[Transcript starts at 1:08]
Hello, hello, hello, my podcast people. And thank you for joining me for yet another episode of my favorite podcast. If you were listening, if you are watching when this drops, it is Monday, September 23rd. Fall is falling. Look, I have on my flannel and I hope that it has found you well. Today we're talking about your Instagram follower count and whether or not that number actually matters.
Spoiler, yes and no. We will get into the full nuances or we'll get into the nuances in the full episode, but first as per always, a few life and business updates. So life updates, really just kind of two updates here. Number one, I'm still rehabbing my knee. Um, we will link. A phenomenal podcast episode from my girl, Anna, Movement Rev.
Uh, she just did an episode about improving knee flexion and it was full of confirmation bias for me. Uh, so if you listened to last Monday's episode or two, I don't even know, one of the episodes I did, uh, just talking about my knee and kind of what I'm doing with it and what I think is going on. And then I went and listened to, went and listened to Anna's episode happened to drop after that.
And I was like, yes, this is all, you know, everything that I'm going after. So we were voxing back and forth and everything, um, but it was a really good episode. So we will link that. Fun fact, Anna and I have the same. YouTube guy, Joe. Uh, so Joe, if you could link that YouTube as well. Thank you. So Courtney will link the podcast episode.
JoJo will link the YouTube. I actually watched the YouTube episode. I actually watched the YouTube episode cause Anna, uh, during it, she does like a little, like a little demo and she has like, Uh, skeleton, bones that she uses, um, so maybe you want to watch the episode. I don't know, I'm old now and I like watching podcast episodes on YouTube, so we will link both of them.
Thank you. Um, second and last life update, fall is falling and I'm like 50 percent mad at it, right? I loved the heatwave that we had, um, not too long ago. I love the summer slowdown. I really took advantage of it. Um, and I do think that the heat wave came at like a really good time. Because it was at the end of, you know, traditional summer.
And so like now everyone is back to doing their stuff. And so it's kind of nice to have the cool breeze. I'm not gonna lie. Um, it is. Feels a little bit nice. I am not like, Oh, give me my PSL, but it is nice. Um, it's kind of cozy. It's kind of different. I think that's the biggest thing that's kind of different, but I think I also love it because it's kind of like, so y'all know, I don't want kids and it's kind of like when you enjoy kids, cause you know, you can give them back and you're like, yeah, okay, bye.
It's kind of feels like that because in SoCal, like it never gets that cold. Like to me, when fall would happen, I was living on the East coast. It's like fall's coming, which means that fucking winter's coming. Like bad cold is coming. We don't really get that cold. Like, yes. For volleyball, it's a little unpleasant because we were on the beach in like low fifties in the morning on a wet sand.
Is terrible. Um, but it's never like snowing or anything like that. So, you know, SoCal continues to have the best weather ever. And it is warm during the day, especially in the sun. So, and this like nicer weather will continue for at least another month, right? Our warmest months are August, September, October.
So like, I think that's also why I like the breeze and like a little bit of a change that's like fake and like, I know that there's nothing so terrible coming after it, except for it's going to be dark for like the whole day. Like that is terrible, but otherwise. It's okay. So we got 50 percent mad at it.
50 percent okay with it. Um, if you love fall, I love this for you. Love it for you. Uh, biz updates. One big business update, which is boss up is less than two weeks away. So I'm not sure what kind of last minute loosies we have listening or watching the podcast here. Uh, but if you are looking for an excuse to hit up SoCal after I just talked it up, you know, 30 seconds ago.
Uh, here's that excuse for those of you that don't know bossup is the in person event that Jill and I host. Um, it is, it is exclusively for female online business owners and it is going down in less than two weeks on October 10th and 11th. I am. I'm big stoked about it. I'm very, very stoked about this, um, this live, live events for magic.
But honestly, I don't want to spend a ton of time in this episode talking about it because I have spent a ton of time in previous episodes talking about it. So, uh, we will link that. Thank you, Courtney and Jojo. Uh, the important things to note about Boss Up are number one, it is not a rah rah fest. Jill and I will be teaching.
Tactical, actionable strategies for online business, right? This isn't just like come there and clap and like leave and do nothing. Like that is probably one of the biggest pet peeves for both Jill and myself. We are super action oriented and that is at the heart of anything that Jill and I do. Um, and the second thing to note is that we are bringing in three folks, three guest speakers this year to do the heavy lifting as it relates to becoming the type of online business owner who actually does.
Business differently, right? That's kind of the tagline that we're using this year. Um, and having the courage to do business differently and having the courage to do business in a way that really aligns with you, which for many people is doing business differently. So our guest speakers are Rachel Strickland, Dr.
Jennifer Hutton, and Dr. Uchenna Osaya, but all of them on the podcast, they are just. Magical humans. We will use that word. They are magical and remarkable humans. And I am just incredibly honored that they all said yes. And if you are looking for yet another reason to buy a ticket to come to SoCal, it has got to be for these three women.
So we have done podcasts, Jill and I have done podcasts on it, on BossUp. Um, there's a ton of information on the registration page. So we will link all that in the show notes. Thank you, Courtney. Thank you, Joe. And you can hit me up. If you have any questions, you can DM me at the Movement Maestro. You can text me 310 737 2345.
It is my number. It's a sideline, so it will be green. But it will be me. Okay. All right. So let's get into the meat and potatoes or whatever kind of food doesn't offend you of the episode. Right? So does your Instagram follower count matter? There are folks on Instagram, you've seen them, maybe you're one of them, right?
Saying that the reach sucks or your experience in this like, man, my reach sucks. I can't grow. I really haven't grown, grown in a very long time. Um, and then Adam Mosseri is just out here, just gaslighting people being like, it doesn't matter. I don't want to be like that. I don't want to be like Adam. At the end of the day, when it comes to using Instagram for online business, having more followers who want to buy your stuff is objectively better than having less followers who want to buy your stuff, right?
We can agree on that, right? If both things are equal, they're both quality followers and they both want to buy your stuff. We want more of them. Absolutely. We can agree with that. Well intentioned folks who say that follower count doesn't matter. What I think they're trying to say is that you can still have a successful online business with a smaller follower count, many asterisks here.
Those asterisks, I can't say that word being that you got to be getting eyes from somewhere else, right? Where are your customers coming from? They're not coming from social media. That's fine, but they gotta be coming from somewhere else. Oftentimes it's in person or from referrals. Those are great. You likely have higher price points for your offers, right?
So this way you don't need to sell as many. So if you have a smaller audience, you have fewer people buying, but they're buying high ticket things. Well, then that works out for you from a financial business perspective. Uh, and then the followers that you do have, they got to be engaged. Right? So we know the flip side of this is that people could have a really high follower account, but they're just a bunch of bots, a bunch of bullshit.
And that is not going to work out well for you, right? That's not going to bode well for you and your business in any way, shape, or form. So yes, I absolutely do know. And I coach folks and work with folks who have less than 5, 000 followers, which I can hear you already. That is still a higher number. It's a decent number of followers, but it's not 50, 000 followers.
It's not 500, 000 followers, right? They have less than 5, 000 followers and they are doing very well financially. But they have those things that I listed off previously, right? They have eyes, eyes coming in from elsewhere, in person, you know, referrals in person and referrals from other people. You know, they have some higher price point offers and they have engagement with the people that they are, that are, that are actually there.
So what should you do if you're listening to this and you have a smaller follower, smaller follower count? Like, I feel like as I'm saying all this people, if you were listening to this and you're like, Well, great. I'm just going to throw myself in the road. Cause I got 800 followers. You know, let's, let's take a beat, let's take a moment and talk about some actions here.
So number one, the nuance here is where are you in your business journey? If you've just started. And to me, anyone that's less than 18 months, you're just starting, then definitely just keep going. I keep going. I have been at it for, you know, 10 years and I pseudo went viral just a few months ago and I gained 300 followers from it.
It wasn't like I gained thousands and thousands. So it's not like the true virality that we tend to see nowadays, right? If you have been at it, This social media thing, and you're well past that 18 month mark, keep going. Number one, I, you know, a few points under this niche down hard. This space does have a lot of people in it.
And one of the easiest ways to stand out is by being specific. So niche down hard, understand that each time you, if you really pivot your niche, that's kind of starts the clock all over again. So keep that in mind. It doesn't mean not to do it. It's just, you know, as it relates to expectation management, understanding what that reset does with that pivot.
That niche down does, uh, if you've been at it, another, another option or the thing to try to consider is diversifying your top of funnel, right? So from the organic approach, that would be, you know, a podcast, um, that could be other social media platforms, or that could be SEO from the paid perspective or paid approach, that would be ads.
All right. Again, my, my, when it comes to ads, my girl, Claire Pelletro, she is the number one, the only person that I'm going to recommend if you've been at it for a while, right? From the financial side, what can you do? Consider a higher price offer. All right. So I am not saying just arbitrarily raise your prices or things like that, but we understand that the number one thing that affects or impacts revenue is the price of, you know, per customer, the actual, the cart value is what we'll call it.
So if the thing costs more, you don't need as many. So as it relates to those higher priced offers, one of the things that I think we can do from a, an action item, tactical approach is sharing when you're on social media, make sure that you are sharing yourself. You, who you are, and you're doing the things that don't scale, right?
This is how we create that engaged audience, right? Which is what I said is very important. If you have, it's very important for any sized following, but especially for a smaller account. And like, honestly, as I'm saying, I'm like, it's just like the most important thing. Having an engaged audience is the most important thing.
So especially if we're looking to, you know, raise any kind of prices, things like that, make sure that your people know you, they like you, they want stuff from you. I do the things that don't. Scale, remember people's names, do things one on one, get into DMs, have conversations. So I think a few other questions that are two other questions that are worth asking that I wanted to bring into this episode are, is it too late to start on Instagram?
And is the market too saturated? I, as I'm saying this, I'm pretty sure that I did an episode that was actually called is it too late for Instagram? I think I did. Courtney, if you could link that, that's amazing. Thank you. Um, but as it relates to those two questions, I actually sent out an email to my email list last week.
Are you on the email list? We'll put the link in the show notes, okay? Would love to have you on it. Um, but the TLDR, Too Long Didn't Read of that email was that it's easy to see shiny things in an ocean of shit. Threads, the Threads algorithm, this stems from the Threads algorithm and my experience on Threads, right?
So the Threads algorithm is doing me dirty and I know that that's partially my fault because it kind of bases off of what you interact with even though I'm not interacting with the engagement based, engagement bait posts but like it's showing a bunch of them and also I'm just like this is all just terrible.
Um, but there's a lot, there's a lot of engagement bait on threads and I believe this is largely due to The threads bonus program. Um, there's just like a lot of copying and there's a lot of useless shit and it's, it's, I do think a lot of that is due to or secondary to the threads bonus program. So if, flip side of this is if you do have the energy to keep scrolling and sifting through and paddling through all the bullshit, which we all do because we just sit there and we keep scrolling, right?
You know, you've experienced this, you know, when you come across something that's actually good and you actually enjoy it and you actually resonate with it and you're like, yeah, well, I want more of this. All right. It's kind of like built in contrast marketing in a good way. Cause you know, if you folks know, I kind of like don't love contrast marketing, especially when people like really just lean on the negative side and either way, it's kind of like built in good contrast marketing where, you know, you can easily compare things and see what's good and what's not.
Cause this is right in front of you. So to me, this is a benefit of. You being on there, right? If your shit is good, it's easy to stand out. And I say that, and I say that with all the caveats of like, I know there are other factors that go into it, but if you are putting out quality information, you're putting out things that actually help people, you're sharing yourself.
You are showing up in a way that's unique to you. It is easier to stand out now, I think, than, than before, because there's so much shit, so much bad shit. So yes, people have to sift through it, but it's easier to see because it's just that much better because there's just so much of the same bullshit that's being put out.
So you have the courage, if you have the courage, to use your voice and show up in a way that really feels good for you and is unique to you. I do think that it's easier for people to see, like, yeah, I really like that. I really resonate with that. So the last thing to remember, and I kind of alluded to this earlier, is that this takes time, this whole thing, growing the audience, it takes a very long time, like a very, very, very long time.
The closest thing to virality that happened to me, like I said, was about two months ago, when my, uh, post for, that was tied into the Olympics went viral, quote unquote viral for me, which is like not viral, actually, like, people, I have plenty of people that have worked with it, like, their post hit a million, two, I think Jesse's was at 2.
5 million views, like, Mine had like, 75, 000 or something like that. It was not at all true virality as we see because some of these numbers, right? They're also like made up, right? They're just so high but I gain like 300 followers from that and I've been doing this for almost 10 years and that's the first that it's happened to me and maybe the only thing that happens To me right this shit takes a long time if it happens At all, tying into that, probably one of the hardest things for me is explaining to people and just the, the, the reality that not everyone who gets to play, not everyone who plays the game gets to win, right?
I make a point to say this pretty much all the time, but, and it does like, it does like hurt me to say it, but it's the truth. Flip side of that, it doesn't mean that you shouldn't try if you're like, I really want to do this. I'm like, yeah, just here's expectation management piece. All right. So the action items from today's episode of whether or not.
Your follower count matters. The answer is yes and no, and obviously all things equal. It is better to have more people who want your stuff than less people who want your stuff, right? So how do we get to that place? Well, number one, as per always, keep going, keep going. Number two, niche down, get super, super specific.
Number three, consider diversifying top of funnel, right? Whether it's going to a different platform or going to, you know, something podcast, ads, SEO, things like that. And then lastly, within the same platform that you're on, make sure that you are sharing you, you are sharing yourself and look to do the things that don't scale.
Lean on that engagement. It really is the most important metric. All right. All right. Don't forget Boss Up is coming in less than two weeks. And if you are a last minute Lucy, the deets are in the show notes. Gonna wrap it up there. Nice and short, brief, nice and tight episode. As always, endlessly every single one of you.
Until next time, friends, Bye stro!
Watch this episode on YouTube!
Get your tickets to #BossUp2024 HERE
Subscribe to my weekly newsletter, Maestro Mail
The Unreal Results Podcast – Easily Restore Knee Flexion After Injury or Surgery
MOTM #447: Is It Too Late To Start Using Instagram For Online Business?
Catch me on the socials: Instagram | YouTube | Threads | TikTok | Facebook