(upbeat music)
- YouTube may be the second-biggest search engine
in the world, but do not underestimate
the power of the gram.
Instagram is absolutely
one of the best platforms to build your brand
or to build your business online,
and today, I'm gonna tell you how to crush it on Instagram.
And guess what, you don't have to be a model
or the world's greatest photographer to pull it off.
Let's get into it.
Hey everybody, this is Roberto Blake,
helping you create something awesome today.
Welcome back to the channel.
If you're new here, first of all,
thanks for tuning in,
my name is Roberto Blake,
I'm a creative entrepreneur,
I am a social media coach and public speaker,
and today, I want to talk to you about Instagram.
I use a lot of different social media platforms
to build my brand and to grow my business.
A lot of you know about my activity here on YouTube.
I've grown to 300,000 subscribers over the last five years,
and I've done very well with YouTube.
However, Instagram is probably my favorite platform
for building a relationship and a connection to my audience,
and I'm gonna talk to you today about how you can do
that even if you're starting from zero.
The only reason that everybody's so obsessed
with YouTube and the idea of being a YouTuber
is because of play buttons and ad revenue,
and by doing that and focusing on that,
they're leaving a lot on the table,
because here's the thing,
YouTube might be the second largest search engine
in the world, but Instagram is where it's at
when it comes to a mobile experience.
Almost everybody has a smartphone,
and in fact, YouTube is seeing traffic
from smartphones start to surpass the desktop,
but yet YouTube does not
have the best mobile experience in the world.
It's getting better, but it's still not great.
Instagram, however, dominates when it comes
to a mobile experience,
because they prioritized that first and foremost,
so that's something that you really need to consider.
You can reach anybody with their phone
and short-form content that's designed for a phone,
that's visually pleasing, is gonna win.
Here's the other thing.
It's easier to make content for Instagram
and it's easier for that content to be discovered.
A lot of you are getting discouraged because,
well, nobody can find my content, what's the point?
But starting with Instagram's actually really practical,
and I'm gonna explain why.
YouTube might be the second largest search engine
in the world, it's highly competitive,
a lot of you feel that's very saturated
and that's why you're getting discouraged.
Here's the thing about Instagram though.
The hashtag system makes it easier
for your content to be found by interest.
YouTube is based around user behavior and an algorithm.
It used to be a lot more search heavy,
now it's actually very tailored to user behavior.
The algorithm is very complexed,
Instagram has an algorithm too,
but if you use hashtags,
and you do this even as somebody who's just starting
and doesn't have a big following,
there is actual chance
of your content being discovered in Instagram.
Instagram also has a lot of varieties of content
that you can make, and the more active
you are across the spectrum of Instagram,
whether that's posting to your grid with photos or videos,
especially videos, whether that's doing Instagram Stories,
whether that's live streaming, whether that's doing IGTV,
the more active you are on Instagram,
the more likely it is for Instagram to promote you,
and so that is something that you can tap into right now,
even if you're just starting out.
Really quickly, let's talk about how much easier
it is to create content for Instagram
and then I'm gonna give you
some tips on making your content,
uploading a lot more,
and how you really can grow an audience there.
But what you need to understand is that,
with Instagram, you can legitimately build the entire thing
from your smartphone,
and that is amazing and that's accessible
to the far majority of you.
You don't need a fancy YouTube setup,
with two or three lights,
microphone, you don't need all
of that stuff to do Instagram.
Now, you could start with a smartphone
with YouTube and be successful.
My friend Scott Manley is at over 700,000 subscribers,
and he does a science channel and it's all done,
produced and edited on a smartphone, which is insane.
But, not everybody has that kind of talent,
and that won't always work in YouTube,
but the majority of people
who have grown a significant following in Instagram,
mostly started with their phone.
If you are leaning more towards the aesthetic
and you're either a photographer
or you're gonna have a photographer working
with you, consider this.
If you're gonna do portraits and headshots,
use an 85 millimeter lens, either an f1.8 or an f1.4.
If you're going to do product or food photography,
consider getting a macro lens.
My macro lens is the Sony f2.8
50 millimeter macro and it is amazing.
I also have a 70 millimeter Sigma,
and I'm probably gonna get
the 90 millimeter Sony native lens.
I'm really becoming a fan of macro photography
and what it can do for you,
and it's a really great way to stand out early in Instagram
is to do really good macro shots,
but if you are doing something
that's more of a personal brand,
then great headshots with a beautiful blurry background,
all of that wonderful bokeh,
all that bokeh goodness will come from a lens like this.
In terms of cameras, I'm a big fan
of the Sony mirrorless system.
I use a Sony A7R3, and a Sony a6500,
but you can use whatever camera you want.
I'm not really a snob about it,
I think that as long as you're focusing on the glass
and the aesthetic, you're gonna be fine.
That's great, Roberto,
how do I actually grow on Instagram,
how am I gonna get followers starting
from zero when nobody knows who I am?
Well, that's actually a little bit more straightforward
than you might think.
The most important question you can ask
and answer for yourself is,
who are you creating content for?
And I don't want to hear
that it's men or women 18 to 35, that's everybody's answer.
I want you to get very specific about why
someone should care about your content,
because I worked hard on it isn't an answer.
That has nothing to do with entitling you to my time
or anybody else's, that five minutes of our life
that we're giving up has nothing
to do with how hard you worked, not interested.
But what am I interested about?
What do I care about and are you providing
that through your content somehow?
Is there something that is emotionally satisfying
and compelling for me, the viewer, the audience?
What is it?
Be as specific as possible.
If you watch my content,
anywhere on any platform,
there is a really good chance that you are entrepreneurial,
creative, a little bit independent,
probably identify as nerdy,
and there's a good chance
that you're often taken out of context,
misunderstood, and you want to communicate better.
If there is a secret to my success,
it's knowing who my audience is,
what their values are,
what their struggles are,
and really appealing to that
and delivering something that you guys want,
and here's the other thing I do.
I just ask.
I ask constantly what is it you guys want,
what can I do for you,
what can I make that would be helpful to you, the viewer?
Regardless of what platform you're on,
whether it's Instagram or YouTube,
or even Twitch, there are three types of content,
hub, help, and hero content.
Hub content is about being part of a community,
not just the community you're going to build,
but like a part of a community that already exist.
The entrepreneur community already exist.
The Harry Potter community already exist,
the anime community already exist.
Now, get deep.
What segment of the audience are you
going to appeal to when it comes to that?
Are you going to appeal
to people who are shipping certain characters,
are you going to appeal to the people who
like the lore of certain characters?
If you're dealing with a franchise
like Harry Potter or Star Wars or whatever.
If you are part of the entrepreneur community, great.
Are you speaking to solopreneurs?
Are you speaking to entrepreneurs
who wanna get into real estate,
like Grant Cardone, are you speaking
to people who need motivation
and want to learn from the success of other people,
like the content my friend Evan Carmichael does
that got him to a million subscribers?
Like who is the target audience?
Be as specific as you can
when you're making that hub content.
In terms of help content, it's what it sounds like.
This is meant to be useful to people.
What's your area of expertise
and how can you deliver that to the people?
How specific can you get there?
That actually matters.
And then there is hero content.
Hero content is for a much more general audience
that's more difficult to pull off.
Hero content could be aspirational in some way,
it's not always motivational.
It's something that's much more mainstream.
This could be tapping into an existing trend.
This could be tapping into a news story,
or it could be a big largely produced project.
Take what Shane Dawson
has been doing lately as a primary example of this,
with his documentaries and his series.
Pulling back the veil of the YouTube culture
in the way that he does is interesting
and it's a great example of hero content.
It's very highly produced,
and it's something that is designed
to really pull in a mainstream audience.
You may not even know who Shane Dawson is,
and you can get pulled down the rabbit hole of this content.
That's a very hard thing to pull off and that's the problem.
Most people, they're aspiring for hero content all the time,
and you have to build up to that.
I don't think that you can just start with hero content,
and I don't think that it's sustainable
to only do hero content,
especially if you're just starting out
and you're on your own, whether that's Instagram,
whether that's YouTube,
regardless of what platform we're talking about.
Try to start with something that you feel very confident in
and very comfortable with.
It's gonna be slow, it's gonna be painful,
but it's gonna be much more practical.
If you know who your audience is
and you've targeted them very specifically,
use hashtags to your advantage.
The hashtag discovery system in the Instagram
is built around interest.
What is it that these people like,
or have in common, and you can appeal to that.
In terms of how many hashtags you could use,
I would say that's probably smart
to stick to somewhere between eight and 12 hashtags.
I know that you can go up to 30, I think it was,
but Instagram is actually ruthlessly going
through their algorithm just
like YouTube and they're looking
for people who are using that,
so set up at least I say five different combinations
of hashtags where you use maybe 8 to 12 hashtags
and you use them pretty consistently, I would say.
Use them consistently,
but don't abuse and use the same hashtags over and over.
It's okay for them to be some overlap in these sets
of hashtags that you're making.
Uploading daily on Instagram is kind of a big deal
and it may seem challenging,
but I think that if you take a lot of images
or you make videos with Instagram in mind,
especially on your phone that you can do it,
you can also use the Buffer app or Hootsuite to schedule
and kind of automate your post
and your captions a little bit,
and that can help you put out three Instagram posts a day,
if that's something that you feel will grow you.
My experience has been that the more you post to Instagram,
the easier it is to grow,
and it's more opportunities,
especially since the current algorithm
in Instagram doesn't rely on a chronological timeline.
It means that your post could still show up
to people long after the fact as long as it's something
that they would be interested in,
and it's getting engagement,
so the hashtag system works in your favor
and it's easier for content
to last on Instagram than it might be in other platforms.
Speaking of consistency,
try to keep your post as consistent as possible.
I know that this is something
that a lot of people struggle with,
because you have different interests,
you have different things that you're into,
but if you pick a niche and certain topics,
and you have a posting style, try to stick with it.
It's going to make a difference.
It's going to lead to your audience
not feeling confused all the time.
Final thoughts.
Avoid the temptation for your post to be all about you.
You can make these post personal and I recommend that.
I do very detailed post in my captions,
and I get very personal and vulnerable there,
but at the same time,
I'm reaching out to the audience
and I'm doing storytelling and I'm pulling them in,
and it's about relating
to the person who might be reading this
through a shared experience,
so that's something that I think about a lot
is what experience are you creating for somebody
that engages with your content, and what's the intent here?
So just really think about that.
I know it's a little deep,
and Instagram might feel shallow sometimes,
but this is just some food for thought.
I think you'll do a lot better
with engagement when it's not all about you.
So yeah, those are my tips for growing on Instagram
and building your personal brand.
I really feel like this is one of the strongest platforms
where you can tell your story,
I feel like if you use the platform to your advantage,
if you do Instagram Stories,
that that's a huge way to engage with audience.
Being able to do those 10 to 15 second Instagram Stories
and share a small part of your day,
is massive for people feeling connected to you.
That can be raw and real
whereas your grid might be a little bit more polished.
I also think that going live on Instagram at least once
or twice a week to start could actually help
you become confident on camera
and speaking directly to an audience and engaging with them,
and also feeling the genuine support
and positive feedback of your community as it grows.
I think that that is something
that a lot of people don't even think about
is that if you engage and you post more,
then you're getting the gratification of the few people
that do acknowledge it,
that leave a like, that leave a comment,
and that response to your favorably.
I think it's gonna encourage you to do more,
so if you keep doing it on a regular basis,
you get there faster.
You build confidence a lot more.
I don't think I'd be this confident
if I hadn't done so much content on the Internet
and put myself out there,
and it really is confidence
that bleeds over into my real life,
so I think that that matters.
I think it's actually what
has made me decent as a public speaker
and being able to go on stage with confidence,
is that I'm used to the idea
of interacting with a community.
So there you go, that is how I think
you can approach Instagram,
build your personal brand,
build your online business, and crush it.
If you have questions about Instagram
or there are tutorials,
specific things you want me to make here on the channel
like how to use this feature or how to use that feature,
drop that in the comment section
and I will try my best to make tutorial videos on Instagram.
I also plan to do a video on how to get your first 100
and your first 1000, how to get to 10,000 followers.
And I'm gonna tell you exactly what I did and chronicle,
what that process was for you,
so if that's something you're interested in,
let me know in the comments section
and I'll try to get this stuff out
as soon as possible for you.
Like this video if you like it, don't forget to subscribe.
Hit the notifications or you will never see my face again.
As always you guys, thanks so very much for watching,
and don't forget, go out there
and create something awesome today,
especially you wanna crush it on the gram.
Take care.
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