Ep# 075: Instagram Psychology + Strategy for Your Business with Shannon Lutz, Part 2

Today's episode is part two of a three part series with the lovely creator of The Social Bungalow, Shannon Lutz. Last week Shannon and I dove into how to create magnetic and high converting content. Basically the key to your success.

Today we are getting deep into the nitty gritty of Instagram...ever heard of it?? Specifically: how to leverage Instagram stories, the tried and true methods to connect more deeply with your ideal customer and make it more likely that they'll want to work with you. We’re talking about everything from hashtags to collaboration strategies along with all the IG marketing strategies you need to boost your engagement, feel confident in how you're growing your business and, most importantly, the fundamental strategies that never change. If you're doing these things through and through, even when algorithms change, you are going to be growing a very strong business utilizing this platform.

After years of successfully climbing the corporate ladder in marketing, Shannon took those skill sets to grow one of the most quickly growing online marketing brands that I have literally ever seen in her community. The Social Bungalow is killing it. It's amazing. She's putting incredible content out there and she's doing it with such an amazing passion and relatability. You guys are going to fall madly in love with her if you haven't already.

I know this is going to rock your world when it comes to leveraging Instagram for your business.

In This Episode, We Chat About:

The Foundational Concepts of Instagram:

“If you think about your profile, your title and your bio are your brick and mortar sign on the actual building for people to see what your ‘store’ does.”

“Your post content and captions act as the windows that let them look inside and see if this is their style.”

“Your story is your open door saying, ‘Come on in and learn more about me in real time.’”

“It’s important to kind of satisfy the brain by saying, ‘Here's the beginning, middle and end. Here's me talking to you. I'm going to take you through my day.’ Your story should help people inadvertently feel bonded to you.

The Ideal Number of IG Stories

“I like to say between five and 10 per day. Give yourself 10 when you're getting gearing up for a launch or you’re pitching, or maybe you're doing a face-to-camera style of teaching and so there's more of you talking. When you don't have much to say for the day, but you just want to kind of keep your finger on the pulse and stay omnipresent with your peeps, go ahead and have that five amount because that allows people to come in to get to know you, know that you're still a human for the day and then move on.”

Variety in Story Content

“I always plan out my story content and not by anything other than the overarching purpose for the day. And I write it out on a little notebook.”

“Your stories really are catered towards the people that are following you because they're your ideal client and you want to speak to them and be building community through that process.”

What’s Up with Highlights?

“When someone lands on your profile, they're going to do the whole shop process: name, bio, scroll through some posts. They might watch your story for the day, but then they're going to come back to consume more if they're liking what they're seeing and they're going to go through your highlights.”

“What I do with a highlight is I save some of my best educational content, I save some of my personal content so they can get to know me, and I also talk about my offers. I have a highlight for both of my courses, one for my coaching and results from clients.”

Creating an Impactful IG Bio

“A lot of times when we talk about ourselves in our bio, it makes us look like the hero of the story, which is fine, but your client should be the hero of the story. And they do see themselves that way because if they're looking at investing, they want to have some smoke blown up. They want to know that they're the one that's going to get your time, your capacity, your energy.”

“If you have more than three options as your Call to Action, you now take their brain into a confused mind where they're like, ‘Wow, I don't know what to click, there's too many things, I'm getting out of here!’”

Hashtag Tips

“Hashtags are hard because they're the only non-human element of Instagram stories. With DM’s and posts there's an element of you being able to control it because you can write and create in a way that a human reads and consumes and you interact. With hashtags, it's very much driven by the mood of the algorithm. So test and try things, but don't get too tied to it or stress yourself out. Good content is King.”

“It's not a bad idea to look at people with similar audiences to you to see what they're doing. And again, just using that as inspiration to be able to get your finger on the pulse. You need a general frame of reference to get started. But from there, figuring [hashtags] out for your expertise and what your ideal client would be searching is key.”

Generating Engagement

“Give to get. If you go out and you start commenting on the people that you know, or new followers, or you start falling down that hashtag rabbit hole and finding individuals whose content looks like they fall within your ideal client avatar and demographic info: Leave a comment. Make it hardy. Read their posts in full. Really write something back that's going to be meaningful to that person.”

When you want a big spike, a big infusion of followers and new eyeballs, you have to tap into somebody else's audience: everything from collaborations to giveaways to challenges to guesting on podcasts and IG stories… all great options.