 Welcome to the journey today. We're talking about how to use Instagram for your business. Let's jump in Hey, I'm Nealey your good daddy guide for today and today We're talking about how to use Instagram for your business and for that. I have my social media expert Emma. Hey Emma Hey Justin, what's up? How are you? I'm excited. You ready do it for the gram do it for the gram cool So we're talking about Instagram for a small business owner Maybe I have a coffee shop that has a skatepark in the back Who knows what's what's kind of the first step? What should I be looking at? So think about your audience? I know Instagram is definitely preferred by teens and millennials, so that'll be great for your business idea Which he stole from me But also some cons, you know like a lot of the platforms out there There's a pay-to-play component, right? It's important to think about who you're trying to target before you even get on there Also identify your voice because you want to be on there and be consistent because after all it's your brand, right? So you don't want to be one way on one post and then 360 on another post and it's hard to follow. Yeah, which I know for small businesses because They're doing and juggling a million different things. Sometimes they'll have four different people at the business doing the Instagram and While I see why they're doing that it comes off that way And it's too inconsistent from the way the photos look to the coloring to the captions It's just there's no consistency there. Absolutely. So what about my profile? I've seen some pretty great profiles I'm just looking around. I've seen some bad ones. What are some best practices and things to avoid? So best practices definitely starting with the name you want your name to be consistent across so coffee and kickflips Yeah, exactly again stealing my business So you want to be consistent across Instagram Twitter and Facebook with that name that handle Also, when it comes to your photo, I'm sure because it's a visual platform There's so many ideas you want to put up there also stay consistent across the platforms and don't forget your description What should I really put in my description? Should I just say cool? Come buy coffee at my shop? Or what should I do? Just give me essentially your elevator pitch What makes you unique? Also feel free to just in a way kind of brag like what what makes you cool? All right, so Instagram has posts and it has stories Can you talk to us about some of the things that we should look out for when we're we're doing a post versus a story? Yeah, so there's a lot to say about posting on Instagram and one thing that I like to remind small business owners is That it's important to come off authentic Consistent but also professional. Okay, so it's like a balance. Those are the ingredients The one good thing with Instagram is that although it's a highly visual platform You don't have to hire a photographer and give us a sense of that behind the scenes Who works there the outside the inside of your business? I love that because you can really get a sense of I'm already there But you're not you're maybe on the go or chilling at home on your couch But you could feel like you're already at that business. I've got a great idea Should we do behind the scenes? Let's do it behind the scenes. All right, right now right now. Absolutely. All right So this is really gonna bring to life what we're doing. We'll see if this makes the cut. Okay, cool my ability Yeah, so we got the behind the scenes here all the crew say hi Please document this and then look perfect height. Let's let's All right diving back in so Line Back to what we're actually talking about you're on Instagram, right great Literally all day now what you want to be active proactive. So as a business It's really important that you're paying attention to when a customer or potential customer right comments on your post Let them know you heard like their comment respond back Also, if they're tagging your business or mentioning Acknowledge that as well and that can help with customer retention. I mentioned a business that I was at and I was traveling and You know doing my own thing on the road and I just mentioned him because they had this Amazing soy latte and I was stoked on it sure enough They respond back with this like genuine message of thanks for my business and even though I preach about this all the time And educate business owners on doing this and it happened to me I felt truly valuable and it like made my day. So I'm more likely to go back and do business with them Yeah, I'd love it right like we have an easy way just to actually talk to people Like if you go up to a random stranger and say hi, they're like wait, what are you doing? Yeah on Instagram? It's just the norm or if you call me don't call me who calls So cool, so give us a lowdown on just Instagram search. Yes So Instagram search is really helpful if you're looking to for example grow your following You want to look for a target audience of your own look for people talking about things that pertain to your business So you can use those hashtags. Yes search hashtags So you can find people that are relevant and then follow them. So you're growing an organic Following right, but also you could chime in on conversations with people. So maybe you are a vegan restaurant Let me know I'll be there. So if you're a vegan restaurant Maybe search for other people talking about vegan cooking vegan recipes Maybe you then follow a vegan blog or chef and that way you're really cultivating this niche bubble Which will ultimately help your engagement, which we'll talk about engagement rate I mean you brought it up, please Without further ado so engagement rate is really important because you want to make sure you're measuring your success on there So engagement rate is your ROI So you hear me say the word a lot, but what it actually is it's some math that you're ready No, what was your what was your best subject in school? Not math. Okay, so it's really simple engagement rate is the number of likes divided by your followers times 100 carry the three divided by All right, cool. I'll write it down for you later. Thank you But that's gonna give you some insight as to hey this post Did it performed well or it was a flop and then from there You can even go further because if you're on Instagram as a business you hat Which you should be as a business page then you have insights You can see what time a day worked best to post with your audience What day of the week worked best and then you look at the engagement rate as well And that's just gonna help you to have this approach to posting. That's not so Blind right it's not a shot in the dark It's it's in more of an educated guess because it's not always perfect, but it gets you in the right direction. Yeah, but again, you want to be there and Active so I really can't stress the importance of Commenting and replying to your customers as they're engaging taking the time to engage with the door Literally comment back on every single person comments. They took the time to say something Yeah, reply back in that time of day and have fun with the stories just like we did because that's truly a It's a live element. It's a very organic authentic element to your personality and your brand and If you feel like oh, I don't have time to do all this then I encourage brand ambassadors Get your staff involved in this also come up with a hashtag So that way when your customers come in they can start getting the content for you and then you can just sit back Use it repurpose it. Yeah, I'm all about efficiency, right? Well, thank you so much for hashing it out on the gram. You've been awesome Emma. Thanks for having me do it for the gram Do it for the gram Well, this has been the journey make sure you comment and subscribe so you know when the videos are coming out next Thank you again signing off