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
Prep your Visuals
This is where a lot of people say, but I have nothing to share, I don't know where to get my visuals, over and over again. So don't let this be you in the middle of your launch. I'm gonna set you guys up for success, and tell you everything that you're gonna need. Okay, so you need to have images for your feed, remember we talked about having them daily. You need to have videos for your feed, videos views actually get more views for a lot of people than posts getting likes, so you wanna throw in some videos there, you also want to have images for your Instagram Stories. Now, the amount of images that you're gonna need depends on the duration of your launch, obviously, so if you plan to share every day for two weeks, then you're gonna need at least 14 images. Where those 14 images come from, you're gonna need to think about that and make sure you have them. I suggest putting them in Dropbox and labeling them so you can pull 'em down from Dropbox wherever you are. So, let's talk about wh...
ere the visuals are gonna come from now. So, hopefully you scheduled some kind of photo shoot, or you're a good photographer and you can take them in natural lighting, good lighting, photos on Instagram, as you know, are everything, so you want to commit to a good photo shoot. You might have some old photos that are relevant to your launch, or you might have some user-generated content from customers, so you can ask them for those and you can put that in Dropbox as well. Or, you might want to have some graphics designed, because graphics on Instagram do really well. But I want to caution you guys, when you're sharing graphics on Instagram, make sure that they are branded to your business and they're not random quotes that you're just putting up there from other people and they're gonna set someone off from the look and feel of your feed. But quotes do really well during a launch. In fact, when we are in launch mode, that is when our images have words on them, they're more directive because a lot of people are scrolling so quickly, you want them to read and get their attention. So, for our business, a lot of our text-heavy images on Instagram are from during our launch period. So, here's a couple of examples, some of you might recognize Cyrissa, Cyrissa was on stage with me for one of my CreativeLive courses, she's like a couple of you here in the audience, she was sitting here as a photographer, and she was a wedding photographer and she's turned her passion of wedding and senior portraits, she now teaches photographers how to do social media, because she's obsessed with social media, and she has a business called Sparkle Society. Whenever you guys see the three dots in the little purple icon there, that means either write the account down or follow them, turn notifications on, if what I'm saying to you about that account is piquing your interest. So, I'm trying to give you guys examples that will really help a variety of industries, and Cyrissa is amazing. So, look at her branding, that's in the feed, and then in her stories, Cyrissa is all about rainbows and unicorns, and her hair has pink, so it all matches up. And then, video, so these are real videos that I'm not gonna play, I just took screen shots. Cyrissa is clever, she goes into Snapchat sometimes to get that Snapchat filter and you can download it and bring it into Instagram. And she does these really cute filter videos, again, she likes unicorns and she's fun, and then she did this thank you video. Her energy is the same and consistent in everything that she does, and I'm so excited and proud of her because she literally was here, sitting and wanting to do and launch something, and she's taken that dream like all of you have, and she has put it into action and she's been doing this for two years and she has grown a very successful business teaching other photographers. So that's why you guys are here in the front row learning, because you never know what can come of out this for you for the future, and this is really exciting. So, you have to plan, like everything else, like I said, you have to plan your visuals and the collateral that you need to already know that you're gonna say hello, and what neighborhood are you gonna be in. Is it for the feed, is it for stories, or is it live, is live video. So, if you're not comfortable on live we'll cover that later, but Cyrissa is all in and all the villages, all the neighborhoods. She's there saying hello to everybody. So let's recap this section of visuals. You want your images and videos to be ready for, you know static images and videos, have those ready, plan to collect your photos in advance so that you don't fall behind and run out, 'cause the worst thing to do is run out in the middle of a launch, and then you're scrambling, and those of you who don't dedicate the time to gathering your visuals often find yourself saying that you have nothing to share, and I don't want that to be you. So this is what you have to do before you launch, this is why this section is called the prelaunch, all these things you need to do.
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!