Skip to main content

Brainstorming Ideas with Students

Lesson 16 from: Sell More With Instagram

Sue B. Zimmerman

Brainstorming Ideas with Students

Lesson 16 from: Sell More With Instagram

Sue B. Zimmerman

buy this class

$00

$00
Sale Ends Soon!

starting under

$13/month*

Unlock this classplus 2200+ more >

Lesson Info

16. Brainstorming Ideas with Students

Lesson Info

Brainstorming Ideas with Students

talk with Johnny's. In case you haven't noticed. Okay. All right. So I'm excited, Teoh. So merchandising is what we're talking about. That was May being sue be doo. And that's why I am in the summer. And chocolate Johnny brought How many kilos of chocolate? 16 kilos, which is £30 legal, doesn't it? 16 kilos of chocolate. We've, I think, eating How much weight? Already? Three K lines. £6. Okay, so So what you need to know before we started is that creativelive. I'm like, OK, we need bowls, we color we We need stuff to merchandises chocolate because it's flat. It's just it's chocolate. I mean, it's delicious, and it's beautiful, but it's chocolate. Did you bring freckles too? Yeah, I've got the Aussie freckles that we did. That was one of my questions. Yeah, because chocolate is milk dark. Why, There's not much color in there. So how I need you the merchandising expert? Yeah. We're gonna have fun right now with this to teach the guy who's got no merchandising. Oh, I like how you brought ...

that. Yeah. Okay, so, um, first, we're gonna take everything out. You want to help you? Yeah. Okay. So freckles are the color Sprinkles that talk that Johnny puts on top of his chocolate. And so we kind of scurried around creativelive and we grab some in the kitchen and the bowls, and we got plants. And so whether you're making chocolate or you're selling jewelry, I always think glass bowls are awesome because you can see through them. You can also put them upside down, and sometimes you can even do something like that. So, um and I'm gonna open anything. Yeah. Why don't you just, like, take things out? No, this is representational of stirring the chocolate and the special er and licking the chocolate. And then obviously you're measuring. They measure so way still do that artisan, handmade, handcrafted product. And when I take a photo, I want people to see that. That's what we do. So my problem is I can't I don't know how to merchandise it. Yeah, And it wasn't until I saw what you did on one of your instagram. Martin had a merchandise that I posted something weeks ago and I got 20 likes. And then when I changed it and did what you said to do, I got 105 likes. Okay, so what? 30 lady came in ordered todo Remember, you said use the natural light going. Okay. Another thing I don't like is plastic. Yeah, Okay, let's take Let's take this out. It will photograph because even when my products come wrapped like some of the bags that I buy come in plastic and a lot of retail's keep them on the shelf in plastic, and I just feel like it's made in China cheap, like it doesn't feel you can't touch it and see it. The plastic prohibits you from touching it and looking at it. So I would put these on a white background because of the freckles and, um, the right way, the wrong way. But that's fine, Really. Australia's like that when you look at it, but the molds wrong way around. Okay, so this and I wouldn't actually let people and where you are, everyone would know this shape, right? Yeah. OK, so he's taking out hearts, which they look beautiful. Okay, so I might even put something like this in a plant. Who's ever plant this is it might have freckles on that. One more done, but I love them, so it's giving it height. And, um, we brought out the globe because I thought It's representational Johnny. Since he came all the way from Australia, we could even find out that we could figure out how to use that. This is us just being creative quickly. And as we're talking to crafters again, I think having having flat and having height just like I'm thinking of flowers. A flower bed, you know, low, low ground, cover medium and then high. Well, you'd have the grasses. It's kind of the same as an artist and merchandising and really giving a feeling of what you're selling. Does this make sense? Why is this important for Instagram? Because obviously you could take pictures of the individual products and you can list them. Why is merchandising important? Because I think the more you spend, the more time you spend making your photos stand out and look different than the actual product flat. It's it's more enticing, Teoh. The curiosity is higher. You'll definitely double tap stop and you know, if you don't know what freckles are, you might say, What are freckles here? We call him Sprinkles. We don't come for Jimmy's and John says we call them hundreds of thousands in Australia and yeah, but that's what you taught made. I don't know. It broke. I think we need to eat this one. That's what's who taught me to do was make my photo become alive and tempt. When you When I took that first batter, nothing happened. When then I listened to what she said and moving it and putting it in getting it right, just click yachting. Hi, This is my chocolate caramel thing. This is actually something I've read about you on Instagram that this recipe of the almond nuggets are years about 50 years old, 50 years old. Okay, so that should be said on your back, like you don't have anything saying like how ancient this recipe is and that's pretty impressive. So I would definitely have that be a signature item. I would also. So I would take the white yummy candy. You guys can all taste this. I know you're salivating out there and put it on the freckles because now we're putting white on color, and it's just giving it a sense of it's all coming together in a really creative way. I don't think we need all of these. So let's take that. Um And then he mentioned earlier that he just like the Easter Bunny. We have Easter bunnies. He's decided Teoh make a mold of the koala. But this is a certain breeds. It's called a caramel quality. Very rare in Australia. So there's only one caramel Colin. It's at a place called Perfection. Chocolates in Sydney, Australia. I actually eat it. I would have you go. I would have eucalyptus trees in your shop. And how have these chocolate kangaroo? Um, quality. They're like, Do you have a eucalyptus in your shop? No. Okay, so get some eucalyptus. Yeah, Yeah. See, I'm putting a little quality is if they're eating the eucalyptus. I'm just kind of bringing the whole story around. They're cute. Okay, if I wanted, if I wanted to just do that. Carol. Mark Wallace and not everything else. I still bring als, the other not the other products, but the other, You know, the globe and all this type of stuff. Yeah. I mean, I brought the globe just because it's Johnny and he's from Australia. I thought that was fun. More I don't like I don't like things like this. Like for jewellery makers. I don't like the, um the things that you get at the store, like the necklace like I don't put the necklace with those called those props for necklaces and people put plates on these. I would rather find unique things to put necklaces on. So it just doesn't feel mass produced like you're at the jewelry store. You want to feel like they're at your store. So let's let's get rid of that photographing your product So you do me every time I get something in new. I'm definitely taking pictures, and whether I'm gonna use it that day, it's in my camera roll. So this is like talking about planning and taking pictures because you can always delete photos. Eso I'm always armed with great photos all throughout the summer. I you know, so products is absolutely important for us. I would even put this here and, um, when we open up one morning and I would the customers are equally is important for me and my experience. So whether you have a service face if you have a service based business and you aren't with your customer, but they buy your product. You want to ask them? Maybe they would take a 15 2nd video and send it to you holding your e book graphics or or talk about you with your hash tag. Um, and if you guys throw ideas at me like what? Can I do it from X? I pretty sure I'm pretty sure I can come up with a solution. I really think there's always a way to sell what you do and whether it's with physical products or services. You can definitely do that. We had a suggestion for for Johnny came in from one of our viewers. They're just saying, Why don't you write your hashtag in chocolate on? Put that on the I told him that I was way ahead in here. Okay, I think this is what I'm first. When I was first introduced to suit a zoo, a gift I put on a big white board, All right, hash tag, instigate alive. And you know I love you and stuff like that. And she was fantastic. You can You should get in it. Ready? Oh, yeah. Nice. Good. Okay, So that's what I would do with chocolate. That's flat. And you know what? I mix it up a little bit. Can I? Sorry. Oh, How would you then you take a photo off this gun? It was with us, but yeah, So I if the girls So it quickly took a fight and shiny what it would look like. Okay. Oh, on instagram. Okay. So, seriously, just want to jump up and take a couple of quick shots, and then you have sues other stuff. Not with just with how would you Would you take a fun talk to everyone here as a photographer? Because this is your more than May. He wants to leverage us so that he could fell more on instagram. So let's think about what elements here, and we can create a dip tick. Or we could just get them in your phone so that the first thing is I would get a camera app that takes a decent photo the after I post the ring shot. There have been a lot of questions, so if you just get I use camera. Plus, that's an app that love. You don't need anything fancy. So I would get camera plus and then all you're gonna do is get close. If I was doing this, I would definitely like we talked about do a big group shot. So we'll do that right now. And the thing to remember is, when you're in an app like this, yeah, um, it's shooting in a rectangular format and you have to remember that if you're using an outside camera app, if it's in that rectangular format is going to a square and instagram, you're gonna lose the top in the bottom of the Florida or you can go toe instance size. It's a free app that you can use to keep that rectangular photo and still use it in Instagram instance size Johnny, will you, like, angle this up towards me a little bit? So then now what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna angle lift it up a little higher in that much. So I'm gonna take the photo. I'm gonna make sure there's some things in the background to give me depth and interest. You get those qualities right, Those air. So, like I love it. Yes. So I think for you taking your chocolate out of the packaging and bringing it to life in some way with dimension and having it out so people can actually taste it. I'm sure you do. That s o with. And then I could do a 15 2nd video. Hey, this is our new guard. This is a okay, thank you so much. So we're gonna just brainstorm a little bit. And for me, brainstorming means like, really talking about some of these events because there's themes going on all year that you can leverage in instagram. And there's hashtags around every single holiday that you, as a business owner, could also be using. So whether you want to create a discount code using Camba or use wrapping paper for that time of year ribbon, you know, hand written notes I love on instagram. You know this app so you can get the hand written note. But if you have really great handwriting and you want to just write something on a post it note, you can put that with your product and what you're thinking, and I'm just thinking of this love mason jar thing. You said that I was looking at you. But just like that hand right, written, I feel that you could tag your photo with um, there's all kinds of ways that you can really be creative. Does anyone have any ideas that they want to share that work for them with how their branding themselves with photos and images? I know that we did a couple of stages here, but I'm interested, actually. To hear you are jewelry and work with jewelry, you have Mike their second. So how did that set up their work for you? Is that something you've attempted yourself? Yeah, I do a lot of shows on the weekends at my craft payers and artisan events. And I implement I don't like to these store bought necklace holders and hearing holders. I actually the flea markets, and I paint them. I used spray paint. I just try to make them pop and make them different. And people always come over to my displays of my tables. They love what they see from afar cause it's different. Yeah, I would love if you want to upload one of your pictures with your display to show people what you dio tagen stick out live everyone watching can see what you absolutely um that's great. Is that anybody else here sell products where they go to shows and they sell with Yes. Yeah. Catherine, Um, I have used flowerpots like I sell wine bottle stoppers in one spring. I use the wine bottle stopper is the flower, but I put star foam in the flowerpot and just it made it look like a flower. So and that just drew attention to that that works for you. Have some some of us service office, Tameka. I mean, obviously, this is something quite different for you. But this given you mean what do your force? Where your questions for Sue at this point about how you would represent yourself with you, have you do you go to trade shows is that you want to do to really get yourself out there. I haven't done trade shows, but I definitely have gleaned a lot of ideas for doing tables because there are, um, like, yappy hour is something that's really big waves have tag it because it's a happy hour for doll and their owners. It's really fun. And so we do tables there. And that would be great to display cards, um, pictures of products that others may be selling. Like Thea Pierrot. We did before there were people selling food. And, um, what is that called, uh, natural pet products. So, yeah, we've got some ideas. Yes, yes. Curious, too. Because that in line you see your business. Perhaps developing into will you eventually maybe do leashes, collars, your own brand of food or is you through you? You really just want to concentrate on the pet hotel? Yeah, just the dog walking in that sitting. Yeah. Okay. But it's a great way to maybe partner with other people who are doing that. Absolutely. Anybody else have ideas? I want to share that. They could do Asher again. You're in the service industry card, especially because I use my cards Is little like, you know, people have oracle cards or angel cards. I use my cards that way because I use my instagram inspirational quotes. So then people pick the card so I could have them displayed there and then, like, have them say Okay, pick a card. Right. Um and then I was thinking also cause I have t shirts and I know someone else had a question about T shirts. And that can also be because the T shirts have a certain look and feel that's obviously related to what I dio. Then I would have imagery around that. So they have, like a Buddha. So I would put like a little Buddha a little plant, right? So depending on what's on the shirt, yeah, to answer the question that we had earlier, like whatever's on the shirt, she should come back to us and she said it was very inspirational Messaging. Okay, so, like, inspirational quotes might just be on the table all over the table. Yeah, or glitter Or, you know, like, little confected confetti. But yeah, I think that those air good ideas, I think, come to say, Yeah, it's similar to ask because I think we have a very similar style of work. But as I was thinking about this table, it was it was so cool to think about the different tools that I use as a coach or like in the experiences that I give to people. So the different types of products, um, candles, colors, things like that and then hand writing something like whatever it is that I'm offering, right, So actually handwriting like like we were talking about earlier 10 spots for X or upcoming retreat, you know? So it's like, Here's this, like you can actually create a visual versus using words swag, which is a flat image. So it just kind of amps it up a little bit, which is a really cool idea. Definitely. House arrest you actually took the pictures is over. I want to ask Carolina's. Well, would you have any? Any thoughts on way ended up with a really great table there for joining anything you'd like to add in terms of photographing that the final sort of tableau really take a ton of photos. I mean, that's really the secret to becoming a great photographer is just keep taking tons and tons of photos. Philip, your whole phone. Yeah, my question is, do you need to go by yourself? Brian, Your digital digital SL around you can have in a bottle. I too. I think you don't need any professional equipment if you have the emotional moment. Great, but you don't need it. Well, you heard Hillary say that That that photo with her feet in the sand with the water she was waiting and she took a ton of photos. No one knows how many photos you took together. Perfect shar. Yesterday her mom took that amazing photo of her with doughnuts for eyes. Like I thought that was a great photo on her mom took out. Yeah, so with my stuff, but generally with food, do you know you love the filters? So would you apply the filters on? Depends on what? What feeling I was trying to get. I would go through them to see if they enhance the experience. I wouldn't just put a filter on because I love filters. I I love camera. Plus, I think you can get an amazing enhancement to any photo from Camera Plus, and it's really easy to edit there. So I go there first before I go to the Instagram filters because I just like the transition on. And then you can take something that's been enhanced in camera plus and bring it over to Instagram and then put a filter on top of that so you can really get another experience. But so Teoh filters I use if it's gonna enhance official because she Jamie joined us today. She wasn't with the 2nd 1 Amy. Well, you had your hand up there actually see probably the question, but I'd like to just hear your thoughts on this as well. Actually, I had a thought about one of my clients that I did a video shoot for, and we were working on video tips for her upcoming book that was is coming out this month. Actually, and she said, Look here I have my finish Manus manuscript and she handed it to me when I walked off with it and she said, What's going on? While I went over to a table, grabbed all the random laptop, grab some glasses, a cup of coffee, started staging that the book was done, put a red pen across the front of it and put together a instagram post for her. And I told her, And now when you get to the actual book cover, let's reshoot this to show what's the progresses? And she started gosh, leading up to it. She's already sold. She hasn't even launched the book yet, and she's already pre sold over 50 books, and she posted on Instagram via Nice. And she's just getting started with Instagram, so she's still a little shy about it. But she just did her first video herself recently and said here, What do you think? So it's really cool to see what you can dio with the different phases of instagram and and then staging. So just not just products like this, but also the process of what you're doing in your business, the stages of the process classes staging each step, right? Right. People like to know how you got toe where you are. They love to see the before. When I talked about being on Q B C eight years ago, teaching the world had a scrapbook with my double sided tape. This was a to pay tape, and I was teaching the world how to embellish photos using tape. And we were putting beads and cabbage, Schanze and ribbon. And, um, I was on Q B C at one in the morning, teaching the world how to embellish their photos, their analog photos. And so it's ironic that here I am now a plus years later teaching you how to use Instagram with third party APS and the filters. But people like and so it kind of circles around. They like to know where you you know where the story behind who you are, and so that digital that visual storytelling is so relevant and then to share those stories like, you know, people like to hear that.

Class Materials

bonus material with purchase

7 Instagram® Time Saving Tips
Sue's Top 10 Instagram® Strategies
Cure Your Hashtag Headache
IFTTT Bonus Kit
Reswag Tutorial
Ninja Tips
How to Create a Microblog
Insta Flipbook
KickStart Kit
A Beginner's Guide to Instagram®

Ratings and Reviews

AngelLaurel
 

What a phenomenal course. Thank you, Ann, and the team at Creative Live for this jam-packed class. I'll be honest, when I signed up I wasn't sure how there could be three days worth of information on Instagram. However this content-rich class was filled to the brim with wonderful ideas, tools and inspiration for cultivating success on the platform. I'd been struggling with attuning as to how to best use Instagram for my business - I didn't want to be posting pictures of my lunch, cat or shoes; and I didn't want to simply recycle graphics from Facebook. What I really wanted was to learn how to fully utilize this platform to build my tribe, market my business and connect with others. This course delivered all that and more. Sue is a great teacher and her heartfelt style of marketing and sales really fits with my own approach to business. Every day I learned dozens of ideas that I could immediately implement and my mind is buzzing with inspiration and ways to authentically use Instagram to connect with my tribe. I've been recommending this class to everyone I know. I loved it so much that I purchased Sue's first class, Instagram Marketing for Small Businesses. A lovely bonus of taking Sue's classes is that you can connect with her Instagallive tribe, too. I've been meeting wonderful people and making great connections in the community. If like me, you're a solo-entrepreneur looking for a way to bring authentic marketing to your business, I highly recommend Sue's classes. (P.S. I was blessed to get to attend this class in studio at Creative Live. It was beyond amazing. If you ever get the chance to go to a Creative Live event in-studio or take one of Sue's live classes or events, do it. You will come away feeling inspired and energized for sure!)

Mateja
 

Thank you to Sue and to Creative Life and everyone who helped for this course. I enjoyed every minute. So many great tips, amazing guests, useful informations. The amount of information is amazing! I could watched all over again. I'm so grateful for Creative Life community to have such a great course like Sell more with Instagram with Sue was. the course really have helped me grow my Instagram account. I have leared so much from the first course, but now I learned even more and I'm doing on IG better and better every day.

a Creativelive Student
 

Buy Sue';s course. It's a no-brainer that you will NOT regret! Sue highlights real people with real businesses and demonstrates how they are building their brands and sales on Instagram. She walks you through the process of effectively setting up your Instagram page, teaches you about different types of accounts and how to determine what is best for you, highlights how to develop strategies for growing your presence on Instagram, and shares information about how to implement engagement strategies. Also included: the importance of being authentic and how to do that, providing value to engage followers, running contests, encouraging user-generated content, creating graphics, the best apps for creating graphics and managing accounts, how to get and interpret analytics, how to improve your account based on analytics, and so much more. Her enthusiasm is contagious and you'll look forward to the new content and audience interaction in each new video. These videos are FUN to watch! Every business should be on Instagram, but first watch Sue's course to learn how to be there effectively and sell your product or service. You will not regret this purchase!

Student Work

RELATED ARTICLES

RELATED ARTICLES