Episode 116: Instagram Secrets For Your Pet Business With Jenn Herman

It's no secret that Instagram can be a powerhouse social media platform for your business - but I see so many business owners that are just NOT using it to its fullest potential. If you've been wanting to dive deep into the inner working of Instagram and learn useful Instagram secrets, then today is your day! Jenn Herman is a social media consultant, speaker, and globally recognized Instagram expert. She is the forefront blogger on Instagram marketing and her blog, Jenn’s Trends, has won the title of a Top 10 Social Media Blog in 2014, 2015, and 2016. Through her blog, consulting, and speaking Jenn provides tips, resources, and training for small to medium sized businesses that need to structure their social media strategies. Her business background includes Administration, Sales, Human Resources, and Marketing and she enjoys bringing all these skills together to help you grow your business. Jenn has been featured in Inc., Fox News, Yahoo Finance, HuffPost, The Verge, CBS Radio LA, and numerous other podcasts and publications. She is the author of “Instagram for Business for Dummies”, "The Ultimate Beginner's Guide to Instagram" and "Stop Guessing: Your Step-by-Step Guide to Creating a Social Media Strategy". Learn more about Jenn on her website http://jennstrends.com. Biggest Takeaway You Don't Want To Miss Above all, you have to have a consistent strategy. Being active and taking the time to implement the strategy you develop is key.  Your processes will drive the results that get you clients, regardless if you have 50 followers or 50,000 followers. What matters is who's going to find you and bring you business. Build an amazing community of the followers you have and use strategic efforts (i.e. hashtags, stories, following events) to turn that into business. Show Highlights Who Is Jenn Herman? [1:00] Why Do I Need Instagram In MY Business? [3:00] What Are The Different Ways Consumers Can Use Instagram? [5:30] How Do We Figure Out HOW Our Audience Consumes Instagram? [9:00] What Tactics On Instagram Can We Use To Build Our Local Following? [11:45] Should You Always Use A Location Tag? [16:00] What Kind Of Strategies Can I Use For Hashtags? [17:00] How Often Should You Post On Instagram? [25:00] Why Should I Have A Kick-Butt Instagram Page? [28:00] Special Offer Pick up a copy of Jenn's book, Instagram For Business For Dummies, on Amazon here: http://bit.ly/IGBizDummies Share The Show Did you enjoy the show? We would love it if you subscribed today and left us a 5-star review! Click this link – Bella In Your Business Click on the ‘Subscribe’ button below the artwork Go to the ‘Ratings and Reviews’ section Click on ‘Write a Review’ Transcript: This is episode 116 of Bella in Your Business. Welcome to Bella in Your Business, where Bella will discuss anything and everything about your pet sitting business to help you land on target. So get ready—Bella’s got your chute. Let’s jump. Welcome to Bella in Your Business. My name is Bella Vasta from Jump Consulting, and today we’re talking everything Instagram. So if you’ve been wondering about why you should be on Instagram, how you should be on Instagram, what to post on Instagram, or just how to actually use it for your business, today is your day. Today I’ve got my awesome friend, Jenn Herman, with me, and she is just an Instagram expert. Honestly, if you wanted to know anything about Instagram, Jenn is your girl. She is a go-to expert in so many different social circles. I am so excited to have her here, and it’s off the coattails of her actually coming in and being our expert in the Jump Mastermind. We had fangirls over her—she’s so fun, and I’m so excited to have you here. Jenn, welcome to the show. Jenn: Thank you! I’m so excited to be back with you again and to this group this time. I’m so excited. Bella: For sure. Why don’t you give us a quick background of who you are, how you became this—I'm gonna call you the Instagram queen—and let us know for those who might not know you yet. Jenn: Perfect, yeah. I will take the title Instagram queen. I will not bestow it upon myself, but I will gladly wear the tiara with pride. So I’m Jenn Herman—it’s Jenn with two N’s. I was born in 1980 with a bazillion other Jennifers, so I’ve always been Jenn with two N’s as a way to differentiate myself. I started a blog about five and a half years ago based on social media, and six months into that, I decided to figure out how Instagram worked. I fell in love with it as a platform, but nobody was really teaching it from a marketing perspective. So I just started sharing things on my blog, building up all these tests and theories, and blogging about it. At the time, I was writing three blog posts a week, one of them dedicated to Instagram, so I was creating a lot of content. Within about six months, I was starting to get invited to do interviews, podcasts, and speaking gigs because I became the person everyone turned to for Instagram content—especially in a blogging format. It’s just continued to evolve from there. I love Instagram. I love the community and the platform. I love photography, so for me, it’s a great environment, but I really love seeing businesses be successful with it because it’s not a traditional marketing platform. It’s not Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn where you’re dropping links and blasting information. People have to be creative, strategic, and unique—it’s a really fun platform that way. Bella: That’s so cool because you’re not just teaching tactics, you’re actually thinking psychologically—how we can work it and create a strategy. Because anything in our business needs a strategy or plan, right? Jenn: Exactly. Bella: Can you give us a little perspective? Instagram’s exploding right now, and I know you have predictions when they reach new milestones. But tell us about Instagram’s growth and how anyone listening who thinks “my clients aren’t on Instagram” might be wrong. Jenn: I can totally break it down. That’s my favorite excuse—“my clients aren’t on Instagram.” And to that I say BS, because they are. I don’t care who your client is—they’re on Instagram. They may not be as active as on another platform, but they’re there. I live by the mantra that any business can use Instagram. That doesn’t mean every business should, but your audience is there. They just cracked a billion monthly active users about a month and a half, maybe two months ago. If you don’t count YouTube, because there’s debate on whether it’s social media, then Instagram is number two only behind their parent Facebook, and they blow everyone else out of the water. If you look at demographics, people think Instagram’s for millennials. Well, millennials are now in their mid-to-late 30s—they’re career professionals, buying homes and cars, starting families, and making big life changes. Then there’s Gen X and baby boomers—50- and 60-year-olds are on Instagram. Statistically, there are more people over 45 on Instagram than on Twitter. So if your audience is on Twitter, they’re definitely on Instagram. The key is understanding how they’re using it. Bella: So tell me the different ways a consumer would use it, and then we’ll talk about how a business can complement that. Jenn: As consumers, people interact in multiple areas. The primary is the feed—the normal home feed with photos, videos, and carousels. People scroll rapidly and double-tap to like. It’s fast, like the visual version of Twitter. Then there are Stories—the bubbles at the top. These are 24-hour raw content pieces. Stories are where people are authentic and real. Instagram’s main feed has become more curated and edited, while Stories go back to the raw, instant side of Instagram. Then there’s Instagram Live—live video that also lasts 24 hours. Plus, direct messages with live video chat are built in, so you can talk or do customer service right inside the app. And now, IGTV adds another content layer. It’s constantly growing. People use these spaces differently, and as a business, you have to figure out which parts your audience engages with most. Bella: That’s fascinating! So how would one figure out where their audience is most active? Jenn: A lot of it comes down to testing. Start somewhere—post regular content, announce that you’ll use Stories more, and see where you get engagement. Analytics will tell you where people come from—hashtags, home feed, or profile clicks. Bella: But Instagram analytics are simple, right? Jenn: Totally. Instagram analytics are built into the app, super clear, and easy to read. It literally says how many came from hashtags, how many clicked links, etc. You can pick two or three key metrics—whether it’s audience growth, engagement, or traffic—and focus on those. Bella: I know so many pet sitters and dog walkers killing it on Instagram. And I’d even say if you’re overwhelmed or short on time, Instagram might be the easiest platform. Most of our listeners are dog walkers and pet sitters with a 10–20 mile client radius. What tactics can they use to attract local people? Jenn: Definitely use Instagram Stories—they’re raw, fun, and quick. Use boomerangs and rewinds to show dogs walking or jumping into pools. Tag your exact location, not just your city. If you tag “City Hall,” you might show up in City Hall’s location search and the city search. Smaller tags can appear in broader searches, but not vice versa. And use local hashtags—#DogsOfSanDiego, for example. You can also follow hashtags so that content shows up in your feed. Like and engage with local posts. When people see your profile and realize you’re a local dog walker, they might reach out. Bella: So it’s like, never post without location tags or local hashtags. Jenn: Exactly. Maybe not every single post, but most of the time you should. Always include hashtags and geographic tags for better visibility. Just don’t tag your home address! Bella: Okay,