Instagram Insider Hacks

Today we're sharing 10 superpower case studies who came straight from our trainings. Our recent podcast, episode 59 called 10 Tips to Discover Your Superpower sparked a lot of interest. I've had the privilege of helping others pinpoint their superpower by guiding them through either coaching or in my training communities. And finding your superpower … Ep. 62: 10 Superpower Case Studies Read More » The post Ep. 62: 10 Superpower Case Studies appeared first on Authentic Online Marketing.

Combining Instagram and email marketing in 5 smart ways. You may know that I started my business coaching clients on how to build a platform on Instagram and market to their ideal audience.  Over time, my business has shifted to include email marketing because I realized that often times Instagrammers forget that they don't actually … Ep. 61: Combining Instagram and email marketing in 5 smart ways Read More » The post Ep. 61: Combining Instagram and email marketing in 5 smart ways appeared first on Authentic Online Marketing.

Would you like to learn how to generate funds in the online world and shift into monetization? Many of us enter the blogging and writing arena with starry eyes, loving this new creative outlet, but then later on we realize that we actually have to pay for our newfound hobby!  Uh oh! (Newsflash: this happens … Ep. 60: Shifting from blogging to monetization Read More » The post Ep. 60: Shifting from blogging to monetization appeared first on Authentic Online Marketing.

What's your superpower? Do you know?  In Episode 51, 7 Tips to up level your productivity, I shared how to tap into your superpower to know what tasks to offload so that you can be productive and stay busy doing what you do best. tap into your superpower for main tasks and offload tasks that … Ep. 59: What's your superpower? 10 Tips to find it Read More » The post Ep. 59: What's your superpower? 10 Tips to find it appeared first on Authentic Online Marketing.

If there's one thing I love doing in my business, it's repurposing Instagram stories. And over the past 3 years I've made it my goal to work smart and not hard.  Once you hone your niche, message, and brand voice, this becomes easier!  Why?  Because over time you find you've created enough content to repurpose … Ep. 58: 7 tips for repurposing Instagram stories Read More » The post Ep. 58: 7 tips for repurposing Instagram stories appeared first on Authentic Online Marketing.

5 Tips to boost email reader response. Do you ever wonder why your email subscribers don't reply when you ask them to? Or maybe they're not clicking your links It can be frustrating when you feel as if no one cares about your newsletter.  But, you can turn that around with just a few tweaks! … Ep. 57: 5 Tips to boost email reader response Read More » The post Ep. 57: 5 Tips to boost email reader response appeared first on Authentic Online Marketing.

Today, we're talking all about easy Instagram story ideas! But first, I have a question. Have you joined our 30-Day Simply Stories Challenge yet?  It's been going on the month of October but you can still hop in!  Here's what participants are saying… I'd love to use stories for community building, so this idea feels … Ep. 56: Easy Instagram Story Ideas Read More » The post Ep. 56: Easy Instagram Story Ideas appeared first on Authentic Online Marketing.

The fun thing and the not-so-fun thing about writing is it can be a lifelong journey to improve your writing skills. And the more you know, the more you realize you don't know, but one of our passions that flourished writers is you gotta start! Like you, you don't become better by waiting to become … Ep. 55: 3 Steps to improve writing skills with Mindy Kiker Read More » The post Ep. 55: 3 Steps to improve writing skills with Mindy Kiker appeared first on Authentic Online Marketing.

Our 30 day Instagram story challenge has begun! Are you ready to simplify posting? Join us Monday, October 3, for our 30-Day Instagram story challenge. By doing stories for 30 days just a few things you will learn: How to create engaging (yea, even entertaining) stories that represent your voice, intrigue followers to get to know you, … Ep. 54: Join our 30 day Instagram Story challenge and simplify posting Read More » The post Ep. 54: Join our 30 day Instagram Story challenge and simplify posting appeared first on Authentic Online Marketing.

Pinned posts on Instagram – have you seen them?  Y'all, I LOVE them.  And there is a reason why you should use them.  On a recent Insider Mentorship group coaching call, the question was asked about Pinned Posts and the most effective way to utilize this new feature.   Now if you're just hearing about Instagram … Ep. 53: What to do with pinned posts on Instagram? Read More » The post Ep. 53: What to do with pinned posts on Instagram? appeared first on Authentic Online Marketing.

Ever wonder how to secure public speaking engagements as a beginner?  Or maybe you know you should speak, but you just can't get over the fear of speaking.  We all have to start somewhere is not real helpful advice, even though it may be true. So today my special guest is someone who's coached some … Ep. 52: Public speaking for beginners with Mary Snyder Read More » The post Ep. 52: Public speaking for beginners with Mary Snyder appeared first on Authentic Online Marketing.

Let's discuss these 7 easy tips to up-level your productivity! As an online marketing coach, I get this question a lot – how can I spend time on Instagram AND email while writing my book, producing a podcast, or serving clients? I get it.  As an entrepreneur myself, life gets a little overwhelming a lot … Ep. 51: 7 Tips to up-level your productivity Read More » The post Ep. 51: 7 Tips to up-level your productivity appeared first on Authentic Online Marketing.

Do you have trouble (with time management) – deciding what to do first with your business?  If so, you're not alone, as you'll see in my conversation with my pal and podcast coach, Wren Robbins.  Wren is an award winning podcaster who has interviewed business owners, International Speakers, and New York Times Best Selling author.  … Ep. 50: Time management for the Christian entrepreneur Read More » The post Ep. 50: Time management for the Christian entrepreneur appeared first on Authentic Online Marketing.

Ah, the perfect Instagram grid. It's the age old question of Instagram: Is my grid pretty enough? How much time should I devote to that aspect? The rules have changed over time on Instagram, and I'm going to be frank with you today on where you should be spending your time.   Today's show features a … Ep. 49: Do I need a perfect Instagram grid? Read More » The post Ep. 49: Do I need a perfect Instagram grid? appeared first on Authentic Online Marketing.

Let's talk about how you can get followers on your email list. Welcome back y'all! I hope your summer is going well. We are wrapping up August and as you well know if you've been listening during this month, we have been covering newsletters, hot and heavy, but we wanna circle back to a question … Ep. 48: 7 Ways to get followers on your email list Read More » The post Ep. 48: 7 Ways to get followers on your email list appeared first on Authentic Online Marketing.

Let's talk Instagram following! Have you watched someone go viral only to see your own Reels dive? Do you wish you could gain more traction but the growth seems painfully slow? I get it.  It's tough gaining 5 followers but losing 10.  In episode 6 of season 1 way back in the summer of 2020, we … Ep 47: The most effective way to build your Instagram following Read More » The post Ep 47: The most effective way to build your Instagram following appeared first on Authentic Online Marketing.

Welcome to episode 46, all about marketing transformations. If you're listening the morning of August 8, 2022 and you've not yet signed up for our Brand voice workshop, hit the link in the show notes to register because we're starting at 12:00 pm, Eastern Daylight Time and I'm going to dive right in and share … Ep. 46: 4 Marketing transformations Read More » The post Ep. 46: 4 Marketing transformations appeared first on Authentic Online Marketing.

Let's talk engaged readers! Recently I took a poll on Instagram asking what's your biggest hang-up with email, and overwhelmingly the answer was what to write. Honestly, this is a struggle for most content creators because we have so much on our plates, and quite frankly, we tend to muddle the waters with our overthinking … Ep 45: 3 Newsletter musts for engaged readers Read More » The post Ep 45: 3 Newsletter musts for engaged readers appeared first on Authentic Online Marketing.

In our episode last week, we discussed what to create for your newsletter freebie and ideas that I started with years ago when first entering the scary world of email marketing. By the way I want to let you know it's not nearly as scary as you think or as we blow it up in … Ep. 44: What to do before creating your newsletter freebie Read More » The post Ep. 44: What to do before creating your newsletter freebie appeared first on Authentic Online Marketing.

Let's talk about your newsletter freebie. Along the way in the online journey, in our quest for writing a book or building a podcast, a ministry or even just feeling out what in the world we're trying to accomplish in the online world, somebody mentions email. You should start an email list yesterday, they say.  … Ep. 43: What to create for your newsletter freebie Read More » The post Ep. 43: What to create for your newsletter freebie appeared first on Authentic Online Marketing.

Did you realize that knowing what to include in highlights are one of the best ways to feature your work?  Recently, I talked about this in my weekly newsletter, the IG Insider, and how to introduce yourself to your audience through highlights, and by the way if you're not subscribed to my newsletter, you need … Ep 42: What to include in highlights Read More » The post Ep 42: What to include in highlights appeared first on Authentic Online Marketing.

Ever wonder what in the world to share in your stories? Honestly, stories have always come easy for me (but I've been posting them since their inception about 6 years ago). With all the changes on Instagram and focus largely on Reels, followers and clients wonder how to fit in stories and if they're even … Ep. 41: What to share in stories Read More » The post Ep. 41: What to share in stories appeared first on Authentic Online Marketing.

How do you structure enough time into your day to do what you want to do on Instagram? Because really, you could spend your entire day and more because it is your business, so how do you structure enough time into it? INTRO: Well, that's a loaded question, right?!  So before we get into today's … Ep. 40: How to fit in time for Instagram Read More » The post Ep. 40: How to fit in time for Instagram appeared first on Authentic Online Marketing.

Are you planning an Instagram break this summer? Last week's part one “when to take an Instagram break” advice was based on what I and others have done successfully so listen in this week for how to come back to Instagram. After you take a break, it's hard to get the wheels moving again, especially … Ep 39: How to come back to Instagram (after taking a break) Read More » The post Ep 39: How to come back to Instagram (after taking a break) appeared first on Authentic Online Marketing.

Do you ever feel like you just need a break from Instagram? Summertime brings a different schedule, often vacations, and at the time of this taping we're in June, 2022! So, you may be thinking – when do I take a break? Is that a bad idea? That's a valid question! Another thing to consider … Ep. 38: When to take a break from Instagram Read More » The post Ep. 38: When to take a break from Instagram appeared first on Authentic Online Marketing.

Ruthie: We're celebrating two years in podcasting by reviewing our top 5 episodes. This special anniversary show features our top Five most downloaded episodes for 2021 to 2022. Join my family team and I, as we share key takeaways from each episode. We're so excited to share this with you. We've done some research and … Ep. 37: Authentic Online Marketing's top 5 episodes Read More » The post Ep. 37: Authentic Online Marketing's top 5 episodes appeared first on Authentic Online Marketing.

One of the best ways to grow on Instagram is to incorporate group Reels collaboration with Reels. We all know that Reels are the effective thing to use right now for growth and gaining more exposure. But when you collaborate, you get even more eyes because you're sharing audiences. So a month or so ago, … Ep. 36: How to do a group Reels Collaboration Read More » The post Ep. 36: How to do a group Reels Collaboration appeared first on Authentic Online Marketing.

Today's episode is all about how to grow your biz with Alicia Byers! Alicia is a business coach who helps entrepreneurs create the right business plans and strategies to help them stay well-rested and avoid the hustle. She hosts  the well-rested entrepreneur podcast and regularly secures clients on Instagram without having the pressure of a … Ep. 35: How to grow your biz by doing less with Alicia Byers Read More » The post Ep. 35: How to grow your biz by doing less with Alicia Byers appeared first on Authentic Online Marketing.

Hey friends, what's my Instagram engagement tip? Read on to find out! This week's episode is an excerpt from one of our Insider Mentorship Zoom calls where one of our members asked for my number one Instagram engagement tip. I'm pulling back the curtain to let you in on what I've been doing because I … Ep. 34: Steal my Instagram engagement tip Read More » The post Ep. 34: Steal my Instagram engagement tip appeared first on Authentic Online Marketing.

5 Features for your women owned website. Welcome to our new website! We're celebrating the official launch of AuthenticOnlineMarketing.com, and this is an invitation to join in!  If you are listening the week of May 9th, 2022, we want you to celebrate with us. All week long, we'll have special activities going, so hop over … Ep. 33: 5 Features for your women owned website Read More » The post Ep. 33: 5 Features for your women owned website appeared first on Authentic Online Marketing.

Hey y'all, today's all about upping your Pinterest search engine game. Welcome back!  Today my special guest is Sara Motes, a Pinterest strategist who helps service based businesses learn how to use Pinterest to get more email subs, website traffic, and dream clients. We are so happy you're here, Sara, welcome to the show!  *This … Ep. 32: Using the Pinterest search engine to drive traffic with Sara Motes Read More » The post Ep. 32: Using the Pinterest search engine to drive traffic with Sara Motes appeared first on Authentic Online Marketing.

Today's episode is a quick win containing two ways you can repurpose stories to Reels! A lot of times, we create this image in our minds that Reels is too hard, or we just don't have the right content. We all make excuses, but actually you have the tools right at your fingertips! To repurpose … Ep. 30: 2 Easy ways to repurpose stories to Reels Read More » The post Ep. 30: 2 Easy ways to repurpose stories to Reels appeared first on Authentic Online Marketing.

How to overcome your fear of Reels Do you ever get all in your head about posting and experience a little spark of fear? It ignites then it starts catching. Pretty soon, you are frozen and can't do anything!  You can't post, so you go back in your hole and decide “I'm not going to … Ep. 29: How to overcome your fear of Reels Read More » The post Ep. 29: How to overcome your fear of Reels appeared first on Authentic Online Marketing.

Today's episode is a quick win containing two ways you can repurpose stories to Reels! A lot of times, we create this image in our minds that Reels is too hard, or we just don't have the right content. We all make excuses, but actually you have the tools right at your fingertips!   To repurpose stories to Reels, listen in! Welcome back. In the last episode, “How to overcome your fear of Reels,” I mentioned a story that I repurposed into a Reel which generated lots of organic comments. This Reel was not glamorous or glitzy. Today I wanna share why it worked and how to test your own content before sharing to Reels. The two ways you can repurpose content are by repurposing stories and highlights to Reels. So first, we're gonna talk about stories today. I'm going to share why my Reel worked, repurposing it from my story and how to test your own content before sharing to Reels.  Click below for show notes! https://www.ruthiegray.mom/repurpose-stories-reels/ Click to listen to last week's episode, How to overcome your fear of Reels. https://www.ruthiegray.mom/fear-of-reels/ Click below to ask your highlights question! https://authenticonlinemarketing.com/contact/   2 Easy ways to repurpose stories to Reels One thing we keep hearing from Instagram is they're looking for original content. You don't have to dance or mouth words like everyone else, but you do need to be unique because that's what's going to separate you from the pack. How can you use your own unique content to generate organic engagement that helps you get ideas for even more organic content? Here's how I did.    Repurpose stories to Reels via testing your audience My story that I turned into a Reel was super simple, but first I did my research. Stories, as I said in the last episode, are where you meet people and you test their pulse. You see what they respond to and what's dead. Stories are fantastic for learning what your audience wants. And if you're not using stories, let me just say, you're leaving a huge opportunity on the table for reaching your target audience. Lots of times, I open the conversation in stories with a poll, which I did in this case. The poll was, are you struggling with Reels? Yes or no? So people started responding to that. Then I talked on my stories, showing my face and asking, what's your biggest hangup with Reels? What's holding you back? One thing you wanna do when talking in stories is add the caption sticker, because many people scroll through without sound. This is another way to reach scrollers. So I used the caption sticker to translate my question and people started answering in the DM and the answers that I got were hair, makeup, and fear.     "No one else is as hard on us as we are." Then my next step was to address that pain point with a bit of advice based on my expertise. This is what you wanna do. I said, honestly, a lot of our fear has to do with our own judgment of ourselves and our imperfections. Honestly, no one else is as hard on us as we are.  We are afraid of what our adult kids will think. Step into your fear and let go of what people think, even your kids! It'll take some blunders, but people resonate with imperfection. Basically that sums up what I said in that Reel. Then, I added captions to that little pep talk. Plus, a couple of stickers ending with someone holding up big panties because my final words were, “put your big girl panties on and do it.” Well, I received lots of positive reaction from that pep talk in my stories. So I got to thinking, why not test this out as a Reel? You may be wondering how you do that.   Note: Save stories to camera roll!  If you've not saved your story to your camera roll–and as we all know, stories disappear after 24 hours– there's a little thing called archives. You can go to your archives and view your stories. You can even reshare them to stories and you can download them to your own device. In my case,

How to overcome your fear of Reels Do you ever get all in your head about posting and experience a little spark of fear? It ignites then it starts catching. Pretty soon, you are frozen and can't do anything!  You can't post, so you go back in your hole and decide “I'm not going to post today,” or “It's not meant to be,” or “I'm too busy. I've got other things going on. Nobody cares.” If that sounds like you, today's episode is for you because it's all about fear of posting.  Let's talk Instagram anxiety: I looked it up on Google, and it's a real thing. Instagram anxiety, fear of posting social media, anxiety of putting yourself out there. Are you ready? Because I've got some answers for you. Listen in.   Click below for show notes! https://www.ruthiegray.mom/fear-of-reels/ Click below to visit my guest episode on Melanie Redd's podcast, Women Living Courageously! https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/how-to-start-over-again/id1600978021?i=1000553415872 Click below to take the Reels Personality Quiz! https://quiz.tryinteract.com/#/611fc03c688e1f0017ed5f53 Click below to take our Reels Crash Course! christianbloggerscreentimeboundaries.teachable.com/p/reels-training     My former fear of Reels Now, before we start, I want you to know that I totally relate to your fear of Reels! I know what it's like to be there and wonder, does anyone care? Are people going to laugh at me? Do I look old? Do I look like, I don't know what I'm doing. Do I just look silly or foolish? Who am I to sound like an authority on Instagram. Oh, the excuses. I hear you, however we know what works on Instagram. Number one, consistency and posting anything! But also number one for 2022 is Reels. Reels are powerful. We've been saying this all year. It's a proven fact.   Overcoming fear of Reels to succeed in 2022 You could post three Reels a week, and even if they dove and you only got a few views, they would most likely be useful. I'm not saying there is not space for posts too. Carousels, I still do those.  What I'm saying is you can get things done faster and reach your audience faster with Reels. So back up a minute and let's talk about stories first, because stories are your gateway to Reels. And I'm going to talk about more of that in our next episode, how to repurpose stories to Reels, but stories is one form of video. That's very powerful and helps you connect with people in the DM, because that's where the conversation starts. That is the intersection of your life. And your followers' interests because of how they connect with you and resonate with you have a lot to do with how much you share of your life in stories and the behind the scenes of your work, your message, and just things about you.   Using stories to overcome fear of Reels You've got to have some guts and be willing to show yourself in stories. Test out stories with 15 second frames. Just talk to the camera in 15 second frames. If you don't like that 15 seconds, redo it! No one will know. Because you didn't post it. So stories are the ground level behind the scenes where you can talk to people, but also where you test what people might need to hear from you on the larger levels, like live video, regular video or Reels. This is such a hack for getting over your fear of Reels! Again, Reels are the hot tip. They have their own algorithm. We'll talk more about that and how to test stories and repurpose them for video and for Reels in the next episode, but back to fear for a minute. Last week I created a Reel that was repurposed from stories.   Talk to your audience Every once in a while, I'll do a poll and talk to my audience in stories and feel the pulse where they're at, what are their pain points in the arena that I teach. Content marketing on Instagram and in newsletters. If I see that people are responding, then sometimes I will take that content and repurpose it into other bites of content on other levels on Instag...

Today we're speaking with Kim Stewart, host of the Book Marketing Mania podcast, all about podcast pitching for authors! The following reads as a genuine and lighthearted conversation between friends, and we hope you'll cozy up and join in! Click below for show notes! https://www.ruthiegray.mom/podcast-pitching/ Click below to take Kim's course, Podcast Pitching 101 for Authors! https://kimstewartmarketing.com/podcast-pitching-101-authors/ Listen to Episode 22, When to trust your instincts for platform growth with Jamie Bailey! https://www.ruthiegray.mom/platform-growth/ Listen to Ruthie's guest episode on Kim's podcast below! https://bookmarketingmania.com/episode4/     Podcast pitching for authors with Kim Stewart Kim: Thank you for having me here to chat about podcast pitching. I love following you on Instagram– seeing the fun things you come up with and people you come in contact with for interviews. Do you enjoy having a podcast? How's that going?  Ruthie: I do enjoy it. It is a lot more work than anybody ever tells you is going to be! Boy, once you start your own show, you have a whole new respect for podcast hosts. But, I love the interviewing. I love just talking to people about the different facets of the marketing that they do. That's what my podcast is about. Bringing on experts to just hammer out some of the topics I know authors are interested in that I'm not necessarily an expert in, but I enjoy getting to nerd out with them about book marketing and build relationships. We were joking a couple minutes ago before we went on air about how much work goes into podcasting. It's definitely worth it. But, we wouldn't want anyone going in blindly not to know that it is work but worth it. It's a great tool to get the message out.   A passion for pitching R: Kim, when did you first become passionate about helping authors with podcast pitching?  K: It was probably about two years ago. I've worked with authors probably for about eight years now, doing all kinds of email marketing, social media marketing, helping them with their blog and then doing a little bit of PR like when they were in launch season. So a lot of my authors that I've worked with, I work with on a long-term basis and their book launch would come up and typically if they were with a traditional publisher, the traditional publisher takes care of all that. There were times that it would end that book launch time would end and they'd still want to be on more podcasts. We began podcast pitching by starting reaching out to some folks I already had a relationship with. That kind of got me a little bit into it. Then about two years ago, I really felt the call to just really niche down to PR. So I took a PR course and it was about teaching. It was about pitching TV publications and podcasts altogether.     Mentors for growth I got to learn all of that and had an amazing mentor named Brittany Lynn. Then I started listening to the “Go pitch yourself” podcast with Angie Trueblood, another mentor of mine, and she just focuses on pitching entrepreneurs to podcast. So I took her course and started learning from her. I've actually worked with her agency for about two years now, helping her support her clients as well with podcast pitching. I guess probably just about in the last two years is when I've really niched down to pitching podcast. Honestly, I absolutely love it. It's a great way for my audience authors to be reaching new audiences and new readers, long before their launch and long after their lives. There's no bad time to be podcast pitching yourself to podcast and reach into readers and letting them know about your books or even have courses or coaching programs that you can let them know.  R: It's such a neat tool to get the word out. It's interesting to me that you just really loved the pitching part and really honed that and learned that.

Let's talk Reels ideas. Last week's episode featured ideas for using your brand personality to develop your voice with Reels, and also suggestions for how to get on and off the app without it taking up all your time.  This was taken from a Live I did earlier in the year, and we decided to take the second part of that live to share the Reels ideas Q&A we held afterwards and the suggestions I gave our participants.   In todays episode we're covering questions like how to use trending audio with voiceovers, product education, how to tailor Reels to your personality especially if you're an encourager or more serious person, and more. You can use these Reels ideas for your personality, and by the way, we have a Reels Personality Quiz you can take that we'll leave in the shownotes so you can find out which type you are AND get suggestions for tailor making those Reels to your personality!  And now, listen in!   Click below for show notes! https://www.ruthiegray.mom/reels-ideas/ Click to take the Reels Personality Quiz! https://quiz.tryinteract.com/#/611fc03c688e1f0017ed5f53 Creating Original Content Suzanne asks, what's a good idea for original content for me? Suzanne sells hair products specifically for women in midlife. They help thicken your hair and make it look better. Suzanne, as far as Reels ideas for you, I would like to see you do some behind the scenes of what you do with your hair of the different products that you use and how to use them on your hair. But I'd also like to see you in a different setting. Besides the normal ones that you continue to do. So you guys should check out Suzanne's Reels, but I'd like to see something different! Maybe you just give tips on how you get ready for your day and how you do the things you do for your hair like pre-tips before you even put the product on or how you sleep at night with them. I hope that helps.            Long Form Video  How long is long form video, Suzanne asks. I would say long form videos are anything beyond seven minutes, honestly. So here's the thing. A lot of people like just quick viewing. Some Reels do well and they're only 40 seconds long!  We do live in a generation that likes things quick; they like quick tips, but we also live in a generation that likes YouTube. Try thinking about it this way. How long do you watch YouTube videos? Personally, I watch YouTube videos that are only seven minutes long or less. I won't go beyond that unless I really have to fix something. So experiment with long and short.     Reels Ideas: Get a Plan Short form is definitely in, especially Reels. You can do Reels up to 60 seconds. I think that's too long for a Reel, I think you lose people's attention. But you have to test your audience. What is your audience like?  Start posting consistently.    Seven minutes is a good limit to tell your video story. However, three minutes is long enough for video. Someone asks, I struggle with coming up with Reels ideas because my message seems more serious. I'm more of a teacher. What are some Reels ideas? The first idea I have for you, Suzanne, is have you taken my Reels personality quiz? There are three types of people. One is the entertainer. That's the obvious one. One is the educator and one is the encourager. Visit the personality quiz via the show notes! After you complete the quiz, you'll receive 40 Reels ideas. They're listed right off the bat that will get your brain going. If I don't see examples or suggestions from people it's hard for me to think of ideas.     It really helps to have those kinds of Reels ideas. If you're an encourager, you can encourage with Reels. One of the biggest tips that I could give you is if you would do a Reel of some pretty scenery outside and do a voiceover from a clip in your podcast. That will do two things. Number one, that will help establish you in the Reels algorithm. Number two,

As promised, today we're talking all about maximizing your social media strategy in 2022! We'll be furthering the conversation we began on episode 19, "7 Instagram trends to watch for in 2022." The episode was all about 2022 trends and predictions. We want to take that conversation a little bit further today and dive deeper into what you might need to hear or what you need to know to do with your content this year.  Click below for show notes! https://www.ruthiegray.mom/social-media-strategy/ Click to visit episode 17, 7 Instagram trends to watch for 2022 https://www.ruthiegray.mom/instagram-trends/ Click to take the Reels personality quiz! https://quiz.tryinteract.com/#/611fc03c688e1f0017ed5f53     Maximizing your social media strategy The other day, the head of Instagram reported IG is experimenting with what you want to see in your feed. This kind of information is crucial to your social media strategy! They are experimenting with chronological order, or you can even tailor your feed to what you want to see. Now you can mute people. You can mute them for good or you can hide them to where you're still following them, but you don't have to see their posts. There's a lot more that you can do now than you could with your social media strategy than you could do before. That's just one of the trends that's going on that we have noticed. So we know that Reels and video are hot and we have people that are hesitant to get on the video bandwagon. It's hard, but you can fit it into your schedule! Here's the thing, what we know that's working right now is video. You could post as many infographics as you want, as well as static posts (non-video image posts). However, if you wanted to shorten the amount of time that you're on Instagram, then just use what Instagram wants you to use, which is video. You'll maximize the time that you're on the platform!     Using Instagram Video for your social media strategy Sometimes, we make video harder than it has to be. You don't even have to video yourself. If you watch my Reel recently, you'll see I just filmed my messy desk. There's all the cords everywhere. Life of a podcaster! There's my notes. There's 25 tabs open on my laptop and then at the end I just put in a picture of me. There's a song in the background. It took me 15 minutes to do. I put some text on there. So if you have an idea, just write it down! This is key for your social media strategy. If you don't have ideas for video or Reels, we have 40 free ideas. If you're not on our email list, send me a DM and you'll receive those.     I also encourage you to take the Reels Personality Quiz, linked in shownotes. If you fill that out, you'll get those 40 Free Ideas. You'll want to get on my newsletter because I give even more detailed, deeper wisdom on entrepreneurial strategies as a Christian on Instagram and what you can do with your social media strategy. That is in my email. There's one I just sent out this morning. If you read that, let me have a thumbs up. I know most of you guys did! Most of y'all get my newsletter, so it's valuable and I spend time on it so that I can help you guys grow. Maximize your time by using video on the platform.      Get ready to maximize your time We all love to maximize our time. What we've discovered from the 2022 trends happening is the more you're on the app, the more Instagram is rewarding those people on the app. They're going to push your content out. But as a Christian entrepreneur, do you really want to spend all of your time on Instagram? Most people don't want to spend all their time on Instagram. What you have to do is maximize your time. That's why we're saying if you'll use video, you don't have to be on there quite as long as if you would post every day, five days a week. Does watching lives count for time spent? No, it doesn't really unless you're engaging. That helps the other person, but it doesn't really help you. 

4 Best ways to grow Instagram followers organically What you're about to hear is a clip from my recent growth training Masterclass inside my Facebook group about how to grow Instagram followers organically.  This is solid advice based on what we've tested, what our clients and mentorship members are seeing, what I'm using, and what research is showing for 2022.  During the training, I shared 4 solid strategies for growth.      Today's episode features sound bytes from the first two strategies in the lesson. You'll learn about a compelling bio and a content flow which I know you'll be incentivized to make use of because most users struggle with consistency on the platform. That shouldn't be the bottleneck to your growth! Want to gain access to the full training, the Growth Masterclass video + full shownotes on ways to grow Instagram followers organically, plus a PDF of 50 growth ideas? Click the follower growth masterclass link at the top of the shownotes to download and get on your way growing your account with new Instagram features in 2022!  Click below for show notes! https://www.ruthiegray.mom/grow-instagram-followers-organically/ Click below for the follower growth masterclass link! https://creative-creator-6398.ck.page/d703bbe991     How to grow Instagram followers organically  1. You need a compelling bio.  When it comes to the best methods to grow Instagram followers organically, we've got to start with the bio. Your bio consists of 150 characters. That's all you have. Think elevator pitch. You need to get clear on what it is you're doing and what your message is.  Use keywords! Keywords are searchable on Instagram. So stuff that bio with keywords about your message. Here's a handy acronym! WIIFT: what's in it for them. Don't just talk about you. Click to visit Kelly Holmes' free email course. Let your audience and your potential followers know what you're going to give them. What are they going to get from following this account? You have about seven seconds to impress that random person who decides to go check out your page. It needs to be clear so that they know if it is for them, or if it is not. Here's some suggestions for that. Here's a little template. I help _____ do _____ so that _______. Most of my clients and students of my mentorship and my trainings already know about this and they work hard to make their bio clear. We give input and I want you to think about it. Sit down and write your keywords and think, how can I say this succinctly? This will be pivotal in your journey to grow Instagram followers organically. Here's another tip: Make your username different than your title.  If your username is Karen Brown and your title is Karen Brown– you're using up unnecessary space. Say it differently. Karen Brown; attorney at law. Right underneath your profile picture is a place for a title to clarify further what you do. This will help you to say it concisely as well. Emojis often can say something for your industry instead of using even more words. Some people don't like emojis, but you can use them sparingly. I would say don't use a hundred of them. I go on some people's accounts and they've got all these flowers and things like that. Those don't always help you. You want to be succinct and sparing with your emojis and then have a clear profile of you, not your blog logo.        Grow Instagram followers organically by incorporating strong visuals   You could try using a consistent background for your images. My profile photo has a transparent background created in Canva. You can make that white. You can make it green purple, whatever. The lighter usually the better, but it just will help you out or even get a professional photo made!  Omit in your bio cutesy, nebulous jargon, a hundred emojis and information.  People want to know what's in it for them. You have to make that clear! I always tell my students that we have to do the thinking for...

Hey y'all, welcome back to the show, this episode is all about Instagram collabs!  Last week's episode on how to use a challenge to grow on Instagram received lots of feedback ad questions, and we're so glad you're asking!  In that episode, number 23, I mentioned forming a chat group as part of your challenge. People have been asking "how do you create a chat group?"  Luckily, I created a video for that so if you pop over to my Instagram and head to my Reels you'll see the exact way to do that. After the show you can tap the link in the shownotes to see how it's done. Right here, this is what I do!     Click below for show notes! https://www.ruthiegray.mom/instagram-collabs/ Click to visit my IG page! https://www.instagram.com/authenticonlinemarketingpod/ Click to visit Joni's Instagram! https://www.instagram.com/joni_scott.prayer/?hl=en Join my Authentic Email Marketing School! https://ruthiegray.lpages.co/authentic-email-marketing/ Click to view my video about forming chat groups on IG! https://www.instagram.com/reel/CZrd7bBDTYV/?utm_medium=copy_link     Hosting an IG challenge part 2: Instagram collabs   Now today's episode is a follow up from last week on how to hold a challenge on Instagram to grow your audience. There, I answered a member inside my mentorship, Joni Scott, during her Hotseat session on how to grow her platform once she had the basics down.  This a follow up on that episode expounding on how to collaborate on a challenge using Instagram collabs, so if you haven't caught that episode you'll want to do that ASAP.  Today I'm giving you some specific examples for ways to hold a challenge on Instagram using it's new Instagram collabs features!  Now here's the exciting news, Instagram has made it even easier to collaborate with others on the platform.         Use Instagram collabs with like-minded users Y'all, collaborate those like-minded individuals who compliment your brand. I mentioned in this hot seat session, one way to leverage video is to do a challenge with someone else and preface it with a live video.  Make sure it is surrounding that challenge topic. You're sowing the seed there to announce the challenges coming. You want to make sure that you give it a good name and have a good purpose for it. That way, you can teach people quick actions every day. Then depending on how early in advance you did that live together, you could use Instagram collabs on a Reel to announce it.  They give more exposure and there's two of you so it's working double time to spread the word!   Going Live At the start of the challenge, you could go live again together or collaborating on a two minute video to announce. Remember, people need to see things multiple times before they actually take action so don't be leery of repeating yourself, especially using different modes – Reels, Live, video, Carousels and static posts!  (Remember, Reels has it's own algorithm so that helps you cover even more ground!) So regarding the person you use Instagram collabs with, try to split up the tasks according to your strengths and leverage that. Now let's talk about Instagram's newest feature, collabs – a perfect tool for exactly what we're talking about! What Are Instagram Collabs? Instagram collabs allow you to invite someone to collaborate on a Feed post or Reel, so they can share the content with their followers. So the post shows up on both of your feeds! Analytics are shown for both users! views, likes, and comments – allowing you to leverage and engage with each other's communities!  You will get ALLL the notifications!  Woohoo! You know how it is sometimes when you guest on someone else's podcast or do some kind of giveaway or some sort and you don't get notified because it's on her feed? Well, now you can be! How to do it: After uploading your Reel or Feed post, go to the share screen as usual, and then tap “Tag People.” 

Let's talk Instagram challenges. We just wrapped up our Growth challenge over in our Authentic Instagram Engagement Facebook group. Let me tell you, we hold that challenge one or two times a year and it's always such a fun, positive experience. We work with a community of Christian female entrepreneurs, podcasters, authors, and bloggers. They're all seeking to grow their Instagram audience while making an impact for Christ.  While I grew my own audience and platform through this experience, I felt that others might want to know how to hold an Instagram challenge. Maybe on a smaller scale, especially if you're just starting out or regaining traction. What you're about to read is a small part of a coaching session inside my paid program, the Insider mentorship.  During the upcoming session, member Joni Scott asked this. I think it's a valid question to share with you. This way you can start holding your own free Instagram challenge to grow your platform.  After the show, be sure to click on the show notes to follow her and say hi! Click below for show notes! https://www.ruthiegray.mom/instagram-challenge/   Authentic Email Marketing School https://ruthiegray.lpages.co/authentic-email-marketing/   Click below to visit Joni's Instagram! https://www.instagram.com/joni_scott.prayer/?hl=en     Using an Instagram challenge to promote follower growth After working hard on her Instagram account, Joni's question was: “What are the next important things to focus on, to build a tribe and add more value?  I would like to work towards virtual and in-person mini prayer retreats. I have some great ideas, but I think it's still a few steps away. I've changed my profile about a hundred times since my last hot seat. Like most of my Instagram it's better, but any new feedback would be welcome.”         How opt-ins can promote your Instagram challenge I would encourage you to get an email opt in made and get in the email cycle. The reason for that is, yes, we are building on Instagram and I have some ideas for you for your tribe there, but in case Instagram quits on us we want to have that newsletter that we own. We do own that. And so that is why I did mail out my first one. Email and newsletters and opt-ins are always a very hot topic because they're very important. Your highlights are beautiful. I love them. I love your feed. It's fun. There's a lot of variety. It's not just the same thing.  I think you're doing a great job building your tribe. Something that you could try is implement a prayer focused Instagram challenge. Think a five day challenge or a five day prayer Instagram challenge where it has a specific focus.   Staying within the app for an Instagram challenge What you can do is work through email, but if you're really wanting to grow your Instagram following, you can just do it on there and form a chat group. Every day on Insta or email list, people can let you know if they are up for the Instagram challenge. You could open up the chat group five days in advance of the Instagram challenge, so people can get to know each other. Do that five day Instagram challenge in your chat group. Give the prayer prompt every day.   Benefits of a chat group In the group, each person could weigh in on what their need is that day. So it could be something simple like that that would really help you. That's how I started building my following for teaching Instagram. I started doing little challenges, like a five day engagement challenge, and opened up a pod. People got to know each other. They loved it. We made it fun. You don't have to do a whole lot, but people love community. So that is a great idea for you. You'd want to start announcing it probably two to four weeks in advance, you know, start talking about it, that it's coming, and make it a niche focus to where as for people who want to pray for their adult kids or pray for something specific.

Today I have Jamie Bailey with me of Expedition Marriage to talk about boosting platform growth. Jamie's a good friend and a former client as well as a member of my insider mentorship and also creator of some of the most fun Reels you'll ever see on Instagram.  Click below for show notes! https://www.ruthiegray.mom/platform-growth/ Click to follow Jamie & Chris on IG! https://www.instagram.com/expedition_marriage/?hl=en Click join the group to participate in our FREE 5 day growth challenge! https://www.facebook.com/groups/authenticIGtraining   When to trust your instincts for platform growth J: Surprisingly, it's been exciting to grow like we have lately.  R: That's what we're going to talk about today. Jamie is a professional Christian counselor and marriage coach together with her husband, Chris. They run a private practice and expedition marriage: a marriage ministry. Countless couples learn to enjoy the journey of marriage through their guidance. They are also weekly hosts and founders of the expedition marriage podcast and co-authors of the newlywed couples devotional. Jamie has a real passion for helping healthy couples continue to thrive, and helping hurting couples find the fullness in Christ they were meant to have.  Jamie we've referenced your growth on Instagram and we started at rock bottom together.      Growth starts small J: I remember some of those early conversations. What am I supposed to share in stories? My life is boring. There's nothing to share yet. I remember the early conversations of how do I make a colored background in my stories, all the basic things from basic tech to strategy.  R:You have come leaps and miles, haven't you? Share with us why you decided to add Instagram into the mix of your practice and your ministry.  Instagram, for us, was an opportunity to reach more people. We run a private practice and that's the day to day, hour by hour situation. When you're trying to help save marriages and help marriages grow and hurting couples one at a time, that is not cutting it in today's society. It can be exhausting as well. I love what I do, but there's a lot of heart and emotion, and it's a lot of heavy lifting that I will do in a day's work. So, being able to have a platform like Instagram, where I can cast that net wider instead of just doing one-on-one. Most of the people we would see in our office are already in trouble and needing hope. A lot of them are last ditch efforts. At some point, we knew we had to get ahead of this problem.        IG as a helpful tool Instagram has provided an excellent way for us to do some of that PR preventative work and start reaching people and guiding them and giving them resources and tools and even just solid biblical marriage advice. Long story short Instagram allows us to reach thousands of people instead of just one couple an hour.    R: I know as you started growing and picking up traction, it was blowing your mind how many times your quotes are being shared. For example, you would actually send me your stats and you were so excited because it's proof you are hitting the pain points there and really resonating with people in there. They're consuming your content and sharing it. That is just helping spread the word. How quickly did it take to get to your current number of subscribers?  J: It's a little challenging to answer that because it was slow, then a little bit faster. Then boom, take off running because if you were to look at our feed from the very beginning, it looks entirely different than what it looks like now.   Small growth pays off So we were fumbling around, honestly, for almost eight months to a year just trying to figure out how this whole thing works. That's about when I met you. Now we're almost two years into this and we've got it down. Once we learned what works for us and the tools to use it just took off and we can't even keep up with how many new follo...

Today's show is all about getting your ROI from Instagram. If you've ever read our show description, part of it is learning how to deliver your message effectively and receive engagement and investment on your instances. Today's special guest is client and mentorship member Erica Goode.   Because of the field she's in, she's all about getting that ROI on Instagram! And you're going to hear today how she put that to use with her business on Instagram. Erica is the owner of Erica Goode CPA, a virtual accounting firm for women owned businesses and a former director of finance at Walgreens headquarters. She now helps small business owners wrap their brain around all things business money, and plan financial strategies for the future. Welcome to the show, Erica.      Click below for show notes! https://www.ruthiegray.mom/roi-from-instagram/ Follow Erica on IG here! https://www.instagram.com/erica.goode.cpa/ Sign up for our growth challenge at the link below! https://creative-creator-6398.ck.page/d703bbe991   Early stages of getting ROI from Instagram Erica: Thanks so much for having me Ruthie.  R: Erica reminds me of important things sometimes, I'll read one of her posts on Instagram and it'll be something about quarterly taxes. Then, my neck whips around and my brain goes into a cramp.    E: I say all the fun things. A lot of things. I don't know if they're fun when it comes to that, but they are necessary. R: I want everybody to know you are such a fun person, so funny. Y'all have got to go follow her on IG, linked in shownotes. I'm always impressed by your right-brain thinking Erica.  E: I'm so grateful. I have to admit that when I wrote copy for my website, I joke that my business coach wrote copy for my website while I rocked back and forth in the corner. I just put it like, it wasn't my thing. So if you go to my website, tell my coach, she did a lovely job.  R: She did, it is really awesome. It's concise. What you do and who you help. In fact, I think you just took kind of from that and used it in your bio. Am I right about that on Instagram? E: Yeah I had done all the legwork up front and so when I hit Instagram, I hit it running.  R: Let's just talk a little bit more about the type of work you do and why you decided to add Instagram into the mix.  E: I am a CPA by trade. Right now I help small business owners and we do a lot of soup to nuts accounting. If you need bookkeeping, we provide bookkeeping. We go all the way up to strategic financial planning now. At the time of this recording, it's the end of 2021.  We're knee deep in planning for the entire 2022 year and what that looks like financially for my clients. So we really don't just look in the past.  We are looking forward in the future of what your business forecasting which is so important.  R: I am very thankful to have you here. Let's talk about your Instagram account. Spoiler alert, Erica is already generating funds from her Instagram account and you started it how long ago?    Getting a good ROI from Instagram even while your biz is young E: I started in September, we're officially three months in. E: Because you held my hand Ruthie. I think I called you one day and I said, Ruthie, I want to go on Instagram next week. And you were like, oh, okay. And I said, I don't want to do it.  When can we set up a meeting? I need somebody to hold my hand and I want you to be the person holding my hand. R: You know, that's the kind of clients that I love, they know what they want. Let's back up just a minute, Erica and I, we have been kind of dancing around each other on the internet, via Instagram on her other account for a couple of years. So we got to know each other. So if you're listening to this right now and thinking, I want people to just chase me down, just know that there were a lot of foundational conversations going on in the DM before this ever happened. Right? 

Hey y'all, and welcome back to the show with our episode on social media boundaries. I want to remind you that we are having a growth challenge soon, so get in my free Facebook group, Authentic Instagram Engagement and get on our email list. If you're listening in early January, this will be happening mid to late January.   I know you're going to benefit from this challenge and learn some things that we're seeing help right now to generate and grow traffic and authentic followers. Now for today's show, Hayley, my assistant, is joining me!   Click below for show notes! https://www.ruthiegray.mom/social-media-boundaries/ Click below to join our free Authentic Instagram Engagement Facebook page! https://www.facebook.com/groups/778964932495587           Setting social media boundaries in 2022 Hayley: Thanks for having me back on the show! R: Anytime girl, glad you're here. So we're going to have a conversation about setting social media boundaries. We're going to reference where we left off in the 2022 predictions podcast about using IG and the implications of needing to be on it more to get your content seen. H: Basically, we know that Instagram kind of rewards you for being on the app. They know that the more you use it, the more you'll stay on it basically. It's going to become more saturated as well.     Increased IG Traffic We're going to see even more people joining next year. In some ways, that's an exciting thing because there are a lot of people realizing that they can work from home and they can try to accomplish their business dreams. They're gonna be trying to utilize Instagram to make that happen. That's going to be part of Instagram seeing more heavy traffic is there will be people joining with the purpose of promoting their small business and for a small business owner, this is a good thing. It also maybe a little bit of a tricky thing because you may get new potential clients or you might gain new potential peers, but that means also your competition is probably going to grow too. R: I know that the listeners of this podcast and our followers are very concerned with life balance in regards to social media boundaries and being in the present for their people and making the most of our one precious life that we have. So we want to figure out how to do this well.    Let's talk first about a couple more things here that you're seeing happen, Hayley.          Maximum user fluctuation means increased need for social media boundaries. H: So, we may see a lot of people joining as it's kind of the usual for Instagram, but we are probably going to see more people leave as well. This is honestly because Instagram is going to be kind of a little bit more competitive with the traffic saturation and a little bit more busy. I think with video taking over on most social media platforms, not just Instagram, but most of them, it does make it a little bit trickier to intentionally, disengage from the app whenever you want to. So, I think some people are going to feel tired of that and maybe a little bit drained by social media and they might just leave. Because setting social media boundaries intentionally is difficult! R: I always tell my followers to be sure to just work on one, building one solid platform before you jump to another. That's why I say spend time on the app, but there's another side of that. That is, you can't put all of your eggs in one basket. So, you do need to make sure that you are elsewhere besides Instagram.   The importance of a newsletter Especially your newsletter. For me, Instagram and my newsletter are my top two priorities. The newsletter actually has even more of a priority for me. It is the top one. Because if you can get people on your newsletter you can reach them any time and you can't necessarily do that on IG. Not everyone's going to see your posts on Instagram. So there's that,

Hey, y'all and welcome back to our podcast all about Instagram trends. It's now 2022, and we are going to share some social media predictions for you, specifically Instagram trends. So even though some of them are not directly on the Instagram app, they all are interrelated and you'll see why as we go along. First off, thanks for coming back to listen, and we hope you've had a great Christmas and great holidays!    Click below for show notes! https://www.ruthiegray.mom/instagram-trends/ Go take the Reels Personality Quiz! https://quiz.tryinteract.com/#/611fc03c688e1f0017ed5f53 Click to view the Reels Crash Course page https://christianbloggerscreentimeboundaries.teachable.com/p/reels-training/ Join our FREE Facebook Group and stay in the know about our new GROWTH CHALLENGE coming soon! https://www.facebook.com/groups/authenticIGtraining   7 Instagram Trends to Watch for in 2022 My daughter is here with us today and we're going to have a conversation about 2022 predictions. Welcome Hayley!  Hayley: I'm so excited. Thank you for having me.  Ruthie: We're glad you're here again. For those of you who don't know, Hayley works with me and we're a great team.  All right, let's talk about the seven social media predictions for 2022.    1. Keep Using Instagram Reels  H: Number one, we have Instagram Reels. As far as Instagram trends go, Reels is still obviously going to be a really important tool for your small business or for your social media strategy because Instagram Reels, as you probably know,  recently came up with their own algorithm within the app. Reels is kind of like it's own little whole other algorithm where you could get seen aside from the main feed. That makes Reels a great tool to utilize. Another reason why we're seeing that Reels is going to be important in 2022 is because TikTok is also still growing and as you probably know, TikTok has the same function or a very similar function to Reels. As that's growing, Reels is going to grow too. Instagram is going to be pushing out Reels to help keep you on Instagram rather than moving to TikTok, they kind of want to be your one-stop shop for all of your different social media avenues.  R: Yes. That's one reason why Instagram has seemed so random and crazy and all over the board in 2021, because they are trying to be the top dog. So, if you are still struggling to get on the Reels bandwagon, just know that we have some resources for you to help you with that. One is our Reels personality quiz. So you may be an encourager, you may be an educator, or you may be an entertainer. If you just go to the website, at Ruthiegray.mom, you will see that  Reels personality quiz. Then after taking it, you will receive 40 ideas for your reels. So you can implement that in your strategy. Beyond that, we also have a Reels Crash Course, and it will show you behind the scenes shooting of the Reels and explaining why I do what I do plus a few hacks.   2. More Effective Facebook Ads H: For number two, I'm hearing that Facebook ads are going to be more effective. Facebook has said that they are going to make a lot of new updates and changes to make them a lot more efficient in 2022. Obviously that directly correlates with these Instagram trends. We're hoping that they will be not only more accessible to small business owners, but also more helpful.  R: Yes, because as you know, if you want to run an Instagram ad, you have to set it up through Facebook because they own both of them. So we are hoping that Facebook is going to stay true to this prediction. That ads are going to be more effective because we've seen a dip in that in 2021, a lot of people have been discouraged, yet it does still seem to be an effective tool and it seems like it is going to get better in 2022. We'll buckle our seat belts and wait on that.       3. Long Form Video Rises to the Top 

Every once in a while you hear of an unexpected Christmas miracle. Two years back, I received mine. You see, 25 years ago, I made a snap decision I would later regret. Click below for show notes! https://www.ruthiegray.mom/unexpected-christmas/       A young wife with 2 kids and a baby, I was packing our house up for a job relocation back home. As is often the case, one accumulates tons of junk when raising little ones, so I feverishly off-loaded to Goodwill like a mad woman.   I packed the boxes, and Jim (after questioning all the stuff I purged  - and getting the stink eye from me), loaded them up and whisked them away. We were finally moving home, and life was good.   Once we relocated, I unpacked necessary items and then stuffed a few unpacked boxes with sentimental possessions in my closet.  After all, life was moving at breakneck speed with my new career as the music teacher at the kid's Christian school... and I just found out I was pregnant. Again.    About 5 months into our relocation, I looked for our wedding memorabilia. Except when I dug through all the boxes - it was missing. No photo album, no signed guest book - it was gone. ALL of it.   With a sinking feeling, I realized I'd given our wedding memories to Goodwill and would most likely never see them again.   Around the same time, Jim discovered his nice black dress coat was also missing. (I got in trouble for that.) He's often joked that someone in Martinsburg is walking around with his good coat and claiming our wedding memories.    We have just one picture of the wedding, from somebody who attended. Our kids have never seen our wedding pictures. Many times, I've lamented the non-passing on of our heritage.       The Unexpected Christmas Miracle But all that changed today with a mysterious phone call. A guy who owns rental property found our wedding memory box years ago in one of his dwellings, took it home, and set it on a shelf. And that's where it sat for 20 something years - until he decided to open it last week.   Mr. Vanmeter from Martinsburg, West Virginia, wanted to know if we were still together (I'd have wondered that too - after all, who gives away their wedding album?!) and he proceeded to tell Jim our engagement story - written in our wedding guest book, so we knew it was legit.   How did he find us? Inside the box was an old bulletin from Maple Valley Baptist Church, where my dad pastored, with his name and home phone number on the front.   Long story short, my dad and mom still had the same phone number and the wedding box found its way home on December 21, right when all of our kids were home for Christmas!⁣   My eldest snapped a photo of Jim and I with our kids gathered ‘round, getting their first peek at our unexpected Christmas miracle-- our wedding photos!   When asked why he would do this for us, he responded, “I've been married 54 years. I would have wanted someone to mail me my wedding memories too.”   Keep praying, even in the impossible Crazy, right? I never dared to dream...or even pray that my wedding photos would be returned to me.  But my mom did, right from the start.  (She's the prayer warrior in the family - we could all learn a lesson from her! Take it from this former cynic - nothing is impossible with God.) I guess unexpected Christmas miracles still really do exist. Jim's coat is still gone though.     "And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God.  And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren.  For nothing will be impossible with God.”  And Mary said, “Behold,

Today's episode is all about honing in on your posting strategy! We'll share 10 simple tricks to get you niched down, engaged, and driving traffic. If you run a small business and are stuck on how to market yourself, this is just the episode for you!     Click below for show notes! https://www.ruthiegray.mom/posting-strategy/   Jamie Bailey of Expedition Marriage https://www.instagram.com/expedition_marriage/?hl=en Suzy Goodwin of Run, Lift, Mom https://www.instagram.com/runliftmom/         1. Decide on days and times and be consistent (scheduler) Incorporate a scheduler! Choosing your days and times to post is one of the most simple but game changing posting strategies on Instagram. A scheduler like Later.com can help take the guesswork out of it. It took me a while to figure out what days and times to post and what days and what times not to post.  But I will tell you that Instagram's algorithm will keep track of when you post, which makes it so important to post regularly for your ideal audience.   2. Show personality in captions Someone who does this so well is Suzy Goodwin from run lift mom pod! Suzy does a fantastic job of articulating her brand voice throughout her post captions. I recently had her on the podcast - Episode 38; Generate Instagram revenue by driving traffic to your website. Check that out for some great traffic-driving hacks. One thing that you'll want to keep in mind as you're plotting your posting strategy is to not have too many long captions. Mix it up! Don't write a book every time. However, it is good to experiment with longer captions sometimes to keep people on your posts longer.   3. Rotate categories You should have 5-7 categories to draw from whilst posting so you're not always talking about the same thing every time. Your audience may come to you for a specific need, but sometimes they just want to be surprised! Keep that brand consistency but make sure you're offering some category variation as well.       4. Intentional Images Choose one style of template for your infographics or non-photo/designed posts. Canva helps immensely with this! You could also choose 2-3 main fonts and stick with only them. Choose brand colors wisely too. Jamie Bailey of Expedition Marriage does this well with her eye-catching colors and consistent but exciting feed.   5. Engage twice as much as you post! This is a BIG one. You want to turn around your engagement, so you've got to put in that effort. I promise it's worth it! You need more audience traffic in order to get them on your link in bio and your site. In order to do that, you need more engagement. Making sure you are spending twice as much time on the app engaging as you are outputting will help your brand grow.   6. Use Carousels Carousels are useful because sometimes folks come to Instagram to scroll. Having a swipe-through carousel post (especially if you use all 10 slides!) will help your audience stay engaged with your content longer. I suggest putting a shorter caption for carousel posts, since there's already a good bit of content there. The algorithm sees the success of Carousels and that kind of pushes your posts out there.   7. Use Reels Reels are STILL hot, and as we know, video is only growing. Make sure your Reels stay light and entertaining. Showcase your true personality here!   8. Use all forms of video - short and long form. Like I said, video is taking over social media, slowly but surely! Make sure you're implementing all video avenues on IG. This means filling up your Instagram Video tab on your profile so you fulfill the needs of a wider percentage of users-- those who prefer long form as well as those who like more bite-sized content.   9. CTA every time  If your posts don't include CTA's, get on that STAT! CTA's (Call to Action) do not have to be overwhelming or too over-thought.

Let's talk audience clarity! So everybody knows it's difficult to get people off Instagram and on to your site, your podcast, blog website, or maybe a shop like a Shopify. However, it's not impossible and I'm living proof of that.  I want to talk to you a little bit about it today because there are some simple tips that you can start using to begin driving that traffic from Instagram onto your site. But first, you have to get clear who it is you serve. I'll share a tool for this later, but all of your content hinges on this!   Click below for show notes! https://www.ruthiegray.mom/audience-clarity/ Click to learn more about the Authentic Marketing School! christianbloggerscreentimeboundaries.teachable.com/p/authentic-online-marketing-school   Visit Alison's IG https://www.instagram.com/alisonsimmons.bible/?hl=en   Visit Michele's IG https://www.instagram.com/michele_bowman07/?hl=en   Visit Sarah's IG  https://www.instagram.com/sarah_e_frazer/?hl=en     How Audience Clarity Drives Traffic from your Bio Like I've said many times before, a lot of people that follow me happened to be women my age. We're in our second half of life. We're trying to get used to not raising kids anymore, and it's kind of exciting, you know, once you get over the grief and you realize, Hey, I can do some other stuff. I's fun to help other people, um, with this new project. Also, a lot of people that follow me are old souls. We just kind of connect for some reason.    So you don't have to be a certain age to benefit from this in other words or a female, but that's who I work with usually. That's the first step in fostering audience clarity. You have to get clear on who it is you serve. And the way I did this, I've told us before, I test it and I kept testing to see who responded to my content because I was also sharing my life.   Part of my life was caregiving. I was in and out of doctor's offices with both my parents until my dad passed as one thing, I'm a GiGi. I share funny things about my grandkids. They sang happy birthday yesterday in my stories. You want to share things like that because story branding is crucial for audience clarity. You're going to see where I'm going with this later.       Get clear on who you serve. And like I said, I'll have a tool later for that. The reason that you want to drive traffic off of Instagram by way of audience clarity is largely because typically sales don't happen right from Instagram. Now it can happen, but especially if you have a service, it usually doesn't happen right there. Really the key is to have a newsletter and that Instagram paired with a newsletter. That's how I market.    Get Clear For example, I told my newsletter readers, “come watch the Live today.” It's a training, so you can get in and on the loop. That works. Using them both and copying those links and things like that is super, super important. I'm going to take a break really quick to let my friend Alison, come on cause she's going to tell us something. Alison has all kinds of energy and she kills it on the Reels and teaches all kinds of Bible lessons.    Alison: What I think is fun is that being part of your community has allowed me to get the feedback I need in terms of being encouraged. So many women in your group comment on my stuff, but then they also send me private messages. You know, telling me the things that I'm like, I'm so insecure, but nobody knows that on Instagram. Behind the scenes I can share the insecurities and it's been so helpful to be part of your community and know that we're all going through this together. I'm an accountability person. I love being held accountable. I love holding people accountable and being encouraged as part of that. That's been, for me, the biggest take away from being part of your community in the last year.   Keep Going! To reiterate,

Today's podcast is all about how to get real Instagram followers! This is installment three of four in our series about the four evergreen key components that don't change on Instagram. If you missed Episodes 1 and 2 of our series, you can go back to season 2, Episode 13, “Does Your Instagram Bio Attract or Repel Potential Clients?”, and then Episode 14, “Rate Your Instagram Content with These Proven Techniques?” These can be found in the links below, but those are the first two key components; a solid bio and a solid content strategy to draw in followers and convert to clients.  So today we're talking about gaining real Instagram followers. I wanted to add some fresh tactics from our recent research. My team and I are always researching trends and changes on the platform to keep you and my membership in the loop. Be sure to follow or subscribe to the podcast to get episodes when they drop!  Before I share today's episode, if you're listening the week of November 22nd, the very day this drops, I want to invite you to my Instagram Live today on Instagram at 1:00 PM. On my @authenticmarketingpod Instagram account, I'm going to share the very next evergreen component to a solid account right there. It's all about how to drive traffic off the platform and onto your podcast, website, blog product, wherever you really need followers to go. It works, so set a reminder right now to meet me at the Live so you can ask questions! We'll discuss component number four for developing a solid Instagram strategy. So check out my Live if you're listening today November 22nd at 1:00 PM on my Instagram, Eastern standard time. I'll give number four there and I'm going to spill the beans on my early Black Friday sale that starts today. You don't want to miss it! The early bird bonuses are out of this world. They're only around until midnight, the 24th of November, 2021. Think: Instagram meets email list building for a brilliant marketing plan to create solid followers, readers, and conversions for your marketing.    Click below for show notes! https://www.ruthiegray.mom/real-instagram-followers/   Episode 13 https://www.ruthiegray.mom/instagram-bio/   Episode 14 https://www.ruthiegray.mom/instagram-content-strategy/   Take our Reels personality quiz! https://quiz.tryinteract.com/#/611fc03c688e1f0017ed5f53     We've discussed component number one of the four Evergreen components on Instagram-- a solid bio. Number two is a valued content strategy. In this series, I took a walk down memory lane about our local cafe we frequented each Sunday after church, when our kids were growing up, it was a whole experience. I liken that to your bio and how people look at that to see the kind of the vibe you're putting out and what you offer. The choices behind the counter, the food served that day that I liken to your content.  Today our topic of gaining real Instagram followers falls along the lines of community. You must build community in order to gain followers, it's simply essential. You can't gain followers without establishing community. I always say community grows opportunity.  I teach this a lot inside my community and in every new program I release, including the one released just today. There's always a community team building aspect to it because that is so important for growth. And so the cafe grew community through committed frequenters like us going there and then telling others how much we loved it. Some Sundays after church we'd invite friends to join us for the experience. And they told their friends and they told their friends and so on and that built their following. Word of mouth is spectacular for building your brand and business. When people become committed followers, they share your content. That, my friends, is just invaluable to growing a solid platform and gaining real Instagram followers. For instance, whenever they share your content as stories and tag...

Hey y'all and welcome to our podcast all about Instagram content strategy. We're back to discuss part two of our November series all about the four components that make up a solid Instagram platform. These four things will not and have never changed. And we don't see them changing any time.  IG changes formats a lot! You don't know where things are, you go in there and ponder what is consistent.  Last week, we talked about the bio and across the board in all forms of social media, you usually have a bio and we likened this to walking in a cafe and your first impressions. The bio is kind of like what you see when you first walk in. It will help you see if you're in the right place.  The Instagram bio gives the first impressions and it's how you connect really with your people. Your bio sets the tone for your platform and it shows who you are going to follow or not. It shows what you're there to do for your followers. Your bio isn't really about you! It's about how you can help your people as the hook to get them to come in and stay. Click below for show notes! https://www.ruthiegray.mom/instagram-content-strategy/   Wren Robbins https://www.instagram.com/friendsofafeatherpodcast/?hl=en   Ruthiegray.mom on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/authenticonlinemarketingpod/   5 Instagram Updates for your Small Business https://www.ruthiegray.mom/instagram-updates/   Sarah Frazer https://www.instagram.com/sarah_e_frazer/?hl=en   Joni Scott https://www.instagram.com/joni_scott.prayer/?hl=en   Jane DeLong https://www.instagram.com/janehdelong/   Expedition_Marriage https://www.instagram.com/expedition_marriage/?hl=en       Your Instagram Content Strategy Now, today we're going to talk about your Instagram content strategy. So when we would go into the cafe and get in line, I would have a four year old on my hip, and then we had the six-year-old and the nine-year-old, and the 11 year old, and they're all looking at all the different selections and what they want this week. So, what's behind the glass in the cafe? What you're serving is your content. It's what you're giving. Now, granted, we were buying the food and your Instagram content strategy should be very closely related to what you are marketing. What do you have for sale? Affiliate sales? Is it your own product? Or, perhaps you are trying to streamline traffic to a website, blog, podcast? Maybe you are generating funds from that area, but nevertheless, your content needs to be closely branded. You need to be speaking to that person who your bio is about & that your product is about. So, you want to be giving. For example, think about tangible, snack size foods that basically get them used to your kind of teaching and connection method.  For instance, deliver education within your field.      Educating Your Audience Wren Robbins, my friend and podcaster at Friends of a Feather gives little tidbits about how to set up and run a podcast. She also gives hints about that on my own account in the Authentic Online Marketing pod. I am educating my audience on how to use Instagram and believe me, Instagram gives me no lack of material because they're changing all the time. I do want you to know I'm not affiliated or working for Instagram. I work as an entrepreneur so that is just one of my avenues, one of my streams of income. I coach my clients, but I also give lots of tips. We talked about this in a couple of episodes ago about the five newest updates on Instagram. You can now practice your Lives. You can set it all up and practice without actually going Live! You can do that with a friend acting as a guest, even if you have a guest coming on, you could practice together. I usually try to give tips on feed hacks in Reels, I go live and I give a lot of information in stories. So if you aren't watching my story.

Today's episode is all about the Instagram bio. We are getting ready to do a series of four episodes here in November. Every Monday, beginning the 8th, to the 15th, 22nd and 29th. They're all about the four main components to an Instagram platform that never change. Now, we all know Instagram changes constantly at the speed of light. It is frustrating! We all get that. However, there are four main components that do stay the same that you can count on so far. These things are kind of the same across all boards. As far as all social media, you need to keep all these four things in mind usually. The first is a great Instagram bio. You'll always have a bio in just about every type of social media that there is. The second is the content you have to have. Good content is crucial.       Right? We have to provide valuable content. That's the second. The third item is followers. You have to have followers, no matter which platform you're on and when. People who follow you and engage with your content are crucial to your small business. Everyone wants more followers because that grows your platform and grows your reach. Lastly, you almost always need to have a link where you can drive traffic off of that social media platform. So in these next four weeks, we are going to really hone in on these four items and talk about them a little bit. While we do that, I want you to picture, in your mind, a cafe.    Making an entrance memorable with your bio When my kids were growing up, our favorite cafe was called K&W. Does anybody remember the K&W cafes? Oh, their macaroni and cheese was to die for. So was the chocolate pie. So, every Sunday after church, We would go there. Usually, a bunch of our friends would show up and our kids would oftentimes go in a different booth than us so that they could feel like they had their own space or whatever. We would eat with our friends. It was just a great time from the beginning to the end, because the first thing you saw when you walked in the door was actually a person who was sort of the face of the cafe. She had blonde hair, piled on top of her head, lopsided and the kids always commented on it. She was always very nice, dynamic and welcoming and she always had something to say. Then, we would start to go through the glorious aisle to see all the food starting with the cold things and I'd get their pea salad. I loved their lasagna and they had different varieties of protein. Then there was the Mac and Cheese and the mashed potatoes and gravy. We loved their gravy. Then there were the breads and desserts. We always got either the chocolate pie or a chocolate pudding. This was around the formative years of my kids growing up. They'll always remember that cafe and I remember the day they left town & closed down. We were all so sad. I don't think we've ever actually found a really good restaurant that we loved quite as much as that cafe. Now, I want to talk to you about cafes because I want you to think of the analogy here. There's a similarity, when someone lands on your site, “How welcoming is it?”   Your bio predicts your content I want you to think about something today. We're especially going to talk about the Instagram bio today. When someone lands on your site, they want to know how you're going to help. So, a lot of times they'll go to your bio first, after they have sort of found you and explored, or they've seen you as a friend of a friend, and they kind of see your content and want to know, what is this? People want to know, how can you help them? In the same way, when we went to know, we're there for our own pleasure. It was an experience from beginning to end. The very beginning was with the host, with the hair on top of her head. She was like the gatekeeper. And, for lack of a better term, I think that your Instagram bio is like the gatekeeper of your account. It kind of shows the flair and the personality behind the account.