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Speaker 2Hi there. Welcome back to the Jasmine star show. This year I've had the privilege and honor of speaking on a stage at an annual conference for photographers called it show at United. I am pretty sure this is like the fifth time I spoke at this event and I am smitten with it. I love this keynote because I did something completely different. I critiqued the Instagram accounts from audience members. Uh yeah, you know, I was out there making myself awkward and calling people to the carpet friend. If you are ready to hear exactly what I would change about your Instagram account from your bio to your photos to how you engage with followers, this episode is all for you. So without further ado, here's my keynote it show at United 2019
Speaker 3I have good news and the good news is we're going to do something different this year. It's going to be a photographer, Instagram make-over . In the past I have had the proud privilege of being able to speak at United multiple years and it has been very presentation based. I talked to Todd and the team and I said, Hey Todd, can I do something I've never done before? And can I critique Instagram accounts for people in the room?
Speaker 4Oh yeah. Oh yeah .
Speaker 3Excited . But my husband, my business partner before it comes on and he's a psych . I know you got your big hoops on, but you got to really peel back the attitude how I was like, okay. So on that note, I do want to clarify that a critique is not a criticism. A critique is looking at something and giving you feedback and advice on what to do better. A criticism is saying this isn't good and giving you know , solution on the back end . So for those of you who volunteered your accounts, I want to say thank you. If I ever come a little too hard edged, please know it's in love. Okay. So for those of you who don't know, my name is Jasmine star and I'm a photographer and business strategist from Newport beach, California. I am also the cofounder of social curator with my husband in high school sweetheart,
Speaker 4curators up in the house. Yay. Yay .
Speaker 3Okay, so a social curator. What we do is we provide resources for small business owners to build their brand and market their business online. That's our stick . But what I want to tell you is that as a result of that, I have the privilege and the honor of speaking with small business owners, thousands of them every single day. We have a writing, an active community, and I do coaching and I do strategy sessions. And let me tell you, based on my wealth of time in the entrepreneur space, I have to tell you that you in this room are not alone. That you think the algorithm is just affecting you. They you, you're constant being, being looked over by clients that you think you don't have enough time, business life balance that you think there's not enough hours in your day. And when you see somebody talking about Pinterest, you're like, I really need to do that, but how you're not alone. So while I can't offer many solutions, I could tell you that what I plan to give you my promise to you is three easy actionable tips that you can start applying today to make over your Instagram account. Now let me just preface this by saying the accounts that I have selected, I'd spent hours and hours going through Instagram accounts of people who are here attending this event. And let me tell you that the people I selected, they are not anomalies. They are representations of the viewership and mass. These people aren't doing something that makes them different. They're doing something in such a way that reflects all of your , I should say all of us hard edge, all of us in the room. So tip number one to having an Instagram make-over account as a photographer is to stop their scroll. How many of us go through Instagram and we're pushing and we're pushing and then we wonder, why aren't we getting that engagement? Well, you need scroll stopping copy to get engagement. You might be asking questions, but people can't see them. Why? Because it's only showing the first two lines of a sentence. If you don't hook them in the beginning, they will never get to the thing you want them to do. So Madison Carter says, how do I get an invested following? Not just a number of people who show up and actually care about what is going on in my little corner? Well, Madison and anybody else who feels, how can I get people interested in my account and I am here to tell you that people won't be invested if they don't actually read your post. Can I get an amen? Okay, I want to make sure that we got that because pretty pictures don't cut it anymore. How people get interested, engaged, and invested is if they read. So let's take a look at Madison Carter photography, 5,400 followers, photographer for joyful, genuine, timeless PCM brides , professional hype girl, Georgia based with travelers sole booking 20 and 21 cool. So now we know who Madison is, what you're looking at, right? Nails on the left side of the screen are the first nine photos that I saw. I scrolled up and saw the next nine photos. This is what my behavior is naturally when I'm looking at a brand new account to see if I want to follow and-or engage. So what we see here is conceptually on the screen, she's really talented. So that's not enough for all of y'all who are like a Wuhan great, I love it. But how then do we get them from a follower to an engager to a customer? A good copywriting hook at the beginning of your post gets your followers to see the CTA. Call to action at the end. Every post should have a call to action. What do you want people to do on behalf of your post? Any action that somebody takes like comment, share, or save indicates to the Instagram algorithm that the people looking at it want to see more from you. Our only objective is to get every person who follows us to see and engage with our post . But if people do not click on the read more, we will never get to the call to action. So what you're about to see is me having samples. I went through her first three to four posts to see what her hook was, to see if we as an audience would click on the read more. Do not say yes or no. What you see with red Taylor gave Jerry a scrapbook he made all by himself for a wedding. Would we read more? Call to action. What's the best wedding gift you've ever seen or not going to engage with that? Because we didn't get the hook. Did it get us to the CTA? And when I was looking at the account, the most recent post was five days earlier, second post loose bouquets and ribbon. I don't know what to say with that, but here's the thing, it doesn't matter. She got three people to say something to them . Ooh, love those florals. Star eyes, heart eyes. But Madison didn't respond. So we want people to become invested in our corner of the universe when we aren't getting invested in theirs . Now I know people like Jasmine, but what do I say to emojis? I don't know baby, but what you speak English, all you need to do is write back a comment more than four words because four words indicates to the algorithm that it's content rich. I teach people how I want them to engage if somebody writes. Cute, fun. Great. Thank you so much for your kind words. I really appreciate it. Thank you for showing up. Hope you're having a great day. Means so much to me. You rock. Thanks a lot, friend . There you go. 10 take those at rents and Ruby . Teach people how you want them to engage with you. Last one, as I drove off from tonight's engagement session, I remembered exactly why would we click read more? So the question is, if you think back to your most recent nine to 18 posts, do we see ourselves following the similar patterns? So three proven Instagram hooks to get people at the beginning and then reel them into your CTA. Number one, identify a specific audience calling all dog lovers calling all. Okay. This group, super easy calling all brides calling all expectant moms. Hey, they're busy moms trying to plan for your Christmas cards. What we just did is we spoke to a specific audience that pre-qualifies them and increases the rate of clicking on the read more. And if they read it more, there's a higher likelihood of them hook . Number two, a juicy share. Now, this appeals to that reality television Voyager components that are really wildly popular on social media. Can I share a secret? I've never said this before. Could you actually believe I met admitting this on Instagram? More ? Read more. Read more. This works y'all. We need to encourage and incentivize people to click on the read more. Last one, ask an engaging question. Now let's be very clear. I did not say ask a question because what I see a lot of photographers doing, it'd be like, so what are your Christmas plans? How have you gone Christmas shopping? Did you notice that there was a sale at target? And Oh, and what are your top three things that you're going to be getting your kids in their stocking stuffers this year? Who is going to spend time and two thumbs and respond back to something like that when they don't have time? So we ask questions like, why is nobody responding? Because they don't have time to write the Gettysburg address in response to your question. So an engaging question is super easy and when they take that action that is super easy, you've incentivized them to do it. Again, simple. Let's have a quiz. Which one are you? Are you a grace Armand bride? Are you a Martha Stewart bride? Are you a modern luxury bride or mind Martha luxury? Are you an early morning riser, afternoon worker night, L C? And when somebody writes a literacy, your objective isn't to like it. Your objective to today, like, Oh, I'm totally opposite of you, but I love the difference. I too am a night owl. I love drinking coffee at 9:00 PM whatever it is, you respond. So the next time you ask a question, they think, Oh she actually, or he actually responded to me. I want to leave them something a little bit more legit. So three proven copywriting hooks to drive engagement. Number one, identify a specific audience. Number two, a juicy share. And number three, asking engaging questions. So what then does this come back down to our make-over takeaway when it comes to creating an invested audience? A good caption is only effective as the hook, but I want to take a step back and also highlight and make over tip that is super important when it comes to getting people invested in us, the creator, in addition to us, the creator of the creations, I am here to tell you that you must get people so interested in the artist and not just the art. Because what I saw here, one of her most engaging posts on her , her entire Instagram feed was shot with an iPhone. How did I know the reflection of her glasses? An iPhone about her and the photo right after it had half the engagement with the DSLR in gorgeous light and editing and perfection in the noses touching with the light behind them. So what are we here to say? Oh my God, I can't believe an iPhone photo is better than this stuff that I create my art with. Yeah, on social. When you want to get people invested in you, it's about you. So what could this branding takeaway be when it comes to creating an invested audience? Show more of who you are. Yes. Thank you for that coastline . You went to church as a kid. Okay. Consistency is the only way to grow. If you're sitting here saying, I'm so stagnant like Instagram, so 2017 my question comes to you. How often are you showing up? Now I have had the luxury and the honor to speak on stages around the world about this topic and I came in here guns a blazing and when I gave his practice presentation to J D he said, you cannot say that. Guess what baby boy , I'm on the stage now.
Speaker 1[inaudible]
Speaker 3I am infuriated looking around this room in Spanish without nada . Yeah , it sounds Richard, right? It sounds like I am getting angry. Photographers are posting once a week. Hard drives , thousands of photos and you are posting once a week. You are the 1% of the 1% and you show up 1% okay. Okay. I know it comes up blazing. Keep her like Jasmine, you need to put your guns away. I'm shooting you in love. Okay, let's get into a topic. Let's be real. The algorithm changes are giving me and everyone else, I'm sure whiplash. Okay. Miquel am I saying that right? Let's dive in to his Instagram account. 383 followers, photographer photography. The levers of timeless, not trends. I believe in seeing light colors and life differently presets coming soon. So my Cal says Jasmine, the algorithm is just giving me whiplash. Okay. How often are you driving your car? I know, sorry, I'm sorry. Hey me . Cow . I wonder how often are you sitting in the driver's seat of your car on the left side? Nine photos is on the right side. The next nine photos. Let's dive in. Four days ago when your dance floor is this fire beats courtesy of Tober 10th Rachel and Ross bringing the dark and moody all the way from downtown Seabass October 9th let's go to the forest. I don't know how to respond. All right. Enough of black and white time to bring some color back. October six Jack and moody and Miguel got comments. Actual words didn't respond. You are giving whiplash to yourself. If you are not responding to engagement that is given to you. What I noticed is that there was four posts in one month. You are the richest people in the land and you are starving for engagement simply because you won't bring the spoon to your mouth. I don't know where that came from. That is not in my notes. That is not in my notes. It was very traumatic though, right? I was like, this is so NPR. I know. So how many times should you post? I don't know. But if I go to the gym four times a month and I complained that I don't have an 18 pack, probably because I didn't show up. Right. You want to grow. How many times are you showing up? You must give Instagram inventory to share on a regular basis. Instagram calls your post what you give it inventory and let me tell you that the vast majority of the biggest accounts are simply repurposing content from others. 80% of people on Instagram are repurposing content. 20% of people on Instagram are producing 80% of the content. You create the inventory, put it in the system. So what then could our make take away be consistency leads to growth. You got to show up. Make over . Tip number three is to respect the platform. Instagram isn't the same as Facebook. Even though remember, every proud and brave person who allowed me to critique their Instagram account is in blemish of everybody in the room. Lauren says, favorite way to batch content for coming up with content and staying consistent. Anybody have that problem here? Oh my God, you guys are all so highly productive. You're so productive. You're not even showing up on Instagram. Who here would love to batch content? Love to not spend every day doing the same thing. Okay, so Lauren, you're not alone. Girl. Okay . Uh, around 1900 followers, Ohio wedding photographer, wife, mama Jackson, family tree, wedding photographer , uh , Lauren Jackson, photography. Now booking. So here we go again, another wildly talented photographer onto the ground . We're looking at her first 18 post . I went to post number one that I saw since I started coaching sessions with, I'll ask you a photo. He pushed me to really think about the why that I do what I do. I can give her a little bit of props for that hook cause I was like, I might want to know Lauren's why as a prospective ride , we kind of grow down next post. Todd would love this one. One week, one week away from boarding an airplane escaping to Tempe, Arizona darling. It's Phoenix. Um, okay. So she does this and I'm like, Oh this is great. I like what she's doing. And then she talks about batching content to streamline or her objective . So you know what I do? I do a little creeping on Facebook for Lauren Jackson photography and what do I discover? A beautiful bio photo that catches my eye and her header is actually a beautiful video. I was like, girl, you're showing up, right? Not only that, she has more than double the amount of fans on Facebook than she does on Instagram. And I was like, Oh girls killing the Facebook game. I love this. And what first post did, I see her Instagram post pushed right on out to Facebook. So she's treating her biggest audience with leftovers. She did not take out the mention, which doesn't work on Facebook and she did not take out the 30 hashtags, which don't work on Facebook, regardless of what Mark Zuckerberg wants to tell you, they just don't, they don't work the same way for search mechanisms, the way that they do an Instagram, and just to be sure she did not link to show it when she had the opportunity. So what I want to talk about first before anybody started talking about batching content is the time that it takes to customize your post from Instagram to Facebook. The differential is three minutes tops. But what happens is that your Facebook audience doesn't feel like they're eavesdropping on a conversation you're having on Instagram. The biggest takeaway is please don't squander your marketing opportunities because what I did when I went to her next post, and again, talented photographer has the chops, does the copy, does the work and Oh, sweet baby Jesus. What she did was at Huff village at pillar rosaries at Ashley McCoon , at MPP designs tag the page on Instagram so you can end up on their page. If anybody is foaming Lauren and NPC designs, there's a higher likelihood because they're synergistically tagging each other for them to appear within the algorithm on the feed. Because Facebook and Instagram has very similar algorithms that whenever two people are talking about the same thing at the same time, there's a higher likelihood of mutual followers to actually see it. But if you do this, you squander the opportunity to do the thing that you can do as you market. And it is a three minute differential. So the biggest takeaway is to respect the platform. And this is what I want to take. One thing to take away is to please test ideas on each platform. There are things that I put out on Facebook that don't work so well on Instagram and vice versa. So I'm a firm believer in split testing. This is you testing what content you're brides expectant moms, moms to be. Families are going to be responding to on Facebook versus Instagram. So we're going to take a very recent and personal example of myself as we tie down in the next four minutes. Earlier this month, three weeks ago, I launched a podcast. Super excited. It was a project, but I am such a geek that I do not want to promote something without knowing how to promote it. So what we did is we split tested video versus photo on Facebook, uploaded natively to the platform, and I did the same thing on Instagram. And then at once from there I had to determine, Oh, video is performing better than photo in this particular case. So I'm going to to boost this post. But I made an educated decision on what I should be doing as a kid. I used to write letters to myself. I'm so sorry. I want to make sure. Yeah , we don't need the audio. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. So this highly produced video performed very well on Facebook and it just did it really hit on Instagram. And lo and behold, and I want to make sure the audio is off because this one's kind of weird, but I went into my backyard and this video I made in 15 seconds with a filter and I put it on Instagram stories in this 15 seconds costs me nothing. Video outperforms any other beautiful thing that I put out on Instagram. So we test and the minute we test on organic engagement, we can double down with paid content. So when you say Jasmine, what are you really testing? Well we are showing up again and again and again putting out same content to the audience, see who's responding, see how it works, and then putting money behind it strategically already knowing we have hedged our bets. So our makeover takeaway is to respect the platform and to test everything you're putting out. So in conclusion, Instagram over in review , a good caption is only effective as a good hook. You must post consistently for growth and you must post separately on Instagram and Facebook. And then test to see what your audience wants. I am so excited because I don't have the opportunity to do a Q and a right now. Immediately after this, I will be doing a Q and a to get super granular focusing on your business and leveraging. If you guys would like more information about who I am and what I do, I would love to see you guys@socialcurator.com thank you guys.
Speaker 2Well friend, that is how I'd critique your Instagram account hashtag. You're welcome. My work here is done. I'd love to know what your biggest takeaway from this episode was and I would love to know by you connecting with me on Instagram via DM at Jasmine star and tell me what you're going to change about your Instagram today as a result of listening to this episode. Remember, in order to see big changes on your account, you must make big changes. Speaking of making changes, are you ready to take your business to the next level using my proven Instagram strategy? Then you need my Instagram marketing guide. It contains an ebook explaining the five types of photos that foster engagement, a link to five of my lifestyle photos that you could use freely on Instagram, and an explanation of how to use each photo on Instagram to showcase your uniqueness as an entrepreneur. That is right booboo. This guide contains everything you need to know about turning followers into customers and you'll be leading with scroll stopping images. It's a no brainer to download this free guide, head to Jasmine, start.com forward IgG marketing guide to hop on the Instagram express. And you can also find a download link in the show notes. Well, it's time for me to go, but I'll be back here with another jam packed episode for you very soon. You do not want to miss the next episode. It's all about how to establish a morning routine to maximize your productivity. Y'all get with this? I can't wait for you to hear it. We poured a lot of love, so I'll see you guys soon.
Speaker 1[inaudible] .