October 6, 2025 • 29 mins
Tired of creating Instagram content that feels like a full-time job with zero ROI? Let’s fix that.
In this episode, I’m joined by Corey Walker, co-author of Instagram for Dummies and Instagram for Business for Dummies - and she’s here to break down exactly what works right now on Instagram (and what you can stop wasting time on).
Whether you’re frustrated by reels, overwhelmed by algorithm shifts, or stuck in the “I should be doing more” spiral, Corey’s no-fluff advice will help you simplify, strategize, and actually see results - without dancing, pointing, or trying to reinvent the wheel every week.
Inside this conversation, you’ll learn:
- How to use Instagram as a full funnel: from visibility to connection to conversion
- The role of Reels, feed posts, Stories, and Lives (and how to stop overthinking each one)
- What carousels and drip campaigns have in common - and why they convert
- Why showing your face on camera (even awkwardly) beats perfect production every time
- The easiest way to batch content using questions you already get asked all the time
This is your permission to stop chasing trends and start using Instagram in a way that supports your business goals and your sanity.
Links & References:
- Want more ways to increase your visibility? Join us at the next PWR Virtual Speed Networking Event!
- For faster business growth through networking, strategy and accountability, check out the Powerful Women Rising Business Growth Community!
- Connect with Corey in Instagram @coreycwalker or check out her website: themarketingspecialist.com
Connect with Your Host!
Melissa Snow is a Business Relationship Strategist dedicated to empowering women in entrepreneurship. She founded the Powerful Women Rising Community, which provides female business owners with essential support and resources for business growth.
Melissa's other mission is to revolutionize networking, promoting authenticity and genuine connections over sleazy sales tactics. She runs an incredible monthly Virtual Speed Networking Event which you can attend once at no cost using the code FIRSTTIME
She lives in Colorado Springs with two dogs, her soul cat Giorgio and any number of foster kittens. She loves iced coffee, Taylor Swift, and Threads.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hello, Corey, Welcome to the podcast.
Thanks for having me.
Yeah, so excited to talk to youabout Instagram.
I have such a love-hate withInstagram so I'm happy.
It's understandable I'm sureit's not the first time you've
heard that.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
No, and I actually agree with you.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
But I'm excited to talk to you today about how we
can use it, maybe moreeffectively, maybe we can
increase the love ratio.
So tell everybody, before wedive in, a little bit about you
and about what you do.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Sure.
Well, my name is Kori Walker.
I am the co-author of Instagramfor Dummies and Instagram for
Business for Dummies, and I'malso a digital agency owner in
the Sacramento area, so I help alot of service-based
professionals with their socialmedia and email marketing.
(00:55):
I really enjoy being in thatspace and helping some of the
people that are, you know, justsole prop or have a small
business.
I really like talking to thosepeople and helping elevate their
business and their own personalgrowth, so that's what I do.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
That's awesome.
I love that because you know somany of us, especially in
service based businesses.
It's like we get into.
I always tell the story of whenI started my first business.
I was a dating relationshipcoach and I really had no idea.
I had small business fordummies and I read it on my back
porch but it did not prepare meat all for all of the things
(01:41):
and I thought like I really kindof just thought I was going to
show up and say, hey, I'm acoach who needs coaching and
like all the people were goingto line up and throw their money
at me and it was going to beamazing.
So, uh, we're really glad thatpeople like you exist to help us
with some of the other thingsthat are essential to growing a
business, but not really what.
We got into business because wewanted to do so Well yeah, and
(02:04):
it's gotten.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
You know I've.
I actually this July was my20th anniversary with this
business and it's obviouslychanged quite a bit and just the
more and more tech that getslayered on and on.
I work with a lot ofentrepreneurs that are, you know
, 50 and up, and it's gettingharder sometimes for them to
(02:33):
manage all these different youknow.
I mean, it gets hard for me andI'm like in this stuff every
day because it changes all thetime.
And now, with AI on top of it,it's like this whole new world.
So, yeah, it's a lot of peoplethink, oh, I'm going to be, you
know, a dentist and I'm justgoing to work on people's teeth.
But it's like, no, you have toknow marketing, you have to
(02:53):
market your practice, all ofthat and it's a lot more than
they originally bargained forand can be really the downfall
of their business if they don'tknow what they're doing in that
area or get some good help.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
Yeah, absolutely so.
There's a lot of directions wecould go in this.
There's so many differentaspects of Instagram that we
could talk about.
You mentioned AI.
I love the thought.
You know there's so manydifferent platforms, there's so
many different approaches thatpeople can take.
So today we're going to takejust a very like high level look
at Instagram, but maybe we'llinvite you back.
(03:28):
I feel like you could do like afive part series that would be
amazing.
So let's just talk Instagram ingeneral.
What are you seeing right nowin terms of business,
entrepreneurship, what's working?
What mistakes we're making?
What do we need to know aboutwhat's happening in Instagram
right now?
Speaker 2 (03:45):
Sure, well, you know they keep adding more and more
things, but one thing that Ihave seen consistently work well
is reels.
So the Instagram algorithmreally favors that.
People like seeing your face.
So if you can do a reel whereyou're, you know, talking to
(04:06):
your audience, that always doesreally well.
Even a selfie, you know, whenyou're not even talking about
anything too deep, just slappinga selfie every once in a while,
and that works surprisinglywell, better than you know a
five page carousel with allthese graphics.
You know a five page carouselwith all these graphics.
(04:27):
So, yeah, really showing up,showing your face, doing reels,
if you can incorporate somehumor into your reels or if
humor doesn't really fit withyour business, just hitting that
, that niche and really givingvaluable information so that you
can show yourself as the expertin that field.
I work with somebody right nowand he's a commercial real
(04:52):
estate broker, but hespecializes in 1031 exchanges,
which is like a very specificthing, and so all of his content
is very honed in on that,because there's not a lot of
people talking about that online, and so he's just making all
these reels, putting them onInstagram, tiktok, linkedin, all
(05:14):
these different places.
So bottom line reels are goingto be one of your good go-tos.
It's also getting to be moreand more pay to play.
So expect to, especially if youhave a new account, expect to
spend a little money to eitherdo some ads or even just boost
(05:39):
some of your posts to get alittle bit more traction,
because there's just so muchcontent out there it's it's
getting harder and harder to beseen if you don't give it a
little, you know, kick.
So that's something.
And then carousels do also work.
Well, that one I suggest forpeople when they're like, oh, I
(06:00):
can't do you know reels everyday, and I completely understand
that.
Like, oh, I can't do you knowreels every day, and I
completely understand that.
Um, carousels, I would say, isprobably second in line under
reels, and if your viewers orlisteners don't aren't familiar
with carousels, it's the onewhere it's up to 20 cards
basically in one post.
(06:21):
Um, so you'll see people, doyou know my?
My top five tips for X, y and Z?
And then maybe they put a tipon each card.
The reason those work there'sthere's two big reasons.
The first reason is every timesomeone taps to that next card,
that is telling Instagram thatthat person kind of likes you
(06:43):
and the algorithm.
So that's a positive experienceand they're hoping that you go,
you know, all the way to theend.
So that's going to boost thatup in the algorithm.
The second thing is that ifsomeone's scrolling through and
they see that first card andthen say an hour later they're
scrolling again, it'sautomatically going to serve
(07:05):
them the second card.
So that's kind of cool becausethey're not just seeing the
first one.
It's almost like I kind ofliken it to a drip campaign.
So it's like they, just as longas they're kind of keep
scrolling and your content'scoming up, they're going to see
the next one in line.
So I really like that scrollingand your content's coming up,
they're going to see the nextone in line, so I really like
(07:26):
that, yeah, so those are.
Those are probably three of mytop tips for Instagram.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
Yeah, that's good.
I didn't realize that.
About carousels, I mean, I'veheard people say that they you
should make them, and they workwell, but I didn't know exactly
why, so that's awesome.
I want to go back to somethingthat you said about reels,
because I think a lot of times,like I'm one of those people
that I am resistant to making areel because I feel like it's
(07:51):
going to be so much work Right,like I need to learn the dance
and then I need to like pick theright song, and then I need to
add like graphics, or I need tolike have a little like funny
caption that pops up or likewhatever, right.
And so I love what you saidabout like you can just turn on
your camera and talk to peopleand that also is effective.
Can you talk a little bit moreabout that, especially for
(08:13):
people who feel like overwhelmedand we want to overcomplicate
it?
Speaker 2 (08:17):
Yeah, sure.
So you know, one thing that Ihave people do sometimes is just
write down or even use chat GPTto help you generate this.
But think of whatever in yourindustry are the top.
You know 20 questions you getfrequently and you can do
something as simple as sittingand batching this out, sitting
(08:39):
in front of the camera, andmaybe have a text overlay that
says you know what's your bestbaking tip for making croissants
I don't know whatever it is andthen that can almost be like a
silent person asking thequestion and then you can say,
(08:59):
well, my best tips are blah,blah, blah.
But yeah, if you just come upwith some questions, use a
little text overlay, just talkto that.
You could sit there and knockout 20 of them, just put them on
Dropbox.
Or if you have something like Iuse later as a scheduler a lot
of people have schedulers Nowyou could just pop them all in
(09:21):
your scheduler and even pop themin without captions.
Yet Just get that done and thengo in later and put on captions
.
But yeah, I mean I fall into thesame trap.
I get like, oh, I'm doing it.
And when I get on a roll whichI have not been on a roll lately
.
But when I get on a roll I kindof like, oh okay, oh okay, I'm
(09:44):
gonna do this.
And then I get excited and moreideas come to me.
So if you can just get overthat hump of getting into the
the role of it, it makes it alot easier.
But there's there's other waysthat I like people to do things
as well, like I have peoplethat'll just maybe record
(10:07):
something in their office, likethey're working at their
computer, and just maybe you doit as a fast.
You know a speed thing whereyou're just have it there all
day and it's just recording youand then you just do, you know,
maybe a quote or maybe some kindof tip or something, just as a
text overlay.
And yeah, it doesn't have to behard, it can be really easy,
(10:31):
and using ChatGPT to generatesome of those ideas makes it
even easier.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
Yeah, is there any kind of tech that you recommend
if we are going to start doingreels or we want to up our reels
game Like?
Is there any specific software?
Do we need a ring light?
Do we need a microphone, or dowe just pick up our phone and
start doing it?
Speaker 2 (10:52):
I mean, you can just pick up your phone and start
doing it.
Instagram now has their ownstandalone app called edits, and
that's kind of their answer toCapCut called edits, and that's
kind of their answer to CapCutUm, if you're familiar with
CapCut um, and so that's an easyone, and it has a lot more
features than just your regularInstagram.
(11:13):
Um, you know they're all oftheir editing in reels, um.
The thing I like about it, too,is you can export it with sound
, with all that stuff, and itdoesn't have the Instagram logo
on it, so you can put it onTikTok or YouTube shorts,
wherever you want.
Um, but so you can do thatwithout anything.
(11:35):
What I do recommend um, I have alittle thing.
I just have it right here.
This is just a tiny little mic.
Um, I think I got this onAmazon for maybe 13 bucks.
It can um just pop into yourphone and then you can put this
little clip, like you know,right on your shirt.
So that's an easy one.
(11:56):
This one's called pop voice, so,um, and literally I think it
was like 13 bucks.
And then I have um a ring light, and I think this was maybe 20
bucks on Amazon, so you don'tneed, you know, this high def
camera and special all thatstuff.
(12:18):
And if you don't, if you wantto get started right away and
haven't bought anything onAmazon for a light, just sit,
like I always sit in front ofthe window Anyway, I've got a
window right in front of me andthat provides lots of natural
light or go outside.
That's an easy way to do it forfree.
So I'm all about like, doingthings as cheaply as possible,
(12:39):
because I have to pay for somany different, you know,
subscriptions to things.
So if I can have someone dosomething like and it still
looks good, then I'm all for it,yeah, and making it as simple
as possible, too.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
I think that's going to make us more likely to do it
than if we are still trying tomake it overly complicated, yeah
.
So I think one of the thingsthat people I was going to say
screw up, that's not a very nicething to say One of the things
that people think a lot when itcomes to Instagram or any social
(13:16):
media really is that in orderto be successful or to get
traction, we have to havesomething that goes viral.
And I have a good friend who'sa parenting coach and she had a
couple reels that went likecrazy viral in the beginning of
her business, and I think Iactually had her on the podcast
real early on when I firststarted and she was talking
(13:38):
about that and how, like, whatshe thought was going to happen
versus what actually happenedwere not the same thing.
So can you tell us, like, do wewant to go viral?
Is it a good thing?
Is it like not that big of adeal, but like cool if it
happens, or what's your take onthat?
Speaker 2 (13:55):
I mean, usually if you go viral, it's not, it's
it's not anything to do withyour business.
What I find most people goviral for is like they posted a
picture, or I mean a video,where they, you know, were in
their backyard and tripped overtheir dogs.
You know, something liketotally stupid, like that will
go viral.
It's not usually the thingthat's going to move the needle
(14:19):
on your business.
So I had I have a client thathas a nail salon and I posted
this reel for him.
It was actually a repost ofsomeone else's reel that I just
added some stuff to.
So that's something you can dotoo is do like a remix.
So I did that and it didn't.
I mean, I won't say it wentviral, but it got.
(14:43):
You know, his usual posts gotmaybe a thousand views.
This one got like 10,000 views,but and it got lots of likes,
but it was from people like allover the place.
Now he's got a nail salon that'slocal.
You know you don't do onlinenail salons, you have to be
physically present.
So I mean, yeah, it was cool,cause he got hundreds of likes
that where he usually doesn'tget that many, cause it's all
(15:06):
very local.
Um, so that was fun, but itdidn't.
It wasn't like people werepouring into his business and so
the whole viral thing.
Typically, unless you have someglobal brand, like up your
target or something like thatit's it's not going to do what
you think it's going to do.
And especially since I workwith service based businesses
(15:28):
and many of them are, you knowthey're locally based a
restaurant, a day spa, thingslike that.
It doesn't help them at all.
It's just a fun thing to saylike, oh, I got a million views,
but it didn't sell themanything more Right, and there's
no benefit with Instagram, likethey don't go.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
Oh, look at this person's creating really great
stuff.
We should show their stuff toeverybody.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
Well, if you have a one-off, then it's not going to
really do anything, but if youconsistently start doing things
that go viral, then, yeah,they're going to start showing
it to more people.
So in that case, um, that mighthappen, but I find most times
the things that go viral aretotally random and it's not a
(16:13):
repeatable thing.
It's just like, oh what, whydid that happen?
I don't know, right.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
Yeah, I don't know if you're on threads much, but
there was a weird thing thathappened a couple of weeks ago
on threads with hash browns, andhash browns became a trending
topic, and I don't even reallyremember how it happened.
I read the story somewhere butlike everyone was talking about
hash browns and I posted onthere and I was like I have been
trying for months and monthsand months to like get some
(16:43):
traction on this platform andall hash Browns had to do was
just exist, exactly.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
And that's.
That's exactly what I'm talkingabout is like the weird, most
random thing you know go viraland it doesn't do anything for
anybody.
It's just this fun thing andand I think a lot of virality is
is more comedy or or somethingthat's really like heartfelt and
(17:10):
people really feel something,but a lot of times it is
something just really funny andsilly that people identify with.
Speaker 1 (17:18):
Yeah yeah, I get much better results when I post
videos of my foster kittens thanI do anything business related.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
Which is tough because, yeah, you're like I
want to promote my business andI want to talk about my business
, but I know if I put my kittensup here, I'm going to get like
10 times as many.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
Right, right, maybe I need to combine the two and
make like virtual networkingwith kittens and then everyone
will show up.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
Yeah, like they have goat yoga, you know, right, yeah
.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
Hey, this is brilliant, Thank you.
So I want to ask you anotherquestion about networking in
particular, because one of thethings that I talk about a lot
with networking is that itreally can happen anywhere that
you have the opportunity tocreate a connection with another
person, so it doesn'tnecessarily only happen at
networking events or networkingmeetings.
(18:10):
You can network on social media, you can network on a podcast,
you can network anywhere ifyou're focusing on that like
genuine connection, relationshipbuilding piece.
So what suggestions do you havefor how we can do that with
Instagram?
Speaker 2 (18:27):
like Facebook does.
They do have the broadcastchannel, which I haven't enacted
really much with my clientsbecause a lot of them have
enough trouble just gettingregular content out there, let
(18:47):
alone this other content to aspecial group of people.
But if somebody did want to dosomething more group-like, I
would probably tell them to do abroadcast channel and have
people follow the channel andthen that's kind of your
community within Instagram.
Okay.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
And what about like?
Is there any value in?
I know Threads is really big onengagement, like engaging with
people in the comments andresponding to other people's
comments.
Is that kind of the same onInstagram too?
Speaker 2 (19:19):
Yeah, I mean Threads is a little bit different of a
beast.
I think you know it was builtto combat X Twitter, and so I
think people I think peopleoften are more businessy even on
Instagram than they are onThreads.
I think people often are morebusinessy even on Instagram than
they are on threads.
I think people like to be onthreads because they like to
(19:40):
just chat about anything andthat's what people like about it
.
So, yeah, I find they're alittle bit different.
Like if I post, I have one ofmy clients, the spa, and I'll
cross post directly on threadssome of the stuff that I put on
Instagram and it just like noone cares because it's more, you
(20:05):
know, graphic based and it's alittle bit salesy, whereas
Instagram it'll get moretraction because people are like
looking to kind of buysomething.
They're used to that there, buton threads they're like just
just put a funny comment outthere, ask me something about
the sandwich I ate today.
You know what?
Speaker 1 (20:23):
I mean, we just want to talk about hash browns.
Leave us alone.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
Yeah, exactly, it's a little different.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
So, yeah, I will say, though, being on threads
consistently has gotten me morefollowers on Instagram than
probably anything else I havetried, which is crazy because,
like, I never have the thoughton threads like, oh, I should go
follow this person on Instagram, but people do it a lot, so
that's good.
Speaker 2 (20:47):
That's been a benefit .
I know I kind of I go back andforth with threads and sometimes
I'm more active on it and thensometimes I abandon it.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
Yeah, same.
Okay, so I know I was actuallyreading one of your carousel
posts before I came on here, andone of the things that you were
talking about was some of thecommon mistakes that
entrepreneurs make when it comesto Instagram, and we've talked
about several of themprioritizing, going viral over
like giving actual value,prioritizing creating
relationships.
And then the last one that youmentioned was spreading yourself
too thin.
(21:24):
So I'm assuming I know what youmean by that, but tell us just
in case.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
I find that a lot of business owners start with
awesome intentions and they arelike I'm going to post every day
and I'm going to post you know,10 reels a month and all this
stuff, and they don't reallyunderstand what it takes to do
that.
And so they think, oh, it'sgoing to be so easy.
And a lot of times they thinkthey can just take five minutes
(21:58):
out of their day and just do oneof those, and that doesn't.
It might happen for two weeksand then it's like so most
people, if they want to bereally effective and posting all
the time, they need some help.
Now, whether it's from you knowsomeone like me that does a full
(22:18):
strategy, or maybe you justneed a virtual assistant where
you say you know, these are the10 things I want to talk about
this week.
Help me to maybe schedule thosethings, or maybe you can help
me with a few graphics.
But yeah, a lot of times peoplethink it's going to be so easy.
Or they do do it one month andthey get it all organized, and
(22:41):
then it's like, oh, this is hard, I don't really feel like doing
this anymore.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
Yeah, they're like me and you on threads.
We get really into it.
And then we're like, yeah, Idon't want to do this anymore.
Yeah, exactly, those are reallygood tips.
So is there anything that wehaven't touched on?
I mean, I know there's a lot wehaven't covered, but anything
that you're thinking like okay,if you're a business owner and
you're on Instagram right now,this is what you need to know.
Speaker 2 (23:04):
Yeah.
So one thing I talk about a lotand people always are like, oh,
I, like that's a nice idea isusing Instagram like a funnel,
and so the top of your funnel isgoing to be your reels, because
if you can do some you know 30second reels that just get
people's eyeballs, get theirattention.
(23:26):
One thing about Instagram is itwill show your reels to people
outside of your following, so sothat's a really great way to
get new people to look at stuff.
So have something you knowreally catchy that grabs their
eye, that gets them wanting toknow more about you, and then,
(23:46):
um, those people will hopefullygo to your profile.
So your regular feed needs tohave, um, just more information
about you, your services or yourproduct, so they can get a lot
more in depth about who you areand what you do.
And then you can switch over todoing some stories every day,
(24:09):
and those should be a little bitmore personal so that people
can see the person behind thebrand.
So you, um, you know somepeople aren't comfortable with,
like, showing their kids at all,but other people, you know they
might say, oh, I'm at mydaughter's soccer game this
weekend and, you know, justshowing like.
You are human.
You either have a family or youhave a dog or you take care of
(24:32):
your mom.
You know whatever Um they showthat side of it and you can mix
in.
You know whatever Um the showthat side of it and you can mix
in.
You know your business poststoo.
And then finally, um, you coulddo a broadcast channel if you
have the bandwidth for that.
If not, um, the end piece Iwould say, if you want the full
spectrum, is to do um, maybe alive once a month and talk to
(24:55):
those people and maybe do like aQ and a.
If you have some kind of um youknow product that you want to
demonstrate, you coulddemonstrate it.
And then you've got people liveon with you.
They can ask you questions.
You can answer them right theresame time.
Um, so that's a great kind ofending sales pitch area on on
(25:18):
those lives.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
So, yeah, that's a great idea.
Okay, now I have a lot of ideas.
I'm like I gotta go create myInstagram strategy.
I was really.
I was doing so great withInstagram for a while and then I
kind of was like I'll justleave my three pinned posts here
and call it good.
And I, I've been posting alittle more recently, but
definitely not consistent.
I we hear it all the time andyet we always need to be
(25:42):
reminded that consistency andconstancy are not the same
things.
So I don't know why we do this.
We're like I'm going to post 10times a day, every day, and
then we're like oh, I didn't doit, now I'm done.
How about just like once a week.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
Because I do so much, content for everybody else that
.
But at the end of the day andthey're paying me.
So I'm like okay, I'm going todo it because you're paying me.
But then, when it comes to mine, I'm like oh, I'm so tired, I
don't want to do anymore, and noone's paying me to do it.
So yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
I know, I feel you Okay, so we definitely need to
get Instagram for dummies thebusiness edition so I will put
the link for that in the shownotes.
I'm excited to get that too.
I think it's going to be superhelpful.
What are some other ways thatpeople can contact you or learn
more about what you do?
Obviously, they can follow youon Instagram, but what's the
best way for them to learn aboutyour work as well what you do?
Speaker 2 (26:36):
Obviously, they can follow you on Instagram but
what's the best way for them tolearn about your work as well?
Sure, so my website isthemarketingspecialistcom, and
that is really my agency website, so it talks about all the
different services that I offer.
You know, along with socialmedia, I'm a MailChimp partner,
so I do all sorts of emailmarketing campaigns as well.
(26:56):
Partner, so I do all sorts ofemail marketing campaigns as
well.
So, yeah, the marketingspecialist.
And then on Instagram, I'm atHori C Walker.
So those are the places.
And then the Instagram forBusiness for Dummies is
available on Amazon.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
Awesome.
I will link to all those thingsin the show notes so people can
check them out, and Iappreciate you so much coming
and chatting with us and givingsome tips and getting me excited
about Instagram again.
Yay, thank you so much.
Thanks for having me.
Hello, Corey, Welcome to the podcast.
Thanks for having me.
Yeah, so excited to talk to youabout Instagram.
I have such a love-hate withInstagram so I'm happy.
It's understandable I'm sureit's not the first time you've
heard that.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
No, and I actually agree with you.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
But I'm excited to talk to you today about how we
can use it, maybe moreeffectively, maybe we can
increase the love ratio.
So tell everybody, before wedive in, a little bit about you
and about what you do.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Sure.
Well, my name is Kori Walker.
I am the co-author of Instagramfor Dummies and Instagram for
Business for Dummies, and I'malso a digital agency owner in
the Sacramento area, so I help alot of service-based
professionals with their socialmedia and email marketing.
(00:55):
I really enjoy being in thatspace and helping some of the
people that are, you know, justsole prop or have a small
business.
I really like talking to thosepeople and helping elevate their
business and their own personalgrowth, so that's what I do.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
That's awesome.
I love that because you know somany of us, especially in
service based businesses.
It's like we get into.
I always tell the story of whenI started my first business.
I was a dating relationshipcoach and I really had no idea.
I had small business fordummies and I read it on my back
porch but it did not prepare meat all for all of the things
(01:41):
and I thought like I really kindof just thought I was going to
show up and say, hey, I'm acoach who needs coaching and
like all the people were goingto line up and throw their money
at me and it was going to beamazing.
So, uh, we're really glad thatpeople like you exist to help us
with some of the other thingsthat are essential to growing a
business, but not really what.
We got into business because wewanted to do so Well yeah, and
(02:04):
it's gotten.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
You know I've.
I actually this July was my20th anniversary with this
business and it's obviouslychanged quite a bit and just the
more and more tech that getslayered on and on.
I work with a lot ofentrepreneurs that are, you know
, 50 and up, and it's gettingharder sometimes for them to
(02:33):
manage all these different youknow.
I mean, it gets hard for me andI'm like in this stuff every
day because it changes all thetime.
And now, with AI on top of it,it's like this whole new world.
So, yeah, it's a lot of peoplethink, oh, I'm going to be, you
know, a dentist and I'm justgoing to work on people's teeth.
But it's like, no, you have toknow marketing, you have to
(02:53):
market your practice, all ofthat and it's a lot more than
they originally bargained forand can be really the downfall
of their business if they don'tknow what they're doing in that
area or get some good help.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
Yeah, absolutely so.
There's a lot of directions wecould go in this.
There's so many differentaspects of Instagram that we
could talk about.
You mentioned AI.
I love the thought.
You know there's so manydifferent platforms, there's so
many different approaches thatpeople can take.
So today we're going to takejust a very like high level look
at Instagram, but maybe we'llinvite you back.
(03:28):
I feel like you could do like afive part series that would be
amazing.
So let's just talk Instagram ingeneral.
What are you seeing right nowin terms of business,
entrepreneurship, what's working?
What mistakes we're making?
What do we need to know aboutwhat's happening in Instagram
right now?
Speaker 2 (03:45):
Sure, well, you know they keep adding more and more
things, but one thing that Ihave seen consistently work well
is reels.
So the Instagram algorithmreally favors that.
People like seeing your face.
So if you can do a reel whereyou're, you know, talking to
(04:06):
your audience, that always doesreally well.
Even a selfie, you know, whenyou're not even talking about
anything too deep, just slappinga selfie every once in a while,
and that works surprisinglywell, better than you know a
five page carousel with allthese graphics.
You know a five page carouselwith all these graphics.
(04:27):
So, yeah, really showing up,showing your face, doing reels,
if you can incorporate somehumor into your reels or if
humor doesn't really fit withyour business, just hitting that
, that niche and really givingvaluable information so that you
can show yourself as the expertin that field.
I work with somebody right nowand he's a commercial real
(04:52):
estate broker, but hespecializes in 1031 exchanges,
which is like a very specificthing, and so all of his content
is very honed in on that,because there's not a lot of
people talking about that online, and so he's just making all
these reels, putting them onInstagram, tiktok, linkedin, all
(05:14):
these different places.
So bottom line reels are goingto be one of your good go-tos.
It's also getting to be moreand more pay to play.
So expect to, especially if youhave a new account, expect to
spend a little money to eitherdo some ads or even just boost
(05:39):
some of your posts to get alittle bit more traction,
because there's just so muchcontent out there it's it's
getting harder and harder to beseen if you don't give it a
little, you know, kick.
So that's something.
And then carousels do also work.
Well, that one I suggest forpeople when they're like, oh, I
(06:00):
can't do you know reels everyday, and I completely understand
that.
Like, oh, I can't do you knowreels every day, and I
completely understand that.
Um, carousels, I would say, isprobably second in line under
reels, and if your viewers orlisteners don't aren't familiar
with carousels, it's the onewhere it's up to 20 cards
basically in one post.
(06:21):
Um, so you'll see people, doyou know my?
My top five tips for X, y and Z?
And then maybe they put a tipon each card.
The reason those work there'sthere's two big reasons.
The first reason is every timesomeone taps to that next card,
that is telling Instagram thatthat person kind of likes you
(06:43):
and the algorithm.
So that's a positive experienceand they're hoping that you go,
you know, all the way to theend.
So that's going to boost thatup in the algorithm.
The second thing is that ifsomeone's scrolling through and
they see that first card andthen say an hour later they're
scrolling again, it'sautomatically going to serve
(07:05):
them the second card.
So that's kind of cool becausethey're not just seeing the
first one.
It's almost like I kind ofliken it to a drip campaign.
So it's like they, just as longas they're kind of keep
scrolling and your content'scoming up, they're going to see
the next one in line.
So I really like that scrollingand your content's coming up,
they're going to see the nextone in line, so I really like
(07:26):
that, yeah, so those are.
Those are probably three of mytop tips for Instagram.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
Yeah, that's good.
I didn't realize that.
About carousels, I mean, I'veheard people say that they you
should make them, and they workwell, but I didn't know exactly
why, so that's awesome.
I want to go back to somethingthat you said about reels,
because I think a lot of times,like I'm one of those people
that I am resistant to making areel because I feel like it's
(07:51):
going to be so much work Right,like I need to learn the dance
and then I need to like pick theright song, and then I need to
add like graphics, or I need tolike have a little like funny
caption that pops up or likewhatever, right.
And so I love what you saidabout like you can just turn on
your camera and talk to peopleand that also is effective.
Can you talk a little bit moreabout that, especially for
(08:13):
people who feel like overwhelmedand we want to overcomplicate
it?
Speaker 2 (08:17):
Yeah, sure.
So you know, one thing that Ihave people do sometimes is just
write down or even use chat GPTto help you generate this.
But think of whatever in yourindustry are the top.
You know 20 questions you getfrequently and you can do
something as simple as sittingand batching this out, sitting
(08:39):
in front of the camera, andmaybe have a text overlay that
says you know what's your bestbaking tip for making croissants
I don't know whatever it is andthen that can almost be like a
silent person asking thequestion and then you can say,
(08:59):
well, my best tips are blah,blah, blah.
But yeah, if you just come upwith some questions, use a
little text overlay, just talkto that.
You could sit there and knockout 20 of them, just put them on
Dropbox.
Or if you have something like Iuse later as a scheduler a lot
of people have schedulers Nowyou could just pop them all in
(09:21):
your scheduler and even pop themin without captions.
Yet Just get that done and thengo in later and put on captions
.
But yeah, I mean I fall into thesame trap.
I get like, oh, I'm doing it.
And when I get on a roll whichI have not been on a roll lately
.
But when I get on a roll I kindof like, oh okay, oh okay, I'm
(09:44):
gonna do this.
And then I get excited and moreideas come to me.
So if you can just get overthat hump of getting into the
the role of it, it makes it alot easier.
But there's there's other waysthat I like people to do things
as well, like I have peoplethat'll just maybe record
(10:07):
something in their office, likethey're working at their
computer, and just maybe you doit as a fast.
You know a speed thing whereyou're just have it there all
day and it's just recording youand then you just do, you know,
maybe a quote or maybe some kindof tip or something, just as a
text overlay.
And yeah, it doesn't have to behard, it can be really easy,
(10:31):
and using ChatGPT to generatesome of those ideas makes it
even easier.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
Yeah, is there any kind of tech that you recommend
if we are going to start doingreels or we want to up our reels
game Like?
Is there any specific software?
Do we need a ring light?
Do we need a microphone, or dowe just pick up our phone and
start doing it?
Speaker 2 (10:52):
I mean, you can just pick up your phone and start
doing it.
Instagram now has their ownstandalone app called edits, and
that's kind of their answer toCapCut called edits, and that's
kind of their answer to CapCutUm, if you're familiar with
CapCut um, and so that's an easyone, and it has a lot more
features than just your regularInstagram.
(11:13):
Um, you know they're all oftheir editing in reels, um.
The thing I like about it, too,is you can export it with sound
, with all that stuff, and itdoesn't have the Instagram logo
on it, so you can put it onTikTok or YouTube shorts,
wherever you want.
Um, but so you can do thatwithout anything.
(11:35):
What I do recommend um, I have alittle thing.
I just have it right here.
This is just a tiny little mic.
Um, I think I got this onAmazon for maybe 13 bucks.
It can um just pop into yourphone and then you can put this
little clip, like you know,right on your shirt.
So that's an easy one.
(11:56):
This one's called pop voice, so,um, and literally I think it
was like 13 bucks.
And then I have um a ring light, and I think this was maybe 20
bucks on Amazon, so you don'tneed, you know, this high def
camera and special all thatstuff.
(12:18):
And if you don't, if you wantto get started right away and
haven't bought anything onAmazon for a light, just sit,
like I always sit in front ofthe window Anyway, I've got a
window right in front of me andthat provides lots of natural
light or go outside.
That's an easy way to do it forfree.
So I'm all about like, doingthings as cheaply as possible,
(12:39):
because I have to pay for somany different, you know,
subscriptions to things.
So if I can have someone dosomething like and it still
looks good, then I'm all for it,yeah, and making it as simple
as possible, too.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
I think that's going to make us more likely to do it
than if we are still trying tomake it overly complicated, yeah
.
So I think one of the thingsthat people I was going to say
screw up, that's not a very nicething to say One of the things
that people think a lot when itcomes to Instagram or any social
(13:16):
media really is that in orderto be successful or to get
traction, we have to havesomething that goes viral.
And I have a good friend who'sa parenting coach and she had a
couple reels that went likecrazy viral in the beginning of
her business, and I think Iactually had her on the podcast
real early on when I firststarted and she was talking
(13:38):
about that and how, like, whatshe thought was going to happen
versus what actually happenedwere not the same thing.
So can you tell us, like, do wewant to go viral?
Is it a good thing?
Is it like not that big of adeal, but like cool if it
happens, or what's your take onthat?
Speaker 2 (13:55):
I mean, usually if you go viral, it's not, it's
it's not anything to do withyour business.
What I find most people goviral for is like they posted a
picture, or I mean a video,where they, you know, were in
their backyard and tripped overtheir dogs.
You know, something liketotally stupid, like that will
go viral.
It's not usually the thingthat's going to move the needle
(14:19):
on your business.
So I had I have a client thathas a nail salon and I posted
this reel for him.
It was actually a repost ofsomeone else's reel that I just
added some stuff to.
So that's something you can dotoo is do like a remix.
So I did that and it didn't.
I mean, I won't say it wentviral, but it got.
(14:43):
You know, his usual posts gotmaybe a thousand views.
This one got like 10,000 views,but and it got lots of likes,
but it was from people like allover the place.
Now he's got a nail salon that'slocal.
You know you don't do onlinenail salons, you have to be
physically present.
So I mean, yeah, it was cool,cause he got hundreds of likes
that where he usually doesn'tget that many, cause it's all
(15:06):
very local.
Um, so that was fun, but itdidn't.
It wasn't like people werepouring into his business and so
the whole viral thing.
Typically, unless you have someglobal brand, like up your
target or something like thatit's it's not going to do what
you think it's going to do.
And especially since I workwith service based businesses
(15:28):
and many of them are, you knowthey're locally based a
restaurant, a day spa, thingslike that.
It doesn't help them at all.
It's just a fun thing to saylike, oh, I got a million views,
but it didn't sell themanything more Right, and there's
no benefit with Instagram, likethey don't go.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
Oh, look at this person's creating really great
stuff.
We should show their stuff toeverybody.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
Well, if you have a one-off, then it's not going to
really do anything, but if youconsistently start doing things
that go viral, then, yeah,they're going to start showing
it to more people.
So in that case, um, that mighthappen, but I find most times
the things that go viral aretotally random and it's not a
(16:13):
repeatable thing.
It's just like, oh what, whydid that happen?
I don't know, right.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
Yeah, I don't know if you're on threads much, but
there was a weird thing thathappened a couple of weeks ago
on threads with hash browns, andhash browns became a trending
topic, and I don't even reallyremember how it happened.
I read the story somewhere butlike everyone was talking about
hash browns and I posted onthere and I was like I have been
trying for months and monthsand months to like get some
(16:43):
traction on this platform andall hash Browns had to do was
just exist, exactly.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
And that's.
That's exactly what I'm talkingabout is like the weird, most
random thing you know go viraland it doesn't do anything for
anybody.
It's just this fun thing andand I think a lot of virality is
is more comedy or or somethingthat's really like heartfelt and
(17:10):
people really feel something,but a lot of times it is
something just really funny andsilly that people identify with.
Speaker 1 (17:18):
Yeah yeah, I get much better results when I post
videos of my foster kittens thanI do anything business related.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
Which is tough because, yeah, you're like I
want to promote my business andI want to talk about my business
, but I know if I put my kittensup here, I'm going to get like
10 times as many.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
Right, right, maybe I need to combine the two and
make like virtual networkingwith kittens and then everyone
will show up.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
Yeah, like they have goat yoga, you know, right, yeah
.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
Hey, this is brilliant, Thank you.
So I want to ask you anotherquestion about networking in
particular, because one of thethings that I talk about a lot
with networking is that itreally can happen anywhere that
you have the opportunity tocreate a connection with another
person, so it doesn'tnecessarily only happen at
networking events or networkingmeetings.
(18:10):
You can network on social media, you can network on a podcast,
you can network anywhere ifyou're focusing on that like
genuine connection, relationshipbuilding piece.
So what suggestions do you havefor how we can do that with
Instagram?
Speaker 2 (18:27):
like Facebook does.
They do have the broadcastchannel, which I haven't enacted
really much with my clientsbecause a lot of them have
enough trouble just gettingregular content out there, let
(18:47):
alone this other content to aspecial group of people.
But if somebody did want to dosomething more group-like, I
would probably tell them to do abroadcast channel and have
people follow the channel andthen that's kind of your
community within Instagram.
Okay.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
And what about like?
Is there any value in?
I know Threads is really big onengagement, like engaging with
people in the comments andresponding to other people's
comments.
Is that kind of the same onInstagram too?
Speaker 2 (19:19):
Yeah, I mean Threads is a little bit different of a
beast.
I think you know it was builtto combat X Twitter, and so I
think people I think peopleoften are more businessy even on
Instagram than they are onThreads.
I think people often are morebusinessy even on Instagram than
they are on threads.
I think people like to be onthreads because they like to
(19:40):
just chat about anything andthat's what people like about it
.
So, yeah, I find they're alittle bit different.
Like if I post, I have one ofmy clients, the spa, and I'll
cross post directly on threadssome of the stuff that I put on
Instagram and it just like noone cares because it's more, you
(20:05):
know, graphic based and it's alittle bit salesy, whereas
Instagram it'll get moretraction because people are like
looking to kind of buysomething.
They're used to that there, buton threads they're like just
just put a funny comment outthere, ask me something about
the sandwich I ate today.
You know what?
Speaker 1 (20:23):
I mean, we just want to talk about hash browns.
Leave us alone.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
Yeah, exactly, it's a little different.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
So, yeah, I will say, though, being on threads
consistently has gotten me morefollowers on Instagram than
probably anything else I havetried, which is crazy because,
like, I never have the thoughton threads like, oh, I should go
follow this person on Instagram, but people do it a lot, so
that's good.
Speaker 2 (20:47):
That's been a benefit .
I know I kind of I go back andforth with threads and sometimes
I'm more active on it and thensometimes I abandon it.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
Yeah, same.
Okay, so I know I was actuallyreading one of your carousel
posts before I came on here, andone of the things that you were
talking about was some of thecommon mistakes that
entrepreneurs make when it comesto Instagram, and we've talked
about several of themprioritizing, going viral over
like giving actual value,prioritizing creating
relationships.
And then the last one that youmentioned was spreading yourself
too thin.
(21:24):
So I'm assuming I know what youmean by that, but tell us just
in case.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
I find that a lot of business owners start with
awesome intentions and they arelike I'm going to post every day
and I'm going to post you know,10 reels a month and all this
stuff, and they don't reallyunderstand what it takes to do
that.
And so they think, oh, it'sgoing to be so easy.
And a lot of times they thinkthey can just take five minutes
(21:58):
out of their day and just do oneof those, and that doesn't.
It might happen for two weeksand then it's like so most
people, if they want to bereally effective and posting all
the time, they need some help.
Now, whether it's from you knowsomeone like me that does a full
(22:18):
strategy, or maybe you justneed a virtual assistant where
you say you know, these are the10 things I want to talk about
this week.
Help me to maybe schedule thosethings, or maybe you can help
me with a few graphics.
But yeah, a lot of times peoplethink it's going to be so easy.
Or they do do it one month andthey get it all organized, and
(22:41):
then it's like, oh, this is hard, I don't really feel like doing
this anymore.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
Yeah, they're like me and you on threads.
We get really into it.
And then we're like, yeah, Idon't want to do this anymore.
Yeah, exactly, those are reallygood tips.
So is there anything that wehaven't touched on?
I mean, I know there's a lot wehaven't covered, but anything
that you're thinking like okay,if you're a business owner and
you're on Instagram right now,this is what you need to know.
Speaker 2 (23:04):
Yeah.
So one thing I talk about a lotand people always are like, oh,
I, like that's a nice idea isusing Instagram like a funnel,
and so the top of your funnel isgoing to be your reels, because
if you can do some you know 30second reels that just get
people's eyeballs, get theirattention.
(23:26):
One thing about Instagram is itwill show your reels to people
outside of your following, so sothat's a really great way to
get new people to look at stuff.
So have something you knowreally catchy that grabs their
eye, that gets them wanting toknow more about you, and then,
(23:46):
um, those people will hopefullygo to your profile.
So your regular feed needs tohave, um, just more information
about you, your services or yourproduct, so they can get a lot
more in depth about who you areand what you do.
And then you can switch over todoing some stories every day,
(24:09):
and those should be a little bitmore personal so that people
can see the person behind thebrand.
So you, um, you know somepeople aren't comfortable with,
like, showing their kids at all,but other people, you know they
might say, oh, I'm at mydaughter's soccer game this
weekend and, you know, justshowing like.
You are human.
You either have a family or youhave a dog or you take care of
(24:32):
your mom.
You know whatever Um they showthat side of it and you can mix
in.
You know whatever Um the showthat side of it and you can mix
in.
You know your business poststoo.
And then finally, um, you coulddo a broadcast channel if you
have the bandwidth for that.
If not, um, the end piece Iwould say, if you want the full
spectrum, is to do um, maybe alive once a month and talk to
(24:55):
those people and maybe do like aQ and a.
If you have some kind of um youknow product that you want to
demonstrate, you coulddemonstrate it.
And then you've got people liveon with you.
They can ask you questions.
You can answer them right theresame time.
Um, so that's a great kind ofending sales pitch area on on
(25:18):
those lives.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
So, yeah, that's a great idea.
Okay, now I have a lot of ideas.
I'm like I gotta go create myInstagram strategy.
I was really.
I was doing so great withInstagram for a while and then I
kind of was like I'll justleave my three pinned posts here
and call it good.
And I, I've been posting alittle more recently, but
definitely not consistent.
I we hear it all the time andyet we always need to be
(25:42):
reminded that consistency andconstancy are not the same
things.
So I don't know why we do this.
We're like I'm going to post 10times a day, every day, and
then we're like oh, I didn't doit, now I'm done.
How about just like once a week.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
Because I do so much, content for everybody else that
.
But at the end of the day andthey're paying me.
So I'm like okay, I'm going todo it because you're paying me.
But then, when it comes to mine, I'm like oh, I'm so tired, I
don't want to do anymore, and noone's paying me to do it.
So yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
I know, I feel you Okay, so we definitely need to
get Instagram for dummies thebusiness edition so I will put
the link for that in the shownotes.
I'm excited to get that too.
I think it's going to be superhelpful.
What are some other ways thatpeople can contact you or learn
more about what you do?
Obviously, they can follow youon Instagram, but what's the
best way for them to learn aboutyour work as well what you do?
Speaker 2 (26:36):
Obviously, they can follow you on Instagram but
what's the best way for them tolearn about your work as well?
Sure, so my website isthemarketingspecialistcom, and
that is really my agency website, so it talks about all the
different services that I offer.
You know, along with socialmedia, I'm a MailChimp partner,
so I do all sorts of emailmarketing campaigns as well.
(26:56):
Partner, so I do all sorts ofemail marketing campaigns as
well.
So, yeah, the marketingspecialist.
And then on Instagram, I'm atHori C Walker.
So those are the places.
And then the Instagram forBusiness for Dummies is
available on Amazon.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
Awesome.
I will link to all those thingsin the show notes so people can
check them out, and Iappreciate you so much coming
and chatting with us and givingsome tips and getting me excited
about Instagram again.
Yay, thank you so much.
Thanks for having me.
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CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist
It’s 1996 in rural North Carolina, and an oddball crew makes history when they pull off America’s third largest cash heist. But it’s all downhill from there. Join host Johnny Knoxville as he unspools a wild and woolly tale about a group of regular ‘ol folks who risked it all for a chance at a better life. CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist answers the question: what would you do with 17.3 million dollars? The answer includes diamond rings, mansions, velvet Elvis paintings, plus a run for the border, murder-for-hire-plots, and FBI busts.