Using Instagram to Build Relationships

Shannon:
If you're a global business who wants to master relationships on social media, today's video is all about using the Gram to build relationships, likability, and trust.

Using Instagram to Build Relationships and Trust. So there's three keys to this. The first key is consistent content that serves your audience. Consistent content your audience wants equals cash. It equals cash, guys. And when you get into the hearts and the minds of your dream client, this comes out. And you start to figure out like, Sally wants to hear this, Susie wants to hear this. You'll start to get asked things over and over and over. And you'll be able to build your content library from that. So this content can come in the form of... and should always start on your website. But then you can make this into Instagram newsfeed posts, Instagram Lives. Make sure you turn that into an IGTV, being in your stories, and fun reels.

I'm going to go back to the Instagram Live thing for a second. Instagram Live is a great way to build those relationships. When it comes to folks, don't get hung up on not having a lot of followers on your Instagram Live right away. You're going to get the views after. And that's what I'm saying, take your Instagram and turn it into an IGTV Live. One trick that I tell my coaching clients is take your Lives and put them on your website and get them transcribed. Well, we'll talk about that another time. But don't get frustrated if nobody's coming to your Lives.

And Reels is a new thing. I'm just learning Reels myself. I'm spending the month mastering Reels. So I can come back and give you some tips and tricks. Notice that I did not say selling. I said, serving, serve your audience. And if somebody comments, respond.

All right, number two, follow your dream clients. Block time for engagement activities. And most importantly keep track of them. So what I mean is set a timer or block time in your calendar to engage. A timer actually lets me keep track of these people. So you don't lose focus or track of time. Because you can go down an Instagram rabbit hole, definitely, for sure. The other thing I tell folks is to keep track of them. I keep people that I follow in a spreadsheet. You may keep this in the notes on your phone. I like the spreadsheet because I put the Instagram URL in there. And I can click on it and I can go check to see if they've posted recently. All right.

And then the next thing is, you're going to want to engage with that dream client. And this is where that spreadsheet comes in key. Comment authentically, when it comes to your dream client. That means read what they're saying, comment more than four words, interact with their stories, show you care. The bottom line here is show you care. Because when you care, they see that as you care, and that builds your likability and trust.

So your action steps are consistent content, that's should be on your website, follow those dream clients, and engage authentically. So if you put these steps into play, and you use them and they start to work for you, I want you to tag me, tag me, tag me, tag me, or hashtag #simplifysquad.

Develop messaging to attract your dream clients

You've done the hard work of talking to your dream clients, drilling down what keeps them up at night and the product or service you offer. Now it's time to take everything you've discovered and put it to work in your marketing.

Last week, I had you do the task of taking the comments from your dream clients, from that survey, and putting it into a spreadsheet where commonalities were. So say, for example, I use myself. I often get told, "I don't know what to post on social media." And I will have several answers about that.

I put all those very similar comments into one column. And from there, we gauge what really is keeping our dream clients up at night.

Next up, we're going to take the comments, turn them into problem solving messaging that you can use on your website, content for your website, your social media, your email marketing, your elevator pitch, the ways to use this are endless. So number one, take what keeps your customer up at night and pick three and develop, "Does this sound like you?" statements. So I'll use myself as an example. Does this sound like you? You have no idea what you're supposed to be posting on social media. You're frustrated with Facebook ads not working for you. Are you afraid to put yourself out there?

Next, you'll solve the issue by talking about your product or service, by saying, "Imagine if." Imagine if you could reach your target audience with social media with the content they crave that serves them, had the confidence in your online presence, dialed in how to get Facebook ads to convert?

Lastly, work on updating messaging on your website, develop blog posts around this, and then also post to your social media.

A bonus to this is after developing this messaging, go back to that spreadsheet and take what keeps your customer up at night and turn it into blog content that then goes into your email marketing, that then goes into your social media.

Remember, put in the work.It's a process that does not happen overnight. It's a process that takes time and you’ll always be refining the process.

Shannon Hinderberger is a social media and digital marketing coach who lives in Bend, Oregon. She works with small business owners on how to grow their business using simple digital marketing strategies so they’re less overwhelmed, get results & save time. 

She has over 20 years in the online marketing space and loves helping business owners make an impact in their business.

Drilling down on what your dream client wants

Talking to your dream clients is an amazing task all business owners should take on, and that's what we've been doing over the past couple weeks. As I've said in the past, lots of people skip this step. You do not want to skip this step, and you're going to find out why.

Now that you've talked to them, your brain is spinning. What to do next? Today we're talking about all the data, dream client data deep dive.


How did it feel to talk to those dream customers? Did you learn something about them? One thing I like to do is spend some time grouping the answers into a spreadsheet and look for commonalities among the answers. Now I'll get to why that's important in just a second. I know it sounds kind of nerdy, but this step is really going to help you. I'm going to use real estate as an example.

You're a real estate agent, and you asked, what keeps you up at night about purchasing a home? What keeps you up at night? Think about that. For me, I would say buyer's remorse. Personal story, bought a house and literally for 45 days freaked out. Answers could be buyer's remorse, possible market crash. Did I pay too much? You get the point. What you do is you're going to make a spreadsheet for each question that you asked and group the answers. You might have several people that answered buyer's remorse. You might have several people that answered the market may crash. You have several people that answered sleepless nights about buying a house, or waiting for the offer to be accepted.

You make a spreadsheet for each question you asked. Don't skip this step. You'll find like which one has the most answers in it. It sounds kind of nerdy, but going through the questions and doing this step will help you process for the next part of what we're going to do with all this data, so not a step to miss.

Action step time. Let's get nerdy. Put each question in a tab of a spreadsheet. Go through the answers and group them into columns. This part of the process always inspires or ignites something, some sort of idea around the services offer. This could be the same for you for the products or services you offer.

Shannon Hinderberger is a social media and digital marketing coach who lives in Bend, Oregon. She works with small business owners on how to grow their business using simple digital marketing strategies so they’re less overwhelmed, get results & save time. 

She has over 20 years in the online marketing space and loves helping business owners make an impact in their business.