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Instagram Rockstar: Rachel Mae Smith

we're gonna bring Rachel of. And I'd like for you guys to welcome my friend Rachel, please. And Rachel is what I like to call him. Instagram rock star. Hi, Rachel. I think if you want to turn the floor a little bit live TV's eso, Rachel. Besides, being a fantastic person is an amazing craft in D I y blogger and her on my home is the crafted life dot com. And you can find her on social media at the crafted life. Um, and Rachel welcome. I want you guys through some of Rachel's content, and then we're gonna talk about the before and after on. And I told Rachel that I wanted to have this person is like, kanhai bring you on my creativelive class in an audience in front of thousands of people and talk about your really bad instagram shots for issues like it's gonna be great. It's gonna be great. So this is Rachel. She's adorable. And this is what her instagram looks like today. I think I took the screenshot last week. Look, it's d c. How nice it is still look at, even if it's not your aesthe...

tic, it's really easy on the eyes. And she's telling a story. Do you understand what her brand is about here? Rachel, what are your brand boards? Color fun, bright, vibrant and then easy for my dear. I live. Yeah. Yeah. So Rachel's not that blogger who has thes like $1000 projects. Most of our projects take, like, an hour. 30 minutes? Yeah. So good. Check it out. The crafted like. And so you can see here how she's kept things really consistent. The says fund. This says color. This says easy. She doesn't have these really complicated shots. If you are trying to trying to communicate the word quality, you might have these very precise things, Right, Casey, for you, you might show the detail shot of the color thread you use running through a zipper. It doesn't matter. Just put it on, man, Right? Like, let's make this easy. Let's, you know, use whatever thread you have. If it's a cool color. Great. That's gonna be the difference. This is reason Saran, 15 months ago. So, Rachel, what do you guys pick up from this? I'm curious. Like, what's the difference? Totally muted. Yeah. Yeah. Do you also notice how all of these air the same size is a crop. Yeah, right. It's not as easy on your eyes. Right. So, Rachel, tell us what What's shifted from 15 months to today. Yeah. So I did a big rebrand on my blawg. And so I was able to sit down and pinpoint those brand words that I discussed earlier on and sort of recreate my vision, cause this is just I was like, I'm gonna photograph whatever. Um and I clearly liked photograph in my hands. So that was another thing to, um But I became a little more deliberate and what I was doing. And so I started viewing Instagram as microblogging. So it's very specific. It's very curated. And then I also don't take certain pictures like I don't instagram food anymore, even though as a flower on it, I don't really do it unless it's like a cupcake. No. Why not? Um, because it doesn't say fun. I mean, and not everyone needs to see what I ate for breakfast. Yeah, right. It doesn't communicate the story of her brand. Yeah. So what's going on here? What? What? I know. So, yeah. Um, so I really tried to be deliberate in my colors. So, like down there, like I was like, Oh, I haven't had yellow in a while. I need something yellow or pink or white and just sort of trying to create a balance, um, toe where it's not I mean, like, you have to look at your feed as a whole. So not just one image. But if you go to your instagram profile, what does it look like as a whole? And so I think, when new people try to find your instagram and decide whether or not they want to follow you if you're last nine, images are not like up to snuff or their off balance or whatever. They probably won't stick around, and they'll make that decision within like, three seconds. So it's so fast. So it's so important. Just toe, you know, keep that consistency, I think. And this is if you're using it for your business. If you just want to post pictures of your kids, don't worry about it. But the reality is that we do make really quick decisions. We do know right away. What's the visceral feeling this is giving me? This is this. There is nothing wrong with us. This could work great to communicate a different brand. If you have a brand that's clean a little bit minimal, a little bit more soothing. Yeah, but this ran doesn't make me want to have a dance party and look at her, right. Like there's a disconnect. Yeah. Yeah. So I also want to look at, uh, my first instagram first picture is Rachel's first instagram on and another very recent shot of her. And I want you to tell me what story is being told with that second shot that's different from the first. What are you taking away from her? Just from that picture? Yeah. Have fun. Yeah. Fun, like all the time. Thank you guys. Very well composed. I mean, look at the shot where she's sitting versus the water. You know, it's obviously very well thought out. Uh huh. She doesn't mess around, right? We don't get that from this first adorable banks And the cute guys. It's cute, but this is not effectively telling the story of her brand, which is interesting because you said what prompted all of the shifting As she rebranded, she got deliveries. About what story? Her brand was telling first. And then this happened. Yeah, see how that works? And even though, like I did the whole rebranding, it took a while to get in the hang of that switch. So, like, I didn't just rebrand it was like, that was what came out of it. So it does take a while to sort of find that rhythm and find that groove And how you want to edit your photos and even, like, what content you want to shoot. Um, so once you like your band words like, you know, give yourself some slack, give yourself some credit, and you'll get there as long as you just keep repeating those things in your mind when you're posting to instagram. Yeah. You see how that works? Pretty magic, huh? So, Rachel, I wanted to also talk with you. You know, one of the things that you said about what changed for you that we talked about before we talk about instagram a lot. Um, is that you got really delivered about instagram being your tool? Yes. Yeah. So what made you pick instead? Um so for me, I connect it or I connect with it because it's very visual. Um, and I don't see the same as engagement on Facebook or on Twitter. So I used those very differently. And so, um, because I blogged full time, you know, I used Twitter to, like, reach out to brands, and I might use Facebook to, like, put a Lincoln, But I don't check it that I don't want to check it, because I just can't focus on that, um, and run all the other parts of my business. So I saw good results with Instagram. I find right now the community is very engaging. So, um, just being able to talk to people and meet new people and connect with new brands and and all sorts of things. It's really like my go to tool right now. How has your following grown since you made the decision? This was back in January. Uh, when I rebranded when you when you really got to lower January January. Um, let's see. Well, last year, when it before my re brain has at 700 followers and then this january, I think I was up to maybe five k. I hit five k. Um, and just the other day I hit 18 k so huge growth within a short amount of time but 13,000 followers in eight months. So if you don't believe me about what getting delivery can do for you, Rachel, what are some of the actual changes that you made, like, really like nitty gritty, integrated eso I edit my photos the same way every time to build the color story. Um, so just being very picking about what Colors go where, um And so I used this coach at it. And the other thing I use that at four is that I can preview what my grid will look like before I post the image. So if you delete the photos out, you can always add them back in as long as you save. But I get a preview of what my great will look like for the next week and if the image fits or not. So right now, if you pull it my visco grid up, you'll see that I have the next, like five in just already cute out and mapped out. So that's one thing that I've been doing that is like it's so helpful to know, because sometimes you post a picture and then you look at it as a whole would be like. What did I do that for? Um, so it's helpful to sort of, you know, we plan that out as well as when you're going to plan. Um, another thing is just consistency. So I post every day, once a day. I was twice a day for a long time, but I'm kind of burned out right now. Um, and that is that's okay. You can pull back and you can shift back, and I'm still growing. Um, so you know, it's better to put out quality content than quantity, I think especially for a visual sight. Like Instagram. Yeah. Yeah. Especially to if you're trying to leave me passionate about it. If you don't feel like doing a take a break, figure out what you know. Adjust your system. Yeah. What is this guy? I'm so Oh, yeah. So it's V s CEO, and it's just a photo editing app that you can download for free in the APP store. And so, um, that's just how I edit my photos. You can edit them with an instagram, but that's my I go to up. And then if you use retouch. This has changed my life, but it's like a mini photo shop for your phone where, like if you have, like, a hangnail or like there is a cat hair in your photo, you can actually edit it out to make your photos, like, pristine and awesome. So you do all this on your phone? Yeah, all my pictures were taken on my phone except for um, if I post like my blood contact, which I do maybe once a week and how have to do five days a week. So one of the five right? So she's giving. She's delivering a lot of extra value to her Blawg readers, because if they love her content, they're not just gonna be getting the exact duplicate of it on her Instagram. They're going to be getting six more pieces of, as she says she thinks about like microblogging. Do you have a plan? How often? How far in advance? Um so I mean, I probably have at least 10 photos on my phone ready to go any time. So if, like one day, I don't leave the house or find anything inspiring, I don't have to stress about it. Um, and that's been the biggest thing for me this year. Is being able to relax in terms of finding content? Um, so if you're if you're doing a photo shoot and you hold out your poster board and you're reflector and all of this stuff take multiple shots that day on, just have them on your phone and thing over the codes five PM or six PM or whenever that peak time is for your followers. You can just queue it up in post and not have to think twice about it. So did you spend some time using different hashtags to see what worked and what didn't? And did you find a few hashtags where you actually felt like you've got more engagement and people were following you and you saw a difference? Yeah, So I used hashtag very deliberately toe where I only hash tag my photos with the accounts that re Graham photos. Um, so I didn't like hash tag cats, because what is that going to get me, like maybe a like? But if I hashtagged it with the Bando fund on degree, graham it, then I might get hundreds of followers, so finding those, huh? Yeah, it works. So finding those within your community is big. Um so there's, you know, like a beautiful mess Has a ton designs Bunches. Aton The Glitter Guide has flashes of delight, which is great, but this do right has re graham her. Yeah, that was the day. I think there's some questions in the chat. Yes, there are. This is kind of Well, there's two questions that I think we can combine into one Roco photo ass when there aren't flattering pictures on instagram, do we delete them or just leave them on and leave them and move on? And a related question is if people using our hashtags aren't posting glorious looking photos, this, um, Jennifer Lin, do we still share or just thank them? Like if they have the hashtag if you run a Oh, if you run a hash tag, you don't have to re graham Everything I say re graham, what fits your feed but always like and be engaging. That is a great thing to do regardless, um and then what was the first question? You don't leave changeable, flattering photos or just leave them a move on? Yeah. I mean, looking at the pictures she showed earlier, I should probably go back and delete. Yeah, but I mean, you know, it's up to you like this is pretty far back in my feet now where it doesn't really matter. But if I post a picture that my people don't respond to, I will probably delete it at this point, um, or if it doesn't fit my feet or if I change my mind like I've gone back and deleted stuff, even like two weeks ago. So it's it's perfectly OK to curate yourself like that and just always be improving what your grid looks like. And, um, someone had a question that we're looking your instagram page through the Web. But because most people look at Instagram be other mobile phones, they won't see the that home page view that you're showing. And they just want some clarity on this difference, meaning the mobile, because most most people see on the mobile phone and as opposed to so it would be the same. So if I like, if Tiffany, like at mentioned me and someone click through to my handle will be taking to my main will be taken to this. Only my header will be above it to the grand. The grid, I think on the screen it shows four rows, three rows. It's the two. And then you scroll down to see the rest. Yeah. Oh, yeah. There's one final, I think. Really? Good question is, how do you find out when the peak time is for your followers? Yeah, um, I say test everything. A couple of things that I did to find mine was I looked at the other instagram accounts that I followed that are bigger than me and saw when they all posted because you will notice a trend if you're very fun, like, if you're watching it, where there's just like a flood of people that post all at the same time. So you know, five PM usedto work great for me. But now 6 30 works for me on, and that's in the evening. And then, um, in the morning, maybe 11. Am works for me, but I think you just always have to test it. Um, and don't be afraid to delete it if it's not like taking office fast impulse later. Because I've done that, too. Yeah, it's like beyond you know, having a really beautiful feed. And in implementing the hashtags, what other things did you do to interact with the community to maybe draw attention to yourself? Yeah. So I'm just engaging with other instagram users. E how, like, how much did you actually go are like, How much time did you actually spend, Like kind of surfing through instagram and, you know, maybe even following relevant hashtags and saying, Oh, this is cool. Like, did you spend a lot time commenting or liking or anything like that where you're dedicating? I don't know How much time? Maybe an hour a day at first. Maybe you don't have to do that. It's much now. Yeah. Was that something that you definitely had to focus on? You're not following? Yeah, And I invested probably an hour, hour and 1/2 a day, like at the very beginning when I hit five K because I also think like once you hit 10-K and get like that K beside your number that it's so much easier to grow after that. So, like it's just an uphill battle until you get there. And then So I use the girl maybe like 10 15 followers a day. And now I'm probably growing 50 or more a day, and I think it's just becomes, like, you know, like like every wire, 18 cave people following here. Like, there's something I must be missing out on. So, um yeah, definitely. In the beginning, it was a lot of a lot of time put into instagram, but I also took time, you know, like, I didn't put all that time into Twitter because Twitter wasn't doing anything for me. So sort of shifting my time around to optimize for instagram. Yeah. Did you ever use Icona Square to sort of get statistics on umpteen times? You know, are you familiar with No, I don't I don't use that. Um okay, but it might be good to do that, but I think I found, like, the rhythm. Yeah, but I mean, that's that's definitely helpful. I use um, Inc 3 61 to check out my stats. So if I post like you post like a selfie like before warned, you will lose followers. But I think it's a great thing to do to build your brand into build your face into what you're doing and sort of remind people who you are. And like that, there is a person behind it Makes a my contact. Yeah, every now and they don't get crazy. Um, but yeah. So just following along Or like, I'll see if one pictured If I just lose 40 followers after that picture is like, maybe that style of post is not working for me. So or maybe I find sometimes if I like dropping f bomb follow me. Okay. Yeah. So, like again the you know, if it's if you post something that this happens a lot when people get really delivered about their newsletter and they start sending out weekly, nothing like people are on subscribing is like, Yeah, because you haven't emailed them in six months. So that's what happens. Right? So if you post something if you put something on Instagram that feels really resonant and on Bori into you and people on follow Okay, right. It's fine. It's because if that's your brand, you're gonna get rid of the people who aren't a good fit. And you're gonna welcome in the people who are so first I might feeling really like, uh right. That's OK. Hang in there. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Rachel! Oh, my gosh. Thank you so much. So everyone that do what she says, Rachel, as Tiffany said on her block and website, The crafted life home It's amazing. And starting next month, I'm gonna be doing a monthly post about the crafted biz. So be sure to check that out. It's gonna be really fun. Rachel is the best. And follow her on instagram.