Is Blogging For Your Business Dead?

In a meeting a few weeks ago, a client of mine asked if blogging was dead? While I understand why it might be perceived that blogging is dead. Especially since we live in a world where a person would choose to watch a video to learn or connect with someone instead of reading a post.  The world of blogging is most certainly not dead, at least from an SEO standpoint. 

Blogging as much of a pain in the ass that is is, helps Google understand that you are a current website. A regular blog schedule helps keep your SEO up to date,  and the more that you blog, the more that Google will continue to feed your content to the top of people's searches. 

The other day I posted a survey on my Instagram stories asking an audience if they thought that blogging was dead.  And the response I got was pretty eyeopening. 44% of the audience I surveyed said that Yes, they felt that blogging was dead while 56% of the audience noted that No blogging is not dead.   

I have been working with a photographer client who when we first started working together wasn't completely sold on the idea of blogging.  She has two young children, a blossoming photography career and didn't have the time to devote to sitting down and adequately blogging her sessions for future clients to see. 

We had a one-hour session together, working on a blog about an elopement that she shot on top of Haleakala.  After being live for 72 hours, that blog post was the first item in a Google search for anything related to having a wedding or an elopement on Haleakala in Maui. Her inbox started blowing up with inquiries for booking her for their Maui nuptials. 

During our coaching session, while we talked about goals, one of her biggest goals was to shoot more weddings and elopements in Hawaii. With the goal in mind, we tailored the SEO on that post to get her in front of more couples looking for a photographer for their Hawaiian weddings.  

We also worked some SEO magic on other venues that she would love to shoot at more and low and behold her inbox is getting requests from couples who are hosting their nuptials at the sites she wants to shoot at all because she is now making blogging those sessions a priority in her digital marketing plan. 

While you might be one of the people, who think that blogging is dead, perhaps because you, yourself are not reading blogs. Remember that when it comes to your digital marketing, you are not your target audience. Blogging even twice a month will help keep your SEO fresh and clean to the Google machines, which will put your website in front of your target searchers.

Five Ways To Successfully Instagram Story For Your Business

During one of my latest speed marketing sessions, we were chatting about Instagram Story Highlights and how some stuff is better left off of them. If you’ve met with me or heard me talk you already know that your Instagram Highlight buttons should be where you put work that you would want on a portfolio or that you want to live permanently in your feed.  

You’ve also heard me say that your Instagram Stories should also showcase a more personal version of your business, highlighting the person and people involved in doing the business. The stories should give a behind the scenes of the person that is engaged in the business for 24 hours.  

Stories could include slides of your dog, cat, kiddos, camping trip, etc. However, these slides should not necessarily make a permanent home on your highlight reel if they do not have anything to do with what your actual business is. The more candid stories that relate to your business should live in your highlight reel if you love them and fit into the themes of one of your bubbles.

I’ve flipped my way of storying and started thinking of Instagram stories as “trailers” to grab the attention of the viewers to click your name and check out your entire feed. Since I started experimenting with this method on my feed, and a few clients, feed their stories, views, and profile visits have skyrocketed. It’s insane, stories that used to get 20 pictures or so have quadrupled! I’ve been testing this on my feed for 30 days, and while my likes and engagement are down, my website, clicks have quadrupled as well.  

A few simple ways to create a “trailer” for your feed:

1. Make use of the quiz, survey, and question stickers.

• Erase the “Ask Me A Question” statement on the question sticker and ask your audience a question you want their answer to. 

• The survey sticker is a great way to do a market research of your target. A few times, I did a survey asking if people would prefer speed marketing during happy hour and the response was overwhelming that they did. Therefore, I’m going to try a few sessions during the happy hour. 

• The quiz sticker is a cool interactive sticker to see who in your audience is paying attention to what you are putting out there and an excellent way for your audience to get to know you better and for you to be more personable. 

2. Don’t always be trying to sell and talk about your business. Show what your life looks like, messy desk, no makeup and all. You also want to show who people are going to get in real life when they sign up to meet with you.

3. Make sure that your highlight bubbles are categorized including services that you offer, reviews, and any other page that is also on your website. 

4. If you are selling products and have them in your feed, shoot those posts also to your stories. 

5. Try to keep up to 4- 6 slides on your story in a 24-hour time frame. Any more than that and people are going to swipe away from your account. This is extremely important if you are doing a video story. Please be conscious that you are saying everything you want and getting to the point in ONE story slide. If your video goes for multiple slides, you’re going to get swept next. Longer video can most definitely live on your IGTV channel. 

The story neighborhood seems to be the hip place to hang out these days. If you are not storying, consider giving it a try, and if you need help with ideas sign up for one of the Speed Marketing Sessions. 

How To Respect Nature And Get The Photo

In honor of Smokey The Bears 75th Birthday, I want to chat about an article that I recently read that stuck with me. There’s an article written by a photographer on the amount of disrespect people were racking in the lavender fields of Provence to get that perfect Instagram selfie. Visitors were doing this with next to no acknowledgment for the destruction that they were causing to the farmer's fields, and virtually their lively hood.

The article brought to mind also warnings and chatter I had heard about the impending destruction of the super bloom of poppies in California and the bluebonnet super bloom in Texas.

If you have been following around here for a while, you know that I spend a pretty decent amount of time outside, hiking or camping in some secluded spots of the wilderness. The amount of human trace that I see in these spots is pretty incredible. From the green plastic straws, the broken glass of beer bottles, empty plastic water bottles, and fallen plastic wrappers. Each time I go for a hike, I bring a trash bag and remove almost always an entire bag full of other peoples trash.

I have to admit that sometimes I do hike or stop at a location for either current or future content creation. Therefore I am not lost, and fully aware of the irony of this discussion.

While I was visiting Banff, I started to think more about the conservancy aspect of using these pristine natural jewels as our backdrops in content, while maintaining their beauty for the next person. While enjoying the sunrise at Peyote lake with waist-deep snow, two young women hiked in with a few outfit changes in tow. They were asking us if we knew how to walk to the bottom and get next to the frozen lake because they couldn't find a trail on the map. We answered that we didn't since there wasn't a trail listed on the map, and again there was waist-deep snow the level of danger with that was apparent. They shrugged their shoulders at us and proceeded to trounce through the snow in efforts to get to the lakes shore. If you haven't been to Peyote Lake, the overlook is the famous place that every Instagrammer who goes to Banff has taken a photo from. This distance from this point to the lakeshore is at least a two-mile hike. We saw the women come through the trees into a clearing and they were hanging onto pine boughs for support in navigating the snow. It was at that point that they changed into their first outfit and began taking photos of each other. When they started walking and broke off a large pine bough, it was time for me to leave.

I have seen furniture being carried out to beautiful grassy wildflower-filled fields and set upon rare blooms of wildflowers. I have seen people stand at the edge of a cliff with their back to the drop off and their selfie stick out. I have seen people have a campfire for a photoshoot during a burn ban in a state forest because they didn't want to reschedule. I have witnessed people pulling over on the side of the road to "dance" in a private farmers field of sunflowers, proceed to pick them and drive off.

I am not writing this out of criticism, only to bring attention moving forward to the fact that beautiful locations in nature do present themselves as incredible backdrops for content photoshoots. But are also beautiful for people who could care less about leaving with a photo and only want to enjoy the views.

To maintain & conserve their natural appeal, consider these seven things:

Sticking to established trails.

Leave no trace that you were there.

Dispose of waste properly.

Leave what you find.

Be considerate of other visitors.

Asking permission ahead of time to access private land.

If it is a fee property, pay the fee.

By being careless, we are inevitably ruining beautiful landscapes by going "off-trail" and messing with the lively hood of farmers and their crops. Please be just be aware and respectful.

How To Effectively Pay To Play On Facebook

The other day listened to a podcast that said that the 2020 presidential candidates were spending on average $75 on a Facebook ad to get 1 $1 donation. All of this information leads my brain astray with googling thoughts. 

Since all I’ve been obnoxiously reading and seeing these days are complaints about “how you have to pay to play”. I would fill you in on some data.  

I began by researching what the average cost per click was for a Facebook ad these days. 

The following Cost Per Click data is via Sprout Social:

Apparel: $0.45

B2B: $2.52

Customer Services: $3.08

Real Estate: $1.81

Retail: $0.70

Travel & Hospitality: $0.63

Remember the cost per click is to get someone to click on your ad and get to where you are sending them. There are other objectives that you can set up on your ad, such as getting Likes or having them complete an action ie, downloading and installing an app. 

I want you to keep in mind; however, also that the time of year that you are running an ad is incredibly important. For example, if you are a retail business and are planning out your Q4 advertising campaigns realize that your costs will be higher because you are going to be competing with so many other ads, and your ad is going to get lost. 

It was difficult for me to understand while I was listening to this podcast how candidates had to spend $75 to get one $1 donation, but then it’s the time of year. We are still over a year away from the election, and the masses aren’t fully paying attention yet. By this time next year, if the metrics and studies are correct, a $75 ad should be getting them more than one $1 donation.

If you are in need or wondering if your business needs a digital marketing strategy, know that it does.

For more information on how to effectively run a Facebook ad read THIS.

Is There A New IGTV Rewarded Algorithm?

Is there a new Instagram algorithm? Every time something on our favorite app shifts, I get an inbox full of "Is there a new Instagram algorithm?" As far as I know and the trusted sources that I communicate with, there is no such thing as a "new" Instagram algorithm.

Instagram is consistently testing, adding, and removing features. Updates are happening on the weekly, the daily, even on the hourly. Currently, Instagram is testing the removal of "likes" in the following markets: Canada, Italy, Japan, and Australia with more to come. Instagram is testing for the overall elimination of "likes" from the platform, which begs the question of will this leave room and forces people to engage more?

There's a rumor floating around that there is a new algorithm in place that favors heavily on using IGTV. Y'all this isn't new news. Anytime ANY platform releases an upgrade; they heavily prefer the content of the accounts that are using said new feature because they want to promote this new feature internally. IGTV is a little over a year old. I have my hypothesis about the "new" IGTV algorithm. Since I have gotten 10 DMs and four emails asking me about this new IGTV algorithm includes that y' all aren't currently frequenting this neighborhood. I hypothesize that since it's release on June 20, 2018, this neighborhood hasn't grown in the masses that Instagram thought that it would become. That in its 13-month lifespan it hasn't taken down Youtube or even really showed up in the ring as a heavily favored competitor of Youtube as I feel the end goal was. I think that this is the basis of the "new" IGTV preferred algorithm. When the facts point to if you are present on IGTV, you are rewarded for frequenting this neighborhood that Instagram wants to grow. It's like going to a street fair, and you are handed coupons from vendors to come to their establishment for 10% off or a free something or other. You are there in their "platform," and they want to reward you for showing up and showing interest by giving you something in return.

For a few months there, I was animate about recording and adding IGTV content; it helped everything in my digital marketing world for sure. However, life and client work got the better of me, and my IGTV fell to the side. Do I think that not regularly posting to my IGTV is what is hurting views and likes? Nope

I have been marketing on this platform since it's infancy and I've seen and heard it all. In almost nine years on this platform, three straightforward things lead to some measurable "success"

Consistency

A unique photo

Tell a story

Consistently show up by posting, commenting, and interacting in whichever neighborhood of this platform you enjoy the most: your feed, stories, IGTV where the eff ever. But keep showing up. When people trust that they will hear from you, they will buy from you or recommend you to someone who will buy from you.

Sharing a unique photo sets you apart. When I hear from people that they know they photo is from me before they even look at the account name, that feels good. Stop trying to copy everyone else who you think is doing it right and post what is you.

Tell a story, digital marketing is just digital storytelling. If you want to grab peoples, attention tells them a story. We are nosy by nature and want to know ALL the details about the people that we follow and the brands that we purchase from. Give people something that they can relate to because while our experiences are all unique to us, someone somewhere can connect on a personal level.

Please do me a favor; if you haven't heard it from a credible source such as Instagram, someone with an in at Instagram, or some nerd who subscribes to EVERY email that comes from reliable digital sources that have ins at Instagram, then it's just a rumor.

How To Work With A Social Media Manager

Social Media, a free platform that businesses use to communicate with their customers and clients.  We’ve all been on it for as long as we can remember. Because of this, we all think that we know how to do digital marketing and understand what we are doing when it comes to our social media.  It’s simple right, choose an appealing eye photo and write a captivating caption and watch the internet go crazy for it. Then get annoyed when the likes and comments don’t come. 

Don’t we all wish that it was just as simple as posting a photo and a catchy phrase and the likes and comments just came flooding in?  The truth is that I get weekly emails and questions at networking groups of, “I just don’t know what to write.” People always tell me that they write out entire captions, then they delete them.  They write them again and delete them. Most people say that this cycle happens to them at least three or four times before they just get uber frustrated and don’t post. 

This writes and deletes what should not be happening.  Understand that you are not alone, the frustration with words is real for some people, the defeat of setting up that perfect photo is another.  The truth of the matter is that you are great at that one thing you are in business doing. You might not really be that great at the marketing aspect of your business, and that’s perfectly normal.  This is where outsourcing comes into play. Realizing what your weakness is and that there are people who exist who have that thing you need as their strength.  

Admitting that you need help is the first part of solving any problem. Coaching you through it is an excellent solution; however, a coach can’t do it for you.  Realizing that you actually need to hire someone to just do it for you is where the success begins. 

What Is A Social Media Manager

To free up time in their workday to work on their actual business, conscious business owners choose to outsource their social media management to people called Social Media Managers. Basically, this person takes care of your social media (be it on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LikedIn, Pinterest, etc.) needs such as creating content, posting, interacting and engaging, monitoring analytics, etc. 

Good Social Media Managers (SMM) have specialties, where their main focus is one or two social media platforms. (Mine is Instagram & Pinterest) This is great if you are just starting out, have a budget, and want to see how you do in terms of utilizing one platform at a time. Other social media managers are well-rounded and know a little bit of every platform, and usually take on the role of managing them all at the same time. This is great if you have multiple streams of social media and various audiences, and want to keep on top of all of them.

What Is The Cost Of A Social Media Manager

One of the biggest questions after deciding which route to go in terms of social media management is, “how much will I have to pay just to get my actual work done?” Of course, as a business, you want to make sure that you are spending your money in the right places. A few significant concerns that I run into is your business is your baby and so paying for someone (you may or may not know) who can be your voice, and how can you trust them to do this correctly? After all, you’ve been on social media yourself, forever, so how hard can it be?

I challenge you with this question, have you ever opened up Instagram to go in and post, but you end up looking at your feed for the next 45 minutes, and you forgot why you opened Instagram in the first place? By this time you’ve forgotten what is you wanted to say, and it’s challenging to get those words back after perusing your feed. Let me tell you a secret if you’ve done this more than a handful of times you need to consider outsourcing. 

There are so many components that go into social media management, components that your business won’t realize by just posting whenever you have an excellent idea for a caption.

I’m not saying that you can’t learn to DIY your social media marketing (to save money), I’m saying that to do social media right takes dedication and CONSISTENCY. While you are building ALL the other parts of your business, a Social Media Manager is laser-focused on the task of social media and only social media. 

Can’t I Just Have An Intern Or My Admin Assistant Post To Social Media?

The answer to this is obviously yes; however, I am a firm, of you, get what you pay for. Thinking that you are saving money by having your admin assistant pull double duty managing the phones and posting to your Instagram could actually be losing you money.  As I stated before a legit social media manager is laser-focused and trained in their specialized platform. A real social media manager is tuned into the trends, updates, and happenings of the platforms they specialize in and offloading that knowledge into the work that you are paying them to do for you.  An admin assistant or intern might not be equipped with this knowledge. 

This has come into play because speaking to your demographic through words and photos takes a certain finesse that someone trained in the field possesses. 

I’ve Hired A Social Media Manager, How Do I Determine My ROI

Seeing a return on the investment of your outsourcing to a social media manager isn’t one that is always to physical to see. Sometimes it’s as simple as realizing just how much more of your actual work you are getting done a day by not focusing on what and when are you going to post to social media.

One way to effectively see a ROI by outsourcing you need to set clear goals for your social media manager to work towards. A good social media manager will also tell you what their goals are for your business as well. For example, my biggest goal when I am hired is that I want to create as many leads to convert to your website that I can.

Other trackable goals would include such things as:

• A certain number of emails or DM’s from customers per month.

• A certain number of sales of a product or service.

• Obviously increase in followers, likes and comments.

If you are serious about taking your social media presence to the next level and just do not have the time to watch and read all of the things to learn how to correctly DIY your social media game. I encourage you to seek out and outsource to a qualified social media manager.  To see what services I can offer your business, visit my Services page.

Why Your Product or Service Needs To Be Blogging

This one goes out with the intent to all of the product and service sellers out there. You really do need to start a blog and maintain writing on that blog! I know I know this sounds like a complete hassle for two big reasons:

1. I know that you do not have the time.

2. You have no idea what parts of your products or business to write and share.

Here’s the thing; blogging helps your audience connect with you differently. Sharing your stories will help them relate to you and develop a different level of a relationship than you have on social media. Not only does blogging mean that your audience feels a connection with you it also means that Google loves you because you are showing the Google algorithm that you are a current website and this, in turn, helps boost your SEO and ranking.

As a product seller and any business, you need to have the mindset that the purpose of your content marketing strategy is building that “know, like, and trust factor” because the more ways you are pumping content out there that content is working for you to turn into a connection and connection turns into currency.

We all want to sell all of the things right away off of our website, but in the times that we are in, we have to work harder because chances are there are more people out there offering the same thing that we have to offer.  We need to set ourselves apart, with the goal of getting these potential customers to subscribe to your email list or directing them to another platform that you would like them to learn more about you and follow you. The road to the intent to buy or book can be painfully long these days, and the only way to shorten the distance between marketing to the point where a wallet comes out is to build an actual relationship.

Now you’re thinking, “But I’m already using social media as a sort of microblog for my products and services.” To this, I say fantastic, however, using social media as a blog for your business is handing over the rights of your content to social media and it’s not doing any SEO favors to the website which customers can buy or book you from. Blogging on your platform provides an SEO boost to your site, while also providing value to your audience. Building and focusing your core content out via Instagram or any other social media source is not going to offer that same or any return on the time investment. Look at Instagram or any other social platform as creating a lead for your audience to connect with you another way. Work on creating lead generating content there that triggers a response from a user to click your website to learn more about you and your products.  By having current blog posts on your site that your audience can stumble upon and read is going to help you create a connection which will in time lead to the exchange of currency.

Having your content on your site also helps when people are searching for you on Google. Having your content current and living someplace on the internet gives your SEO a massive boost, which will cultivate long term growth because your content isn’t on a death march to die in an algorithm 72 hours after you post it.

So how do you do it?

Blogging today is much different than it was when it first came out.  In its popularity, which btw lead to influencer marketing, we used to sit in front of our computers with our cups of coffee and read the latest post on whatever lifestyle blogger we were following. Much like how the generations before us would sit at the kitchen table and read the morning paper over their coffee or breakfast.  While both these ways of consuming content are pretty much extinct writing and maintaining a blog puts searchable words to what you do out onto the world wide web. These words are what your target is searching for and the key to getting your target of potential customers to find you and learn more about you.

In a world where consumers being fed content every day, you will need to be more strategic, creative and mindful about how and what you are blogging. The goal here again is to thoughtfully gain the attention of your target market and convert them to your email list, to speak directly to them, earn their trust and eventually have them make a purchase. Some ideas on what to actually write include: talking about yourself, how you got started, educate them on a part of your business, talk about what you are currently working on or what is inspiring you.

Stop stressing, you do not need to be blogging every day, because that is craziness and I know that you do not need one more marketing thing to add into your daily mix. You could start with a few basic posts that are full of crucial relevant search words for your product and continue to post twice a month or even a monthly post about new products, services or what you have been up to.

Remember, whatever content you are putting out there, it creates a connection that will eventually create currency.  Content creation doesn't have to be hard, but it's just going to be time-consuming. The overall goal of your content should be getting eyes on your products and offerings enhancing your site's SEO and triggering your target to signup for your email list so you can connect and talk directly with them, if they happen to purchase at first look then that’s even more amazing!

If you need help with this, I offer one-on-one coaching sessions as well as a FREE monthly 20-minute speed session where you can ask me anything related to your business's content marketing plan and management.

Why Automating Your Digital Marketing Will Make Your Vacation More Relaxing

Vacation and road trip season is one of the best times of year here in the Northern Hemisphere.  The smell of the campfires, the taste of the s’mores, the fresh mountain air, your toes in the warm sand, or the feel of the linen sheets at your 5-star resort.  As an independent business owner, you want to experience all of the luxuries of summer as well. You don’t want to be typing away at your desk or on your phone to make sure that you get that day’s digital marketing post up and out to the world.

You’d rather be out and about seeing the sights, but you still have a business to market. This post is for all the DIYers of their companies digital marketing presence.  To really enjoy yourself and get away to the places where the wifi is weak, you need to plan your content in advance, schedule it, and use a platform that will automatically post on your behalf.

To make this feat attainable, you need to think about your content in advance. One thing that I recommend is making a stop at the dollar store and purchase one of their monthly calendars.  Each month decide on a theme and post content that is relevant to that theme. At my networking event talks and one-on-one coaching sessions, I get told a version of this all of the time, “I just don’t know what to write. I write something then delete it, I write it again, and then I delete it, I do this three times, and then I just get so frustrated that I don’t post at all.”

Planning a monthly theme will help you not only when you want to automate to go on vacation but will keep your entrepreneur brain sane not only during your DIY marketing time but when you are also ready to scale and hire out to someone like me.

A few of my favorite Instagram scheduling and posting apps:

Later  (Free Up to 30 Posts) Later is excellent because it will automatically resize the photo when it is automatically posting on your behalf.  I have worked with professional photographers and clients whose photo content comes directly from a professional photographer, and they say this aspect of it has been a lifesaver.  Later will also allow you to publish to Stories, Pinterest, Twitter, and Facebook.

Planoly  (Free Up to 30 posts)  Planoly is excellent if you are into your entire feed having an individual feel. The benefit to Planoly is when you plug individual photos in you will see how they will look in the entirety of your feed.  My word of caution on this is Planoly will not resize the picture for you when it automatically posts, in other words, it just won’t publish your photo at all if it is out of proportion. Planoly will only allow you to post to your stories and your grid.

Tailwind (Free 30 days then $15/month)  Tailwind is more of a planning and scheduling platform for Pinterest; however, you are also able to schedule and post to your Instagram.  

By planning ahead, scheduling and automating the publication of your digital marketing posts you will have the peace of mind to enjoy that vacation or the weekend off that you have worked so hard to earn.

The Digital Marketing Manufactured Look Is Moving Out

Q. Should your brand's social media feeds only be styled professional photos? Is it ok if your brand's social feeds are just phone photos, or is it ok if your feeds are a mix of both?

A. The best device to take content photos with is the device that you already have with you.

I am a firm believer that putting any kind of content out there is better than not putting any kind of content out there.  If the only equipment that you have to take a photo is your phone then that is the equipment that you must use. A good photo doesn’t necessarily come from a big fancy DSLR camera, it does help however but what makes a photo great is the skill set of taking a great photo.

A comment was left on my Instagram post when I posted about this subject and I feel that it sums everything up perfectly, “If you can’t shoot compelling content with a phone, you can’t do it with a DSLR.  Invest in learning skills, not gear.” Citizen Nomads

There are beautiful feeds out there that I know personally are only shooting their social posts with a phone camera. Then there are feeds that I know they are hiring out their content shoots to professional prop stylists and photographers.  All of which is great but the question then becomes are you doing this just to fit the “Instagram Aesthetic”?

The Instagram Aesthetic is something that has been created by influencers, the beautifully styled flat lays with the warm filter, the perfect pose in front of the perfect piece of street art taken by their Instagram partner.  You all know what I’m talking about, the perception that everything is perfect because their photo is perfect. This is boring, generic and the chances of you getting scrolled over are pretty great. Because that perfectly styled photo of yours looks manufactured and just like everyone else in your industry.  

The Atlantic released an article stating that the “Instagram Aesthetic Is Over” and I seriously couldn’t be more excited that things are shifting.  The article goes on to talk about how Gen Z influencers are now reaching for their phones camera instead of hauling a DSLR with them to restaurants and spending hours getting that perfect shot masked with the perfect curated “Instagram Aesthetic” filter they have created. Gen Z wants to shift things back to real-time and consistently showing up as your authentic self, not your social media alter ego.

I’m not here to pish posh on a beautiful photo, quite the opposite, in fact, I’m here to say that it should stop taking up so much of your brain space and time to get that Instagram aesthetic approved photo. Mavens feed has been and will continue to be a mix between phone, stock, personal DSLR and professional photos, why because I want to be part of the change in the way people look at marketing and branding. As a business, your business should be a reflection of and authentic as you.  I should meet you for coffee, or walk into your store and feel the same feelings that I feel when I look at your feed or see your ads. I shouldn’t be seeing an alter ego of you on social media and meeting the authentic you in person. The translation of your in-person experience with a brand and a digital experience with a brand should be very similar if not exactly the same.

This is the goal of Maven and Muse produced content. Your business is as authentic as you are and this should translate into your digital marketing. By creating authentic to you content you are getting people to stop their scroll and take notice. This will build engagement, which leads to trust which leads to booking or purchasing from you.

The manufactured look of Instagram does work, it’s proven day in and day out. Perhaps in your homework assignment, you will notice that the manufactured look is what your target likes and expects from you. I’m not here to disrupt what is already working for you,  I am here to challenge you to look at the analytics of your feed and see what posts have performed the best. Are they stock, DSLR or phone captured content? Were your words heartfelt or salesy? Dissect the top three best performing posts and mimic more of that in the weeks to come.  The numbers don’t lie my friends, they are communicating to you what is working for you, what is setting you apart and not making you manufactured.

Instagram vs. Pinterest Marketing: 7 Big Differences Between Them

When I am coaching people on how to use Pinterest the first hurdle that we have to get over is that writing for Pinterest is completely different than writing for Instagram.

On Instagram, your followers are brand loyal. They are following and interacting with you on this platform because they enjoy your brand and reading what your brand stands for and offers.  On Instagram, you need to not only have photos that are on brand but you also need to write your content on brand. On this platform, keep in mind that you are also dealing with a seven-second attention span. Your photo needs to be scroll stopping AND your caption needs to be witty and captivating.

In coaching sessions when we are creating pins, clients want to write the pin description as if they are writing an Instagram caption. Writing an Instagram type caption on Pinterest is not going to help you get found on Pinterest, and here’s why.

People searching on Pinterest are not brand loyal. Read that again. People searching on Pinterest are not brand loyal, meaning most pinners do not give a shhhh about your brand. These people are searching to achieve a predetermined outcome in their mind.  

Here’s an example: A pinner types into the Pinterest search bar “San Francisco Industrial Wedding Venue”  what this person wants to achieve is finding examples of all of the Industrial wedding venues in San Francisco that are on Pinterest. When they find a photo that they are imaging as their dream wedding location they will click on the pin and be taken “fingers crossed” to the website of that venue or at least a photographers site that has tagged the venue in their blog post.

The reason that this searchers results came up with so many Industrial wedding venues in San Francisco is that the pin description was littered with these terms.  See Pinterest is a search engine, their algorithm could care less how witty and popular your caption is. Pinterest’s main job is that it wants to show it’s users the most relevant items related to the words that they typed into the search bar.  The results that show up in your search are directly related to the keywords in the description of the pins that are being shown to you.

I heard a saying once that said, “My eyebrows are sisters, not twins.” Not only is that true for your eyebrows but it’s true about the digital marketing platforms of Pinterest and Instagram.

Let’s get into the 7 “sister” qualities on both platforms:

1. On both platforms, you need to have a well lit and captivating scroll stopping photo.

2. On both platforms, the images should be branded, meaning they look like they belong to the same family because chances are if someone is very interested in all the things that you have to say, you want to be recognized on both platforms.

3. Instagram photos with words tend to perform as well as photos without. Whereas, Pinterest photos with words perform exponentially better than photos without words.

4. Instagram: Hashtags matter on how you are getting found.

5. Pinterest: Hashtags do not matter on getting found, it’s all about the search terms baby.

6. Instagram: Witty or emotionally heartfelt captions perform best.

7. Pinterest: It’s all about the SEO, save your emotional words for Instagram.

In conclusion, the moral of the story here is that to be successful on both platforms you need to flip your brain when you are writing for one over the other.  Both of these platforms should be a part of your digital arsenal but how you use them and obtain leads through them are completely different.