Get Started With Your Instagram Workbook
I hope this past month has given you some helpful ways to increase the effectiveness of your Instagram engagement.
As we wrap up this series, we wanted to share one additional tool: an Instagram workbook to follow as you continue to implement your strategy going forward.
The workbook is a step-by-step guide that covers the key areas we’ve discussed. Just to recap:
The Giving Mindset
We start by shifting our mindset from “How can I get” to “How can I give” – this perspective alone can change everything. Instead of thinking, “How can I get more followers?” think: “How can I give my potential clients what they desperately need?”
Key question: What problem am I solving?
The Target Audience
Who is the demographic of people that is most likely to be interested in your product or service? Remember: Random equals Random – when you put out random content, you get random followers, and random followers means random sales and random engagement on your content. One of the most important things you can do as a business is get specific – use categories to define a precise area that you want to own.
Key question: What’s your niche?
Emotions & Visuals
You want to communicate in a way that makes people feel something, whether it’s through slogans, photos or even the colors you use.
Key question: What emotions do you want your audience to feel when they interact with your business, and how can you communicate that visually?
One final note, especially for anyone who still hasn’t gotten the level of engagement that you’re hoping to see: don’t give up. Maybe you don’t have huge numbers, but each of those likes and comments are real individuals who are connecting with your content. It’s more important to foster a few strong relationships at a time than to have thousands of uninterested followers.
If you have any questions about how to best use this workbook, please let me know – I’d love to help. In the meantime, hope to see you around Instagram! I’ll like your stuff if you like mine.
How to Draw People in With Your Instagram Content
I’ll never forget this surprising truth about communication that a high-level business leader once shared with me – he said, “People don’t really listen to you. They listen to the conversation that’s happening in their head while you’re talking.”
This feels especially true in today’s world. People encounter millions of bits of information every day – how do you communicate in a way that stops them from mindlessly scrolling and causes them to actually pay attention?
On Instagram, this requires two things:
1. Communicating with Emotion
“People may forget what you said, but they will never forget how you made them feel.” The fact that everyone attributes those words to Maya Angelou just shows what a great quote it is. Either way, the wisdom is undeniable – you want to communicate in a way that makes people feel something, whether it’s through slogans, photos or even the colors you use (in light of the Olympics, here’s a powerful example LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Pause for a moment and think: What emotions do you want your audience to feel when they interact with your business?
Once you find what emotions best communicate your story, choose a few to be your main focus, then keep them in mind with all of the content you create.
2. Communicating with Visuals
Also known as your aesthetic, this is how those feelings are communicated visually. If one of the emotions that you want to communicate through your brand is joy, think of all the visual ways you can communicate that – it could be through:
-your color scheme
-the lighting of your photos and videos
-your editing style
-the layout of your profile
As people scroll, they usually decide within the first few seconds of seeing something whether they’re interested or not. I strongly recommend the Preview App as a way to plan out your content and know what your images will look before posting, to ensure a cohesive look and feel that will help draw people into your story.
*Bonus: Communicating with the Algorithm
In order for your content to be seen by as many people as possible, you’ve got to be friends with The Algorithm. Rather than feeling intimidated or getting discouraged that your post might not be seen, hopefully we can use this to our advantage and share strategically. The key word to know is: ENGAGEMENT.
Instagram determines how many people are going to see a post within the first 30-60 minutes of you posting. So if you have high engagement on your post right away, Instagram sees that and says, “Wow, people are enjoying this post. Let’s show it to more people.”
Engagement is all the ways that people interact with you or your posts.
Likes and comments are some of the most obvious ones, but is also includes:
-the length of time people look at your posts
-the number of times people save your post
-how many times the video is viewed
-the length of time that video was viewed
-re-sharing of your posts
-a D.M. in your post to someone
-the number of people that go to your profile after seeing your post
-tagging friends in your post
Keep in mind: The quality of engagement is just as important as the amount of engagement on your posts. To filter out the bots and fake accounts, Instagram places a higher value on comments with four or more words, as it reflects a more authentic engagement.
As someone who values relationships, I’ve actually come to see the algorithm as a positive – it rewards the real connections that we’re building over everything else.
I hope that’s the reality of our companies, whether online or in person.
How Do You Best Engage Your Dream Customer on Instagram?
Last week, we kicked off a new series designed to help you leverage Instagram to grow your business. It started with a shift in thinking from “How can I get” to “How can I give?” More specifically, it’s asking:
“How can I give my potential clients what they desperately need?”
To answer that question, you’ll need to have clarity on the audience you hope to reach. Take a minute to consider: Who is your target audience? Who is the demographic of people that is most likely to be interested in your product or service?
You might be tempted to say, “Everyone,” because obviously you’d love to have the whole world paying attention to what you offer. But beware: Random equals Random – when you put out random content, you get random followers, and random followers means random sales and random engagement on your content.
Here’s another way to think about it: What’s your niche?
A niche is a specific part of the market that you want to focus on. One of the most important things you can do as a business is GET SPECIFIC. Use categories to niche down and define a precise area that you want to hone in on – that’s where you’ll find your target audience waiting for you.
It may also help to imagine your target audience as one ideal follower. Paint a picture of a single person that you hope to engage:
-How old are they?
-What are they interested in?
-What do they value?
Create this dream follower’s profile with any other specifications relevant to your business. Maybe start by using someone close to you as an example, since you’re already familiar with some of their interests and needs. I know it may feel a little weird inventing this make-believe person, but have fun with it – it can seriously change how your messaging comes across. As they say in writing, “The more specific we are, the more universal something can become.”
So don’t just speak generally to the masses – address that one dream follower, and all those thousands of people will feel like you’re talking directly to them. If you do it right, they’ll look at your content and think, “Wow, I feel like this was made just for me.”
Here’s to that dream follower leading you to many more!
Want to Create an Instagram Strategy and Game Plan to Make an Impact?
You probably know Instagram can be a powerful way to connect with your dream customers, but where do we start? Over the next few weeks, Bos Media is here with some ideas for how to best engage this platform.
First, let’s start by shifting our mindset from “How can I get” to “How can I give” – this perspective alone can change everything. Instead of thinking, “How can I get more followers?” think: “How can I give my potential clients what they desperately need?”
People are so used to being asked for things that when someone is giving them value, they literally can’t get enough. The more you understand the specific problem you are helping people solve, the more your content becomes about THEM instead of about YOU. Which is essential, because the truth is, people don’t really care about your company (no offense :)… but if you are filling a need with a product or service they can’t live without, you will definitely have their attention.
So before we do anything else, we need to know the following about our potential clients:
- What’s their problem?
- What do they need?
- What pain points do they have?
- What are their wants and desires?
Let those questions inform the content you share – when you post, ask yourself, “What need is this fulfilling?”
There are so many fun and different ways for content to offer value – it could be:
- Educational. Teach as an expert in your field, passing along the secrets of what you do.
- Behind the Scenes. Pull back the curtain on how you do things – this humanizes your business while also giving new level of access that makes your audience feel special.
- Practical. Show them a step-by-step process to get them from point A to point B.
- Motivational. Inspire them through stories, quotes (not cheesy ones), and/or your own life lessons.
- Entertaining. Maybe it’s as simple as just making them laugh. There are a lot of companies I follow just to see the fun and creative things they do.
Take some time this week to get clear on what your goals are, and how Instagram can play a part in it. I’ll be back with some more tips next week, or feel free to email me if you have any questions.
Can’t wait to see your next post!
The Finale
It’s the last big bang! A moment that has been anticipated by the entire audience, as everything slowly crescendos throughout the show…increasing in sound, the instruments playing louder and faster, the vocals getting higher and higher, the lights are flashing, the dancing gets more frantic yet synchronized, the crowd starts to clap, then they stand, then they scream with their hands in the air…the fireworks are going off, every single shape and color…all at once. It’s the finale.
Where I live, due to the pandemic the city didn’t budget or even plan for fireworks this year, so we didn’t get to have a show. So, the last paragraph I wrote about the finale? Well, that didn’t happen. It was just another day…business as usual.
If you’ve been following my emails for the past three weeks, we’ve been on a “Dream Series.” Here’s a quick summary and the links if you missed it.
• Week 1: It All Starts with a Dream: When I first started this company, I got to do an important exercise that taught me how to dream. But not only that, I talked about writing out in detail what a perfect day would look like and what steps to take to tangibly help you get there.
• Week 2: Life Interrupted: I shared about Suleika Jaouad and how her dream was interrupted when a leukemia diagnosis gave her a 35% chance of survival…and what kept her dream alive in the midst of it, and how it re-defined for her what it means to truly “live well.”
• Week 3: If I Became Successful: What is the main contributor to one’s success: Hard work? Luck? Or both? I imagined what I would say if someone in the future ever asked me about my secret to success.
Today will be my final thought for the “Dream Series” – The Finale, if you will. Whether you are a business owner, entrepreneur, or an employee, you probably have some end goal in mind… it might be cashing out and traveling the world, or going into 100% retirement with the freedom to do whatever you want, or finally buying that giant mansion you’ve always wished for… is that the end?
I love this quote from the founder and the CEO of Numi (a 50+ million-dollar company) when asked if there’s a part of him that wants to just sell his stake in the company and start enjoying life and stop grinding away everyday. He said this: “I enjoy my life everyday. We have a great team and I feel that the balance of life is here. We want to continue to thrive. We’ve created a legacy, and we get to help educate the world and as we continue to live out our values, we get to make our planet and our world a better place.”
So, there you have it. Yes, it all started with a dream. But it doesn’t end with a dream. Our dream just continues. There’s no finale. Like a child who never gets tired of the same game – every time it ends they say, “Do it again!” It’s enjoying our life everyday. Having a great team, finding that balance, continuing to thrive, creating a legacy and helping others along the way. That defines success, and by that, we are already successful. There’s no finale, it’s just another day…business as usual.
Hope this inspires you to wake up tomorrow and say, “Let’s do it again!”
If I Became Successful…
Do you want to be inspired? Listen to this podcast called “How I Built This.” It’s all about taking a deep dive into the stories of some of the world’s best known companies…how it got started, what ideas led to the creation of the products or services they sell, plus the intimate, deep, personal and painful events that motivated and drove their passion – the near bankrupted failures, miraculous and serendipitous events that eventually led to huge, iconic success. Over and over again, I am amazed at the resilience and the will of human effort and hard work that accompany their incredible accomplishments. Yes, it’s very, very inspiring.
One example: did you know that Airbnb got started by a few starving college kids needing some extra cash to pay their own rent and decided to house some strangers into their apartment because all the hotels were booked for a conference that was happening in their neighborhood? They bought some cheap airbeds and called it an Air Bed & Breakfast. This simple idea eventually became a 25 billion-dollar company.
Every episode has a different takeaway and each story is unique. The host of the podcast (Guy Raz) does such an amazing job pulling out interesting and personal facts about the interviewee, with such a gift for keeping it interesting and relevant…his questions feel customized to that individual person to uncover what made them stand out and propelled them to become who they are today.
However, strangely, at the end of each episode, he always asks the same question to every interviewee, every single time, and the question goes like this: “So, with all you’ve achieved in your company and/or in your life, do you attribute your success to luck or hard work?”
Throughout the many episodes, I’ve heard all different combinations of answers. A majority of the people seem to understand that in order to have extraordinary success, you kind of need both. Some say 50/50, some say 25/75, some even say, “I don’t believe in luck, it was all hard work.”
I often wonder why this question is so significant, and why it’s worth asking every single interviewee… is there a deeper meaning behind it? My own interpretation of it is… do you attribute your success to your talents, your grit, your leadership, your idea, your intelligence, your charisma (so, basically YOU) or do you attribute your success to something bigger than yourself?
Sometimes I dream about being interviewed by Guy Raz (lol), and I think about how I would answer his last question. I’ve even practiced this in my head…I would say, “well Guy, thanks for asking. It’s a great question, and I would have to say, I know so many people that are smarter than me, I know so many people that work 10 times harder than me, I know so many people that are more charismatic, who are incredible leaders, and more creative, with more grit and more talent than I’ll ever even dream of, but that will never have the opportunity for extraordinary success…so, I can’t really take a lot of credit for it. I believe in divine appointments, fate, faith, relationships and opportunities that unpredictably lead to things beyond my imagination. And my job is to be grateful and generous.” That would be my answer.
I am curious, what would be your answer?
Rooting for you to be able to tell Guy someday! In the meantime, feel free to send me an email and let me know your thoughts.
Life Interrupted
I ran across this story and I just had to share it with you. Especially since we’ve been talking about dreams and goals.
Suleika Jaouad was born in New York City and attended The Juilliard School’s pre-college program for the double bass. She then earned her BA with the highest honors from Princeton University and MFA in writing and literature from Bennington College…okay, okay, she was super brilliant, accomplished, and had an amazing future and career ahead… and not only that, she also worked on various human rights campaigns for the Center for Constitutional Rights, and studied abroad in Morocco, Tunisia, and Egypt where she researched and wrote about women’s issues. Basically, she was awesome!
But her future career aspirations were cut short when at age 22, she was diagnosed with leukemia. Doctors estimated she had a 35% chance of long-term survival. She would spend the next four years in the hospital. While receiving treatment, she began writing a column for The New York Times, which eventually became the Emmy award-winning video series called “Life, Interrupted.”
This is where her story truly begins. When the column was published, she started getting many emails and letters from people who were deeply touched by her story, and wanted to share stories of their own. This correspondence with the people she didn’t even know became so meaningful to her that she started keeping these letters in a little wooden box.
She talked about a woman she met briefly at a non-profit called First Descents, an outdoor adventure camp for kids with cancer. Her nickname was Salsa, and she was the camp mom who was in charge of nurturing and loving these kids. When she found out that Suleika was in the hospital, she wrote her a letter asking her to come to visit her and her family to go horseback riding at their beautiful ranch in Montana when she got well. This letter was added to the little wooden box. She said she kept it because it just seemed so far away and almost impossible. But she would just daydream about it hoping that one day, it would become a reality.
Not only did she finally take that trip to Montana, but the letters she kept in her little box eventually became the itinerary for her 100-day-15,000-mile road trip to meet and encounter the people behind the stories who helped her move forward and realize what a real hero’s journey looks like.
Life is unpredictable. As Suleika says in her TED talk: “Every single one of us will have our life interrupted. Whether it’s by the ripcord of a diagnosis, or some other kind of heartbreak or trauma that brings us to our knees. We need to find ways to live in between…”
To truly “live well” or “be well” or “to live the dream” is to be ALIVE in the messiest, richest, most painful, and even most joyful of circumstances.
I hope this interruption in your day helps you be present to focus on what matters.
It All Starts with a Dream
When I was in year two of my business, I realized that I needed some wisdom on how to strategize my growth and figure out how to get there. So, I decided to hire a business consultant/coach to help me. After our first meeting of going over our expectations and goals for the next few months, he gave me my first assignment.
Write out my dream.
He told me not to write it out as a list of things to check off (like a new year resolution format), but to write it out as a paragraph. And in this paragraph, imagine this: In the near future, you are getting ready for bed. Right before your head hits the pillow, you think to yourself “Today was a perfect day, I am truly living my dream.” Now, write down why you think you are living your dream. Write down, where are you living? what did you do all day? what emotions are you feeling? What are you going to do tomorrow? What did you eat for dinner? Who are you with? What is your relationship like? How much money are you making? Who are you impacting?
This was a fun but important exercise to set the foundation in place to dream. But dreams are just dreams. It’s something amazing you can create in your imagination…something you wish to do, something you wish to be or something you wish to achieve someday. And dreams can get you excited and make you feel alive and even motivated to work hard. But the big question is, how do we reach that dream? There really is a way to make your dream come true in a tangible way. How? By setting goals.
We spent the next few months coming up with practical steps and goals to reach. This is where the hard work, endurance and patience comes in. But, this is also where your entire journey begins. I can tell you that after almost eight years of grit and hard work, I am nowhere near my “perfect” day and life that I had written out during that first assignment. But I can tell you that without that dream in mind, I would have never lasted this long and had such a blast along the way. In a strange way, I am finding life in the process and finding purpose along this journey.
Jordan Spieth is a professional golfer known to be the 2nd youngest (behind Tiger Woods of course) to win the Masters at age 21. Ever since he could walk and talk, his dream was to play golf professionally and one day win the Masters. There’s a video of him at 14 talking about it. Not only that, he went on to earn 15 professional wins and three major championships. During a recent interview, he was asked when he knew that he had finally “made it”. He said the success happened so gradually that he didn’t really know the gravity of it. Even after he won the Masters, he really didn’t know how his life would be any different….until…he walked into a restaurant for a casual dinner the next day. He said as he walked in, the entire restaurant stood up on their feet and gave him a standing ovation. He couldn’t believe it. It hit him then that his dream had become a reality.
Three things that I hope for you:
1. Dream. Because, it all starts from there.
2. Set goals to reach that dream. Work hard and enjoy the journey.
3. Walk into a random restaurant and see if anyone recognizes you. LOL. If not, keep working and keep enjoying the journey.
I would love to hear about your dream. Reply to this email and send me your dream paragraph. I will send you mine.
Let’s dream together.
My Job When I Was 16…
When I was 14, my very first job was bagging groceries at a local grocery store. I was responsible to greet the customer, move their groceries from the cart to the conveyor at the register, bag everything up and even take it all out to their car if needed (sometimes getting a small tip for loading the bags into their trunk). We offered a full service and we took pride in the fact that we were the only grocery store in the city that did that. I learned at an early age what excellence in service looked like and how a customer loved being catered to.
When I was 16, all that customer service experience landed me a new job: bus boy at a 5-star restaurant in the city’s largest hotel casino called MGM. The restaurant served gourmet Cantonese and Szechuan cuisine and it was called China Seas. Many celebrities that performed at the casino showed up with their entourage to dine, as well as local and international businessmen and women who came to enjoy dinner after gambling or watching a show. It was an awesome experience. The level of service was at such a high standard, so even bus boys like me were very involved in actively conversing with the customers as well as making sure their needs were met at all times.
These experiences taught me some life lessons about business and the importance of customer service. If done correctly, it can be a powerful tool that sets your company apart from the rest. Trust me – as someone who became used to offering such a high level of service, I often get disappointed as a customer seeking to be taken care of (I think that’s why my wife still calls me a princess when we go out to eat. lol)
I thought it would be fun to list some of what I learned to help re-define what customer service can be for us as business owners who continue to serve our customers on a daily basis.
1. Acknowledge their presence. Have you ever walked into a restaurant and no one was there to greet you right away? You stand around for awhile with no one noticing you; they just seem too busy and you start to wonder if you are even welcome there. At China Seas, their number one priority was to create the best first impression and for this very reason, we had two maître d’s. One was always there to greet and acknowledge the customer as soon as they walked through the door, and the second was a backup if the other maître d’ was busy doing the rounds or sitting someone. Our main maître d’s name was George – the friendliest and classiest guy ever (complete with a bow tie), and he never forgot a name. He treated everyone like they owned the building and he always made sure any guest they brought knew it. This simple value alone turned many visitors into repeat customers to eventually regulars.
2. Meet their basic needs first, then go beyond. As a bus boy, we had two main jobs: water and hot tea. I was assigned nine tables per night, and my job was to walk around and make sure their water did not fall below 1/2 full. If the boss saw the water glass empty, we got in trouble…if anyone asked for water because we forgot to fill it, we were dead…and if it occurred often, we would eventually be fired. The hot tea on the table was always filled up to the rim – even if they took 2 or 3 sips, we’d fill it back up to make sure it stayed hot. At the end of the night, they’d inevitably tell us to STOP filling up the cup – that’s when we knew we’d gone beyond their expectation.
3. Make eye contact. This doesn’t seem like much but it makes all the difference in the world. When we were walking around the tables to fill up the water, we looked at each customer to make eye contact. This avoids the frustration of the customer trying to get our attention. If the customer needed something, all they had to do is to make eye contact back at me. I’d be running over to see what I could do. I didn’t realize how important this was until I became a customer and needed my beer asap. The waiter walked by me three times without looking at me; I almost cried.
4. Execute quickly. When something is asked of you, act quickly to ensure they know you haven’t forgotten about them. It shows their immediate needs and wants matter to you.
Of course not all of us are in the food service industry, so this list may look a bit different for you. But I think there is some fundamental truth in each one that can be implemented in every context.
I would love to hear what you do in your business that goes beyond the norm to offer true excellence in customer service. I hope you fill the cup of every customer you meet today!
Out of the Woods [Podcast]
Welcome to episode 14 of the Make it Matter Podcast – today’s podcast gets “in tents” as we talk about the business principles that can be derived from a little time in the wild.
What could roughing in nature possibly teach you about business? You might be surprised – Hanju’s been on the road lately, and what he’s learned could make a huge difference in your company.
“All I need to know about business I learned from camping.” What tools for your work can you actually find outside of the office?
1. Be prepared
Preparation is harder than you think. The time to trick out the van, the sink, the packing, the food, the cleanup. I thought it would be peaceful but we were actually busy non-stop. The lesson: expect it to be tough. (Worst thought you can have: “this is going to be easy.” Totally counterproductive thinking.) You’re not doing something wrong just because it’s hard.
2. Be pioneering
Always ready for the adventure. Makes work fun and new, and helps you solve problems with a fresh perspective. (Divergent Thinking). The lesson? “Life finds a way.”
3. Be present
Never miss a sunset.
We really do think that getting out there, away from the daily norm, definitely gives you a new perspective. And I really like how Bru broke it down. Be Prepared, Be Pioneering and Be present. The 3P’s. What a great lesson for all of us. And even those of us that just do not camp…and don’t have any desire to. That’s okay. No need to as long as you find your own way to step out and learn to see things a bit differently. It will bring more clarity, creativity, and even courage to shift from the grind. Those are my 3 C’s. I was inspired to come up with my own 3 C’s.
Well, thanks for listening, everyone, and you know what? We would love to hear from you, so, just leave us a comment on the iTunes review or contact us directly by going to https://bosmediagroup.com/sayhello We added a record button on there so you can send us by voice, a question, a comment, or a shoutout, whatever you want. We might even play it on this podcast.
So, in the meantime, thank you so much for listening, and remember to always MAKE IT MATTER. Bye for now.
