why does Instagram promote certain content so I've studied the Instagram algorithm to figure out why some accounts gain millions of followers While others never seen much success at all Instagram just made an algorithm update and there are tons of content on YouTube all over the place videos online that are just pushing outdated strategies so we're going to cut through all that noise and I'm going to show you some growth hacks that are going to help you explode your reach right now if you're trying to grow your account for your business or because you want to become an Instagram Creator then just keep on watching this video because I've got what you need but before we hop into it hey guys what's up what's going on my name is Michelle Valley I am a creative strategist and this YouTube channel is called learn with Shopify it is an official Shopify YouTube channel that's going to help you start run and grow an online business so if you are an entrepreneur maybe you're an aspiring entrepreneur then make sure that you are hitting that subscribe button to learn everything that you need to know all the way from starting your own Shopify store to running Facebook ads so make sure that you're hitting subscribe [Music] there's a little bit of a fire under Instagram's butt because tick tock's coming in hot for some tough competition coming from Tick Tock so Instagram needs to start prioritizing more video content because that's what people want to see these days short video content is the new currency of attention now considering that Instagram used to be a photo sharing app this next piece of advice may be a little bit confusing but what I think you should do is I think you should abandon photos altogether literally forget carousels forget single photos just make reels all day every day focus on making reels because they're going to get you 120 more reach than photos could add captions on your reels this is because only 50 of people are actually watching their video with their sound on so if you don't have captions you're going to be missing out on the other 85 of people they're just going to scroll right by your stuff so make sure that you are adding captions in order to hook people in so if you want to add captions you're just going to go and grab the caption sticker like this and it will automatically generate captions now if you're not loving the native tool within Instagram then you can actually check out the App Store there's going to be tons of free options there and it will give you more control of the look and the feel of your captions Instagram also launched some new content creation features that's going to help make your videos more interesting and more Dynamic so we've got dual which allows you to record on the back side of your phone while also showing your reaction and then we also have green screen and split screen just like Tick Tock these features are really great because if you are trying to create content with added spice you don't have to go into post-production you can literally just edit it right within Instagram this makes content creation a little bit more scalable if you are trying to post really frequently and really consistently so definitely leverage these tools start your videos off with a hook so people are actually going to lose interest in less than two seconds that is a fact of life two seconds before someone starts to scroll so you want to start your video with audio and visuals that take up a lot of space maybe someone's jumping into frame maybe you have someone dancing maybe you have like a really crazy interesting fact you're sharing right away or maybe you have like crazy visuals of like someone skydiving or like a landfill or something maybe you're telling a joke with a quick punchline I don't know the point is is that the hook is what is going to get people to continue to watch and then when Instagram sees that your content is being watched they're going to push it out to more people which means more exposure for you should you be posting well you should be posting one to two times per day in the current state that Instagram is in and I know it's like should you quit your day job in order just to do this but if you choose formats that are simple to complete you can actually make it a lot easier on yourself it can be time consuming yes that's true but honestly anything worthwhile is so if you're posting reels and you're doing that consistently you're going to be golden Instagram is making a point to make their search function better on the platform so when you think about the way that YouTube or Google search function works you know that when you search something you're going to get the results that you're looking for so Instagram is trying to improve that about their platform so what that means for you is you want to include keywords you think people will be searching into Instagram into your content and into your profile so like let's say you run a business where you do people's nails for example maybe you're a nail technician then you might want to include the keywords nail technician in your bio your captions your hashtags all that so make sure that you're focusing on keywords So speaking of hashtags are they dead hashtags Aren't Dead they're not but they're definitely different from what they used to be now the best way to use hashtags is to create amazing content that people are going to want to see then based on your engagement the Instagram algorithm understands that your content is keeping people on the platform and that's when it starts to push content on the hashtag pages and explore pages so essentially your content isn't going to get more views or more followers just because you're using hashtags but if your content is good then Instagram will start to Leverage The hashtags that you've used to give you an extra push it's Instagram's World we're just living in it but if you ask me my personal opinion don't ask but I'm going to say it anyways I actually don't like hashtags I find them to be like cluttered and not necessary but they still work and if you are serious about Instagram growth and you want to seize every opportunity you can in order to explode your account then use them posting times the time at which you post your content is really important because the minute you post your content you want to show Instagram that your video is popping that there's tons of people watching and engaging but the thing with that is that you need to make sure that you're posting during the times that your audience is actually on Instagram in order to get that engagement right away so super simple you're just going to take a look at your analytics just like this here and see when your audience is on most and then just literally post during those times simple as that but if you're like I'm doing all these things Michelle I'm still not growing this is a crazy tip that I actually just learned from YouTuber uh here his name is Chris Howe he says you should check your account to see if you are Shadow banned you know if you ever use like a follow and unfollow app or maybe you're like doing too many actions at once Instagram might think you are a robot this is against Instagram's policy so you could actually be Shadow banned so let's check this out together and see if you are Shadow band Instagram rolled out a feature called notes so not everyone has this yet but it's almost been said to be kind of like Twitter kind of like MSN status update and if you're looking for this this is going to live in your direct messages Tab and only your close friends can see this or accounts that you follow and they follow you back and see your notes now Instagram is still testing this feature out and I personally thought that once they did roll it out that not a lot of people would use it but randomly I'm seeing a lot of my friends are using it which I find super interesting I don't see this as being like a growth tool considering the only people in your network can see your notes but I see this more of an engagement tool the more that you show up in people's feeds the better chances you have of connecting with your audience so so if you are trying to add more one-on-one touch points with your audience then definitely take a stab at notes just to see how your engagement does get affected Instagram offers a massive opportunity to drive traffic to your online store if you have Instagram shop you can link to your products and this is a really great way to make it easy for your customers to make a purchase from you even take advantage of Instagram's latest feature shopping on explore this makes reaching new customers so much easier than before and if you do want to grow your business with Instagram and you do want to manage your store effortlessly and you want to offer a seamless shopping experience for your audience then I recommend that you sign up for a free trial with Shopify you can use the link in the description box for a free trial to start building your Shopify store okay who's going to show me up in the comments what Instagram algorithm hacks have I missed in this video I want to know are using some hacks that are really helping you with your strategy let me know in the comment section below other than that guys thank you so much for tuning in to this episode and if you are new here don't forget to subscribe because we are a channel that helps you start run and grown online business so if that's you you need these tips in your life hit that subscribe button hit that like button for us hit that notification Bell my name is Michelle Bailey and I will see you guys in the next one bye getting the verified badge beside your name is the Holy Grail of Instagram it's a Priceless status symbol that makes easy to be spotted in search results and conveys Authority the truth is you don't need to be a celebrity with millions of followers to get verified you don't need Insider connections at Facebook either anyone can claim theirs in fact the process for Instagram verification has changed and in my opinion these updates have made it so much easier to get an Instagram verified badge in this video I'm going to take you through all the steps that you need to know to get verified by Instagram as well as some tips to maximize your chances of getting that coveted blue check mark next to your name [Music] most commonly seen with celebrities and Major Brands a verified badge lets profile visitors know that Instagram's verification team has vetted your profile and that you are legit since the verification badge cannot be bought this inspires confidence and conveys Prestige so any service claiming they can get you verified for a fee is definitely a scam there are a few key reasons for you to try and get verified for one it stops impersonation whether you're an e-commerce brand or an influencer letting your profile visitors know that you are the real deal is the main reason to apply for the badge second is credibility the blue tick has become a subconscious anchor of trustworthiness for Instagram users this makes your profile a natural leader in your space increasing your engagement and of course sales third is all about continued growth verified accounts appear higher up in search when people type things into the search bar that align with your content category this helps increase brand awareness audience growth and conversions too so let's take a look at the four requirements to get verified one is to be authentic you're a real human or a real brand and you'll need to be prepared to have documentation to prove it two is to be a unique profile which means you can't have multiple accounts for the same person or business unless they're multiple language accounts uniqueness also has to do with original content meaning even if you have tens of millions of followers but you're a meme account or a fan account verification won't be approved three is to have a complete profile this means at the very least you've got to have a public profile a profile picture a written bio and be an active user one thing Instagram doesn't clearly Define is what being an active user entails but we can confidently assume that it means that you've got a post share and comment on content regularly say at least once a week on average now these first three requirements are pretty simple to achieve so why is getting verified so elusive it's because of the fourth requirement which is to be notable being notable isn't clearly defined but as a guideline Instagram defines it as your profile representing a well-known or highly searched for personal brand the actual process of applying for verification is tremendously easy it's all done directly in app from your profile tap the menu button on the top right which brings up the menu tap settings up top then account near the bottom of the following menu then request verification step one is to fill out your information you've got to put your real full name and then upload a document like a driver's license if you're requesting verification of a business you can put the full legal name of a business and then upload your Articles of Incorporation or LLC registering paperwork instead step two is to confirm your notability first you'll select your category from a list next you'll choose your country or region from a list and after that there are two optional Fields one called audience where Instagram instructs you to optionally describe the people who follow your account what they're interested in and why they follow you the other optional field is the also known as field where you can list the other names of the person or business your account represents is publicly known as like stage names or names in other languages the next section although optional is where most of us will definitely want to take the time to fill out and those are links that help with verification I'm talking news articles social media accounts you're already verified on and other relevant links that show your account is notable so if you're applying for your business definitely include your business's website as well you'll see there's an ad link button at the bottom of the list of three and at least at the time of recording this video it allows you to add an additional 2 for a total of five links and I definitely recommend you use them all if you're not already very obviously famous globally or at least nationally once you've added those links you hit submit and that's it you have successfully submitted you or your business for verification within 30 days Instagram will notify you through your activity feed whether or not your application was successful if it was you'll get that blue check mark right away that last requirement of being notable is the toughest requirement to hit we know now that of course you want to have a profile photo and a completed bio that succinctly shares who you are or what your brand is all about we know that buying followers is bad for so many reasons but in the case of getting verified it is a Sure Shot way to get denied since Instagram will find out while they perform the verifications after all no one suddenly gets 10 000 subscribers over the course of two days but only gets one or two every day before and after we know the importance of following Instagram's Community guidelines and terms of use and Instagram summarizes that point pretty succinctly themselves where they write post only your own photos and videos and always follow the law respect everyone on Instagram don't spam people or post nudity pretty clear-cut guidelines but what we may not all know is how to be recognized as notable and I'd love to share the best way to methodically work towards that notoriety and it all has to do with those links that you submit as supporting evidence for verification in the application page there is a line under the links header that says paid or promotional content won't be considered and what this means is that you can't link a paid article oftentimes referred to as advertorials and expect those to count towards your verification the absolute best types of links are real editorial mentions like from traditional new sites or other traditional Publications like big name magazines or say academic journals the second best types of links are those of other social media platforms that you are already verified on like the similar blue check mark on Twitter or the gray check mark on YouTube but how can you get real editorial coverage from traditional news media and major Publications well of course you can do notable things and get actual coverage or you can take a page out of author Ryan holiday's book called trust me I'm lying what his book reveals is that news outlets are incentivized by money obviously and their money comes from page views to generate advertising Revenue how do they get those page views by churning out a constant stream of content to drive eyes and attention to any page of their websites so with nothing huge and newsworthy is happening they are still putting tons of pressure on their staff to keep churning out stories but without obvious stories to tell where do the writers of national Publications go well they go down to State provincial or city Level news sites to find new content ideas to publish but those smaller local news sites suffer from the same pressure and the same incentives so where do they go when there's nothing to tell they go to even smaller Publications like individual blogs or Ultra Niche blogs and forums but what about those individual bloggers I mean even they're incentivized by the exact same things to publish more content to get more eyes to earn more advertising revenue and that's where your opportunity comes in reach out to as many individual bloggers and even writers at your local or neighborhood newspapers and news sites share your story talk about something you or your business is passionate about and what you are doing about it when you go low enough down the food chain you will find people who will engage and want to publish you because again they're starved for new content to constantly push out for example maybe you started a hot sauce company but you are passionate about helping homeless shelters to keep a warm place for those without a place to call home to sleep at night maybe you donate a percentage of your sales to shelters or homeless Services organizations maybe you donate your sauces to Community Food kitchens to add some extra heat to the meals that they prepare reaching out consistently to hyper local newspapers and local bloggers will lead to them writing a story about you not necessarily because they even like you but because their income is incentivized by always pumping out new stories you do this consistently enough and enough times and at some point a writer from a bigger city state or provincial newspaper will siphon their content research efforts into that local blogger who wrote about you and perhaps just as the filler piece reach out to you for comment and publish that story in their paper as long as you understand that every writer at every major publication is constantly pressured for Content you are armed with the knowledge to set yourself up to gain traditional media coverage give writers what they want something new to write about after getting your name published in a few articles you'll have proof that you're notable and by the way if you do have deeper pockets and really want to expedite the process you can hire a PR agency if you decide to go this route be sure to clarify before hiring them that they are an agency that has access to something called the Facebook media support tools portal where they can submit a verification request on your behalf through their access but again this is if you have Deep Pockets I spoke with a friend who has a big YouTube channel who was quoted forty thousand dollars by one such agency and there wasn't even a guarantee of getting verified since at the end of the day ultimately it's up to Instagram's verification team by the way if you are active on Instagram and are growing your following and also have merch or products to sell did you know that Shopify has an incredibly powerful integration with Instagram that lets people buy your products directly from your posts inside of the Instagram app without ever needing to leave if you're ready to take your business or personal brand to the next level by selling products I welcome you to claim your 100 free trial to Shopify where you can set up your store add products integrate with Instagram and make your first sale all well before your trial ends you can access your free trial by clicking the link right up here or in the link down in the description below to quickly summarize verification though make sure your profile is complete with a profile pic a complete bio a link like your personal or businesses website and not one that directs to another social media site be sure to post content at least weekly and engage with both those who comment on your posts as well as liking and commenting on other accounts posts too continue posting engaging and relevant content to your target audience to organically grow your following most of all if you want to get verified as a non-celebrity or non-international brand start reaching out to news and magazine writers to share a part of your story that you feel is most worth writing about when you're ready to apply for verification add your business's website or personal website as your first link add any other social media profiles that have a large following or better yet have already been verified as your second link and for the third fourth and fifth links add those news stories you do this and you will get your Instagram verified in no time at all if you want more tips to grow an online business and step up your social media game subscribe right here to learn with Shopify don't forget to hit that Bell icon so you'll be notified the moment new videos just like this one dropped it's time to start thinking of Instagram stories as a way to increase your follower account Instagram reports that there are half a billion daily users of stories and that is a lot so if you're not already using stories to their full potential now is the time to start doing so so in this video you're going to learn how to create stories that increase your reach boost engagement and get you more followers [Music] so unless you've been living under a rock you've probably know what an Instagram story is it is a disappearing post on your profile it's gonna appear as a bright circle around your profile photo it's going to stay there for 24 hours unless you decide to add it to your highlights apart from the massive growth potential Instagram stories are a super easy way to create offer an authentic way to connect with your audience and the fact that stories are temporary make them the perfect testing ground for new ideas [Music] to post an Instagram story you're going to want to follow these steps first tap the plus icon at the top right corner of your screen this is going to be next to your notifications and messages or you can swipe your screen to the right select story from the options of what you want to create take a photo or record a video or you can swipe to access your camera roll to upload a photo graphic video or boomerang that you've already made but just remember that they do have to be in a vertical format edit your photo or video using Instagram's various editing options tap the your stories button to post to your public story or the close friends button to send only to a specific group if you do have the setup and that is it so that's the easy part now the hard part is creating content that people are going to want to keep coming back for but don't worry we've got you covered here are some Pro tips to help you blow up your Instagram following [Music] use highlights so when a new customer comes across your profile having highlights is a really great way to Showcase who you are and what you are about so whether you're running a business or maybe you're a content creator you can actually use highlights to quickly give your audience an overall picture of who you are and what you do so for my business people you might want to include FAQs or maybe you want to include testimonials and maybe some other how-to content for my content creators you might want to include categorical highlights like outfit inspo and you might also want to include behind the scenes highlights so that your audience can actually know you on a personal level sharing highlight content that's useful and entertaining is a really great way to turn a viewer into a follower do takeovers so you can collaborate with other brands and other content creators to do a story takeover a story takeover is when you appear in others stories so you can do this by paying for those story slots you can do this by exchanging stories as long as you do have a very similar follower account so the way that this works is you would produce exclusive content send the videos over to your partner and then they would post it but you want to make sure that you are including a call to action and that your handle is there so that your followers know where to find you this tactic actually used to be a lot more trendy a few years ago but nonetheless it still works and it's still a really great tool to connect with other brands and other content creators and it's really great to start those relationships and of course this is going to help you boost your follower account create shareable content so you're going to want to make your stories go viral the more shareable your content is the more people you reach and the more followers you're going to gain so how do you actually make shareable and more viral content what you're going to want to do is you're going to want to ask yourself what is the job that the content is going to do for my followers is it going to inspire them is it going to make them laugh teach them something impress them with something interesting or you can think about it this way what would you share with your friends if I look back at my own DMS and see what I've shared with my sister for example it's always something that's relatable and usually something that's hilarious and it's definitely something that I've never seen before so try not to Simply repost other people's content if you really do want to gain a loyal and an Engaged following try to start off with a hook that captures uh curiosity or generates an emotional response because people go through stories so quickly so you definitely need to create something that jumps out right away if you don't want to stress every day over what you're going to be posting consider treating your Instagram store stories like a TV network so you can make scheduled programming for the week or even reoccurring episodes that happen on certain days planning themes in advance is going to help you create more addictive content for your viewers run a giveaway via stories offer your audience a prize in exchange for them sharing your content also make sure that in order to enter the giveaway they must be following you and this is going to be a really great way to grow because your audience essentially acts as your own team of marketers them sharing your content helps you reach a new audience that you didn't have access to before and this can really grow your follower account exponentially now if you're wondering what can I give away you've got tons of options if you're a business you can give away a physical product you can issue a coupon code if you're an influencer maybe try teaming up with a brand to give away some products lots of brands are looking for influencers to Market them on their behalf so this would be equally beneficial for both of you use Instagram story features you can increase your exposure and your engagement by strategically using features like Instagram stickers use question stickers to talk directly to your audience and you can overlay a question sticker onto your photo or your video you can just ask your audience for their opinion or maybe you can let them ask you if they have any questions gift stickers and music stickers are another way to spice up your Instagram stories and honestly don't take yourself too seriously just have fun with your audience and that should help increase some engagement now if you're trying to reach more people locally you can use geotags by regularly tagging your location in your story when it is relevant Instagram will show to people who are checking in on that particular spot be present so don't be afraid to get in front of the camera you know your audience really does want to see you and they want to see the people that run your business now if you're able try talking to them like you would a friend because if someone happens upon your profile they might feel connected to you and then they might want to follow you cheekbone Beauty their founder gets on stories reels and feed posts and not only is being present in front of the camera a really great way to gain more followers it's also a really good way to retain your followers and then turn them into paying customers post consistently so posting consistently is going to be key to growing on literally any social media platform Instagram rewards you for keeping people on their platform longer when it comes to how many stories you should post try planning for one to seven times per day any more than that and your engagement will fall off now if that sounds like a lot to you don't worry no one expects you to invest half an hour on a post that's not going to be around after tomorrow so forget about perfect lighting and just keep things authentic but the more that you post the more your audience is going to interact with your stories and the higher up you will actually appear on the stories feed so make sure to put those reps in because consistency is key here run Instagram story ads if you're looking to bring even more attention to your Instagram account try running a little paid spend behind your highest performing stories if it already has high engagement with your followers you can bet that it will likely resonate with people in a similar niche a story ad if you're not already aware it's going to appear between users organic stories so while you can use your stories for anything since you're paying money to promote your story ads you should be creating them with a specific goal in mind so run content that will increase followers or maybe make a sale speaking of sales Instagram stories also offers a massive opportunity to drive traffic to your online store so if you have an Instagram shop you can link two products from your stories and this is a really great way to make it easy for your customers to make a purchase with you you can even take advantage of Instagram's latest feature shopping on explore this makes reaching new customers so much simpler than before and if you want to grow your business with Instagram manage your store effortlessly and offer a seamless shopping experience for your audience then I do recommend that you sign up for a free trial with Shopify you can use a link in the description box for that free trial and to get started on building your Shopify store are you using stories as a part of your Instagram strategy do you guys have any tips that I haven't already shared make sure that you're sharing them in the comment section below and yeah thank you so much for tuning in to this episode if you are new here don't forget to subscribe because we are a channel that's going to help you start run and grow an online business my name is Michelle Bailey if you do want to see any more content just like this hit that subscribe button hit that notification Bell give me a thumbs up because that helps the channel That helps this video do well and guys I will see you in the next one bye [Music] with the options to create single posts carousels stories and reels on Instagram it can be a bit confusing so what exactly are Instagram reels anyway from a perspective of a content creator just like you reels are short 15 second to one minute videos that you can film cut and edit with audio graphical and effect based add-ons all from inside the app reels is Instagram's core Focus because the format is optimized to encourage users to spend as much time as possible staring at their screens with an endless uninterrupted flow of automatically scrolling content so unlike regular posts where a user Taps it to view and interact reels just keep going with the algorithm predicting what each user will most likely want to continue watching why this is so important to you is that since Instagram is so dedicated to Reels it means that the likelihood of your reels content being served to users who don't know about you is so much higher is called Discovery content where people don't need to know about and search specifically for your profile in order for you to be potentially discovered by Instagram's 1.3 billion and growing user base the biggest benefit to you is that Instagram serves your reels in the reels feed to everyone who's browsing history and engagement preferences match the kind of content you create so if the content you create is focused on Healthy Home Cooking Instagram will automatically serve your reels to people who have a habit of following and engaging with Healthy Home Cooking content in other words Instagram is helping you promote your content to the exact types of people you want to gain exposure to and if you're running an e-commerce business like all of shopify's powerful social Integrations you can tag your products and enable viewers to shop directly in reels by tapping your product tag and buying right then and there without even needing to leave the Instagram app even if you don't have a store set up yet the ability to shoot and edit with a wide range of filters effects music sounds text and graphic overlays means you can create hyper engaging videos that Instagram wants to serve to its users in no time the first time you choose reels under the create button on the top right of Instagram you will be greeted with this little blurb tapping the get started button will take you to the reels creation View and as a side note another pop-up will show up called Introducing remixing remixing is where other instagramers can take a part of your reels clip and add it to their reels this is often how reels trends like dances challenges or reactions go absolutely viral on the platform which can of course really help you grow but the choice is entirely yours in your Instagram account settings you can choose to block people from remixing any and all of your reels or you can keep the function on and choose whether or not to let people remix each time you create a new reel when it comes to making an instant gram reel that is primed to go viral a lot of the same principles apply to successfully making Tick Tock videos here are five tips to use in your next reel one start your video off with a hook that captures curiosity you can do this by starting with a bold statement starting in the middle of the action at a dramatic moment or asking a question but withholding the answer two make fast-paced edits Instagram reels should be dynamic they need to give the viewer a constant feeling of novelty three tell a story the human brain is hardwired to respond to stories use a story to package information with emotion and let details unfold bit by bit to keep the viewers tuned in four ask yourself what job is the video going to do for the audience are they going to learn something are they going to be entertained to feel inspired make sure you are providing value get Trends on Instagram and Tick Tock and add your own spin make sure they align with your audience's interests whatever you do don't just blindly follow Trends people can spot inauthenticity or copycats miles away so be original now I'll make a sample reel for Instagram so you can see all the cool features and options available to you when creating your own there are so many cool features with reels and looking at the left hand creative menu before you even start filming your first one can be a bit overwhelming me I like starting with choosing the maximum duration and with the sample reels I'll be creating I'm going to limit myself to 30 seconds since shorter reels generally have better retention and engagement so the simple reels I'll be making will be sharing three productivity tips for entrepreneurs and we'll be using all of the robust creative Tools in reels to help us out I'll go and tap this layout tool change the layouts to this top and bottom split where I can first fill my face saying the tip to the camera then flip the camera and demonstrate the tip on the bottom half tapping next on the bottom right allows you to edit your reels and this is where I'll be able to add a soundtrack and sound effects from the Instagram Music and Sound Library add text and graphics and even add cool effects and filters onto my clips with all the editing done let's take a look at the final product here are three productivity hacks to help you get into the zone and accomplish more tomorrow's productivity starts tonight before you go to bed jot down the three things you must accomplish tomorrow so you're ready to go with confidence schedule your procrastination put 50 minute time blocks every two hours into your calendar specifically to get distracted when you schedule distractions magically you stop getting distracted motion creates motivation move your body every hour blood flow clears the mind and resets your focus and energy what's your top productivity tip as you saw through that quick demo there are so many fun and Powerful tools that can enable your creativity and Imagination to come to life and most importantly engage with and grow your audience and brand so many features the best way to learn about all of them is to just start creating and let your imagination guide you but if your imagination is stuck no worries because I'm about to share the best types of content ideas to start trying out with reels whether you're a Creator who's looking to increase your influence or you're an e-commerce entrepreneur looking to increase sales going back to the best types of content to start experimenting with reels there are three I'd recommend starting with and the first one are how-to videos whether you're an entrepreneur with your own product or you're an influencer using other companies products how-to reels are effective because they enable viewers to quickly understand how something works when we're making a purchasing decision it might be painstaking to read through a bunch of reviews but oftentimes the most powerful way to decide if something is right for us is to just see how it works in real life being used by a real person and the short format and editing capabilities of Instagram reels means you can distill even complicated tutorials with multiple steps into a super quick and easy to digest how-to tutorial next up are inspirational clips and I don't mean motivational speech type stuff although of course you can absolutely create those as well but I'm talking about idea inspiration similar to the how-to type of videos this can work whether you're an e-commerce business owner or a budding influencer I mean if your content you post is primarily about indoor gardening you can create a reel with a few different indoor garden setups featuring easy to care for plants but that same reel is just as effective if you own a business that sells home gardening tools and seeds the idea here is to show your viewers what's possible and Inspire them to take action to yield results you share in your Instagram reel the third type of reel that you can start experimenting with are behind the scenes or teaser videos if your Instagram account is for your business you can get unplugged and raw with some of your Instagram reels to really build a human connection with your audience they may be used to only seeing super polished product shots on your main page but using reels to introduce your audience to the real you maybe the type of coffee you enjoy or perhaps introducing them to your pet or hate giving them a super sneak peek into an upcoming product launch are all ways to peel back the curtain and let your audience feel more connected and therefore more invested in you and your business the same goes for you even if you don't have a business yet your main Instagram page might be full of super polished well-edited photos of you but you can take your viewers to a whole deeper level of Engagement by sharing Snippets from your life that you don't typically post maybe you're a travel influencer but share some simple meals you cook when you're at home perhaps you use reels as a way to answer some frequently asked questions that show up in the comments of your posts you might be planning a collaboration with another Instagram personality and drum up some hype by posting some reels of you and your new collab buddy putting in work if you're looking to grow your following and presence on Instagram in a serious way reels must be a part of your content strategy in order to get what you want you need to find those that can give you what you want figure out what they want and give it to them and they'll pay you back handsomely and if what you want is to explode your following on Instagram you need the help of your target audience and you need the help of Instagram's algorithm to serve your content to your target audience giving your target audience what they want is simple after all they're your target audience so you know the types of content they're after so go out there and create the best quality and most engaging content you can to appeal to your target audience giving Instagram what they want is equally as simple in theory Instagram wants people to spend as much time as possible on their platform consuming content all day and night the social media platform has publicly said that they are investing heavily on reels to help them achieve this goal so make sure you're creating the very format the algorithm wants you to create as long as your content is educational entertaining or better yet both and is created in a way to be engaging to your target audience you will grow your following your influence and your sales as well and speaking of sales if you are looking to start a business and haven't taken the first steps yet I welcome you to sign up for a 100 free no strings attached trial to Shopify where you can set up an online store in a matter of hours you can access your free trial by clicking the link right up here or down in the description below we have been chatting about the importance of Instagram reels for growing your following but if you are also curious about how to create and manage ads on Instagram to really supercharge your results you'll definitely want to check out this video right over here while you're deciding whether to watch that now or save it for later let us know in the comments what types of reels you'll be posting to in Instagram don't forget to subscribe and hit that Bell so you'll be notified the moment new videos just like this one drop if you have products to sell online and you don't have an Instagram shop then you're making a huge mistake Instagram has over 1 billion active users and they are ready to shop according to a study about half of all Instagram accounts use the app to shop every single week and 81 of people said they use Instagram to research products before buying so selling on Instagram as an e-commerce business is an absolute non-negotiable don't make the mistake of building your business on an island to increase sales you need to constantly build bridges that allow potential customers to easily discover your products that's why in today's video I'm going to show you what an Instagram shop is why it's a huge growth lever for your business and how to set up Instagram shopping and make sure you stick around till the end because I'm also going to share some of the best ways you can use its features so you can supercharge your sales [Music] first of all what is Instagram shopping well Instagram shops sync all of the products that you have in your Shopify store directly into your Instagram account this allows your customers to click on a shopping icon on your posts or your stories to buy your products directly from Instagram customers can view your entire product catalog without needing to leave their favorite social app this makes for a much smoother experience for your customers and we all know that less friction during the buying process equals more sales on top of this using Instagram shopping makes it way easier on you as a business owner because you can simply use Shopify to track and manage your orders from multiple sales channels all in one place you can even use Shopify to expand into new audiences by running Instagram ads and when it comes to setting up Instagram shopping on Shopify it could not be more simple just connect your online store to the Facebook sales Channel and all your Shopify products will automatically sync into Instagram this makes creating ads and shoppable posts a breeze before you do this you'll need to make sure you've set up a Facebook business page and have products in your Facebook catalog so first things first make sure that your personal account is converted to an Instagram business account and make sure that your business sells physical Goods that comply with Instagram's Commerce policies then you need to connect your Instagram account to a catalog start by logging into your meta Commerce manager once you're in Commerce manager click add catalog then choose the catalog type you'd like to create if you're an online retailer you're going to want to create an e-commerce catalog then you need to upload your inventory if you're selling a small amount of products you can manually upload this product information to your catalog or as I mentioned you can connect a partner platform like Shopify to automatically import all your items from there you need to use the following steps number one from your Shopify admin click Facebook under the sales channels in the left menu bar number two click set up to start in the Instagram shopping section step 3 connect the required Facebook accounts to the Facebook sales Channel and step 4 review and accept the terms and conditions then click request approval it does take 24 to 48 hours for Facebook to review your products but then boom you can start selling on Instagram now let's go over the best tools that Instagram shopping offers which will help you promote your products on the app the first is shoppable posts these are just what they sound like once you've synced up your online store with Instagram you can tag your products in any post on your feed this makes it super easy for customers to click through directly from any post and shop and is a great way to make use of any user generated content but more on that later product stickers similar to shoppable posts product stickers let you tag your products in your Instagram stories and since there are over 500 million story views every single day and growing this is a great way to feature your products again in a way that is very clickable and engaging for your customers if you've set up Instagram shopping and added in some products your profile will automatically have a very handy view shop option that features all your synced products and any of the posts that mention them this is a very useful One-Stop shop for cuss customers to see everything you offer all in one place curating your products into collections is an awesome way to make it easier for your customers to shop think of it like creating different product categories on your website for people to browse through but you can now do that on Instagram too just note that as a business account you will have to create the collection on Facebook's Commerce manager first then enable Instagram checkout in order to add it to your profile last but not least the built-in checkout that Instagram offers helps you unlock even more features like live shopping for live streams or the product launch feature which lets you build hype for your products using countdowns and reminders and if you're using Shopify it's pretty simple to set up the Facebook channel in order to sync up your products and enable shop pay directly through your Instagram checkout which offers a really smooth and seamless process that is very easy to use for customers by the way if you want even more info on how to grow your Instagram account and increase traffic to your online store red register using the link below to gain access to a free online course that will help you level up your marketing by changing the way you think about your store's marketing funnel learn how to go from first day to first sale in this free training course be sure to click the link in our description box below to sign up and get the training sent directly to you okay so once you're set up with your Instagram shop and you have all of those awesome tools available to you here are some of my top tips to help you make the most of this platform number one use product tags as I mentioned before the product tagging feature is one of the best ways to increase click-through to your products at your store not only can you tag your feed post just like you tag other accounts but you can now mention clickable products in your captions and add product tags to your stories and your reels not only is this super helpful for customers to be able to shop your products but tagging also helps you get discovered in the first place Instagram's shop tab is curated based on algorithm meaning that your tagged products can be shown to people who have never heard of you before just because they've shown interest in similar products in the past in many ways this is a win-win because you get to reach new people and customers get introduced to products that they're pretty likely to love but typically only tagged products will get featured on this tab so it's a really good idea to incorporate product tagging into your regular social media marketing number two create shoppable ads setting up Instagram shopping lets you take your ads to the next level which is what you want if you're going to be investing money into your marketing using shoppable ads instead of regular ones means that customers can click through to product tags and Shop directly from the post if you're in the US you can even run ads with Instagram checkout which means that customers won't even have to go to your website to see the product they could just check out directly through the app these ads can use one image or a whole Carousel or even video content to promote your products and they're usually shown in a customer's feed or on their explore page now if you're going to be paying for your products to be shown to new customers you're going to want to make the process as easy as possible for those customers to click through learn more and eventually purchase your product shoppable ads are the perfect way to do exactly that number three partner with influencers as I mentioned before Instagram is planning to release product tagging to everyone sometime soon but for now the only way for other accounts to tag your products is to set up shopping from creators and partner with influencers to share your stuff again this feature is unfortunately only offered to us-based accounts right now but will hopefully be available worldwide very soon once you've set up your Instagram shopping account and added in all your products you can head over to your settings to find creators to list as approved accounts this means that your products can be shared by those influencers and you'll get access to analytics for each of their posts to see which content is performing the best influencer marketing is obviously a huge industry right now and customers really love to shop through accounts that they already know and trust of course in order to do this you'll need to establish relationships with influencers in your Niche which is easier said than done but we do have a great video about launching an influencer marketing campaign if you're interested in learning more about how to leverage this strategy we'll link it down below now as I mentioned before at the time of recording this video live shopping is exactly what it sounds like this allows creators to tag and share specific products while they're doing an Instagram live stream this opens up so many possibilities for Brands because you're able to not only showcase your product on video but you can also simultaneously answer your customers questions in the moment you can create custom offers and discounts and of course you have that feature to link directly to the product throughout the stream if you showcase the product on the live in this way customers just click add to bag and the process is completely seamless from there using Instagram checkout I can see this being a huge advantage in so many Industries for example think of beauty brands that could do a whole get ready with me video while linking to specific products as they go or a dog trainer who is showing you how to train a trick while featuring specific treats and toys we already know that the live format is really in aging and fun for customers so this feature just takes it to the next level we love user generated content around here it is such an awesome way to both thank your customers for sharing their products by featuring their photos and for you to build trust with new customers when they see your stuff being shared organically by loyal fans and the best part is that thanks to Instagram shopping you can now make this content shoppable using the product tagging feature that I mentioned before obviously it takes time and traction for customers to start sharing photos of your products in action organically but you can encourage them to do so by making user generated content an important part of your marketing strategy and regularly sharing photos and testimonials from real customers in your feed another great way to do this is to create a specific branded hashtag that customers can use to connect with your community the clothing brand free label does this really well with their hashtag hashtag my free label it's serves a lot of purposes customers have a place to share their love for the product prospective buyers get to see some social proof from real customers and then the brand can share some of the photos to promote their products more widely whether we're talking about feed posts or reels there has never been a better time to start integrating video into your ongoing content creation especially for e-commerce Brands one study showed that after watching a video featuring a product 64 of social media users said they were more likely to purchase that product so this is really worth paying attention to and investing in for your own business the good news is that apps like Instagram and Tick Tock have made the process of creating catchy videos easier than ever before you can do it straight from your phone and upload directly to the app and since Instagram in particular is really trying to encourage users to make more videos right now video content is currently getting a lot of reach and engagement within their algorithm for proud product-based businesses especially video is an awesome way to show your products in action if you sell clothing you could use video to show what all your dresses look like on different body types or if you sell high quality kitchen tools you could make a recipe that showcases why your vegetable peelers are so good seeing a product in action makes it way more engaging for customers which hopefully means way more sales for you one of the huge advantages of using a platform like Instagram shopping to drive sales is that your customers are already used to using the app to send DMS or leave comments or engage with stories this gives you a huge Advantage because it makes it way easier to answer their questions or address any hesitations about your products and ultimately this helps you provide better customer support if anything goes wrong Instagram's quick replies feature is incredibly useful if you're getting the same questions repeatedly or just have too many DMS for you to handle alone quick replies are basically like canvas fonts is that you can insert into the message thread seamlessly anytime you get a really common question this saves you a ton of time and means that your content and your tone will always be consistent when you write these responses in advance there's not going to be any risk of typing in a link wrong or forgetting to mention a specific detail or you can take it to a whole other level with automated replies using a tool like manychat this is a simple chat bot that you can program with specific answers based on a customer's keyword selection this is obviously less personalized than sending a message yourself but it can be an easy way to address common concerns if you're overwhelmed by questions in any case if you're using Instagram shopping as a core sales channel in your business then it's a really good idea to invest in building some customer support right into the way that you and your customers use the app and there you have it some easy ways to invest in Instagram shopping if that's the right sales channel strategy for your business now Instagram is really interested in building out its e-commerce features so stay tuned because there will probably be many more awesome tools available to business owners in the coming months and years and if you know how to take advantage of them that could mean Big Boost to your sales and more benefits for your customers and this might go without saying that in order to use any of these awesome Instagram shopping features that I've been talking about today you will need to have an e-commerce store setup that integrates directly with your Instagram profile if you don't have one yet you're going to want to come check out Shopify I can't think of another e-commerce platform that integrates as smoothly with Facebook and Instagram while also offering such a beautiful and Powerful online store for customers to shop but you don't have to take my word for it because Shopify offers a free trial for you to come check out all the features for yourself and set up your store just the way you like it click the link in our description box below to access your free trial and get started on building your own eCommerce store today okay so hopefully by now you you have some good inspiration for starting to build out your Instagram shop and now understand how to use it to reach new customers if you do have any questions about the best way to set up your store or how to promote your products make sure to check out our other videos on Instagram marketing here on the channel or just drop your questions in the comment section below so we can get back to you and help you out our goal here on this channel is always to support you to either start or grow your online business because we really believe that e-commerce is for everyone so if you like this content Stick Around And subscribe we're releasing new videos every single week and are always looking for new ways to help your business Thrive so until next time I'm Stephanie pellet I want to thank you so much for watching and I'll see you in the next one [Music] thank you