Omnichannel - Andrea Harris - The Top Instagram Marketing Trends You Need to Know in 2022

Episode Date: March 9, 2022

Send us a text podcast RSS Hi there, I’m Andrea! Marketing strategist, founder of Andrea Maree Creative and Host of the Instagram for Bosses Podcast. I’m here to help you simplify Instagram marketing so you can reach more DREAM clients, without the overwhelm. I went from quitting my full-time job to running two profitable businesses in just over a year, leveraging the power of social media! When I’m not working with clients, you’ll find me on sunrise walks by the beach, with my hubby and fur babies, or indulging in cheese platters and rosé with my girlfriends. It’s my mission to help simplify Instagram marketing so other empowered business owners can reach more of their ideal clients and stand out as leaders in their space. With over 10 years in experience in sales and marketing, along with a BA in Commerce (Human Resources and Public Relations), I’ve accumulated extensive knowledge and skills that have allowed me to grow my own businesses and help numerous others do the same by leveraging Instagram marketing. Whether you’re looking for someone to manage your Instagram page OR offer you coaching so you can do it yourself, with plenty of guidance along the way, I’m your girl! Get in touch with Andrea Get a FREE Copy of the High Converting Online Events Book: https://book.dominikalegrand.com/

are actually reaching out more than what you would think to what they call micro influencers. And basically, that's just influencers who have smaller but more engaged followings. So that is such a misconception that you need to have tens or hundreds of thousands of followers in order to get those brand deals. All you need is to have a high quality targeted audience and have that engagement. So it's definitely not something that should discourage you from approaching brands and reaching out to them to see whether or not you could be a brand ambassador for them. There's so many brands out there who reach out to specifically smaller influencers because they end up getting bigger results than some of those bigger accounts who they're having

to pay tens of thousands of dollars to promote one product, one post for one product. Whereas micro-influencers, they can get away with investing a little bit less in them and they're getting a higher return. So welcome everybody you are listening to the Omni channel podcast a podcast from digital marketers to digital marketers. I'm your host Dominique Caldegrant and my mission is to help fellow marketers and entrepreneurs to grow their businesses online. So buckle up and let's get started. Anyway, I'm so happy to have you, Andrea. Hi, how are you? Hi, I'm good. I'm so excited to be on the show.

Listen, I'm so excited as well. I mean, that's the first time you're having an Instagram marketing expert. So please tell us about yourself and your origin story. How did you get into Instagram marketing? Yeah, well, I've always loved marketing. So back when I was at university, I did a bachelor's degree in commerce and I specialized in public relations and human resource management. And I always loved my communications subjects. I really enjoyed learning about how to really build your publicity as a business. And this was back in 2000.

And gosh, this is going to make me sound old now. But I started uni in 2009 and graduated in 2011. So back then social media wasn't really where it's at today so we didn't really learn too much back then about social media. It was majority we were learning about, you know, press releases and newspapers and magazines and TV, radio, that sort of thing. So that's sort of where the focus was. And I just was always really drawn to the marketing aspect and the publicity aspect of running a business. So I graduated from uni and I went straight into full-time work. I managed to get a job at a radio station and I was in sales and marketing there for about six years. And at

first it was really exciting working for a radio station, but soon I realized that being in sales wasn't really where my passion lied. And I started to just get that feeling like I was meant to be doing something more. The company that I worked for was great, but I just felt like I wasn't utilizing my full potential. And I was just craving something more outside of what I was doing. I was craving being more creative. And at that point, I didn't know what that looked like for me. So I'd always been really interested in makeup and beauty. And I'd always wanted to go out and get my certification in makeup. So I ended up finding an online course and I did that. And started my own, or I guess my first

business, which was freelancing on the side as a makeup artist. So that was my first little taste at business. And at the time I didn't have the money to invest in your traditional forms of advertising like TV, radio, newspapers, magazines, that sort of thing. I just didn't have that kind of money to invest in getting clients for my makeup business. So what I had done was I went back and I researched and I read books and I watched YouTube videos and listened to podcasts to learn everything I possibly could about social media marketing and in particular Instagram, because especially back then Instagram was such a visual platform. It was a photo sharing app. And for me, it was the best way for me to really

showcase my work. So I put everything I had into learning everything I could about specifically Instagram marketing. And I couldn't believe the results that I was seeing. I started to get people messaging me on Instagram, wanting to book in with me for things like formal bookings, weddings, special events. And I even was reached out to do some commercial bookings with big companies like GHD Hair. And now I'm not sure if GHD is a big company in Europe or in the US. We know, we know. Yes. Perfect. And like all their products are amazing. Perfect. Yes. So, and I'd always grown up like using their hair straighteners and it was such an amazing opportunity for me. And I just couldn't believe that all of these incredible opportunities were coming to me. So I loved doing

the makeup, but I started to fall really in love with the marketing aspect and particularly the Instagram aspect. And then at the same time, while working in my job in radio, I started having some of my radio clients ask me about social media marketing. And that's when I thought to myself, hey, I could actually go out on my own and I could teach other people how to market their businesses on Instagram. And so that's where the idea was born. In 2018, I finally made that leap of faith to quit my corporate job and start my marketing agency, Andrea Marie Creative. And since then, honestly, I've never looked back. Wow. That's insane. I'm so glad that you just went through all the jobs and you're like,

okay, that's not working. Okay. That's fine. That's not working. That's fine. And so it just like, it was such a process for you to find yourself into where you are now. It's just amazing to hear that, honestly. Yeah. And I really think that you have to go out and you've got to try different things to try and figure out what it is that you really enjoy doing. Because like I knew I had an interest in marketing, but I just didn't know what that looked like for me. And I tried radio and I tried sales and, you know, then I moved into that more creative industry with the makeup and the beauty. And then it just kind of fell into place with regards to the social media and more specifically Instagram marketing. So I think everything happens in the timeline that

it's meant to. And yeah, and that's how I ended up here. That's amazing. Honestly, I'm so happy that you just like went through it and now you're here um we can talk more about your agency of course but uh Instagram specifically it's this platform has been growing and growing like it's been Snapchat now it's like Snapchat included TikTok now it's TikTok included so how do you feel about working with such a versatile and such a rapidly transforming platform? This is something that you need to obviously keep up all the time, your clients as well. Like, how do you feel about all those changes that have been happening there?

Yeah, yeah, you've hit the nail on the head. Instagram is one of those platforms that is constantly changing and adapting. And what they've become really good at is being able to see what's becoming popular in the market, and then looking at how they can kind of reinvent that particular app or feature. So as you mentioned, Snapchat, when that became really popular. Instagram implemented their stories feature with the expiring stories within 24 hours. And then you see what they've done with TikTok where they've now introduced Reels, which is their version of short form video content. So they've been quite smart. And I think that's why they have lasted the test of time. And when it comes to how I navigate that for my business and my clients'

businesses, I'm not going to lie. At first, I did find it a little overwhelming because as you mentioned, it was constantly changing. But now I've really grown actually to love the changes. And anytime they introduce a new feature, I kind of geek out and want to learn everything I can about that new feature. And the beauty of these new features is that Instagram really wants to, because when they introduce a new feature, they want that feature to succeed. So for example, with Reels, when they rolled out Reels, they wanted Reels to be a strong competitor for TikTok. So when people are early adopters of these new features, there is such a potential to really grow your business. And if there is ever a time to go viral on Instagram, it's whenever they introduce a new feature. So now whenever they introduce something new, I see that as an opportunity

to be an early adopter and really take advantage of the massive reach that you're going to get by using that new feature. Yeah. That's amazing how they, you know, reward the fact that you're using it. I remember when Boomerang came out, like they did kind of the same when they reward constantly the usage of a new feature. I think it's such a genius idea uh before we get into the marketing trends of 2022 which is our main topic for today do you think instagram is for every single business like do you think it's like for a specific niche what do Yeah, yeah. I think it depends. I think Instagram has, look, Instagram has gotten so big and so popular now that I believe that there is a market for almost every industry now on Instagram, but I'm not going to come out and just say that it's

definitely suited to everyone. I think in order to be a good marketer, we have to look at things outside of just the platforms that we're using. So in order to be successful in marketing, and I'm sure that you're aware of this as well in your business and in your line of work, but you have to have a really good understanding of who your ideal client is. If you don't know who your ideal client is,

then you're going to be wasting a lot of time, money, energy, and resources marketing your businesses in a place that may not be the right place for you to spend time and effort on. So first, I highly recommend before you kind of dive into all the ninja hacks and Instagram trends and things like that, you really need to know who that person is. And then you need to do research to find out where that person hangs out. And if that person does indeed hang out on Instagram, then by all means, it is such an amazing platform for you to be able to connect with ideal clients and customers. But it's also important that you do do that initial groundwork and research

just to confirm and clarify that that is where your audience is hanging out. Yeah. Thank you so much for clarifying that for the listeners. I think it's super important to know where they hang out. I did have clients that wanted to push Instagram so much only to realize their audience is on Facebook and you know it's the older generation and Instagram is just no matter how much you want it to work for your business if it's just not where they hang out just like you said it's not going to work so yeah that's so so important that you mentioned that initial research that you need to yeah definitely and just touching on that again, because I

remember when I received similar advice to this, and I wish someone had told me this when I'd received this advice, and that is how to figure out where your clients hang out when you are in your business. And I think that the best way to do this is to conduct one-on-one research and interviews. This is actually something that I just recently did again. It's important that we always continue to survey our audience and our ideal clients so that when we do market our business, we're always making sure that we really tailor our efforts towards meeting the needs of that person. But if you are someone who is newer to business and you're not really sure how you can find out that information, then I honestly think that the best way is to

actually go out and find people who you think would be ideal clients for your business and just ask them if you can have a really quick five-minute one-on-one conversation with them. You'd be surprised at how much amazing and incredible information you're going to get and how much insight you're going to get into who that person is just by simply having a really quick conversation. You can find people in Facebook groups, on LinkedIn, and let's not forget about face-to-face interaction. I think the last two years have been really difficult for everyone to kind of have that face-to-face interaction. But as we hopefully now are nearing the end of the pandemic, I do encourage people to

actually go out and network in person because building these connections and having these conversations is going to be so impactful for your business. Yeah. I'm so, so happy that you pointed it out because it's important to really talk to people. I think it sounds so simple, but it is simple, right? It's just to ask them. And maybe I think it's just overlooked as well, because you might think, okay, it's fine. I kind of know them.

You know, I just like went on Reddit. But like the fact that you need to include that one-on-one interaction, whether it's online or offline networking, it's going to be a game changer, right? Because then they're going to really tell you if that's something that bothers them, if you're solving the problem, or if this is something that they use, if this is Instagram marketing.

Correct. Yes, that's exactly right. Because like what we said, you know, you want to make sure that that is where they're hanging out because if it's not, then you don't really want to be wasting a lot of time and energy on that platform. I recommend really just focusing in on one to two platforms where you know your ideal clients are hanging out. Yeah.

Thank you so much, Andrea, for just clarifying that for all of us. Those are very important, valuable advices. All right. I'm so excited to be moving into our subject for today. Instagram marketing trends of 2022. Like what are they? Like what's happening? Hashtags are still trending. Like what do we do? Because I kind of feel like I'm stuck at the hashtag point. And even that is just like. Yeah. Well, I mean, I'm more than happy to touch on hashtags first, if that's an area that you're seeking clarification around. So let's, let's dive into hashtags. Cause

I feel like there is a lot of misinformation out there about hashtags. There's a lot of confusion. So firstly, what I want to say about hashtags is we need to stress so much less about hashtags. Hashtags used to be something that I would be really stressed and overwhelmed about. But the good news is, is that in 2022, it's not something that you need to be putting all of your energy and effort into. Now, don't get me wrong. Hashtags are still important, but they really aren't the be-all and end-all when it comes to your Instagram content. So the way that I like to look at hashtags or the way that I like to think about hashtags is that hashtags to Instagram are like SEO to your website. They basically are there to tell Instagram

what your content is about so that they can correctly categorize it and then show your content to people who are interested in those topics and those keywords that you've mentioned. So for example, if you are creating a post about how to run Facebook ads for female entrepreneurs, then maybe you could use a hashtag like hashtag Facebook ads for girl bosses or something like that. So you would basically think of a hashtag that is niche to your industry, as well as the content that you're speaking about and use that. Now, Instagram have come out and actually said straight from the horse's mouth that they don't recommend using any more than around three to

five hashtags per post they've come out and said that using yes which honestly that went against all of the advice I had ever okay yes and it that had gone against actually a lot of what I had thought and been told uh for the majority of the time that I've been marketing on Instagram. And it's basically that the more hashtags you use, the more reach you're going to get. Now, that used to be the case. But moving into 2022, that isn't how the algorithm is working anymore. And Instagram have come out and actually said that whether you use three hashtags or 30, that's not going to increase the distribution of your post. The main thing that you really want to focus on

is using high-quality targeted niche hashtags. So making sure that they're super specific to the niche that you're in and the content that you're posting about. So none of these, you know, hashtag love or hashtag dog. If you are talking about business topics, you want to keep it super niche and super targeted. Yeah, that's awesome. Thank you so much.

I already feel I'm learning new things, especially with the fact that you need to cut back on the hashtags. Is there any way we could check like which hashtag should we use? I mean, besides we have our researchers, we know that we'd know our audiences, but how do we know it's like a hashtag that we can use or like it's trending, it's popular for our industry? Is it something that we can research somewhere?

Yeah. So again, I would encourage people not to be too stressed out or too worried about using a trending hashtag or a popular hashtag because at the end of the day, as I mentioned earlier, it's not really going to get you any additional reach. The main thing that you really want to focus on is using hashtags that are very relevant to what you're posting. So what I recommend doing, you can search hashtags within Instagram. And I recommend just having a look and doing a little bit of research into the hashtags that you want to use. And just checking that I recommend using hashtags with more than a thousand posts because you want to be using hashtags that are popular,

but then you also don't want to be using hashtags that are like super unless you're, unless you, yeah, like, unless you have a following already of upward of a hundred thousand or more, then you don't really want to be using hashtags that have more than 200,000 posts already tagged with that hashtag. And that's just sort of a very general rule. Now, I always recommend to my clients that you really research and test your hashtags. But again, please don't get too caught up

in this hashtag analysis paralysis because at the end of the day, it doesn't matter how good or bad your hashtags are. The most important thing is going to be the content that you're sharing. So you could have the best hashtags in the world. But if the content isn't up to par, then the hashtags aren't going to do anything to get you additional reach. So in 2022, you said hashtags, okay, they're kind of not the main thing anymore.

You said it's the content. So what do you think in this year? How do I get discovered and, you know, with the new content? Like, how does that work? Just explain to us. Because if it's not the hashtag, it's the content. And in which way? Correct, yes.

And I'm really glad that you asked that because that's going to be your biggest opportunity for growth in 2022 on Instagram. Adam Masseri, who is the head of Instagram, came out and directly said that in 2022, Instagram is going to be doubling down on video. So for all of you, I'm sorry. I know that there's probably people out there who are creating that hate, yeah, that hate having to do videos. But for us who like videos it's great and for those of you who who have been really procrastinating on doing video I'm sorry but this is the way that

that they're going um and there are ways that you can create videos for Instagram that you don't personally have to be in so that's actually a an episode that I did on my podcast recently about, you know, different types of reels you can create that don't involve you having to dance single point. And a lot of those included you not even having to be in the video. So please don't let this put you off if you are someone who is a bit more introverted and you don't want to physically be in the video, but just know that the best and biggest opportunity for growth in 2022 on Instagram is going to be through video and specifically through Instagram Reels. At the moment, TikTok is such a big competitor for Instagram and they're really doubling down on their Reel content. So the

more high quality Reel content that you can create, the better. And you don't have to worry too much about creating reels that go viral because at the end of the day, again, the main thing that we always want to remember as business owners is profitability over popularity. That is something that my, one of my mentors speaks about. It's something that she encourages and that is profitability over popularity. It doesn't matter if you've got millions of people that are watching your reels, you want high quality targeted people watching your reels. So don't get too caught up on, on having to try and hack the algorithm and create these really fancy reels that go viral. All I recommend for you to do is to just create reels that are, again, really specific to your industry and niche and that are going to add value to your ideal client. If you do that, I promise you, you will see massive growth on Instagram.

Thank you so much for saying that. By the way, it is popularity versus like profitability. I think it's such a huge misconception and you can make a lot of money and not have a ton of followers, you guys. I think that's something that people are like, what? Like I need to have like 2k or a million followers to make money. It's not true at all. It's the biggest misconception. And there was actually an Instagram influencer. I can't think of what her name was, but she had around 2 million Instagram followers.

And she decided to launch a t-shirt line. And I think she was selling them. I'm not too sure how much she was selling them for, maybe around 30 or $40. And she launched this t-shirt line thinking that because she had this massive audience of 2 million people that it was just going to sell out straight away. And it turns out that the whole launch flopped. And I think she only ended up making 30 sales and that it just goes to show that it doesn't matter how big your audience is if they're not engaged and if you haven't attracted a highly targeted qualified audience then those extra followers don't mean anything and that's why I always encourage people

to stay away from buying followers and using hacks like, you know, giveaways and things like that to get new followers. Because at the end of the day, that's just a vanity metric. And if you're attracting people just for the sake of having a big follow account, that is not going to help you to build a long-term sustainable business. I'm so glad you're saying. I'm just like writing down buying followers and you're hitting them already like I feel like you're saying way blank um I love that I had

one client coming to me and he's a personal trainer uh he's very like high and like her his clients are usually like you know very high-end clients as well um he's training in a five-star hotel and all of that and he's like telling me like dude I can't reach over 2k followers like what do I do I need followers I need followers like dude like no you don't but at the same time his strategy was like I want you know brands to endorse me and for that I need followers like what's your take on that? If someone is working their businesses just to get the brand endorsement, can I negotiate with my smaller followers, but more engaged ones versus the big followers, but not so engaged? Is it something that the brand is looking at

when they work with you? Yeah, that is a great question. And the answer is 100% yes. Brands are actually reaching out more than what you would think to what they call micro-influencers. And basically, that's just influencers who have smaller but more engaged followings. So that is such a misconception that you need to have tens or hundreds of thousands of followers in order to get those brand deals. All you need is to have a high quality targeted audience and have that engagement. So it's definitely not something that should discourage you from approaching brands

and reaching out to them to see whether or not you could be a brand ambassador for them. There's so many brands out there who reach out to specifically smaller influencers because they end up getting bigger results than some of those bigger accounts who they're having to pay tens of thousands of dollars to to promote one, you know, product, you know, one post for one product. Whereas micro influencers, they can get away with investing a little bit less in them and they're getting a higher return. So it's definitely something that you should pursue if that's something that you're interested in and not worry too much about having to have thousands upon thousands of followers. If you can show that brand

that you have a really high targeted audience. And I guess what you would need to look at is who the brand's ideal audience is. And if you know that that aligns with who your ideal or who your existing audience is, that's where you have leverage that you can then go to them and say, hey, I know this is who you target. Here are my analytics. This is what, you know, this is exactly who my audience is. Here are my engagement rates. This is how many people on average are commenting on my posts. This is how many people are DMing me. This is on average how many website clicks I'm getting.

And if you can go to them with those statistics and show them that you can provide massive value to them, then you are definitely in the running just as much as those bigger accounts. Thank you so much for clarifying it. I think you will have a lot of entrepreneurs that are just held back by the fact that they have a smaller following. So I think it was super, super important.

So you keep mentioning this high quality, high engagement content. And you said the trend is video content. So how do we incorporate that together to be able to grow our Instagram engagement? Because we're talking about engagement, right? We're not talking about numbers. We're talking about engagement per se. Correct. Yes. And that's, I think, where it comes down again to your marketing fundamentals and really having a very good understanding of who your ideal client or customer is. It's imperative that you have a really, really good understanding of who that person is and what their biggest challenges, struggles, and pain points are, as well as what their biggest desires are. Once you understand that, that is honestly more

important than anything else. People always speak about, you know, age, gender, income level, all of that when they're thinking about ideal clients. But more specifically than that, you need to get deeper and you need to have a really good understanding of the psychology behind who that person is. You need to get really deep. And this is why I highly recommend doing those surveys and particularly the one-on-one surveys where you can actually speak to someone directly, listen to the language that they're using, take notes of any particular words or phrases that they use, and then implement those into the content that you're creating. Because that's when you're going to have that content that makes someone scroll through Instagram and stop the scroll and be like, yes, this person is speaking directly to me. They get me.

This person gets me. They understand my struggle. They understand my problem. So, yeah, so it comes down to having a really solid understanding of who that person is, what they're struggling with, what their desires are, and then being able to relate that back to your business. Yeah, thank you so much for pointing it out. And honestly, once you really do that, you're never going to run out of things to say because

you always like to revert back to those challenges, desires, and you never, never, ever going to run out of things to say because you always like to revert back to those challenges desires and you never never ever going to run out of things to say I do see this kind of trend and you can come back and you know just let me know if that's the thing but I've seen ads about this Instagram Instagram content world like type of things where people are selling their content ideas like trends all of that like how do you think that is is it something that you advise people to purchase or is it something that you give to your clients or are you just saying hey just look at what your ideal audience needs and just create content based on that. Like, how do you feel about the content world type of situation?

Yeah, yeah, good question. And I have seen quite a few of those programs and offers out there. And I also have resources as well that give people content ideas. And I honestly think they're amazing. But at the end of the day, you still have to put in that work in order to relate that back to your unique business and your unique audience.

So those types of templates and resources are amazing. But you as the business owner always need to look at these resources and then figure out a way to relate it back to your business because it's all well and good to copy and paste a caption template. But unless you're actually doing the work in understanding what the needs are of your ideal clients and customers, then you're not going to get results from them because you need to be able to take those resources which can be really, really effective

providing that you do relate them back to your specific business and the people that you're trying to help. Yeah, thank you for clarifying that. So it means that it's not complete, you know, bullshit the content was but it's really is for you to have the ideas to then transform that to your idea audience and then start from there it's not just copy paste and just be like

doing the same thing but like put your individuality and like authenticity in it so that it comes off you know more natural as well not just like a copy paste of the situation, right? Yeah, correct. And it's also really important in allowing your audience to get to know who you are as a person, because that comes through in the way that you write, in the way that you speak. So if you're just copying and pasting these templates without making them your own, then you're losing that sense of self and that sense of personability that you would otherwise get if you were writing things from scratch. So there's definitely nothing wrong with using those templates. And I have definitely used things like that in the past in my own business. I think they're amazing and they're great for really

kicking to the side any sort of writer's block that you might have. But just as long as you're putting your own spin on it because that's what's going to help really build those deeper connections with your audience, because they're going to get to know who you are as a person and as a business owner. Yeah. Thank you so much for just clarifying that for the listeners. Let's continue with the trends. Is there anything else that we need to know in this year besides the video content? Yeah, so I think the next biggest trend that really piqued my curiosity was that they've been discussing over at Instagram on bringing back the chronological feed. So if you've been on Instagram for as long as I've been, then the thought of that might

be exciting to you. So I think it was in around 2017, I want to say that they switched from the chronological feed to the current feed, which is the current feed is based on interests. So at the moment, it doesn't matter what time of day an account posts, they will recommend your post to your audience based on the interests that your audience has. So that's made it a little bit harder for marketers to be able to kind of hack the algorithm and post at certain times of day where they know that their audience is going to be most active on the platform. And that's, again, why I really reiterate the importance of having highly targeted content because Instagram is only going to be showing that content to people who have shown interest in those topics. Whereas when they

switch back to the chronological feed, it'll be really interesting to see how that impacts on people's reach. And from what I understand, they're going to allow people the option to choose between the chronological feed and the existing feed that we have now. So I don't think you'll be forced into using either one or the other. I believe that it will be like a toggle option where you can choose which option you want for how to view your feed, if that makes sense. Yeah, absolutely. I was just noting because I'm like as to speak like questions come up to my mind and I was noting post frequency I was in my head I'm like when do we post but like you literally just debunk that like myth in my brain that there is a

specific time you need to post every week and that's but it's not the case anymore just like you said it's going to be shown when it's the relevant time for the audience so can we talk about the frequency a bit like well what's with that yes so do you mean frequency as in how often you should yeah yeah yeah again there was information that was leaked by instagram and And again, I did a whole podcast episode on this. Okay, everyone go to the dedicated. How often, yes, how often Instagram wants you to post. And I'm pretty sure I remember most of it off the top of my head. So I'll break it down for you. But I'm just going to preempt this with saying,

please do not feel like you need to create this amount of content. I don't. And majority of the other business owners that I know do not create this amount of content. It's going to be a big number. Because 99% of us are so busy running a business that we, unless you're doing this solely as your full-time gig, like I can't see how it would be practical to create this amount of content. But basically what they suggest is posting seven reels a week. So it's one reel per day. They recommend around, I think it was three feed posts, minimum of three feed posts per week. I think it was eight to 10 stories per day. And

I think it was one to three longer form videos a week. So that amount of content, I feel like fix an army. Look, look, if you were to create that amount of content, I'm sure you would get a massive result from it. You would be getting so much reach, so much more engagement, like you would be getting big results. But for most of us, that's just not realistic. And unless you can produce that level of content to a really high standard, it's definitely not something I would recommend because I always recommend posting quality over quantity. So to answer your question, and I know that this isn't like a fun answer to hear but I think you need to do what is going to be most realistic for you in your business and just make sure that that amount that you commit to is something that you can commit to consistently because at the end of

the day it's that consistency that the the Instagram algorithm loves and that Instagram looks for so if that's three posts per week, then you stick to your three posts per week. If it's five posts per week, then you do that. If it's two posts per week, do that. What I would say is if you are going to choose a smaller posting amount, so say you do decide you want to do two to three posts per week, I would recommend really making sure you're incorporating real content into those posts rather than just using static feed posts if you really want to make the most of,

you know, growing your business and expanding your reach. Because as I mentioned earlier, Instagram really is doubling down on their video content. So wherever you can post videos, that's what I recommend. Should be your primary focus, I guess. Yeah, I'm just like noting and everything that you're saying is I feel like I'm just like I literally read quality and then you said quality or quantity.

Okay, great. But I feel like it's just like we are just on the same wavelength, which is great. We're on a vibe here. I love it. Yeah. So we're talking, I want to ask you about this because you said, of course, you post as much as you can commit to, which is great. But if I had to kind of do like a mental echelon of like, okay, if I do, should I focus on

reels only? And then what's the kind of the, okay, if I do, should I focus on reels only? And then, and then what's, what's the kind of the, how do I say it? Like the top, from top to bottom in terms of your reach and growth, like what are the, like, is it the reel first and then video? Like how is it like organized within Instagram? Yeah. Great question. Now, what I recommend here is again going to be testing and seeing what works for your unique business and your audience. Because you might find that your audience really loves it when you post infographics and carousel type posts.

And maybe they're not as into the reels. And if that's the case for you, then you don't have to create as many reels and you can just focus on creating like, you know, meme graphics and infographics and carousel posts. But if you're finding that you're creating reels and they're doing really, really well and your audience is loving them, then you should definitely be creating more reels. So for me personally, I like to do a 50-50 balance between reels and then really informative, entertaining feed posts like carousel posts. And another, I guess, type of content that's really trending at the moment is video memes. I'm not sure if you've seen these. I'm guessing you probably would have by now because they're everywhere at the moment. It's basically just like your normal meme.

But instead of a photo, they've got videos there that relate to the funny text in the meme and they've been going crazy. So if you can figure out a way to create those video memes and make them relevant to your business, that's a really, really popular form of content that's trending at the moment. So it's worth maybe doing a little bit of experimenting around that. But yeah, to answer your question, it really comes down to your audience

and what your audience is enjoying. So it's not like you, okay, I need to do reels and then stories and then maybe static posts. And so it's not like that, like there is like, oh, well, this is first and second. It's all depends on what your audience is reacting to the most so maybe a static post like carousel type just like you said works and you don't have to go out of your way to be like creating reels right so that's what you

said yeah and I think it also depends as well on the season of business that you're into because the different types of of Instagram content really have different purposes. So if you are in a season of business where you're trying to really expand your reach and your visibility, then reels are going to be amazing for you. Because at the moment, as I mentioned, Instagram is really pushing them and it is going to be a great way to increase your reach and the amount of eyes on your content and your profile. If you're in a season of, you know, wanting to create that engagement and warming up your audience, maybe you have an offer or a program that you're launching soon and you really want to start warming up your audience and increasing your engagement, then that's where I really recommend focusing in on creating a lot of stories.

Because story content is really going to help your audience get to know you. Stories, you can be a little bit more informal and less polished. And yeah, stories are a really great way for you to build that deep connection with your audience as well as going live on Instagram. Again, that's a really great way to warm up your audience and really build that connection with them. And as well as creating things like educational carousel posts, where that's really going to help to brand you as an expert in your field. So I think it also really depends on on the season of business you're in and the goals that you have. So you just need to take a bit more of a nuanced approach. Yeah. Okay. So it's, it's really, it's, it's, it's going back to testing

its seasons and just like, see what works with your, with your audience, right? When it comes to, and I'm noting again here as well, what I did is I noted visibility, question mark, and I did converting them over time. If we have to think about how does that become a customer, a client? That's my goal. If I want to have new customers and I'm, that's my goal, if I want to make, you know, have new customers and then creating value and all of that. How long do you think does it take me realistically to be seeing results and seeing that engagement or people coming to me? Should I be reaching out?

Are they going to come to me? Like, how do you think it works in your, in your, you know, business experience? Yeah. So again, it's probably not the answer that you want to hear, but it's very dependent on your business and your audience and your offer as well. So it really depends. See, if you've got an offer that is a really high ticket offer, if you've got an offer that you're selling for $3,000, $4,000, $5,000, it's going to take a little bit more time and having to really nurture your audience and warm your audience up and position yourself as an expert. Whereas if you've got an offer that is a much lower ticket offer, like a $47 cheat sheet,

or, you know, a 100, like anything sort of under a hundred dollars, if you've got, you know, then that's not going to take as much warming up because people don't need to really think about those purchasing decisions as much as they would if you had those higher ticket programs that you're selling. So again, it requires a little bit of nuance and having a look at, you know, what specifically you're offering, I guess the demand for that product and how much warming up of your audience that you're going to need. So I wish I could give you a simple answer, a timeframe and just say to you, you can do this over one month and it'll work. Like I've had, I've had clients who have implemented teachings from my program and literally within two weeks,

they've launched their business and had like 20 inquiries via DM. They were selling donuts. So again, you can say something like that. It's a super low cost product. Yeah. So it really just depends on what it is that you're offering and you're selling and how quickly you can warm up. Now, I mean, that's not to say that in two weeks, if you're selling a bigger ticket program, that you can't get those kind of results because you can and I've seen it, but it does require a bit more work to warm up your audience. So maybe you need to be going live three or four times a week. So you can really build that connection. Maybe you need to be posting every single day to Instagram rather than just posting two times a week. So you see the point I'm trying to make is based off of your unique situation and your goals. That's how you're going to have to tailor your Instagram strategy. Yeah. Okay. Thank you so much for just clarifying that for the listeners that are just like, but it makes perfect sense. Like the

way you, of course, a lower ticket requires less, you know, thinking time. You might just jump on it if it's a good offer and it's a lower ticket versus if it's a high ticket, you might make, you know, it's, you have to think about it. You have to make sure that it is for you. So of course that makes sense. Right. I mean, I don't even know, like it does make sense. Let's just say, yeah, of course it makes sense. We don't have much time left, but I do. Is there anything trend wise that you think it's very important for us to know in 2022? Yeah. So I think the only other thing that I haven't really touched on, well, we have touched on it a few times, but the only other trend, I guess, is really focusing on that relationship

building and engagement. So using Instagram should be an opportunity for you to really connect with your audience. There is such an opportunity for you as a business owner to connect directly with your audience. There is such an opportunity for you as a business owner to connect directly with your audience and really build those long-lasting relationships. And it really is the difference between having like a one-time only purchaser versus having someone that becomes a lifelong client and customer. Instagram has the power to be able to help you facilitate those types of relationships because you do have features within the app like stories where you can get really candid and you can share content

that is a lot less polished and a lot more real, raw and authentic. And I think that that's even a trend within itself. I think people are craving that connection and they're craving being able to see the human side behind the business and the brand. So I think that if you can really build and increase that connection on Instagram through, as I mentioned,

showing up regularly on your stories, going live and creating video content because again, showing up on video is really going to help to build that connection a lot faster than in just a regular feed post. Then I think that's going to be the biggest opportunity for you to really build those relationships with, you know, future clients and customers. I'm so glad you said, you know, and you just mentioned like less polished content and how that's actually helping you as a business owner to connect more.

I actually noted human as you were saying this. The reason why I said that is because I think Instagram had this bad connotation that is just perfect. Everything is perfect, the perfect life. You know, we try to portray ourselves to something that we are not. And the fact that you are mentioning that the human aspect of it, the fact that it's not perfect, you know, you are a person, you know, and that is something that comes back in trend. That's such a great news. Yes, totally. And I think that's something that really holds people back is they feel like they need to be perfect. This was something that I struggled with because I am such a type A personality, such a perfectionist, and it took me so long. It took me so long to just let go of that because at the end of the day who can relate to someone

who's perfect I know I can't if I see someone and they just seem so perfect I struggle to relate to people like that I think it's like a Kylie Jenner type of sorry to interrupt because Kylie Jenner is a perfect life and everyone loves her and you know that's why it started I think yes well you know maybe they they look up to her and she's like aspirational but do they connect with her on a personal level like can they really relate to her you know seeing her flying around in private jets and things like that it's harder for people to relate to that so I think the more real raw and authentic you can get with your audience don't please don't underestimate the power of that.

And just the other day, I posted a story and I noticed that I had made a typo. And back in the day, I would have raced to delete that and have to redo the whole thing. No, it's okay. Everyone makes mistakes. We're human. It's what will help other people to relate to us.

It's not the end of the world. If you're filming a video and you stutter or you mince up your words, and I'm sure I've done that plenty of times in this podcast, but it doesn't matter. We're all human. It's just part of being human. And like I said earlier, I think people are really lacking that human connection.

So I'm loving seeing that as a trend moving forward I hope it's a trend that's here to stay because I know that I'm personally over that really polished perfect image that you know you do see on Instagram amen to that so I have to say amen yeah for sure like that's that's what we all thought you know originally Instagram that's what threw me off as well and there was a time I had an account and I was just like walking away from that because that perfection made me feel like I'm not I'm never gonna be like oh my god that girl looks this and that and I mean of course you are picking who you're following and you know you have to be careful of that as well but, I'm so glad that we are bringing back

the human aspect. And I do feel like this is where we're moving towards as well when we see imperfection and those posts go viral when someone is actually showing a not Photoshopped image, right? Like even those things are just like coming back, which is great.

How do we work with you? Like, can you just walk us through if someone wants to grow their Instagram, they need someone who can help them, how can they reach out to you? What you can help people with? Just can you talk to the listeners about that as well? Yeah, yeah, for sure. So there's a couple of different ways that I work with people. Firstly, I offer social media management, which is where I will come in and actually take over

the management side of your Instagram and Facebook pages. I work one-on-one with you to help put together a content calendar and create content that's really impactful and engaging, that's going to really speak to your ideal clients and customers. Then the second way that I work with people is through one-on-one coaching. So that's for the empowered business owner who is ready to master Instagram marketing, really take their business to that next level. It's the highest touch program that you can work with me. We'd work directly one-on-one and I help to support and guide you through creating an Instagram strategy that actually works. And that more importantly, feels good to you because at the end of the day, if you don't enjoy what you're doing, you're not going to do it. So I really work to get to know you. We work to put together a plan that feels good for you. And that is going

to be really tailored to your unique goals and the season of business that you're in. And then the third way to work with me is through my digital products and courses. I've got some existing digital products that I sell in my shop and some courses, and I'm looking actually to relaunch one of my signature courses soon. So you can stay tuned to see that. And you can of course, follow me over on Instagram at Andrea Marie Creative, and then you can listen to my podcast, Instagram for bosses, which is available on Apple podcasts, Spotify, Google podcasts, and most other podcasts streaming platforms. Yeah.

That's awesome. I'm so happy I had you here and I'm like thinking, okay, we need to have her back. We need to have her back because I feel like I'd love to come back. There's so much more. It's like topic wise, like all of that. We can just talk forever forever I feel like on Instagram but I haven't even asked you about advertisement see like I have we haven't even done that oh my goodness I would love to come back on we'll definitely organize another time for me to come

back on the show because I've had so much fun yeah thank you so much for being here Andrea again you guys I'm going to make sure to put Andrea links in the podcast description as well. And you can check out her Instagram and follow her and her program as well. If you're looking to grow your business with Instagram, which is a super trending platform, make sure you check out Andrea's work.

Thank you so much for having... Sorry, I'm messing up at the end. Thank you so much for having, sorry, I'm messing up at the end. Thank you so much for being here. I'm so glad that we reached out and we connected together. It was just so much fun, honestly. I really loved being here. It was amazing.

And I've loved being able to chat to you for this past hour. Thank you. Have a great evening. It's Australia for you. Enjoy the evening. Bye-bye. Thank you.

I will do. Bye. Bye-bye. Thank you.