834: I Posted 104x on Instagram in 60 Days, Here’s What I Learned

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2:20I'm Jenna Kutcher, your host of the Gold Digger podcast. I escaped the corporate world at the age of 23 with nothing more than a$300 camera from Craigslist and a dream. Now I'm running a seven-figure online business that feels even better than it looks all from my house in small town Minnesota with my family. Here, we value time as our currency. We mix the woo and the work, and we are in the pursuit of building businesses that give us the freedom to live lives that we love. I've always loved turning big goals into reality, and I'm here to help you do the same. This isn't just a peek behind the curtain.

2:56Come along with me and my guests as we tear the whole curtain down. Every week we tackle practical, no-fluff marketing strategies and host honest discussions on what works and what doesn't. Join me and my expert guests for actionable insights to help you grow your dream business with confidence. Pull up a seat and get ready to be challenged, inspired, and empowered. This is the Gold Digger Podcast. What if I told you that posting over 100 times in a 60-day period on Instagram taught me more than any article on Instagram or trend report ever could? Yeah, I dove in headfirst and the results were eye-opening to say the least.

3:37In today's episode, I am spilling all the tea on what worked, what flopped, and what I am never doing again. We're talking about the posts that made people stop scrolling, the behind the scenes tricks that kept me sane, and why some of last year's top performing content completely tanked this time around. If you've ever wondered how to crack the Instagram code, or you're just curious what it takes to truly stand out, then this is the episode that you do not want to miss. If you want to get my brand new free guide, five secrets to grow your Instagram following, head to jennacutcher.com forward slash five secrets to grow.

4:10We've tagged it in the show notes and show description for you. That's The number five secrets to grow, all one word, and you can grab your free guide. Now, without further ado, let's dive on in to today's experiment. Picture this. You're at a party and someone asks you what you do as a marketer. Like, how do you even begin to describe it? You have to generate leads, score them, contact them, create content, gather data, and tomorrow you have to do it all over again. And you also are spending time wondering if all that you're doing is even working. Marketers are spread way too thin, but HubSpot has a better way.

4:48With the help of HubSpot's collection of AI tools, Breeze, and features like Content Remix, you can turn one piece of content into a suite of assets. You can also pinpoint the best prospects with predictive lead scoring and level up your campaign KPIs with a new analytics suite. So your day-to-day becomes less busy work and more driving revenue through the roof. And most importantly, you'll have a way easier time describing what you do at parties. Visit HubSpot.com slash marketers to learn more. That's HubSpot.com slash marketers. So let me kick this off and just kind of give a lay of the land of where I was before I did this experiment and why I decided to do it when I didn't.

5:31So this summer, I was honestly very chill on social media. I think I posted on Instagram stories, maybe three times total all summer. I'm talking like once a month appearances. And then I kind of just posted whenever I felt like it or whenever inspiration struck. And that worked really well for me. I shared a little bit in previous episodes just about how I wanted this summer to not have any launches, not feel like one big promotion, and just really be with my family while Coco was home from school. And so as I was gearing up for the fall, I knew that I had to kind of change my strategy because while my summer strategy was amazing for a million reasons, it wasn't necessarily going to support what we were going into when it came to the last few quarters of the year.

6:15So as I was entering into fall, we actually ended up having back-to-back launches. So we had two back-to-back launches, which meant that I had to massively upgrade my posting schedule and I had to figure out how was I going to post a ton of content within a short timeframe. And that's where this episode kind of originated from. So I want to share a few different stats before we dive into the main themes of what I discovered in posting over 100 times in 60 days. And these are not just stories. I'm talking about actual in the feed posts. Okay. So here are some stats from August 21st to October 21st, which is a 60 day time span.

6:56So I had over 28 million views. 18 % of those views came from paid ads. 54 % of those were followers. 45.9 % weren't non-followers, which is important. I reached over 6.2 million accounts, which was up 61.6 % from the previous 60-day period. My reels ended up getting 83 % of the views. Instagram stories were about 12 % and my posts were 4.1%. My top 10 performing pieces of content in that window was all serving content. And then all of my top performing posts were reels minus one carousel. And I'm going to fill you in on something interesting that's happened since these stats came out. So first let's talk about some of the main themes.

7:45And I'm going to review five main themes that I discovered during this experiment. So the first thing is this, when you think about showing up 100 times in 60 days, that means most days I was figuring out how to post twice a day or sometimes even three times a day. I really had to figure out a content strategy, meaning a volume and quality balance. So the two launches that were happening during this time were my partner promotion with my best friend, Amy Porterfield and her program, the Digital Course Academy, which happens every year in September. And then right after that, we went into my promotion of the podcast lab.

8:21And typically speaking, we do not do back-to-back launches. It is not something we plan for. It's not something we aim for. But this year, we made an exception for a couple of reasons. One, one of the launches was a partner promotion. So Amy was doing a lot of the heavy lifting and I was just supporting her and her program, which has changed my life. And then the second launch was a podcast lab. And typically, we do the podcast lab a little bit later in October, but with this year in the election and everything kind of feeling up in the air, we wanted to just get out before the election so that me and my team could just chill out once November hit.

8:56And that's kind of what we've been able to do. And so when we were looking at this back-to-back strategy, we really had to recognize that there was going to be a lot of volume. And how do we keep the quality of our content up when the volume is dialed up so much. So yes, we were looking at a volume game here. I mean, a hundred posts, that's a lot of posts, but we also wanted to maintain quality. And if you're counting on social media to move the needle, it has to be about quantity and quality because here is what I have found. In the past, it was pretty easy to predict what type of content was going to perform well.

9:34We kind of say like, what's going to pop off, But I have found, especially in the last year, you have no idea which posts are going to pop off, which means it is best to up your quantity and to kind of hedge your bets that at least one of your posts is going to perform well. And what was interesting is that we really quickly started seeing that what worked a year ago was no longer working. And so one of the strategies that we've done for years is that oftentimes after a launch, we'll take an inventory of all of the social content that we've posted and we'll make notes on which our top performing posts were.

10:10Either posts that got a ton of comments, posts that got a ton of engagement, posts that got a ton of shares. We basically kind of keep that in the Rolodex in terms of content. And so then since our business is very rinse and repeat, we lean on some of that top performing content of the past and we either repost it entirely or we recreate it with a spin on it. Now, what was interesting is that we very quickly discovered that what was working a year ago is no longer working on Instagram. Things have shifted, which means that we as creators have to evolve and adapt as well. And maybe you're listening to this and you're like me right now thinking, I am old.

10:50I am too old for this. I have been on Instagram creating content and sharing my life since 2011. It's a long time. And so I get it that the people that are in my stage of business, we are sick of evolving and adapting, but that is the nature of this beast, right? We don't own our social media followers. We cannot control how our content is shared. This is why I'm constantly talking about things like email lists. And this is why my social content is purely created to hopefully get people off of these apps and onto my email list. But if we're going to play the game, we've got to play it right. And recognizing that what used to work might not work anymore and that you're going to have to be willing to be resilient and adaptable is a part of the game.

11:35And so a year ago, it was like these super short looping reels. People loved financial claims. Like these were the types of reels that were popping up. I mean, we would get thousands of comments on reels like that. And those posts are not landing anymore. So what's really interesting is, is that we really quickly started taking last year's content, redoing it, repurposing it. And we discovered, okay, wow, we've really got to change up our strategy this time around. And so it was helpful testing on some of our old stuff just to see like, is this still going to work? Okay. No, it's not. So what are we going to do and how are we going to pivot?

12:09Which we'll talk about in just a minute. But when we are talking about the content strategy of volume, you have to have a plan to be able to post at volume. So let's say you are going into a 10 day launch period and your goal is to post a day. That's 20 posts you need to create. And so you want to have a plan in place that will allow you to post at that volume. And so I created this system that helped me organize. And so it started with inspiration. Then I was breaking things down into a posting schedule. Then I was mapping out the actual content and what I needed to record for it. Then I was writing the captions and then I was getting all the content plugged in.

12:47And so it was interesting because one of my really good friends recently let go of her social media manager and she was like, can we get on a zoom call? Like, I need to see how you're doing this because I know that you are the one creating everything and posting everything. And I've been so out of the game. I need to do it. And what was interesting is, is when I started walking her through how I was doing it, I was noticing that we were using Google docs. We were using notion boards. We were using monday.com. And so it was like, it required like four different ways of planning in order to get that volume scheduled out and like basically ready to drop.

13:23And so one of the things that when you go into this volume game, specifically if you're going into a launch period. So one of my biggest recommendations for this number one content strategy, when we're talking about this volume and quality balance is to batch create, prep the content, sit down and map out a bunch of the content all at the same time, have it all ready to go. I'm talking captions, locations, audio, everything ready to go so that when you are in that launch period, all you have to do is look at your schedule of posts, hop onto the platform, hit publish, and then you get to focus on engaging.

13:59Because a lot of times what happens is we wait to create until we're in that launch period and we're frazzled and we're not creative and we have no ideas and we have no time. And then it either doesn't get done or it doesn't get done well. And remember, this first tip is about volume and quality balance. And so what I would end up doing is I would sit down and I would create like eight posts all in one sitting. And I'd have them all the way done from start to finish, cover photos, captions, everything ready to go. And this helped my sanity so much just so that I wasn't creating a ton on the fly, but I left room for inspiration or magic.

14:33And what's funny is, is that as I'm recording this episode, we're also coming out of our Black Friday Cyber Monday promotion. And I was managing to post three times a day, but I didn't do as great of a job batch creating. And so I would find myself telling Drew like, hey, I need like 20 minutes right now to really quickly go get a post up. And I was like quick going through the archives, trying to find content because my kids were home. We were all home together. We were hosting. And so I very much recommend and love myself when I sit down to batch create and have a schedule because it just makes it so much easier and it makes you not have to feel like you need to be creative on the fly.

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16:55For a limited time, get 20 % off your first set of sheets plus free shipping at bowlandbranch.com slash golddigger. That's bowlandbranch, B-O-L-L-A-N-D branch.com slash golddigger to save 20 % and unlock free shipping. Exclusions apply. Okay, the second main theme that I noticed, and I've already touched on this, but let's dive a little bit deeper, is having to adapt to changing trends. So again, we like to take past top performers, and I think this is smart no matter who you are, is to take a look at your past content and see if you can either reuse that content, recreate it, reimagine it, and just see if it still performs well.

17:36Because it can often give you insight and information as to maybe why it performed so well the first time, and then it can help guide your creative process forward. And so we tested some of our top performers from last year. Again, they didn't perform as well. And so then we had to figure out, okay, how do we adjust and adapt to what is working now? And so I would sit down, I would set a timer for 10 to 20 minutes, and I would scroll through reels. And I would just look at like, what is working well? What is performing well? I would go to different accounts and look at like, what were their top pieces of content?

18:10Why do I think this was a top piece of content. Why did this one go viral, but this one didn't. And so doing some research is really important and making sure that you're not only just saving posts that you like, but you're actually looking in and like asking yourself, was it the audio? Was it the timing? Was it the video clips? Was it the caption? What was it? Because the more that you investigate it, the more that you get the confidence to take what is working for someone else and figure out how to apply it to your own thing. So one thing that has been working really well for me, and it worked well in this time period, but it's worked even better since then, are carousel posts.

18:48And honestly, it's kind of become one of my favorite ways to show up on Instagram. And so we were leveraging these a little bit in that 60 day window, but I have gone really ham on them recently doing a couple of these a week and they are doing really well. And what's interesting is, is that a lot of times we can see how many views people's reels get, but I will tell you that out of my top performing posts recently, 90 % of them are carousels, meaning I am telling a story in each slide and it's building on the last. And I'm using a good hook that generates curiosity in that first field. And I will just say, do not sleep on carousels right now.

19:26I feel like this is a really great way, especially if you have a lot of information to get out or you have a fun story to share that might not actually translate into a caption or a reel. And so again, we were adapting to changing trends, figuring out like, okay, maybe carousels are the way to go. Let's start creating those. How do we create those better? What does that look like? And so it was a really interesting thing in posting at volume in the way that we were, because we were very quickly seeing what types of content was resonating, what wasn't, how do we pivot into this fresh content take that is happening right now?

19:58And here's a fun fact. I absolutely, like I will tell you this time and time again, I hate talking about how much money I make. It is literally the worst. My team knows I hate creating these posts, but a lot of times they will task me with them because a lot of times they perform well, they do well. But what's interesting is, is that a lot of times it takes something big to catch people's attention. And then you have to pivot that attention into the direction that you want people to go. and so it's one of those strategies that like I absolutely hate because it actually does work and the strategic side of me is like okay just suck it up and do these posts they work but I don't like doing it because money is just one very small reason of why I do what I do and why I teach what I teach but it's often the one that grabs attention it's like if you say like how I made ten thousand dollars today while sitting on my couch online shopping that's interesting right People are like, wait, what?

20:54But if I said like how I saved two hours today and braided my daughter's hair, like people are like, that's really cool. But like, it's not like shocking. And so again, figuring out and adapting to changing trends and just paying attention a little bit more. And I don't spend a ton of time on Instagram consuming. I like to keep up with my friends. I like to check in with my DMs, but I don't spend a ton of time consuming. And so what was interesting during this 60 day window is I felt like I was having to spend a very intentional time on the platform, not just looking at like, Ooh, what inspires me?

21:26What do I want to double tap? But like, what is working right now? And coming out of the summer where I was very seldom showing up, it was interesting to see how quickly the content types had shifted. Okay. Number three are the types of content that worked for us. So we've talked about them a little bit, but let's go deeper. The first one is B-roll. So B-roll is essentially just like behind the scenes shots. And I have loved B-roll reels since people started creating them a couple of years ago, because you don't have to be camera ready constantly. You don't have to shoot specific clips for specific reels.

22:07With B-roll, you can be doing basically anything and it can be super random, but it can be interesting. And so one tip with B-roll is that you don't want boring B-roll. I think it's really easy to just like set your camera up and you can be like typing on your computer and that's fine. That works as B-roll. But one thing that we've noticed that works really well is that you want to be doing something that people want to watch and see what happens next. So whether it's doing your makeup or, you know, walking on your treadmill, but you are getting off of it or turning on a light switch or lighting a candle or cutting a watermelon or kneading your sourdough, like just something interesting.

22:44And so having B-roll shots that are interesting to watch in their entirety is not only going to help your content perform better, but it's just going to be more engaging overall. And so I have an entire folder on my phone of B-roll. It has thousands of clips. And whenever I think about it, I try to just set my camera up and shoot clips of me getting ready or me doing something interesting. And then I can use those clips for months on end, using them in different pieces of content. And again, this is so helpful, especially if you want to batch create content and you're creating content that requires B-roll, you could literally be sitting on your couch in your sweats, creating a bunch of reels without having to be camera ready and dancing in front of the camera.

23:24And so that's why I love B-roll. Again, the second type of post that we already talked about are carousel posts. And so the key here is that you want to make sure that the first slide has a really strong hook on it and it generates curiosity. And then with each slide you want to build on the last. So tell the story as each slide goes, keep it interesting, keep it moving. You don't want a ton of text. And what we found best is we've used a few different models. One of my friends, Jordan Dooley does this really well, but she can sometimes she'll just use literally the same photo for all the slides and just change the text.

23:59We found that changing the photo on each slide helps people continue on with a carousel in terms of the swiping. And again, right now, what we're seeing is that a lot of our carousels are getting significantly more views than even our top performing reels, which I think is really interesting. And they tend to reach more non-followers, which is awesome if you're trying to grow your following or if you're trying to get out of your own little bubble of your audience to reach other people. And so again, start with a hook, tell a good story, make sure you have some sort of call to action on the last slide or let people know what to do once they finish reading the story.

24:37And then the last type of content that you do not want to forget, and I want you to hear me loud and clear on this, is serving content. So a lot of times, especially when we go into promotion mode, all we are thinking about is promoting, right? And what's interesting and what we were so conscious of this time around is that if I was going to do 100 posts in 60 days, I needed to make sure I was not just talking about two things in those 60 days, right? Because people would unfollow so quickly if they weren't interested. And you have to understand that no matter what your offer is, even if you think every person in your audience would benefit from it, not everyone is interested in it.