Hottest Feature On Instagram Right Now

in love with Instagram. That wasn't always the case. I had to kind of go into Instagram a little bit kicking and screaming, but now I am rejoicing over Instagram. And, uh, I can think of no better person than Cory Walker to come in today and talk about the hottest feature on Instagram. I'm excited for this conversation because we know each other offline and have had a lot of conversations. And, you know, Instagram is powerful because of, I think, this whole suite of features that it provides. But I want to know from you, Corey, as someone who has like 20 years experience in marketing, who wrote— literally wrote the book on Instagram, uh, she's the co-author of Instagram for Business for Dummies and Instagram for Dummies.

Let's start there.

Let's start with how did that come to be? How did you become a co-author on these iconic books?

Um, well, it was a connection, really. Um, one of my connections has written a lot of dummies books of all different types. So he really knew the format and all of that, but he wasn't an expert at Instagram. So he knew how to write the books, but he really needed that, like, expert kind of infusion. So he's somebody— Eric Butto is someone that I've known for a long time, and he said, hey, would you, you know, want to help on this? And of course I say yes.

Well, I mean, what a great experience that is to be able to pour your experience and insight and wisdom into these iconic books that really are, uh, become— have become household names. And so I'm sure that— well, I'm not sure, maybe I'll ask this question— but at the time that you co-authored those books, was the feature that we're going to talk about today, Reels, Was that part of the equation or did that come along after you co-authored those books?

Well, that's kind of a funny story because, so the Instagram for Business for Dummies book is actually in its second edition. So the first edition was a few years ago. So no, at all. No. But the, in the second edition, Reels was coming up. We were literally putting the book to bed. And then Reels was announced and we thought, uh, we better include this. What do we do now? So we rushed and, um, yeah, got that chapter written. But, um, yeah, I mean, Reels was really in its infancy, so it doesn't even have as many of the features as it has now. You know, they, they keep adding things and it's one of those things where TikTok will add something, then they're like, oh, okay, we'll add that too. And So yeah, but it is in the newest book.

Yeah, I'm just bringing up the COVID here so people can see what book we're talking about. Instagram for Business for Dummies and also Instagram for Dummies. So let's jump in to this hottest feature. And I guess we've kind of let the cat out of the bag in the sense that we're talking about Reels here. So Corey, let's start there. First of all, I'm excited for Reels. And let me just say personally, I have noticed, I think as many people have, that the, the reach, the organic reach, is so much higher on Reels. And hopefully that's not just for a limited time. But tell me what you know about Reels as it stands today, as, as of the recording and the live streaming of this video that we're doing right now, which is in November of 2021. Is the reach higher than in other features of Instagram? Is that just my imagination, or is that—

no, it's not your imagination. It is definitely higher. You know, I can post something either on my account or one of my clients' accounts, and it's fun to watch because what it seems to do is it'll sit there for maybe 10 or 20 minutes. I don't know if you've noticed this, and it'll just kind of, you know, poke along, and then all of a sudden it'll go on a run and it'll just go shoo.. And then you'll have, you know, a couple thousand people. I mean, it depends on your, on the size of your audience. Maybe you'll have a million people. But I'll notice it goes on this run for, you know, maybe 20 or 30 minutes. And I feel like it's kind of testing out the market, but it really does, to go back to your question, it's going out to your non-followers. So it's putting it out there to brand new eyeballs. That have not been exposed to you before.

And, and the— let's, let's, let's go back to like the power of that, you know, especially in organic marketing. If you're not throwing money at it, organic reach is everything. And especially in light of, you know, the last many years we've seen organic reach down on Facebook pages. I know a lot of people, myself included, spending years building up likes and, and follows on a Facebook page only to now only have a small proportion of people who actually see those posts unless you pay them. So I think it's like, from an organic marketing perspective, where you can get it, go and get it, so long as your audience is there. There's no point in, you know, being all over Instagram and creating all these Reels if you definitively know that your audience isn't there. Otherwise, really, what's the point of that? But here's the thing, I think when we look at the sheer number of people who are using Instagram on a monthly basis, the, the monthly you know, visits, the, the monthly users, it's in the billions. Like, it's over a billion monthly active users. So chances are pretty high that for most people, their audience is going to be there.

Yeah. And I really think, um, you know, kind of all the social platforms, they, they start with kids and then they, you know, ramp up in the age. And so Instagram has really kind of matured and grown up. So, um, and it's kind of at a sweet spot right now because, you know, like, I have a 17-year-old daughter and a 13-year-old daughter, and they're both on Instagram. But then my husband and I are both on Instagram, you know. So it, it's reaching a very wide, um, net. Now, um, what I will say is probably as it gets to, you know, older and older, then my daughters will abandon ship, just like with Facebook. But, but yeah, it's really matured. And so it's not, it's not a kid app anymore. And even TikTok is going the same way. TikTok is still probably skewed, still a little bit younger, but I know so many people now that are on TikTok. They just get kind of addicted to that short-form video.

Well, You know, I think short-form video is really powerful. It's just really an indication of what people want to consume today, and it's probably even more indicative of the fact that people's attention spans are so low. We're really busy. They still want value. They still want to be entertained. They still want to be inspired, but they want to do it in short-form content and little snack-sized pieces, you know. Um, and, and so tell us, like, what is— what are some of the fundamentals that you look at in terms of creating short-form content? Do you Do you have a specific kind of structure that you use? Um, you know, for example, I always include a CTA, or I don't always include a CTA. What are some fundamentals around structure that you utilize when you're creating your Reels? Because as we've just seen, you know, you have Reels that have had, you know, 5,000 views, 3,000 views, 2,000 views, and cumulatively we're talking about tens of thousands of views organically. Yeah, so powerful.

Yeah, way, way more than any of my other content. But yeah, so some of the basics that I've found just through trial and error. So the first thing is trending audio. So that is super important. You would think like, oh, everyone's using the same music, but for some reason it, you know, if you use that trending audio, it helps. Another big one that I've noticed personally is really short. Keep it really short because, you know, they, they expanded the timeframe that you can do 60 seconds. And so I thought, oh great, like I'll explain this whole thing. And then people are like, eh.

Tell it to me, tell it to me in 7 seconds.

Exactly. So 7 to 15 seconds, I think is pretty much the sweet spot, which is hard to believe. But But yeah, my, my Reels that are short and sweet and just get a little message out there do better. Another one is adding some kind of title to your Reel so that, you know, when they see it on your profile page or when they see it in the feed, they know automatically they can look at that, that title that's actually text overlay on the Reel. And know, you know, something they're going to learn or what it's going to be about. Yeah, and people need to be really careful about where they place text because this is a little insider tip.

I love it.

You know, when you play it in the feed, it chops off the top and the bottom. And so if you put your text down low or up high, then people just watching it in the regular feed or on your profile page aren't going to see that text. They'd only see it if they opened it, you know, in the full Reels view.

Let me show an example here as you're speaking. So here we have like this one, for example, right? The placement in of this Reels video shoot behind the scenes is in the safe zone, right?

Yes. And if you, if you drag the text down, you'll actually— there'll be a blue line and it kind of clicks a little bit. Yep. So you'll be able to almost feel it and you'll see a little blue line. So if you can keep within those blue lines, then you should be safe.

Yeah. And we're not seeing those blue lines on here because that's in the creation of the Reel in the app. Yes, yes. But, you know, I, I love that too because, you know, and, and I noticed here on your last one here, you didn't— you have a book instead. So You're mixing it up a little bit. I think it's smart because you don't want it to necessarily be super, super repetitive. But at the same time, what this does is it tells me immediately just by looking at it whether I would relate to that and go, oh, you know, I'm interested in this right from the get-go, or not, you know. So yeah, it's, it's great. Yeah.

And mine, like, my Reels, I, I try to teach something, but then I also like to put in some humor when I can because, you know, people, it's just more enjoyable. People like, um, this is cute, dose of humor. Um, you probably won't see me dancing, right? Right. I think my daughters would literally disown me if I started dancing. Um, so you probably won't see me dancing, but a lot of people, you know, dance, and if that's what they're into and that's, you what they like. It's really— I mean, a lot of people do it and it's fun.

Um, and I think this is a big misconception that especially people who are in, you know, coaches, consultants, kind of in the educational space, they go, well, you know, TikTok, or in this case we're talking about Reels, you know, the short-form content thing is not for me. I can't participate in all that free organic reach because I'm not willing to dance. I'm not willing to do that. And I've seen and follow a lot of accounts, yours included, where it's not dancing. I don't dance either. And I'm getting really decent reach on my Reels as well. I think my issue, if I'm being honest here, is— which I am being honest— is that I'm just not consistent. And I just haven't prioritized it as much as I probably should or could if I really want to see that explosive growth. So in terms of consistency, how often, how many and how often should we be aiming for? Can you blanket statement that, or is it more of a custom approach?

I mean, if you could do them a few times a week, that would be awesome, but that's a big ask for most people. So I try to be consistent on doing one a week. And then I use, you know, carousels are really, so I would say do Reels. Do some stories and then carousels are really big. They get a little bit better reach than just a static post. And one thing that's great about carousels is if you do, say you do like 3 images in a carousel, if I, if your audience sees it once, then the next time they go through their feed, they're going to see the second piece of the carousel and then the third. So it's almost like Yeah, it's almost like just multiple ways to reach people.

I did not know that. That is so interesting. And I think of those three, carousels is not something I have done before, but I know of them and I really should incorporate that in. I do do stories. I'm, I'm pretty consistent. I at least do a story a day, pretty much, with the exception of weekends in most cases. And Reels, I've been I, I am producing them, but I just don't think I'm as consistent, to your point, like once a week or even multiple times a week. I'm very much more hit and miss. But having said that, and possibly after this conversation, I'm going to be much more inspired to go in and just really kind of nail that down and say, okay, I'm going to commit to this growth. Because we can see that there's so much potential there to get that reach and to be able to get— ultimately, what does that mean? It means you get your message in front of more people for free.

Yeah, you know, yeah, there's actually, if you have a, um, a professional or a creator account, you know, they have the, the insights and you can go in the insights and you can see, um, like for Reels followers versus non-followers. And I'll see, you know, like 5,000 people and 3,700 are, you know, new people that haven't seen my stuff before. So it really, if you're looking for a way to get in front of people that doesn't cost money, Reels are the way to go.

And to your point, in those insights, new people. And this is the thing, right? If you are talking to the same people over and over and over again, you know, the definition of insanity, right? Getting the same result. You need to have new people who come in and discover the awesomeness that you are, the expert that you are, the authority that you are. That's what Corey's talking about here, right? Is that the new people who've never heard of you before, you have a huge opportunity to then make an impression on them. And it starts with content, but it continues with all, you know, the digital marketing systems that you've set up in order to, you know, capture people's emails and all that. But it does start with the attention factor, right? You can't build trust unless you first get their attention. So, that's what we're really dialing into today. That's amazing. And I learned something new. So, thank you, Corey. I wanted to ask you as we wrap up on Cash In On Camera today, I like to do a little segment that we call Stop Marketing Like It's $19.99. So, what is a tip, a tool, a tactic, or a technique that's really working for you personally to help you grow your brand or help you grow your business that you can share with our audience today?

Well, what's really interesting is that, you know, on that Reels train, I have been downloading my Reels and then I also put them on TikTok, which I haven't had that much growth on TikTok. And I honestly haven't put that much effort into it. But I kind of feel like, okay, I have, I have the same thing that could go over here. So I'll put it over here. But I also have been putting some of my Reels if they're appropriate, which most of them are, some of them, I mean, not like they're not appropriate, but just, you know, if they're more funny and stuff, then I might not put them on LinkedIn.

Oh, okay.

I have been putting some of my Reels on LinkedIn and on LinkedIn people, I've been getting a lot of, bigger leads from LinkedIn. So it's not, you know, Instagram, a lot of times I'm getting, oh, you know, that was funny, or they like it, but it's not as, you know, things aren't happening as much. But when I put them on LinkedIn, I get those business leads and people saying, hey, I saw you on LinkedIn. I think maybe because Reels are a little bit different, so it stands out more.

Um, but LinkedIn, LinkedIn is doing, I think, a lot to sort of break free from this, um, this stigma that it has of being very corporate and stoic and stuffy and all that. And maybe that's part of that equation. And so when you post your Reels to LinkedIn, you're just posting them in vertical format and then with the black bars on the side, and it's still working for you.

It's still working.

Wow.

And I get, I mean, one of the ones I did, it's actually my favorite one where I was like different characters, you know, like I'm an author, creator, all that. I mean, that got more likes than I've ever gotten on anything on LinkedIn before. Amazing. So, so yeah, if you, if you're doing Reels and you want to, you know, repurpose them for LinkedIn, I— it got me a lot of traction.

So awesome. Well, that's amazing. Thank you so much for sharing that with us. And Corey, how do people get in touch if they want to? Obviously we've been showing your, your Instagram here, which is, um, @coreyseawalker, right? Yeah. And where else can people reach you if they want to reach out, maybe learn about the book, get the book, you know, all these different things that you do?

Yeah. So, um, probably the best hub is my website and that is themarketingspecialist.com. And so, yeah, if they want, um, the Instagram for Business for Dummies book is linked there. It's also, she's on my Linktree right now on my, um, on my Instagram. So that's there as well. Um, I have a Reels checklist that's free that she's showing is the, the second one down. So some of the things that I talked about Um, you know, things that make a really good reel are on that checklist. There's 10 different items on there. So if you want to download that, just click that link and I'll take you right there.

Cool. And yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, that's great. Well, thank you so much, Corey, for coming on today. I really appreciate you sharing the, the hottest feature on Instagram, uh, Instagram Reels. I know you and I both are benefiting from all of the free organic reach that we've been getting, and now hopefully our audience also starts see the value in jumping into Instagram and not only just doing Reels, but really utilizing the platform to expand their reach and grow their brands. So I appreciate you being on Cash In On Camera today. Thank you so much.

Thank you for having me.