Shownotes
Welcome to The Circle Sessions, with insights on digital marketing and podcast growth. Host, Brett Johnson, is joined by Tonnisha English-Amamoo, a digital marketing guru, who's here to help small businesses level the playing field.
We're diving deep into the future of Instagram. We'll explore the latest strategies for maximizing engagement and leveraging the potential of video content, which is the new top trend for the year ahead. Discover the art of collaboration on Instagram reels, and learn why family recipes and user-generated content are the latest buzzwords in the food lover's community.
Tonnisha discusses the ins and outs of enhancing your Instagram SEO and adhering to platform guidelines to keep your content visible. They also touch on the potential of Instagram's new broadcast channels for creating exclusive content and maintaining close-knit relationships with your followers.
From the power of faceless videos and AI enhancements to the subtleties of paid promotions, this session is jam-packed with actionable insights.
Authenticity in Social Media: "I think the one of the good things about social media today is that people are kind of combing through, like what feels real and what feels curated, what feels, you know, like this person is acting and not actually doing these things." — Tonnisha English-Amamoo
Top Takeaways
The growing trend of collaborative posts and reels on Instagram offers an effective way to reach new audiences and refresh content strategies by partnering with other creators or brands.
The podcast highlights the importance of staying on top of trending topics, such as food content that relates to family traditions, economic savvy, and the need for cooking skills – aiming to stay relevant and relatable to the audience.
Utilizing content generated by users can not only enhance authenticity but also support small businesses and foster community engagement, which is essential for growing a presence on social media platforms.
Exploring the potential for podcasts that stem from user experiences, like fixing websites or offering a more personal voice in content, can lead to increased direct engagement with the audience.
With the shift in how younger generations search for information, optimizing Instagram content through thoughtful subtitles, captions, and interaction with similar accounts is critical for visibility.
Recognizing the shift from Instagram takeovers to collaborative posting and brand partnerships helps to adapt strategies to the platform's latest features for maintaining user interest and platform engagement.
Creating exclusive content through subscription models needs a solid game plan and commitment to ensure value for paid subscribers, avoiding content fatigue and subscriber attrition.
The strategic use of the bio section on Instagram profiles, with the capability to include multiple links to manage time-sensitive content as well as permanent resources through services like Linktree.
The shift towards prioritizing video content, including creative, faceless videos or AI-enhanced storytelling, is identified as a dominant trend for Instagram, stressing the need for adaptability in content creation strategies.
Paid promotions represent a necessary component of a social media strategy, but they require careful evaluation and realignment with smart goals to ensure they are cost-effective and impactful.
Did you know Tonnisha put a podcast sticker on her laptop and it created an unexpected social media buzz? Sometimes, it's the little things that make the biggest difference! (Tune in at 00:28:53 for the full story).
Memorable Moments
00:00 Create content without showing your face.
03:54 Get creative with the video, keep it real.
10:24 Concerning burnout and managing personal finances efficiently.
13:30 Instagram bio now supports up to 5 links.
17:05 Be mindful of Instagram's community guidelines.
18:48 Increase in brand partnerships and collaborative posting.
24:30 Using Instagram and TikTok for recipe inspiration.
26:41 TikTok food critic boosts small restaurants' success.
29:36 Paid promotions expand reach; engage audience effectively.
33:16 Target specific podcast audiences for promotion success.
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TJE Communication’s mission is to empower and educate small women-owned businesses and equip them with digital solutions to level the playing field.
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Each week, one of The Circle of Experts talks about critical aspects of growing your podcast. We focus on marketing, social media, monetization, website design, and implementation of all of these to help you make the best podcast possible.
Have a question or an idea for one of our episodes? Send us an email at podcasts@circle270media.com.
The Circle of Experts are:
Yasmine Robles from Robles Designs
Tonnisha English-Amamoo of TJE Communications
Brett Johnson, My Podcast Guy, from Circle270Media Podcast Consultants
Copyright 2024 Brett Johnson, My Podcast Guy™
Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!):
https://uppbeat.io/t/vince-mcgill/lemon-slice
License code: 2NRNUIV5VG7FU3K5
Transcripts
Welcome to The Circle Sessions featuring The Circle Of Experts. The Circle Of Experts are Yasmine Robles from Robles Designs, Tonnisha English Amamoo of TJE Communications, and Don the Idea Guy. I'm Brett Johnson from Circle270Media Podcast Consultants. Each week, one of The Circle of Experts joins me to talk about some credit, some critical aspects of growing your podcast. We focus on marketing, social media monetization, and website design to help you implement all of these together. This week, Tonnisha is here from The Circle Of Experts. Tonnisha is on a mission to help small businesses level a playing field through digital marketing solutions. Tonnisha, thanks for joining me again today.
Tonnisha English-Amamoo [:Yeah. Of course. Thanks for having me as always.
Brett Johnson [:Yeah. So you have a great not that they are all great topics, but but some but but it's always interesting to see trends on social media. What's and especially certain, platforms that are very trendy. You know? Facebook doesn't seem Facebook doesn't seem to have those trends anymore. I just just thinking about that. You know, it used to be you'd heard all these different trends on Facebook, but it's like, they're that that's just not a trendy, laced social platform anymore. But Instagram is still holding Instagram's still holding some trends along with a few others. So So holding.
Brett Johnson [:But you found an article, through, Sprout Social talking about some Instagram trends to be out on the lookout for this year. So let's go over some of those you saw.
Tonnisha English-Amamoo [:Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, like you mentioned, Sprout Social put out an article about 9 Instagram trends to watch in 2024. So there are some that I think are gonna be a little more relevant to our audience that I would, you know, go into more detail Don, but then there's a couple that maybe not so much, but we'll still mention them, just so people know about them. Mhmm. So the first thing should probably not be a surprise, but, Sprout Social is saying that the number one trend for Instagram this year is that video is going to take priority over images. And I believe that we've already seen that, especially with the rise of TikTok being super popular and then Instagram implementing the, the reels, you know, it's not really surprising that video is gonna be number 1. Now it doesn't say what kind of video.
Tonnisha English-Amamoo [:So if you're intimidated about putting your face out there, there are ways to still create content that, maybe your face isn't necessarily in. You could have, you know, a picture of your, podcast guest with some audio behind the picture and maybe, you know, words on the screen so that people who may have hearing, disadvantages or, disabilities can, you know, still know what's going on. There's also been conversation around, a lot of like faceless influencers. So people who like you never see their face, you may only see their hands or you may just see things that they're doing. But they have, like, Sessions of followers, which is so interesting. But you can also take that route where maybe, you know, you're showing your day to day, not your face. Maybe it's literally you picking up your keys and maybe putting your headphones on, but it's the back of you just putting your headphones on to listen to a podcast. And, and it's just the audio of the podcast playing.
Tonnisha English-Amamoo [:There's so many things that you can do, when it comes to music video. I I could
Brett Johnson [:live with a faceless video trend. That's very cool. I love it. Yeah.
Tonnisha English-Amamoo [:That's such You know, I recommend people get creative with that. Don't think video as traditional. You know? I gotta hire a videographer to get this set up. I think the the one of the good things about social media today is that people are kind of combing through, like what feels real and what feels curated, what feels, you know, like this person is acting and not actually doing these things. And people actually have seen make fun of creators in the comments amongst each other about, you know have you ever seen those videos where it's showing a a person, like, waking up and getting out of bed? So people have made jokes like, so you got out of bed to set up your phone, to show yourself getting out of bed. So try to keep it natural, you know, to keep it real. And I think there are gonna be fun ways to implement video into your Instagram that are outside of, like, you know, straight up point and shoot with the camera.
Brett Johnson [:Yeah. Well, it's definitely more creative. And, again, like you said, if you have your face on it, to me, that seems like it might pull me in a little bit more tune going. I don't really need to see this person. I I wanna see what they're doing. Could be food prep or working Don I I I mean, I got it. I've gotten into this, restoration videos now that, you know, getting old metal toys or old, you know, these antiques that they're restoring. I don't see what this person is doing, but I'm seeing what they're doing.
Brett Johnson [:I love it. I have no I don't care what the person looks like. I wanna see what they're doing and just it almost has this calming effect because it's, you know, it's that look of it. It's cleaning. It's like, oh my gosh. This is so cool.
Tonnisha English-Amamoo [:People love that stuff. I love watching people clean like deep clean spaces and looking at the products they're using. Like that's how scrub daddy got so popular again, because people were using scrub daddies to clean and it got big. And now they're like, you know, this huge company just from people cleaning on on TikTok. Right? Right.
Brett Johnson [:Well, it's answering our problems that we're really looking for. So, yeah, you know, it's not it yes. It's partly entertainment, but it's also Right. I'm I'm learning something here. This is
Tonnisha English-Amamoo [:Exactly.
Brett Johnson [:I'm cool with not knowing what you look like. I don't care. Right. You know, honestly
Tonnisha English-Amamoo [:Show me the products you're using. Is there a code, a discount code? Exactly. Too.
Brett Johnson [:Oh, for sure. Oh, for sure. Yeah.
Tonnisha English-Amamoo [:So another one I'll kinda just quickly talk about, is, Sprout Social is saying that social media content is gonna be empowered with AI. But they're mostly talking about, like, AI generated stickers that can be used in Instagram stories, starting a chat with AI so you can ask for recommendations and advice and talk about interests and even follow AI profiles and the content that they post. I'm curious to kinda see how that goes before we really dive into it. And then it also mentioned AI backdrops for stories. So, like, when you share a photo with your story, you can use this, like, AI backdrop tool to create a background based on a text prompt that you enter. So that's, like, mostly super story heavy and then also, following, you know, con different profiles for inspiration, but definitely something to note. Now this one, I think, is really cool. It's increasing engagement with community experiences.
Tonnisha English-Amamoo [:So I don't know if you guys have noticed that Instagram has launched these broadcast channels over the last year where, different profiles like, I know so So I'm a huge, Nicki Minaj fan, and I also love Fall Out Boy. And they've launched broadcast channels where the artists can share updates that are, like, exclusive to the community. Like, hey. I'm gonna go live on Sessions Head or, hey. We're dropping merch for the tour, but, like, you guys have the link first before everybody else, or just to, you know, update the community on different things that are going on. I've seen it from artists and Sessions, Even business owners and influencers have launched these broadcast channels. It's almost like an Instagram DM, but to, like, Sessions of people. And you control who can post inside of the broadcast channel.
Tonnisha English-Amamoo [:So, of course, for some of these people with millions of followers, nobody is allowed to post in it like they post. But I have seen broadcast channels that have a little bit more engagement. So that could be a great way to start to create more, close relationships with your followers, and people can opt in. So it's not like you create it and everybody's in there and they're Don get mad about it. People can opt in to to your broadcast channel. So that's something to think about.
Brett Johnson [:Yeah. Sounds like sounds like a lot of bonus content potential Yes. For a podcast or something. Content. Yeah. Right? Yeah. Would you also Yeah. Right? Yeah.
Tonnisha English-Amamoo [:Which also falls into, the subscription on Instagram. I have seen creatives and influencers launch. You know, you can pay, like, 9.99 to get exclusive content. So that's also another route that you can take. I know I've mentioned before being a huge fan of Payne Lindsay that I pay for Tinder Foot TV through, Apple Podcasts. But, you know, if you're able to offer, you know, exclusive content through Instagram, that's a great way to not only grow your community, but potentially grow your following, and, you know, help with that organic reach across the platform.
Brett Johnson [:Right. And I would say the one thing, if you're looking at doing it, and this is not a negative. It's it's reality of it. If you're gonna walk into the space doing it, then you need to be there. Yeah. You gotta be there because people are depending on you to create content that's worth $10 a month to them.
Tonnisha English-Amamoo [:Oh, yeah.
Brett Johnson [:So you just can't it's like, oh, this is a great Idea, then burn out on it in 3 months.
Tonnisha English-Amamoo [:Yeah.
Brett Johnson [:You you have a game plan. Have a I mean, because I love the idea, but you have a game plan. Yeah. Have a game plan and and know that you're gonna live in that space
Tonnisha English-Amamoo [:Mhmm.
Brett Johnson [:From now Don. Yeah. You know? That's a really helpful story. Degree. But, boy, if it works, you do it. I mean Yeah. Why not?
Tonnisha English-Amamoo [:Yeah. Exactly.
Brett Johnson [:Makes
Tonnisha English-Amamoo [:sense. Me personally, that's what I worry about is the burnout. Like, would I be able to create $10 a month worth of cause I mean, in this economy, like $10 maybe isn't a lot in the grand scheme of things. But when you're really, you know, look at your budget, for example, I put a pause on my HBO Max during the writers' strike because none of my shows are even filming right now. So why am I gonna pay this $14, $16 for something I'm not even using? Right. So people you know, even though that may seem small in the grand scheme, it's still another area that I can cut costs. So thinking about that, just like you said, make sure you have a plan if you if you are interested in, bringing people in for that paid subscription.
Brett Johnson [:Plus plus reminding them that you have the new content that they pay for to bring them back in because that's it. That that would be analytics you look at going and go, okay. You have a 100 subscribers, but only maybe 50 are coming in. Right. Well, what's wrong with the other 50%? Mhmm. You know, what's going Don? And will you potentially lose them? Yeah.
Tonnisha English-Amamoo [:Exactly. You
Brett Johnson [:know? So it it's it's it's it's it's not just one little playground. It's like, oh, wait. We still have to bring them in with the new people. And and, but, yeah, it's kinda hard to value what, what is $10 worth to someone.
Tonnisha English-Amamoo [:Yeah. Because for me, like, I like the idea of the broadcast channel because it's basically like a bulletin board, like a digital bulletin board. But I'm not so sure on the Don the subscription part because for me, it's, again, I'm always thinking about, like, what we talked about in our last episode about owning your people. So it's like, why would I use Instagram for exclusive content when I can use maybe a third party, like a Patreon or, you know, adding some exclusive thing on my own website for people to pay to, just in case this platform isn't working or shut down, that people still have access to, you know, the things I want them to have access to.
Brett Johnson [:Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. So there's there's pro there's pros and cons to all of them. And where do you want your your fans to be?
Tonnisha English-Amamoo [:Yeah.
Brett Johnson [:You know?
Tonnisha English-Amamoo [:And
Brett Johnson [:and if and if it's if it's dragging them to a dot com and they really are living in in Instagram Mhmm. Well, then, okay, meet them there. That that that makes sense. That makes sense. But if it's gonna be very difficult to get them to your dotcom because they just aren't using their smartphone that way
Tonnisha English-Amamoo [:Yeah.
Brett Johnson [:So there's a lot of pieces that you need to understand about your audience, what they're doing, what they're not doing. Yeah. Without without it becoming a hurdle Don going, oh, well, this is just too much. I can't do it. Sometimes it's just like, you can't jump in and do it. Yeah.
Tonnisha English-Amamoo [:Just just try and see.
Brett Johnson [:You never know when that party is just gonna pop up and going, wow. This really blew up. This is bad. Yeah. You just gotta try it. Yeah. Exactly.
Tonnisha English-Amamoo [:I would recommend just jumping in there.
Brett Johnson [:Yeah. Exactly. What else you seeing?
Tonnisha English-Amamoo [:Yeah. So I'm also seeing, if anyone has noticed that instead of only having one link in our bio, you can now have up to 5 links in your Instagram bio now. So a lot of people, myself and other clients that I've worked with have used, like, Linktree or, you know, maybe created a hidden page on your website for the links in your bio. But now you can have up to 5, which is great, because I still think there is a place for, like, a Linktree to keep or, you know, a hidden page because you can include those links that are never gonna go away, like the link to your website, maybe a link to subscribe to a YouTube channel or a podcast or a place for exclusive content. But let's say you're having an event, and it's like a one off thing. That way, you don't have to log in to your Linktree to add a link. I'm infamous for, like, adding a link to Linktree, but then forgetting to remove it when the event is over. So if you just, you know, can drop those links in there, those things that may have, like, a a time frame on when this link is necessary, you can use the additional space for.
Brett Johnson [:Okay. Good. Okay. No. That's good. That's good. Yeah.
Tonnisha English-Amamoo [:So I know Yasmine will love this one, that a trend is boosting visibility using SEO on Instagram. So, Sprout had a statistic that said last year, a combined 29% of Gen z and millennials flocked to social media platforms instead of actual search engines to find information. So we are seeing an uptick of people. If you're looking for something, that instead of going to Google or Bing or Yahoo, you're going to a social media platform. And this actually makes sense. Myself being a millennial, I often go to TikTok as a search engine, and Twitter or x or whatever. Mhmm. I think it's mostly because going back to that number 1, the video aspect.
Tonnisha English-Amamoo [:Mhmm. So if you're looking for, you know, how to, you know, cute hairstyles or, you know, concert outfits, or maybe you're looking up quick easy meals. You're you wanted to actually see somebody doing the thing that you're asking for. So I think that's probably where the push is. K. So thinking about that, of course, you wanna find the right, you know, keywords when you're making posts. So, thinking about optimizing your subtitles and your captions on your posts, even following and engaging with similar contacts or or, I'm sorry, similar accounts is going to help, you know, build up your profile. Also, adding that alternative text to your post.
Tonnisha English-Amamoo [:A lot of people don't do this. I'm guilty of, you know, often forgetting to do this, but that's also Don be a great way to help boost your SEO on Instagram, thinking about trends. But, of course, I believe in making sure that the trends still make sense and tied back to who you are as a business owner. Yeah. I think it's okay to, like, you know, maybe do some of the fun stuff here and there, but I wouldn't just hop on every single trend if it doesn't necessarily make sense with what you're doing.
Brett Johnson [:Yeah. It could be a lot of work and a lot of wasted time.
Tonnisha English-Amamoo [:Exactly. A lot of waste of time. And then, you know, thinking about Instagram's official guidelines and Robles, You know, when you break the rules, your your account suffers. And I have also seen because I have a couple clients who, work in the nonprofit space and primarily focus on injustices or, you know, disenfranchised people or issues in the world. And when there's big things going on, like all the wars that we have, Sometimes when we talk about those things, I have seen, Instagram kind of suppress that content a little bit in the beginning. I think not because they don't wanna share it. I do think on the back end, probably their systems are maybe either verifying the information that's being shared, and then also, you know, combing through the information to make sure that whatever you were saying doesn't affect you know, break any community guidelines or cause anybody harm. So thinking about that too when when you're posting content is just being mindful to follow the community Guy, to keep everybody safe, and make it a welcoming space for everybody because Right.
Tonnisha English-Amamoo [:Not doing that will impact your engagement and visibility on the platform.
Brett Johnson [:Right. Right. Makes sense. So I wanna take a a minute. Let's take a look at look at one one old trend that came to mind while we're talking about was the Instagram takeovers. Yeah. So is that still, you know, kind of we're looking backwards now. Is that, are you still seeing takeovers, happening?
Tonnisha English-Amamoo [:Not as much, but that actually goes into the next one where, there have been an increase in people creating brand partnerships and collaborative posting. So instead of me, let's say, you know, I wanna take over an Instagram or let's say we post a video of podcast instead of me posting a piece of content and then you posting a piece of content, I can post it or you can post it. You can add me as a collaborator. So then that way, if people are on my Instagram, they see our post. If they're on your Instagram, they see our post. So then my followers are being exposed to your followers and vice versa.
Brett Johnson [:So you so you're creating a collaborator situation for x amount of time.
Tonnisha English-Amamoo [:So it's actually forever. It's a forever collaborative post in the feed. And I've seen a lot of people do that, which helps to, you know, bring in new eyes to different accounts. A lot of times when I see collaborative posts, I tend to click and see who's all a part of it. And, you know, you may wanna dive deeper and see who the people are.
Brett Johnson [:How do you know that it's a it is that?
Tonnisha English-Amamoo [:So it'll actually show so whoever posted it in the caption, it will just show, like, TJE. Mhmm. And that'll show you that it's a collaborative post.
Brett Johnson [:Nice. Okay. Just just for the sake of everything. And I don't I may have seen it, not thought, but didn't know that it was. But it was moving forward Don. The listeners can kinda go, oh, that's what Tanisha was talking about. This is cool. You know, sort of thing.
Tonnisha English-Amamoo [:That's a great thing to do for if you have guests coming on Mhmm. To say, like, hey. You know? I'm gonna make a post at this time. I'm gonna add you as a collaborator now. The person on the other end does have to accept Circle collaboration invite. But once they accept it, it's gonna show up on both profiles.
Brett Johnson [:Yeah. So if you if you were to remove them as a collaborator, let's say, in a week's time, does that post then go away as a collaborator?
Tonnisha English-Amamoo [:It'll go away for the other person, but it it will still stay on your page.
Brett Johnson [:Whoever initiated. Okay.
Tonnisha English-Amamoo [:Okay. Yeah. Whoever initiated that's that's the word. Whoever initiated it. Okay. But something to note now, hopefully, they fix this. But if you make a post and you go, oh, shoot. I forgot to add this person as a collaborator.
Tonnisha English-Amamoo [:Mhmm. You can't go back and add them. You would have to delete the post and then do it again. So it's different from, like, tagging a person. Mhmm. So you'll see that. When you go to make a post, there will be the option to tag or collaborate. So tagging is, you know, the traditional they're tagged in the post, but that collaborative piece is what you are looking for to make sure it's like a cross, a cross post, in the feed.
Brett Johnson [:Yeah. Yeah.
Tonnisha English-Amamoo [:That's the only thing that sucks is that once you do it, it's over. You gotta, like, go back and start over.
Brett Johnson [:I see so many more benefits. I mean, again, there's always negatives to positive than than the Instagram takeover.
Tonnisha English-Amamoo [:Yeah.
Brett Johnson [:I I like that, you know, because the Instagram takeover always seem to be, to me, a lot of work. Yeah. Okay. Great. But, you know, if you're used to posting a lot on your own Instagram page, that's great, and you just wanna be swimming in a different ocean. Totally get it. But it's that but it does have to make sense why you
Tonnisha English-Amamoo [:did it Right.
Brett Johnson [:Take over. And so maybe a little bit more thought about, okay, this is a whole new audience. How do I talk to
Tonnisha English-Amamoo [:them
Brett Johnson [:Yeah. Eventually. But here at Collaboratively, you already know you have pretty much kinda the same audiences probably. Mhmm. But you're trying to bring them all together. That would be one Oh, I love that. I think that's a very cool idea.
Tonnisha English-Amamoo [:You can collaborate on, you know, if you still wanna do the video piece, you can collaborate on Instagram reels
Brett Johnson [:too.
Tonnisha English-Amamoo [:It's an option. Stories, not quite yet. You can't collaborate, but of course, if you pack somebody in your story, you know, they they can share it. But but right now Don post and reels, you can do that collaboration.
Brett Johnson [:I like it. That's cool. That may be the the strongest one we we're seeing. That's cool. I love it.
Tonnisha English-Amamoo [:Yeah. I've seen
Brett Johnson [:a lot
Tonnisha English-Amamoo [:of that, and I've done it too. I've done it myself, as well. And, yeah, it helps to bring more visibility to your page.
Brett Johnson [:Gotcha. Got it. That's cool. You're almost through your list. Are you are you going through I know. We are You might as
Tonnisha English-Amamoo [:well go.
Brett Johnson [:Yeah. Let's finish it off. Yeah. Yeah.
Tonnisha English-Amamoo [:So this one wasn't really one I thought was super important, but then you kinda mentioned food. So food content is trending on Instagram. So I guess if you're a podcaster that maybe focuses on food or restaurants, they say that, 45% of users, ages 18 to 34, have been interested in vegan
Brett Johnson [:Yeah.
Tonnisha English-Amamoo [:So we believe that the reason why food content may be trending more is because, you know, the economy. People wanna save money and cook at home. Yep. And then also I thought about this. You know, this, millennials, we were coming up on being the new, elders of the family at some point. And, you know, if if your grandma is still here, hopefully, she's able to pass down recipes. Or if not, you know, that's a place that that you're gonna go. So I hosted Christmas for my whole family, this year.
Tonnisha English-Amamoo [:And I definitely utilize Instagram and TikTok looking up recipes to make sure that my mac and cheese was gonna be, you know, spot on, that everybody liked it. You know, I've never I think my first time cooking I'm not a big turkey person, but I cooked the whole chicken for Thanksgiving and I wanted to make sure it wasn't Don to be Guy. I make sure it was seasoned. So, you know, I looked up those recipes online. So, you know, a lot of us are also coming into having families. I've been married for almost 2 years. Now I got 2 kids, so I gotta cook for my family. So I don't know what to cook.
Tonnisha English-Amamoo [:I never cooked before I was married. So, like, what
Brett Johnson [:do I do? And and and then and then the magic of the magic of leftovers after that too. It's like, okay.
Tonnisha English-Amamoo [:What can I do with this?
Brett Johnson [:Making the same meal, and and it's gone. It's like, let's make enough for leftovers, and how do we make you know? Yeah. Tons of Tons. Totally different nuances. Yeah. Exactly.
Tonnisha English-Amamoo [:Yeah. And, you know, even with Gen z, you know, they're coming out of college and moving into their own apartments or homes. And now they're on their own and they Guy to cook their own dinner.
Brett Johnson [:Yeah.
Tonnisha English-Amamoo [:So lots of trending videos and content when it comes to food.
Brett Johnson [:Yeah.
Tonnisha English-Amamoo [:There's also a an opportunity to leverage user generated content. This is number 8. Mhmm. But a lot of people are leveraging user generated content. So even thinking about, like, a restaurant. I actually have a friend who lives in New York, and he started doing this thing on TikTok. And now he has, like, a ton of followers where he goes and tries chicken wings from different places. Mhmm.
Tonnisha English-Amamoo [:And he'll go to, you know, Chinatown or wherever. No matter where he's at, even if he's not in New York, if he's traveling, he's like, oh, they have the best wings. I have to try them. And, of course, now this is, like, content that Wingstop could use or some mom and pop shop can use. Even there's this guy on TikTok named Keith
Brett Johnson [:Lee. Mhmm.
Tonnisha English-Amamoo [:I don't know if you've heard of Keith Lee.
Brett Johnson [:No. No.
Tonnisha English-Amamoo [:But but he is a, I guess, like a TikTok food critic, if you will. And he has true like, he gives honest reviews. If he doesn't like it, he'll say he doesn't like something. If he does, he'll say that he does. And because of his honesty, I mean, he has helped, like, mom and pop restaurants go from, like, 5 customers a day to, like, lines out the door Wow. Just from his reviews. So that's definitely user generated content that people can use. So thinking about if you do have the type of podcast or business where user generated content would be something you could leverage
Brett Johnson [:Yeah.
Tonnisha English-Amamoo [:That is a trend that we're seeing on Instagram.
Brett Johnson [:Even if it's like a piece of your podcast, let's say it's a Mhmm. A You know, that's where and what do we drink? What what coffee
Tonnisha English-Amamoo [:are we
Brett Johnson [:drinking today? That could you could piece that out and maybe do a series of what's the best coffee on the road. You know, who has the best coffee? Sessions or VP or whatever. There are little things that you can pull from it and then Don a full circle kind of feel to it. Yeah.
Tonnisha English-Amamoo [:Definitely. Honestly, that makes sense.
Brett Johnson [:That makes
Tonnisha English-Amamoo [:sense. Many things. I mean Yep. I just thought about, you know, even if you have a business podcast, like what we're doing, talking to business owners and podcasters, if somebody's making a video talking about how, you know, fixing up their website helped them grow their business and they heard about it on the Circle sessions, like, that's something that, you know, we can use as content too. Yeah. Right. And even with there was a podcast I used to listen to. I don't think they're around anymore.
Tonnisha English-Amamoo [:It was called Stride and Sonter. And it was like it was this guy. His name was Kip Clark, I think. And, he his voice was very, like, relaxing and he sent me a DM, and they ended up mailing me a sticker
Brett Johnson [:Oh, no way.
Tonnisha English-Amamoo [:Of the pot like, the podcast. Yeah. And I put it on my laptop at the time and, like, took a picture of it. And they were able to use that on their social media, just like, hey, one of our listeners with our sticker, like a sticker.
Brett Johnson [:So simple.
Tonnisha English-Amamoo [:You know, showing yeah. So simple. So simple.
Brett Johnson [:And it cost Yeah. 10 East Mail. Exactly. You get all that out of it. Yeah. Oh my god.
Tonnisha English-Amamoo [:And it made me feel as a listener, like, oh my gosh. Like, Kip Clark sent me a sticker. And you're Oh, cool.
Brett Johnson [:And you're still talking about it even though the podcast may not be around. Exactly. Yeah. Yep. Yeah.
Tonnisha English-Amamoo [:It worked. It worked.
Brett Johnson [:Yep. Oh my gosh. Yeah. Oh my gosh. Yeah.
Tonnisha English-Amamoo [:And then, lastly, I think all the ones that we talked about so far have been fun and creative creative things to try, but this one is probably the worst trend, is that promotions expand your reach on Instagram, which I think we also knew that that we have to pay to play, which nobody wants to do or enjoys doing. But, Sprout has predicted that we will see more paid promotions across Instagram to help expand reach. Now I think that if you're able to do 1 through 8, then you may not need to necessarily pay to expand your reach. Your audience may do it for you. I mean, I've probably mentioned pain Lindsay on every single Circle sessions episode that I've ever been a part of. Yeah. So even if you didn't know who he was, you've probably gone and looked him up just to see. So I think, you know, when you create those, connections with your audience and you're engaging your community, you're posting good content, people will naturally do that work for you.
Tonnisha English-Amamoo [:They'll promote you just because they like who you are and they enjoy listening to you and being a part of your community.
Brett Johnson [:Yeah. I I you know, I there's not a time that I don't have, and, you know, let's go back to this point that, I'll I'll talk about what I Don. And and, of course, I'm, you know, working with the multiple numbers of podcasters that I work with, but they always comes back to, so what's your favorite podcast? If you can do these little things like this and break to the top of the of the fold of your listeners advocating for you in that conversation, you win. Mhmm. So how do you how do you stay fresh with them? How do you stay that, you know, try to be that top 3 podcast that when someone asks you that what what what are your favorite podcast? That it's right at the tip of your tongue. And it's hard. You'd never you'd never realize that you're doing it. You just Don.
Tonnisha English-Amamoo [:But it
Brett Johnson [:but if that's your goal Yeah. If that's kind of a new back of your mind, create content that is Robles, that people will continue to talk about, that that people feel Mhmm. Like, if I share it, I look smart. Yeah. If you create that and then use all these tools you just talked about in regards to the the trends on Instagram, Use it smartly. Like, yeah, you're right. Number 9, that doesn't necessarily have to come into play. You don't have to pay
Tonnisha English-Amamoo [:Right.
Brett Johnson [:Be there. Now again, maybe there's a special situation. Just wanna break the algorithm kinda, you know what? Let's put a few extra bucks on this. We need to do it. That's okay. That it I think Mhmm. Paying paying for that stuff is justified at some points in time. Sometimes.
Brett Johnson [:Yeah.
Tonnisha English-Amamoo [:Yeah.
Brett Johnson [:But For sure.
Tonnisha English-Amamoo [:But not consistently. It's not. I think there are a lot of other ways If I
Brett Johnson [:feel more fun. It's more fun.
Tonnisha English-Amamoo [:I also, you know, have said this to clients Don, you know, they want to spend money on social media advertising is, you know, let's try all these other things and do them really well. And if we still just can't like break through, then at that point, I think we try paid promotions. But you know, I still have hope in organic reach and I've seen it work and I've seen it, work well for people. So, you know, like you said, special occasion, maybe it's an event or something cool that you're doing on it. Yeah. Yeah. Sure. And also doing paid promotions, being smart about it.
Tonnisha English-Amamoo [:Like, you know, I wouldn't do a paid, you know, there is an option to promote to people that follow you. I would if I had a true crime podcast, I'm promoting to everybody that loves Tenderfoot TV, everybody that loves crime junkies, everybody that was interested in the serial podcast. Like that's what I'm connect that's who I want to reach. People who love that. So even thinking about your, I guess you can technically call them competitors in the podcast space, especially those bigger Robles. Can you promote to their audiences? A lot of times you can do that. You can actually target their audiences. Think about who your ideal listener is and create an audience for them.
Tonnisha English-Amamoo [:So is your ideal listener, you know, moms who are 30 and older who don't have time to, you know, cook meals from scratch.
Brett Johnson [:Right.
Tonnisha English-Amamoo [:And maybe you're offering content that's gonna help make their lives easier, so you wanna promote to those people.
Brett Johnson [:Right.
Tonnisha English-Amamoo [:So if you are gonna pay to play, do it smart.
Brett Johnson [:Right. Exactly. We
Tonnisha English-Amamoo [:talked about smart goals this year.
Brett Johnson [:So Yes. That that is one. Yeah. Exactly. It's it's very easy to buy this stuff and you think it's gonna okay. Just put $20 again. So whatever, you know you know, whatever the thing is. That doesn't mean it's, you know, $20.
Brett Johnson [:Yeah. It's easy to pull the trigger on 20, $25, $30, whatever. But Right. You do that multiple times, all of a sudden, you're looking as, like, wow, we spent $500 over the last 2 months. What do we got from it? Yeah. That's that that it starts to turn into real money. Real money that, is it better spent somewhere else that, okay, maybe have a budgeted, but that doesn't mean you should spend it that way. Just it's it always evaluate.
Brett Johnson [:It's it's the smart goals. Exactly. It goes right back to that episode we did about smart goals. You know, you said the beginning of this where of of your, you know, of your beginning of your year, whatever. Here's what you wanna do. Is it counter or is it helping push it?
Tonnisha English-Amamoo [:Yeah. Guy,
Brett Johnson [:you know, that little extra push. Yeah. So, Yeah. How can, a listener get a hold of you, especially, you know, maybe they wanna talk a little bit more about that collaborator that you did and and how you did it. How can they get a hold of you to talk to you a little bit more about how you had did what you did, why you did it, and and what were the results?
Tonnisha English-Amamoo [:Yes. So you can find me at tjecommunications.com and schedule a free 15 minute consultation. I do them every Tuesday, and I'm also on social media as Tonnisha J English Amamoo or TJECOM. That's tjecomm.
Brett Johnson [:Great. Then you can, connect with me if you'd like to talk more about this or your podcast, you know, again, any ideas that you want to move forward with, you know, hey. I've got a podcast, and it's like, but weird. Something you said in that episode with Tanisha that we'd like to pull this and do this. Yeah. Get a hold
Tonnisha English-Amamoo [:of me.
Brett Johnson [:I'll bring Tonnisha along too, and and let's let's let's expand on this and figure out how you can make it work. My calendar is available at Circle 270mediapodcastconsultants, business website. That's at Circle 270media.com. Or if it's easier to remember, just go to my podcast Guy com as well too. So, Tanisha, thanks. This was a great list. I I'm excited to see how this comes out in the years time and and to and to look at Instagram a little bit differently.
Tonnisha English-Amamoo [:Yes. Thank you for having me. This was great.
