How to Use Instagram To Dramatically Improve Your Business: “Tell a story in a different way” With…

How to Use Instagram To Dramatically Improve Your Business: “Tell a story in a different way” With Charlie Whyman and Candice Georgiadis

Tell a story in a different way — people learn and consume information in different ways, sometimes a photograph can clarify a message more than repeating the same words.

I had the pleasure of interviewing Charlie Whyman, a Business Development Strategist and Marketing Trainer with a passion for tech through relationship driven marketing. Charlie began her career as the Director and Founder of an olive oil production company in Italy before becoming the Global Head of Sales and Marketing for a 3D Laser Mapping Company in the UK. Charlie is now using her 7 years of experience and logistical way of thinking to specialise in LinkedIn training for SMEs, via workshops, coaching, training and digital support so businesses can excel in social selling.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?

My career has always been driven by my curiosity; I’ve worked across many industries and sectors over the years. After 8 years in technical sales, marketing and leadership roles I decided to take the jump into the world of self-employment.

I was burnt out and unhappy doing what I was doing and knew I wanted something more. A lot of friends kept asking me to teach them how to improve their sales and marketing in order to grow their business. They asked me to help them use LinkedIn — they had seen the results I was gaining from the platform and wanted to know how to do it for themselves.

After doing a bit of research I learned that more people wanted help with this and I was in a great position to be able to help them. In January 2018, I developed an online and offline learning experience and have been running this ever since.

Can you explain to our readers why you are an authority about Social Media Marketing?

I have been actively using social media for over 12 years in business to gain visibility, credibility and influence in over 10 different markets. I would say my “ninja skill” is more around effective communication — especially in technical industries which are more traditional and feature focussed rather than benefit focused.

I’ve used social media to win new clients, launch a business, gain speaking and media opportunities, attract investors, manage agents and distributors and develop communities. LinkedIn has always been my go-to platform as I’m a natural networker and I have a large network — Twitter is my second favourite because I’ve always used it at events.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started this career?

Before July 2017 I’d never done an online course before and decided in November that I was going to put together my own online course to serve my international network and enable me to keep working with people around the world. In January, I launched my first online course and have been developing it since. In November this year, I was shortlisted to the top 3 of a ‘move on up’ contest and was invited to speak in front of over 700 people at a marketing conference in Orlando, Florida to try and win $25,000. I didn’t win but it was an incredible experience and I felt like I was winning all weekend.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

I was hosting a LinkedIn challenge webinar but I was running late and couldn’t make it home in time so had to host it from my in-law’s house. I had to run it in their guest room that was pink with a crushed velvet bed with diamonde trim — completely the opposite look and style for what I’m known for so a lot of people on my webinar found it funny. The internet connection was also unstable so I was unable to share my slides for the webinar which in fact ended up improving the experience of all involved. I now try to run most of my webinars without slides to create more interaction and remove any risk of a death by PowerPoint webinar.

Which social media platform have you found to be most effective to use to increase business revenues? Can you share a story from your experience?

LinkedIn every time. When I quit my job as head of marketing I had no plan and no savings to fall back on. I needed to find some clients and fast. So I approached some people in my network I wanted to help and knew I could add value to and secured my first two retained clients in my first week. When you have a nurtured network it will work for you — it will support you, advise you, recommend you to others and much more. I used LinkedIn to gain clients without a website in my first 12 months of business — it’s that effective.

Let’s talk about Instagram specifically, now. Can you share 6 ways to leverage Instagram to dramatically improve your business? Please share a story or example for each.

  1. Invite Instagram users to be interviewed on a podcast — I’ve managed to gain a client some interviewees through Instagram
  2. Use stories to engage your network and keep them posted about what’s going on — I did a story about an upcoming webinar I did which reminded a few people it was happening who messaged me to tell me they forgot.
  3. Tell a story in a different way — people learn and consume information in different ways, sometimes a photograph can clarify a message more than repeating the same words
  4. Get to know people in your tribe a bit better. I’ve been getting to know a few peers of mine better by following their activities on Instagram
  5. Learn about new products, services and places — Instagram is a great way to discover new things. I travel a lot and I’ve used Instagram to find local places of interest and things I want to prioritise and see on short trips.
  6. Be inspired. There is always at least one great quote a day you can gain inspiration from and sometimes you can learn things you didn’t expect to that lift your day, pique your curiosity or do more.

Because of the position that you are in, you are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂

I would love to see more people embrace and use their inner curiosity to step outside of their comfort zone and try something new. Be more curious to ask more questions and not settle for the status quo.

Some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them 🙂

Where do I start?! Dave Brailsford, Clive Woodward, Alex Ferguson, Robin Sharma, Mel Robbins, Marie Foreleo to name a few!

Thank you so much for these great insights. This was very enlightening!

How to Use Instagram To Dramatically Improve Your Business: “Tell a story in a different way” With… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

How to Use Instagram To Dramatically Improve Your Business: “Don’t Fear Consistency” With Nico…

How to Use Instagram To Dramatically Improve Your Business: “Don’t Fear Consistency” With Nico Hodel, CTO of Start It Up NYC and Candice Georgiadis

Don’t Fear Consistency: In the days of the chronological feed, businesses were right to worry about overwhelming their audience with too much content. Gone are those days. Today, Instagram’s algorithm means that organic reach of each post is quite low, so posting more often is necessary to maintain visibility and engagement with your followers. Many of my past clients were slow to adapt to the change in Instagram’s algorithm, and experienced an uptick in conversions after doing so.

I had the pleasure of interviewing Nico Hodel, CTO of Start It Up NYC, a media company and startup accelerator providing app development, digital marketing, investor relations, and PR services to New York tech startups.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?

I was born in Honolulu, Hawaii and took an interest early in web development, which led to a passion for marketing, as programmatic marketing was in its early days. After starting my own web development company in college with a few friends, working on mobile apps in the Angular and React Javascript frameworks, I began work with Start It Up, building a media site and accelerator program that we’ve leveraged to provide clients a broader range of services to accompany development.

Can you explain to our readers why you are an authority about Social Media Marketing?

I had experience early programming to the Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook APIs and have used that knowledge to leverage Instagram for Start It Up, building an engaged audience of several thousand followers, leading to 2000 unique views per week on our media site, agreements with many partner companies, and several clients in just one years time.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started this career?

A few years back, I took on a really complex programming project with a UK-based tech company. I like to challenge myself, and I knew that the project was a bit beyond my ability, but didn’t fully realize the extent of it until I got started. I realized that I’d have to learn a new tech stack in order to actually pull it off and that there just weren’t enough hours in the day. I locked myself in my apartment, taking shelter from the New York Winter and adopted a polyphasic sleep cycle to free up time, sleeping just three hours a night, with three 20-minute naps throughout the day. I managed to complete the project but later heard from close friends about how by the end of the project I looked “near death.” While still a proponent of polyphasic sleep when it comes to productivity, I’d definitely advise anyone interested to be cautious.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

In my early days, I took a contract with a Honolulu-based ecommerce company. Little did I know, their past developer held login credentials for all of their hosting, domain, and social platforms and had passed away years ago. Two days after starting work their domain and hosting plans expired, and I was tasked with recovering both – a job that’s difficult without any credentials or proof of ownership. I spent hours on the phone speaking with reps from domain and hosting providers and was finally able to set everything straight, but not without a flurry of stress and wasted time. I learned the hard way to always know the full story before deciding to work with any company and to pick my clients carefully.

Which social media platform have you found to be most effective to use to increase business revenues? Can you share a story from your experience?

We’ve found Instagram to be the most useful to increase revenue as it’s led to direct relationships with partners and clients, with our personal Linkedin profiles being a close second.

Let’s talk about Instagram specifically, now. Can you share 6 ways to leverage Instagram to dramatically improve your business? Please share a story or example for each.

  1. Perfect Your Instagram Funnel:

Being strategic about the link featured in an Instagram bio can dramatically increase desired conversions. If your immediate goal is to gather data or qualify leads, make sure the link directs directly to a form for the user to fill out. If app conversions are your goal, make sure it directs to a page where users can immediately download your app. Same goes for event signups. Many of my past clients made the mistake of directing their bio link to a web page that was unrelated to the conversion they were attempting to track, and saw conversions increase dramatically when they redirected the link in their bio.

2. Don’t Fear Consistency:

In the days of the chronological feed, businesses were right to worry about overwhelming their audience with too much content. Gone are those days. Today, Instagram’s algorithm means that organic reach of each post is quite low, so posting more often is necessary to maintain visibility and engagement with your followers. Many of my past clients were slow to adapt to the change in Instagram’s algorithm, and experienced an uptick in conversions after doing so.

3. Don’t Fear Bots – But Use Them Judiciously

If you choose to use a bot, make sure it’s done in an extremely targeted and calculated way. Program it specifically to engage only with content that makes sense for your niche, and reduce frequency of each of its actions to avoid being flagged by Instagram. We’ve experienced that when used with caution, a bot is a powerful, cost-effective way to generate impressions, increase traffic to a profile, and potentially boost conversions. However, I’ve had people who used them unwisely come to me for help after their profile was flagged. Start with autoliking, not comments or other actions and keep frequency to less than 40 likes per hour until you get the hang of things. Keep track of activity logs to make sure the bot’s actions are in line with your brand.

4. Ride The Wave of Video Content

Video content has far more engagement on Instagram and should be a pivotal part of growing an audience. Keep content short (between 10 and 60 seconds) and be mindful of its thumbnail image and beginning to make sure you can capture users’ attention early. Videos will also generally have better margins for running Instagram ads, as social platforms try to incentive use of video to boost engagement on the platform. I’ve seen businesses increase their reach dramatically after leaning into video content.

5. Don’t Boost Posts – Run Ads Through Facebook’s Power Editor or Ad Manager

Many businesses I’ve worked with were frustrated by a lack of conversions and growth after boosting their posts through Instagram. Using Facebook’s Power Editor tool will allow you to be far more surgical and granular with your targeting. I’ve seen double digit boosts in clients’ conversions after taking the time to create specific adsets to target specific demographics.

6. Don’t Discount Partnerships

While staying focused on conversions is key, don’t discount Instagram’s ability to act as a digital business card. I’ve developed valuable partnerships for my company and for clients by reaching out to other companies in a direct message and gaining access to decision makers. Particularly if you’re talking about startups, chances are Co-Founders aren’t managing the company’s Instagram day-to-day, but they’re checking up on it from time to time. Keep messages brief, and open up by offering something, not asking for something. We’ve used this method to connect with many interesting startup companies that might have missed us on LinkedIn or other channels.

Because of the position that you are in, you are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂

Part of my goal working with Start It Up is to inspire a movement towards innovation. We’re looking to accelerate a change in business culture that puts intelligently engineered tech products with a social purpose at the forefront. The reason we choose to work with companies like UBQFit, Saavor, and Moad Computer, isn’t financial gain. We think these companies are genuinely offering products that can initiate positive change in users lifestyles and larger social causes.

Some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them 🙂

Having dinner with Elon Musk or Kim Dotcom would be a dream come true and sure to entertain. More realistically, I’d love to sit down with Matt Hartman sometime. He’s been a VC speaker at many of our events in the past, and moderated at Ascent Conference whom we partnered with, and I’ve always enjoyed his perspective on fundraising for startups.

Thank you so much for these great insights. This was very enlightening!

How to Use Instagram To Dramatically Improve Your Business: “Don’t Fear Consistency” With Nico… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.