You Betcha She Did! Life Advice, Business Tips for Rad Women Entrepreneurs, Leaders, Coaches and

89 | Quick Tips to Master Instagram Engagement

• Ladies First Digital Media Company • Season 5 • Episode 89

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Instagram and Social Media in general can be bewildering... SEO, algorithms, trending audio, consistency. Who even knows where to start? Lucky for us, I have Holly Van Akkaren on the show to demystify Instagram for the average businesswoman. As a social media manager specializing in small businesses, Holly takes us through key strategies and tips to boost engagement on Instagram. 

Tune in to hear about:

  • Why going viral will do you no favors
  • Tips to maintain quality
  • Current trends on IG

This episode is part of our MAY Day, MAY Day series to get women's voices not only heard BUT amplified. Tune in all month, as I'll be sharing tips to get you seen and heard from a variety of experts.

Connect with Holly:
HVA Social = https://hvasocial.co/
Instagram = https://www.instagram.com/hollyvanakkeren/

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Speaker 2:

Did she really do that? You betcha? She did. Hello, and welcome back to another episode of you Betcha. She Did the podcast where women learn to elevate their voice, grow their brand and earn their worth. I am your host, raina Rakicki, and this month in May, we are focusing on the idea of May Day. May Day, let's get women's voices heard. Today in the studio I have Holly Van Akron. She is a social media pro and she is here to give us some tips and tricks to get your voice out there, holly. Welcome to the show.

Speaker 1:

Hello, I'm happy to be here, Raina. Thank you yeah.

Speaker 2:

I'm very excited you're here. So you specialize in a lot of social media platforms. I think, for the purposes of today, let's really dial deep into Instagram, my favorite. Anyway, for the purposes of today, let's really dial deep into Instagram and my favorite. What are? Okay, good, so see, we're all in alignment. Can you share one or two? You know tips and tricks to get to. You know to work with the algorithm to get your voice heard out there, without, of course, giving away trade secrets. But like what? Could you tell us, yeah, no, no?

Speaker 1:

of course, first I would say know the facts there. There is a lot of tips and tricks out there right, because everybody wants growth and everybody wants it fast, right. But unfortunately there are a lot of tips and tricks aren't there that aren't actually real or helpful. So, like, my first thing that I always tell people is know who you're getting your information from, know if they're actually an expert or if they're just trying to see what sticks. And trying to get as many followers as possible, as much reach as possible, because sometimes people just throw crazy stuff out there and it gets shared. That's, unfortunately, something I see a lot in my line of work and it doesn't have what's the word I'm looking for, not background, but there's no actual fact in it. It's not real. Please don't do it. It's not going to get you any help. But the other thing about that is is follow people who do know what they're talking about.

Speaker 1:

I am a definite um prescriber to or subscriber to Mosseri, adam Mosseri, who's the head of Instagram. I follow his stuff. He does a really great job of getting on there and talking to people every week, doing like ask me any things, um, and being honest about you. Know what's going to help you guys and what's and what's not. He wants people to stay on Instagram, so he's not going to tell you anything that you know would would make you want to leave. Obviously, people get get so frustrated about the algorithm and about, I would say, most, most of the time, about reach and about followers and stuff like that, and another thing that I just want to throw out there is that followers, especially, is a very vanity metric.

Speaker 1:

Yes, I'm glad you brought that up. It's not what you should be focused on. You shouldn't be mad about losing followers either. This is something that I talk to my clients about on a regular basis. I have so many clients who are like what if we just bought followers? And that's something that you never want to do, because that just messes with your engagement. They're not real. It's going to make it harder for people who are following you to actually see your stuff because it's so oversaturated and it has been forever right. But especially since the pandemic, especially since 2020 hit and we saw this increase in people bringing their businesses online or trying to be digital coaches or the vast variety of digital businesses that we see today, that really started amping up, you know, four years ago.

Speaker 2:

So think about yeah, Do you feel like it's so much more important to focus on engagement with your audience versus, like you said, trying to get more and more followers who, especially if you're a business, they're not going to convert to clients? You know, they're just 100%?

Speaker 1:

random people. And I say this especially if you are a service based business, you know, if you're selling products, if you're actually like shipping stuff out and stuff like that and you have reels go viral, that's excellent, right, Because that can actually help you sell stuff. As a service provider, going viral sometimes is going to hurt you more than it's going to help you, because you're getting pushed out to all these people who are never going to use your services. Another thing with going viral is it's not always good. You're going to have some negativity there. So you know it's just not. It's not the gift that everyone thinks it is. It's not a one and done kind of thing. It's not like, hey, my reel went viral, Now I made it big and now I have millions of followers and now I have 100 grand months Like that's not how it works, Right. So I've had I've had reels go. I've had reels go viral.

Speaker 1:

Personally, my clients have had reels go viral and none of us are living those kinds of lives Right. So it's so important to actually focus on nurturing your people. Find your people, find people who value you, who really respect and understand what you're talking about and what you're educating them on, for it's just. It makes so much more sense to find those people, nurture those people and focus on what they're there to learn from you or what they're there to get from you, right. So that's a huge thing with creating content, too, is know your audience, know who you're talking to and who's listening right, Because if your audience, if you think your audience, is someone who's completely different than the people who are actually showing up on your page, that's something you got to pay attention to too, right.

Speaker 2:

I was gonna say, going along with that, is there like an ideal and optimal schedule for how often you should post on Instagram, or is it better just to be consistent in the way you post?

Speaker 1:

It's better to just be consistent in the way you post.

Speaker 1:

Honestly, if, if all you can do right now is post a couple times a week, then post a couple times a week and at least people know that they can expect that from you, right? At least people know, hey, raina is going to post, you know, a reel today, or a reel at the beginning of the week and a post at the end of the week or something. It's something that gets them in the mindset of like, oh, they're expecting to see this from you today, so then they will probably engage with it when it does come, because they've been waiting for it, as opposed to just kind of pushing out content that might not actually be branded or valuable to you. Right, you know, like a Canva graphic that says Happy President's Day or something you know like that's not going to do it. So if I yeah, I don't know I always say that of course, course, you want to show up as often as you can, as often as you can be in front of people's faces, you want to. However, it does matter what you're showing them when you're there.

Speaker 1:

Right, yeah, don't just show up just to be there, to be like I was here every day, but my content was crap, exactly, and I wasn't saying anything and I was just talking to the void, because that's also a way that, like, if people are expecting you and then you're not giving them anything, they're going to leave. Why would they stay? So definitely, definitely focusing on quality over quantity. Definitely focusing on stories, which is something that I think a lot of people overlook. Stories is where conversations start. Stories is where people message you and reply to something you said, or a crazy story that you're telling in your story, or relate to the coffee that you got that afternoon that you posted a picture of. That's where connections are built, I will say, is in stories.

Speaker 1:

Another thing that actually is a little trick that people don't always know about that encourages well what I like to say is social media is meant to be social right, so that's what I like to use it for. And this little trick actually encourages that, because when you reply to someone's story, or message someone's story, um, or reach out to them in a way, in that era, in that area, excuse me you're going to start showing up closer to the top of their stories. Oh okay, you guys have had that conversation, you guys have had that connection, that interaction from that. So then Instagram is going to use that and say, hey, you guys were just talking to each other. I bet they want to see more of your stuff and they're going to push you up in those people's stories.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and their feed, their story feed, yes, and your feed as well. I was going to say, speaking of stories, then, like that's more of a safer spot, a better spot to purse more personal things, like funny things happening throughout your day, little insights into your life, right? And is it that a place where you want to encourage that engagement by, like I don't know, asking a question or absolutely having to do that little?

Speaker 1:

slider bar. How much do?

Speaker 2:

you like this.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, I was just gonna bring those up. There are a ton of interactive things that you can do. On stories. You can do polls. I love doing polls with people. They're super fun and people like to do them because people have opinions. So, even if it's like the dumbest little thing, you're going to get a wide variety of answers and it's going to be a fun thing to talk about. And it's even cooler if it can be related to your content. But if it's just related to you and your personality, that's okay too, because again and I'm a service provider a lot of my clients are service providers, so I tend to talk about that a little bit more. But as a service provider, they're not only coming to you for what you provide, they're coming to you for you. If they don't like you, they're going to go find somebody else.

Speaker 2:

You're not the ideal client.

Speaker 1:

No, so so that's why I do think it's important for excuse me for your personality to shine through in your brand. Yes, show off some personal stuff and stories. You don't have to overshare, you don't. It doesn't have to be like really deep stuff about, about your family or anything like that, but show off your personality, show off what you like and what you don't like, and have that intertwined into your content, whether that's in stories or posts. I know what you were saying before about you know, showing up more personally in stories than on your feed and that kind of thing, and that's true. But you also want your feed content to still be intertwined with you and your brand and your personality, because that's how it's going to come across to your viewers, right? So, yes, definitely stories is safer, but also, you know you want you kind of want it all to be intertwined. People, that's what people like.

Speaker 1:

And that's another thing that I wanted to touch on here today is like the biggest piece of advice that I would have for anyone right now on instagram who is really wanting not just to grow, not just just to gain followers, but to actually get something out of the app, get a connection, get you know, grow. Grow in a way that doesn't necessarily mean just your followers, right Like. Grow your business in a way that, like, people know who you are. You're showing up branded, you're showing up put together. When people see your brand colors and your text on the screen, without even seeing your name, they know who you are, and that is all stuff that's going to help actually tell your story, which is what I'm coming back to here today.

Speaker 1:

That's been huge on Instagram lately is storytelling, and it's always been an effective way to market. But I feel like previously we've been like trying to like hide it, like we haven't. We haven't been like just straight up, honestly saying, yes, I'm just going to tell you a story now. And that's what we're seeing a lot of on Instagram right now is the storytelling reels. That is just literally like the face to camera reels talking to you, teaching you something or telling you a story about their days, and those are getting incredible results right now Because they're entertaining and they're also truthful.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and it builds that connection to right. You're like I'm sharing something with you, like a friend to friend, exactly exactly.

Speaker 1:

Um, I think that people got really, really burnt out about, um, the, the perfect reels and the perfect homes and the perfect everything that we were seeing. Like it was like at the beginning of the pandemic a little bit right, because like that's when people started growing up and everything had to be perfectly curated. And now we're like we just got through a three-year pandemic. Um, we're we're showing up with our hair on top of our head and we just rolled out of bed and this is life and people like to see that kind of stuff. People want to see the truth, they want to be entertained, but, like they don't want you to lie to them. They they see enough of that out in traditional commercials and TV and Netflix, right, all that stuff. So I think the biggest part of social media is to tell your story, show your personality. That's how you're going to find your people and that's how you're actually going to grow and make more money. It's not about gaining thousands of followers a week on Instagram or something like that.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, or going viral or being an influencer. It's like no, that's not actually what you're trying to do, especially if you're a business owner.

Speaker 1:

It's like forget that Right exactly.

Speaker 2:

Well, holly, if people want to work with you. Give us a little pitch, Tell us about what you do and how people can get in contact with you.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so I offer a few different things. I'm a social media manager, so I have a few full-time clients that I basically do everything for, from content creation to caption writing and scheduling and messaging and all that kind of stuff. And then I also offer some smaller packages, including done for you content, which can be just graphics or videos or a combination of both, and that's just kind of stuff that I get together with you. I take some pictures, we get to know about your brand and then I send it over to you and you have it to post for the month.

Speaker 1:

I also do VIP content days. Those are really fun for our immersive, like deep dives into your brand, where we do a bunch of video recording, we talk about your founder story and we get a bunch of foundational pieces of video and pictures and stuff. And then I take it all and I formulate all these cool graphics and videos and stuff for you and I I take it all and I formulate all these cool graphics and videos and stuff for you and I give it to you in a Google folder and you use it all yourself. So there's a few different ways to work for me. I also do strategy sessions, but yeah, you can go to my website, hvasocial, or follow me on Instagram, as we were discussing at Holly Van Wetteren. But, yeah, I would love to help amplify some more local female voices via social media this year, so hit me up.

Speaker 2:

That'd be great. And listeners, I have done a strategy session with Holly and it was super helpful just in getting me to really kind of target what I want to do with my social media and learn about better hashtags, so I'd highly recommend it. Like Holly was saying, if you're interested, check the show notes. I'll have all of her info there for you to click on and find and follow. Until next time. Yeah, Thanks, holly. Until next time. Take care, and don't forget to share this episode with someone that you know needs this info. Take care.