Instagram Growth Hacks! What Works in 2024 with Holly Hillyer

Instagram Growth and Scaling Strategist Holly Hillyer talks about how to grow Instagram in 2024. She shared some killer strategies on gaining email 50 subscribers daily through Instagram, with insights on what's working best for her clients right now. We also talked about common mistakes and hot tips on how to make your content work harder for you. Holly even gave my Instagram a live audit on air, so check it out for some real-time advice!

Watch the ‘Before We Hit Record’ episode and get to know Holly Hillyer.

Please click here to give an honest Rating/Review for the show on iTunes! Thanks for your support!

Links mentioned in this episode:

• Listen to episode 746 where Rick talks about passing the baton to me and his new direction.
• Listen to episode 720 to get to know Kwadwo. 
• Get Holly's guide to creating your first irresistible lead magnet
• Holly’s Top 100 Hooks to increase your reach on IG
• Listen to Holly's previous episode and get to know her

Kwadwo [QUĀY.jo] Sampany-Kessie’s Links:

• Subscribe to The Art of Online Business’s YouTube Channel 
• Book a strategy call with Kwadwo!
• Grab the Facebook Ads Lead Gen Cheat Code course to cut your lead costs and double your email list!
• Download the Free Facebook Lead Gen Ad Setup Checklist: Set your ads up like an expert ads manager!
• Visit Kwadwo’s website for Facebook Ads help
• Say hi to Kwadwo on Instagram

Holly’s Links:

• Connect with Holly Hillyer
• Holly’s Top 100 Hooks to increase your reach on IG
• Get Holly's guide to creating your first irresistible lead magnet

Timestamps:

0:00 Instagram Strategy for Business Owners

12:56 Instagram Growth Strategies and Value

21:26 Instagram Growth Strategies and Content Pillars

33:08 Maximizing Engagement With Captions and Hooks

38:39 Growing Instagram for Business Success

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Welcome back to another episode, and this time social media and scaling strategist Holly Hillier is here to speak about the things that you're curious about, like can we still grow Instagram in 2024? How easy or how hard it is? What sort of strategies is she seeing work best with her clients right now, and how in the world is she getting 50 email subscribers a day on her new-ish account posting to social media one post a day. I need to know that because for a good amount of time I was putting up two posts a day and, good Lord, I don't think I even got 50 email subscribers for my social media. Being honest, this podcast is a big podcast and most of my subscribers come from the podcast and even then my email is teeny tiny. So this is going to be a good episode for you, listener and Holly. Welcome back.

Speaker 2: 0:56

Thank you, I am so excited. I promise you, we can literally start getting new email subscribers today from your social media.

Speaker 1: 1:05

All right, cool, I'm game. Then let's see Housekeeping or housecleaning. Housekeeping, holly and I. We just recorded another episode, right, and that was before we hit record. You, the listener, if you want to get to know Holly and find out why she worked in France and what possessed her to leave France, this is a good episode then. And other things like behind the scenes and how she's running her business and who works in her business and what does her husband do All these fun, cool, just tidbits about you, holly, that somebody might not get to hear otherwise.

Speaker 1: 1:41

Go into the show notes below, and there's a link to that episode. It's the Before we Hit Record segment. It's all the cool conversation that podcasts hosts and guests have before they hit record, except for we hit record first. And if you don't know who I am, hi, I'm Quajo, I'm the new host of the Art of Online Business podcast.

Speaker 1: 1:59

And if you're like whoa, hey, you're a new face because're subscribed to the YouTube channel and you can see my face then head down to the show notes below and there's two links for you. One link is so you can find out where Rick is and what he's doing, because it's really cool and he's still here and doing well. And the other link is where he interviewed me in an episode and shares with you why he chose me to be the new host of the Art of Online Business and continue delivering the tips and tricks and strategies and, behind the scenes, business peaks, if you will, and Facebook ad strategy to help you and the online course creator grow from low six figures to high six figures. So let's get into this episode. Huh Holly.

Speaker 2: 2:42

Yes, I'm so excited.

Speaker 1: 2:43

Right After we had our session between hitting record, where we each confessed to have too many tabs open on our monitors.

Speaker 2: 2:53

Yes, yeah, all the time Always.

Speaker 1: 2:56

Okay, so here's where I want you to share your hot take. Your hot take With TikTok, absolutely eating Instagram's lunch, and YouTube being what I like to call the king of social media platforms. As in, it's super hard to grow, but nowhere else can you get content that you published like a year or two ago still getting great views. What is the case for Instagram in 2024? I didn't prep you for this one, but I know you got a hot take.

Speaker 2: 3:27

Yeah, this gets me really excited. So one I don't believe that TikTok is taking over Instagram.

Speaker 1: 3:36

Okay, all right.

Speaker 2: 3:37

Very different ideal clients do. Very different sets of people are using those platforms, and so when I'm talking with my clients about social media, it's literally like where's your ideal client hanging out? And some will you know oh, I have TikTok, I have Instagram, but there's a preference on which platform you're on, and so my people are not necessarily on TikTok, they are over on Instagram. And then another interesting point so we hear all the time right, it's like well, Instagram content, you produce it and then it like goes away, right, Kind of like the YouTube, it's there for years.

Speaker 2: 4:20

I just said it so true, except and YouTube is 100% going to have a longer lifespan than Instagram. But with reels on Instagram, their lifespan is much longer and you can have reels. I've had reels from six months ago. Go viral, Seriously, yeah.

Speaker 1: 4:41

Okay, we got to talk on this episode. I know we already crafted a lot of value, but I'm making a note right now to come back to that. Keep going, okay.

Speaker 2: 4:50

Yes, so, yeah. So for me it's like understand that, and this is where you do want to look at every single platform. Where are people hanging out? What type of content is it? Where are you best at producing content? What type of content is it? Where are you best at producing content? And then, what is your goal with that? Where is that content driving people and what behavior are we getting from that platform, from our ideal client? And so I know, with Instagram, this is this is where my goal is to convert them to email subscribers, versus just followers, and so I create content that does that. And for me, instagram and actually, funny enough, I also I connect my Instagram to a Facebook business page and I am. It works just as well and I'm getting email subscribers there as well.

Speaker 2: 5:41

So I know this is like about Instagram, but the user behavior in terms of the outcome that I want, I can drive that on both Instagram and Facebook from one piece of content.

Speaker 1: 5:53

My gosh. So the listener is going to just get a really cool episode where because you're going to look at my Instagram and tell me what I'm doing wrong, but I'm welcoming it, asking for it please, because I don't think I'm getting one subscriber to my email list in two weeks from that account and okay, so Instagram's where it's at. One of the things I'm super curious about is what's working right now, as we're recording this episode in April 9th 2024. That wasn't working as recently as 2023, just last year.

Speaker 2: 6:26

Yeah, so the thing, and gosh, I love being on this podcast because this is all business owners and so all of my clients are business owners. When I teach Instagram, it is for, and when I say business owner, I don't mean like an influencer or like links, okay, I mean like you are an expert in something and you have value to give. You know from within you, not that posting links and being an influencer. It's amazing, it's hard, it's so much work. But this, my ideal client, is an online business owner, and so right now on Instagram, I I call it like micro niching, or you know, we've all like what, what, what, what is your niche? And and that's that's great, but we need to go even deeper.

Speaker 2: 7:26

And so when I talk with my clients about micro niching, it is and I can kind of the easiest way to do it. If we look at like my, my original account was like in wellness. This is the first place that that I, that I tried this out, and so you start at this very high level. So what does your business provide? And so I sold like fitness and nutrition. Okay.

Speaker 1: 7:53

Awesome.

Speaker 2: 7:54

Okay. So what I was watching people in that field do was post, you know, workouts and recipes and they'd share, like their family and like because, like they wanted to be healthy for their kids, and so it all connected. But in microneeshing I need you to identify like one thing, and normally this one thing. So what I did was I said, okay, so I sell health and fitness, so I'm either going to focus on the fitness side or the wellness side, or the nutrition side, fitness nutrition. So I was like I'm going to focus on nutrition. And I decided on that by doing some market research and seeing what was like going more viral on Instagram, Right, and people were saving more recipes than they were workouts, right, Like. So I was like, all right, I can see that people are finding more value in, in, in this, and again, it depends on your ideal client.

Speaker 2: 8:58

But going and doing that market research and then asking myself, okay, so fitness nutrition. And then it is the how do I provide value? And so for me, providing value and nutrition, I was like I'm going to do some, some recipes. Okay, great, so this still isn't like the. The secret sauce right now in in micro niching is one valve, Obviously we're, we're getting super, super niche. We're providing value. But if you can provide value, that overcomes an objection on your ideal client.

Speaker 2: 9:33

you're like winning, so what I did was I did dessert recipes for weight loss, Because my client said I can't lose weight and eat dessert. And so I said follow me and I will give you dessert recipes that will help you lose weight.

Speaker 2: 9:54

And everything in me is like that's not possible yeah exactly Exactly, and so this what happens when you do that is, I've gotten really deep. I'm providing value. That's already just through giving them free content, so I'm already starting this like sales conversation without actually having one, and it connects directly to to what I sell, and so the next piece is really from there how you're going to gain your, your email subscribers, your, your email subscribers. But this is where, like, getting super clear on what, what it is you're selling, and that that one piece, and I like to take it all the way back to the beginning of your funnel.

Speaker 2: 10:54

So, if you're a business owner, right, so my other account, like I, I teach people how to grow and scale social media, and so the very first step for my clients is the social media piece, and my business really focuses on growing and scaling full businesses, so all the way up to seven figures through email and automations. But I don't focus on the seven-figure business owner that I'm working with. I focus on the business owner who's you know they're maybe making like $5,000 a week or a month and they're looking to get to that $10,000 a month, right, and they're looking to get to that $10,000 a month.

Speaker 2: 11:33

They want to break that six-figure point, and so they've got to figure out social media, social media messaging and how to do it quickly. So my social media on 7 strong focuses on that first step. How do you create social media quickly and easily that will convert, instead of focusing on the? Let me help you do all the funnels and all of that. So it's one piece, which is social media, which is the beginning portion of my business, plus value that's savable and shareable. And then how do we connect that to an opt-in that people really want and that's how we're getting all the email addresses.

Speaker 1: 13:17

Say that again for the person who doesn't want to scrub right back.

Speaker 2: 13:20

Yeah. So we're going to want to micro niche, provide value in every single post that they can use. They can use the value, take it and use it in their life, because this is a mistake I'm seeing. Take it and use it in their life. Then you are going to connect it to a lead magnet. Opt-in, freemium, whatever you call it right. Connect it to a lead magnet. That is step two of value. So I'm going to give you one dessert recipe. Now I'm going to tell you to comment dessert and I'm going to send you 25 of my high protein dessert recipes. Or, if you go over to 7 Strong, I'm going to teach you how to quickly create a reel and I'm going to give you an example of a hook and audio to use. And then I'm going to say comment 100 hooks and I'll send you my free 100 hook guide.

Speaker 1: 14:13

Ooh, okay, okay.

Speaker 2: 14:15

So now they get value. They are trusting me. They're commenting. I'm sending them a lead magnet, getting their email address. I know exactly what part of my funnel they're in, based on the keyword they use. And then I'm able to set up email marketing afterwards to sell to them.

Speaker 1: 14:34

What, okay, my Instagram account is saying help me, help me, help me, holly, please. One more question before I go there and submit my Instagram account to your eyes publicly, oh geez. So this all sounds good and I'm sure the listener, like me, has been to YouTube and looked up, YouTubed or Googled and found their way to YouTube like Instagram growth strategies, or or swiped past and seen tons of videos on TikTok or Instagram about how to grow. But what's like the one or two mistakes that you see people making when they try to grow their own like Instagram?

Speaker 2: 15:16

Yeah, yeah, so two kind of big ones. One is and this is, if you've been on Instagram for a while, like this was me. So I should start by saying, like I, I've been on Instagram for well, not nine years.

Speaker 2: 15:33

Seven years I've been doing all this is for like nine years, but I've been on Instagram for a while six years and I gosh, it was just last summer that I started implementing these new strategies. But prior to that, my account was stuck at 40,000 followers, which sounds amazing, but it was stuck there for two years, so it doesn't actually matter what that number is. When you are posting every single day and you are stuck, it is painful, and so that was me. I was stuck at 40,000 followers, posting every single day, and it really was. I was stuck at 40,000 followers, posting every single day, and it really was right. It's a definition of insanity doing the same thing again and again and expecting different results. Like that. That was me, and I was like why am I doing this? Can social media still work? And so, when I really reflected back on my account, I was growing Instagram and showing up on Instagram Like it was five years ago where.

Speaker 2: 16:31

I was my own personal brand and my family was mixed in there and like, oh no.

Speaker 1: 16:38

I'm looking at my wife.

Speaker 2: 16:41

Holly show and like there was value, but it was. It was like you know, I don't want to say mommy blogger, but it was. It was like hey, let people and we hear a lot, let people get to know you, and so sometimes we think that, like, by posting these more personal type stories, that we're connecting with our audience and that is valuable. And in fact, right now on social media, when someone goes to your account, all they're thinking is what's in it for me? How can this person make my life better? Because there are a million and one people that they can follow and if they do not quickly know how you can improve their life, and improve their life really for free, right there on that page, then they're just going to leave. And so that's one is like trying to kind of just do it all and be the you know the person next door, Like everyone loves me and they know that I do something, but like so I see that the mix and mingle too much of like family okay and then beyond.

Speaker 2: 17:52

That is, what value are you providing? That's the second one what is? The true value and people be like well, like I you know we often think that we're providing value, but if you really take a step back and you ask yourself like can someone take what you gave them and tangibly use it and literally see a result in their life? If the answer is no, then it's not enough value.

Speaker 1: 18:28

Okay, hold on a second. Yeah, I know how do you find enough tangible applicable value in somebody's day-to-day business life, or whatever your niche is, that you can make content that doesn't seem to be repetitive.

Speaker 2: 18:45

It's going to be repetitive, and that's the point it's going to be repetitive and that's the point.

Speaker 1: 18:48

It's going to be repetitive, and that's the point.

Speaker 2: 18:50

Yeah, so this is. I'm so glad that you said that, Because so my account that was stuck at 40,000 followers. I started posting dessert recipes every single day or like every couple days because it was a lot to make dessert recipes and I played around with like content pillars. So we it was a lot to make dessert recipes and I played around with like content pillars, so we've got a couple of different content pillars, but really like at this point now that account's so dialed in, I do two things One's dessert recipes and one is carousels that are like easy crock pot recipes, both of them high protein.

Speaker 2: 19:23

So it's kind of thread that runs together and quick, simple, easy. But I literally since summer, so I mean, I don't know, we're coming up on a year now. I've grown over 100,000 followers by repeating the same thing. Here's another, here's another recipe, here's another recipe, here's another recipe. My Holly, my Seven Strong account I am again. I just took back over that account. So we're looking at the data, figuring out which pillars work. But when you find your pillars that work, you're just repeating them. So one of my repeatable pillars is here is your week of hooks.

Speaker 1: 19:58

Every week I do one reel that has seven different hooks and I give that to them okay, but are you like trying to do hooks or is it like every 10 weeks they're new hooks.

Speaker 2: 20:09

They're new hooks, okay, all right. Like you know, hooks are pretty easy. And then I give some examples and like people are saving them, they're sharing them, they're using them and they come back weekly to get their hooks okay, so you have them yeah, they know what they're gonna to get from you so they know.

Speaker 2: 20:28

So now my account, my Holly Hillier account, I mean I have people like oh yeah, you're the account I go to for dessert recipes, oh, you're the account that I'm going to go to when I need the trending audio and hooks for my next reel. So when you repeat that value, you are then known for that value.

Speaker 1: 20:48

Okay, all right, not so sure. I want to show you my Instagram account now, but I think so at this point in time. You're listening to this podcast. If you're not watching it on YouTube, now would be a very good time to go down to the show notes below. If you're listening on, like Apple Podcasts or Spotify or the other platforms that will soon be extinct, sorry, click over to subscribe to the YouTube channel and watch this video, because you're about to see my Instagram account. I'm so excited Be picked apart. As soon as you said family, I'm like dang it, the first row. My wife is there. I like my wife. You know it's been 15 years. She deserves a spot on my Instagram. She deserves a spot. She's my beautiful child.

Speaker 2: 21:35

And I will say so on my Holly Hillier account with my recipes sometimes my kids will make like a cameo appearance.

Speaker 1: 21:45

Okay.

Speaker 2: 21:46

But because my ideal client is a mom, I'm still giving them the same value in terms of recipes. I'm just like throwing that in there for an extra bit of connection.

Speaker 1: 21:57

Okay, I'm zooming in.

Speaker 2: 22:02

Okay, I love this. Can I literally do like a full, like how I would do an Instagram audit for like a client?

Speaker 1: 22:10

I'll take that Sure. I mean so great, okay, where are we going?

Speaker 2: 22:15

Okay, I love it. So one of the things so ads manager and strategy partner that great, that's good. So that line is one of the most SEO searchable lines in like all of Instagram. So if you your ideal client searching for an ads manager, probably, so the fact that it says ads manager there is, like you know, that's, that's great Helping course creators get more clients. So, obviously, course creators super ideal client, very, you know, easy. Get more clients. What? This is a thing that I see people kind of mess up and you you could get more specific if you want it, but it's good. It's like they don't really give the result, like a strong result. So get more clients.

Speaker 2: 23:01

So helping course creators you know, 10x their clients in 90 days or like like more specific if you could, if you, when you attach numbers, it gets people's attention and this is true like within our content. I'll tell you my recipes ago. My one like going viral right now is like four ingredient. So if I can do like four ingredient or one minute, people love like numbers. Three steps to this or I'll say like 10 X your reach. But again, one thing that I I will often hear like people in the wellness space is like have more energy, and I'm like it's not specific enough.

Speaker 2: 23:40

Right so making sure that, like you, really know that end goal and if we can quantify it, it's even even better. So, host of the Art of Online Business podcast, dme Grow for info. So, dme Grow for info on what?

Speaker 1: 23:57

Good point. I've only had one person, dme Grow, and they were not the ideal client.

Speaker 2: 24:04

So it's like and again, so DME. So anytime we are asking someone to like take an action right, we, we? Then we are asking for their time. So it actually becomes a really big ask. And so DM me grow, or. And then it should be like what's in it for them, what are they going to get right?

Speaker 1: 24:25

so, like that, you know, dm me grow for your, you know, personalized ads, growth strategy or something right like, something that like that would help, that would be a value that would let them get on my email list exactly oh geez, okay, all right yes, so then grow for my behind for, like my, the same exact Facebook Legion ads checklist that me and my team use up to or use to set up ads Exactly Something that's going to get them.

Speaker 2: 24:55

You can grab their their email address. And then same thing, like with the emojis and like the links. It's like we're asking them to click that link bar and they really don't know why.

Speaker 2: 25:10

Uh-huh all right, like if they're going to click this link, like what do you really get? Because otherwise, I mean they're right now, they're just skipping over it. I mean most likely unless especially if that's the first thing right they can go to your content, consume some of that and then come back up. But in terms of getting them to click it right away, they don't know, like why they would do it. What's in it for them?

Speaker 1: 25:31

So the numbers speak for themselves. I have one person click that link and this was my converted personal account. So maybe it's grown by 200, I don't know since October of 2023. So okay, all right.

Speaker 2: 25:43

Yeah, so, and then you know, in terms of highlights, testimonials are going to be your big I love you. Know you've got your client testimonials, your courses testimonials that's great. The other thing that you could do is like add your offerings in there.

Speaker 2: 25:59

Oh, yeah, right there. Yeah, people want like. They literally and again it's similar to, it'd probably be in your link in bio too right, like. But what they want to know is, like, how can they work with you? Even if you just said, like, work with me and you kind of gave a rundown of like, here's the different ways we could work together. Um, but beyond just testimonials, people are clicking in there to learn more about your programs and and what you do, because they really are. If they consume your content, like you can get clients. I mean just, I mean all of my clients come straight from Instagram. All my leads, all my clients.

Speaker 1: 26:36

So what you're saying is is I could just add a work with me highlight. And in there it's a couple of stories that say like this is how you can work with me. First it's like what do you want? Who do I serve? Go to my website, fill out a Facebook ads management.

Speaker 2: 26:53

And don't tell them to go to your website. Tell them to DM you a word using an automation. So we always on Instagram are asking ourselves what are the like, what is the least amount of action they have to take? So if we tell them to go to a website, they're not going to go from your highlight. Remember a website like go there. You could put the link right, like in your story.

Speaker 2: 27:14

But even that Instagram doesn't love as much because it's sending them off their platform. So the best thing that you can do for you, for your client and for the. Instagram algorithm is to use an automation you know, like mini chat, and have them comment a keyword. Now they're in your DMs. Instagram's happy because it's increased engagement. Your person's happy because they're still within the platform and they're getting everything they asked for without leaving the app.

Speaker 1: 27:38

Wow I some people are going to judge me for this, but I haven't jumped on the mini chat bandwagon yet, so I should. I should start.

Speaker 2: 27:51

You're like I know I, I know I see you really should. That is how I mean truthfully. It is how I have collect.

Speaker 1: 27:56

That's how I collect all my email addresses, all of them seriously okay or a mini chat link in the bio is dead, then is that what you're saying?

Speaker 2: 28:05

I mean it's fine, it's there, but yes, mini chat.

Speaker 1: 28:09

All right, great I will I hereby solemnly swear to open up a mini chat account two day after we finish recording, while I have my ea do it. And yes, dang, okay, all right, all right, I'll send you we have, I'll send you some again.

Speaker 2: 28:22

my husband's like the mini chat, like guru he's like my tech guru, so he has created like templates that you just like. Plug. Plug in plug and play templates. That literally. I mean. We made $70,000 in seven days using these templates Super easy. It is like it has changed the game on Instagram and it works on Facebook. It's how it works on both platforms. It's working in post. It works in your stories. It makes the algorithm happy. They are preferred like partner. It's. It has changed everything for me in terms of sales on Instagram.

Speaker 1: 28:57

Now I sound like a mini chat salesperson.

Speaker 2: 28:59

Like I don't work for mini chat, but it is. It is the perfect partnership and it's really it's how people are engaging on Instagram right now.

Speaker 1: 29:08

True, okay.

Speaker 2: 29:10

Podcast episode Cause all the different ways you can use it to make Instagram happy, whether it be links, whether it be just Sometimes I use it to just have the value like go straight to them, which then increases my engagement, like my most recent reel that's going viral. I was like DM me the word whatever to have the recipe sent to you. So instead of putting the recipe right, so now I'm getting thousands of comments and they're all and that's making the algorithm happier. My people are happy, everyone's happy.

Speaker 1: 29:40

Wow, okay, minichat done. And if, like, if you're listening to this episode right now and you're like me and you have not used mini chat, then yeah, go to the link in the description below and get mini chat. It's there for you. I did it. Even though I'm going to do it now in the future, when you're hearing this, I have already done it. I hereby commit to do it all right. So what else do you see?

Speaker 2: 30:02

yeah. So let's go. That hurt when you're like, when we look at, even if we so, if we just look at, like your, your six square, your nine square, right here there's nine, okay, I want to know, and some of these are good, so that this is your wife this is my wife okay, so some and and I'm totally good with like both of you, like I think it's great.

Speaker 2: 30:28

She can't hear you If you say I think it's great to have both of you on there, right, cause it's it's kind of like a power couple type thing, right? So hers are like lead campaign versus sales campaign best metrics for Facebook ads analysis. So one of the things you want to make sure on your feed is that people know why they would click into it. So understanding that like it needs to have so unlock more sales with a podcast is a good one. So it's not only telling them what they'd get. These should all be hooks. So one of the things that I work on with my clients is this triple hook method. So you should have hooks in three places. The first should be on your cover photo. So if I like my cover photos.

Speaker 2: 31:14

So two steps to increase engagement in your reels. Three steps to an irresistible lead magnet that sells while you're off social media. So it tells them why to click. But it's like you want this, this hook, and again, what's in it for for them? So two steps to increase engagement on your reels. So these people are looking for increased engagement, right? Three things I would do if I wanted to grow by a thousand followers in the next 30 days. My adult client wants to grow by a thousand followers in the next 30 days. So on your feed is cover photos with the hooks on them, so they know why they're actually going to click it. And again, what's in it for them, not just descriptive, but like the hook of what's in it for them.

Speaker 1: 31:56

Wow, okay, all right.

Speaker 2: 31:58

That is going to be huge. Then the second place your hook goes is when you click into your reels. Within the first two seconds you've got to have a hook on the screen, which is where most people are doing hooks right.

Speaker 1: 32:11

So they're like, if I look at that, so you're saying when I click one of these?

Speaker 2: 32:18

Click like lead campaign versus sales campaign, so you don't know. So right away there should be like the hook as to why they should even watch this. Why should they give you their time?

Speaker 1: 32:34

Wow.

Speaker 2: 32:35

So that's the second place. All it has to go. It has to be within the first two seconds.

Speaker 1: 32:39

Is this the verbal hook or are you just talking about like text overlay?

Speaker 2: 32:42

Text overlay Okay.

Speaker 1: 32:44

Why they should keep watching, why they should give you their time?

Speaker 2: 32:48

Yep, exactly, and so a lot of times your hook that's on your cover photo can also be the hook that's, you know, the very first one on your wheel. So the one that I did there was like two steps to increase engagement on your reels. When I click into that, my hook is why no one is commenting on your reels. And so now they're like oh crap, no one's commenting on my reels. I'm actually going to listen to this.

Speaker 1: 33:16

So a hook could be like why using the wrong campaign is burning through all your money?

Speaker 2: 33:21

A million percent.

Speaker 1: 33:23

Yes.

Speaker 2: 33:24

The negative hooks are often the best. Stop doing this Like the negative is often a really good hook, because they're saying, oh my gosh, that's me. They identify in that spot.

Speaker 2: 33:36

Wow, and then the third place for your hook is the very, very top line of your caption. So should I use a lead campaign or a sales campaign there? It would be like why you shouldn't use XYZ to get XYZ right, or why you should use XYZ to get XYZ. So they need to understand, like, why are we even talking about this right? Like what's in it for me? How can one of these even help me? So then in your caption I know I know this is a lot I told you I love this. This is really good. I love this. So then in your caption so this is a so face to camera, like this reel, and you've got movement right. You've got your Instagram popping up in the back, like all that's good, right, because you're keeping this, this visual interest.

Speaker 2: 34:30

But in your caption, long captions with the value yeah are going to be saved more and what they do is people are reading those, so they may be listening to you, but when you or they may not right, a lot of times it's on silent. A lot of times they're. They're not watching your video, but when you have the value in the caption. They're reading it. Your video is playing and Instagram is saying this is a longer watch time reel.

Speaker 2: 35:04

And so the longer watch time reel means you're going to get pushed out to more people and when it's in the caption it's saved. So we went from this place in Instagram, where I wanted super long, like blogger type captions, to super short, and now they're back to longer, but they've got to be like step one, step two, step three, so yeah, so what are the best columns on Facebook ads manager that indicate success? You should have that all like written out in long form caption too.

Speaker 1: 35:34

Okay, but straight up for me, not even for the listener. The listener probably will benefit from this too. Who has time to write long captions? And how are you writing these long captions? I know?

Speaker 2: 35:45

I know. Well, here's the beautiful thing, right? You said like wait, aren't you repeating a lot of things? Yes, so once you've written out these captions, you really are able to like, copy and paste a lot of like the meat and then kind of just tweak it. But, I will tell you I mean truth. You're right, it's going to take you time to write this long caption, but my social media.

Speaker 2: 36:12

My small social media account is growing by 50 to 100 new followers a day and I'm getting 50 new email addresses a day and then I'm selling to them. So we all, as business owners, get to ask ourselves where do we allocate our time? And it 100% is a choice if we decide I'm going to spend maybe 45 minutes making this real and making this caption and making sure you know many, chat is set up and then it hooks up to the good opt-in and then to an email series. Is that, 45 minutes, the best use of my time?

Speaker 1: 36:43

Wow yeah.

Speaker 2: 36:48

And we get to answer that. And so I think, for me, with business owners who you know you don't you're if you're a new business owner and you don't have a large network and you know you're not on podcasts or networking events, or you know you don't have an Instagram, Like to me, Instagram was this place that I could go and start with zero followers and reach people every single day that I could have never reached, and so it's this, really, and it's free. It's this really low barrier of entry for new business owners. Now, the frustrating thing, when I work with my like seven senior clients and they're like Holly, I don't know that that like their teams, Right, and I think realizing that in the beginning, you do need to be integrally involved with your social media and your face is going to do better than you know, faceless, all of that.

Speaker 2: 37:59

But you can get in this pattern. So, with my account where I make the recipes, I make the recipes, but I send that video to someone else and they edit it. And the other thing, though, we don't need to get on this, but it's like understanding your data. So I, weekly, am looking at my data what's working best, what first clip is working best, and then I'm giving the team that's making that reel the feedback. So for me.

Speaker 2: 38:25

I don't believe that social media is somewhere you can just like hand it over and never show up there again, if you're really truly using it as a strong top of funnel.

Speaker 1: 38:37

Wow, they say don't give the farm away. Now maybe you've given away a quarter of the farm. I know for a fact you haven't given away the whole farm because I got at least six more questions that are in my notes as I'm like scrambling to type what you're saying, that I want to ask you right here on this podcast and I know the listener does too but we got to end this episode, so where can I and the listener go to get more of this goodness from you about growing our Instagram?

Speaker 1: 39:06

so we can get 50 emails a week.

Speaker 2: 39:08

I would love that, I know I mean and go, so you can go over to my Instagram account at 7strongco. At 7strongco I also have a podcast called the 7 Strong Podcast. I give away, like I am just I love giving the tactical stuff and literally, like I mean you guys know, like I hope that you can take this and use this. But yeah, if you go over to my Instagram at seven strong co, you'll also see, like, look at it from the how do I dissect some of these into as funnels, right, and you'll be able to see my, my funnels.

Speaker 2: 39:42

And you know, I do think as well one of the things, so my one, my wellness business, is pretty much just one offer all the time, so I'm able to keep the same free lead magnet, my Seven Strong Co. We have different offers, kind of quarterly, and so I'm changing my lead magnet and I'm slightly tweaking content. So I really want to like empower all of you to like understand that, yes, we're micro niching but you're able to tweak messaging to truly get, like, your ideal client's attention and your ideal client at different parts of your funnel, and so it really is like very, very small changes that allow you to create these different lead magnets to sell different offers, while also being contained in the same Micronesia account.

Speaker 1: 40:35

That is great. This has been a very, very, very impactful episode for me. Therefore, anyone who has an Instagram account that has an online business, which should be everyone listening, you got to go back. We just had a masterclass and that truly was. Thank you, Holly oh my gosh, Thank you.

Speaker 2: 40:56

I mean, it's just like my favorite thing in the world to talk about and I just, I just want every business owner to feel so empowered that they literally you, you have a tool at your fingertips.

Speaker 2: 41:08

It truly can help you grow your business. And if you're like me, like I was so frustrated two years ago, like I, I know and, and it can change, and you know I'm sure I had an account with 40,000 followers, but my other account that I just started growing like it's just a baby account with a couple thousand followers and we're just slowly and steadily growing and and again, gaining email subscribers and making sales, and so, no matter what point you're at, like this can be a tool for you. There's no saturation Instagram. Instagram is here to keep people on their platform. That's their goal, and so when our goal becomes, like when we work together, like the algorithm truly has become my compass and like best friend, I just do what the algorithm tells me, which makes my ideal clients happy, because they're getting what they want on Instagram and it makes Instagram happy. So it's just, it's such an incredible place and I'm just so thankful for you having me on the podcast today.

Speaker 1: 42:08

Yeah, we need to connect again, and thank you for giving up some of this time to be with me on the podcast. I know the listener is thanking you. They're probably even going to go and leave a review on Apple podcasts thanking you. It's been a really informative and good time getting to know you on both of these episodes. So thanks, Holly.

Speaker 2: 42:29

Thank you so much. This was so fun.

Speaker 1: 42:32

All right, well, geez, get down to the show notes below, grab the links so you can learn how to grow your Instagram and get to 50 emails a week added to your email list coming from your organic social media. And until the next time we talk or you see me, be blessed and we'll chat soon. Goodbye.