Master Instagram: Reels, SEO & Growth Secrets with Corey Walker

You can find Corey Walker at:
Website: https://www.themarketingspecialist.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/coreycwalker/

#InstagramForBusiness
#SocialMediaGrowth
#KrisWard

Corey Walker Podcast Transcription

[00:00:00] ​

[00:00:00] Kris Ward: Hey, everyone. Welcome to another episode of When the Hour, When the Day. I am your host, Kris Ward, and today in the house, we have Corey Walker. Corey Walker, if you don’t know her, she is the co author of five books in the Dummies series, two Instagram for Dummies, and then three Instagram for Business Dummies. Oh my gosh. Welcome to the show, Corey. 

[00:00:30] Corey Walker: Thank you for having me, Kris. 

[00:00:32] Kris Ward: Oh, we’re lucky to have you. Oh my gosh, that is, you are standing on, oh my God, the shoulders of such a large franchise, to be chosen among all the social media people out there, all that’s going on in the world globally, and you are the coauthor to five dummy series.

[00:00:49] My gosh, we are lucky to have you on the show. I don’t even know where to start with you. I’m super excited. 

[00:00:54] Ah, okay. And I know you tend to downplay your achievements, but [00:01:00] this, I think we could have a very consensus poll that this is a mighty achievement. I’m thrilled that I wrote my one little sad little book, but here you are connected to such an, such a powerful Brand and industry globally. This is super exciting. So You now right now have yet another book coming out, correct? 

[00:01:21] Corey Walker: Yes. Instagram for Business for Dummies 3rd edition just dropped last week. Okay. And yeah, now I’m busy telling the world all about it and having fun doing so. 

[00:01:34] Kris Ward: Okay. Alright. Where do we start? What, the book has been updated.

[00:01:38] I know there’s always things changing on all the platforms, but let’s just start at the basics. Okay. What do we need to know? What do you think the things are that people are missing about Instagram, for service based businesses, coaches, consultants, founders, what do we need to know, where do we start?

[00:01:54] Corey Walker: Reels is still number one. It doesn’t have quite the impact that it did in the [00:02:00] very beginning and the beginning that, you could post a reel and you’d get 2000 people watching it almost immediately. And just now with more people doing them, that’s faded a little bit, but it’s still going to be your number one thing to get people into your funnel.

[00:02:18] And so what I like to tell a lot of people, service based entrepreneurs, businesses a great way to convert some of your customers into buyers is to use Instagram like a funnel. So you get people at the very top and that’s your reels. Reels are great because Instagram will send them out to not only your following, but they’ll send it out to non followers that they think might be interested in what you’re talking about.

[00:02:48] So you do your first real quick. I like to keep the reels pretty short, like under 30 seconds, 

[00:02:54] because people just don’t have the attention span that they used to. [00:03:00] So if you talk for too long, they’re just going to get bored and scroll on. So do those fast reels with a great hook. Give them some information, leave them wanting some more.

[00:03:09] So they’ll go down to your profile and that’s where you can have more of your regular posts with graphics photos, things like that. I really love using carousels. Yeah. Carousels for those of you that don’t know what those are, it’s a post where you can have up to 20 photos or graphics or videos all in one post.

[00:03:37] Kris Ward: And we see those on LinkedIn where they’ll be like, here’s the three biggest mistakes you make when hiring a VA, and then you can hit an arrow and get it’s like a, you can sometimes do it in a mini sort of slideshow way Instead of having just written content. So is that the same carousel mentality that you see on LinkedIn as on Instagram?

[00:03:57] Corey Walker: Yeah, exactly. I like to tell people [00:04:00] it’s a great way to do five tips for something, and each slide is a new tip. So it encourages people to finish it. Or you can do my favorite things, or you can tell a story where you’re telling, one sentence. You can do up to 20 now.

[00:04:16] I don’t encourage that much because people will drop off. I usually say about five is people’s bandwidth. 

[00:04:25] Kris Ward: Yeah. 

[00:04:26] Corey Walker: Yeah. And the thing that I also like about it is if you are going through the feed and you see that first slide in the carousel. The next time you refresh the feed, you’re going to see the next slide in that carousel.

[00:04:38] Kris Ward: Oh, I didn’t know that. 

[00:04:40] Corey Walker: Yeah, so it’s refreshing your content in one post. 

[00:04:44] Kris Ward: Okay. 

[00:04:46] Corey Walker: Yeah so once they’re on your profile, seeing all that great information, then you can also publish some stories. What I love about stories is you can link out on the stories. 

[00:04:58] Kris Ward: Okay. 

[00:04:58] Corey Walker: Or you can’t link out [00:05:00] on a regular post.

[00:05:01] Kris Ward: Okay. So a link out, we mean? 

[00:05:04] Corey Walker: Link to your landing page, website, wherever you want to be selling leading your customers. 

[00:05:10] Kris Ward: Instagram has had restrictions on that in the past where you have to go to the profile to get a link to something like where we could put a link on LinkedIn or something like that.

[00:05:19] Makes sense. You can put a link on LinkedIn, but anyhow, that’s not where they got the name, but anyhow. So you couldn’t in the past, but now you can through the stories. 

[00:05:29] Corey Walker: Yeah, so stories, they’ve had that capability for a while now that you can, but it’s a good reminder. Yeah, you used to have 10, 000 followers before, but they let that go.

[00:05:41] And so now anybody can use stories with a link, which I highly recommend. It’s also a great place. Stories are only shown to your own following. So it’s a good place to up that no and trust factor and show some behind the scenes, [00:06:00] show more of your personal life. So people get to know who you are as a person versus just whatever your product or services.

[00:06:07] Kris Ward: I think you bring up some good points here because Instagram has been around for a while and, it’s really easy to go where’s my role on Instagram? Is my audience there? Or, okay, Corey, what do you got? What’s the new gadgetry stuff this month? And how, how dated will that become?

[00:06:22] But I think when having a conversation about some of the new things, it’s just a really good reminder of, Of the other things that we seem to skim over because we’re just ah, get on social media, dump some stuff and you forget the basics, right? You forget the essentials of why is it we’re doing this again?

[00:06:41] Okay. Yes. Okay. Yeah. I used to do reels and, but that whole idea of even behind the scenes that kind of lit up something in my brain going, wow, you’re right. I could be doing more of that again. Cause it’s really easy to fall off on these things. 

[00:06:54] Corey Walker: Yeah. And one thing that I like about this. Mark the Instagram for business book, [00:07:00] as we do incorporate a lot of just marketing basics that never really change that are really good fundamentals to just have in your back pocket. So if you’re looking for information on how to market your business, on any social platform, we do incorporate a lot of that in this book that you can follow along with.

[00:07:20] And then of course we have all the latest updates like AI and broadcast channels and all of that kind of stuff. 

[00:07:28] Kris Ward: Okay. We even dabbled in AI. Interesting. Interesting. Okay. So it like you said at the top of the conversation is really think of this like a top of funnel. So I think what you do so well, and it sounds like the book is an expansion of that is not like the big fan of, Oh my gosh, get on Instagram.

[00:07:46] And it’s all about Instagram. You’re saying, look, remember, because one of the first things you said is treat this like top of funnel. So you’re looking at it as a marketing asset you’re looking at is okay. Integrating AI in this. So it’s just. A perspective or a [00:08:00] lens in which way we’re going to put, other effective strategies through.

[00:08:05] Yes. Yes. Sure. Okay. So what are some things that why did we rewrite this book? And what are some things that you think we’re missing? 

[00:08:15] Corey Walker: Yeah. So we tend to do an update of the business book every three years. And if you know anything about Instagram, things are changing daily. We had to hurry up and write it as we went along because things were changing as we were writing.

[00:08:30] But some of them, and

[00:08:31] Kris Ward: I just say that sounds awful. 

[00:08:35] Corey Walker: Yeah, there were days where I’m like, can we just put this to print right now before they change anything else? 

[00:08:41] Kris Ward: Way to make yourself not feel important is as I’m writing this, you’re changing it. What’s the point, you got to write the book.

[00:08:47] You have to, you can’t just say we’ll be done changing in 10 years. So I, it sounds on a bad day, like a thankless job, but okay. I’m glad you’ve got the temperament for it. I personally, they would find me crying at the [00:09:00] keyboard, but okay. Continue. 

[00:09:02] Corey Walker: Yeah. But some of the updates that are in there that have happened in the last three years reels were already there, but they’ve done a ton more in the editing side.

[00:09:13] So in the beginning with reels you could film a video, you could do a few things with it, but really, if you wanted to do anything fancier, you’d have to use an outside app like CapCut, or some people were hoarding over things that they did in TikTok because it had more editing features there.

[00:09:33] So now they amped up a lot of the way that you can, cut things the way you can add music and really edit that music and put more than one soundtrack on at a time. So there’s a lot in that editing suite that’s really amped up and made it.

[00:09:50] I would say if you’re serious about reels, the more you can use their in app features instagram likes that. Try not to use [00:10:00] things like bringing over the TikTok logo or the CapCut logo. They tend to not love that. 

[00:10:06] Kris Ward: I think we know this by now, but we just have to remember they’re a business too, and they’re competing against their competition and they’re doing everything they can to say, no, you can’t.

[00:10:16] This is what we do, and this is what we’re good at. And we want you to stay here. So it is constantly reminding you that like there, they want you to be there for certain reasons, doing certain things they want, attributes of behavior to show that you’re investing in that, which of course does I struggle with that. I would never have something on Instagram that has a CapCut logo or the TikTok logo, but I would say I’m part of efficiency. I would have a video that we edited in a fourth party. I don’t even want to say third party app. I don’t even fourth party app, if you make up a new language that you can import in all of them, because, oh my gosh, do we, I want to be going in every platform and editing a video that seems like a real time eater, right?

[00:10:59] Corey Walker: Yeah, [00:11:00] no, that is true for efficiency. If that’s going to help you, then I don’t think it’s a serious downgrade. I do know that they have mentioned like on Tik Tok, if you bring the logo over, they will downgrade your video. But if if you take strip that out, if you don’t have CapCut on there and want to just port it over from somewhere else, you’re probably going to be fine.

[00:11:21] Kris Ward: Yeah. I think it looks sloppy. It’s like showing your underwear. If you have something on Instagram, that’s got Tik Tok on it. Like we don’t, I don’t think you need to look like you’re repurposing things, like you’re making leftovers for dinner, make it look good. Not just, this is what we, this is what landed on the plate.

[00:11:38] So I think there are so many other apps now that allow you to strip that off and repurpose the content. Okay. Excellent. All right. So we’re excited about that. And do you feel that Instagram has a certain profile of businesses that do best there. Cause it’s still I think known of, or it had the reputation of being a [00:12:00] prettier thing and you had to be all perfect on Instagram.

[00:12:03] It was this whole expectation of how you appear, like you’re dressed up to go somewhere on Instagram. 

[00:12:09] Corey Walker: Yeah. I think a lot of that has all been stripped away several years ago. That was the big thing, having the aesthetic feed and, everything had this perfect filter. And if someone went to your profile, it all matched and, don’t worry about that anymore.

[00:12:25] I think with the rise of the short form video, your thumbnails, Most people don’t bother doing cover art for them. You can definitely do that, but with all these videos mashed in, the prettiness has gone away. 

[00:12:42] Kris Ward: Yeah. 

[00:12:43] Corey Walker: And in general, more people are leaning into authenticity, which means fewer filters and more talking to the camera.

[00:12:56] So when you’re talking about what kind of business does well, [00:13:00] in the beginning, it used to be more makeup products and coaches and things like that, because they were all about being perfect and all of that’s been stripped away and you’re going to see more people I work with. I’m working with a lawyer right now.

[00:13:19] I have another real estate person. It’s big in real estate and those people are sharing information and they’re talking to the camera and saying, okay, here’s why you need to do a 10 31 exchange or, just sharing really good information. That’s not pretty, but if you’re searching for learning more about a certain type of law item or whatever it is, then that’s going to come up in your search. And these people are doing really well when they’re sharing really good information. 

[00:13:53] Kris Ward: Yeah. I find too, like sometimes I when I’m, I rock climb with some friends and they’ll leave me messages on Instagram for whatever reason. And [00:14:00] I’ll just go in there and hop in for a second. And I find that a, it’s, I’m starting to get a lot more recipes as it whips by, I can’t say, ah, all right, stop.

[00:14:07] I’ll look at that video for one second. Or that there’s a lot more humor on it. I think it really, the overflow of Tik Tok, like sarcastic humor, funny sort of videos. So and you’re right, those things have all moved away from that polished look. Yeah. Yes, for sure. 

[00:14:23] Corey Walker: And what a lot of people don’t realize is that Instagram now uses SEO in most of it.

[00:14:31] So before people really relied on hashtags to be categorized and found, they’re shying away from the hashtag more and more. Oh, okay. And SEO is incorporated in your bio page, in your just your, the regular name that you use, your username, and then there’s. I don’t know what they call it. It’s just like your account name.

[00:14:55] So that uses SEO, your caption incorporates [00:15:00] SEO, and even the words that you’re speaking, if you’re doing a video also incorporates SEO, a lot of people don’t realize that, but if you think about the fact that Instagram can strip out your audio and create captions for you. They have all of that. 

[00:15:18] Yeah. And all of that should be incorporating your keywords and can help you be found better.

[00:15:24] And that’s one of the newer things that’s come out in the last year or so. 

[00:15:29] Kris Ward: So do we use hashtags at all? Or we just use it less or where are we going with that? 

[00:15:34] Corey Walker: Yeah. So hashtags, they just came out with something where you can’t follow a hashtag anymore. You used to be able to follow social media marketing, and then you’d get those posts that had that hashtag.

[00:15:48] So they’re doing away with that. I think most people are doing away with using 30 

[00:15:55] hashtags, but I think it’s still worth doing to do maybe five [00:16:00] key ones that can really help categorize. So I don’t say do away with them altogether. I still use them. I still recommend that my clients use them, but just be very specific about them.

[00:16:14] Kris Ward: Maybe even similar to LinkedIn. Like you throw in two or three, but it’s not the blood that it used to be like Instagram was all about, the blood going through the veins to get to the heart. It was all about hashtags. And so now you’re saying we’re still using them, but it’s not all that used to be.

[00:16:29] Corey Walker: I would say lean in more to some of the SEO and incorporating more of that language in your caption and in any videos you’re talking about. 

[00:16:40] Kris Ward: Okay. Excellent. All right. So you’ve given us a wide variety of different businesses that work well on Instagram, is it just like an open platform or is there any that you think don’t do well?

[00:16:54] Corey Walker: The only ones I haven’t seen do very well are some [00:17:00] very niche B2B, like if you’re in some kind of, I don’t know, like high tech airline, something where your audience might not be there, but I do think that Instagram incorporates such a wide audience because still have Facebook, I always say it’s aging up and 

[00:17:24] Kris Ward: yeah, 

[00:17:25] Corey Walker: have much of the 30 and under crowd.

[00:17:28] Kris Ward: That’s what Instagram reminds me of. It’s I don’t know somebody that got a makeover. It’s I feel like sometimes I have to whisper these things and I don’t know, in case they hear me. I feel like it’s Facebook with a makeover. Like I think Facebook is aging up and the young, and I don’t even know.

[00:17:44] There’s, let’s say there’s five, age groups. I think they’re down to two on Facebook, right? A lot of people don’t even have Facebook accounts anymore and that kind of stuff. Whereas I feel like the masses of people that you would reach of wide variety, they’re now on Instagram. 

[00:17:59] Corey Walker: Yes. [00:18:00] Okay. Yeah. And even, Tik Tok is great, but it’s still a slightly younger audience.

[00:18:06] Kris Ward: Okay.

[00:18:06] Corey Walker: Instagram really is that great middle that 

[00:18:09] Kris Ward: and I find Tik Tok a little bit more aggressive. 

[00:18:12] Corey Walker: Yeah. It’s a little bit more aggressive. It’s a little bit I find it to be a little bit more kind of jokey and fun versus serious business. All of that changes. And I do see some people like lawyers and doctors that go on TikTok and they do really well because like I said, they’re sharing these bits of information and particularly if their information applies to a younger audience.

[00:18:40] So maybe you’re a doctor, you’re a psychologist that’s talking about some mental health things. A lot of Gen Z is very interested in some of those things. So it really depends on the age range that you’re talking about. 

[00:18:56] Kris Ward: Okay. That makes sense to me. All right. So what are [00:19:00] some, if we are on Instagram right now, most of us are, even if we’re neglecting it, we’re there because we’re putting content out on one platform and then we just tend to dump it on the others.

[00:19:10] If maybe LinkedIn’s your priority, but you’re still putting stuff there on Instagram, fine. So if we’re doing that, where can we nurture our work a little bit more, do I do the exact same thing I do on LinkedIn? And then I just put over on Instagram, what could help us a little bit?

[00:19:27] Corey Walker: LinkedIn, I love LinkedIn. It’s like I it’s Instagram and LinkedIn is right below for me. LinkedIn though, I tend to be a little more businessy on LinkedIn. So some of the stuff that I do on Instagram can easily cross over and it’s great. Some of it, if it’s a little bit more jokey, I might just keep it on Instagram.

[00:19:49] Yeah. So I would just say if you are doing both, just keep in mind that LinkedIn is a little bit more professional. It’s starting to get more casual and I’m [00:20:00] seeing more people put more personal things and but I still think that Instagram is a little bit more You can do a little bit more fun stuff over there versus

[00:20:10] Kris Ward: and I do think, compared to all the other platforms, because TikTok has it.

[00:20:14] Facebook has stories, things like that. LinkedIn. I don’t know if they’re doing something short form videos, but right now it’s not part of the most common part of the feed. So that whole behind the scenes thing, showing a little bit more of you. There is more opportunity to do that on Instagram than there is on LinkedIn because in LinkedIn, it just has to be a post.

[00:20:32] And so you can choose whether what kind of person you’re going to be in that post. But there, I guess I would say too, there’s different vessels that have different opportunities to produce content in different formats on Instagram, where we don’t have as many options on LinkedIn. 

[00:20:46] Corey Walker: That’s true. Interesting enough, they did for a short time LinkedIn and did have stories. Yeah. 

[00:20:54] It happened so fast. I never saw them. 

[00:20:55] Kris Ward: Yeah. 

[00:20:56] Corey Walker: Yeah. It went away. And I think it might be that [00:21:00] same thing. People are on LinkedIn to do more business, so they weren’t as interested in what you’re eating that day or that you walked your dog down the street, that kind of thing.

[00:21:10] So they did try it and it didn’t, 

[00:21:13] Kris Ward: Yeah I heard, I didn’t know if it was coming and left or was still coming because I had heard about it, but I never saw it. So I guess it’s come and gone. I miss that day. Okay. Yeah. It was a blip. 

[00:21:23] Corey Walker: It wasn’t there for long. 

[00:21:26] Kris Ward: Oh my gosh, whatever. Okay. In our final moments here, what is one thing you don’t want to walk away without telling us about LinkedIn? I’m sorry, Instagram. Dear God, I’m so sorry. 

[00:21:35] Corey Walker: Instagram. I would say consistency is key. So whatever you decide that you’re going to do try doing it on a consistent basis.

[00:21:44] Try getting some planning in. I like to talk to my clients about selecting content pillars. So we go through what are the top three to five things that you want to talk about all the time and then planning out [00:22:00] some content underneath that. So if you can have maybe one day a month where you go through that exercise and start planning things out, then you’re going to be more consistent and you’re going to have fewer days where it’s five o’clock and you go, oh man, I didn’t post anything.

[00:22:17] So then you either don’t post or you rush post something that’s, Lame. 

[00:22:22] Kris Ward: Yeah. Lame. There you go. Lame. You don’t want to be lame. Oh my gosh. Okay. That is a good point. And sometimes it’s the real basics that we forget. Like you think, Oh, okay, Corey, you’ve written five books now. What are you going to bedazzle us with new wisdom?

[00:22:38] But sometimes, just having the basics It’s like business, often people say, Oh, my business is different. It’s sure. Okay. Tell me about it. The principles are always the same. And I think sometimes we step over the principles and forget that. And that is a really great point to end on.

[00:22:51] It’s just like consistency, because we all see other people that are doing really well, or you think you’re supposed to have more numbers or more of this or more of that, [00:23:00] or being liked in a different way by the algorithm or the platform or who loves me on Instagram? And really, again, first of all we also know that lots of times I’ve had people reach out to me that didn’t call, like somebody recently reached out to me and I felt like they were at my Christmas dinner because they knew so much about me and listen to me on different shows and all this, and they had never once commented on anything.

[00:23:22] So it just took me all the time. 

[00:23:25] So it’s like, what, where have you been, right? So remembering consistency, remembering that it’s not a vanity metric saying, remember it’s producing content that you’re putting out there and that whether the buttons and whistles change. And it is good to have these updates because I wasn’t aware that you go, the hashtags really are not all that they used to be.

[00:23:45] So these little things matter, but to me, I guess I would say it’s almost like being consistent. A chef, maybe we’re making the same meal, but we’re going to use different seasoning and it will change the menu, right? And that’s what I think is really powerful. It’s great when you show up and tell us, okay, here’s some seasoning [00:24:00] things that have been updated Instagram, but if nothing else, and you remind us of, “hey, let’s go back to the basics and really remember it is about consistency and it is top of funnel.”

[00:24:09] And these are, it is a marketing tool. It’s not about who likes you on Instagram. It’s not high school. I think even that is a good use of our time. Yes. Yeah. Okay. Corey, where can people find more of your brilliance? And let’s be clear. You can get the book anywhere, especially if Amazon, oh my gosh, it’s just, it’s brilliant. So where can people find more of your brilliance? 

[00:24:34] Corey Walker: Sure. So my website is themarketingspecialist.Com and you can find all sorts of blog posts. You can find out more about my services there. Then if you want to find out more about instagram, just go to my Instagram profile, which is @ Corey C Walker, and I’m out there all the time posting good tips about Instagram, how to use it for your business.

[00:24:59] [00:25:00] And then, like I said, I love LinkedIn, so I’m on LinkedIn too, also @ Corey C Walker, if you want to look me up there. And if you would like a free gift, 

[00:25:11] Kris Ward: I love free gifts. We love 

[00:25:13] Corey Walker: gas. I have the social sprint five days to more clients, and that is a free five day training. So you’ll get one email every day to help you on your way to get more clients on really any social media platform.

[00:25:31] Going, going back to those basics things that you can do to get through that. And that is on the link in my bio on my Instagram. And I can also send you a link for your show notes. 

[00:25:43] Kris Ward: Yeah, we’ll make sure to put that in the show notes for sure. Oh my gosh. Thank you, Corey. Please. I, there’s just some really basic stuff that we reviewed here that I think is profound and then update.

[00:25:52] So make sure to share this with a business buddy and thank you again, Corey and everyone else. We will see you in the next [00:26:00] episode. 

[00:26:00] Corey Walker: thank you.