Build More Connections with Everyday Moments

I’ve said this before, but the reason my business is where it is today, is because of posting stories on Instagram. In the early days of my business (I’m talking 500 followers!) Instagram stories catapulted my growth, it was where I showed up the most, but it was also where I was most confident showing up. So let’s jump in to how you can start capturing those day to day moments and turn them into experiences on stories. It literally takes just moments to create and you could make a sale, gain a new follower, or build a connection with someone, even if showing up on stories does not come easy for you.

In this episode we’ll be covering:

• The types of stories I shared in the early days of my business and examples of what I am sharing now.
• The anatomy of an Instagram account and how it represents your signage and storefront.
• How to reset your stories by taking breaks and letting them expire! Take advantage of this extra boost to your views.
• It’s normal for viewers to fall off after the first three stories, so front load those first stories!
• You want about 7% of your following to be viewing your stories, and you may see an extra boost in views when you are documenting a vacation or something fun!
• I’ll walk you through some examples of stories I share day to day and the different types of content I like to share in my stories.
• Every single day, try to put something in your stories that have nothing to do with your business but everything to do with you, your team, or your store. 
• Should you be sharing your reels to your stories?!?
• Remember, people LOVE to follow PEOPLE and want to see your experiences!

Other episodes you might have missed:

• Episode 002: Uncomplicating Social Media through Simple Content
• Episode 007: Relatability in Everyday Content with Instagram Stories and Reels
• Episode 012: Ditching the Toxic Advice on Instagram
• Episode 022: Boost Your Instagram Engagement With These Simple Strategies
• Episode 032: We All Start at Zero: Embrace Storytelling to Connect with Your Community

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Transcript

Shannon McKinstrie [00:00:05]:
I am your host, Shannon McKinstrie. Welcome to Good Content, the podcast where I remove the never ending content creation, guesswork and overwhelm so that you can actually enjoy being on social media again and growing your business with what has always worked. Good Content. Hello. Greetings from the Dominican Republic. My family and I are here with also my in laws and it's just been the most amazing week. So I brought my podcast mic, because I thought it would just be fun to record from here and I'm really glad I ended up recording now rather than recording before this vacation because I want to talk Instagram stories because I know I've touched on them a little bit on other episodes. But like I tell everyone that Instagram stories are the reason one, my business is still going, but also that my business has reached the point that it has because, you know, we all start at zero.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:00:55]:
When I had my tiny little community, about 2 to 500 followers on Instagram, it was Instagram stories that kind of catapulted my account growth. But everything right, because that is where I would show up the most because I didn't have time to create a lot of content. On top of that, I know not we that's an excuse, right? But on top of that, I honestly at the time my business was still kind of a hobby. I didn't think anyone was going to take me seriously. I didn't think anyone cared. I didn't want to be judged. But stories I was always confident in because I had Snapchat for years. I use Instagram stories with my personal Instagram account.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:01:29]:
I would just like get in the car after Target and talk about, I don't know, something about like the horrifying security camera and how bad it makes you look. And you know, I would like talk on stories like jokingly and my friends and family would respond and laugh, whatever. I would show videos of Camden. I would show videos of things I was listening to, watching. I always use Instagram stories on my personal like that. So when I moved over to a business account, I was like, obviously I was creating content for all these other businesses, but for me as a business owner, I really didn't know really one, what people wanted to see yet. I hadn't done my market research yet. And two, I just didn't really know what I wanted to post.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:02:07]:
And again, if I'm not excited about it, I'm not posting it. So I lean on stories a lot in the beginning of my career of my business account did it just the way I did it on my personal Taking people through the journey. Hey, guys, here I am at, you know, this coffee shop, St. Elmo's, doing some caption writing for clients. Cam's reading a book. What are y'all up to today? And guess what would happen? I would get DMs asking, what is it I'm doing for a client. I would put another story up. Just created a hashtag vault.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:02:32]:
Those were like one of my favorite very early offers. That was like a quick like 50 bucks and help me pay for groceries and things like that in the beginning, you know. Cause again, it's always good to have like a lower tier offer because a lot of people couldn't afford my management. Or again, just couldn't justify the costs. Cause back then it was social media was still not what it is today. It was more so looked at something they could give their intern to go and post, right? So like I was like, okay, hashtag vault. That's a quick, easy thing that I can do and make some cash. And I would put a story up, sending this hashtag vault out to a med spa in Arizona.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:03:00]:
Sending this hashtag vault out to a blah blah, blah and blah blah, blah. And next thing you know, people in my DMs. What's a hashtag vault? I want one. I want one. Of course, I didn't have to swipe up. We didn't have the link sticker. Back then. I relied on stories to sell.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:03:11]:
For me, it felt very natural to share that because all I'm doing is saying, hey guys, this is what I'm up to. And then people will be like, I want one. I'm like, wait, what? Because I always joke that I was the worst salesperson. Just documenting, guys. So I use Instagram stories to show. Here I am getting ready for the day. Here I am going to a meeting with a client. Here I am watching Jeopardy.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:03:28]:
Oh my gosh. The category is fast food. I'm going to crush it, right? I had fun on Instagram stories with my personal for years. And then I started having fun on my business and that led to sales. Yes. One time I did a story about me and my husband's mommy, shark daddy, shark costume, got me a client. So again, maybe this isn't natural to you. So that's why I want to talk about this in this episode or if it is natural to you, I'm going to give you some other tips and tricks to get these day to day moments.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:03:52]:
Turn them into experiences on stories they take five seconds to create and you make a sale, you make a new Follower. You build a connection with someone who's been following you for years. Okay, so again, like I always say, your bio, the profile, all those words on your pretty face and all that stuff, handsome face, whatever it is that says what you do, that's like your business card, your billboard, your. Your signage, your grid is your storefront. It's like window shopping. Like, what's this person? What's this vibe of this account? What's in it for me? Right? And then stories are that open door when there's that pink purplish ring around your logo or your face, hopefully it's your face. I always tell people, by the way, your profile picture on Instagram should be your face. Unless it's like a team of more than three people or like you are a product.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:04:36]:
And that just wouldn't make sense. Okay, so that's your billboard.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:04:41]:
Great.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:04:41]:
As your storefront stories are your open door. So will I say to take a break from stories every once in a while? Yes, because it's a fun little hack. When you let your Instagram stories expire, right? Stories last 24 hours. When they expire and you post again, you get a nice big bump. It almost does like a reset. And just so you know, after three stories, we tend to fall off. It's not that you're boring, it's not that no one cares. Just naturally, after three stories, people tend to fall off.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:05:06]:
So front load those first three stories. So what I always tell people with Instagram stories, if your views are really low, comparatively, and I just check for you because that rate is always changing. But you want about 7% of your following viewing your story. I would look at the first views you can swipe up to see what that view is, because again, it's always going to go down. We lose interest, and it just is. It's the way we use the app, it's not the algorithm. So front load those, right? So you want to make sure those first three are really important. So especially if you're doing a reset and you know that first story is going to pop off, it's going to go crazy.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:05:37]:
If you're selling something right now, mention it. Usually my first story of the day is just saying, good morning. Like, I'll do it here. I already did it here this morning, saying good morning. In case you missed it, I shared this post. Sometimes it's something like that, or it'll show my computer screen and I'm like, here's what I'm up to today. Loading the reels, prompts for the week what are you guys up to today? And then I'll have a link sticker saying, you know, by the way, if you want into this membership, click here. I'll kind of like breadcrumb a little bit.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:06:01]:
My first story of the day is very intentional. The rest of them, I kind of just like document my day. Maybe next I'll share a post from someone else. Maybe it's a post from someone in my industry that I respect and I'm like, everyone needs to see this. Or maybe it's an empathetic heard right? My four H's heard, which I'd love to share the herd type content on my stories, which is usually like something like dear business owner, you know, your business doesn't have to do this. That the third anything that makes them feel seen and heard. I love sharing content like that from other like those types of accounts that are out there that share lots of that content. So I like to do a mix of my stories as well.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:06:35]:
Just like I did like to do a mix on my grid of helpful content, heard content, happenings and humor. So I do the same in my stories. And the reason I wanted to talk stories today was because every single day in your stories, if you're my client, I'm going to tell you this and I'm going to watch your stories like a hawk. I want to make sure your stories have something in there that have nothing to do with business and everything to do with you or your team or your store. Okay, Meaning what would you share if you weren't trying to sell anything today? For me, you should see my story views right now. They are definitely double, but they're almost three times the views as normal. And guess what? People are watching and watching and going and watching them in a row. Less drop off.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:07:18]:
Do you know why? Because I'm sharing my vacation. Now, obviously we can't go on vacation every week. Wouldn't that be dope? But it just goes to show that people love to follow people and we love to see your experiences. There's a really funny meme I saw a while ago and it cracks me up because it's like I would hope everyone knows when you go on vacation, I'm going with you. Basically, like your Instagram stories need to show me everything because I'm on it with you. And it's true in life, like when we're watching these, we want to go on this experience, this journey with you. I'm getting DMs asking like, what are your thoughts in the resort? Where are you? I'm obviously tagging the resort. They're sharing my story.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:07:54]:
It's just, you know, people going, oh, my gosh, I'm Dominican and you know, I'm so glad you're in my country. And then I'm telling them how lovely the people are here and how everything has just been great. Conversations. Stories lead to conversations. Conversations lead to sales without feeling promotional over salesy, et cetera. Now, will I tell you to be salesy? Yes. Obviously, if you're a business on Instagram, you're selling. But if you struggle, stories are the best way to sell and show up and have conversations with people because they're comfortable.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:08:20]:
When someone replies to your story, it's going right to your dm. Do you know how powerful that is? That's a personal exchange between you and the person. So I just want to say, any expert, quote unquote, telling you to not share personal stuff on stories is doing you the biggest disservice of all time. I get really fired up about a few things. People that tell you you have to post every day. Not true. People who tell you to keep it only business. Gross.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:08:41]:
And third, people on stories saying you shouldn't share personal. That's literally where you share the most personal stuff. Stories are why people tag me in videos of their oat milk lattes. And again, this is when I had 500 followers, so I don't want to hear, well, Shannon, you have a larger following now. No, when I had 500 followers and I started talking about oat milk lattes and the people following me then were only in D.C. because that's again, I didn't think I'd ever work with Anyone outside of D.C. i was just, you know, helping people in my local community. I would tag someplace they tagged me.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:09:08]:
And then as my account grew, then I start drinking Poppi. I'm sharing everyone my love of Poppi soda. People are tagging me in their Poppi stories like the magic is in the mundane. I don't know how to drive it home more. Now, if you are not a personal brand, quote unquote, in your team, it doesn't matter. Actually, let me get my phone. Let's go look. So speaking of Poppi, let's go look.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:09:24]:
Let's just see what their stories are right now. All right? Pray. A lot of UGC sharing their poster stories. Anyone that also tells you not to share your posts stories, that's not good advice. You want to get as much you know your posts are only going to be seen by like 2% of your audience. More people are watching Your stories probably. So post it up there, share your posted stories and just give them a reason to though, like over it I usually will say, look at my stories. See what I mean? Over it I'll say like check this out because XYZ next behind the scenes of their owner along with a link to enter some sort of contest.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:09:54]:
More behind the scenes resharing stories. They're tagged in gift ideas, more ugc. Okay, so love it. And then let's talk about Smash Army. I don't know if you guys remember Smash army or if you were following any of that. I don't know if they're still doing it, but if you look up, #SmashArmy, this was. All right, it's a mocktail company, okay. And they had a whole thing about Smash army and it was, I believe it was their intern going in proving to her bosses smashing a can is more effective than his entire marketing strategy.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:10:24]:
And they had a challenge to get to a certain amount of followers. I believe that they got there and what's so funny is she became the face of this mocktail company. So it just goes to show you, we love following people. We love being a part of another businesses growth. All right, and let's look at Sephora. Watch this. They've got some, you know, they're shouting out some makeup brands. And guess what? Another story.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:10:46]:
A talk to camera video.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:10:48]:
Literally. Can't believe they put my favorite ABH brow products in one kit. You're getting a full size brow whiz and a mini brow free gel for just $26.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:10:55]:
Looks like it could be a Sephora employee. Doesn't have an influencer tag or anything. So again, you work at a store. You work at what? Have someone from your store get on stories and talk about their favorite product. Right now you get tagged in the story. Share it. You want to take people through your day. Share it.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:11:10]:
Whatever makes sense for your business. I just want to beg you to start showing up on stories because it is the open door, at least the DMs, conversations. And even if it is just the coffee you got, the donut you're about to eat, use a poll. Make your polls fun. So the last thing I'll leave you with is with that first story. This let your stories expire that first story. Start with the behind the scenes of your morning, whatever that looks like. It could be your workspace.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:11:31]:
Let's say you're a hairdresser. Show your workstation. Maybe you've got like your Starbucks drink and you're whatever and you're like tagging all of them and saying fueling up on this. I've got three appointments today. Let's go. And then you could use a poll or a slider to like who's with me today or who's ready for good hair day. Who wants to see the final results later today? Use the slider. Or you could do a poll being like how do you start your morning coffee, tea or hot coffee? Iced coffee.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:11:56]:
Keep it simple. It's people feel like they are invited into your world and can lock in next week's episode I'm going to talk more about how stories everything I'm having you do right now is going to help you create better content for your feed. So get ready for that. I'm so excited because truly stories are the once you get comfortable in stories you're going to absolutely dominate your content in 2025. I love you friend. To the beach we go. Have a wonderful day. Thanks for listening.