205: Instagram in 2024 | Corey Walker

Are you looking to up your Instagram game in 2024?

Want to start the year with a strategy that will help you create content that is engaging for your audience but also enjoyable for you to create?

Well, I am joined by Corey Walker (Author of Instagram for Business for Dummies) who is here to give you strategic thoughts around Instagram in 2024. 

We had an amazing chat exploring the different features of Instagram to help YOU use it in a way that works for you and your business.

This is part of our new campaign - Around the World in 90 days - your ticket to good content marketing! 

Welcome aboard flight CQM222, I am your pilot, Mariah - you have your ticket to good content marketing in hand. 

While on this flight the flight attendants will be here to assist you to get off the content creation hamster wheel and onto a new way of marketing to help you live a more freedom-based lifestyle. 

Each week you will be given a new stamp in your passport and by the end of the 90 days you will be on your way to explore the world of Content Marketing as a solo traveller. 

This is week five - get ready, it is going to be a wild ride! 

If you LOVED this part of your trip (the episode), make sure you share this on your Instagram stories and tag us @contentqueenmariah and @coreycwalker.

✨ ⁠⁠⁠⁠GET YOUR TICKET TO GOOD CONTENT MARKETING⁠⁠⁠⁠ ✨

KEY EPISODE TAKEAWAYS 👇

  • Instagram in 2024 overview

  • NEW feature coming in 2024 to Instagram

  • Instagram tips and tricks

  • The different features and how to use them

  • How to use Instagram for your business

SHOW RESOURCES 👇

If you like this episode, don't forget to share it to your Instagram stories and tag me @contentqueenmariah!

Other than that, enjoy - chat next week 💕

ABOUT THE GUEST

Corey Walker is the co-author of Instagram for Dummies, and Instagram for Business for Dummies, a how-to guide for using Instagram to market your business. She is also the owner of The Marketing Specialist, a digital marketing agency in El Dorado Hills, California. Corey works with several clients to produce social media strategies, including creating graphics and written content, advising on video, scheduling content, buying ads, and tracking analytics. She loves helping businesses achieve success in the online world!

PODCAST TRANSCRIPTION

This is your pilot speaking. My name is Mariah and welcome to this special series of the content queen podcast. You have boarded flight CQM 222 and you have in your hand your ticket to good content marketing. We hope you have a safe journey on this 90 day trip strap in and get ready to experience all the strategy and learning you need to enter 2024 with the direction on how to create content that is unique to you and your business.

While on board, you have complimentary access to all the learnings that will help you attract. Your own new passengers to grow and expand your own trip. While on this flight, the flight attendants will be here to assist you get off the content hamster wheel and onto a new way of marketing to help you live a more freedom based lifestyle.

Each week, you'll be given a new stamp of your passport. And by the end of the 90 days, you'll be on your way to explore the world of content marketing as a solo traveler seatbelts on. We are ready to take off. Hello gang. How are we? I'm still in Colombia, still reporting from Colombia. We went on a little bit of a road trip, which was super nice.

And of course, this is where the strategy plays a very important role. Because of course, I have to manage multiple clients and my own content. So at least, and I was just thinking about this. You know, there are some weeks where we are unorganized. I'm unorganized too. It happens. We can't all be perfect.

But the thing that helps me is having the plan and the strategy and sort of having allocated days to do content. Say for example, you know, I need to film some videos and ahead of time of when I'm in my writing phase I've written out my kind of rough script. And then maybe I'm busy and I don't get time to film them.

But When I do have the space, even if it isn't the day that I, you know, intended and wanted it to be. I literally just have to plug in my mic because everything's set up and then, you know, I can, I can put it into the process. So, really, in those weeks where we are unorganized and maybe the strategy and the plan isn't 100 percent perfect, there's no overthinking, there's just action.

So, I just wanted to share that because I guess traveling has its, uh, curveballs. And life in general, you know, whether you're a parent whilst creating your business, whether you are managing multiple different things, a full time job, all those things, having a strategy and a plan takes away the overthinking and it just allows you to take action.

So I just wanted to share that because I was away last week, but I was still working. So it was a little bit of a challenge to kind of navigate, um, the content, but there's a lot less overthinking because I had the plan and the strategy. But today we're talking about Instagram. Now, if Instagram is a core channel for you, it's one that you use a lot in your business, then this definitely is for you.

If Instagram is something you think you might want to use more efficiently next year, this is also for you. Now, as mentioned, with any guests we have come on, any episode I do, it is all about Understanding what works for you and your business in alignment to your business goals, your business plan, your strategy, your vision, all of that.

And that is what's really important about this 90 day campaign and this around the world experience that you're on with us is understanding what is going to work for your business. And maybe if you don't know, making an assumption, testing it and see what happens. Now, in this episode, it is, we do talk about some features that are happening.

In Instagram or on Instagram, um, in 2024. And as I said, there's some really important questions that you should ask yourself whenever you potentially see an update come out about a new channel and whether you want to decide whether it's one that you take on. You know, good old threads. Um, I did a video on this.

Just if you listen to this live, I did, it just came out yesterday, but let me just quickly share with you what I mentioned in this. So basically what I talk about is whenever social media has a certain change and a new feature comes out, there are some really important questions that you want to ask yourself.

So these are the ones that you should ask. The first one, is it aligned with my strategy? Will this new update help me towards my business goals? Will this new update help me towards my marketing goals? If yes, Let's move on and spend time learning the, the platform or the, the new feature, whatever that looks like.

If no, we move on. If you don't have a strategy, that's your answer is the next step. So we do talk about some new features and new things on Instagram, and there's some really important questions to ask yourself whilst you're listening. Now, after this episode, I actually saw a post, it's interesting how the algorithm, um, you know, steers us towards some stuff that we often need, sometimes stuff we don't.

But I'm going to put this post in the show notes. Essentially, there's three things that this, this creator talked about or this, um, social media, uh, expert spoke about, um, some things that are going to come to Instagram next year. And I thought I would share some. So the first one is A B testing with Reels.

So apparently next year, you'll be able to test four different captions and thumbnails on your videos. Now, to be honest for me, um, and what happens is it sees which one performs the best in the. First 30 minutes. And then that's the one that displays on your profile. I think as small business owners, this probably isn't super aligned because you know, we don't have space creating four different captions and thumbnails.

No, thank you. If you are a content creator that monetizes off these platforms, potentially something you want to look into, but it's interesting. I think it's, you know, if you're really, you do like testing and you feel like you want to nerd out on some marketing, I mean, it'd be pretty cool. But that's just one.

These are generally for creators mainly. Um, but you might find it interesting. The second one is achievements. So basically Instagram and Facebook are going to gamify the platform. And essentially you'll get achievements and rewards when you hit milestones. So followers, reach, whatever. This is. This could create a very unhealthy relationship with Instagram, um, it's, it could make it fun, but then, you know, you want to get to that next milestone, so you might hustle, hustle, post more, whatever, but it also might get you thinking and learning, oh, well, what content does work for my audience, and maybe it'll encourage you to look at the numbers, so that's one, it's going to be very interesting, gamification and giving you little rewards and badges when you hit milestones, I mean, you know, it's keeping you on the platform, basically, this one, Might be fun, might also cause a lot of anxiety, so tread lightly.

And then the third one is the, the insights. So basically the insights will be able to tell you more of a retention on your reels and things. I have seen this online, um, it'll tell you where people drop off. This is one is very good. It helps you understand the content, um, what's working, what isn't. Again, we don't have to obsess over it, but I think if there are reels that perform well and ones that don't perform well, you can look at where people drop off and maybe think about tightening up.

What you're saying in your videos, um, or in your reels, and maybe it'll tell you what kind of content your audience prefers, short form, long form, that sort of thing. So there are three, um, new ones. As I said, the first two, not too sure about potentially create small work. The last one is quite good because it will save you a bit of time.

So I just wanted to share you with you those before we jump into the episode with Corey, where she's also going to share some more that are coming out. Again, ask yourself these questions as you're going through the episode. And really it is about understanding if Instagram is a channel that performs well for you.

And that is where the measurement comes down to looking at where people are landing on your website or how they're performing, you know, what, what's performing in your business basically. And, um, if you are part of content bootcamp or my, um, my membership, you get access to our quarterly sessions where we.

So let's dive into the numbers. If you are someone that wants to learn more about it, just send me a message. I've got lots of resources on it as well. So let's dive in and talk about Instagram with Corey. So Corey Walker, who's been on this podcast multiple times, is a very good friend of the ep of the content queen podcast.

And um, I love having these yearly chats with her about Instagram because she's the coauthor of Instagram for dummies and Instagram for business for dummies, a how to guide for using Instagram to market your business. She's also the owner of the marketing specialist, a digital marketing agency in California.

check Corey works with several clients to produce social media strategies, including graphics, written content, advising on video, scheduling content, buying ads, and tracking analytics. She loves helping businesses achieve success in the online world. So let's again chat with Corey, which might I add is always one of the most top performing episodes on the content queen podcast.

Welcome Corey to the podcast again, third time. Yes. I love it. Every time's a charm. Yep. I love having you on this time of year. It's like everyone's Christmas treat. So if people have been listening, I have long time listeners, so they'll know who you are because they would have listened to a few of the episodes, but can you give a brief summary on your origin story and who you are and what you do?

Sure. Um, well, my name is Cory Walker and I am the coauthor of Instagram for dummies and Instagram for business for dummies. And I'm also a digital agency owner in Eldorado Hills, California, which is outside of Sacramento. And I have had my business for like, I don't even know at this point, 17 years, 18 years, something like that.

Um, a long time. And, um, yeah, and I've been writing the dummies books. We have two versions of each book now, two revisions, basically, um, of each one. And we have another one that's going to be worked on next year. And. Yeah, that's about it. Amazing. I love it. I love having you on because we talk all things Instagram, but also I love it.

You know, you've been in business for a long time. So, you know, sustainable growth, you know, you understand that, um, things. Also take time, but we don't have to be on this hamster wheel all the time. It's a marathon. Um, and I love, um, you know, hearing your experience and your wisdom. And I was just mentioning before we hit record, we're doing this campaign, which is around the world in 90 days at content queen, really about your ticket to good content marketing.

And we really want to help entrepreneurs sort of get off this wheel, use what works for them. You know, so some people listening are going to get things that will work for them and some things they go. I'm not going to do that, or I'm going to try it, or who knows. So, um, first I want to talk about, uh, good Instagram.

I say good because, you know, um, it's just what we're, you know, talking about today and what makes this kind of good, uh, Instagram strategy and content. I'd love to know your thoughts around this. Okay, so, um, 1st of all, just consistency, which is ironic because I just took a 2 week break. Um, but consistency is is a good thing to have and whether that's.

you know, twice a day, twice a week, but just getting out there on a regular basis and keeping up with things is a good, um, is always a good thing to do. Um, and then using different parts of Instagram. So I talk about this a lot, uh, using Instagram like a funnel. So, you know, starting off with your reels, you're going to get, that's the top of the funnel and you're going to get the most kind of eyeballs, just looking at things and then moving them down as they show interest.

So maybe they liked your reel and they're like, okay, I'm going to follow this person. So they start seeing posts. So you want to be using that feature. And then they might be looking at your stories and they're going to get to know you a little bit better because you might be showing more of your personal side on the stories, um, and having people, you know, DM you and having those conversations.

And then, um, finally, if you want to do a live, that's a great way to convert. If you are trying to sell either your service or a product, um, doing those live videos are going to help you as well. So. If you can think of it that way, I mean, I know it's a lot and not everybody wants to do all of it, um, but moving people through that funnel is, is really an effective way to get some conversions.

If you're out there doing sales. I love this, this I love, um, funnels is now something we're all talking about more 'cause we're all starting to understand it rather than it being super overwhelming. Like, what is this? But I love how you talk about Instagram being a funnel of its own because for a lot of business owners, Instagram is a main channel.

I mean, every time I do a workshop, you know, I'll be talking blogs and podcasts and emails and everyone's like, I didn't, I'm on Instagram, you know? Yeah. And it is a very popular channel, but I love how you talk about it in this way of, you know. Reels is the eyes, so we probably should be a bit more entertaining and, and then we sort of can, um, bring people further down the funnel.

That is really cool. Every time we have these conversations, you drop this like. You know, concept around using Instagram in a way I'm always like, that is so cool. I absolutely love it. And I know what you're saying, you know, people don't want to do all the things, but it doesn't mean you have to do them all the time, right?

It works with the funnel, you know, you might create more content at top and then filter people down. And I love looking at each element of Instagram and how it's used in the process. That's really cool. Yes, exactly. Yeah. I love that. So. We're talking before, you know, in 20, everyone, every time your episode comes out, everyone loves it because we do talk a little bit about what's happening on Instagram in 20.

It feels like they just drop a bomb on us every time, like threads just turned us upside down. You know, they're always doing new changes and it doesn't mean that we have to jump on them all, but it's always interesting as we're saying people. I think even if we're never going to use them, we like to know they're coming out before they come, because otherwise, when they do come out, we just lose our minds.

And we, you know, especially social media marketers, content marketers were like, Oh my God, don't stop doing this to us. Like, just give us a break. So is there anything you know of, or you've heard of that is coming out in 2024, any new features that we may use, or we may not, that can help our business? Yeah.

So I have a list for you. Um, I compiled a little bit of a list and I can't say that any are super mind blowing, but there's, there's some that are interesting. So if you do ads, they are now allowing ads to have product tags within them. So before you couldn't. Do that. So if you're doing more like, you know, Shopify integration, that kind of stuff, that's something, um, one that I like is that you can do, um, insights on your desktop now, or they're, they're rolling that out.

Um, so for those of us that like, you know, I'm at my computer most of the day, so I like having access to things on my desktop versus just on my phone. And it's good if you're downloading. Any kind of reports or, you know, things like that. It's nice to have it on your desktop. So I think that one's really cool.

Um, they're allowing collaborators on broadcast channels. Um, I am not a huge fan of broadcast channel. I basically, if anyone invites me to their broadcast channel, I do not subscribe. Um, it's just. Too much noise for me. So I am not really a fan. Um, the only people I have accepted are like Adam Mazari. I think that's it.

Adam Mazari. I'm on his. Yeah. Yeah. And so I just, I get his because I want to know like what's coming out and he does. I don't know if I'm going to be able to share some of those breaking news on the broadcast channels, but otherwise I don't use them that much. Do you, you have a broadcaster? No, absolutely not.

Those who don't know what they are, it's basically in the message function and the person. that, that made it just broadcast news and you can react, but you can't actually reply back. It's more of like a Facebook group without any interaction back from your audience, except for likes. But I am on the head of Instagrams because yes, he gives sort of insights.

Um, but I often get confused because I'll have a message notification and I'll go to my messages and I'm like, there's no message notification, but it's actually in, it sits in that section, but no, I haven't used it. Um, At all, because I just, yeah, I think if people really go hard on Instagram, maybe, but I think we're getting spammed with a lot of noise that often it's, yeah, I feel the same.

And the part that it comes into your messages, I don't really love because usually if I see that little, you know, light go on, I'm like, oh, it's somebody that wants to talk to me. And then, you know, if you're in 10 different broadcast channels, that's just going to be going off. You know, all day long. So, so that's why I don't like broadcast, but I know some people do.

Um, they are going to roll out or have rolled out in some areas, collaborative carousels. So that's kind of interesting. You could put together a carousel and have people add to it. Um, I'm assuming just like a collaboration, you know, like the reels, you would have the chance to vet that person and decide, you know, because you don't want them.

Just adding something crazy to your carousel. Um, so that one's kind of interesting nearby stories. So you, like, if I say I'm in Eldorado Hills, it might show me stories of other people nearby. So that one I kind of like, um, especially cause I work with some restaurants and things like that. So that could be handy for, for that.

Or if you have a, you know, brick and mortar type location, that could be really cool. Let's see. Oh, they're talking about having a meta verified only feed, which I can tell you right now will not go anywhere because so right now, you know, they have the three different feeds. They have the the regular home feed.

They have the following and then they have the favorites and. I even forget to go switch those. So, and you know, and sometimes I do, and I go back to falling and like, Oh, this is so nice. Why don't I do this all the time? Cause I'm not getting all the other ads, but it always, you know, defaults back to the home.

And so I don't think anyone really cares if someone's metaverified or not. So why, yeah, I, I think that one's going to be a big old flop. Um, and then one other one is. They are testing out adding polls to reels and feed posts. I have seen that. It is quite cool. Australia seems to get a lot of the features before everyone else, because I think we're, we're like a small, obviously demographic.

Um, we do get a lot of the features. I have seen that one quite fun for engagement. Um, I think they've now removed it cause they've tested it and I don't know whether they'll, but I did do it on a couple of client posts for more where, yeah, you have like a yes or no kind of question, but you want, people might not necessarily comment.

I think a lot of like comments obviously is a big step for people sometimes. So it could eliminate that and start a conversation. So yeah, interesting. Yeah. So I liked that one. Um, but in terms of any really huge thing coming out, I haven't heard of anything. Um, you know, threads was the last biggie, which we were chatting about before that it, yeah, kind of, it started off with a bang and then fizzled.

Yeah, so. And I think, and also what we talked about, what is nice, is I think people are starting to understand that all these, like, Instagram features, you take it as you want, rather than having to be like, oh my god, like, Reels, like, changed, was, changed the game, like, I will, you know, obviously that was huge, but I think in terms of, All these other things, I think we've now kind of gone, okay, I can implement it when I want.

I don't have to jump on something straight away. My business isn't going to make or break if I don't, you know, use one of the features. But I think, you know, they're slowly just integrating things that might make our lives easier, might create more engagement, you know, and also, and I feel like every time I go into post, there's a new pop up.

You know, and I'm like, what is this? And it's, as I said, because being in Australia, we do get Australia, New Zealand, we had the verified thing tested first. We do, and every time I do see a post in that broadcast channel, Adam does say we're testing it in Australia, New Zealand. I don't know why we always get.

The things, probably because we're always a last thought and everything else, because we're so far away from everyone. So maybe we'll just test there, but also maybe we're a little bit less harsh on our feedback because we're kind of chill. Who knows? I don't know. No idea. Maybe it's because you're a smaller population, but you're a lot like Americans.

I think so. Yeah, like we have the same kind of lifestyle in a way. I would say, and, you know, roll something out to the United States with the population, it will probably crash really quickly, right? So break their whole platform. Who knows that, um, there's, there's definitely some interesting things. And I guess like some of them are made for better user experience for the consumer.

Some of them better user experience for the business owner. Um, and I guess. You know, as we've mentioned, there's just things that we decide whether we want to implement them or use them. And some are just bit random, but anyway, that's fine. You know? Yeah. And I think some of them are almost like, they just feel like they have to compete with other platforms that are either already doing it, or they just feel like, okay, we have to keep bringing new stuff out or else we'll get stale.

Yeah, so it's, it's not even necessarily things that we're asking for or want or we'll use. It's just like, okay, we got to prove that we're still, you know, innovating. So, yeah, like, I think there was, you know, you could put a sound on your note thing, you know, or you could reply back with a voice note or whatever it was, you know, there's some different stuff, but, um, I have started to see posts on.

Google indexing from Instagram, which is interesting. So, I, I Googled something the other day and an Instagram post came up. So, that's, I mean, that's obviously a Google thing, an SEO thing. But, um, you know, it just goes to show that keywords are starting to become even more important because we're now going to social media to find out information.

So. It's, it's interesting. I think at the end of the day, it is learning what your consumers use, what they, how they, you know, talking with people, you know, understanding. So. We always talk about trends on Instagram, whether it's like trends for sounds and new updates and even trends in the, you know, the, um, public domain, you know, when Barbie come out or when all these things, how do you recommend business owners navigate these trends, which can often feel very overwhelming and Instagram seems to be the place where they're all, you know, I don't know, I find on TikTok, people do their own thing.

Like they don't necessarily go that deep. They do, to an extent, but I feel you can get a lot of engagement from just Posting a video of your face with no caption, no anything aesthetic. Whereas I find on Instagram it's trend, trend, trend. So how do you, yeah, help business owners navigate these? Well, I mean, first of all, I tell them they don't have to do any trends.

If they don't want to, so I don't think people need to feel like, Oh my gosh, I have to do every trend. Like I don't do that many trends sometimes for a while when I was doing a ton of reels back, you know, when they were just so popular, um, I was doing a lot more of the trending audio. Um, and I, but I would always relate it back to my business.

I think where people get messed up is they try to do a trend, but it really doesn't fit with their business. So it's kind of like, well, what was the point of that? Like, yeah, you may have gotten, it may have gotten viral and things like that, but if they're just liking it because it's part of this trend, but then they go to your site and you're selling, you know, dog food, then, you know, it doesn't really have to do with anything.

So I would say. You know, going, going back to this time saving all of these things, like get, get your content together how you want it leave a few holes. If you want to fill in some trending thing that comes out, um, that is just too hot to miss. That's fine. But don't make it about chasing all the trends because you'll drive yourself crazy.

So amen to that, but it's so true and, you know, like going back to that funnel thing. Yes. Top of funnel stuff can be fun. It doesn't necessarily have to sell your product, but if you were, you know, a dog food brand doing a Barbie trend and it didn't have a dog in it, people will look, right. And actually it's funny you say that.

I remember an Instagram like market, I went on to tick tock and did a viral dance with her partner. And they used to be dances. Millions of views. And she said she regretted it so much because she got the wrong audience then liking her content and following her and then you almost, then you get really poor engagement off the back of that because people are expecting more dance videos and then you talk about Instagram and they're like, what, what is happening?

Yeah, you know, it was like a dance because she's a dancer and she wants to, it's part of their brand and then have. Instagram facts or whatever, like that could make sense, but I think a lot of people chase trends but don't align it with their brand and their branding messaging. And then it just kind of looks a bit random and then people get really confused with what you do.

They're like, yeah, you know, so I love that advice because it's, it is really overwhelming trying to keep up with trends. And the sooner you kind of give yourself the grace to create content, I think, you know, Well, the other thing that's a problem with trends is It's not evergreen. I mean, the whole part is that it is a trend.

And so, you know, I have some posts. I could probably go back a year and repost something and owner. Remember that I posted it before and it would still have perfectly good information from a general marketing standpoint. But if I'm using some certain trend sound or a certain, I mean, I don't dance, but a trending dance or, you know, something like that, that was very of a certain time, people will be like, Oh, well, that was so, that's so, you know, 2022, why are you doing that?

Yeah. We can't repurpose stuff that, you know, we've done, um. Yeah, two years ago, if it's the trend and that's, that's so true and we know content on social media is not evergreen in a way of, I think it's starting to come a little bit and I guess it depends on your audience, you know, places where you're at, you could get likes on things that you posted months ago, Instagram, probably less than other platforms.

So. You have to make it evergreen by repurposing it, right? So if you're then going and making too many trends, it makes it a bit hard, doesn't it? It's ROI. Like you can't get your return on investment that way from your content either. So we're literally just talking about that the other day and like even trends, like say, for example, the Barbie movie, just because I know it was a trend that.

If, if, if you don't, you either have to go all in and do like a marketing campaign to get the bang for your buck. Otherwise, if you do like, I know a business owner I was talking to yesterday, they're in the hotel space, they did one Barbie reel. Like, if we're going to do it properly, we needed to do like a proper marketing campaign where everyone in the hotel got little things that were related, like to make it.

Special and to actually get the engagement and people posting content about it and stuff like you have to make it a basically a marketing campaign. Otherwise, you know, but with like trending audios and stuff, you know where it makes sense. And if you really like, I think you've got to resonate with it too.

And I know I fell down that path as well where I was doing all the trending things, but it was also fun at the time. And now I'm like, no, I just do the ones that I think are really funny. Like Mitch and I did one, my partner where. It was that one, you know, um, I don't know. It's from the, uh, one sitcommy show and it's like, yeah, Pam and I, we have so much fun.

Like I make fun of her. She makes fun of me. And it was so about us working together because we work together. And I'm always like making fun of Finch and he just cops it and I think it's funny and, and yeah, that was fun and it made sense to our business relating back to us, who we are as a dynamic, you know, people hire Mariah and Mitch now, like we do campaigns with clients and it's us too.

It's our dynamics and understanding our dynamic is also fun. But. You know, it was because I really enjoyed it. It wasn't because I needed it to do anything either. Like it was part of the topper funnel, as you say, but I think a lot of the times we can spend so much time trying to find all this content and, you know, then you become content creators rather than business owners that need to sell products.

Yeah, none of my, uh, clients have time for that. I can tell you that. Absolutely not. And I don't either. No, absolutely. And I think it's when they come to you, right? Like you just, you can scroll a couple of times and find something. I think the point, I know a lot of entrepreneurs that can spend hours trying to find the perfect thing.

And rather than focusing on the content itself and the message and things like that. So we've talked about this hamster wheel of content, and that's something I'm really focusing on in around the world in 90 days and sort of kind of trying to get off this hamster wheel as much as possible. Obviously, the hamster wheel.

Has its moments where it helps us get things done. Um, but what would you say to people that are feeling really drained about Instagram, especially this time of year, I think we're just strained in general, but coming into a new year, how can we sort of, um, kind of get off that hamster wheel, so to speak, and feel a little bit more energized about what we're doing on a platform that is here to help promote our business.

Yeah, I mean, one thing that definitely helps me and I'm, I'm better about doing it for my clients than I am for myself, I will say is, um, you know, put together that content plan, spend, say, you know, one day a month or even one day a week, um, this is going to be my day where I, I plan things out for the next several weeks or several months.

And it doesn't have to be like you have all Everything perfectly done, but even take, you know, maybe you Friday's maybe are slow for you and you say, okay, um, on Friday mornings, every Friday morning for the 1st, 2 hours, I'm going to do, you know, I'm going to put together just topics. Of, you know, different things that I could talk about and then maybe the next Friday you say, okay, I'm going to write some scripts for reels are going to write some captions, or I'm going to go in Canva and I'm going to, you know, work on the design of these things.

So, I think what a lot of people. Including myself get caught up in is you can't you get so busy with the rest of your work. And then at the end of the day, you're like, oh, crap. I didn't I didn't post anything today. And then you throw something together and you put it out there and it's not it's. Um, but I always do better when I like I'm thoughtful about it and I take a dedicated amount of time and I plan it out.

And, um, and yeah, you don't have to do it all in 1 day. Chunk it out. Today's my day where I'm just going to create graphics and create. You know, 1012 graphics about things the next week. I'm going to do all the captions for those. Um, and by the way, a chat can be your best friend for a lot of this. So if you already know, you know, these are the top 5 things I want to talk about.

Put it into chat GPT say, look, come up with some social media captions that could be about this or come up with a list of 10 ideas for content for this subject matter. Um, all sorts of things that I use chat GPT for now, especially, you know, with a lot of my clients, I might not know if they're a new client.

I might not know everything about their industry because I have a very wide variety of industries that I help. And so chat GPT has been great about coming up with things. I will actually put a couple of the pages, you know, copy and paste pages from the website into chat GPT and I'll say, okay, come up with, you know, several captions that encapsulate, you know, some of the things that are on these pages and it will and I'm like, oh.

Yeah, that's really good. And I usually, you know, I'll go back and I'll, I'll do some editing, but for the most part, I mean, it's going to do like 80 percent of the work for me. So, um, yes, use chat GPT when you can. Yeah, definitely. And I think, um, you know, I love what you say and that's where strategy comes into play, right?

If you have. The plan and the strategy on, you know, what you sell in your business and all your, you know, whatever other content bits you have, they should all work together. And that's when you have that plan and that intention, that is when the content creation becomes easy. And as you say, you then block out bits of time in your calendar to execute and get it done.

And, but without the planning process, you can't execute. I know so many people that have that, like, oh, shit, I haven't posted today on social media. And then you, I've been there before. I had a strategy too. When I first started my business and I was doing more just content writing and more of the writing side of things and social media, I was just starting out and I was like, oh yeah, that pretty flower.

Looks good. And then like a quote that I like, and it's like, that has nothing to do with my business. And I've just literally posted fluff for the sake of it. I'm filling the noise in the world. And then your audience starts to see all the fluff and they're like, oh, they just post fluff. So I won't listen to them anymore.

You know, it's like the girl that cried wolf essential or the boy that cried wolf. You, you keep putting that side and then people stop listening because you're not giving them what they need to hear because you're just posting for the sake of it. And we're all guilty of it. Like, yeah, it's self compassion here because it's happened to all of us and, you know, chat GPT.

Yeah, it does. And, and even sometimes I find, you know, I'm a, I write a lot of my own captions just because I'm a writer and that's just my thing. And like chat GPT. Like, I use it as well for those ideas and that, like, I was really stuck on some ideas for this campaign and I didn't use many of the ones that ChachaBT gave me, but it did get my brain going with, ah, yes, that's, I could do that.

And it had some good ideas that I used and the rest I was like, how can I turn that a little bit into something? And especially with the captions, you know. Get the, the, the bones of it and then fill it with your own personal flow, your own brand and everyone listening, they know their own message, their own story.

And I get it with like, ChatGPT, it's so good because it can give you the bones. And then you can go in and make your edits that you want. And especially like, when you are like, I totally get it with client work when you're like, okay, I'm still learning the industry. I don't know everything. And like, one of my clients said, Oh, I need some FAQs for my website.

And I jumped in chat with you too. And I just like, and she's like. Oh, my God. Yes. I've missed all these things. And it's just like, you could just reel off all the, and get things done quicker. And that's how we can, you know, delegate some of our time to something and then use our visionary and our CEO brains to actually bring to life what we want to say.

And, um, I love that because I think. Trying to outsource, whether it's to a human or to a robot, um, is always the best way to kind of get things happening. But it does come back to what you said, that planning process, that strategy, knowing what it is you're going to talk about, so it makes sense to everyone.

So you've answered, like, a few of my questions, I feel like you've answered perfectly in that, because it does come down to batching out, but in times that work for you. Like, the days, I saw this post the other day, and it was perfect to what you've just said. Like, Some days we can just film, but not write.

Mm hmm. We don't have the creative power to write and film. Just one. Yeah. Yeah. You know? Well, and I think that's what people get overwhelmed with because they think, I have to do a whole finished reel today, but it's like, well, you don't really. And I went to a client's house. A week and a half ago. I said, all we're going to do is we're just going to film you.

I'm going to film, you know, like 10 videos and we'll do some of them clips. So you don't have to memorize anything. And then I will deal with editing them and we can, you know, talk about the captions and stuff like that. But, um, but, yeah, it was, we got so much more done because otherwise. I'm like, well, I don't want to sit here with you while we think of a caption and edit it.

And so now, you know, we got the meat of it done and I'm adding on the lettuce and the not the mustard. I don't like mustard, but, um, some mayo.

But it's so true. You don't have to get it like the finished product done. And I do the same thing. I record my podcast on one day. I have one day for planning and mapping out. I have one day to brief the designer and maybe some days I'll do the design and the captions and the same thing, but trying to do it all on one day is, it's messy and your brain just doesn't have, and I'm the type of person, and I know so many people are like that.

I get bored. So I don't want to just work on that one thing. I want to do a bit of that thing, a bit of that thing. Like I am like multi passionate. So then I don't want to get stuck having to get all that done in one day. And I think it's better use of our time. So we have this ticket to good content marketing.

So good Instagram marketing, how does it work alongside good content marketing? Yeah, that's an interesting question. Um, so I would say that it, that it can be woven into a bigger content marketing campaign. So for instance, um, with my, a lot of my Instagram posts, I then use some of those posts on my email marketing.

So. It's, you know, repurposing, making kind of a big circle of your content. And so one can feed the other. So you're not creating like one thing over here for your email campaigns and one thing on Instagram and one thing on Facebook. So, um, so Instagram is just, I feel like one piece of your content marketing, but they should all work together.

So you're not doing a million different things for, you know, for one purpose. I know. I'll never forget the day I had a YouTube video on one topic, a blog on one topic, social media posts on another topic when I first started. Why? I don't know. But it's an ecosystem, right? And I love that because Instagram is just one part.

And I think a lot of times we get caught up in that. And then, you know, it's funny. I had someone the other week come talking about, it's like. I know that this is my main channel or whatever, it's like email sort of, and here I am just obsessed with Instagram for some reason, and it's like, you know, when we look at it holistically, we can make a better plan for ourselves and work smarter, not harder.

Like, you don't want to create one post of Instagram and then not use it anywhere else. Again, ROI. Well, and I think a lot of people mistakenly still think, oh, but if I post the same thing, you know, I've got followers on Facebook and Instagram. Won't they be like, why is she posting the same thing? I'm like.

If you think they're seeing all your posts on Instagram and especially Facebook, if it's on a business page, you are sorely mistaken. Uh, so, yeah, you know, with the algorithms, all of that people are only seeing such a minuscule amount. So you never have to worry about, oh, well, I did it on YouTube and I did it on Instagram.

I did it on LinkedIn. It's like, well, you've got probably different audiences on everyone. So. Just keep, keep reusing it. And we need to see some, like, how many times do you see an ad? Oh, I need to do that. And then you forget about it. And then you see that ad again. Oh yeah. I need to do that. You don't say, Oh, well, depending on the business, not this ad again.

Um, then you're not like, it's not for your target audience then. Right? Like the people that need it, it's a nice reminder for them because they've probably forgotten that they need that. And there's been like, nothing is ever new. I'll listen to a message on a podcast from one guy or. And then I'll read about it somewhere else from a different person.

And I'm like, Oh yeah. Even though I heard that message like three days before, sometimes it just doesn't click. Yeah. As well. Definitely. Well, and I, I always get into the trap of feeling like I have to talk about something new when I post things on Instagram. But then when I watch someone like, like Brock Johnson, I mean, he'll say the same thing over and over and over again.

And I'm like, why am I worrying about trying to, you know, come up with different content? A, I'm getting new followers, but B, I mean, probably only 10 percent of the people that are following me are going to see my content anyway, let alone see both pieces of content that are exactly the same. So, yeah, yeah, I, I know, but, and that's what it is.

You just got to, and, and that's what happens. A lot of, we do get bored talking about the same thing and a lot of entrepreneurs and go like a wanted, but the marketing message needs to be the same. So that people are consistently hearing it. Like, I can't tell you how many times I talk about content marketing strategy.

Do you think people still have one? No, they don't. So, you know, so you just got to keep, and then you'll say like, you'll, you'll talk about something a lot. And then someone's like, Oh, I didn't know you did that. That's impossible. I know. I love it. I love all the things that you always share. Um, you know, I love the holistic approach that you have and are there.

Anything like three. Main things, one main thing, two main thing, whatever comes that you think people should do after listening to this episode, or just be reminded of. Sure, well, um, the 1st thing that is kind of key marketing for any platform you're going to be on is to come up with some content pillars.

So, for those that you, I'm sure you probably talk about content pillars a lot, but for someone that's. Brand new to the podcast. Um, you know, a list of things that you are going to talk about regularly. So if I'm an Instagram marketer, I might have, you know, one thing that I talk about, I talk about reels all the time.

I talk about maybe ads. I talk about small business. I talk about my personal life and maybe, you know, one other thing. And so all my content should fit in there somewhere. it makes it easier to create the content because you already know it's going to fall in one of these buckets. So that would be kind of marketing 101 to start with, if they haven't done that before.

Um, and then as I was talking about a little bit earlier, just try and come up, once you have those buckets, just put together a spreadsheet and kind of spread them out throughout the month. And, um, and, and see if you can come up with some content to go under each one of those. And you can use chat GPT for this as well, where you just say, okay, I need to write content about Instagram marketing.

Give me 10 ideas that I can talk about, and I'll give you 10 ideas. And then you can go farther and say, okay, give me 10 captions. Like, so yes, that would be my, my tip. I love this. It's all strategic. It's all the strategy, guys. We've talked, we talk about this and people still don't have one. And this is how we make our lives easier.

This is how we get off this hamster wheel of what am I going to post today? And then being also being like, well, no one's really actioning on my sales process because, you know, we're not giving the people things that what they need, um, and sharing what we do, but then also giving them value to say. That person seems like someone I want to buy from.

So I love this. I always love talking with you about Instagram and, you know, a lot, also loved what you talked about with the, the concept of the funnel on Instagram. I think that is genius. Um, I love that. And I think taking that concept, if Instagram is a channel that. You know, you want to focus on next year in 2024 more that is gold go back and re listen to that and see how you can implement that into your business.

But how can people find you connect with you? And yeah, learn more about how you can support them in the future. Sure. Um, well, I am at the marketing specialist. com is my website and then I'm on Instagram as at Corey C Walker. So it's at C. O. R. E. Y. C. W. A. L. K. E. R. on Instagram. I'm also active on LinkedIn. Um, those are kind of my three main Channels.

So if anybody wants to get ahold of me, you can just go to my website and email me through the site. Amazing. We'll have all your links in the show notes. Thank you for joining our, our flight, this flight today and sharing more insights about Instagram. So yeah, as I said, people can go on their solo journey of content marketing in 2024 and yeah, thank you so much.

Well, thanks for having me. What do you think? What do you think is going to be something that you will explore in 2024? Potentially, I would love for you to come over to Instagram. Tell me, but as I said, again, ask yourselves those core questions. Is it an alignment with my strategy with my goals to really understand whether it's something you want to dive into?

I personally love the way Corey talks about the funnel, the Instagram funnel. Uh, we, we have that graphic on social media coming out. If you're listening to this live, it'll come out on Wednesday, Australian time. Um, if you're not listening to this live, you could probably scroll to the feed. It's around December 2023, so you know, you'll be able to find it.

It's a really cool graphic. Uh, sorry, guide showcasing how to use this sort of funnel concept of Instagram, which I think is super cool. One thing I really want to stress about Instagram is if you are using it a lot in your business and you also want to explore other marketing channels. I think it's really important to pair Instagram or any social media with something.

Probably an email list, um, but also maybe a long form channel as well. I've spoken about this a lot, how my podcast really, um, is a catalyst for the content that goes on my social media and my, my middle funnel. Is the podcast and my top of funnel is the social media. And then of course my bottom of funnel is whatever I promote on the podcast episode.

So basically if you're using Instagram a lot and you want to be a bit smarter, let's think about how we can use a long form channel. I have a workshop on this. If you want to learn more, um, I will put it in the show notes. It's on demand. You can listen to it in your own time, but I will be having a cool event coming up, which I'm still nutting out the details for.

It'll be happening in January, and we'll dive into that a lot more. So stay tuned for that. And thank you for joining the episode. Be a content queen or king, and remember that developing your strategy and story develops your business. Thank you so much for joining this flight today with my co pilot Corey Walker.

Stamp your passport and please don't forget to share this with all your travel buddies aka your business and entrepreneurial friends. You could do this by adding it to your insta stories and tagging me at content queen Mariah or just tell them about it. If you want to rate and review on one of the platforms this really helps me amplify this message but also get Guess I'm like Corey, so you can do that on Spotify.

Now you can leave a comment on the episode. You can leave five stars and you can do the same on Apple. Follow me on Instagram or TikTok and let me know if there's any topics for 2024. I'm building my list. Let me know what you want to know, what questions you might have. And I will talk to you very soon.

PodcastMariah MacInnesmarketing, marketing advice, how to be authentic online, business ownerComment