June 29, 2021
Who here struggles with the good ole’ gram? Yes, Instagram. You might have started to notice, but this summer we’re taking our solo shows and diving into the nitty-gritty ALL on helping you grow and market on Instagram.
Today we took YOUR biggest IG questions and we’re answering them. Today’s episode answers Instagram topics like:
“How to write captions from a team or group perspective vs. individual”
“Should your captions ALWAYS relate to the photo?”
“How to boost engagement and get followers who actually interact with you”
“What our personal Instagram boundaries are on personal/vulnerable life topics”
And LOTS more! We got all these questions directly from YOU – our listeners – in our Heart and Hustle Facebook group.
It could go either way. Here is the differentiating factor that I want to clarify. If you are a husband and wife team or business partnership, or even a small team. You can and should showcase that individuality as well as the duality. The teamwork. It could be cool if you and your husband both wrote captions for Instagram from a personal perspective. You could write about the biggest thing you have learned in business this year, and he could write something along those same lines as well. Then you could write something together of what you have learned as a team. It will allow people to connect with both of you as individuals as well as on a team front.
There is no problem writing from your perspective or this or us. Keeping in mind that you still want that connection to be in the forefront and is valuable to hit all perspectives. If you are an established team or a brand, you can always use we. Both ways are fine.
We know Meg is a photographer and with your work specifically, it is of other people. For Meg, we would be a little careful of not being too vulnerable and personal on a photo of a senior session because there is a little weirdness with sharing your heart with someone else’s face. Especially if you are not showing up on your feed. For a senior or portrait photographer, be careful, however, the caption doesn’t have to be about that person.
You can’t talk about the same person 500 times but you can talk about the story of that senior or couple. Then the second time you could talk about the experience with them. You can incorporate more of a perspective. The more deep intimate personal captions save those for the photos of you, but not for someone else’s face.
If we are giving this advice to nonphotographers, you have more flexibility. If your product is not people you can get away with a lot more of the caption not relating to the photo. Don’t overthink it. Show up in your feed and create those more intimate connection-based captions. On the photos with your clients or product when you feel that awkwardness, instead create posts around what your day looks like or what your week has been like. You can put in stuff that is not intimate.
First and foremost, it is killer and stellar that you know who your client avatar is and create a variety of content. How long have you been creating that targeted consistent intentional content for your client avatar? It takes time. It is going to take months or years of work to see quality engagement consistently. That is okay. Start experimenting with other things.
Don’t wait for people to DM you. Don’t wait for people to comment on your posts. Go out and give the engagement that you want to receive. Not just the people you follow but your followers. You don’t have to follow them back if you don’t want to, but go out of your way and engage with them. You have to teach people how to engage with you.
We both have used Unum Design. However, they changed recently and have tried to make it a paid app which has made it harder to navigate. Since their changed we switched over to Later for a while and wasn’t obsessed with it. Then switched over to Planoly and love it.
Always post in real-time. Even if you are using an app to plan your feed out we recommend you personally go in and post to your feed. Only because with the algorithm you want the most interaction when you first post to help boost. Having it automatically post you won’t be there to engage with people and comments. I would still schedule it and notify you and then actually do it yourself but don’t have an app post for you.
We did an entire social media boundary episode, which is 136. The other part of that with what we share comes and goes in waves and seasons of what we are willing to share and not share. There are some topics that we don’t share on social media and will share. Praying and discerning and asking God if there is something that He is asking you to share. Is something that we both do. You can still have a personal brand and not share your family if that is your boundary line.
We seek the Lord and that is our conviction and we are pursuing what God is calling us to share and not to share. We pay attention to the check-in with our heart of what we feel called to share, safe, and what God is calling us to. That is our gage and helps us.
We have limits on our phone of a few hours a day on Instagram and dedicated times. We try not to start our day/workday on there.
If you are sitting there and overwhelmed with the app, know that we have seasons of that too. To grow on IG and see the improvement you need to dedicate time to it. Instagram is great, it’s not the end all be all. If other parts of your life need attention in your life then focus on that.
You don’t have to rely just on selfies. You can hire somebody. Especially if you aren’t a photographer, hire a brand photographer and get five-seven outfits and batch an entire branding session. You then have enough content for 3-4 months.
Check out our Content Photo Minor, if you are struggling with having photos of yourself for social media. It is not vain. It is an inviting connection and relationship with your audience. It is vulnerable and is not arrogant.
nuud: http://nuudcare.com/discount/HEART&HUSTLE20
Use code “HEART&HUSTLE20” for 20% off at checkout!
The Caption Playbook: www.theheartuniversity.com/caption-playbook
Content Photo Minor: https://theheartuniversity.com/content-minor
If you want to connect with us and other listeners in the Heart and Hustle community join our Facebook group here.
Follow along:
www.instagram.com/mrslindseyroman
www.instagram.com/theheartuniversity
WASSUP FRIENDS. We’re Evie + Lindsey, co-founders of this wild partayyy called The Heart University. Our goal is to empower entrepreneurs to kick freaking BUTT in their businesses, dive down into the heart of their why and how, and serve you with all possible tools you’ll need to up-level your business game and CRUSH those goals of yours.
Whether you’re coming to an in-person workshop, joining our online course, or soaking up all the strategies via this blog or our podcast, we’re STOKED you’re here + can’t wait to see you out there kicking butt.
meet l&e
keep reading
GET OUR 'TOP 5 APPS WE USE FOR INSTA
GRAB OUR FREE GUIDE BELOW ON THE TOP 5 APPS WE USE IN CONJUNCTION WITH INSTAGRAM TO UP LEVEL OUR INSTA GAME! TRUST US, YOU'LL BE A PRO IN NO TIME!
ARE YOU RIDING FRONT SEAT ON THE INSTAGRAM STRUGGLE BUS LATELY?
Be the first to comment