A 1436% increase in Instagram Engagement. Here’s how…
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Do you ever feel like Instagram isn’t giving back the love you put into it?
Last year, I saw my Instagram growth plateau. New followers came but as quick as someone had joined, someone else had left the building...
And the honest truth is for a moment there - because I’m human - I was a little disheartened.
It can be right? When you don't get the numbers that you desired, or you spend loads of time creating content and no one likes it or worse, no new enquiries come in.
You are left with “is this it?”.
I get it but as always, nothing changes if nothing changes…
So this year, I did things a little differently - and the results have royally spoken for themselves. In the last month we have seen a 1436% increase in engagement with non-followers, and a 47.4% increase in engagement with followers, which is huge.
In this week episode of The Magnetic Woman Podcast, I’m sharing the recent changes in the Instagram algorithm, and how you can increase your numbers - growth, engagement and sales NAME.
Here’s what you’ll learn:
The Instagram Reels 2024 algorithm update and what you need to know.
The importance of mindset in using Instagram effectively.
Tips for optimising your Instagram bio and pinned posts.
Resources:
Sign up to Be Reel HERE
Join The Expansion Accelerator HERE
Subscribe to my Substack newsletter HERE
Find out more about my masterminds HERE
Find me on Instagram @pandorapaloma_
Transcript
Hello. Hello. And welcome to this episode of the podcast where I am gonna go straight in with a short and sharp, talking about the Instagram Reels 2024 algorithm update, and what you guys need to know.
If you've been following me for a while, if you follow me on the gram, you might have noticed that I have changed my Reels game - or let's say my content game. And the reason for that is - I set myself a goal to increase the growth that I was seeing on Instagram. I found last year it kind of stayed the same. So I had new followers, I lost followers. We pretty much just stayed at the same number. And I knew that there was an opportunity for me to go all in on that platform, knowing that it's a platform that has really worked for my business over the years.
It's a platform that has connected me to some epic humans
and has generated a huge amount of sales for me over the years.
And so because of that, I felt like it was time to give it a little bit of of a refresh. And that was a refresh in my mind of like, okay, actually, we're gonna go all in on this platform. And also just change the way that I was
a) showing up, but,
b) creating content so that it really worked for me.
And we are seeing brilliant results off the back of this intention and action.
I'm gonna go into some of the results in a moment, but I first wanted to share that I think the mindset piece is really important when it comes to Instagram.
It's really easy to feel disheartened when you don't get the numbers that you desired, or you spend loads of time creating and it's real and no one likes it, no one shares it, no one saves it.
And then the one that you do the next week that was just silly, pulled it together in thirty seconds - everybody loves it.
I hear this from my clients all the time. They're like, “I poured my heart out and got no traction. And then the stupid reel that I did where I was dancing my pants went viral”.
There's a couple of things that we get to speak to here.
The first is that -
Instagram stands as the first part of the marketing funnel.
It is your awareness phase. It's a platform that we don't need to pay for.
When it comes to building awareness, building numbers, building our audience, it's a free way to do that. Absolutely, you can go down the route of ads, but that comes at a cost. So the mindset around this is it serves as a way for you to build your audience, build your community, build your potential client list, and that's a good thing.
And then the second piece here is that when it comes to creating content, actually, the reason why some things do well and others don't do so well is that we have to provide a cross section of different marketing focuses, different elements, different themes when it comes to our content.
And so if you are only ever giving the real teaching value education theme, you will probably find that over time,
you stop grabbing the attention of your clients or potential clients.
If you are only selling, over time, again, our audience can get bored and feel like they're constantly being sold to.
Equally, if you are only ever sharing content that is engaging and inspiring, you're probably going to find that you're not making the sales that you could be making because people see your content and like it, but they don't see you as an authority.
So, when we're creating any form of content, whether that's a Reel or a Static or a Carousel on Instagram, we really wanna make sure that we are covering the five core bases, and that is
to engage,
to lead,
to inspire,
to teach, and
to sell.
So first piece, mindset and how. How you get to play the game and maximise the results that you see from Instagram.
So, let's then go into
the changes that Instagram have made when it comes to Instagram Reels.
I prioritise and have prioritised Reels for the last three to six months. And for the summer, we are going to be prioritising even more as part of a new sales strategy that we are implementing in the business.
So overall, we've seen huge growth.
In the last month, at the time of recording this, we have seen a 1436% increase in engagement with non-followers, and a 47.4% increase in engagement with followers, which is huge.
You can see here that that's the kind of result that we really, really want. Right?
We are increasing the engagement with our followers, and we are also increasing engagement with non-followers who have become followers.
So in the last three month period, we have seen an increase of a thousand new hearts into my Instagram space. And I want to speak a little bit about as to what I feel was behind that.
Yes. Absolutely. The content I'm sharing, the reels that I'm creating, and the consistency of that. If you know me well enough, I talk about consistency.
The second thing is that I updated my bio.
And this is really key because if a new person is landing on your page, you have all of two to three seconds for them to decide whether or not they are going to follow you.
And the first thing that they will be looking at is your bio.
So it felt like a very simple upgrade, just getting even clearer on who I am, really what I'm known for Launch Strategist, Marketing, and some of the creds in there.
So, building that authority piece within the bio.
If (as I'm sharing the rest of this podcast with you) you haven't upgraded your bio in a while, this is your gentle reminder and permission slip to go and give it a small tweak or upgrade.
The changes that Instagram have made, ultimately, is giving smaller creators a more distribution. So they're overhauling the ranking system that they typically use, whereby they prioritise bigger following or follow-up bigger accounts with more followers and instead prioritising reels from accounts of lower account holders.
So, this will be both prioritising Reels from these accounts on the Reels feed tab and by showing Reels to non-followers first.
So, what does this mean for you?
It means an opportunity to skyrocket your Instagram growth, to increase your engagement, and to make more sales because of it.
This is not a time for you to slow down. This is a time for you to really maximise on these changes.
It is also replacing reposts with original content in the recommendations on the Explore page, and the main feed. And then also removing content aggregators from recommendations.
This ultimately means that if you're someone who constantly reposts and reshares other people's content, you will actually be affected, which means it's increasingly important that we are now creating our own content.
Now, the opportunity to grow your Instagram, to increase your engagement, obviously, make more sales because of it.
Who doesn't want that?
So, let me give you an overview of how I see us all maximising on this update.
Now the first thing is it's an opportunity for you to
be really strategic with your content.
So you always wanna make sure that your content is created with your overall strategy in mind. Do you know how it leads to what you are selling? And, again, this is because Instagram is the space where we build and maximize and grow the awareness phase of the marketing funnel.
It's an opportunity for you to grow your audience, yes, But knowing that this is the first stage of the marketing funnel, there is the then education stage, the building Know, Like, and Trust stage, and then there is the sales stage.
So, this is your first part. Even though you are creating content because you want to grow your audience, you have to be super aware as to how that person might end up being a client or a customer in the long term. And so if you build out your content strategy around that, it means that the content that you create is going to go further.
Does it serve a purpose in the wider context of your business plans? And if not, get those foundations in place first. So number one, be strategic with your content.
Number two,
create clear, catchy, and convertible content.
So now is really not the time for vanilla.
Now is the time for us to create really smart, valuable, authoritative content. And the way that we do this, typically, is
a hook,
a body text, and
a call to action that speaks to the ideal client.
You get 0 -3 seconds to stop somebody's scroll. Right? So that hook is the master in what ultimately then drives that person to connect with you.
No catchy hook? They are not going to read the rest of your caption.
They're not gonna watch the rest of your reel. So really, the hook is the most important part of your content, and then the body serves as a purpose to give more context. And, of course, the call to action is that next step.
Now, a call to action in itself isn't always about making the sale. You can have engagement call to actions. You can have call to actions that encourage people to take action on something - Tag a friend, share it with their bestie, comment what's come up for them - take action by commenting to get a free download. I've spoken about ManyChat and how we've been using ManyChat in the business. It's really served us in terms of our lead generation.
So number two is creating those clear, catchy, and converting or convertible pieces of content. Again, I'm gonna give you those five themes.
Base it on
engaging,
leading,
inspiring,
teaching, and
selling.
Again, find a way to bring all of these different elements together. If you are constantly creating engagement content or sales content or value content, over time, you’re gonna miss out on maximising the change in this algorithm. Because your audience want to feel engaged with you. They want to see you lead. They want to feel you as an authority. They want to get value from you, and they then also want to be sold to, if it is something that solves their problem. But if they constantly feel like they're being sold to, you will lose out. So finding a mix of all of this is really helpful.
So the next thing is to
get consistent.
Now is the time to really stick to a rhythm. Find a rhythm and stick to a rhythm. With content that puts you on the icon map.
Think brand.
This is what I mean by iconic. Right?
People know you for your content. The look and feel of it, the locations of it, the environment, the feeling that they get when they land on your page.
And, of course, your core message and prioritising engagement, because the more consistent you are with engaging in your audience, the more you are going to see an increase of engagement itself, a growth in your numbers, and more sales. So you really want to think about what does consistency feel like to you.
And this isn't “I'm gonna post every single day” because that might not be a way for you to long term stay in that consistency phase.
It might be three reels a week and daily Monday to Friday stories. That is enough for you to see growth, especially if you are creating those clear, catchy, and highly converting pieces of content.
So get consistent. That's number three. This isn't the time to slow down.
Actually, the way that we have been building out our content recently, it is taking me less time than ever.
Extra one, let's call this 3.5,
make sure that you are repurposing your content.
We use something called Airtable. It means that we tag the content. I am never starting from scratch. Of course, there are ideas that flow in. There are new pieces of content in my content calendar for the month, but mostly I'm looking at what has worked, what didn't work, maximising and, optimising what has worked, and then repurposing variations of that again and again and again and again. Okay?
So let's get to number four. As I mentioned earlier, optimising your bio, but also
optimising your pinned posts.
So, again, any new follower needs to see clearly how you could support them in order to hit that follow button.
So, your bio is really important. It kinda makes or breaks that action. Right? Now in optimising your pinned posts, this is how you're gonna start the process of nurturing and building that Know, Like, and Trust with new hearts straight away.
There's variations of what this could look like. You could have one about you, one work with me, and one freebie (like a really fast action, like how to with a freebie, that you set up as a comment on ManyChat). And that way, people get an idea of who you are, they understand how they can work with you, and they get that freebie which is going to nurture the Know, Like and Trust and get them familiar with your method and your ways of working.
If you want to go deeper, if you have many, many different forms of lead magnets that you can potentially play with here, you can play with something like a How to (double your revenue in six months, for example). You can then also have a quick win freebie. So this is like, ‘if you're struggling with X, do this’. And again, you can link in, you know, ‘comment HOOKS to get my forty hooks to create viral content online’, for example.
And then another one which really speaks to the problem and the solution, or the problem and the opportunity. So, this would be more of a step by step. You know, ‘if you're struggling to make sales, do this’, and then your call to action would be to sign up to some form of a training, like a webinar or a masterclass, which gives them way more of that solution.
So,
a how to,
a quick win freebie, and then
a problem opportunity, which is where you would ultimately drive people to some form of a conversion event, a freebie, which is then driving them into a core offer.
So, that's how you can maximise on both your bio and your pinned posts.
Finally, just to recap, make sure that you're hitting all of those marketing focuses, engage, inspire, teach, lead, sell. And make sure that you are speaking to the different stages of awareness to capture your audience's attention. Don't continue speaking about the solution - you know, do you want to make more sales, more sales, more sales? - Of course people want more sales. What is it that they don't know about making more sales that will be the content that actually makes them go, ‘hold on a minute. This is interesting. I wanna know more’.
You really want to be speaking to those five stages of awareness.
Just to recap,
be strategic with your content.
Create clear, catchy, and converting content,
get consistent,
optimise your bio and your pinned posts,
and make sure that you're hitting all of those different marketing themes.
I hope that this has been helpful.
If you need support to make this super, super easy for you, I have launched, very much behind the scenes at this point, a new offer.
It is called BE REEL, and it's a low cost offer that launched behind the scenes in my DMs literally last week.
Think of it as your weekly guide to content creation.
So, fill in the blank templates, inspiration, guidelines, how to film, trending audios and how to use them.
Ultimately, everything that you need in your inbox every week for you to build out your content for that week.
I'm also gonna be giving you examples for different types of service providers, so photographers, coaches, nutritionists, so that you ultimately, over time, can really start to build your own content bank.
There will be bonuses, and that's definitely going to look like monthly audits and Q&A’s so that you can brainstorm with me, what's gonna work for you over the coming months.
We will do recap days, so I'm gonna throw in data trainings so that we can look at actually doing your own audits so you can see what's working, what's not working, and then how to optimise on what's working.
There's also a few bonuses in there, trainings specifically on messaging. So, I'm teaching the ARC method, I am teaching the five stages of awareness, and I am teaching the different personalities and how to speak to them through your content.
So that ultimately, you can stop procrastinating and get your consistency game on.
If you want to know more, I will link in the checkout in the shownotes, or come and find me @pandorapaloma_.
I'd love to talk to you about it and if it could work for you.
I hope this has been helpful.
I'm gonna just scale back to what I started with in this episode, which is mindset.
I know that Instagram can sometimes feel overwhelming, perhaps a bit exhausting, perhaps just a bit annoying. But, ultimately, it is a beautiful free platform for you to connect with your audience to sell your services. And so once you get your mindset on board, you know, everything flows from there.
For me personally, I have just given myself permission to play the game. I've given myself permission to make it feel really playful, and it's working.
So I hope today has been some inspiration to enable you to make it feel the same.
Sending you big love from my corner of the world to yours. Take care.
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