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Posting Q&A

Lesson 15 from: Instagram® Marketing for Small Businesses

Sue B. Zimmerman

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Lesson Info

15. Posting Q&A

Lesson Info

Posting Q&A

keeping a list of all of your ideas in one spot is really important for pictures, with the gold smiling. So I'm going to say videos and campaigns, and we are going to get into videos tomorrow, which is gonna be great. You can, you know, the more ideas that you have handy. It's just the easier it is to create your content that you're gonna want to share. So there's different. You know, we have different campaigns for, you know, different things that we're doing within our company, and we have organization within each campaign as well. And we try to have, like, a monthly time where we discuss what we're going to be doing that month. And then everything goes in that folder. We all kind of communicate within base camp, which is another tool that we use to keep it all together. Yeah, the more the more success you experience, the more you're going to need to really get your systems in place, especially if you're bringing on a team member so that they can do it. If you aren't doing it. Yeah, ...

I was going to say so and so Nicole has a question, but for those of you that have a system that works for you, I think will be great to share that with the live audience. I just wanted to give everybody another option to base camp. There's a free version called Asana A s a dot com, and it is a project management system. And you can assign tasks to your other team members and so on and so forth. So it's something that I just found in It has been working for my team. That's great. I do have some dialogue created about how you journal. I mean, there's a lot of ways you can do that. You can physically journal. Do you ever notice anyone in here? You big for me? How do you use Evernote to journal? Well, I have notebooks, and we keep everything there as well. The I love. I love everything. Yeah, yeah. I love the idea that anyone who uses ever note though, and how you use it on. I'm using Evernote right now to take notes for this class. Okay? Yeah. Do you? Oh, I dio and I'm just getting better at it every day. Just like instagram I ever notice is amazing. And there's every time I do something, there's something else to learn there as well. Um, I have the software called Bundle Post. That's amazing. And it helps me, um, curate content and bring in RSS feeds and everything that's relevant for my business for my clients, businesses and for my audience, is so it's it's pretty amazing. And how many clients do you managing at one time? Well, it's not the number of clients is the number of platforms, right? Channels? Yes. So I'm managing about probably eight or 10 right now with tons more in the pipeline constantly. But I will only do so many at one time because I'm on a six month agreement with each one. So it's a minimum of six months to start, and then, you know, I got to be able to do a really solid job for each one so and your particular well, I have one so far. I just had to add somebody on within the last couple of months to help me with my my weak spot, which is the graphics. Oh, yeah. So? So I came to you, but I'm I'm gonna be adding somebody on again before the fall because I can see I'm starting to get busier and busier And I'm gonna add somebody on to help me with the social accounts and, you know, engaging in real time. So that's what bundle Post does for me. It frees me up to engage in real time. And so you're still doing what you love and your Oh, my gosh, yeah, yes, I think you see, for me it's easy for the for the companies that I represent. It's so hard, Yeah, I think you know as you grow, which is what we all want to dio and you bring on a team which is all exciting toe Have you want to make sure that you, the business owner, is always doing what makes you happy? And you're still kind of in that space and not giving up what you're passionate about doing and making sure that the team members you bring on are gonna add value and make that easier and more efficient. And to have one just to have one, you know to say, team, it's just to have the release of having relief of having someone else help you with what you're doing and you can get great interns. There is a lot of interns at colleges that air dying to have experience. I start often with an intern and turn them into unemployed. If it works that well, some great virtual assistant resource is I mean, we talk about it all the time. In my industry, you know, people that you could bring in tow help you even if it's a temporary, a campaign based project or something. Um, I haven't had to do that, but, you know, it's like you said before he got to focus on what you're really strong in, and my strength is in being with the people and being online and being social. And so some of the behind the scenes stuff Aiken delegate out. Yeah, that's great. And actually, our audience wants to hear from you on that. PSU Snaps wants to know about your graphics team. Oversees. Yes, I have a team in the Philippines. Okay, Um, which is amazing a match. My team is part of my friends team. It's she's an app developer, and she's given me access to her team, and all the awesome graphics that you see in the bonuses were produced by my team overseas, which is wonderful. We communicate in base camp. We tell them exactly what we need them to do. We wake up in the morning Boom, it's there. Are there any challenges that you want to share That you learned from, you know, literally communicating exactly what you need them to dio, Um and we actually put videos in the communications, so we tell them as well as write it. So we've gotten better at the communication, so we have to redo graphics five times. We also do logos for companies, so we use them to help us facilitate those little goes. But yeah, I've outsourced. I used to have a graphic team here. It got really expensive and outsourced it. And for me, it's been, um, such a big part of my online branding and being able to invest in high quality graphics other than what I can do online from the tools that I used. Great. Did you have anything else to add on the journaling? Because we have some general questions that are coming up. And maybe we could start a dialogue in the room as well. Yeah, let's question. Okay, great. Bad going back to when you were talking about snapping photos of your customers before they leave your store. Snaps and Libby want to know who you speak on the permission. Getting the permission from the instructors, Snap says, Do you get a form? Libby says. How do you get the permission when you take their picture? But I do not get a form. Um, I'm the person that says, I ask for forgiveness, not permission and if they want me to delete it. Which happened last year? One of the mothers of the girl who said, I definitely want to be on Instagram Her mother got upset and she was a lawyer and she sent me this email that was very threatening. I immediately deleted it. I called her. I apologized. I said, the daughter, You know, you have to be careful with the kids that are under that are all over instagram and love it and want to have a lot of followers. So that was my lesson learned. I do not have anything written because you can delete a post as fast as you put it up. Yeah, and because my store is in a very intimate family, like setting it. It works. Well, I'm not recommending this for Ah, big brand that has to be careful with that kind of thing. Okay, great way. Have some other questions coming in. And this one's from instant newbie. And we were just talking about file structure. Where to Save in the cloud. And they want to know, Does Sue use a specific file naming convention per photo to keep individual photos organized? So if you're uploading the dropbox, is there a system that you would recommend? We do have a system. So we start with the date. All of our folders are the date and then within the date, each of my team members have a folder eso depending on who's working on the accounts. In this case, it would be Rachel. Rachel has her folder with those images, and we name the images. We name each one of the images. Yes, that we can easily find them. So they're not just a string of numbers. Now. I love to come to our students here. Has anything come up as a question during the pre posting process? Mona Lisa has a question here. I was just wondering. I actually recently brought somebody on to help me post on Instagram, and she's been helping me out with, like, quote and content. But I was wondering, How do we stay true to our voices, Especially going to do a micro bloggers that something that they won't do for us, and we just go in and like, maybe change it if we use the schedule? Graham. Well, how do you feel about that? First, I want to find out and check in. Are you happy with what she's doing? Is that your voice? Is that working for you? Do you feel it is? It is. But I feel like there could be some tweaks. Yeah, so I think it's really important to make sure that it feels exactly like you. Um, Rachel, who's doing my accounts, is literally my brain, like she knows exactly how I think and how I post and is posting exactly how I would. And if I ever catch something that she's posting, that's just not resonating out, I'll tell her to change it, deleted or add something. So you you need to make sure that people no, it's you, Um, because they will pick up on that over time. So you're saying to the description toe ad? Yeah, like maybe I just Maybe she would just do, like, the actual photos. And then I do the description. Maybe that would work. Well, e mean, that's gonna be a little challenging, because the descriptions happen with the post when you uploaded it. But if you're doing it in schedule, Graham and you have a photo. Is she enhancing the photo? Is that what she's doing for you? She she's posting it. She just Okay, so So when you post the photo, that's when you post the description. You can't. You can go into the comments and posted description, but it will get moved down and eventually you won't see it. So you want the description to be done when you upload the photo or the video. So you might wanna rethink that a little bit, especially if it's not failing, like the lining with you and your branding okay. And has had one suggestion. Um, lucid chart is something that I would use for organizing ideas and just with a call you said chart dot com Who said chart? Yeah, so they just they have ways that you could make flow charts and like mind mapping and all of that. So that's a good way that I have used for keeping track of processes and ideas to That's good. Any other questions from our students about pre posting? We've got a few online where we have another one that came in were talking about how you store your photos and Step one wants to know what size is advised for the photos uploaded to Instagram. So when you're dumping all these photos into Dropbox or you then converting them and compressing them, I'm not converting are compressing it all. It's my phone, literally dumps to drop box. I have it. It sinks right to Dropbox and goes there. And then we change the name of the file right within. Make it easy for you. It's all about being efficient. If it's not easy and it's taking a lot of time, I would rethink the system. That's true. The great thing that when you're in the chat room, which you can do by clicking on that chat with live participants Button is that you can actually start to build community. We were talking earlier about the overseas graphics help you need. And now we have freelance US designers uniting on. And there's they're people that have a need for that and come here. So they're passing information back and forth. Deals were getting made so great, right right there in the chat room. Great. Yeah, I was just on a collaboration call last week with one of my industry groups and, um, one of my friends and mentors, Robert Crews. So he does amazing graphics. And he said, If you format it for Instagram than everything else is is good to go because sometimes you know, like Twitter or Facebook, they'll shrink it down the mess with the sizing. And so he usually does the square format in around by 1900 if you can get away with it or 1600 by so that might help 600 something. Hundreds is standard. Yeah, yeah, And then just format it for Instagram and then go from there. Wow, he said, he's he's really safe. And he does amazing. Brandon graphic. I say, hey, follows, man. Yeah, he's good. Yeah. Following on from that are the give any advice? If with the idea that you're going to share your instagram posting onto other, like Facebook or Twitter in the description. Are is that do you have any advice about things that you would incorporate in the description knowing that you're going to? Yes, I'm talking about this later, but I will. I'll just let you know that when you do share over to Facebook, more importantly, Twitter, you most likely are gonna want to change your description, and you can do that. So when you click the share button, which is in the back end of Instagram and you're gonna share it over to Facebook and you click on Facebook to share it to you might want to change up what you're going to share in the description when you're sharing it over to Facebook. And if you're sharing it over Twitter, you want to make sure that that at mention is the right at mention and you're not sharing it with 30 hashtag. Okay, you know, to with the most, if you're sharing it over to Twitter and with the name of the photo does that um, do you have any strategy? I know you you have your own, but in terms of I don't know about these platforms. I think it might be Pinterest or some others Facebook. Maybe the naming can actually become important, like you should probably put your your own brand into the naming of the photo. I don't know when you're stating it or when your when. Your state when when you how you save it to, then post it. So it's all a matter of how you want to set up your naming process. I use square at my store to check out all the 200 items I sell. So my naming process with my photos pretty much lines up to how we do it in the store. Because when people buy something, they you search bracelet, anchor silver and then the item comes up and they click on it to buy it. So you just have to figure out what's the first thing I'm thinking of. Well, first it's a bracelet, and it has an anchor on it, and it's silver. So whatever system it's gonna work for you that you can easily access and remember, the key is to remember what you're doing. So it works for you when you can access it. I guess on Instagram though. When you click on a photo, you never see the name of the photo now during instrument. What? Working Internet. Okay. Yeah. Something don't really have to overthink. Just what? It's gonna work for you. I just wanted to speak to a social media, Um, person that managed manages your account for you because recently I love social media. I love the platforms. I love playing on them. I love posting to them. But I had to come to the realization that I needed to stick to what I was good at, which was video. So I did outsource my social media, um, to a company in my love. Yeah, and I'm like, consulting does my social media and they do an awesome job, and we need every other week. And they really understand who I am, what I would say, my brand. And if anything needs to be tweaked in that meeting, we can talk about it. So that is one of the strategies. When you have somebody that post for you, they really have to get who you are. Um, I feed them the information that I want out there, and they post it for me and um, the undergo the spur of the moment, The snap, the picture, Um, I supplement with there, but the rest of it, they have it scheduled. But it is my voice. It's what I want my brand to be Nickel. That's great, because I would never I didn't know that she is doing all because it really feels like your content based on how you know. Well, I know you, that's great. They're doing a good job. So zoo suey way actually do have some chatters in here that, you know they're not at the luxury to have other people doing things for them. Is this process helpful for them to tow, organize their ideas, organize their Clinton? Maybe it's even more valuable. Can you speak to that? Definitely. Because when I started out, I didn't have a team, so I can totally relate. I think, just simply having a system. So let's talk about it as a system, and Dropbox does have free access, and you can get more storage the more you get people to sign up. So that is not something that costs money. I am going back to Dropbox because that's what really works well for me. The key here is to really be organized and especially if you're a small business owner. Ah, Mom. With toddlers busy on the go and you just don't have that you feel like you don't have the time the time to do one more thing again. Never mind social media. And you know, I am here to really convince you that this platform is the easiest. The one way to get the most engagement and is really fun. But you you need a system to make it work. So you're not feeling frazzled as to what am I posting today? I need to post it in post Instagram today. What is it gonna be? So for those of those of you starting out that don't quite have the system yet, I think you know, as I said earlier, get the photos, get the visual content, the visual content that's going to tell the story and start there and commit to that. And it's okay if you know again this work in progress, like what's working for you this week? Maybe the following week? You tweak it and do it a little bit better on, and you realize that your systems aren't quite working or you're posting too much and you can't handle it. So it's so to the small business owner, you know, it's time. It's time and systems. I would agree with you there. My blawg actually didn't really start to take off for me until I started writing well ahead of the post and I had stuff ready to go and I felt at ease. And then the creativity started flowing. And then I end. Then it leaves you room Teoh have spontaneous Conrad as well and really stay in the moment and not feel like you're in the funnel of What am I doing? You just nailed it. I really feel like so many people are stressed. There's no need to be stressed here. There really isn't. This is all fun and and if you take away what you're anxious about creating for content and you you have a system where it's lined up, so you you're ready to post. Then you can actually be more creative, doing what you love and those spontaneous moments which, in my opinion, are the ones that pick people really engaged in the most when you're in the moment of posting really mixed, you know, mix Instagram Bond engaging and attracts those people that are following you for the same reason.

Class Materials

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How to Edit and Post Videos to Instagram®
How to Find and Follow Your Ideal Audience
Instagram® Gal Tip Book
Instagram® Instructional How Tos
The Anatomy of Instagram®
Videohance Tutorial
WordSwag Tutorial
InstaAwesome Kit

Ratings and Reviews

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I tuned in to the live stream from Cork Ireland a few days ago. It was late into the evening GMT. What I noticed was infectious enthusiasm laced with fun and instructional support. Without so much as a glass of water to rehydrate her @suebzimmerman went storming from one success to another. She was so sharp, empathetic & strong in her own skin - just the kind of guide you'd be proud to have.Every day I urge another person to check her out - because, for a business person who wants to become loved on line, she is the ideal coach. I've tuned in to many people on line - many who project an image of being wonderful - SueB delivers. Together with @artisancheesecompany, she "rocks" as you say in North America.Thank you for all the help you've given me and my company @changeagentsbranding. PS I've never met SueB - I simply love her ethos on Instagram. Paul O'Mahony @omaniblog

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Loved ♥ this class! Watched it over and over, then just could not live with out it and bought it. #suebzimmer, the hosts and guests were all dynamic, inspiring, and entertaining. There were so many great ideas. This course was worth every penny! I've already seen amazing results, and I can't thank you all enough for providing the wonderful experience that you do with Creative Live! You all rock! #indigocanyonsoaps

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I tuned in to the course from my office in Cork Ireland - late in the evening for about 2 hours. What I noticed was infectious enthusiasm laced with fun & instructional support. Without so much as a glass of water tro rehydrate her @suebzimmerman went stsorming from one successful session to another.She was so sharp, empathetic & strong in her own skin - just the kind of guide you'd be proud to have.Every day I urge another person to check her out. Because for a business person who wants to become loved on line - she is the ideal coach. I've tuned in to many people on line - many who've projected an image of being wonderful. SueB delivered. Together with @artisancheesecompany on Instagram - she "rocks" - as you say in North America. That 120 minutes with SueB gave me enough to last me for weeks. What I'd have got from the full course, I can barely imagine - but I bet it was phenomenal value. Thank you very much for the help you've given my company ChangeAgents Branding and the people we serve.

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