The Ultimate Blog Podcast - 76. How Using Video on Instagram Skyrocketed Growth with Cari Garcia from FatGirlHedonist

Episode Date: May 30, 2023

Today, Cari Garcia is joining us to talk all about Instagram, a topic we don’t normally touch on.  Cari is a licensed clinical social worker turned food blogger and influencer. She has been blogging for over 13 years and has been active on Instagram since 2011. She shares everything from recipes to local south Florida restaurants and has over 200,000 followers. If you are wanting to use Instagram to help build your blog, tune in to hear more! Thanks for listening! Connect with us on Instagram: @sparkmediaconceptsCheck out The Blog Depot. This is a community and course that we have set up for you if you need questions answered before you start your blog. Join The Ultimate Blog Bootcamp, our online course and coaching that helps you build the blog that you have always dreamed of.Get 20% off of Keysearch Starter Plan using this link and code: KSDISCCheck out the show notes (link below) for more information including links and resources mentioned in today's episode! SHOW NOTES: www.sparkmediaconcepts.com/episode76

Welcome to the Ultimate Blog Podcast with Amy Reinecke and Jennifer Draper. We're on a mission to empower women who want to start or grow their own blog. This podcast is for women who want to learn blogging basics and who crave inspiration and encouragement. Whether you're just getting started or have been a blogger for years, we're excited to welcome you into this space where we are passionate about creating community over competition. We are bloggers who want to encourage you to believe in your potential, step outside the norm and step into a life where you create your own schedule, your own success and your own story. Join us for weekly episodes as we navigate blogging

and work from home life all while raising a family and having some serious fun along the way. all while raising a family and having some serious fun along the way. Okay, welcome back to the Ultimate Blog Podcast. We are going to talk about Instagram today, which is a topic that we don't normally touch on. But we're going to because you're asking for it. And so we're going to tell you. Instagram is obviously a tool that you can use to grow your blog. A lot of you, if you've been here for a long time listening, you know that we truly believe that your blog needs to be where you spend your time first and foremost. But Instagram can be a tool to help you grow your blog as well. And to talk about this today, we brought on Keri Garcia from Fat Girl Hedonist. And Keri has had an amazing run with her Instagram. She's had pivoting and everything. So

this is going to be a really interesting conversation. She is a licensed clinical social worker turned food blogger and influencer. Keri has been blogging for over 13 years and active on Instagram since 2011, which is the year it started. So we have an OG Instagrammer here with us today. She shares everything from recipes to local South Florida restaurants and has over 200,000 followers. Keri, teach us your ways. We are so glad that you're here today. Well, thank you so much for having me. Like you mentioned, I started with Instagram when Instagram started. So it was very much a learning curve for me. You know, when I started, you know, it was a lot of lo-fi filters and like the square images on like really grainy iPhone cameras. And, you know, through the course of my evolution as a blogger, as a content creator, you know, I've learned how to improve my craft and, you know, not just my, my food blogging, but also like, you know, the, the food photography aspect that is so

pivotal to food blogging. Yeah. Because when it comes to food in particular, like, you know, what catches us first is the picture is the visual of the food. So, you know, I, I was able to get a good grasp and understanding of the importance of taking good images and, you know, good editing and fast forward now, 13 years later, which I still can't believe it's been 13 years, the importance of a quality food video, which is where, you know, social media in general is kind of evolving into is, is we're moving more and more away from still images to video. So it's been interesting, you know, one being open to improving and changing and pivoting to current trends,

as well as learning about those trends and learning how to better myself so I'm successful. Yeah. I think pivoting is a really big component of being a blogger and having that open mind, like you said, that we cannot put our blinders on and say, I'm not willing to ever learn anything new. Because if you do, you're going to be stagnant, I think. Yeah. So it is part of that. But I think that's... Honestly, I think as a blogger, that's almost a good thing because a lot of us who come into this career are creatives. And we might not have even realized that we were creatives. I didn't. When I became a blogger, I didn't realize that I had that part of me inside of me that it was like, Oh my gosh, I have this creative muscle that I didn't even realize that I had before.

But as I get older, as I do this more, I very much do. And it's really fun to explore that, especially with the changes in blogging, to know you get to discover something new and do something new and see how it performs and does. So I like that you said pivot. We say that. We say that a lot. So did you start your Instagram in 2011? And then when did you start your blog? Like, how did that process look? So the blog came first for me. I started the blog in 2010.

Awesome. But in 2010, all I had was Twitter and Facebook. That was the extent of social media at the time. So, you know, it was, I had my Twitter, I had my Facebook. And at the time when I first started the blog, it was just about local restaurants. I wasn't writing recipes. My dad was a chef. And then I did a culinary program in high school. And I completed the culinary program. So the love of food was always there. It was always intrinsic. But unfortunately, you know, I didn't continue the culinary track. I went to college and I became a social worker. But that love of food was always there. And then fast forward to 2009. And I ended engagement.

And I was devastated. I was so brokenhearted. And, you know, I would drag my friends to all these crazy restaurants. And my friends were like, you should really start a blog. And I needed a hobby at the time. Like I needed an outlet. And I'm like, Oh, I don't even know what I wouldn't even know how to do that. Like, I don't even know how would I even start a blog? And it's 2009. So there's not a lot of resources on the internet. So they're like, well, you have to do something

because you are dragging us to eat ribs out of somebody's trunk in the hood. So, you know, this is something you really should be doing. Like you should be. So I Googled, how do you start a food blog? And I kind of just went down a rabbit hole and I started it. You know, I would write about local restaurants, the little dives that the places with great food and slowly, surely, once 2011 came around, I started the Instagram account. And it was, again, I had zero followers. I had no following. I was just throwing my super like edited, filtered pictures and they're so embarrassing.

And I'll share them regularly now. You know, Instagram shows you memories. Yeah. And they're so cringe worthy, but I share them because I like to remember where I came from and where I started. And I like to show other people like, you know, this is I started here and you can improve and you can get better. So I always like to show those. But you know, I started the Instagram. And it was an outlet of the blog, I would use it to promote

new blog posts, I would use it to kind of hit towards upcoming blog posts. And it was an outlet of the blog. I would use it to promote new blog posts. I would use it to kind of hit towards upcoming blog posts. And it was definitely something I used to help promote my blog. Fast forward, I no longer write about restaurants. I only write recipes. Very seldom will I share about like a giveaway or something like that. But I mean, the blog has pivoted and evolved into just recipes. And now I use it to share about same thing. Hint about upcoming recipes, hint about upcoming events or giveaways.

Like right now, I just launched a giveaway today. The only thing for me that is a little bit different because I started with just restaurants and I grew a following sharing just about restaurants. Even though my blog has evolved to something else, my Instagram following is still expecting restaurants. Oh, isn't that interesting? Yeah. So now my, my social media is half and half. It's half restaurants. Cause you know, I don't want to alienate this audience that has been with me over 10 years, but I also want to share what I'm doing now. So it's a little bit of a half and half for me because of the way my blog started and what it's changed into.

So it's interesting because you go to my Instagram and there's, you know, you got half restaurants and local eats. And then you've got like recipes I'm working on. But the website is just recipes. Yeah. So it's been like, you know, a learning curve for me, figuring out a balance. Yeah. Well, it sounds like you also get to continue doing something that you enjoy doing, which is local eats and supporting local restaurants, which I think is awesome that

you're able to do that. And it's all for the main content pillar of good food. Yeah. I mean, that's the passion is good food. So yeah. Whether you're making it or buying it. Yes, exactly. If you're making it at home, you also want to know... I think if you make good food at home, you also want to go somewhere and have good food too. Where can I go to eat good food too? So I love that you're actually able to do both. And I think that you mentioned something that's really important is that you can be a little bit more broad on Instagram, but it is helpful for your blog to be narrowed down to more just recipes.

But you can expand a bit more on Instagram. Yeah. So let's talk about this pivot in Instagram that you had to make a couple years ago. Tell your story about that because we brought you on today because you were able to grow exponentially here in recent years. And I know that growing on Instagram these days is incredibly difficult. It's not something that can be done really easily. When I started in 2015, it was pretty easy to grow. I grew the majority of my following in there. And since then, I've been very stagnant. Actually, our Spark Media account grows fairly consistently. It's not like leaps and bounds. But we are positive and followers

every month. We're attracting new people. I do think the podcast has something to do with that. We're able to connect with more people here for sure. So I think that is helping. But what did you do a couple years ago? Or what was the reason that you decided to pivot your Instagram strategy a couple years ago? I'd love for you to share the story. So let's go back in the Wayback Machine and And, you know, the pandemic hits. And I had up until that point, I had invested so much in improving my photography. I had paid for the courses. I had, you know, invested in good cameras and good lenses. And, you know, I was so proud how much I had improved my food photography.

And, you know, I struggled with pivoting at first because I was like, no, I finally got good at this. I'm not getting out of this. I'm finally good. And I really struggled because I was so proud of how good my photography had improved. Right. But fast forward, the pandemic hits. Right. And millennials are introduced to the kid app TikTok, you know, and it's all video and you get sucked into this world of TikTok for hours. You're just throwing away. And that inspired me to kind of just play around with video like, and those first few videos, horrible, but same thing you learn. So, and then little by little, it inspired me to play around on Instagram with video. I'm like, I already have the content that I shot for TikTok, might as well kind of just repurpose it and throw it on on Instagram. And, you know, I started improving on my food video, my short form video, I started improving. And, you know, it got to a point where I was noticing that my Instagram reels were far outperforming my static images, you know, and that's when Instagram was really going heavy on pushing reels. And, you know, slowly but surely, I started just moving away from images altogether. And I want to say just one year over a year ago now, I have not posted a static image on my feed at all. It's all video. You know, so for me, you know what I would post maybe three, four times a week or

throw up an image, blah, blah, blah. Now I post six to seven times a day. I'm not, no, no, sorry. Six to seven times a week, a week, a week. Sorry, not a day stories. I post, I post several stories a day and I feel like stories can be like, you know, an even further extension of the blog. You could get a little bit more personal, what I'm doing, you know, like, it's much less formal. I post several stories a day. I keep them interactive. So I love to do polls. I love to do anything that makes the viewer involved and makes them interact will help you have higher story views,

which in turn will help lead those viewers to your feed posts. Like I mentioned, I post six to seven times a week. My goal is to post once a day, even on Sundays. I try to, I look at my analytics regularly now and I see, okay, what are my busy days? What are my busy times? What posts are doing better than others? So I can tailor the content to my followers. For a while there, I was noticing cocktails were doing great and they still do really good on my page. So now, you know, I, I post more cocktails, you know, and, and, and I do more cocktail recipes. So, and I noticed

for a while there desserts weren't doing too good. So I was staying away from desserts, but I want, I have so many dessert recipes that I kind of force fed my followers desserts until now, you know, for like a good six months. And now my dessert posts do great. So the posting six or seven times a week, staying away from static images, you know, just reels, only reels, interactive stories, making sure your content is well lit, crisp, and just good quality, high resolution content is very important. If it's grainy, if it's if I can't see what I'm looking at,

nobody's gonna stick around for that, you know, they're just gonna keep scrolling and keep, you know, keep moving, because it's got to be very well, you have to show a good picture, right? And you have to show a good story. For me, I am very self-conscious because I worked in healthcare, I should preface this, because I worked in healthcare for so long before jumping to doing this full-time, I became, you know, kind of like anonymous. For a long time, I was anonymous. Nobody knew what I looked like because working in a hospital setting, my face can't be out there. So I still struggle with that. And I still struggle with showing my face on video, even though I haven't worked in a hospital in over a year. It's something I still struggle with. And I also struggle with having my voice.

So I like to use trending audios. So like a funny audio, whether it's something like there's one that says that's gone viral a couple times now it says drink responsibly i drink because i'm responsible and it's just and it's always like a cocktail video that i go that way so for me a trending audio my audios that i pick they have to be ideally under 2000 uses i like to keep my videos 15 seconds or shorter. I will go up to, if it's a video that's like, oh, this would be so great. You just get that feeling like, oh, this will do so good. Then maybe up to 5000 uses, but anything over that I won't use. So to find a trending audio, you look for on Instagram, when you're finding trending audio,

you look for the one that has the pointing up arrow, correct? Or how do you find trending audio? It's just, I, I spend too much time on Instagram. So like in the real speed, it's gotta be an audio that I feel would fit well with my content and with my audience. My audience likes funny stuff. You know, they, they like, they like jokes. They like, you know, people that spend too much money, you know, things like, things like that. stuff. You know, they like jokes. They like, you know, people that spend too much money, you know, things like that. So, you know, I will, I try to dedicate like at least 30 minutes of kind of just mindless, you know, scrolling, looking for audios.

If it has the trending audio, like the little trending arrow, great. But I mean, it doesn't have to be, that's not the end all be all for me. If it's an audio that I feel fits, kind of meets those parameters under 2000 uses, and is under 15 seconds, you know, then I'll save it anyway. You know, I have, I'll save it. No, I'll keep it. Because sometimes I've had audios that that don't have that, that that little arrow and will still do great. Yeah. So, you know, that's me. I'm trying to get more comfortable with the

voiceovers. But again, because my audience isn't used to it, those don't do great now. They will eventually. But I think that's okay, honestly, because we all have our own level of comfort. There's several things that I like about what you were just talking about. One, you have paid very close attention to what your audience likes and what they don't like. And you give them what they like. That's going to keep them engaged. But also you had content that you did want them to like. And so you just kept posting it to where they are like, okay, I mean, this girl wants me to like desserts or I really like what Carrie posts all the time. And so I'll

look at her dessert stuff too. Because people begin to connect with you, regardless of if you're showing your face, I think, or not. If you're active and sharing, you're sharing that often. They get to know... They're getting to know you through even food videos, quite honestly. So I really like that you said, my audience liked this. And so I'm doing this. And a lot of times I think we overcomplicate content creation because we tell ourselves, well, I have to know exactly what they want. No, just listen. Just listen. And then your audience is likely going to give you some feedback of what they like and what they don't like and kind of roll with what they like. And you And you'll see that that kind of pick up.

So really glad that you mentioned that. Yeah. Implementing keyword research and competition analysis into your content strategy is a surefire way to improve your chances of people finding your content. And we love how simple KeySearch makes it to find keywords we actually want to use in our posts. KeySearch is a powerful keyword research tool that makes finding relevant, low competition keywords for your blog simple and easy. If you think optimizing your blog and doing keyword research has to be hard, think again. Give this powerhouse tool a try and see how much easier it will be to create content for your blog. Not only is it reasonably priced even for beginning bloggers, but you can

use our code for 20% off your subscription. Click the link in our show notes to learn more. What kind of equipment do you use to record your videos? And then do you repurpose that content? I love repurposing content because if my goal to post six or seven times a week is that, you know, that's a lot of video. That's a lot of time. That's a lot of food, you know, and I just, I can't. So I very regularly will repurpose content. I try to repurpose... If I'm going to repurpose something, I try to make sure it's been at least eight months since I used it. I love going a year back. So if I want to repurpose something, I will go and see what did I post April of last year? And what did well April of last year?

And I'll repurpose that. So how do you repurpose it? Do you have the video saved somewhere or do you literally just take the reel and just repost the reel? So I don't like to repurpose it exactly. I have the video and then I also have the extra video that didn't make it to the final cut. So I will go back and then I will take different shots. So it's not exactly the same, but I'm already using content that's already there. Video that's already there. That's already, I have saved and I will re re chop it up. Basically a new video together using old content. And depending on how well it did, I will either use the same exact audio or I'll look for a new audio that's trending right now. Okay.

Because that is a lot of work to post brand new content every single day. No, that's impossible. I'm a single mom. I have other jobs too. So it's like that would be impossible. Right. In regards to the equipment I use, I shoot everything on my iPhone. Everything gets shot on my iPhone. Honestly, life is so complicated as it is. Our jobs are so complicated as it is. Trying to shoot on a full full frame camera, you know, a cheese

pull or, or, you know, there's no need for that, you know, unless you're doing like long form YouTube video, like I really don't think that, you know, shooting on a camera video shooting video on a camera is really necessary. Your iPhone will do a great job. There's no need. So I use that, know my setup my lighting is best in my living room so i have a setup right in front of my balcony door i have you know a diffuser screen against the balcony and then i have like my backdrops and then i use in i believe I use an... I believe the brand is called Acron. An Acron phone stand to hold up my phone.

And that's basically how I do it. I try to simplify it as much as possible. And I also shoot my content while I'm shooting the recipe. So I'm knocking 2 birds out with 1 stone. Yeah. I was going to ask that question. So do you do you batch that? Like, like, do you batch your work? Kind of explain that process? I think that might be helpful for people. So for recipes, I try to assign myself like a content day. And because I'm doing the video, and I'm doing like the static images, and you know, you have to take the process shots and you have to take you know, and you have to take... So one recipe can end up taking a while. So I try to aim for three to four recipes on a content day. So I'll have my phone set up on my stand. And then I'm also taking my images for the blog.

So I batch everything together. It's all getting done all at once. So I'm getting the video and the images all in one go. Yeah. And then do you just take... So the video that you're creating that day, then do you just put those in files on your phone to where you can look back and say, Oh, that's the recipe that I need. I can go right back to that recipe and find that file. Yeah. Awesome. So you really do have an organized... I'm sure that people are like, Oh my gosh, six to seven times a week. How is she doing that? But you're really batching your work,

which is a lesson that we teach a lot. What can you batch? What can you do all in one day to make the rest of the week easier to where you can just... Things feel more fluid. Because as with anything, we all have things in our blogging business that we really love doing. And we all have things that we're like, I can't wait till this is over. I don't like doing this. And so I think that's really helpful to hear you say that. But having a content day... Because think about what she just said. She does 3 to 4 recipes in a content day. She does three to four recipes in a content day. That's three to four blog posts.

That is multiple videos to use for TikTok and Instagram and anything else like that. You can do teasers and stories. That's a lot of content in one thing. So when you are creating some of those videos, do you create... When you sit down and that's your process that day, let's say you have one recipe. Do you create more than one video at a time for that said recipe? Yeah. So I'll do a longer video that shows the whole process of the dish being made. And then I'll do also like, you know, like, like a hot shot, like just like the final video, whether it's that final sauce pour, and that'll be like a

five second video. But that that can be a real in it of itself. Yeah. Or if it's like a pie, just like me bringing up that one slice of pie. That's it. It doesn't have to be so complicated. Like you can do like the full process of the whole cooking, but just the final shot of, or it could be like one that's done well is like the cake slice in front of the cake and then just sticking a fork in the cake slice. And that's it.

Yeah. That's the whole reel. And then the caption is, you know, traditional carrot cake is my favorite carrot cake. You know, find the full recipe on my blog. And that's it. It does not have to be overcomplicated. Like it could just be like if a bread pudding,

just pour in the sauce, the rum sauce on the bread pudding. That's it. That's the whole video. Yeah. I love that you said don't overcomplicate it. Yeah. Because I think that we can. I think that we can overcomplicate it in our heads. Oh, for sure.

And that will prevent us from ever even making the steps forward. Yeah. Because we automatically tell ourselves, I don't think I can figure that out. Yeah. But you obviously have. You have figured this out. And you were resistant to it a little bit in the beginning too. But then just said, okay, I'm going to do it. I'm going to do the thing. And I can only imagine that increasing your Instagram followers by 80,000 has had to have had an impact on your blog. Yeah. Yeah. So right now, my Instagram is my third largest referral source for the blog.

So it is definitely an impact for me. And it's been great because honestly, it's such a great tool to help funnel viewers to your blog. Which obviously helps me because of the ad source revenue I get on the blog. So it ends up being a win-win. And you can also turn them into email subscribers as well. And to make sure that you're always connected to them, because that's our biggest thing with just growing your Instagram is that's really risky. If you just grow your Instagram and you're never funneling them over to your blog,

how are you going to connect with them if Instagram, like you wake up and Instagram's gone tomorrow? Well, actually, I have a good story about that. So that happens in 2018. In 2018, I was being harassed by some troll online. And even though I reported their account, somehow my account was shut down. And my account was shut down December 26. Oh my gosh. was shut down and my account was shut down december 26th oh my gosh so all of instagram and facebook are on holiday vacation i had 80 000 followers at the time i remember in december you know you get like the oh on this day on this day it's me having a panic attack on facebook like begging people like please do something like and my account was gone for two and a half weeks.

And I had a full on panic attack. I was like, I was a wreck. Yeah. But that taught me such a valuable lesson because you, on all social media platforms, it's not just for Instagram, all of them, you are on borrowed real estate. That is not yours. So luckily, I had a following on Facebook and on Twitter. TikTok wasn't a thing. But I mean, I had Facebook and Twitter where I was able to go and advocate for

myself and beg for help. And I also had my blog. But it was such an eye opener for me because I realized, you know, this could be gone. This was gone, you know, and I got lucky I got it back. this could be gone. This was gone, you know, and I got lucky I got it back. But, you know, I realized, oh, this is not that, you know, I really have to hone in on the blog. Because that's, that's mine. Nobody could take that away from me. Yeah, we often share that. So I am really sad that that happened for you. But I am so glad that you're here on this specific podcast episode sharing. I've grown my Instagram and all this, but still sharing the dark truth there that you are on borrowed land. That is not owned property, but your blog is. And so while it is amazing that that traffic has raised, your followers have raised your Instagram. It is so really important as you are growing your Instagram, make sure that you are funneling those

people over to your blog. Make sure they know you have a blog. Make sure you're sharing. This is how you sign up for my email list. Go here and get the recipe. I think that that's really important. I am so glad that you've shared this all today. I think that this has been incredibly insightful for a couple of reasons. One, that you have pivoted so many times in your blogging business. I think that that is a really great lesson that can be learned from anybody listening. And two, that obviously, Instagram is borrowed land, but it's also okay to grow that space with an effort to funnel those people to your blog too. Because I do think that Instagram, it does kind of allow us a way to connect with people in a different way.

It's more personable than the blog. We can get a little more personal in our emails or whatever that we're sending to our subscribers. But there's something about face to cam or just talking, sharing, sharing with your community there that I think does make an impact where people are like, she really is just a person at home. And I hope that you've heard that today from Carrie. She said she's a single mom. She sets it up in her living room. And I hope that the people listening today who are wondering, can I do this? I think that they felt inspired by your story. I really do. I have been. And I think that that's awesome that we can do that. We can all do this from home. We can all make this look however we need to make it look, you know, and we can all do it because there's people

willing to say, hey, this is how you do it. And just, you know, making this small pivot has made a huge impact on your blog. Is there anything else that you would like to share as inspiration or anything with our listeners today? As a chronic overthinker, I would just say, it doesn't have to be complicated. Just start. And once you start, you'll see that it gets easier. And the more you do it, the more practice you'll have and the easier it will get. But you have to start somewhere. And sometimes that's so hard. We overthink and we hype ourselves

up so much that we won't even start because it's just so hard. We overthink and we hype ourselves up so much that we won't even start because it's just so overwhelming. But again, it could just be as simple as just a simple pour, that first bite of cake. It does not have to be a complicated reel or video or anything or post. It could be so simple as long as you allow it to be simple. Mm-hmm. Awesome. Thank you so much for long as you allow it to be simple. Awesome. Thank you so much for just sharing today. This has been awesome. And I know that people are going to want to connect with you. So will you please tell them how they can find you? So my blog is fatgirlhedonist.com. I'm Fat Girl Hedonist on all social media platforms. And yeah, that's basically it.

Awesome. Thanks so much, Keri. Oh, thank you so much. Thanks so much for tuning in today. If you'd like to continue the conversation about blogging with us, please find us on Instagram at Spark Media Concepts. You can also sign up for our weekly newsletter where we share blogging tips and inspiration.

You can sign up by finding the link in the show notes. For those of you who are ready for the next step and want to start your own blog, join the waitlist for the ultimate blog bootcamp. The link to join the waitlist is also in the show notes. Go out and make today a great day.