#86 - From Full InstaGram Breakup to Reconnection - Pt 2. The Execution

What if taking a break from Instagram could actually transform your business strategy? Join me as I share my personal journey of stepping away from Instagram for two years, only to return with a strategic vision and a clear purpose. 

SUMMARY

In this episode, I discuss my experiences with Instagram as a marketing tool for my business. I emphasize the importance of cultivating genuine connections over garnering thousands of followers and share my plans to limit my screen time on Instagram and explore other platforms, like Pinterest.

Listen to part 1. HERE.

FULL SHOW-NOTES WITH TAKEAWAYS

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BEST QUOTE FROM THE EPISODE

"Instagram will always have to be just a small part of how I reach my potential customers."

LINKS

• Notion
• Bullet Journal Method
• Instagram
• Pinterest

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:03

Hi, welcome. We are at episode 86, and it's actually the second one in a series of two, so if you haven't heard the first one, you can go back and listen to it, or you can just listen to this one. Today I'm talking about from full Instagram breakup to reconnection, or is it Part two, the execution? So part one was the experiment. I'm talking about why I decided to go back to Instagram, and today I, after actually what like a long hiatus two years and now I am back, and I have been back for about six months. I thought it was a good time to do this episode. I was planning to do a three month experiment, like I had done with TwitterX, but it turns out that I only came to do this episode right now. And even now it's like it's such a huge one Because what I did is I took voice notes along the way.

Speaker 1: 1:07

I had my on the road recorder in the drawer of my desk, and every time that I wanted to share something, I recorded it on my phone, and I also recorded it on my phone without the mic, and so I ended up with lots and lots of great notes but horrible sound quality, because they are so different from each other and I'm not a sound editor, and although AI is amazing when it comes to these things, I just don't have the time to make it all amazing, and I know that it doesn't have to be, and I'm the kind of creator that is okay with things not being perfect. At the same time, I do not want you to be annoyed with sound that goes in all the directions. I'd rather that you just get something from this. I did work with AI and I had all the little bits transcribed, and now I'm going to share with you what I gained from this experience so far, how I have set up myself for quote unquote success. So I'm ready to share all of this with you. It's an ongoing process. Honestly, it's been a ride and it still is, and I'm not sure about a lot of things, but even if I had no conclusions whatsoever, just sharing my experience so far with you, I am sure you'll get something out of it. I know for a fact that lots of people like you in a small business small business owners are struggling with social media and Instagram specifically because they are so aware that it takes away so much of their time, are so aware that it takes away so much of their time. But it's just like it's this fight that we cannot seem to win, and I happen to believe there's ways that we can make that fight a little bit easier. So I'm here to give you some swords, some gusto, some motivation, some muscle power to deal with it. Hopefully you'll let me know if there was something that spoke to you, and I can't wait to hear about your thoughts. So let's just jump into it. This is very unscripted, except for my notes. I'm going to be myself, like I usually am, and I'm just going to go get my notes, but before that, hello and welcome.

Speaker 1: 3:57

My name is Saskia and this is Pattern Shift. Are you running a textile craft or business or dreaming of starting one? Whether you are trying to make a living or something extra on the side, turning from crafter to business owner can be a steep learning curve. It doesn't have to be With 16 years of experience in running small businesses in textile crafts and the drive to build a solid alternative to fast fashion. My mission is to provide you with no BS, actionable exercises and strategies in a language that makes sense to you, that you can implement right away, so you can organize, build and grow your business holistically. Don't burn out before you get started. Build a solid base with the help of Pattern Shift Podcast and the Yavo community and its programs. All right, let's get going. So I'm going through the steps that I took and the things that I did to get where I am today. We'll see what I have experienced so far.

Speaker 1: 5:02

So when I decided to sign up for Instagram, it didn't really go well. I think I'm blacklisted or something. It took days to figure out how to actually open an account. I had to use a completely new email address and find some workarounds, because they were not letting me in. It took also a little bit of time before I found a name that worked and that was easy to find, and I ended up with using my own name and using underscore pattern shift, so people would be able to find me through my brand name and the podcast name and, of course, my own full name, which I've always been wondering. Should I just switch to like what they call a personal brand? But, yeah, no, probably not, not.

Speaker 1: 6:12

And once I got in, it was a little bit complicated because I really needed to figure out what was my goal there, what would be my strategy, one way that I figure things out like that is I make myself worksheets. I just love a worksheet. A worksheet gives me the promise of making things more clear, less cluttered, less chaotic. So I went on to Notion my second love after Bullet Journal, and I crafted a page where I answered some questions to myself that were really significant in deciding how I was going to do this. At some point I might share this page. It's a little bit too hefty to be like a free download. So at one point I might put it up for sale for a couple of quid, like not a lot, but I have to put in some hours to make it usable for everyone. And, yeah, it makes sense that we do a little bit of a trade there. So if you're interested in learning about the worksheet that helps you to build a strategy a minimal strategy on Instagram, let me know, and if there's a lot of people that are interested, I will put it out there.

Speaker 1: 7:34

So I decided on a static grid, which basically is, as a first step, the view you get on your phone the amount of squares on your grids. Those are the amount of squares that you actually make and put up, nothing more. So it's static, it doesn't grow, and what is best about that is that you don't have that push of always having to make content at multiple levels, because Instagram is about stories, it's about your posts, it's about your reels and that's three elements where you feel like you have to constantly be producing. I came into this with a minimalist approach. I at first didn't want to fully immerse myself into Instagram the way I had been in the past, because that was not healthy, it was toxic, it was such a time consuming monster I went away for a reason. So, with this minimal mindset, my thinking was when people are hearing about the podcast or about my brand or about my offer, lots of people go to Instagram before they even go to Google and find the website. So I thought I wanted to at least cover that and have a presence like a brand presence on Instagram. That was my first idea.

Speaker 1: 9:21

So to have a good brand presence, like a minimal presence, you have to have a bio that talks about what you do, how you do it and how people can get to you. Basically, it's also what we do in the business circle. We craft a sentence that really gets all of that in there and that sentence you can use wherever and it's just a great quick way of letting people know who you are, what you do and how they can get your stuff. So there's that your bio, then your and then your avatar. Is it going to be your logo? Is it going to be your face? I always say use your face, because we are people and people like to work with people and not with corporations. So if you use a logo, then you're not connecting on a people level. Use a logo, then you're not connecting on a people level, but show your face. Yeah, I mean, it's a whole new episode, so I'll just leave it at that.

Speaker 1: 10:36

And then the static grid is basically what I did is use my landing page and a homepage of my website to craft a website like grid. So each tile represents the about page, my mission, my vision, all of the different elements that we build in the business circle, in the chapter around your website, and it's basically then just a copy paste thing where all you need to do is figure out how do you want the tiles to represent you, and for me that was easy because I have done a photo shoot. I need to book a new one, it's been a few years Pictures of, and I have amazing illustrations and I could just use both of them in a grid that made it look consistent with my brand, also showing who I am, what kind of person I am, what kind of aesthetic matches my brand, and have immediately an idea of what Yavol is like and what it is that I offer. And that was quickly done. I would say. I mean I named the worksheet Insta in a day. Have to be honest, it took a week, but I mean a week with all the other things that are going on in a life with a family. So I think it's pretty good to have like a thought through conscious branding presence on Instagram within a week, and then including all the struggle of even landing on Instagram and getting my account going. So that was the first big step.

Speaker 1: 12:35

So when I got my account, I was getting ready to set it up. So I had all the information, I had my photos and my text and everything was ready to go. It was just going to be a matter of copy pasting and my thinking was I'm going to let it drip and I'm going to use a scheduling app so that I don't have to be there, I don't have to have it on my phone. It'll just like drip a new tile every day for the next 15 days. I think I have 15 tiles, so 15, I guess if you have a smaller phone it's nine or something, I don't know. That's worth figuring out, by the way, I just went with 15. So just clarifying that, so that you don't have to scroll, like it's like a static grid and without scrolling, you see everything. That's the idea, yeah.

Speaker 1: 13:36

So I got ready to set it up with a scheduler app or website and it didn't work. I had to sign up for Facebook in order to get the Instagram scheduler. It was all very sucky and I hated it, fighting my own urge to just give it all up. But then again, this is my experiment and I really needed to know if I was missing out, if my idea of Instagram has changed over the years and especially if I work with people that use Instagram basically as their whole marketing plan. I had to be closer to it. So I pushed through and I actually signed up for bloody Facebook. Pushed through and I actually signed up for bloody Facebook, and then I ran into the trouble of not being able to schedule it.

Speaker 1: 14:36

What I ended up doing is getting the app on my phone. I didn't want it on my phone, I wanted to keep it strictly for business, so doing Instagram on my desktop alone when I am working, not on my phone, because I didn't want Instagram to be entertainment for me. It needed to be connected to my work, and that wasn't how that wasn't. It wasn't working the way I planned it to. So I put the app on my phone and I manually dripped a post every day until it was the new year, if I remember correctly, I think in the new year, when it was January 1st, I was fully present on Instagram the way I had planned, and that was that.

Speaker 1: 15:36

But then the actual being on Instagram started. So I had all these ideas of what could be the minimal way of doing things. I'm not going to follow people, because then there's going to be lots of interaction, and I'm not sure if I want that, because then I mean, I know this sounds so, so even unprofessional to some, but I want interaction with people for work. I want interaction with people for work. I just want the social a little bit disconnected from the work, and I wasn't completely sure how I was going to deal with daily messages in the DM with people that are actually also in my contact list on my phone, right, but it's just, it's different feeling. So I decided to move slowly, not follow a lot of people, and I started to feel guilty about that because they were starting to follow me.

Speaker 1: 16:42

The algorithm was very curious, by the way, because I put on my bio. I think my bio was on there for perhaps two days before I uploaded the tiles, the grids, and I had two friends who I told that I was going to be back on Instagram just so I could have two people watching what was happening and giving me some feedback from the other side. And I was just going to wait and see if people would find me just based on my bio. And they didn't. So it was two friends and my two kids for quite a while, and then the algorithm sent four people in my direction. Interestingly, these were all already my clients. So I asked them how did you know that I was going to come back? And they say well, they offered you as an option. We just saw Instagram told us that we might like to follow you. How interesting is that? Right Does make me feel a little bit conspicuous. Then there were my clients and then slowly from thereed. Now, six months later, let me check. This is another thing. I will tell you about that later. I cannot check at the moment because and this is maybe the biggest result of all of it I just uploaded a screen time app on my phone so I wouldn't go into Instagram. So there's your conclusion peeking through.

Speaker 1: 18:39

But going back to that first month actually is where I didn't post anything. I just meant for my account to be static and just there for those that needed information or wanted to go a little bit deeper into knowing what I'm doing. Bit by bit, I got new followers, but it was very slow, very, very slow. And what's also quite frustrating is that the information I shared under or along with the tiles, with the pictures and illustrations on the grid, didn't get. I think I got one comment or something. Almost no likes. There wasn't any interaction. Only months later, when new people are starting to find me, some people will comment on. They will say, oh, that's a really nice picture of you. But it's been very disappointing in terms of reactions that I got from the static grid, but that's okay, because I don't get reactions to my homepage either.

Speaker 1: 20:00

After a while I started to step back into using stories and I started with sharing whenever I had a new episode out, and I did it very sparingly and realized that I was looking at stories more than making them. At one point, a big part of my strategy was making conscious decisions Am I here to follow? Am I here to be found? Am I here to communicate and connect to people? In the beginning, I wasn't thinking about connection as much, but then what started happening is that people would react to my stories and I would get people in my DMs, and there's no way you will ever ignore that as a small business owner, unless you get so many DMs that it's not doable. And then you redirect people to your email or whatever. It could be a choice, but at that point I felt really guilty for not engaging and it didn't feel right. So I started engaging. I don't think I got a lot more followers from engaging or because they were already following me.

Speaker 1: 21:28

I think one of the most important things to say here, without really falling into too much detail about this, is I don't need heaps and heaps of followers. I just need a couple of clients each year and I need people to sign up for the community, not just for the money, but because that connects to my mission of connecting business owners and people that want to become business owners in the textile and craft community. I want to connect them and work together so that we don't have to reinvent the wheel every single time. So that is why I'm there trying to talk to people that might want to come into my community, so they don't have to be thousands and thousands of people. I don't need thousands and thousands of followers, I just need a few, and then, hopefully, people are happy with what I offer them and they talk to other people and then, slowly and steadily, my community, my platform and my business can grow. And I don't need this to be fast, because it's just me and I need to be able to provide good stuff to people. So that's really important to know. It's not about collecting thousands and thousands of likes and people and followers. It's about finding those few people that really connect to what you're doing, and I can have a hundred followers. That that would be enough, just depending on how many people would actually sign up for a newsletter and then, from my newsletter, go into the community and so on and so forth.

Speaker 1: 23:22

Slowly but steadily, instagram grabbed hold on my life again, because the twitch in my thumb was still there, like the muscle memory of my thumb. Going back to the app is still there. If I don't have the app on my phone, I won't post anything, and I'm already now starting to believe that I have to post more, so it's creeping back again. I still fully believe the false belief that you constantly have to share things, and the really interesting and also kind of weird thing is that I kind of like producing this small short form video content. I can do a really good job if I really spend time doing it, but I don't want to spend that much time and I do an okay job making stuff and sharing things if I just do it quickly. Now I'm working from home, so I don't do a full head of makeup every day, and making short videos is something that I used to just do whenever and wherever, and that's the way I can do it.

Speaker 1: 26:28

Well, whenever I get an idea, I want to share that I don't have it planned and organized, like a lot of the other things in my business, Because when I do organize it, my brain tells me to go somewhere else and do something else. So the best way that I can show up on social media is spontaneously, in the moment, when I have an idea and when it's a good time for me to just do that. But then again, I don't want to be the puppet. I want to be the puppeteer. I want to decide when and how and if the app's on my phone, I'm just following like a zombie, following the rest of people online and doing the same thing. I need to remember that it's all about. What does it actually bring you? And can I say after six months that I've had a whole bunch of new followers.

Speaker 1: 27:41

It took me six months and not a whole lot of effort and a static profile to get 272 followers. Now, how many people signed up for my newsletter? Because that was my main goal, right? No, my second goal. So main goal was people will be able to find me, and the second goal was getting people to sign up for my newsletter or listen to the podcast. So I'm using Flowdesk, which is great, and I made a form and I can see how many people signed up through Instagram in the last six months, and that is 10 people. I know, shocking, right? Just 10 people signed up.

Speaker 1: 28:39

And what I did was I shared a link to what essentially is the first part of this two-part episode and why I'm back on Instagram and I didn't share it on a podcast and I thought that would be interesting for people to hear. Right, why did I return after two years away and really doubting if it was two years or not and people weren't that interested? Because Instagram is all about scrolling and clicking and I think we need to remind ourselves that we trust it to be more than it actually is and we are not so conscious about what it does for us. We are used to using it, about what it does for us. We are used to using it. We are used to doing what other businesses like us are doing and we just follow the vibe of what the people in our bubble are doing. And it makes sense. But it also is really good to sit down and really think it through. Sit down and really think it through.

Speaker 1: 29:58

Like I had those questions for myself in my Instagram a day worksheets, I needed to really work out what I wanted from it and test it out and actually do something with the numbers. So six months just basically. In the end, I spent, I think, about four months doing stories I have. I think you can count the reels that I made on one hand. Oh, it's a little bit more, that's not bad. Let me see Eight, 10, 22. I made 22 reels. None of them got comments. No, not a single comment on my reels, and I'm sure a lot of you have much more successful numbers than this. But I wanted to show you a zero count, like from nothing, coming from nowhere, starting with nothing and being realistic about what you can achieve.

Speaker 1: 31:04

But things did change after a while and I want to share you what my biggest takeaway was from want to share you what my biggest takeaway was from being on Instagram and what helped me more than anything Actually going outside and meeting people on a festival, on an event, in a shop, in a shop, talking to actual people that are my clients, that could be my clients, and when I went to the Wedding Wool Weekend in Berlin, that's when I got my most followers. Because what I did then was I recorded an episode with multiple interviews with business owners. I sent them an email. In that email, I shared images that they could share on Instagram. I shared a link to the episode and then I talked about it on my stories and I made a little video about it, which I shared on YouTube and on Instagram, and then all of that together started to move things along. But what's happening is that I'm talking to new people in the DMs, but also in email, and it's about the actual connections that I've made in real life. Of course, making connections can happen online and it has happened to me. I've made so many friends in my first Instagram periods and still am friends with a lot of them. But that is more of a social kind of situation and that could be business as well, obviously.

Speaker 1: 33:08

But what I'm saying is that Instagram alone doesn't offer as much as you might think. Basically, what we've known about marketing forever, it's a combination of things, it's the marketing mix. It's not just one thing, it is repetition, it is connection over different channels, over different moments, using different ways of communicating and then bringing that all together. And obviously this can be your strategy having Instagram as one of the elements in what you do, to make yourself seen and to connect to your future clients. That is a great idea. Actually, it is a great idea to make it part of what you do, but don't rely on Instagram as your sole marketing tool.

Speaker 1: 34:08

It seems easy. It looks like people. It seems easy. It looks like other people are doing it too. A lot of them are, but also a lot of other brands are using it as just one part of what they do your whole marketing plan then you immediately know that you cannot spend hours and hours on Instagram, because the other parts need attention and time as well. So, finding out a way that you can be there, be present, without eating you alive and without seeping into your personal life too much if that is not what you want then you have to really take some steps and make some decisions and have some protocols in place.

Speaker 1: 35:04

I mean, it sounds serious, but let's get into what I am now deciding to do. So I've seen what works. I see that I get more from the reels. I get with the reels, people outside of my bubble get to see me just a little bit, and what I can do is repurpose short form videos on more channels. So my plan for the future is to make smart use of short form videos and spread them on YouTube and on Instagram and on other places where it makes sense, even in my newsletter, but make sure that you can use it on multiple platforms. And then the biggest thing I guess is having a screen time app. I have already caught myself a couple of times. I uploaded it yesterday and there is just a lot of twitching thumb behavior during the day from me to go to Instagram and see what's going on and basically I'm just looking at llamas and alpacas and little dogs more than anything else. So it needs to become part of my workday and focused around my work. I can do so many other things in the time that I waste there and this is not news. We all already know that. What is hopefully news to you is that you actually have to do some work and make some decisions and ask yourself some questions around conscious behavior of Instagram and realize that it's not just Instagram you can rely on.

Speaker 1: 37:01

You have to spread your communication and marketing and branding attempts over multiple platforms inside your computer and outside, and what that means for you is different. Everyone has different customers, different clients. Everyone has different needs personally. So it is your journey to find out what works for you, but for crying out loud, think it through. Don't just follow the rest of the herd. Be the black sheep and be the one that's different and be the one that thinks things through, because we don't know if something is successful if we don't measure the results. I have 10 people in six months that ended up on my email list and of course, you can argue and you can say this. I'm saying it to myself Maybe they're not all that into you, could be, definitely could be, as everybody is all about. You should be on Instagram because that's where your people are and that is true. Instagram is where the textile craft people hang out.

Speaker 1: 38:20

So I needed to be there, I needed to check it out, but I have found that if I really want to build a list of people that are actually interested in what I have, I have to connect to them in real life in different ways, on different accounts, and just on Instagram is not enough. I am not happy with people scrolling by. I'm not even happy with the heart. I am happy with the conversations that are starting to happen in the DMs that are more about the actual work than my conclusion is. I have to have it on my phone to be able to do the short form videos in the most easy way. That works for me, but I need to limit it.

Speaker 1: 39:20

So for me, a screen time app will hopefully do the trick and it's just the first day, but it will hopefully do the trick and then Instagram will always have to be just a small part of how I reach my potential customers and I don't want it to interfere in everything that I do. I see it happen to my kids and it's so frustrating. I need to show them. I need to show them that we can do it a little bit more wisely and not have breakfast on Instagram, because that's what's happening right. So I hope you got something from this. Okay, so basic things. I need to set boundaries to keep it a healthy, healthy, consistent thing.

Speaker 1: 40:20

I've realized that just a static grid is the basics and I could go. Now that I have my account, the static grid not doing any videos, not doing any stories is what I can go back to whenever I want. I just stop posting. I love the static grid. I would say to anyone and everyone that is not using Instagram but is feeling pushed to do something, but is feeling pushed to do something if you feel like you should be on Instagram but you kind of don't want to, if you are a very private person, if you do not want to show your face in short form, videos or anything like that, try that static grid. If you feel like not being on Instagram is not smart, I don't really believe that. I think you don't need it at all.

Speaker 1: 41:25

The minimalist approach got me 10 new email subscribers and I'm not ashamed to say these numbers. I have 200 something. I don't even know it by heart. How many followers do I have? 227. And it's been like that for days I think weeks even. And it's not a big deal because it's realistic and it's something that we forget about.

Speaker 1: 41:50

If you have built a follower list over the years, I used to have like the top was 7,000 and then I threw it all away. And that's fine, because lots of those people didn't see what I was doing anyway. They weren't interesting. It's just vanity numbers, as they call it. And at least now, with this link set up to my flow desk, I can really see what's happening and it's not a whole lot. And it's great to have chatty conversations in the DMs, but it's better if they're about what you're doing and mix it with chattiness and friendliness, because we don't have to be super businessy all the time. That's not my point.

Speaker 1: 42:35

But why am I on Instagram? Not to hang out with my friends. That's not why I'm there and that's the result of my conscious thought around. This could be different for you, but the thing is, the end thing is think about it, don't just follow everyone. So what's next for me? On Instagram? I already told you I think I'm figuring out the short video way short form video and seeing if I can multipurpose that on different platforms. But for the summer period, I will retreat from Instagram for a while and probably have a little bit of a promo for something I'm working on Summer school and I'll retreat from Instagram and then I'll probably come back after summer. But I think it's important to have breaks. So summer break and winter break around Christmas those are kind of my moments every six months to get away from it all. And I'll do the same with the podcast. I'll have a break over summer and I'll be back. So don't worry, I'll be back. I love podcasting.

Speaker 1: 43:53

My next experiment is going to be all about Pinterest. I'm going to focus on Pinterest more than the other platforms so that I can see what that does to my subscribers, because subscribers are people that are actually interested. Followers are scrollers until they subscribe. Somebody that subscribes to your email is closer to you, is interested and has more potential for becoming your customer. So it's important to know. How long have I been chatting Ages? Oh God, I have to edit this Pinterest next thing that I will figure out and I'll let you know how that goes. There is not a lot of communicating on Pinterest, so that should be healthy. Healthy, let's see. Let's see.

Speaker 1: 44:57

So again, if you want to, if you want me to share that Instagram in a day slash week worksheet that can help you set up your basic minimalist Instagram strategy, then let me know, and you can do that by clicking the voicemail button on patternshiftcom and at the episode page, or you can send me an email info at ja-volcom, or you can come by and hang out with me. I'm in Rotterdam, just let me know. Yep, that's it. Okay, have fun, have a great summer and I'll be back at some point. I didn't have the day in front of me. This is it for now. Bye. Ps.

Speaker 1: 45:41

I've just used flow desks, as I was talking about before. Love the flow desk. Ps. You can get 50% discount on the show note page and there is actually what I'm talking about. You can click to show your interest in the. I've renamed it now it is called the Instant Minimalist Insta Worksheet. So if you have interest in this, then you can click there and flowdesk will let me know, and you will get an email as soon as I've made it. And as soon as I see that lots of people have interest, there you go.

Speaker 1: 46:23

You can do the same. You can use flowdesk for your emails. You can use it like I just did. They even have a landing page. So if you are a designer and you need a page for yourself and you also want to build your audience because Instagram and Ravelry will only take you so far you have to take care of yourself. I mean, this is an episode in the making. I will talk about this a lot, but not now. I just want to let you know that with Flowdesk, you have this all-in-one solution. I'll give you 50% off with my code. I will get something for that too. It is no extra cost to you and just check it out, see if it's something that might work for you and, I think, especially for designers. It's great. You can just sell your designs on that landing page and, at the same time, have an all-in-one solution for your emails as well. So just wanted to add this have a great summer. Bye.