 So great question here about Instagram and sort of like the different parts of it and how the they integrate Right now just for this ease of this Q&A I can't show you my phone screen, which is really how the best way of using Instagram even as a creator to be doing via the phone So, you know, I'm gonna ask you to take my Instagram course for all the details But let me just give it basic overview strategy for whatever I can say here on on camera here So Instagram has several ways of creating content Distributing content. There's the famous Instagram stories, you know, and there's famous Instagram reels is also, you know Very famous. There's and then Instagram grid, which is, you know, usually when people Think of oh, I went to your Instagram profile and look at your posts. They're talking about the grid Which is you know, you go to someone's profile you scroll down past their bio and then you see these different Boxes right of content of posts. They made on Instagram. So that's Instagram grid. So I'll kind of start there because that's the Traditional Instagram content is it's just the grid and the grid can be either a single photo with captions captions meaning The you know, when you see the photo and then below the photo is like tiny small words that you can click more and then read Whatever they wrote up to like I think it's 2000 characters or it's just 1200 these days 2000 something like that Now you can you can look it up So that's the traditional Instagram images were just a single image and then in the grid You can also post Instagram carousel posts Which if you go to my Instagram profile and see my Instagram posts that are words Those are carousel posts because you click on it and then you can slide you can you can scroll through a Single post can have up to 10 slides So a single they click on the post they see the post that we see the first slide of the post And they can swipe to see the second slide third slide fourth slide and you can have the the carousel post 10 slides can either be an image per slide or and by the way an image can be a bunch of words, right? I that's how I post articles on Instagram is Using the carousel post format. I have a YouTube video on how I create my Instagram carousel Posts so you can and even I even give the template the canva template for my Instagram carousel So you can search on YouTube for IG carousels George cow and you'll find my videos about that Okay, so the Instagram carousel can have an image image can be words or a picture or whatever and Inside the carousel can also be videos Yes, you can when they swipe it could be a video a short video as one of the slides if you prefer anyway I haven't been that fancy. I just keep it both simple. So whatever, okay So the grid can have images or carousels or videos can be part of your grid as well and videos on Instagram Basically can be up to one hour long You can upload a video of up to one hour long as far as I can tell again these things they keep changing it Over time you can if you'd want to confirm the length and the maximum length or whatever minimum That's you can always Google it for for what it is at the current time So and if a video that you upload is under 15 minutes, I believe is the threshold these days if it's under 15 minutes of a video They will automatically call it a real Reel okay a real now. What's confusing about this is that when people say Instagram real they usually are thinking of like They're really thinking of stories Okay, which are like 15 second videos up to 60 up to 90 second videos for for an Instagram story video because reels has Basically, let me let me give you the the dirty secret behind this right Basically Instagram felt a lot of pressure from TikTok Instagram the company felt a lot of pressure from TikTok Which is like up and coming and oh not nothing It's a big deal everywhere now TikTok videos right and they're like oh we got to compete with TikTok and then YouTube of course is trying to compete with TikTok too and YouTube came out with YouTube shorts to come try to compete everyone's trying to compete with TikTok and So Instagram the Instagram bosses basically said alright Instagram team We better compete with TikTok short form videos are the thing we're gonna create something actually I think I'm not sure which one came first tick tock or Instagram reels, but whatever let's make reels That's really emphasized reels in our algorithm. So then everyone knew oh my god Instagram is emphasizing reels in their algorithm the short form video to compete with TikTok. So make reels everybody make short form video because They're gonna feature it more than every other type of posts on Instagram. Okay. Alright, so then over the years as they continue doing this as With all things Instagram things started shorter like okay reels have to be under 60 I think originally reels had be under 30 seconds or whatever Okay, and then alright, and then over the years like you know the pressure from creators to please let us record longer reels and the reels became 60 seconds okay anything 60 second or less can be a reel and then a more pressure from creators Alright reels can now be 90 seconds. You see where this is going. This is and then and then Now you know the Instagram team is trying to follow their their corporate masters saying reels are important So they're like they're so they cheat it and they say guess what we're gonna call any video under 15 minutes a reel It's like what are you talking about? It's just a video. No, we're gonna call the reel if it's under 15 minutes It's ridiculous It's just even though it might not be prioritizing the algorithm anymore They're calling it a reel because they're corporate masters, you know the the shareholders said please make reels more important to be with tiktok It's ridiculous. So anyway, it's why it's so damn confusing. Everyone's confused. What the hell is a reel? I don't know. I mean, it's basically so It's an Instagram video. Let's just call it that because most Instagram videos are under 15 minutes anyway, right? You're gonna upload a video Instagram. It's probably under 15 minutes anyway So they're calling it a reel. Are they prioritizing it in the algorithm? Nobody really knows anymore Okay, that's the that's the other confusing part. So Long story short, I think they're still prioritizing short form video Partly because human beings have short attention spans these days and short form is just easier for them to consume and easier for them to engage with And so that naturally the algorithm tends to perform things that humans find easier to engage with Okay, all right, let's go to so reels still show up. Let me actually check my Instagram these days reels show up in the grid but they also have a Special tab in the grid. There's special tab in the middle for reels. Okay, so it's kind of it's it's confusing So last thing I'll talk about the stories stories are where when you look at someone's Instagram Profile or when their little profile picture shows up on Instagram You'll notice sometimes it has a circle around it. That's multi colored circle Instagram colored circle, right? And that means they have an Instagram story happening right now and stories are ephemeral Ephemeral content, which means it goes away If you don't view it well goes away after a certain time limit stories is 24 hours So a Instagram story will will will will be available to your audience for only for 24 hours And afterwards your audience can no longer see it unless You take that story and you make it into what's called highlight a Highlight is on your Instagram profile now around maybe not on yours, but you go to mine Okay, you'll see that underneath my bio. There are a bunch of circles underneath my bio those circles are called highlights and highlights are basically stories that I've decided to keep as a highlight so that you can see them and Even if Instagram store your Instagram story goes away after 24 hours You can still go and find your old stories to add as highlights if you want to and stories Can be an image can be a short video can be text only So stories are pretty pretty and could be a poll it could be all kinds of different things could be a link You can have a story that click out of Instagram onto your website or onto a YouTube video or onto whatever you want to So stories are very versatile, but they're they're they're ephemeral They only last for 24 hours, which is supposed to pressure the audience into like oh, I better look at the story before it goes away Kind of thing. That's the original idea. I don't know if it still works like that anymore But but it certainly highlights your profile picture whenever people whenever you comment or post or whatever they see your Whenever they see your image, you know, if you have a story happening within the last 24 hours It'll be like a colorful circle around your picture profile picture So how does it all fit together right basically it's a content plan I don't want to say this because then you don't have to buy my course So this is kind of frustrating, but I will say it to save you some money And I'm joking because my course is way way more in depth than this But so how it all fits together basically is you should definitely try all the above Because if you don't try all the above you won't be able to test the power of Instagram So if you aren't making stories try different different types of stories and see what it does If you aren't making videos or reels whatever I want to call them upload videos Okay, and see how see how it does in terms of your comments or you're engaging with your audience If you haven't uploaded carousel posts, you should try that too if you haven't uploaded single images obviously try that as well Remember the easier it is to consume the more engagement it tends to get So single images tend to get more engagement than carousel posts, right? Which tend to get more engagement than videos because it's more hassled for them to watch a video and like figure out Where you're trying to say or be entertained by it and the medical, but it doesn't mean and stories I know let me but but doesn't mean that you shouldn't make videos. You see what I mean because every Level of ease of engagement Reaches a certain Level of audience, right? So like then the easiest to engage with for example, you upload a picture of yourself Selfie bit selfie photos are easiest to engage with who's not going to support you and click like on your selfie photo Everyone's going to do that. Okay, so it's not it's but it's shallow engagement It's not meaningful engagement. You see what I mean whereas For them to go through the hassle and the energy of watching your video Even for 30 seconds Yeah, a lot less people will engage with it, but you're building more of a relationship Right, it's not it's no longer shallow engagement. It's deeper engagement. You see so you have to do all the above So to reach the different levels of your audience and all levels are important because sure you want to reach more people with your cute selfie photo or picture of your butt or like a you know Easily likable inspirational quote who's not going to like a quote from Buddha or Jesus or you know, whatever Brene Brown Call you a modern Jesus or whatever who's not gonna like it. Everyone's gonna like it's easy It's gonna be get get you more reach, but it doesn't build the depth with Relationship with your audience. You see so you need all be above stories ironically you said we'll just George is saying stories seemed easy to engage with and it's there's more pressure. You got 24 hours So maybe that reach reaches the most people ironically, it's the opposite stories tend to only reach your hottest fans your biggest fans Because they have to they have to either go to your profile and click on your click on your profile picture to see your story Or they have to like see your grid post, you know, it comes up or or they have to you know You're only your biggest fans will see your stories highlighted when they go into Instagram on the home screen They're they only highlight several stories on the home screen when when people are scrolling through and your biggest fans The ones who have most engaged with your stuff are the ones who see your stories highlighted at the very top of the home screen So that's why the stories tend to be the deepest Con the deepest engagement the deepest level of audience, you see which are important, too You're not gonna get as much engagement with the stories Okay, partly also because it's only 24 hours, but it reaches your biggest fans So This is why stories are often things like oh behind the scenes like oh, I'm walking my dog I thought of you know passing thought or whatever. It's like your biggest fans It's like it's like it's almost like you're testing ideas with your biggest fans So anyway, try all the above if you have any other comments about Instagram strategy Feel free to comment below. I am actually in process. I'm kind of excited by this I'm in process of relaunching my Instagram course as a much more fuller course in partnership with a buddy of mine who has who is highly successful on Instagram way more successful than me 200 plus thousand 200 plus thousand Instagram followers on this buddy of mine I mean he he you know we we exchanged Instagram strategies as well because he trusts my marketing guidance and perspective and all that stuff But I have way fewer fans and so we certainly we like I have about what 9,000 Instagram followers or whatever He has 200,000. So we have like two different strategies on Instagram. Like I am Actively trying to not be famous on Instagram I'm actively not trying to not have a big of his audience then because I don't have the energy or the Or the strategy really for for that level thing. It's a different strategies for him it's he is he has a strategy of Taking, you know, like like selling like a sub-stack membership of $10 a month and that that's plenty for his livelihood And that's all he hates launching courses unlike me I launched like 10 courses a year and I'm happy with launching courses So we have totally different business models and therefore I'm trying to keep my audience small He's trying to grow his audience as big as possible and we're collaborating to teach the next Instagram course So I guess this is I didn't expect this to be a bit of a sales message because I thought I was like Cutting shooting myself in the foot by teaching you the strategy But anyway, no part of it But anyway, you might want to check out my my upcoming Instagram course join my email list You'll find out about it. It's gonna be way better than the previous one and so I'm excited to anyway So I hope this This is helpful as an overall strategy might want to watch this again to kind of hear the different parts of it Comment below with any questions you have about Instagram strategy because I'll build that into the upcoming course Feel free to share below any any key insights you've learned as you've used Instagram in terms of strategy as well So thank you for watching