256: Instagram in 2025 | Corey Walker

Are you looking to up your Instagram game in 2025?

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 2025. 

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 six - 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 2025 overview

  • ✨ NEW feature coming in 2025 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 5-time bestselling co-author of Instagram for Dummies, and Instagram for Business for Dummies. She is also a social media marketing agency owner in El Dorado Hills, California. Corey works with service-based businesses to get more leads and sales through social media and email marketing.

PODCAST TRANSCRIPTION

Welcome, Corey, to the podcast again for the third time, um, third time's a treat. Um, anyone new listening, I would have introduced you in the little bio that we do before the recording of this, but what is your story? How did you get to where you are now?  Oh, well, um, yeah, so I've been in marketing for years.

Um, I started in corporate marketing and, um,  Was in corporate marketing for probably 10 years and then I had my first daughter and I was like, you know,  I'm done with cubicle life.  And so I launched the marketing specialist, which is my, well now social media agency at the time there was no social media.

So it was more of a, um, You know, graphic design, copywriting, general marketing type of an agency, which has developed into more of a social media. Marketing agency. Um, so yeah, I started that 19 years ago and, um, it's been going strong ever since. And, um, I partnered up with my writing partner, uh, coauthor, Eric Buto,  um, and have written five books on Instagram.

So there's two Instagram for dummies and there's two or, Instagram for business for dummies. And so that one Instagram for business for dummies, third edition is coming out. Well, as we are recording tomorrow.  So cool. It's so exciting. So that's why you're the perfect person to talk Instagram with us today.

Um, so you come on last year and the year before to chat, you know, Instagram. For insert year here, and last year I got you on as well in conjunction with running this campaign around the world in 90 days, your ticket to good content marketing.  And this year, last year was all about like time freedom. This year we're doing a bit of like a mindset energy sort of freedom, how to feel more free on these social media channels, because obviously they are 24 seven.

They are. Um, you know, quite relentless sometimes, you know, there's, if you're an influencer that there could be trolls, I mean, some business, I guess, get trolls, there's all sorts of things. Um, I would just love to quickly get some of your perspective on the mindset and the sort of energy of Instagram and how you recommend or how you see Instagram and share it with your clients.

Cause I imagine you have clients come to you like, Oh, Instagram, social media. And I, I imagine you've got those little tidbits or words of wisdom you give them to reshift their mindset about Instagram.  Yeah, I mean, one of the big things that always helps me and when I'm good about it, no, I'm not always good about it, um, is doing some planning ahead of time.

And, you know, whether that's a week at a time or a month at a time, or, um, even having more of a six month kind of bigger picture overview, um, that's going to be more helpful. So with my clients,  Um, I like to talk about having a content calendar and we can, you know, loosely put some stuff on the calendar.

But then, um, with a lot of my clients that I provide content to, I will give them a month at a time. And so I work with them and then I. I figure out, you know, what makes them tick, who their audience is, what their messaging is, and then we can work on that content, um, together. They review it and I give it to them a month at a time.

Um, so that's, that's me kind of really doing a lot of it. If someone's doing it for themselves, I still recommend a similar path where you're thinking of things ahead of time and you're trying to lay them out.  a week or a month at a time and then you don't have that guilt at, you know, 5 p. m and go, Oh, I didn't, I didn't schedule anything.

I didn't create a reel. I didn't do any of that stuff. And then either you don't do it at all. And sooner or later, you know, one week turns into two week where you've posted nothing or you put something out there, but it's not on brand. It's not on message. It's totally random. Um, so yeah, if you, if you can dedicate  one or two days a month and not the whole day, just, you know, an hour or two where you sit down and, and be intentional and thoughtful about what you're going to, um, talk about that month.

It really helps. And then if you can batch some videos, um, have a content day and batch some of those out, that's also going to be really helpful to just have that stuff ready to pull, schedule it out and be done. And then you don't have to stress about it and worry about it all the time.  I love that.

Such good advice. And that's like, you know, with anything, if you have the vision and the plan, then when maybe there's days where you don't feel like showing up or you get caught up in that sort of social media scroll hole, where you're like, oh, am I doing things right? Or this? You can always go back to the vision, the goal, the plan and go, well, this is where I'm meant to be.

Stick to the plan. Stay in your own lane. And I find that's really helpful. That happens for me whenever, you know, you get shiny object syndrome where you're like, hang on, wait, I've got a strategy. Just go back to that, just stick to it. And I've found over the years, sticking to that has been way more beneficial than trying to go down the path of finding something new because someone told me that I should do that.

And that's going to help me grow my business. And the things that help you grow your business is your plan and your strategy.  So I love that. Thank you for sharing that. So usually when, for anyone new to the. Program that Corey and I always put together when we record these is we like to go through some of the stuff that's going to happen next year.

So, um, and then obviously for anyone that is like, okay, I'm, I'm super fresh and new and want more, um, support then obviously Corey's book that will be out by the time this podcast episode comes out will be definitely one to grab. But what are you, what should we be aware of in 2025 on Instagram? What's happening?

Well, any new features I just saw that, um, What's his name? The head of Instagram, he opened his channel up again. So I dunno, I felt like he was a bit dead in that for a while. So yeah, what's going on in Instagram world.  Well, I don't know about new features. Um, I will say now this is just completely my personal opinion.

I have no intel on this whatsoever. Um, but you know, we used to have IGTV and that was Instagram's answer to YouTube. And That went away and I'm kind of wondering, are they going to do something to revive that? I mean, we have reels, but those are still short form. Um, so I'm kind of wondering, are they going to relaunch something with that?

Don't know. Don't have any, any information officially on that or even unofficially. That's just my wondering because anytime there's something successful out there. Instagram likes to copy it. And YouTube is still, obviously, very successful. Um, so that's just kind of a random thing. But, um, I do see  Reels are still going to be super popular.

Um, short form video in general is just, it's everywhere. Everybody wants it. Everybody's scrolling through it. Um, so that will still be very popular. Um, carousels are another one that, um, do really well in the algorithm. So I think those will stay around and be popular. Um,  I see them doing more functionality with DMs.

I don't know exactly what, but they've really been pushing Getting people into that, you know, direct message area.  Um, they've also done a lot of improvements just lately on, um, editing within reels and even your regular posts. Now you can do some photo editing. So I see them rolling out some of those.

smaller little things. Um, the algorithm reset that just came out. That's interesting. I don't even have it yet. Did you, did you get it? No, tell us more. What is, what did they do?  So, yes. So the algorithm reset is something it's personal to you. So you can decide if you want to have the algorithm reset for your account.

And so what that means is,  Yeah, so the example I usually give is my daughter used to play volleyball. She played, you know, like club volleyball. And so I used to follow a lot more volleyball accounts, things like that. So I'd get all this stuff. volleyball content. Um, she's in college now, doesn't care about volleyball.

So I don't really need to see stuff about volleyball anymore. Like I loved watching it when she was playing, but now I don't really care.  But my algorithm still thinks I care.  So this reset would be, I mean, it would be a complete reset. So it's flushing all of what it's been recommending to out the window and you're starting from scratch.

So, um, it's a little scary to me because I don't know, you know, where I will go next, but if you're feeling like, oh, the algorithm just  doesn't know me anymore, or I'm not interested in any of the things that it's suggesting to me, this is a way to have a clean slate, um, for your account.  The one thing I will say is once you do it, it can't be undone.

So if you don't like what your account changes into, um,  you know, you're, you're stuck with it and you will be seeing probably a lot fewer things in the beginning until it learns what you like to interact with.  Could be a good thing, frankly, because right now I feel like we just get so much stuff just shoved down our throats.

So, um, I think once I have it available on my account, I might just try it and  see what happens.  That's super interesting because I've been, I've had in my mind that Instagram will definitely go down an algorithm. similar to TikTok. Now on TikTok,  you can morph your algorithm quite easily if you watch certain videos.

Like I'll end up like one month I was on cake talk because I was watching lots of cakes. Um, but then it's moved to, you know, um, obviously like the US election, cause I was like, obviously stopping and watching a lot of that. Um, and then, you know, so like, I feel like it's a lot easier to reset your algorithm on TikTok.

Um, so I think it's, and I feel like with Instagram, it's really hard, um, to then get delivered different types of content. And that's why obviously on TikTok, you don't,  to be a big account, you don't necessarily, or to get lots of video views, you don't necessarily have to have a big following. That's why, you know, like.

Micro influencers do a lot better on TikTok because they're, you know, I have, I have a account, a client account  and they have, um, they had 200 followers, they had a viral video, they had, they got  1, 700 followers off one video, the video reached 500, 000 people, 600 now, um, but that account now with those 2000 followers is now seen as like, it could be seen as like a bigger account, even though like not massive account, but like bigger than what it was at 200, obviously, but now those videos are reaching like Okay.

7, 000, 10, 000, 5, 000 people, even if people don't necessarily follow us. And I, I thought that Instagram is going to do something similar. And obviously it looks like maybe they will, because obviously they're having this algorithm reset. That's very interesting. So that's cool. It'll be, yeah, we'll see. I don't know.

Yeah. I don't know what the end game is.  That's interesting.  That you're saying that about tick tock and, and comparing it. Um, I, I, yeah, I hadn't even thought about that, but that's cause I'm, I'm not so into the tick tock world. So, um,  you know, I like Instagram.  Yeah, I do like tick tock too. Instagram is, and I think this is what I see from tick tock versus Instagram.

Tick tock is about your top middle funnel or even top funnel. And then a lot of people actually make the purchasing decisions on Instagram. So I have a. Um, a client that has again, gone viral. So they literally got like 3000 followers in the last three days. It's been nuts. I think that video will reach a million people.

Power of TikTok, right? I don't think we get that on Instagram, but then at the same time, um, but. Yes, people like we get leads and stuff through Tik Tok, but I said to them, Instagram could be the place where people make more of a purchasing decision. So when they get there, let's make sure we've got those things.

And in fact, they would have more like, Hey, can I work with you? Or can I email? Like they've had some of those.  DMs. So it's quite interesting, the purchasing decision. I think influencers try to get their TikTok followers to Instagram as well, because they can sell to them easier through stories, through things like that.

So  even if people are on TikTok, you can't write off Instagram because I think people, it's a lot easier to make a purchasing decision  on Instagram than TikTok, even though Instagram is pretty hard as it is, you know, to get through to the website, but, um, yeah, I think I thought, I think that's really interesting.

So if I'm a business owner listening, I'm like, Oh my God, algorithm reset. What does that like, obviously as a consumer, it means that my content's gonna look different. But what does that look like as a business owner with, if, if I've got users deciding to reset their algorithm,  what does this mean?  Yeah, I mean, it, it could be, it could be good because you might make your way into new accounts, but if you've got, you know, all of these people that were seeing your stuff and then they wipe out their algorithm, you could see a big dip.

So, um, time will tell. I mean, I don't know, a lot of these things that roll out,  I don't know how many just average users pay attention to it.  So, um, you know, like I just said, reset your algorithm and you're like, Oh, wait, what? And you're, you know, you're very knowledgeable at all this stuff. So I don't think it's going to be this thing that just wipes everything out.

Um, because so many things, like I remember, you know, how they have the, the three different ways you can view your feed, like following and, um, just the regular home feed. And then, Whatever the other one they call favorites. And I could do a poll of a hundred people and probably only three people know about that.

So,  you know, I don't know that it's going to be as big of a thing is, that's what we might think it would be.  Good point. Cause like if you're a B2C, like if you're like trying to get consumers, yeah, my friends don't know any of that stuff. It's like, whatever, you know? Yeah. And, um, I think it's also interesting to, as a business owner, just to try and create content for that ideal client, right?

Like if you, like, if, even if someone does reset their algorithm, if you're the ideal client for them and they're generally interested in what you have to offer. And I guess that means creating a little bit more of what we call that top of funnel content, like that stuff that's about them, not about us.

So when they're consuming, we kind of can get back into there, but it could be really favorable as well. If you are kind of like. Making sure you're connecting with your audience more with your content rather than just trying to sell all the time. Um, cause I'm seeing a lot of that on Instagram. I thought we went through this phase where everyone was like, okay, let's create stuff about our audience, not our business.

And now I feel like people are going back into promotional again. I was like, what's how? I thought, I thought we learned this.  Yeah. I thought we knew. One of the things I wanted to ask you when you were writing the book, um, what come up about hashtags? So there's this like complete debate about hashtags, like, do we use them?

Don't we use them? I saw someone say like Instagram, like ditch the hashtags, Instagram focus on keywords. But then I just saw a report come out from Instagram saying just three to five max, um, they still seem to be telling you to use them. But just a little bit less. So I'll be taking that into consideration, but, um, yeah, what came up when you're doing research for the book around hashtags, especially obviously as a business owner, trying to get found in multiple places.

I know it's a question I get a lot is about hashtags. I'm like, this is crazy. This is like a most asked question. So, you know, I want to know what to do. Um, Yeah, so I don't know if you saw the news that just came out. They're doing away with like, you can't follow a hashtag anymore. So, you know, before you could say, okay, I want to follow Instagram marketing, say as a hashtag.

And then anybody that was tagging that, you know, you might see them in your feed. Um, so they did away with that. So that hurts a lot of people using hashtags. Um, I think the days of people using 30 are probably, you know, we're not doing that as much anymore. It doesn't look great. It means you're throwing out like so much stuff.

Um, so I do think, you know, maybe like five hashtag is probably about right at this point. Um, but I do think now that they're considering a lot more of SEO, you know, within your, um, not your username. I always forget what they call it. Not the username, but the other, your other name. I think it's just your name.

Right name. I think people get really confused that when I like say to clients like, not your username, your name, because like if you change your username, it changes your whole handle. Let's not do that, but we can change your name, right? Yeah. Not that. Um, so your name,  you know, you can use SEO in your name.

You can use it throughout your bio. You can use it in all of your captions. It will even pick it up from, um, your video, you know, your voice talking about things.  So I think they're pushing towards that a lot more. Um, I think that's still a big learning thing that, that, you know, we can talk about to clients is just remember that.

That your words, your captions, all of that counts towards SEO. And, um, so pack that with some of the things that you may have used as hashtags. Pack those in your caption instead in a, in a normal way. Not like in a weird way where you're saying the same thing like five different times. But, um,  Yeah, so I think I would still use hashtags.

I would limit them down a bit. Um, you know, five or so, and then we'll see what they do with them. It definitely seems like they're trying to downplay them. And, and so maybe they're going to quietly phase them out. Um, I'm not sure. I'm not sure why, but that does seem to be the route that they're taking.

Yeah, it seems crazy. Cause I think Tik Tok, cause I always find like Instagram is like, and like a bit envious of Tik Tok. So they're trying to, you know, um, copy a little thing. That's why when people are like, I'm so sick of Instagram, I'm going to leave. I'm like, I would stay because if Tik Tok continues to grow Instagram, I'm just going to keep trying to keep up with them.

Um, but I find Tik Tok is very reliant on the hashtags. They also categorize and a hashtag is TikTok. It's not necessarily like kind of a keyword anyway, but I, it's a good point with what you say. Like a lot of us have our like lingo and our jargon for like things that we do and we might have funny names for things, but like if that's not searchable,  people aren't going to find it.

So if you need to think about the words you're using, because basically you just want to make sure if someone's searching for their problem. You come up and I've also noticed that, um,  Google are now indexing, um, Instagram posts and I've seen them in Google images. So some of my videos have come up in Google images and I can click through and watch one of my Instagram videos.

I can't remember what made me search that my, it must've been something about me. Um, or it was a keyword, something that I use. I can't remember, but I came up. But it was one of my videos and I thought that was quite interesting because now videos are showing up in Google images, um, and they're from the social platform.

So I think it's just like trying to simplify everything because we, of course we have awesome words for the things we do. Our programs might be called something really fun, but your sort of tagline or your, you know, messaging has to be very, what are my audience searching when they have this problem?

Because,  you know, it's, you want to be found. Right.  I love this. So it's so good to have these chats because I feel like there's just so many interesting things. Instagram is sort of.  Yeah, I can't say I've heard anything like dramatic that they're doing, but I also noticed they said something about, um,  any carousel with music is now considered a reel.

So now they're showing up in the reels? Yeah, I have yet to actually seen that in the wild. Um, I, I do know that they said that. Um, I have added songs to things before, which.  I kind of think  it's somewhat annoying to have music on regular posts, but  I'll do it if they, if they say it's going to help, I'll do it, but it's not my favorite thing.

Um, anyway, yeah, they did say that they were going to do that. I have not seen it  happen. The other weird thing that they said was like,  Um, you can make reels out of highlights, which I'm like, does anybody need that or want that? I don't know.  It just feels like  what happens is the people that want to save time end up just creating content for the sake of it.

And then there's not that sort of like. Nativeness to the, you know, like Instagram stories or Instagram stories. And if you turn it into a reel, it's not going to kind of translate as well. You know what I mean? I could just think it, it gets a bit lost there, but anyway, I guess I try to make it easy for everyone to kind of.

Create, which is great, but sometimes it's, if it's for the sake of just pushing out content, that's when you're going to find  real, like everything drops, people disengage. Like it's best, like I discovered this year, I used to post a lot on Instagram. I had the capacity, I had the team, no more than once a day, but I would post daily.

And I was like, Hmm, you know what, I'm going to post every second day and allow for that content to like, have some space. And then I can probably give it more love, more attention. It's not just posting for the sake of it. Of course I had enough ideas. I wasn't just like, yeah, throw something out. Like I felt like the content was still quality, but I felt like I could make it better.

And that did not hurt me in the slightest. Um, from a reach perspective,  if anything, like I got more engagement, um, and I felt better about my content. So, you know, sometimes that. Like rather than posting to tick it off and just do it, it's best to be like more intentional. And is it, have you found that as well of like, like I felt like back in the day we could probably post three times a day and it was great or whatever you do, but now it seems to be like the less is more sort of vibe.

Yeah, I definitely think so. I would rather someone posts like you said, you know, just a few times a week, even if it was really quality and, um, it was on message and all of those things. And I, I do think there can be something to giving a little breathing room between things, you know,  because you can, yeah, you can slap out  10 posts a week, but you're not going to be able to create the quality.

I would rather. Three posts and have them be just like awesome. So, um, so yeah, I, I totally agree with that. I don't, I don't love posting just for posting.  Um, cause then it won't get engaged with, and then it's just people kind of like, Oh, there she is again. And they don't get anything out of it or. Yeah.

Yeah. It's building an intentional digital footprint, isn't it? And I think like, um, yeah, people now know when we're just like.  I feel like the collective is becoming more energetically aligned in ways. Like I feel like we know now when someone is lying, like TikTok  is a wild world. Like people literally overanalyze eye contact these two, cause they want to find out if someone's not telling the truth and it can be a bit.

of a brutal place for some in that sort of regard but it's like we are now and especially I think that that next generation Gen Z's are like very connected even if that's not potentially your audience I feel like we now are. A better understanding if someone's not authentic, if someone, and it's now more evident, so if you're just like throwing stuff up because you know, you've got to be on this channel, that's, people are just going to scroll past it and be like, meh, you know, and I feel the TikTok algorithm, I keep going back to TikTok, but I only say this because I really do think that it is, Instagram is really shifting that space.

I posted a video in June,  no,  April, 2020. It  was my health journey, nothing about business, put it out there, maybe got like a couple of thousand views and comments.  Come December, 2023, I started getting all these notifications.  What is going on? That video reached a million people  because something, I don't know what had happened.

So content on TikTok becomes quite evergreen in a really weird way. And that's why I think also Instagram potentially might go down that route. And if you just keep throwing out content. I don't think it gives the algorithm enough time to kind of push it out to where it needs to go. Um, and for the people to resonate with it and then for it to go further to more people.

So, you know, we always say that like, oh, you know, the first hour on a platform like TikTok really doesn't, Determine whether the content's going to do great.  And usually what happens on those sorts of platforms, if you have one viral, one viral video, one video that reaches like more, they'll go to your profile and watch other videos and all the other videos increase  as well.

So  I do think that that like kind of being really intentional also allows for you to be seen by more people. It's, it's very interesting. I mean, we could analyze the algorithm for days, um, and it'll give us like some people. Let it like consume them, but I think being just really intentional with what you're posting is the best kind of recipe for success, you know, in air quotes.

Yeah, well, and, um, and that's one of the things when you talk about what's coming up for 2025, um, I think is authenticity. Um, sharing your unique perspective on things, being intentional, sharing more of your personal side.  Um, I think all of that, like I, I've noticed  with Instagram before people were trying to make it look all perfect.

And that's, that thankfully has gone out the window.  And with a lot more videos, I'm noticing people, you know, just talking to the camera, telling about their day. And I think. We're also going to see a shift away from  a lot of those videos that are just highly produced and have all of the, um, you know, emojis flying in and sound effects and, you know, the captions that are all decked out, I think we're going to see a lot more just people showing up and talking about whatever it is they want to talk about, um, because.

Like you said, Gen Z. And now just moving up, up the, the ranks, um, in age ranges, people want to hear from real people about their real experiences rather than, you know, Oh, Kim Kardashian said I should buy it. So sure. I'm going to buy it. It's like, well, Kim Kardashian, she can do whatever she wants. She's got millions of dollars.

I'm just this lady here in my house.  I want to hear from other people that are like me. So, um, yeah, so I think that that trend and it's going to carry into 2025 and beyond that just real  authenticity. And with that will probably be the growth of more using micro influencers versus paying the big accounts.

There's been a lot more crackdown on the fake accounts or people that have not fake accounts, but fake followers. And, um, so a lot of those influencers that said they had 2 million followers, turns out, you know, 1, 000, 001.  9 of those followers were, um, were fake. So, um, I, I think that also pushes people to want to hear from.

You know, just your regular person that has had an experience or has used a product and what happened.  Yeah. Yeah. That's true. One thing you said about like those over polished videos, there was a trend. This is sort of trend out there at the moment called ugly content. And I just think it's raw and you know, not polished content, but they're, you know, everything has a name.

It's like all these like makeup on, like on social media. I don't really do make like I don't have any makeup on now, but like sometimes those makeup videos come in. And it's like, this is called like. Um, cow girl spring or something like, you know, everyone has those sort of names. So there's like ugly content, everything's been named and it is that really like.

Raw, authentic, unpolished, unedited, just like get it out there. You know, I see a lot of ads at the moment where brands are using like old, like paint the, you know, um, windows paint. To like Microsoft, um, WordArt, you know, those, like when you used to have the headings for your school assignments and stuff, they're using like all of that kind of stuff to capture people's attention and ever, and like, you know, cause Gen Zs are just like these social media managers, they're terrifying cause they're just like so good at it and they just make it look so funny and they really connect like lots of Gen Zs and now like, um, community managers.

So they're posting, like replying to. Comments on behalf of BMW, you know, all these massive brands. And it's just, it's big brands are seeing, and they're just like, let's just get this like young Gen Z just to like comment on, and they comment on all these influencers content, just like little one liners and everyone like loves it.

Right. So it's this very, as you're saying, like this really raw, authentic.  Content where it's not polished. It's not really edited. Um, I think a lot of business owners will love this because they don't have to overthink. The perfectionist may not, but this is our time to think about our perfectionism and, you know, try and put a little bit of a lull on it because it's for the engagement, it's for the audience, you know, so I love that.

Well, and I even have, um, one of my clients, you know, they were nervous about being on camera for the first time. And I said, you know what? Most people are nervous about being on camera. So just own it and say it, just be like, Hey guys, this is my first video and I've never done this before. So, you know, just bear with me.

And people love that because it's like, Oh yeah, I feel that way too. I don't want to be on camera or I felt like that a year ago. Um, so I'm like, yeah, just put it out there.  Yeah, that's so true. I had a client, yeah, did the same thing, their first video, and you can tell they're reading from a script and everything, but that video reached like 40, 000 people on Tik TOK and it's like, yeah, people comment and say, They look like robots, but engagement is engagement, right?

Yeah. Yeah. You know, some people just want to comment, but I think obviously you can see how much better they've gotten with time. I saw her, I had, um, an episode a couple of weeks ago with more of an energetic healer and she come on and talked about like the energy behind, you know, showing up. And she talked about this in terms of like, okay, what if I'm not feeling great or whatever, you know, this, she's like, you just, like you just said, no matter what it is, if you own it, People are going to be like, you know, she said, I try and go live twice a week on Instagram.

Some weeks I don't feel like doing it. So I will hit live and say, Hey, I feel really crap right now, but I'm going to do it. And people love her. Like people really connect with that. So I think it's really important to remember, like, and I actually had a conversation with a woman, totally not related to Instagram or anything right now, but I think this will really help people.

She's an umpire for netball, a sport. We have, I don't know if you play much netball in the States, but kind of like basketball, but you can't move, essentially you have to stand still. Anyway, she's an umpire  and she, um, said, you know, back in the day, she'd hate making mistakes because people can get quite abusive, whatever.

So what she's decided to do is if someone, if she does make a mistake on her call, she'll blow her whistle and say, Can we just hold time? I just need to think about that rule for a minute because I think I made the wrong decision and I'm going to reverse what I did and let's, you know, take it back to where it was.

She's like, you know what? If I own that, like, I feel like I'll be more respected because rather than like saying I don't make mistakes, I am like, I'm human. I am the rule. I am the, yeah. And I thought that was like very bold and very noble of someone to do because that's not easy, but.  When we, and, and that's why I think happens on social media with like influences, if they don't take accountability when they've done something wrong and they're always like, sorry, I did this, but this is why I did it.

And people go, yeah, but you're missing the point. You're just not taking that accountability. So it's the same when you're showing up, you know, if you make a mistake, if you, you know, are nervous in front of the camera, I think it's important just to go, you know what?  People love that. I think that's, that's that authenticity.

So before we sort of wrap up on it, is there anything, any other trends or things like you mentioned, you know, more people showing up on camera, do you think we'll see less of that sort of transition y, lip sync y sort of type of video? I haven't seen much of it lately, but I don't know if my algorithm has sort of taken me away from it.

I think the only things I'm more seeing is just like,  Footage B roll with like text, something really impactful. I'm seeing less of like the hit the camera next outfit dancing. Like I've seen less of it. So are we seeing less of it? What's happening? Yeah, no, I'm seeing less of it too. I'm definitely seeing, yeah, less dancing, which I'm  100 percent fine with.

Um,  and then, um, I am seeing less of the lip sync things, which I  I kind of like doing the lip sync things. I haven't done one in a while. Um, but they are, I like creating them because it's just fun to have this quirky little, you know, maybe six second thing and then morphing it to fit with your business.

Um, I don't know. I just, I enjoy it. And anytime I do one of those, in fact, I should probably do another one of those, but anytime I do one, it, it plays pretty well. Like it gets. Um, and it gets a decent amount of views. Um, probably because it is, you know, a trending sound. Um, and I think because, you know, I'm looking for these things.

I try to pick ones that are, you know, aren't overplayed. Like it's at the beginning of it. Um, because at the end, everyone's like, Oh, if I hear this thing one more time, Um, but I find that even if I copy kind of one that someone else did, if I'm early enough to it, people think that that was like my original idea.

And if it's like an exact copy, I'll, I'll say, Oh, thanks for the idea, such and such. But,  but with a lot of them, you know, like 30 people I'll do it. So I don't feel like it's really that original anymore. But, um, yeah, since there's a lot of people that, that aren't social media people, they're just watching my stuff.

I, if I put it out there like, Oh my God, that was so funny. How'd you think of that? I'm like, Um, yeah, I think it's always hard to credit the source these days. Cause you don't really know who started it. I'm finding a lot of different trends in terms of not so much like lip syncing, but just like, you know, there was one I did, it was on TikTok and I brought it over, like, I didn't bring it over to Instagram, but I myself on my Instagram.

And it was like, it's like a. Two people and one's running away and the other one says like, suspect is known for like, it's like if you're getting chased by the police. So they're like not so much lip syncing, but they're like sort of trends that you can morph into your own. So the thing which I think is good too, cause it like just, it's still original to kind of you cause you've made it yours.

Um, and then of course with the lip syncing stuff, the same thing, like you put texts that's relevant to your  So I think that's the point, as long as you're making it relevant that your audience will connect with it. I think, um, they find that's that top of funnel stuff that just gets people engaged. And my goal with a lot of that top of funnel stuff is to show the dynamic between my partner and I, cause we work closely together.

And when people hire us, like to work on their business with them, or even like when I do courses, everyone seems to know Mitch. And I think it's like nice because people buy, like, you know, want to follow your journey as well. And, you know, they see us as a really good team. So they get like, you know, invested in what we're creating and they love it.

And I think that's kind of, I think having that sort of goal for that Top of Funnel 2 is really important. Obviously audience connection and sort of like building that, um, You know, uh,  Bill's boosting those followers. Um, yeah, that's the point, right. Audience growth. I have, um,  One last question,  people I'm finding people saying like, Oh, I feel like I'm reaching more.

Well, there's two ways I'm reaching less of my followers and more non followers, or I want to reach more non followers, but I'm not, are you seeing that? Like I have some clients where they don't seem to be reaching their actual audience that much and more non followers, and then some people that want to grow audience and they're not reaching enough of those non followers.

It's very interesting. Cause now we haven't, before Reels, we never had that. It was just  your audience reach. So yeah, any, any advice on that sort of. Um, and then, um, I don't know if it's a follow a non follower kind of stat. Yeah. So,  I mean, if they want to get more non followers, then, then reels is going to be the way to go.

Um, if they want to reach more of their followers, um, you know, one thing they could be doing is more in stories and doing more, you know, behind the scenes. So you really feel like you're getting to know that person. And then maybe some of those stories. Refer back to the things that are on their regular profile.

So that kind of sends them some back um The other thing they could do is is do Basically like an ad to their followers if they wanted to do that. Um, that's that's also something that they could do  um, but yeah, I think If they, they want to reach more of their followers, do some more stuff in the stories.

Cause that's only going to them. And, um,  yeah, that's where you can  put out some content really quickly  and, um, you know, behind the scenes and have people get to know them better.  Good tip. Because I think. You know, you mentioned in the last year's episode, even though it was 2024 of stuff, I think it's still really relevant if anyone wants to go back and listen, you sort of referred to Instagram as this funnel, which was really cool.

Like reels being like your top of funnel, meaning you can reach more people, your, um, carousels and static posts being more middle funnel and then bottom funnel. Being like your stories. Cause you can like hit them people. Like, obviously they funnel down. I do, um, use that analogy quite a bit from our episode.

Cause I think it was really great the way you explained it. And it's so true. Like if we, we need to, and that's important to understand your goals, right. For that, for Instagram or any social media, because a lot of times we're like doing this, doing that. It's like, okay, what is your goal right now? Cause if it's to reach more audience, then we need to do this.

If it's to do this, you know, I think we get stuck in like, Oh, I don't actually have What I want to achieve. I just want to go viral and sell lots of products  or my service. But um, thank you so much for joining. Is there any parting words that you have for the audience for Instagram for 2025? Um,  yeah, I mean, I think going back to our conversation about authenticity and just, just show up as yourself and don't, don't feel like you have to be all shiny and perfect and, um, just.

Just get out there and talk about whatever it is that you want to talk about, um, and, and definitely incorporate Reels into your, your mix, because that's going to help you get more of those non followers over to be followers. I know. Good point. I think it's good to highlight that there's lots of people that have done really well on these social media platforms with very no knowledge, like, or very little knowledge.

And the people that have a lot of knowledge like us, we know so much that sometimes it can be a burden because you know too much and you try all these different things. Sometimes it's just good, like, even if you do have a beginner's mindset to, you know, read your book and just start with that beginner's mindset because you're going to learn it a very different way.

To us being marketers. And I think there's so much power in that because you're going to be, have that mindset and that lens of your audience and being authentic. And whereas, you know, you and I are about strategy and tactics and things that sometimes we can, you know, be  ourselves. Yeah. That's very true.

So how can people find you and please mention a little bit more about your book and how people can get a copy of it. Sure. Um, well, you can find me, my website is called the marketing specialist. com. So you can find most of my other links, but, um, I'm most active on Instagram. So that's at Corey C Walker.

And, um, I'm also very active on LinkedIn. So, um, if you're a LinkedIn person, I'm very active there. I post, um, probably about the same amount on both. It's kind of somewhat different content, sometimes, sometimes the same, um, and the book is available on Amazon. It's also available on, um, barnesandnoble. com and in some Barnes and Noble stores.

I don't know if you have Barnes and Noble in Australia. Yes, we do. You do. Okay. Um, so it should be on some shelves there. Um, if not, yeah, Amazon's always an easy place to find it. Um, so it's Instagram for business for dummies and it's the third edition. It's purple. So there's several additions floating out there.

So just make sure you get the right one. Um,  maybe we'll have the link in the show notes, but thank you so much for taking the time to chat to Instagram with me again. Thank you.

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