3 new Instagram features to try this summer

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:: 00:00

Instagram has some great new features that could help you increase engagement on your content. This I'm Janet Murray, I'm a content and online business strategist. And in this episode of the courageous content podcast, I'll share three Instagram features I recommend using over this summer and some tips on how to use them. So first off, there's the add yours sticker using the stickers on Instagram stories.

:: 00:28

For example, polls questions and quiz stickers is a great way to get more engagement from your followers and the way the algorithm works on Instagram and indeed, most social media platforms is the more engagement you get. The more people your content will be shown to because that platform, in this case, Instagram will see that a piece of content is getting lots of engagement.

:: 00:48

So it will push it out to more people. The add your sticker is fairly new. And what I like about it is you can share a piece of content. So for example, a photo of your pet, or it could be a book that you're reading and ask your followers to share something similar. So for example, a book that they're reading over the summer,

:: 01:08

if you have my courageous content planner, you'll be familiar with the four styles of content I recommend. So that's news and trends inspire, educate, and community quick overview. If you don't have the planet and you really don't need to have one to get this concept, although of course it helps. And it's convenient to have your plan out with all of your content,

:: 01:25

ideas and awareness days in one place. So news and trends is typically where you're sharing tips and ideas. You're solving problems, you're answering questions for your ideal customers or clients, but that content needs to be timely and relevant. And what I mean by that is it needs to be published at a particular time to make the most sense. So for example,

:: 01:44

this episode on Instagram features for the summer, it wouldn't make much sense for me to publish this in November, then we've got inspire. So this is when you're sharing content that is designed to reassure people, to make them feel better. And I actually put sales content on there inspire because I really think that sales content should be about inspiring people to invest in your product or service to take the next step,

:: 02:10

rather than feeling like this awful thing that you do to people investing in a product or service, because it solves a problem that you have. There should feel like a really nice, positive thing to do, which is why I put sales content in the inspire content bracket. Then we've got community content. So this is all about bringing people closer to you.

:: 02:31

So actually Instagram stories is great for community content and this ad your sticker is perfect because you're asking people questions, your trying to find common grounds, talking about topics that you have in common. Absolutely perfect for community content, which is all about building relationships and bringing people closer. Then there's educate contents, which is solving problems, answering questions, really quite similar to news and trends,

:: 02:57

content. The difference being that educate content could be published at any time and still be relevant to your audience. Whereas news and trends does need that timeliness, that relevance. So as I've already shared, the add your sticker is brilliant for community content. If you want to make it more timely and relevant, you want to turn it into a news and trends post.

:: 03:16

Then you could link it to an awareness day. If you have my creators content planner, there's hundreds, thousands, I think inside the planner. So just giving you a few ideas for July as I'm recording this episode to go out in July, 2022. So you could share your favorite lipstick for lipstick day, July the 29th, or you could do a makeup free selfie for national new day on July,

:: 03:37

the 14th it's national junk food day on the 21st. So you can share your favorite junk food secret. And if you'd like some more ideas for posts that you can create in July using awareness days and key dates, then I do have a specific episode on content ideas for July that use awareness days. And I will link to that in the show notes.

:: 03:56

Next up we've got the link sticker, which isn't new, new, but actually I'm surprised how many people don't know about it. So last year, Instagram ditched their once much coveted swipe up feature, which you could only get if you had 10 K followers. So if you had 10 K photos, you get the swipe up link, which meant you could link out to podcast to your product or services to affiliate links or whatever it might be.

:: 04:19

The replacement was a link sticker and you don't need 10,000 followers to use it. So yeah, you can use this feature to redirect followers to your products or services to your latest blog or podcast to your newsletter. However, I would always proceed with caution on this one because while it may be convenient share link, unless, you know, who's clicked on it,

:: 04:40

you don't actually know who took action and what action they took. And when it comes to sales, that's particularly significant. So for example, one of my clients, Susan, she's a social media manager and she recently had an 80% conversion on her. Very first digital product launch. She generated 6,000 in sales. There was a short podcast episode on that,

:: 04:59

which I'll link to in the show notes, which is called how Susan generated 6,000 on her first digital product launch or something like that. But I'll link to that in the show notes. One of the key things Susan, which I talk about in that episode to get that great result was follow up with every single lead. So if you'd use the link sticker on her Instagram stories,

:: 05:18

she may not have known who actually clicked on the link for her digital products, which means she wouldn't have known who to follow up with. I'm a big fan of asking people to DMU. I actually use many chats. We have a chat messenger. If you've ever DMD me or responded to one of my sales codes, we actually create a follow-up flow that will tell you all about the product or service you want to buy.

:: 05:41

But crucially, we can see who has requested that information and we can still follow up and make that quite personalized. But I would always recommend if you don't have that facility that you simply get the person to DMU, and then you can have a conversation, sales conversation, automation can be handy, but you can't automate personal relationships. And I think using the swipe up link can actually make it more difficult for you to achieve your sales objective.

:: 06:11

So it could be your content objectives. Perhaps you want somebody to listen to your podcast or sign up to your newsletter. And one of the key things with marketing is tracking. Now, if you can track what people have responded to and what they haven't responded to, then you can change what you're doing. If you don't know who's clicking on MOTS and what actions they're taking,

:: 06:28

then it's difficult to know what's working, but also change things that aren't finally, there's Instagram guides. So they're not new either. They've been around for quite a while actually. And hands up, it's a feature I know I haven't made enough use of and Instagram guides. It's basically a way that you can collect your posts, including your Instagram reels, and you can keep your most important information in one place.

:: 06:49

So for example, let's say you're a dog trainer. You could collect all of your posts and reels about specific themes, say behavior, diet, exercise, that kind of thing. You could even give your content a more seasonal flavor. So for example, if you're a stylist, you could collect together, all your posts on someone looks or summer colors or summer shapes or whatever it might be being able to direct people,

:: 07:13

not to just one post or one piece of content on topic can be really, really handy. And particularly when people respond to your posts and they say, oh, do you have anything on there? So like being able to actually send them to a collection is a really great way to build your authority. So I hope you found that useful. I'd love to know how you get on with using some of those features.

:: 07:35

As I say, some of them aren't actually that new, but based on conversations I have with my clients, people are either not aware of them or if they are, they're not using them as much as they might do or maybe not even at all. So that's why I thought it was worth sharing them with you as ever. I do love hearing from you.

:: 07:53

So do connect with me over on Instagram. I'm at January UK to let me know what you thought about this episode. How are you using these features and what features have you found on Instagram to be particularly useful? I would love to hear thoughts.