Breaking the Rules of Instagram Marketing

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I am your host, Shannon McKinstrie. Welcome to Good Gontent, the podcast, where I remove the never ending content creation, guesswork and overwhelm so that you can actually enjoy being on social media again and growing your business with what has always worked. Good Content.

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What's up, friend? Another episode of the Good Content podcast. I'm your host, Shannon McKinstrie. As you can see, we have all.

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I mean, I guess it's kind of a sorry excuse for a podcast studio, but it's happening. My husband bought me this cute little sign if you're watching on YouTube for Christmas. It was before I had a name for the podcast, so it just says, xoxo, shannon. It's just my signature sign off, but I love it so much. And obviously, the lighting is still not great, but we are getting there. I got my little comfy chair, my little table, my lip gloss, my phone. It's all I need, right? And it was super funny. My brother, his wife, my sister, they were all in town last weekend, and we were talking about the podcast. And so we were playing a game called Psych. I don't know if you've ever played it. It's so fun. It's an app.

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You have to know the people you're playing with really well to do it and have some fun. But basically, the questions pop up on the app is like, oh, if Shannon had a rock band, what would it be called? Or if Ryan and Sam started a blah, blah, blah, blah. What's the most random thing in Camden's backpack? Right? And then you put in funny thing.

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It's a riot. And one of the things they said it. What's in my, what's the most random thing in my purse was in my sister in law said lip gloss and anxiety. And I was like, gosh darn it. That should have been the name of this podcast. We had a good laugh, but it just made me think again about content and how when you know your audience really well, you know it's going to resonate, right? So, like a game like that, depending on your answer, that's how you win. Like, you want people to vote for your answer because it's the funniest, it's the most relatable. It makes them go, oh, my gosh, that's so perfect for the person you're describing. And it ends up being really, really funny. And it just gets more and more ridiculous as the game goes on. But it's kind of funny. Like, the reason that game is so fun is because we know each other. We get each other.

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We know what's going to make each other laugh without being too offended.

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Right? But what's funny is when you think about a game like that, there's no rules, right? It's like the rules are basically actually there. There literally are no rules. I mean, the rules are, enter your answer, press submit, and pick your favorite one. And that's it.

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Right? Simple rules. My kind of game. I don't know about you, but if someone has more than two or three instructions for a game, your girl is out.

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That's not how my brain works. But it's funny because it got me thinking again about content. Obviously, when you're creating good content, you have to know your audience. You have to know what they'll find funny. You have to know what their triggers are. You have to know what their worries are, what's keeping them up at night, what are they searching for on the Internet today? Right? What are they looking for? You have to know them that well. And I tell them all the time, a lot of the work that you're going to do to create good content that either gets sales, goes viral, you know, cultivates a community. A lot of that work is done outside of Instagram. It's interviews with people. It's digging through the comments section of competitors, quote unquote posts. It's going on TikTok and typing in your niche and topics within your niche and scrolling down to see what other people are searching for within that topic. Like, I know right now what my target market is worried about. Stressed over, frustrated with because of the DM's I get, because of the comments they leave on my posts, on my Threads, on my TikToks, on LinkedIn and lives. Right. I just went live with, , Alete' and Lindsay, two other fellow social media professionals, , managers, et cetera, coaches. And we do it all right. Most of us social media people, we wear many hats because it's constantly adapting and we are obsessed with it. But, you know, we talked about this a lot, how there's no rules, and how us as marketing, social media, marketing professionals and experts, when we see all these gurus going out into the world and saying, you have to do this, you have to stop doing this, you have to. And again, I'm going to tell you right now, yes, I'm guilty of it. Let me just start there. So what we talked about in the live was a lot about, obviously, there are no rules on social media, but also, it was really cool because guess what happens as the live is going on, comments are coming through from people asking questions. And of course, people saying, you know, if they, like, we say something about one thing and they're like, well, what about this? I'm like, okay, cool. I need to obviously create content around that because if they're asking it, other people are, too. So even if you see a competitor, and again, there's space for all of us. So it's not that they're competition, but it is good to look at. Maybe it's people you that are further along in their career that have a bigger following, and you're like, you know what? When you see them go live, watch it. Look at the questions that are being asked. And trust me, there are so many questions being asked.

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And even if people are responding to something, people are chiming in and saying, that was so helpful. Well, cool. What could you add to that? Don't steal from people. Obviously don't poach. But, like, I'm sure there's things we didn't cover in today's live because we only have so much time that if people in my industry were watching, they're like, you know what? That's so cool. That person asked it.

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Shannon and Alete' and Lindsay didn't get a chance to answer it. They missed it. Let's go in. Right. So with all that said, just like, psych. You have to know your people if you want to win the game, you've got to know your people. And even though obviously I've known my brother and sisters since literally they were born and my husband has known them for 13 ish years, that doesn't mean you need to know your customers or have been in business that long, but you do have to do the work you do. Like, I naturally know my brother and sister because we have shared experiences. I know a lot about them. I know a lot about my husband. Obviously, I didn't have to do market research on them. It's just because I was. I'm around them a lot, right? So think of it that way. You just have to do your homework, and I know no one wants to hear that. And that's why I might not have as many followers as a lot of others in my field who are like, here's the magic sauce. Here's the magic pill. There's no magic pill. I'm sorry. I wish there was.

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I would have. I would have gotten here a lot faster if there was. Right?

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So no one wants to hear that. But honestly, you can make it fun to interviews. We'll talk about that another time. Today we're just talking about that there are no rules in social media, and I want to start there. So when you see a piece of content that is like, stop doing this, you need to do this.

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The algorithm has changed all this nonsense that sounds too good to be true or sounds crazy. I remember the one r or, oh my gosh, like earlier this year, about if you were copying your text from your notes app and putting it on a reel or in a caption that the algorithm would know and penalize you. Like, are you serious? Everyone's like, yeah, I think so. No, that's not it. People are wanting a reason why their content's not performing, and it's just that it's not good in this day and age. Again, we talk about this a lot in this podcast. Good content is relative, but it really is just what resonates. And our behaviors are changing way faster than the algorithm is. Okay, anyway, let's get to the main point of this, because I want to keep these ten minutes or less. What I'm trying to say is if the marketing expert you are following is speaking in absolutes all the time and giving you a bunch of rules. Red flag. Major red flag.

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Same as psych. That game would not be fun if there were a bunch of rules. Social media wouldn't be fun if there were a bunch of rules. The only rules you need to worry about are the terms, conditions, etcetera, that Instagram has laid out for you. Obviously, don't buy followers, don't scam people, don't bully people. Right, things like that. Those are the only rules you have to worry about. You can only use 30 or less hashtags. That's a rule. You can't unfollow more than 50 people at a time. That is rule. Things like that are rules. So I want to say this with my whole chest. Okay, I got a nasty, nasty, actually, several nasty responses on a Thread I did the other day where I said, I'm begging you to stop. And I did this on last week's podcast. I talked all about this. I'm begging you to stop sharing testimonial graphics and tell a story instead. And I gave examples from TikTok of really good ones that you could see in the comments. We were asking to work with them. Why did I say that? Because I know what happens to myself and my clients when we tell the story of a client or tell a cool thing that happened when someone bought our this or that, or just talk about something that happened. A conversation I had in the DM's, I know what impact that has versus sharing a generic testimonial. Now, was I telling people, you better not? I'm just saying.

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I'm begging you. It's an opinion of mine, and it is not bible. And people came at me like I was saying. They're like, well, I like testimonials. Well, good for you. Okay.

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I said, I'm begging you to stop. That is my opinion, because I have the data to prove that this type of content does better. Okay?

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But that was not an absolute. I was not saying it will penalize you. I was not saying this is change. I'm just saying, based on data, this works better. But people came at me in the comments, like, I was just that I was giving misinformation. And let me just tell you, as someone who is a very sensitive person and terrified of confusing people and terrified of making it complicated, I want to do a podcast on this because like I said, there are literally no rules. If you ever see content from me, that is like, stop doing this, blah, blah, blah. Keep listening and get to the context. Right? Because a lot of people miss it. Okay. It's almost like saying, like me saying, you know, what's better than this diet? Is this one. Okay, that worked for that person. Maybe it doesn't work for that person.

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It's like me saying, , actually, I know you like that journal, but this journal is better for me. It's all about what works for you and your goals.

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If you hear a tip and you're like, actually, Shannon, I see what you're saying.

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But for me, it doesn't align with my business goals or my time.

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Then throw my content out the window and tell me to whatever. I mean, not really. Right? Let's be guy. But again, I'm just saying, anything I share with you, I am not saying it's bible. I'm not saying your content will be trash if you don't do this. Everything I share on this podcast and on my platforms is because it is backed by data across multiple accounts, not just my own. So, again, when it comes to good content, you know your audience, you know yourself, you know what resonates with them. At the end of the day, you could throw out every single thing I've told you to do and go viral. You could throw out every single thing. Any guru, I'm not a guru, but any marketing expert has told you to do, and you could get ten leads. You know your people. I am just here to guide you based on content that has performed well for myself, my clients, people who follow me based off, again, data, market research, and just timeless marketing strategies. But I want to assure you, if you are stressed out, do not be afraid to throw out the rules because you just want to create something for fun. And even just like I was playing psych the other night with my family, obsessing, trying to make sure I had the funniest thing, at the end of the day, it should be fun. It's not that deep if you think it's going to make someone laugh. Feel seen, feel heard, smile, feel supported, feel helped. You have done your job as a business owner and content creator. Until next time. And we will dive deeper into this. And the fact that the head of Instagram did finally announce which us marketers have known this forever, but that shares are kind of like the n ber one metric again, is that to say, if you don't get a bunch of shares, your content's trash? No. But the more shares you get, obviously the more eyeballs your content gets. But Instagram, did you know the head of Instagram came out and talked about that? And so I'll make sure to cover that in next week's podcast because I know I've covered shareable content a little bit, but I'm going to go through content right now that is getting the most shares. And between now and then, I'll be studying the reels that are getting crazy shares on Instagram right now and sharing that with you on the next week's podcast. Thank you for listening. I love you, friend.