutely. If it's under 60 seconds, it will live in the feed. If it's over 60 seconds, they will show a small preview in the feed and then it will move over to IGTV. It has to be under 10 minutes. That's the only thing. You just have to make sure that you get. You have like the ability to share it credit wise. Like, because they are a little bit weird about copyright stuff. So you just gotta make sure that, like, you own it in some capacity. The third C Kathy was confidence. It was clarity, content, confidence, community conversions. How important it is to have feed follow a certain look, color and feel. Well, let me ask you a question. Do you like walking into a home that feels like it's a hodgepodge of every single style and design and color? No. It's a little overwhelming. It feels stressful, feels messy. Feels like a lot. I want your Instagram content to feel calm, clean, collected, aesthetically pleasing. Now, that doesn't mean that it has to be muted, you know, tones. But if. Raise your hand if you have brand colors. Do you have brand colors? I have brand colors and they're bright because they speak to who I am. So if you guys follow me on Instagram, you'll see I'm all about energy and motivation, inspiration and all of that. Like, I don't want you guys to walk away from my page feeling like, wah, wah. Like, I want you to walk away from my page being like, I'm gonna go kick some butt. So that's why my pictures are very bright and like energy. And I want to make sure that you guys, you know, find your brand colors and then kind of stick to them. Now, what's really cool is there's options like Canva, which are. Is a. Is a free graphic design tool, which I'm not a graphic designer and I can use it. So it's not that hard. And you can just get a template there and optimize it with your colors and then just reuse it with different words on it. Hashtags. Okay. Hashtags. It's so funny. I just had yesterday. Stacy, you're going to have to rewatch the video from yesterday. Hashtags. Optimally, 30 hashtags per post. 30 is the best. Is the most you can post and the best. What you should do. Here's the key. The hashtags cannot be a copy and paste every time. Can't be the same hashtags. Instagram will flag that as spam. Your hashtags should be very specific to what that post is about. Another thing about hashtags, and I have a whole like, I'm obsessed with learning about this stuff right now. So I use an app called Write this down, you guys. It's called his hash. H I S H H A S H. It's a free app and in there you can create. I really want to show you guys my. Oh yeah, let me just call in really fast, Stacy, if that's cool. And I'm going to show you how I use hishash.

I hope you have enjoyed hearing from Donna Bolling, the expert, the authority on how to amp up your ig. And I have mentioned it before and I will mention it again if you are at the point in your journey where you want to get access to the best of the best in areas of physical fitness and wellness and social media and how to amp up your social media platforms. And hear from our best members about how they went from solo aging, grinding 70 hours a week to taking 15 weeks of vacation a year. Or our member, John Michish, who lives in Bozeman, Montana and runs a business that sells hundreds of homes per year in Charlotte, North Carolina. Go to Rebscase study.com r e b s case study.com to learn more about our case study program how you can work with us for free and without any risk. So go to rebscasestudy.com we'll see you over there. Thanks for listening to the Business Freedom Podcast if you're getting value from the podcast, would you please leave us a five star review and share it with others who might benefit from the content I'm sharing? And if you're ready to scale your real estate business sustainably and profitably, there are a couple options for you. If you're doing under 500,000 in annual GCI, our business foundations Program is for you. Head over to get businessfoundations.com that's getbusinessfoundations.com and learn how you can make the shift from overwhelmed real estate agent to true business owner. If you're doing more than 500,000 in annual Team GCI, there's our graduate program designed for top producers and team leaders who want to grow their team and scale their business. If that's you, go to realestateb school.com and apply for a free Business Growth Strategy session. No matter where you are in your business growth journey, we have the tool, system, strategies, training and coaching to get you where you want to be. Remember, only you can create your future, so take action now.