Lessons

Lesson Info

Tease your Launch

This is where you share content in your feed through your stories and Instagram Live, that will pique the interest of your audience and build hype. There's the three neighborhoods that we talked about. It's important to start teasing it just a little bit to pique that interest. What do I mean by teasing? Let me tell you. Sharing behind the scenes information and details that's gonna actually create intrigue to your audience and they'll start paying attention. You want them to be a part of what you're doing. At the beginning I showed you May Design and I just showed you the middle image and now I'm showing you the sequence that she did in her stories. Does anyone in the audience follow May Designs? It's a great account. Anyway, they launched something new. She usually sells journals but she's launching something new and she's like, guess what just came in? I'm interested, I want to know what came in. These words on top, the text helps too. Launching soon, those are good words. What is s...

he launching? I want to know. And the last one was a video so you can really feel her enthusiasm, but I don't have the video playing, but it's cosmetic bags. The images that she's putting on journals, because she knows now what journals are selling the best, so she's taking that data, that information, and she's turning it into a new product from the same image that she used to put on the journal. That's how you build a business. It's taking that information, taking that data and trying something different. Here's another example of the pre-launch teasing. Kelly, I'm obsessed with Kelly and Jeff and shopstudiodiy, like a lot of people. I'm gonna show you more of them in a little bit. But Kelly is the owner of shopstudiodiy and she does such a good job at pre-launching. It's so consistent. She'll often show you a peek of a color or a tease of something that's coming or she'll put herself in the environment of what's she's putting on her clutch. But she's like, who's ready for the reveal of our March clutch on Friday, because she releases a clutch every, the 20th of every month. This is a physical clutch to hold in your hand. And she has her branded hashtag, #cantclutchthis, so everyone that gets these clutches use that branded hashtag, it's on her packaging, it's amazing. And then she's like, she's telling you, on the 20th, this is it, this is the clutch. But this launch goes on for about a week to two weeks. The tease, the product reveal, who's buying it, she's showing it high, she's showing it low, it's open, there's things on it, different, remember I talked about different shots for your photo shoot, and all of that. She does all it beautifully every time. This is an amazing account to follow and you'll learn a lot just looking at those descriptions. Now, when I was launching my online, my live show, The Social Sip, this was my pre-launch. It has nothing to do with The Social Sip but it was me contemplating about wanting to share something that I've been planning for a year. Sometimes it takes a year to get your dream to a reality and that's okay. I was just walking and thinking and I'm so excited, I can't wait to tell you what this is. And you're like, okay, what is it? Again, notice, a good photo, high quality photo, a caption with all the details. What is it that is my secret? What is the secret that I want to share with you and show you? And then, the next post, on the right was an animated GIF. Hello, those are the arm Spanx, the pink ones. (audience chuckling) Just saying, ha ha ha, they're in my photo shoot. It's about to go live was a post that I did first and then I had myself throwing the mic up and this is the photo shoot that Alana did for me in Boston, was this photo shoot for the launch of The Social Sip. There was a lot of planning going into this, a lot of collateral for the feed, for the stories, and it was a whirlwind of a photo shoot. I think she took 500+ photos and it's branded very differently than what I do in other places so this is a separate place where I talk about entrepreneurship but not even, a little bit of Instagram but it's on my Facebook Live show. Okay, and then Sunny, back to Sunny. Sunny is brilliant with her branding in everything she does, she's so consistent, she's amazing. And she did a launch of her new podcast and she did a beautiful job, like Sarah Blakely, with the countdown of her arm Spanx, five days to launch day, four days to launch day, three days, two days, one day, it's finally here. And then she announced Pat Flynn as her first interview. And so everything was just done on brand and her colors, she has the graphics. Again, those heavy graphics do well when you want to tell people something. And then she has the nice graphic on top of an image, on a filter that goes with her branding. What can you show? What are some of things you guys can do to tease your launch? You can announce a title of a book or something. You can announce the release date. You can show part of the components but not all of them. You don't want to show everything. You want people to keep coming back to your feed. Or you can tell stories of how all the ideas came together and that's what I did with The Social Sip. I mean, it was just, because I'd been an entrepreneur for so long and I have so much to share, I wanted to be able to talk more than just about Instagram. I wanted a place to do that and to teach people all the things that I've learned over the past 25 years of being a business owner in a way that was different than just teaching here on Instagram. You have to decide how are you gonna share those pieces that make it come together. The storytelling aspect of Instagram is so important and I'm gonna talk more about the descriptions a little later but when you can form a story around the graphics that emotionally pull people in, you get their attention. That's the why you do what you do. And you can also show that it's limited, you only have it for a short period and then you're sold out and that's it. Or you can show part of the creation process if you physically make something. You can feature other people who are involved in the process of the launch. A lot of, like we talked about earlier with the videographer example. And you can feature previous users and customers. Now let's recap this section. The more that you can pique the interest of your audience before the launch, the more hype you will actually build for your brand. And you can tease your launch in all the neighborhoods of Instagram, so in the feed, in the stories, and in Live. And this is it you guys. You're not selling. You're not selling on Instagram, you're building hype on Instagram. I think we have time for questions, huh? Let everyone know what you do, too. My name is Mikayla Hu and I am a blogger, photographer, graphic designer. I most recently started a small business. It's a natural skin care business with my mom. So a little bit of everything. I manage two Instagram accounts, my blog and my business. My, this question pertains to my blog. Okay. I have noticed with, it's a fashion and lifestyle blog, I've noticed that a lot of other bloggers tend to not do the Instagram with the business account and I think that it might be because it seems a little bit too, like you're making a business out of yourself versus, it's a little more personal if it's like. Because I post a lot of personal things, too, so I'm not exactly sure if I should switch to business because I've seen that sort of a trend with other bloggers. That they're switching or that they're not? They're not. They're not? Yes, tends to not be. I am for my business, of course I am. What is it that you want to build out with that blog business? What are you hoping to have happen? It's creating a style because it's a lifestyle blog so it's a lot of wellness and holistic health but also with fashion and slow living and supporting independent designers. And are you hoping to monetize it? Is that, what's your goal for that account? What is your, do you have a long-term goal? It's mainly monetized through brand partnerships. And that work, and that's working? I'm not selling a product or service. Yeah, so this is a great question. I haven't worked, personally, with a lot of bloggers but it goes back to the insights that I was showing you. To me, that, being able to know the data and the insights of what I'm doing is so important and so that's valuable. Now here's the good news. You could switch, and I mean, I know people that have switched and switched back if, for some reason, that's not working. I'm not endorsing to do that and do that quickly but definitely spend some time. Do you want to switch to a business account? What's going on in your mind right now? Well, I guess I could always switch to a business account just to see what the insights are and I could always. So you haven't done that yet? No, I have not done that. I would do that and I would commit to that for at least a month. Uh huh, okay. And see what happens but look and you can look at your data. Yeah. Because people might take you a little bit more seriously if they know that you have a business account, too. Yeah. And you can talk about other successes that you've had with other brands on that account. Yeah. Just step up the business aspect of what you're trying to accomplish. Yeah. You have the blog and then you have your own personal? It's the, the blog is my personal. The blog is your personal. It's the blog and/personal and then the business which is the natural skin care company. Are you looking at your data on that one? Yes. And are you, what's, I'm just curious, I just want, because there's people, I'm sure, that have natural skin care or in the beauty industry. Yeah. Are you looking at your insights and then are you responding to what you're seeing? Yeah. A lot of user-generated content does well with, because a lot of people like seeing other people's, because it's natural skin care so for our business a lot of people like seeing other people's selfies or them holding the product. Right. That's what's doing well so far. I don't check it as diligently as I should, probably, but that's what I've seen. Okay, yeah. I mean, you're managing a lot, that's hard. Are you feeling overwhelmed or do you feel like you could take on another? I feel like I'm pretty much at my bandwidth. Okay, so there we talked about bandwidth even with that. Yeah, yeah. I think the fact that you have experience knowing what a business account looks like, it's not gonna be so hard for you to go all in and do it because you're having success with your skin care. Yeah. What I like is the cross-promotion, and I'm gonna be talking about that later, between the two accounts. And you can play one to the other's strength, too. Do you do that? Yeah, sometimes. Sometimes I kind of tease on my personal account, like oh, I'm working on something for Drift Organics. Exciting. Which is the name of the business. Trying to draw the people to click on over to the other account. That's smart, yeah. Sometimes I kind of merge the two a little bit. Yeah, I would switch and see what that feels like. Okay, yeah. A lot of people make decisions based on what they see other people doing and I always say you need to make the decision that's best for you and just because everyone else in your industry is using teal and purple as a color, then that must be the brand colors that you should step up and start using. No, it's your colors. You got to do you and do what feels right and especially if you think that there's business opportunities that you might be missing, specifically with all the insight data that you can get around it. Yeah. And I would also talk to professional bloggers if you have relationships or I'd send them an Instagram direct message to see if you can get on the phone with anyone that you know and have a relationship with to ask them have they done both and what has happened. Uh huh. Find out and listen. Okay. Yeah, that makes total sense. Does that help? Yeah, yeah, thank you. Hi, my name is Ian and I'm a speaker, a coach, a leader, and also a videographer and editor. Okay, time out. Between you and, you guys are multi-passionate business owners. So when I say go all in, part of this process that you're hopefully gonna be doing here is picking the one thing so there's not confusion when you're trying to attract the audience to get them to do the thing you want them to do. Because the minute I hear, I'm a mom, I'm a travel agent, I teach yoga, and I, it's like my head's spinning and I don't know what you really do. What's the one thing the world knows you as? A speaker. Okay, cool. Alright. And I have a big following in Facebook and I know you said to go all in in Instagram. Now, how does that, do you repurpose your content for Facebook or how would you make those networks work with each other? I like that you're saying that. Facebook, I'm all in on Facebook, too. When I teach my clients and I coach, I say pick three, but I always say first, do one really, really well. Do not feel like you have to do three. You have to, you can obviously get your name on all these platforms but in order to go all in you've got to really focus. I do not repurpose. I think that's the, I mean, I do and I don't. Let me explain this. I think it's really lazy to share the same content out to every platform. And what's the point? What's the exclusivity and why should I come to Instagram if you're sharing that on Facebook? Obviously, different people are on the platforms at different times and you might get someone's attention that you couldn't. But if I'm seeing the same thing on Instagram that I'm seeing on Facebook, I'm like, why, it's like the fear of missing out on something exciting. However, if you do have great images on Instagram that do really well and they're awesome photos, what we do on our business account, what you might want to do, is share that fabulous photo but have a different description. The consistency across platforms is recognized and you stay top of mind because that image, oh, I saw that, I think I saw that on Instagram, but that's not, that's different messaging. You can take the work that you've done from the photo shoot and turn it into a different message on Facebook. That's what I suggest. Hi, my name is Carson. Hi, Carson. And I'm a storyteller. Have you found a sweet spot with Instagram #research? If a hashtag has 60,000 to 250,000, is there a sweet spot? Yeah, I recently read and heard that if you hang out and use hashtags that correlate to the number of likes that you get on a post, that can make. If you're getting 2,000 likes on a hashtag, you can hangout in those, use those hashtags that are getting that many likes. And so when you say sweet spot, are you saying which ones to use and why? Yes. Okay. This is something I read, I haven't checked it, I haven't done it. But I know more than, you see one point, if you had 1.5 million likes or something on a post, maybe you would have a chance at being in that hashtag hub. But if you had 200 or 300 likes, which is probably what most people here have, or in that range, if you dig deep and you keep digging deep and you see that how many hashtags are in that hashtag hub, the likelihood of getting viewed in that hashtag is greater in the bigger one. That's an interesting theory that I think could strategically work well as well as what I taught on stage, which is to find the ones that are industry-related, location-related, and go deep and keep going deep. Even if you find one hashtag, there's so many hashtags that people don't even know about. I'm gonna name a few, like #popofcolor. If you're into color and you want to be a part of that, there's so many in the creative blogger space. The creators use these amazing hashtags that when you open them up, they look like a digital magazine of beauty. And every photo in that hashtag represents what that hashtag is. Those are the good hashtags to be hanging out with. The ones that are confusing when you go in them, they're not literally what they say they are, those are the ones that I would avoid. However, if you teach Instagram like I do, I want to be hanging out in #instagramforbusiness, #instagramtip, #instagramtips as the broader ones but I'm not always showing up at the top nine there because so many people in the world teach Instagram or try to teach Instagram and do Instagram workshops, so it's crowded and the content doesn't match up to my brand level that I would want to be in. That's why I go nicher, like in the Boston Business Women and when I'm speaking at speaker events and I want to be at the top of those. Like when I spoke at Traffic and Conversion and Social Media Marketing World, showing up at the top there within that community made sense. It all goes back to your goals, the first step. What are your goals and what do you want to accomplish and then having the right hashtags should absolutely be part of your goals there. Is that, does that helpful? Yeah. Awesome, yeah. I'm loving all these questions, you guys. What a great audience, thank you. Hi, my name's Reva Robinson. Hi. I am a holistic wellness physician, bodybuilder, coach. I read your bio and I'm like, oh my goodness, she's in. I have a degree in nutrition and I'm watching you and I'm like, okay, she has all these healthy things, tell me something new. Yeah, so I'm doing a lot of different things too and so I got some advice from somebody who is consulting on my business that I should change my account to a personal one because there are a lot of images of my body and that that might turn off certain people in the corporate world if I were trying to do corporate wellness. What are you trying to do? Is that what you're trying to do? It is one of my goals. Okay. But overall through Instagram, my message is a lot about empowerment and positive body image. I love that. That's great. Just creating a lifestyle. That's a great space for that. Around wellness. And so my own personal journey has been one of coming to love myself, love my body, and bodybuilding has been a part of that as well as helping people in my medical practice to do the same through nutrition. Which is great, yeah. And wellness. I was like, well, should I keep it? I switched to a personal account. You switched back. I switched back to personal because I was feeling self-conscious. I have a degree in nutrition, that's what I graduated with, never used it. You're talking to someone that cares about health and wellness. I really think that you can, first of all, I think you need to basically say I don't care what anyone thinks, this is what I want to do. You've got to get over that mind blockage of how other people are perceiving you and if you're rocking your greatness and you're feeling good in your skin and doing your thing, keep doing it. If your market that you're going after is the professional market, you can use a carousel post where the first image is you in clothes and then you can say in the description to swipe to the right to see, you can have 10 photos talking about. I like that. It's like a scrapbook of the story so if you want the feed to feel more professional, or, I shouldn't even say professional, but more aligned with who you're trying to attract based on the content that they like to see, that could be the first photo of the carousel. I like that, yeah. You like that, okay good. I mean, that's just one quick idea that I thought of but also you can build stories around your journey and not necessarily show your whole body and your six pack and all the things that women are generally intimidated about, but maybe part of it, just like your arm muscle going in. You know how I had my arm with the mic? Mm hmm. Just my arm? Maybe your holding an apple? You know what I mean? There's ways to do the body building journey to health and wellness and empowerment without showing all the body if that's what you're trying to do. Sure. And is it a certain demographic, like age? Yeah, I would say between the 25-44 range, people who are young. Yeah, and typically, 25 year olds are totally fine showing their bodies and their selfies and everything but when you get to be in the 40s after you had kids, that whole thing changes. You might just, depending on your ideal customer, just know what they like to look at. That example of the dry bar, literally, they know that everyone that sits in their chair before they get their hair blow dried, they like to look at kids and dogs and if you know what your customers, where they vacation, where they hang out, where they eat, where they shop, everything, you'll be able to create visual content around that that will attract them in. Okay? Love it, thank you. You're welcome.