Transcription
Instagram has changed, and there are three things you need to know if you want to get better results and create more effective, higher-converting, and more profitable social media marketing campaigns for you, your business, or any business that you want to apply this to.
First is a three-part process I call confirm, connect, convert. That not only works on Instagram but applies equally well to any other social media network you decide to apply this to. But don't worry if you've never heard of this before; most haven't. So I'll show you exactly what it means and how to use it to get more leads, customers, and sales than ever before.
Next, you need to understand and work with the two biggest factors to Instagram success: the audience and the algorithms. Ignore this or get it wrong, and it just doesn't matter how smart, funny, or creative your Instagram content is; it's just not going to work.
And lastly, is something called attention arbitrage that Instagram, as well as every single other social media platform out there, lives and dies by. So with that said, let me show you how it's done, starting with the all-important confirm, connect, convert.
First things first, I want you to think of your Instagram account as less of a social media profile and more of like a mini website for your business. One that's designed to do three very specific things in a very specific order. First, you need to confirm that visitors to your bio, viewers of your content, engagers of your feed—that sounds like an old fantasy movie, anyway—you want to make sure that they know they're in the right place and they're crystal clear on exactly what you do and who you do it for. This is why you need to make sure that your bio is optimized for conversions by being again, crystal clear on what you do and why you're worth following. Make sure your name and title are clear and easy to understand, and use links to guide people on where they should go next. Make sure to use a high-quality image for your profile picture, and if you're going to have multiple links in your bio, then make sure that the most important one is perched right there at the top.
Next, you want to connect, which you're going to do in two ways. The first is by strategically posting your content at the best possible times, which according to this report is Mondays from 10:00 a.m. to noon, Tuesdays from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., Wednesdays from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., and Friday from 9:00 to 11:00 a.m. The best days to post appear to be Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and the worst day to post looks like Sunday. Also, an important note here: they don't say it, but it's safe to assume that these times are meant for the local time of your target audience. So if you're in London and your target audience is in London, then post say, Monday from 10:00 a.m. to noon London time. But if you're in London but your target market is say, in Vancouver, then post on Monday from 10:00 a.m. to noon Vancouver time.
Most important of all, though, is that these times are really just guidelines. So the best thing you can do is log into your Instagram analytics to find the dates and times that your audience is most active, and then post then.
So that's the first part of connect. The second part is using Instagram to actually chat with people. I know, talking to people, crazy idea, right? I heard it said years ago that conversations are the new leads, and if it was true back then, well, it's even more true today where authenticity and engagement and having genuine conversations with people really is the gateway to building a bigger and better business. Now, if you can respond to each comment manually, then go for it. On the other hand, if your Instagram inbox is more of the overflowing variety, than using an automation software solution can be a lifesaver. But more on this in just a second, because lastly, once you've confirmed and connected, well, you now have the opportunity to move on to the convert stage, which just so happens to lead me to this video's sponsor, Minichat.
If you're exploring new strategies to boost your Instagram engagement, reach, and conversions, then you definitely want to check out Minichat. An Instagram DM automation tool that's transforming how brands and creators interact on the platform. Minichat is also an official Meta Business Partner and approved for Instagram use, which makes it a must-have tool for effective engagement. Unlike the outdated and far less effective link-in-bio method, Minichat gives you the power to engage users directly through comments or DMs, sending them information automatically. This approach not only increases engagement but also exposes your content to a broader audience. Plus, it shifts sales conversations to the DMs where they have a higher likelihood of converting and allow for personalized interaction and follow-up questions, something that's basically impossible with traditional bio links. Ultimately, what Minichat does is turn every Instagram post, story, Reel, or Live into a dynamic conversation starter. And making the switch from bio links to DMs can increase your click-through rate from a mere 1% to a very impressive 46%, with every comment becoming a potential conversation and every conversation turning into a potential sale. So make sure to check out the link down in the descriptions below this video to start leveraging Minichat to supercharge your sales and interactions on Instagram. You can use it for free for up to a thousand contacts, and the Pro version starts at just $15 a month.
So with that said, let's move on to the next point: audience and algorithms. Here's the deal: winning on social media all comes down to just two simple things: the audience and the algorithms. And in both cases, the key to getting more reach, more engagement, and more followers really just comes down to giving them exactly what they want. And the real good news here is that they both want pretty much exactly the same things. Your audience wants content that's interesting, entertaining, educational, or valuable. And the algorithms want you to create content that's interesting, entertaining, educational, or valuable because these are the kind of things that are going to keep your audience engaged and on the platform for as long as possible, which is going to allow Instagram to make a whole lot more money.
So how do you do this? Good question, Adam. I'm glad you asked. The secret to creating content that both your audience and the algorithms absolutely love comes down to combining two different ingredients or elements: pieces, little Lego blocks stacked together. Part one is the message and the actual content itself. And part two is the way that the content and message are packaged and presented to the audience when published to social media.
Now, I've got some pretty cool stuff to share with you when it comes to part one and how to create truly viral-worthy content that gets engagement and followers and shares every time you post. But first, we actually need to talk about part two, which is how you're going to wrap all this up and get it out there so people actually see it. After all, it doesn't matter how great your message actually is if nobody ever sees it. And right now, there's a specific format that's working best across most, if not all, different social media platforms, and that is short-form vertical video. Instagram and Facebook, well, they call these Reels. YouTube calls them Shorts. LinkedIn has native video, which doesn't have to be short or vertical, so nobody really knows what's going on there. And TikTok just calls them videos or TikToks. But whatever you call them isn't important here. What is important is the question of how you can create short-form content that captures the hearts and minds and eyeballs and wallets of your ideal target market. So let me walk you through that next.
When I first started marketing, well over 10 years ago now, blogging and having an SEO or search engine optimized blog was the key to success. This is because Google was the primary traffic driver for most businesses out there, and having a high-ranking website or a blog was a virtual guaranteed payday. And I remember taking countless courses on blogging and keyword research and writing, content marketing, and WordPress hosting, basically anything and everything that went into running a successful blog. And it worked amazing until it didn't. You see, what happened was that social media platforms took over as the primary traffic driver for many businesses and started coming on the scene and changing consumer behavior and content preferences, which meant I needed to pivot. And if Instagram isn't a key part of your social media strategy, or you're not really attacking it with a kind of all-hands-on-deck mentality, then you probably need to pivot too.
And this leads me perfectly to the topic of attention arbitrage, which is all about identifying the platforms, channels, and media opportunities that are offering a disproportionate amount of reach, engagement, and attention in comparison to other platforms. And right now, Instagram is fighting pretty hard to come out on top. With over two billion monthly active users, Instagram is a giant. And it pretty much doesn't matter what business or market or industry you're in; the odds are pretty good that you're going to find a substantially large chunk of your ideal target market present, active, and engaging on the platform. Sadly, your competitors know this too, which is why the variable to success isn't just showing up; that's a given, but rather showing up in the right way with the right kind of content.
But if you asked most people why they think some things go viral while other pieces of content go completely ignored, you're likely to hear something along the lines of it just being pure dumb luck, chance, maybe fate, some freak occurrence that caused a magical piece of content to get millions, if not billions, of impressions. But the fact is, while nobody can guarantee that a specific piece of content is going to rack up hundreds of millions of views, there are certain characteristics and elements that all pieces of viral content seem to have in common. In other words, you can't make something go viral, but if something is going to go viral, it's probably going to have these elements in it. Elements that you can learn and use and apply to give all of your content the highest likelihood of success possible.
In his book *Contagious*, author Jonah Berger shares what makes things popular, get shared, and go viral. And there are a few very practical and actionable takeaways that I want to share with you now. Starting with emotion: most viral content delivers some kind of emotional charge, whether positive through feelings of awe, excitement, or humor, or negative through things like anger, for instance, anxiety. Now, I'm not saying you need to go out there and get people all fired up all the time, but it is important to understand that emotions are a far more powerful driver in sales and marketing than just straight-up logic and facts could ever hope to be.
The next element is practical value. People share things that help other people. Not only does this make them feel good by helping someone else out, but it also makes them look good themselves through a psychological phenomenon known as the halo effect, whereby sharing good things, people are more likely to associate good things with you.
Next is triggers, which is one of the most interesting and powerful viral factors of all. Triggers are sights and sounds and other stimuli that remind us of related products and ideas. The perfect example of this is when NASA landed a Rover on Mars, and Mars, the chocolate bar about the planet, saw an increase in sales because of all the media attention that Mars, the planet, was getting. Now, I appreciate you may not own a business named after a planet, but that doesn't mean you can't find other ways to associate your product or service or offer or message with something else, like the marketing firm CRN did when they introduced Kit Kat and coffee to consumers to get them to enjoy a Kit Kat bar whenever they take a coffee break.
So to help you do that and so much more, I've linked up a video right here with some of my very best marketing strategies that'll show you exactly what's working best right now and how to apply it in your business and marketing. So make sure to tap or click that now, and I'll see you in there in just a second.