178. How do you build community on Instagram? (f. Daniela Schrittenlocher)
What does it mean to build an online community? 🤍 This episode of Brand Therapy has the answer. Hosts Phil and Lauren meet with Daniela of ELAS Marketing to understand her techniques for cultivating a community of avid followers. She shares the importance of positioning your brand, recommendations for bolstering engagement, and other tricks that have gotten her over 115k followers.
Episode transcription
Phil
Posting five times a week on Instagram and nothing's happening. It's like crickets.
Lauren
Wondering why no one's commenting on any of your Instagram posts?
Phil
Wish you had 100,000 followers or more like our guests today. I'm Phil.
Lauren
And I'm Lauren.
Phil
And on this episode of Brand Therapy, we get to the bottom of it all.
Phil
Here's our conversation with Daniela.
Well, this is an exciting conversation and I'll tell you why. Because we have on our podcast, one of my favorite humans that I interact with in the digital world which feels like maybe not daily, but close. But close daily thanks to her, not me, because I'm not as good at Instagram, as our guest today. Today we're talking to Daniela of Elas Marketing, one of the people who literally shows up on my posts on my Instagram more than anyone else. There's absolutely not one human on planet earth that does community building community maintaining and growing community as good or as well as you do, Daniela, and that's why you're on Brand Therapy today. Welcome. Cannot wait to have this conversation.
Daniela
Oh my gosh, thank you so much. What an intro. Honestly, I did not expect that. But, thank you. I'm so glad to be here.
Phil
Here's what I love about you. You do it. You live it, you breathe it, you do it, you show up. Without fail, I can pretty much count on you to show up as one of the first comments on my post was something thoughtful. And I just don't know anyone else who does it as well. A close second is our friend Lucas O'Keefe. He also is just really good about showing up. But honestly, you get the gold medal. You do it. So well. Can you talk about that? Can you talk about just to kick us off the importance of community on a platform like Instagram?
Daniela
Absolutely. I mean, nowadays, it is all about community building, that community being social. That's why it's social media, right? And being social is just something if you start to connect with like minded people, and if you start to build your page, just be you. And once you start being you, you build that community with like minded people automatically. That's why I don't ever feel forced to engage with your posts or with anybody else's post. Because if I like a post, why not leave a comment, it's as easy as that. Because if you like it, you have something to say about it. And even if it's just giving a compliment, but you can add on to it or start a conversation. So why not just as you would do at meeting somebody in person or being on a party.
Phil
I know you'd like the intro, but I forgot one really important detail. And I'm going to add that now because I don't want anyone listening. If you've not done your research or you're not familiar with Daniella yet, obviously you will be after this conversation, you're gonna go follow her on Instagram. Let me just mention that you have well over 100,000 followers on Instagram. So this isn't kiddie stuff here.
Lauren
Okay, yeah, we're in the big leagues.
Phil
We're in the big leagues. And I just thought that was important to mention, because you are humble, and you probably wouldn't mention it. So I'm mentioning it for you. Because I'm not humble on your behalf.
Daniela
I would definitely not mention it because it was also never my intention to build an account that big.
Lauren
But if you had to advise someone else, how do you get 100,000 followers on Instagram?
Daniela
Oh, my goodness, I do that on a daily basis. advise people how to do it. Even though it was never my own intention, obviously, it makes sense of why I'm where I'm at. And that is really based on knowing what you're doing on the platform and a whole lot of determination.
Phil
Unpack that more. I want more details. We want more.
Lauren
What do you mean by determination?
Daniela
Well, besides knowing what you're doing on the platform, so understanding the platform, but also knowing why you're doing what you're doing, know your purpose and get on it, communicate it, communicate and embrace what you have to say who you are your values, everything along that lines.
Phil
There are so many platforms that you could choose to prioritize. And I find it fascinating that Instagram, I'm assuming is your number one. Why have you selected Instagram instead of other platforms?
Daniela
The reason why I decided to go on Instagram is because I was working with brands and individuals helping them to get on socials pretty much and how to do it. And I needed a platform to share tips and tricks, basically with my clients that I had at the time and that's how the page started two years ago. This is an easy way to share the information we talk about on a daily basis, I put it into a nice visual format, and here you go, then you can go back to it whenever you need it. And that has been my strategy all along, I never changed it. I think that's a strategy everybody can follow, to be honest. And that's also part of building your community. Because if you serve your community, if you help people, that should be your strategy. And I really found to get back to your question that Instagram is the best platform to do that, because I have so many different formats, and everybody's on Instagram, so why not use it?
Phil
Yeah, that's a really good point. You also enjoy creating on the platform. And so it's a way to think about the marketing minutes that you have to spend those minutes on a platform that you thoroughly enjoy. I feel the same way about Instagram. And I think it's, you know, I asked the question, because not everyone has the success that you do. And I think a lot of people get defeated by Instagram. You know this because you obviously work with clients, so do we. But I admire your ability to master and find joy and to grow, quite frankly, on a platform that is, I would say, more difficult than others to grow on.
Daniela
I absolutely agree with you there. It is not an easy platform to grow on. But it's so doable.
Lauren
I want to see your well, I guess not see, because we're on a podcast, but I want to hear your expertise in action. So I'm kind of thinking of a common place that our own clients and listeners are in when they come to us and ask for Instagram help. So they are posting about four to five times per week. They've been completely static in terms of their engagement. They're not getting many comments, and maybe they grow want to followers per day. If you were not allowed to see their page and just hear and listen to them stay where they're at. What would you suspect was going wrong?
Phil
Oh, what a creative question. You've never asked something like this before.
Lauren
I've never ever done anything like this before. But Daniella. I know. But I just really I know, Daniela, you're obviously such a genius. And I want to hear that genius in action?
Daniela
Absolutely. I would not ever refer to myself being a genius. But it's okay. I'm closely learning to call myself an expert. So to answer your question, if I there could actually a couple things going on. So thinking of a page that has, as you said, not much growth is still posting on it, as many people advice. There's so much to say about that, too. So I think number one is your content, where it should be. Content is king or queen, or whatever you want to name it. Definitely make sure that your content and the strategy is right. It's something that your audience wants to see. Does it connect with the audience? Does it invite people to engage? That's a common mistake many people make. They go on the platform, they post them think it's such a pretty post, but it doesn't help if it doesn't connect if it doesn't start a conversation. So definitely build on to that.
Then another thing in terms of growth is has your bio up to speed? Do you have the keywords? Instagram has a search engine optimization platform. So think of it as Google, whatever you would type into Google to find your own business have that in your bio. Those are the keywords that are supposed to be in your bio. People coming on your page should see right away what this page is about and why they should follow you.
Lauren
Perfect. And I it's really interesting that you say that analogy between what would you type into Google? Because that's also what you should type into Instagram. I've never actually thought of the platform that way before, but it makes so much sense.
Daniela
Yeah. And that's definitely turning into that direction. And Instagram is working more and more on all these SEO features to be searchable. And yeah, definitely make sure you can be found.
Lauren
When you were giving your work and action a take. You said something about posted quantity. And you're like there's so much we can say about that or something along those lines. So let's talk about it. How many times should you post a week are the experts, right? Does the amount you post per week matter? Does consistency matter? Just share everything you know about consistency and quantity?
Daniela
Absolutely. So couple things actually one consistency matters. Does consistency always refer to frequency? No. I mean, yes, it does refer to frequency but that's not just it. When we talk about consistency that also comes yeah, as you know, branding, and all of that plays a big role with that when it comes to consistency. But yes, so the post frequency matters ish and nice say that because you can post three times a week and still grow, you can post five times a week and still grow. I would not recommend posting 20 times a week because then you drown your posts that you posted before with your own posts, and people will just get overwhelmed and mute your account or unfollow you. So definitely think of quality over quantity, but you need the quantity to get the quality. If that makes sense.
Phil
It does make sense I often am framing Instagram content creation or content creation in general for that matter, as something we do for ourselves. Yes, our audiences benefit from it. But there's so much juicy goodness in the practice the exercise for yourself, it forces you first of all to do research that you might not otherwise find time to do or even it gives you time in your calendar to think when I am making a post for Instagram, I will turn on the timer that I normally would if I'm working on a client project, because I need in my head to validate the importance of content creation for myself also having a timer on like just the psychology of it. It keeps me accountable to how I'm spending my minutes. I can't spend seven hours on one post, although sometimes I want to. So there's a few reasons for that. But be selfish about this right? Use content creation is something that fulfills you, it teaches you more and experimenting also, gosh, I don't know if you still feel this way. Because you have a pretty you have things are locked down, like you're clear on, you know what your audience is gonna respond to. I did one a week ago on, you know, the updates coming Instagram. And this posted so well. And I thought people were going to be totally bored by it. And it's still to this day, I think I know my audience and then they surprise me.
Daniela
Yes, that's true. You do get those surprises. But yes, you definitely learn your audience and you know what they want to see from you. And that's exactly where it's at. And it takes some time to find that to find out what they want to see. And now I can say okay, I'm gonna post about three new Instagram features explained and I know they're gonna love it.
Phil
Yep, same. That's always my go to is like, explain Instagram people. Same on YouTube. For me, that's a guaranteed views. Can you break down your own routine? How much time do you spend a day on Instagram? No judgment, even if it's a lot, because it's a priority platform for you, I spent a lot of time creating content for YouTube. And sometimes I have to forego creating content on Instagram, at least at the frequency that I would like because YouTube is my priority just in my in our own business, break down your average hour spent maybe or just your daily routine, break it down however you want.
Daniela
Okay, that is a tough one for me to answer because I manage so many channels on Instagram. And I feel like I'm on this platform 24/7 Not just with my account. So if we break that down to my account, I would say an hour a day. And I had to set that limit for myself, because as you said, you can easily get lost in the scroll. I love to just consume content too and you have to in the business to know what's going on. But I also consume for all these other industries and niches that I work with. So I feel like there's a lot of that involved. And then actively, as you said, setting that timer and say, looking at my own routine I posted in the morning between 8:30 and 9:30. And then I am on there for about 20 minutes answering the comments reaching out to people connecting in the DMS, everything that I got in overnight, pretty much. I just connect with them around my posting time. Then I stop, go back and around lunchtime, another 15 minutes. And then usually my nighttime routine is to watch all the stories that I can kind of like cramp in that 20 minute window and answer to more comments and DMS. And that's it.
Phil
So you might feel like that's a long time. And I know because you're also thinking about the clients you spend time on the platform for I am shocked that it's only one hour a day because like I said, you show up in such an amazing way that tells me you're really efficient and purposeful with the time you spent on the platform. And that should be applauded. I think I mean, one hour a day when it's your number one platform Well done.
Daniela
Well, again, like I've maybe have to go back and correct myself. It's the one hour for my own channel.
Phil
But you're still that's what I mean. I mean, I think that's incredible.
Daniela
Yeah, I mean, I try obviously there are times where I do research or Yeah, I just spent more time or I have such a great conversation in the comments. I had that yesterday with a post where I talked about the do's and don'ts of commenting on Instagram. And it was such a fun conversation in the comments where I was like, I can't leave this conversation. It's so fun.
Lauren
I'm wondering what your thoughts are on boosting In posts, should people boost posts to help them with growth? Or are you someone who believes that figuring out what works organically is more important?
Daniela
I love that question. Oh, good. Yeah. So Instagram has this great marketing trick telling you, oh, this post did better than 85% of your other posts boosted now? Yeah, let's not do that, because it actually doesn't really help. Why rather ask yourself the question, Why aren't my posts not working without boosting? I think that's a valid question to ask at that point. So rather put in the time and effort and potentially money to get help for your organic growth, nail down your strategy and your content. And then you're on the fly.
Lauren
Do you have a recommendation of post types and what that mix should be like 50% reels, 25% carousels 25%. single image like what does that look like?
Daniela
I think it absolutely depends on the account, what you are about and what you do, I would always recommend to mix up at least three different formats. And that could look very different for every account. Excluding stories, I feel like because stories are always a must. You always got to show up on your stories. Because if you look at your story, your story is for your super fans for your whatever you want to call them for the people that are truly interested in who you are and what you do. So definitely show them all the behind the scenes on the story. And that should be somewhat, I don't want to say completely disconnected, but it should be disconnected from a little bit of from your posts, because just sharing your posts on stories is super boring. Nobody wants to see that. If you want to talk about your posts on your story, show up on camera, talk about it, share a photo and add something on to it something like that. So that's the stories I feel like every account needs to utilize stories. And then mix it up. If you are a real account you do. For example, you're a video editor or you're a yoga studio, show up on video, give them tutorials, inspiration works great for anything yoga, meditation, go with that lots of video material, and then you can utilize single images or carousel posts to explain that a little bit further and also reach a different audience with that that is your potential when you use multiple formats that you reach different audiences because everybody learns so different.
Phil
Such good advice. I think old advice is you have to show up on reels to reach new people. I think you can. And by the way, I'm manifesting this, I will create more reels in 2023. I will create them I posted one today, reels do not bring me joy carousels. Ooh, that's a different story. I love sharing ideas in carousels, but that is really good advice. Choose three that align with what you'd like creating. and push yourself to keep experimenting.
Daniela
Yes, absolutely. And for me, it's carousels as well. I did not like to show up on camera. I had to learn rails, but I pushed myself. And that's another thing about experimenting. You don't have to dance on reels. You don't have to do any of that. Just do what feels comfortable to you. I mean, yes, getting out of your comfort zone is good. But you don't have to be overstepping your comfort zone all the time.
Phil
What has prioritizing Instagram and putting in the time and effort to build a community which I say you do so well. What is that done for your business?
Daniela
Oh my goodness, um, everything, everything pretty much. I mean, a lot of my business comes in from word of mouth, which is great. But I also get a lot from Instagram, everything coaching related is coming from Instagram these days, to be honest. And then even social media management comes from Instagram. But yeah, it's a very healthy mix, I would say between word of mouth and Instagram,
Lauren
You seem like someone who is very, very organized and structured. And you mentioned your walk us through your daily routine. You mentioned strategy for Instagram a few times. I want to know if you have content buckets or categories that you rotate through or if you have any kind of system that you use when coming up with the content that you're posting.
Daniela
Yes, I am naturally very organized. I think that's the German and me. But yes, so being organized is so important to keep up with that consistency and to not feel that overwhelm because that is a huge one on Instagram or on any social media platform where people feel forced, they have to do something they have to create. They have to be online. So take all that oh overwhelmed back. And if you are overwhelmed on the platform, just go back to three posts a week, find a better system. It's all about the systems you work with. I for myself on a system of batch creating is great. So I batch create as much as I can in advance for my clients, I actually create two to four weeks in advance, then we have an approval process and all of that for myself. It's about a week in advance.
Phil
I promised we would talk about community. So let's go into a little bit more detail on that. Since we haven't yet can you give us almost like a simplified or as just a few steps guide on how to create community on Instagram. There's proof that you do this. Well, when we go to any of your Instagram posts. And there are literally hundreds of comments you can set earlier, you show up on so many of my posts. And I'm so grateful. You're almost always one of the first comments, and you are almost always one of the comments of the three that I pin being one of my favorite comments that's left. Talk us through that in a bit more detail about how you do that. So masterfully.
Daniela
You know what, why I comment on yours as one of the first ones is because I have your notifications on, obviously. But that's a good one. Actually, if you want to create a community, if you want to connect with someone, turn their notifications on the on there. And comment, start that conversation. So that's number one. You can't expect anyone to engage with your posts if you don't do it yourself. So give, give give, I give that advice a lot. Because there's so many people saying, oh, I'm stuck with my engagement, I don't know what to do. Well, what you have to do is you got to engage first. And then it'll come to you. A couple of tricks on besides that of engaging yourself as invite them to a conversation and I touched base on that earlier. If you create content, create content in an engaging way where people have questions about or they want to say something to it, invite them in your caption, with an open CTA a call to action, where you invite them to ask a question, you invite them to share their thoughts on it, or invite them to share their experiences.
Phil
I love this advice.
Lauren
And then beyond that, once they do share, that's when it's really important to engage further, great like you want to exactly make them feel like individuals.
Daniela
Yeah, keep that conversation going and don't feel force, you want to have that or start a natural conversation. If they leave a comment and the comment very typical one that's Thank you. And then or three emojis or something like that. We love those, right? But if somebody says thank you respond to it. I try to respond to every single comment, and either say you're welcome or I asked a question along that line, or those lines depending on the content. But for example, you could say thank you, how do you feel about XYZ that you talked about in the caption, and then they will respond again. And that's how you start that conversation. That's how you build relationships. And many times people will ask a question down the road, or they connect with you in the DMS or anything like that.
Phil
Genius, genius really is one of the people get so caught up in creating and miss the importance of showing up it's arguably more important than what you create is is being present with this giving mentality I think you've summed up in such a beautiful way. I know you're plugged into Instagram, and I really want to know, what are you excited about in terms of what's coming? I know we can't none of us can predict the future. But what are you excited about? Maybe that's rumored to be coming or just the future of Instagram?
Daniela
Oh my goodness, there has been so much hate on Instagram and 2022 I feel like and it is not it's it's absolutely unreasonable, honestly, I love the platform. Yes, it glitches but honestly, which platform doesn't glitch at this point, you know. Every platform has something going on. And people call Instagram a copy of tick tock and now tick tock copied carousels. So I mean, seriously, we all copy from one another here, right? Everybody just wants to be ‘the’ platform. I think Instagram isn't gonna go anywhere in terms of having less importance in our lives. I think it'll be an important and stay an important platform that will continue to grow be relevant in the market. And yeah, I mean, I'm excited about all the new features. There are so many features that I don't have yet that they have announced and it always takes a little bit until everybody has it. But yeah, they're focusing a lot on creators and I am obviously a creator, you are a creator on the platform. So I am excited to see what they have and stock for us.
Phil
Me too. I think everyone is waiting on at least one feature that other people have that they don't yet for me, it's the ability to stream do Instagram lives from desktop. Some people have this feature. I do not have it yet. And I really want it because it will be super cool to use some of my favorite like live streaming tools like V cam and such to be able to actually live stream live on Instagram, which is one of my favorite things to do.
Daniela
Yes, I mean, yes, your lives are amazing. I always try to tune in whenever I can.
Phil
But I need to bring those back. I want to bring those back this year. And I actually think we should do a live the day that this goes live there, the day this podcast episode goes live, we should do it. If you're available editing, remember which day this is gonna be published. But obviously, we'll figure that out. I'm inviting you to an Instagram Live the day that this episode goes live. There's just you if you're available, there's you've given so many amazing tips in the half an hour that we spent. And for those of you listening if you didn't catch us live earlier, or maybe it was later, I don't know, depending on time we publish, people will be able to check out that live. If we do it. We are going to do it.
Daniela
We were so going to do it.
Phil
We are going to do it. The replay will be available. But honestly, you're one of those people. If someone came to me and said I need an expert on Instagram, you are on that short list of people that I would totally trust to hire and give advice again because you show up and you do the work. And I think you're amazing.
Daniela
Thank you.
Phil
Thank you for hanging out with us on brand therapy. I hope you had some fun.
Daniela
I did. Thank you so much for having me. I was so excited for this. It was amazing.
Phil
Let's tell people where they can find you @elasmarketingservices is your handle and then you’ve got a website as well.
Daniela
I do.
Phil
Well. That's it. I basically told the audience thank you. Thank you. We'll catch up with you soon Daniela, you're the best.
Daniela
Thank you so much and thank you for having me again.
Phil
A huge thank you to Daniela for such a great productive conversation about community We hope you've enjoyed this episode. We're glad to be back it feels so good to be recording. If you enjoyed this episode help us out by leaving a review in the iTunes Store five star, five star helps other people discover this podcast that we work hard to create for you. And since we're back officially we will be back next week with a brand new episode. Until then, thanks for hanging out with us on Brand Therapy. We'll see you then.
