Your Dreams. Your Goals. Your Way.

Beginning Steps of Doing Business on IG - Part 2

49% of people who are Millennials and Generation X already say they follow brands and companies on Instagram. 78% of Millenials will actually go and search for a brand, a company, or a product on Instagram before they go to the company’s website. So before somebody finds your website, before someone is hitting Bing or the Yellow Pages, before someone is on Yelp, they are looking on Instagram. That is why we’re going to discuss the importance of hashtags. This is why hashtags actually work. 

For example, I may be looking for a photographer in Atlanta (I’m guilty of doing this all the time),  I’m looking for a photographer in Charlotte because I want to schedule a photoshoot while I’m there, I literally searched the hashtag “Charlotte photography”, hashtag “photographers in Charlotte”, hashtag “photos in Charlotte. I searched that so I can start seeing and finding photographers that I could contact to schedule a photoshoot if I liked their work. So, a lot of people will go to Instagram for the same reason. They’ll even go to Facebook. You can find your hair braider on the Gram, you can find me for wedding planning, you can find restaurants, yogurt shots, people do it for everything. People are out there looking to find out where they want to go, where they want to spend their money, who they want to pursue, who they want to do business within real life. I just wanted to put that into perspective, so that you may understand what a powerful tool Instagram is. It’s such an easy tool to use, and it’s accessible to pretty much everyone. Many of you just haven’t put together a plan on how to use it for your business.  Our goal is to get you prepped for that. 

The first thing I need about 95% of you to do, is to take a look at your bio. Most of our bios are self-centered, or “me” focused… instead of “you” focused.  Bios should express how you add value to the consumer or customer and what type of content they can expect from you. Basically, what you can do for someone else, instead of what someone can do for you. That’s what we’re looking at. We are trying to switch over our bios to communicate how exactly affect the world or what is it that people can expect from us if they are going to connect and follow with us. 

What I see a lot of times when I look at people’s bio, they basically talk about how great they are. For example: “My name is Ashley Ann, and I’m a millionaire! I run 5 companies, I like Macarena and do the Tootsie Roll” or they’ll have a quote on their page. Now that’s cool if you’re just a social user, for IG, but if you’re trying to build  a business you may want to do a little bit more than that. You may not want to say “Ashley Ann: Get on the train or get run over” I see things like that on people’s pages then they say “I don’t know why I’m not making sales”. Well, first off, when someone comes to your page they don’t really have a clear understanding of what you do and how it’s going to be beneficial to them. Please understand, people care about how you can help them. People get people requesting things from them all the time. Very rarely do they have people coming to them asking “How can I help you?”, “How can I assist you?”, “What can I do to make your life easier?”, “What can I do to help you reach that goal?”, Is there anything I can do to help you get closer to where you’d like to be?”. Essentially that’s what you want to use your bio to do. When you go into the mode of “I’m amazing”, “I’m awesome”, “I’m talented”, “I’m great”, “I’m fantastic”, then the customer or the person who’s viewing, doesn’t really have the opportunity or desire to connect with you, because at the end of the day, they don’t care about how great you are. People don’t like it when I say that. Your mommy cares, but they don’t care. Now, eventually over time, when they get to know you and you start to showcase yourself as a resource, then they are going to have a respect and a fondness for how great you are, or how knowledgeable you are, or how great you’re able to create and curate the content that you’re putting out, that their able to consume. But, that’s a process. 

When people pop into my DM’s or come onto the livestreams and tell me how happy they are they started following me, or say, “I’ve learned more coming to 2 of your livestreams than going to an 8 week course I spent $2000 on with someone else”, that is amazing to me. But, that comes over time. My content is what’s helping me establish that I’m Bomb.com. I don’t have to tell you that I’m fly. I don’t have to tell you that I’m amazing. If you come, stick around, interact, pay attention to the content that I’m posting, and pay attention to the livestreams, you’ll start to develop that opinion on your own. You want your audience to come to the conclusion that you’re awesome-sauce and that they want to talk, listen, and have some type of interaction and engagement with you. I think a lot of time, small business owners don’t understand that concept, it just goes over our heads, and people start posting really ‘salesy’ things all the time. What you’re doing is asking people for things, you’re basically going up to someone who doesn’t know you, and you’re asking them for money. 

A woman who I hadn’t spoken to in years, popped into my inbox about a week ago. She sells Herbalife now. She was like “Hey! I think it’s great that you’re getting back fit, and you’re working with Paul, he’s an amazing trainer… blah, blah, blah… Nutrition is an important part of fitness, I would love to have a few minutes to talk to you about the benefits of Herbalife.” Excuse me ma’am, I haven't spoken to you in years.  She didn’t say “Hi”, “How are you”, “What’s been going on”. She didn’t give me an opportunity to go to her page and check to see what’s been going on in her life, what she’s being doing, or what amazing results she’s gotten from it. None of that. She immediately tried to sell. So I want you to think about that… if you’re out here in these social media ‘streets’, and if someone finds your page. 

A lot of people find your page before they talk to you. Remember, I told you 78% of millennials are going onto social media and looking for companies, businesses, and brands, before they go to the website or call you on the phone. They are trying to see what you’re about, right? If the only thing they see on your page is “Sell, sell sell”, where you’re actually communicating “Give me something, give me something, give me something”, and, you haven’t even extended anything to them, is that someone you want to keep hanging out with? Is that someone you really want to follow and see what they have going on? Is that something you’re really trying to be a part of? Probably not. Now, don’t get it twisted, I’m not saying don’t make offers and sales, because I believe in making offers and sales every single day. If you’re posting 3 or 4 pieces of content each day, then you put up an offer for a sale, no one cares (especially if you wrap it in some other type of content, or present it as if you’re answering a question, or showcasing your work, or reminding people how awesome you are and what it is you do). At that point, no one at that really realizes that they’ve been sold to because it’s more informative and it’s sparking a desire for them to want to consume your products and services. Again, the first step is to look at our bio, to see if we’re communicating to our social media audience how we add value to someone’s life, so they will want to stay connected to us. Part of it, is understanding the balane because this is social media, so part of the process is that we need to socialize.