📸 Instagram Monetization Secrets Revealed 💰
Transform your Instagram into a money-making machine. From optimizing your profile to mastering new features, discover the secrets to turning likes into real dollars! In this episode, we have Giuliana Vann to discuss the world of optimizing, branding, and monetizing on the popular social platform, Instagram. Giuliana spills the beans on how to create a brand that sells, sharing strategies on optimizing your Instagram profile to attract your dream clients. Learn about the often-overlooked but powerful features like Highlights, which can turn casual browsers into loyal clients craving your expertise. Giuliana also discusses how to create bingeworthy content, keep your audiences hooked, and more. Ready to roll in cash and uncover the Instagram Monetization Secrets? Tune in now and get ready to revolutionize your social media game!
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Welcome back to another power-packed specific expert training for you. In this episode, we are here with Giuliana Vann. She's an experienced global branding and social media strategist, Instagram expert, and influencer coach. She is teaching entrepreneurs, content creators, and business owners how to grow and monetize their brands, maximize their time, and build a standout brand presence on Instagram with proven organic methods.
She's the Founder of Living a Digital Dream, an award-winning social media agency based out of Sarasota, Florida. They are helping business owners and personal brands grow their businesses and supercharge their brand presence on social media with creative and converting storytelling and individualized strategies to achieve their business goals and social media success.
Her passion is teaching others how to grow and find meaningful success by leveraging the power of social media, especially Instagram. We had to have her here and she's going to tell us all about how to monetize your influence and skills on Instagram. Of course, we can't do without her. Let's figure out how to make that money on Instagram. Welcome, Giuliana. I'm so excited to talk with you.
Adrienne, it's always so good to see you and be here with you.
I know we've collaborated in the past and you guys are in for a treat. Giuliana is one to watch and follow. If you're not following her on Instagram yet, get over there and follow her. You got to see what she's doing.
My DMs are always open.
I'm sure a lot of the people in the audience know you already, but for those who maybe haven't met you yet, can you tell us a little bit about your story and how is it that you found yourself zeroing in on Instagram as your favorite platform of choice?
That's a great question because there are so many platforms out there now. There are platforms that are coming in like TikTok, but let me tell you, I don't love TikTok. I'm there but not loving it. I'm a nurse and I specialize in oncology nursing. Due to a fracture that led me to immobilization for one year, I was scrolling through my phone until I saw this Instagram ad from a well-known influencer coach, and that got my interest.
I started to develop my own personal brand. That's how it all got started. I started working with brands I love and getting paid for content I was making for them. I was noticing the opportunities on Instagram. I devoted my time and thousands of hours invested in courses and coaches. Also, my time and effort developing strategies because I was thinking, “I did all of it.” I post every day. All of the things that the gurus out there telling you to do. It's time-consuming and energy is draining.
I'm a mom with two kids. At that time, I was immobilized, not knowing what to do with my life. Also, having a three-month-old and a toddler. How will I be able to go back to the hospital and help people? I said, “This is something that I could do.” I prayed about it, and that's how it led me little by little to get there. I love helping people and teaching. This is something that I could do. That's how I invested my time and effort into learning how to navigate through Instagram and develop strategies to maximize my time.
Being a very busy mom, I learned how to organically grow my following into over 20,000 in 2020 in less than a year. I was like, “This is amazing. I need to help people.” Also, I will teach them how they can do the same. The pandemic came in 2020 and that's how I saw a lot of business owners being able to transition their businesses online, especially social media. That's how, after a lot of prayer, too, I said, “This is a sign.” I've devoted my time to learning Instagram to personalize my own brand. Now, with the pandemic, business owners need help on social media, especially Instagram, because I love connecting with people.
You cannot do that in TikTok. You cannot do that on Pinterest. It's connecting with people and building those relationships through DMs, talking, and sharing your story. The best platform is Instagram. That's how I fell in love. I'm obsessed with Instagram because I have met so many people around the world, and that's why I love it. I chose the platform to dominate and help people grow. After that, I started sharing free tips for business owners on how to navigate through Instagram after I got my first client back in 2020. I founded my social media agency and I started with one-on-one coaching.
There are a couple of things I love about your story that I think are super relatable, certainly to me, but I think to the audience as well. I love that prayer played a role in you finding your journey. It's played a huge role for me, and it won't lead you astray. Trust it and lean on it. For those of you reading, I hope that you're feeling that way because I have relied on it very much. God is our number one strategic guide. He will tell you what you need, so I love that.
What I also love about your story, it all started with you getting injured and you were sitting there thinking, “I don't want to waste this time. I want to make the most of it. If I'm just going to be laying around and healing, why not be learning something? I'll build a brand for myself,” whatever. It came out of a place of you didn't waste an opportunity. You made the most of something that could have been viewed as a bad thing, but you made it a great thing.
Also, recognize a lot of what the gurus and experts out there teach, it's exhausting. It's demotivating. It doesn't get a lot of return. There's got to be a better way to do this. Sure enough, here comes the pandemic. We all used social media before the pandemic, but the pandemic supercharged everything online. Pretty much anything done in person was immediately dropped, and even if you had only dabbled before, you almost had to go all in. Everybody did. You were forced to.
Otherwise, stay behind.
Suddenly, there are tons of business owners out there realizing, “I guess I'm going to have to learn this social media thing. No more messing around. I have to go all in or get left behind,” as you said, and how quickly things grew for you and also how quickly it's growing for people who follow the types of techniques you teach which I can't wait to get into. There is so much goodness there. It also helps to have that background of understanding that we all have a journey.
We all do, and it's all about embracing it. I don't care what industry you're in because I have worked with several industries, from real estate, beauty, and lifestyle to everything. Also, premium brands or corporate. I don't care what industry you are in. You do have a unique story and storytelling sells. Forget about marketing and the old tactics. It’s video content. How are you going to shine through video with your personality and connecting? This is how you're going to be able to grow and connect with people.
One of the things I love about Instagram is the reason I, as busy as I get, and as much as I feel like my time is torn in twenty different directions, I can never walk away from Instagram because it's one of those platforms that's so dynamic. It offers so many features all in one place. A lot of other platforms offer parts or pieces and Instagram has it all. I'm super excited to dig into this with you. I know for those watching, they're probably here for that reason. Instagram has it all. If I'm going to go all in somewhere, it's going to be on Instagram.
It’s the hottest platform to not only grow community, but if you are not monetizing your brand on Instagram, you have either an expensive hobby or you're throwing content out there waiting for something to work. If you're not monetizing it, you're losing money. You're leaving money on the table.
No more of that. We're not leaving money on the table anymore. We're going to learn how to monetize. If you are here to put some more money in your pocket, more clients, customers, and sales, you're in the perfect place. Let's dive in. I talked about this in your bio. You help people zero in on what their brand is going to be on social media. I know branding is one of those topics that 1) Is widely misunderstood and 2) You could go down the rabbit hole for quite some time, but let's at least touch on the high-level things. What are the top few things that you recommend people get clear on right from the very beginning in terms of their brand on Instagram?
Let me throw this out there because when I have people coming into me, they're like, “I have created a course. I have books, eBooks, or digital products to sell, but I'm not selling on Instagram. I post every day, but I'm not selling.” I've gone through some deep work into not just our account but into themselves. When they became my client, I did all of that, and the first thing I asked was, “What's your brand legacy? What are your core values?”
They're looking at me like, “I never thought about that.” Who are you targeting?” “Women in their 20s or30s.” That foundation wasn't there. No wonder why you're not selling. Let's make that clear. People say, “I have a website and a strong SEO with all of those bells and whistles. I've thrown thousands of dollars on ads.” All of that thing doesn't matter when you do not have a branding and a business foundation.
It’s because if you don't know who you are, who you serve, and how you help them, you don't have a brand. You have to know these basic fundamental things. When it comes to nailing a brand identity, what are the big pieces that fit into what you consider a brand identity for someone knowing who they are and what they stand for?
When you create a brand foundation, it's all about who am I as a company. How do I want people to perceive me online? That's the key.
It's who I am and what I want to become known for.
It's how people perceive my brand. That's the key to success and understanding, “Where am I going in 3 to 5 years?” You have to know a vision. You have to have a mission, a long-term vision, and values. You have to have beliefs. All of that plays a big role in your foundation. It's like a house. You cannot start decorating without walls. You cannot be safe without a door. It's the same thing with branding.
It has nothing to do in the beginning with having a website or spending so much time with Pinterest trying to create a mood board. That comes later when you become a brand identity, but first, your statement is, “Why do people need to choose you over the thousand other competitors?” That's where you come along, knowing how I want to be perceived in my industry. What's my niche? What's my statement?
Also, what makes me different from everyone who offers something similar to me? What's my special flavor? Why should someone pick me over anyone else?
That's how you are going to be differentiating yourself. Why are people going to choose me over a hundred other spiritual coaches, for example? What am I bringing to the table? How am I different? What are my unique differentiating factors? This is called a unique selling proposition. That's something that takes a lot of inner work. That's the key. That's what a lot of people are missing. They're focusing on the marketing, ads, website, and all of those things that don't matter in the beginning.
I want you to focus right now, if you don't have it, on building this foundation that you're going to need for long-term success. What are your core values? Pick 3 to 5. Don't make a huge list. What are your beliefs? What does your company stand for? How do you want to be perceived? Also, your voice and your personality.
That's great advice because I can't tell you how often I talk to people and I'm like, “Tell me all about your business or your brand. What is it that you're doing? They're like, “I started a blog.” I'm like, “A blog for what? Who are you? What do you do?” They're like, “I create content.” I'm like, “Content for what? Who are you?”
It’s your target audience. You should know and be crystal clear. Don't tell me that you help women in their twenties. That doesn't say anything, nor does it say, “I want to help everybody who needs help with fitness.” Not everybody's going to need you. You have to know the target audience, especially if you should know, “What are their interests? What are their hobbies? What is a day-to-day person doing from the moment they wake up to the moment they hit the pillow?” Are these corporate people or stay-at-home moms? You need to know this ideal client avatar. Have a buyer persona. Sometimes the avatar is us a few years ago.
Instagram Monetization: You really have to know the target audience. You should know what are their interests?
What are their hobbies? What are their day-to-day activities?
That's always a good clue. For those of you watching, maybe you've heard this a couple of times before, but it's not clicking. When someone asks you to answer those questions, you feel like you're swirling and you're getting close, but you're not quite there. Reread this and look at the way I introduced myself when I did the intro. Look at the way I introduced Giuliana with her bio. There are clues about our brand identities. Those would be two great examples of how to make your brand identity clear. If you're looking for examples, they're right in front of you. They're there.
I can give another example. One of my clients said, “I'm a spiritual coach.” I'm like, “Okay.” She was a spiritual coach and already had a course but did not have any sales on Instagram or anything. That's why she came to me. After a lot of deep work on their brand, she had no clue what her core values were. She has nothing as her brand. We did very deep work on what’s her passion. What are the things that she has overcome as a person to the person that she is right now and how is she helping people?
She then noticed with spiritual coaching, “I don't want to be perceived as one of those that do manifestation, chakras, and all of that. That is not me.” That's why we niched down into a clear version of herself, how she wants to be perceived and how she can combine her passion, unique skills, and talents to solve one problem for her target audience. Now, we're heading on the right path.
What specific direction did she niched into then if it wasn't the chakras and that kind of thing?
She discovered that her niche is helping with trauma and people with their inner work, like how they have been raised as a child or they have trauma, mental issues, and stuff like that.
It’s spiritual-based trauma healing.
Yes.
That's more specific.
We just started and now she's grown 50 followers already, but her right audience. It's a game-changer.
It’s because you have the perfect people.
It’s the unicorn clients.
That's a great example of how, when you get more specific, the people who are looking for exactly what you offer are going to start listening. They're going to be like, “She's talking to me.”
If someone is here for affirmations or needs a little bit of manifestation, she knows that's not going to be me. However, when we're talking about, “I'm going to help you breakt hrough your life, what happened to you with your inner child, and all of those past traumas,” those unicorn clients are going to be attracted to her.
That's so helpful. That helps a lot. Once people are clear on their brand identity, I know a lot of people who try to skip the identity and go right into fonts and colors and make a website. Let's talk about the visuals because once you have your foundation or your identity done, it's time to play with the visuals. What kind of advice do you have for us around brand visuals?
That's the fun part. It should be fun. It should not be stressful. I want you to focus on, again, once you have your foundation, you know who you are as a company and as a brand. Also, how you want to be perceived, then it comes off, “Do I want to go which type of look? Should we have a look, a feel to it, or a vibe when people land on my Instagram?” You should be asking those questions.
“How do I want people to feel? Do I want people to see me as a very professional corporate, minimalistic, playful, very loud, or very muted? All of those things play a role in your visual. You should be putting effort into doing a little bit of market research, including, “How are my other competition showing up on social media?” A lot of those or most of them have either those templates. It's a lot of cookie-cutter Canva templates. If you're going to be doing the same thing and putting in your own colors and fonts, how will you stand out?
Instagram Monetization: The ultimate content bundle is how you will be able to create a solid and a strong content strategy that's going to do the whole selling for you.
You have to create a brand visual with colors and color psychology, like purple, if you want a luxury modern coaching business. For me, it's the teals because I live in Florida. A lot of people know that when they see my teal background in the stories, it's coming from me. I always make sure that my brand is recognizable with my posts and everything I do. I could have gone purple, but I don't want purple because purple is more like royalty or mystic vibe and I'm not that type of brand.
Play a role in color psychology. You want to go with the blue shades and the purple shades in the color psychology. Also, comes to fonts. If you want to be an elegant and luxury brand, you cannot put on one of those playful and artsy fonts. It’s a little bit childish but you should know like a San Serif font. There are many Canva fonts that are like that. You should stick to three fonts. One for your header, one for the body, which is going to be the text, and then one as an accent font.
These are on Canva. You can even go to Creative Market and buy unique fonts. It pays off. Those are not fonts that everybody's going to have. Once you have your colors, pick a color palette of 5 to 7 colors that combine easily. It has many shades. Have one main color and then the rest of the accents and a layout. If your brand is all over the place on Instagram and creates confusion, it is a big turn-off for people.
You are either attracting or you're repelling. That's the visual identity. Anybody who sees and comes across your content on Instagram through hashtags or through their feed has to think that if I'm searching for spiritual coaches, Instagram gives you a whole grid of posts. You should be able to tell, “This is coming from Adrienne. This is coming from Giuliana. I've seen this post around.”
I'm starting to recognize this person.
Yes, and with the elements element, which means if you're into the luxury modern, you should have some gold accents or stuff like that. Your foundation, now that you know, the tone, the look, the feel, and the vibe, you'll have to match and also, the other type of elements that you're bringing into your designs.
I can see how, between those two things, if you have a super solid brand identity, you know who you are, what you stand for, who you help, and what your unique selling proposition is. Also, you have all the visuals to support it, now we're rocking and rolling. What's the next step once people have figured out the whole branding piece?
The visuals are also meant to make you not just recognizable but also to stand out. As I said, you don't want to have another cookie-cutter template. The next step is to develop a strong content strategy. Content is king not just on social media but on Instagram. You should be able to learn how to create content that's going to only attract the right type of people. When people say, “I'm not having any likes or engagement is down or my content doesn't perform. I hear crickets.”
The visuals are not just to make you recognizable but also to stand out.
It all comes down to the messaging or the wording. A lot of people make the mistake of featuring the benefits of your service. Nobody cares about, “This is my program. This comes with six coaching calls and this and that. You are not painting the big picture for somebody, just why they should choose you. Your content should do the selling for you. This is called the evergreen content. It only takes to learn how to write good copy. That's in your captions and how to create a content strategy that you should be hitting all the pillars for Instagram.
You should be educating people. They're going to come to your page. They should be learning something new, not only about you, but how are you going to be solving one problem for them. It should be educating, inspirational, and motivating. If you want to connect with the right people, they need to know who Adrienne is. What's her story like? She inspires me to really go on and move forward. Also, have a strong mindset.”
You should be inspiring people to be better and not negative. There are a lot of negative Nancies out there that address the pain points. “You're not going to get in life because of this and that.” It's negative. There are a lot of people and a lot of gurus who say, “You should be focusing on talking about the pain points and the pain.” Guess what? You're only going to be attracting the Negative Nancies, the people who are broke, and the people who always think of themselves as victims. Do you want that as your dream unicorn client? I hope not.
It’s interesting that you bring this up because it's important to understand your audience's pain points and sometimes referencing one can grab their attention. However, I can always pick out amateur marketers versus experts because amateurs focus on pain points only, and they never get to the final results, outcomes, or benefits someone wants compared to experts. They might hit a pain point initially, but they very quickly pivot that into a future success that someone can have.
You paint the big picture. [Ma6] It's called future pacing. That's how I've been able to create a six-figure business just for Instagram. It is easy because not only people find me on Instagram. We're going to talk about how you can optimize your Instagram for growth and visibility, but it's the content. All it takes for you to learn how to write good copy and attract the right people. Once they're consuming your content and captions, they should think, “She's the one I need in my life right now.”
They're going to go and send you a DM, work with you, and fill out the application because you are addressing not just the pain points. When we talk about pain points, it's like, “What are the struggles that she's facing right now?” Let's say you are selling some health products. You could start with a pain point and you could be saying, “Are you struggling from acne every day,” or, “Are you struggling from something?” What is something that they're struggling with? Are you trying to lose weight? That could be a pain point, but it's a little bit broad.
I like the weight loss one because you can go deep into that one.
However, when you're pacing the future, you have to make sure that your potential customer sees that you are the solution that's going to get her there because they don't care about benefits or features.
Nobody buys headache medicine because it's advertised as, “There are 30 pills and they're blue in color.” No one cares if they're liquid gels or whatever. They want their headache to go away within ten minutes. That's what they want. They don't care about the count of the pill.
If you sell a service, just say, “Imagine yourself having enough time to spend with your family or traveling the world. Now, you can get to work with brands that you love.” Instead of saying, “Why are you not growing? Why are you not doing this? It’s because of this pain.” There's a big difference between creating content that converts to fans and paying customers.
I want you to pay attention to the pillars that you're going to develop for your brand, and I can recap them. You should be teaching something. It’s always education. Teaching them comes from the serving standpoint. Always bring in the value. You should be focusing on 80% serving, creating value, and valuable posts that people can save and share with others. That brings you extra eyeballs. For the 20%, you should be saying, “I have this offer that's going to help you in promoting,” and then the rest should be social proof.
Educate and inspire them with your story and how they can connect with you because people buy from people. They don't follow businesses. They follow people. The other is social proof. This is key to content. Any testimonials, screenshots of the DMs, or anything that positions you that you are the expert. You are creating results in somebody. It’s like your product is life-changing. How are you transforming people's lives? Also, the social proof and entertaining.
It shows your personality. I know a lot of people try to hide behind the posts and all of these types of things that they do. Also, they're not showing their face. You can now create reels that you don't even have to be on camera, but how can you make it work so people can connect with you? You can do a voiceover. At least, I will hear your voice if you're shy on camera. There are ways that you can still connect.
Also, people want to know the person behind the business. They want to know, “Are you a good person? Can I trust you? Do you have good morals and ethics? Are you a jerk?” People want to know that you're a good human, but they can't know that if you don't show yourself.
Besides that, people want to learn from people who have been there because if they don't know that you have already made mistakes and how to avoid them, you could say, “I've been there. I've made all the mistakes on Instagram. I know what works and what doesn't.” I always repeat that in my content so people see that I know what I'm talking about.
At the end of the day, everyone wants to get from point A to point B. They want to get from struggle to success. If you can show them, “I've ridden the struggle bus. I know how that feels. Check out all the things I did wrong. Here's how I fixed it. Here's how I got to this place of success. Here's the end point.” I agree with you. So many people miss talking about the endpoint. Here, I can shift you from here to here and be clear about what exact shift you can give people.
It's the end goal. If I work with Adrienne or with Giuliana, how will she be able to get me where I want? It’s like saying, “Show me the money, honey.” Show it. Show the social proof. Show how you can work with people and be relatable. That's part of creating content that connects. If you cannot show your face, if you cannot be like, “I am here for you,” you're going to be staying behind. A lot of people are going to be saying, “I don't think I can trust her, but I'm going to go with her. She talks a lot on reels and she shows herself in stories. She's just being real and raw.”
People relate to other people more when they're not perfect and when they are raw. I think everyone's ready to move beyond the whole idea of having to be perfect, but it's so funny. Everyone is done with perfect, but the minute someone asks them to go on camera, they feel like they have to be perfect. It’s like, “No, everyone's done with perfect. You don't have to be perfect.”
That's in 2006 when everything was such grid perfect.
It doesn’t need to be. We now know our brand identity. We know our brand visuals. We know how we're showing up. We have a solid content strategy of telling people how to get from A to B. I know Instagram. We talked about it. It's such a dynamic platform. It offers so many features, from posts to stories to reels to DMs.
There are so many things you can do, and I know Instagram tracks a lot of stats on all of these different things. There's a lot that you're able to see and leverage inside of Instagram as a business owner. Talk to us about all the Instagram optimization you can do from all these cool features that they have. How do we maximize that?
First impression counts. I'm not talking about the feed yet. I'm talking about your bio. You need to communicate once people find you from a reel because reels are what's getting you to the explore pages of known followers. You create a reel, and someone who's not following you yet finds you through that reel and lands on your profile. Your bio is the first impression. This is what you should be communicating quickly on who you are, who you help, how you are going to help someone, and how you're positioning in the market or in your industry as the one that's going to help that person as the go-to expert.
Your buyer should communicate all of that, starting with your profile picture. As I said, this goes back to the last point that we were talking about that people hide behind a logo. Unless you're building a corporation, then that's different. Let's see your beautiful face. Not a picture of you and your kids or your pet. There are pictures that I've seen that we cannot even see who they are. Make sure you're showing your face like a headshot with a nice colorful background to make sure it's part of your branding.
People start to recognize, “That's the girl from the orange circle.” They know, and then from your bio, once you have your foundation, you should learn who you help and how you do that. It’s because there are only 150 characters. You want to maximize the space with a powerful statement. Also, something to make it easy for you. If you're having trouble, you should be saying like, “I help X, Y, Z. I help Millennial women.” How are you going to help them? For example, I help Millennial women. What's the outcome? What's the end goal? What's your audience's desire? Do they want to lose weight? They just don't want to lose weight. They want to be seen in a bikini. They want to wear that bikini.
Also, feel confident in it.
Feeling confident in their own skin and their own body. I’ll say, “I'll help Millennial women or Millennial moms feel great in a bikini so they can be confident in their own skin.” By how? I may personalize workouts, one-on-one coaching, unique recipes, and stuff like that. I've seen a lot of people say, “I help women lose weight in 30 days. It doesn't say much.
It’s too generic. It'd be one thing if you were like, “I help millennial moms lose 30 pounds in 30 days without dieting or exercise. Now, that's getting specific or I help them through holistic non-pharmaceutical solutions or something. There's so much you can do.
It’s because that's how you're going to see the success. The people that are going to be your dream clients, and they want to feel great in a bikini. You have that in your bio. It's going to be a no-brainer for them to follow and then they're going to start consuming your content. Make sure you also have a call to action from your bio. You need to tell people what to do. What do you have in your bio that is so secret, or do you want them to click and tell them what to do? “There's a 20% with a down arrow. Twenty percent on the first purchase. Book a call with me or anything like that. Tell them what to do. It has to be specific with your goal. You should have monthly goals or maybe weekly goals.
Maybe you're in a lounge phase. If you're promoting something, you can say, “Free download, free checklist, or whatever it is that you're promoting. There's no shame in that. You need to tell people what to do. Also, highlights. We're getting into the bio. We're getting into the highlights. This is where a lot of people also are missing an opportunity to have that dream client apply or buy something.
Instagram Monetization: Highlights is where a lot of people are missing the opportunity to really have that dream client
apply or buy something.
Think of your highlights as the pages of a website. When you are landing on a website and want to learn more about the person behind a brand, what do you do? I go to the About section. I want to see who they are and what their stories are. A lot of people miss that one. You should have a highlight that says, “About Me,” or, “About Us,” or, “Start here.” Make sure that you have pictures. You don't have to talk if you don't want to.
Upload some pictures that you have from your family or your story. Tell a brief story of who you are. What is this page about? How do you help people? What are the outcomes of working with you? That should be one highlight. The second one should be testimonials. Anything of review or social proof. The third one is your services. What do you offer or what do you sell? What are your products?
You then can fill in the other ones with the rest of the topics that you always talk about. If I talk about reels, I'm going to have one thing reels. If I talk about hashtags, another highlight of hashtags is You should be having those. All of your highlights are a form of education, so people start bingeing. This is all power to you.
The minute someone starts bingeing your content, it signals the algorithm[Ma8] . They're almost bound. They're that much more likely. I don't know the percentages, but someone who watches one reel and moves on is far less likely to become a client or customer than someone who has binge-watched your stuff for the last hour and a half. Let's get real.
Also, they save it and then sharing it. That's why a lot of people have gone viral, and that's why I get a lot of clients like that too. One of my clients had reels with 2 million, three million, and 1 million, but none of that translated to sales. None of that translated to the followers that she wanted. Why? It’s because her bio and her Instagram account were not optimized for conversions. Your highlights should have an about us section, testimonials, services, and all the other things you always educate on your feet. What are the things that you can teach people?
Likes and comments don't pay the bills.
No. Also, the views.
Views don't pay the bills either.
After that, when we come into the feed, then after they saw your highlights, “She knows her stuff. She talks about a lot of these things. I can trust her.” They're going to pitch some of your content now on your feed. This is where that visual identity comes into play and how you have created this branding of visuals because Instagram is a visual platform. It continues going to be a visual platform. If it's all over the place and there's no cohesiveness, if there is confusion, people are going to be turned off. They're going to exit out of your page. Now, you can pin content in your feed like the pinning feature.
Make sure that you have any old content that may be relatable or talks about the story that you shared maybe a year ago. “Pin that one to the first so people can see.” Now, they are getting to know you. Maybe you had one that talks about a transformation that you have done. Pin that one. Now, you can pin the three pieces of content that could become evergreen for you. Pin them on your feed. This is how people are going to start consuming your content, and you should utilize all types of features. When I saw features, it could be, “Are you doing carousel posts?” A carousel means two slides and more.
It’s flipping through.
It’s like a carousel or a slide show of things. Carousels, static images, reels, and lives. There are Instagram guides. A lot of people, it's not like they don't have access. They haven't activated them yet. You have to activate them and it's simple. It will be like your mini-blog on Instagram. It’s pinning and putting altogether older posts that have done very well, or you want to categorize them into a headline.
If you are a health and wellness coach and you share a lot of recipes, then you go through your account and see what posts have I shared in the last two years about recipes, and then you can click on them and then combine them into a guide that's all about recipes. You can find a guide about workouts and motivational quotes. This is how people are going to be able to spend more time on your profile.
This is a feature that everyone has that most people don't even know. They haven’t activated it.
Everybody has it. They just haven't been created or haven’t been activated yet. Do you know how you have the plus sign on your profile once you want to create a post or a reel? It is right there on the list. It tells you reels, posts, lives, stories, and then the guides.
You got to get to the end to find it.
It says guides. Once you create a guide, it's all about clicking. You don't even have to create anything from scratch. It's like going through your post and then clicking on the post that you want to combine all together into one guide.
Guides are the perfect tool to create bingeable-themed content.
Also, frequent common questions that your audience always ask of you in the DMs, building relationships and they say, “I'm interested in learning more about your program or what you offer. Maybe you did create a guide where it has all of this information. Also, your guide, you can share it. It has three dots where you can click on it and have a shareable link. You can say, “Here's my guide that talks about the benefits of healthy things, my essential oils,” or something like that. You can send her the guide.
Potentially, it’s a hugely beneficial yet underutilized feature. Tons of people might have, and they're not using it because they didn't even realize that guides are a thing.
It’s because no one has talked about them that much. They're all focused on, “How do I get more views? How do I get more followers? How do I get more these reels,” but it comes down to optimizing your whole page to the most that you can do.
Now, we're getting somewhere. Now we're fully optimized. Is there anything else that falls in that optimization bucket that people maybe aren't fully leveraging or utilizing or did we cover them?
Also, collaborations. Collaboration is one thing that comes to networking with a lot of experts in your niche. Yeah. It’s getting out of your comfort zone and being like, “She will be great for me to do a live on certain things. That's how you’re boring[Ma9] audiences so you can grow and get those potential clients or customers into your feed.
Collaborations are huge. We're here collaborating together, and we have done so in the past as well because it's a win-win for both of us, but it's also a win-win for our audiences.
There are collaborations on Instagram that you can do as a real collaboration. Also, with reels, you can collaborate with somebody when you can create a reel and now you're boring [Ma10] audiences and then you get all the views from other people.
Truly, very smartly, and strategically making use of all the features in a way that boils down to making yourself binge-worthy and making it easy for someone to binge on your content if they're into what you're putting out.
The goal is to get people in your funnel. You should be utilizing everything so you're creating Instagram to turn into a strategic funnel like a money-making machine. It’s all about getting them into your funnel and then you can make tens of thousands of dollars a month.
If you have a $1,000 service, all you need is five clients and you can do it if you have all of the steps that you follow in your presentation. That's the perfect segue into, “Now, we've optimized our brand. We have a smart content strategy. We're optimizing all the features to our benefit.” How do we turn that all into making money now because we all know that likes, comments, and engagement don't pay the bills? How do we get the money in?
First of all, you have to have an offer. It’s not a product. Offers and products are different. Products are what you're selling. It’s your memberships, your digital downloads, or one-on-one coaching. It’s your offer. You need to gain and combine your expertise with your unique sauce, talents, and skills. Combine that with your expertise and bundle it into an offer. From that offer, you are going to say, “How do I want to maximize my time as a business owner?”
You can do one-on-one coaching through Instagram. All you're going to do is have a Calendly with the link to funnel people in to click your thing. They buy one-on-one coaching. Group coaching could be another part. You could do digital downloads or create an eBook in Canva. It's so easy to package your knowledge and sell it. You can work with brands to create sponsored content and get paid by working with brands that you like and have a brand affinity with your values. Also, you can create a membership. Now, Instagram is giving subscriptions to which people can subscribe. You can create a subscription based on Instagram alone. Do you have that feature?
I don't know. I didn't even realize that was a thing.
It's rolling. I was waiting for it. I've seen people that are charging $4.99, which is the cheapest. I will not do anything less than $4.99 a month. Anybody can afford that.
It’s $4.99.
Also, $9.99. I think the most expensive I've seen is $20 a month or $19.99.
This is a brand new feature that you said they're rolling out now.
Yes.
What is it that people get? Tell me more about this.
You create a subscription. This is all up to you. How do you want to create value for your audience? It could be once a month. You may do some stories that are for the audience, where you can segment your audience into the featured stories that are close friends. You could do mini-training. It’s one-minute training a month and people can pay you $4.99 or $9.99 a month. You can create mini-trainings. You can bundle all of these worksheets that you have in your Google Drive or Google Sheets. It’s anything that you can create and then bundle into a subscription base.
Any creative idea you have for a low-ticket recurring? You could have once a month behind the scenes of me building my business and sharing my top tips for the month or something.
Every month, you could say, “Let's build a website together. It's not that difficult.” You could then do a mini training. The next month, you could talk about building an email list. The next month, it could be all about funnels. The ideas are there. It's all about trying to give value for a small price. I want to do nothing more than $19 a month.
It's meant to be a tiny offer and a low price point.
People that are doing it for $4.99. They're there giving that support and accountability, like saying, “I'm going to give you some positive affirmations every two weeks or something like that.
The only people who can see it are the ones who've signed up.
Yeah, and they're going to have a purple badge or a crown. Let's say you do a subscription tomorrow and you get people, whoever paid, they're going to have a purple crown next to their name or handle. Whenever they comment on your content or send you a DM, they're going to have the purple crown, so you know that's a valuable follower, but not just a follower. It’s a valuable client now. You can maximize your time to provide value.
That’s so interesting. It sounds like this is brand new. I heard it was coming generically, but I didn’t realize it was upon us now. It’s here.
Also, the reels. You could also make money by reel bonuses.
Tell us about reel bonuses. What is this?
You have to go to the community guidelines to make sure that you are approved, which I'm sure everybody gets approved. It's another feature. You all go to your professional dashboard. You click on the professional dashboard and you'll see bonuses. If you have the bonuses, you can click on them, and then you'll see if you have reel bonuses or live bonuses. There are the live bonuses when you create lives and if people give you the heart. They could buy a $1.99 heart and you could get the money.
That’s what it is. I've seen people give little gifts and I'm like, “What are these things?”
Instagram is telling you, “We need video. You create our video. We'll pay you a percentage. We'll pay you money for creating videos.” That's why you'll see people that do so many lives because they're trying for people to get money to buy them hearts. You buy hearts for $1.99 or $0.99 and you get money for each live. The other bonuses are reels. You have to get approved for the reels and you have to activate it. If you don't activate it and you start creating reels without activation, you're never going to get bonuses. You have to activate it by creating your financial status. You have to put your bank information.
It’s because they can't pay you if they don't know where to pay you.
However, a lot of people are like, “Why do they need my bank information?” They have to pay you.
How are they going to give you money?
It's like a direct deposit to your bank. Once you have activated that, then each month you have a goal. Instagram gives you a goal and they're ridiculous. My goal is to make eleven million views in 30 days. Once you hit that goal, then you can get up to $1,200 or $1,500 if you make that goal. If that's not a sign of Instagram enticing you to make reels, it's because reels are where it's at.
They're paying for your content.
Yeah. That's what it is. That's why it's saturated now.
It's not always going to be the way. We might as well take advantage of this offer on the table.
Take advantage of it, but also now, it has been more to the point that is getting saturated because a lot of people are creating more and more reels to make the bonuses money. I made maybe a couple hundred. That's something to make reels. That's fine because I don't post every day. However, the people who post every day, even three reels a day, are making at least $1,000 just from making the reels. That's something to consider.
A lot of people are creating more and more reels just to make the bonuses' money.
However, sometimes now, because it's becoming more saturated, I heard that it's limiting the views because the more views you get, the more bonuses you're going to earn, which is going to be Instagram. Now, imagine 1 million creators creating lots of videos that rank up in views. Now, Instagram has to deposit a lot of money.
They're going to have to start raising the bar on what it takes to get paid.
That's what the goal of millions of views. They are raising your goal, which is going to be impossible, but now I think the algorithm, if you click on Get Bonuses, it's going to limit a little bit of your reach. That way, you don't get so many views, but at least you're getting some money.
It sounds like we're on the leading edge of this. You might as well get the most out of it that you can.
Yeah. Even if it's $100 for making reels that you'll make for your audience, that is going to create value. Turn the bonuses on and get some money out of it.
I talk to people all the time who say, “I'm creating content constantly. I'm on this content creation hamster wheel. I'm exhausted. I don't get paid for how much work I'm doing. Here, they're paying you basically for the time it takes to create these. At least you're getting paid for your time now.
Yeah, but sometimes, when I know that it's going to be a reel, for example, social proof for me is crucial. I'm turning off the bonuses because I don't want to limit my reach. There are reels and I don't care. They can limit my views. I don't care, but there are reels that I will turn off the bonuses for because I want to get as many views as I can.
There's a time and a place to use these bonuses. You have to be strategic about it. All these interesting monetization tools that I didn't realize were built in. I hope it goes to show the audience truly how dynamic Instagram is. They're evolving.
Also, they're paying small creators. The head of Instagram has said it. We're going to be making sure that small creators get seen on the platform, but you don't need a 10,000-follower engaging audience now. You can have 1,000 followers and start making money with bonuses. You can package your expertise, create something, and start making money.
Between the bonuses and the subscription membership, what do they call it?
It’s subscriptions.
What was the third one? It’s the guides.
It’s the guides and live bonuses.
There are all kinds of new tools that are interesting, too.
You can get paid in the chat now, which I haven't turned on.
Tell me more. Are we getting paid for chatting with people?
Let’s say you're talking to a potential client that says, “Tell me more about your program. Tell me more about your course.” You know that they're going to say, “I'm in.” Instead of sending them to, “Let me give you the link to the landing page,” and to all that stuff. You can link your payment information to Instagram. You have a Stripe account and you have to connect it.
Right there on the DM, where you know how you have emojis, a plus sign, or the microphone, there is now a dollar sign. When you hit the dollar sign, it sends a prompt for people to accept your payment and they pay you right there through the DMs. Let's say someone asks you, “Pick my brain,” or, “Can I get a few tips here and there?” You give value. You could say, “I'll give you fifteen minutes of value for something,” and you hit the dollar sign saying whatever. “Give me what you think that my fifteen minutes is worth.” They can pay you right there.
Does Instagram keep a percentage of the cut or anything?
This is a new, better thing. It’s the same with bonuses. It's zero interest in everything you're getting at.
You might as well be on the cutting edge and be one of the first two people to use it and make the most of it. Why wouldn't you? There are so many new features. It’s exciting. I didn't know half that stuff was out there or maybe only half of it is active in their account, but at least they're aware. The rest is coming. They're ready for it. They're ready to go. I know you have an amazing free gift that can help our audience get started with making money through Instagram. Do you want to tell us about your gift?
It’s called How to Create a Brand that Sells on Instagram. I’m doing a deep dive into the four key steps that I talked about. You have a nice PDF to go through the steps, so you can now start monetizing your account and brand on Instagram.
That is amazing, especially with a lot of the new features. I'm sure you could go pretty deep on each one of these and go down the rabbit hole. If anything here piqued your interest and you're realizing, “What? You can do these things now. I need more,” grab the free gift it has the more you've been looking for.
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About Giuliana Vann
Giuliana is an experienced global branding and social media strategist, Instagram expert and influencer coach teaching entrepreneurs, content creators, and Business owners how to grow and monetize their brand and maximize their time spent on Instagram with proven organic methods and build a stand out brand presence online.
She is the Founder of Living a Digital Dream, an Award-Winning social media agency based out of Sarasota Florida helping business owners and personal brands grow their businesses and supercharge their brand presence on social media with creative and converting storytelling and individualized strategies to achieve their business goals and social media success When she's not educating her students and clients or managing clients’ social media, she's spending quality time with her family and making sure to prioritize exercise.
Giuliana has also a background in Nursing with specialization in oncology. Her passion is teaching others how to grow and find meaningful success by leveraging the power of social media, especially Instagram.
