Lessons
Class Introduction
13:31 2Establish your Launch Goal
06:20 3Identify the Logistics
08:55 4Prep your Visuals
05:16 5Research Hashtags
15:29 6Adjust your Bio
05:40 7Document you Starting Stats
07:22 8Tease your Launch
21:32Define the Beginning of your Launch
11:14 10Consider the Algorithm
17:24 11Define Aesthetics for your Feed
33:41 12Brand your Descriptions
07:16 13Share your Content Consistently
03:56 14Optimize your Process
15:35 15Think about Instagram Stories Differently
22:37 16Brainstorm Story Content
11:23 17Create your Stories
11:44 18Leverage Engagement Opportunities
24:27 19Plan a Livestream Schedule
07:03 20Entertain your Live Audience
13:28Lesson Info
Brand your Descriptions
This is all about the captions that I talked about earlier because captions can give you the opportunity to share your voice, your brand, and who you are. And Instagram has 15 times more user engagement than Facebook, and 40 percent more user engagement than Twitter. And a lot of this has to do with the descriptions that people are writing under the post. And Instagram users, they're active, people are actively tapping, but they're actively engaging. And good captions, good Instagram captions should really inspire your followers to engage with your business, both inside and outside of Instagram. It's not just about here, it's like where you're taking them to engage later, right? So I'm gonna share with you three different types of Instagram descriptions that you can share. And the first one is just the one or two word emoji. And I'm gonna show you examples of this after on the screen when I go through this. So there's three. So it's just using emojis, because emojis are the universal l...
anguage, you guys, and they're are so many people on Instagram outside of the U.S., and if you drop an emoji and someone speaks a different language, they know exactly what you're saying, right? So, emojis work. One, two sentence proposition is another description that you can share. And then the long form that tugs at the heart string. This is the biggest trend happening on Instagram right now. The stories, the emotional stories that really connect people to your community. So, let's look at that one emoji post. So Creative Kipi, she's awesome. Margeri's her name. I had to get permission from all of the accounts I'm sharing with you, so I got to have little chats in the Instagram Dms about them. She's like, what are you gonna talk about? I'm gonna talk about how awesome you are, how awesome your photos are, and how awesome you come up with your descriptions just using emojis. Well, duh, you're magical, emoji girl. So, spend some time in her feed, Creative Kipi, and look at her avatar. Her feet are in the air, it's not even her face. Cause she's really creative. This stands out. Background blue gets attention. I want you guys to notice everything. There's a reason I'm sharing these accounts. They're like the best of the best with the examples that I'm trying to hit home with you guys. The second one is the one, two sentence proposition. From entraport. We love entraport, we use entraport, and I just love how no one's looking at the camera. They're all looking at the phone. The morning question. What good shall I do, and I cut off the bottom there, but it's basically like that. What good should I do today? You get the jest, right? You can find that on entraport, and you can go in there and say, oh I know what Sue's talking about. So, that's over on entraport, and I just again want you to notice that people feel like they're being pulled into the experience that they're having. That emotional pull. And then the heart string, which is Girls Inc, the health warrior, which I talked about a little bit earlier, the chia bars that you guys are all gonna get. They launched a new bar from Beauty Within, and they gave 100 percent of the proceeds to Girls Incorporated. And this was during International Women Empowerment Day, and I loved seeing this unfold. I saw this start in Sarah Blakely's Instagram story, she was biting on the new bar. I clicked in, I saw that it took me to the bar, I'm like, that took me to them. We talked about this kidney example earlier, it's like one thing takes you to another place and another community. And so the community did not start here for me, it started with Sarah Blakely, who I trust and I watch her stories, and I'm like, if Sarah's chewing on that healthy bar, called Beauty From Within, I want to check this out. And so that's how I got there, and I messaged Health Warrior to ask them if they would send some bars for you guys to taste, and they did. So you guys get to have some of those at lunch. Pretty cool, right? So go give some love to Girls Inc and Health Warrior. Alright, so there's other ways to create compelling descriptions. And this, you know, you want to make sure the hook is near the top of the description, cause Instagram cuts it off where it says, read more. So whatever you want that content to have happen at the very top is important to have it there and not at the bottom. You want to use action words, like start, discover, build, join. Give that call to action with the right action word. And, you can also turn those action words into questions. Other compelling ways to create descriptions are you know, having different style elements. So maybe you insert line breaks, like I showed you Amy's, to make the text more readable, or maybe you make lists be clear by adding a check mark or emojis. Or you use the playful emojis like we talked about wherever appropriate. And here are two great examples. One, by Crazy Richard's Peanut Butter. Anybody have Crazy Richard's peanut butter? It's so good, so if you want protein on the go, they have a powered form that you can pack when you travel and you can mix it in to your smoothies, so this is a family owned business. I love them for so many reasons. But this was great that they did this joint, it's a contest, and so it was really easy to follow their instructions the way that they laid it out. Remember, I told you I have a blog post of doing this if you don't know how. And they told you exactly what to do. They tagged the right people. Really well done. And then back to Sunny, because Sunny knows how to do Instagram like a rock star. She's using the emoji numbers, and basically telling you, here's a hack to build your self esteem. Everyone wants to build their self esteem, so this is a traffic driving post, I mean, an engagement driving post from Sunny that she did that's really awesome. And she's telling you to comment below, tag the accounts that make you feel good. If you can get people to comment below, and tag other accounts, that's a beautiful thing. Because when you tag those accounts, they come over, and they see, and they become part of the conversation. So you want to do it in a way that Sunny did it right here. You should never overlook the power of a caption. Okay? So let's recap this section. Always speak in your own lingo, and your voice. So, if you have a potty mouth, you can do that, and if people don't like it, they don't have to follow you. I love Sunsky's, the verbiage of swoon. That's their lingo, with the glasses, it's cool, it's hip. Know what the words are that are on brand. Vary descriptions to keep your followers on your toes. So, short post emojis, the one, two sentences, and then the emotional pull. And then, your branded way of interpreting these descriptions is what's really gonna make you memorable. So often, what I do, what I go back to branded ways to do your description, I often drop a bee emoji and a heart emoji when I'm commenting. Same emojis, even in the comment thread.
Ratings and Reviews
Cat in the Moon Photo
Can I just say, "I LOVE Sue"! I took her three day course on CreativeLive back in January when I had finally decided that I didn't want to be the only photographer NOT on Instagram. I took that class knowing absolutely NOTHING about the platform and by the end of it, I was up and running. When I heard that she was doing a new class, I knew I had to see it. By the end of the day my head was exploding with information. There are so many new things on IG that I am already WAY behind the times and have so much work to do. Sue delivered the course in true Sue form - highly entertaining and energized. The examples of successful businesses that she uses are so inspirational and make you feel like, "Yes! It IS possible!!" I am sooooo glad I own the course, because there is no way I could get the full benefit from just watching it once. I will be going back to this class MANY times as I develop as an Instagrammer!
a Creativelive Student
I love Sue's energy and her passion for her work is contagious. She is animated and articulate, making learning about Instagram not only fun, but inspiring. I found her tips to be very intuitive and easy to implement if you have the desire and drive to take your Instagram to the next level. I'm at a point where I've grown my Instagram to a respectable amount (13K), but I want to take it to the next level, so I'm doing a one-on-one consultation with her. I really appreciate all the work she's done into creating a program to uplevel your Instagram game.
Nick Davis
Amazing class, super helpful for understanding how to make your Instagram work for your business. And Sue B is engaging and fun to listen to. But make sure you have a pen and paper ready, because there's so much important information you're going to want to write it down! I'm about to start again from the beginning and this time take notes!