Instagram Influencer Strategies with Allison Lewis

Allie is a genius at this, and it's pretty evident when you go and check her out at her handle on Instagram because she has over 89,000 followers. Yes, you heard it here. So, Allie, great to have you here all the way from Kentucky. Excited to have you on. We're gonna have a quick conversation. I'd love for you to just, you know, give us the lay of the land. Who are you and who do you serve?

I'm excited to be here and thank you, Sheryl, for having me. I am a social media influencer. My handle is Absolutely_Alli, A-L-L-I. I started blogging and influencing about 7 years ago, not knowing where it would take me. And then once I kind of dived in and figured it out, I learned that one, I really love it. You can be creative. You can actually make a living by it and you can also help people. People by giving reviews, telling people about great products and great things that are coming up happening right now in the world.

Well, I mean, you're an influencer. You are definitely at that level on Instagram as an influencer. And I know that my audience largely coaches, consultants, entrepreneurs, a lot of solopreneurs in that early stages where they might not have the huge audiences necessary to really be sought out to do influencing marketing or influencer marketing at this stage. So I'd love for you to kind of lay the land of what it takes to be seen that way, you know, like start where you're at and then grow to a level where you become an influencer. Or what are your thoughts about influencer marketing in general?

Well, I say everyone is an influencer and everyone is an influencer because they're influencing people on the products that they love and things to buy and talking about like current events and things that are going on. So people are going to search for them and look, look at it. You don't have to have a huge following to be considered an influencer. And I know influencer influencer is a word that's kind of thrown around for like bloggers, maybe some celebrities and things like that. But if you are a brand, even if you are a one-person band entrepreneur, you are an influencer because usually you have a product or you have some expertise that you are sharing with other people and you're influencing people to come and listen to what you have to say. So an influencer is not just somebody that has lots of following that does blog posts and that just works with brands to kind of showcase their other brands' products. So Everyone's an influencer. If you're a coach, you're an influencer.

I'd like to know from you, you know, from the standpoint of Instagram, since you know, you're, you have way more followers than I do. I think I'm approaching, I've just passed, I think 4,800 followers on Instagram, but I'm really, you know, I am making a more concerted effort this year in 2021 on Instagram as well as Clubhouse. You know, I think that they are, especially right now in the beta stage with Clubhouse is going hand in hand. But I'd love to know, you know, from the standpoint of growing your Instagram, like what are the areas? Because Instagram is its own field of study. I try video and I help my clients to do better with video in general on these platforms. But what is the thing that really needs to be dialing in in order to be growing on Instagram?

Right. Video is great. And you and I've talked about that. Video is so good. If you can just put out these quick little videos and have people, people are watching them even more. But what people need to definitely be doing is engaging. Most people put out a post, but they don't engage other people to come to see the post. So you can't just post something and expect to get a lot of, you know, likes and comments unless one, you have a big audience, or two, if you're a celebrity or somebody already knows you, they're just right there watching you. So they're going to like your post that way anyway. But if you are engaging other people by going to their page, liking and commenting on their stuff, then they're more likely to try to see who you are and what you're doing and go to your page. I do this for my clients. I also have another business called Absolutely Social where I do social media management and social media consultants for entrepreneurs that are trying to grow their following and their brand. I also do it for influencers as well.

Yeah, I think, you know, this whole piece around actually interacting This is the part that people don't really realize. They want to put everything on autopilot, and I think that it's been a disservice from a lot of different marketers out there who've made it sound like that's how it is, that you just put everything on autopilot and you sit back and watch the money roll in, and it doesn't happen that way. It's going down in the DM, right?

Right, it is. People are sitting back and they're probably watching you in the beginning to kind of see what you are doing, and then they might, if they see other people are watching you and other people are liking and you're engaging engaging with them and you are answering the questions that people are commenting on. That's one big thing that people don't do. So if you get these comments on your post, make sure you respond back, even if it's just a statement. Just say, you know, thank you. Because the more that you respond to people, the more that they're willing to follow and see what you're doing, see what you're recommending, and also tell their friend or somebody about you.

I've heard that those comments need to be a minimum of 4 words. Is that true?

You are correct. Emojis don't count and it's got to be 4 or more words. So if you're engaging on somebody and you're trying to help them, we always say engagement is free. If you can't afford right now to invest in their product or anything that they're doing right now, you can help an entrepreneur by just commenting on their on their posts, also saving and liking. So comment, like Sheryl said, is 4 words or more. So it doesn't really count if you're just saying thanks or giving an emoji. You have 4 more, 4 words or more is what counts as engagement. I think they're really good.

Yeah. And I think you and I both come from that place where we recognize that if you really want to grow and you want to grow fast, it's going to take some investment in your business in order to grow. Right. We all agree with that. But If you're at the early, early stages where you're just trying to really figure some stuff out and kind of figure out who you are and figure out what kind of investment you're willing to make to grow your business, you have more time than money right now. So, right, go get in there and you should be making a ton of engagement, talking to people. It costs nothing to do that, right?

And plan out your social media. I always tell people, you know, sometimes you can just post randomly, but if you— if there's a method to your madness, it usually works better than just randomly posting. So that's what I teach. I do workshops and that's what I teach and consult about certain things like that. So they can actually have like a social media plan. I do some strategy sessions with people like one-off if they kind of got their social media, but they just need a little bit of help. Also do social media audits as well. So I can help them and tell them this works. This is okay, but your followers are looking at this and they want more of this from you.

And this is why you're here, because we met. I love what you do, and who knows, you and I may be collaborating or doing something in the future too. And so I just really wanted to bring you on and help our audience to better understand. There's so much. Instagram, its own field of study, there's no doubt about it. There's so much that you can do, and, and so many— but the opportunities are huge. And we've got more than a billion active monthly users on Instagram, isn't that correct?

Right, right. Instagram is so big right now, and if you're not using it, you should, you should be. Just like you said, Clubhouse and other things.

Is the swipe up feature all it's cracked up to be? I want to get to 10,000 followers. That's my next echelon and goal because I want the swipe up feature. And I know that there are workarounds and all of that, but is it all it's cracked up to be from a, from the perspective of getting more leads and clients and sales?

Yes, so I have the swipe up feature. So what I put in there is, you know, blog posts, links to other things, to products or whatever. It just makes it so easy because a lot of times people don't— they see it on your actual page, but sometimes they might not go click in that link in the profile. But the swipe up— some people just watch stories. Swipe up is so easy, it takes them to where you want to go. So that is your call to action, is your swipe up right there.

So yes. Awesome. If you're watching this right now, we're using Restream to go live on LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook, Periscope, which is going to be Twitter Live, you know, it's going away, but nonetheless, right. You know, all the platforms right now we're using Restream to go live. So no matter where you're watching this interview from right now, I want you to type in the comments if you'd like to see Ali come back and be part of our community again. Please type in the chat. I want to see Ali again. And we will be sure to, to bring her back because you're just providing a lot of really good insights here. Tell us about the struggle though. You know, what was the struggle for you in the early stages with Instagram? Because listen, I mean, it's great now you have over 89,000 followers, but you started at zero just like we all do, right? What did, what did that feel like? And what were the challenges that you faced when you were growing in the early stages?

Like a lot of people say, the struggle is real. I got in a little bit after it was really easy to grow. One point in time, there was a lot of influencers and people that shot up their growth very quickly before there was really an algorithm. So they got in really good. So now, and when I started, yes, it's very hard. You have to do, do a lot of collaborations with other people. And I don't mean like paid, like brand collaborations. Talk to people that are in your field. And do things together. Like, you know, people do giveaways, or you all can do a mutual like workshop stream thing, Facebook— not Facebook Live, Instagram Live, so you can get their followers to come follow you and vice versa. So I always say collaborate with other people so that you can get their following as well as new following. So that's the easiest a more genuine way to grow, um, and get your following up.

You know what, one feature that I love on Instagram is the ability, you know, when you go live and if you coordinate it— maybe you and I should do this, would be fun. Yeah, but you coordinate it and you say, okay, I'm gonna go live at such and such time, Ali, and, um, you make a note in your calendar and then you come in and then I can bring you into the live and it's kind of like that split screen, but it's a vertical split screen, right? So host and guest, right? And then we can have really a similar to this, an interview style live stream that we're doing on Instagram. I don't think— I've done it a few times. I want to do it more, but I think that that is a place where we can really, especially from a video perspective, utilize live. Have you done a lot of that?

I haven't done a lot of it, but I have done it before. There's a lot of like Brands that do these lives and then they bring in influencers or they bring in specific guests from brands or somebody that's an expert and then you get the following from that brand that is, you know, hosting that live. So that's a way to get a lot more clients, a lot more customers to look at your business, a lot more following and engagement.

Yeah, it's leveraging the other person's audience because from the standpoint of notifications, that person's audience is then notified that you're appearing live on someone else's feed.

Right, right, right. And a lot of times people, it's easy just to watch lives because they don't necessarily even have to engage or read or anything, but it's like they get the information they want. And if they want to come check you out, they can just click on your picture. That's right there.

Yeah. I love that. So Ellie, any parting words? What do you think is the thing for 2021? Where, like, what feature of Instagram is it that people need to Is it the guides? Is it the live? Is it the reels? Is it, or is it everything?

It's everything. I know reels are pretty big right now and just video in general is pretty big. It's pretty big right now. So I tell my clients, a lot of people are scared to just go live. Well, make a video, start that way, make a 1-minute video, put it on your Instagram, start that way and just challenge yourself.

I know that Sheryl, I think you're doing a, are you doing a video like, um, We do a challenge, like a monthly challenge, and people can go live. We say on any platform you want, which obviously a lot of people choose Instagram. They choose Instagram, Facebook, I think are the two most popular ones, right?

I would say getting some of those challenges, I mean, because that will push you to do it. And once you've done it 2 or 3 times, then usually it just kind of, it's old hat and it's just kind of rolls off. Yeah.

And that's when you start to graduate because our, our challenge is really meant to be a momentum a kickstart, but then you move into the strategy. That's when you start going, okay, cool, now I've got my feet wet. Now I'm gonna be doing these videos, these live videos, and we love live because there's no post-production.

Right, and I say with people, I tell people lives are fun because people actually want to see the real you. A lot of times, you know, our brand videos are great, I think, you know, and those need to be like scripted and they need to be like really good and really out there. But our lives lets people look inside, you know, you and don't worry about if you mess up. They actually, people are okay with that because it shows that you're human.

Yes. I love that. And we can all use a little bit more of that in the world right now. That's what's working. Authenticity. I'm talking about that all the time. And so you have been authentically you and absolutely Allie, which I love. Thank you so much, Ally, for being here. Again, just a quick mention, where do people go? Should they go to Instagram, your website, what?

So my website is right here on the screen. It tells you everything from my consulting and social media management. You can find me on Instagram at absolutely_allie, A-L-L-I, and then absolutely__social. But if you find one of my pages like Absolutely Ally, it has at the top Absolutely Social that you can click on. I'd love to hear from you all. If you all need some assistance in your Instagram on growth or anything like that, I'm here to help.

And let us know in the comments if you want to see Ali back and be part of this community. Let us know, right? I want to see more Ali, and we will make it happen. Thank you so much, Ali, for being here. Thank you. Thank you.