71. The Hidden Marketing Power of the Instagram Explore Page

Welcome To the High-Performance Marketing podcast, a show focused on helping small business owners connect with their ideal customers using simple marketing and quality content. I'm your Marketing Guide, Ali Garbero.

In 2013 Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn starred in a movie called The Internship. If you don’t remember it - it was a movie about two salesmen who learn that their careers have been ruined by the digital age. Their company shuts down and so they magically find their way into an incredible and of course highly coveted internship at Google.  They’re forced to compete with a group of young tech-savvy geniuses at a shot for a job.

As the movie progresses there’s this scene where the interns are tasked with coming up with a new app and Vince’s character starts explaining what he believes to be the winner. He says something like:

“So I have an idea, nowadays people are taking pictures and they have their phones now and they’re out, something catches their eye and they take the photo but now it’s just sitting there. What if they take that photo and instantaneously put it out there on the line and they share it with their friends.” 

Of course one of the younger interns breaks the news to him and says: “That’s Instagram, it already exists, it’s one of the most popular apps in the world. Facebook bought them for like a billion dollars. That’s billion with a B.” Vince’s hysterics continue and he says yeah but mine will be different - we’ll call it exchangeagram so people can share their photos “on the line.”

On today’s episode of the podcast let’s talk about Instagram because I know you’re using it for your business, maybe even making some fun reels, going live. Collaborating with other businesses. It’s a friendly and fun popular platform and not just for friends but for connecting with people “one the line” as Vince hysterically said. Since Instagram has evolved over time, today’s episode I’ll focus primarily on sharing how to use the explorer search page. It’s a feature of Instagram you may not have given much thought to but it’s a powerful way to level up your marketing and increase client reach.

So back in 2010 when Instagram first launched - you’ll remember that the platform was mainly used as a single stream of photos that appeared in chronological order. Of course as more and more of us got hooked and joined it became impossible to see everything, and worse to see the posts we really cared most about. 

By 2016 Instagram realized we were missing out on about  70% of all their posts in our Feed, so this is when they started working on algorithms to help combat this. They started to rank posts based on what users cared about most. And over the years they learned that Feed and Stories are places where we want to see content from our friends, family, and those they are closest to. 

After that, they take all of the information that’s been posted, the people who made those posts, and your preferences to help rank how you see things.

They call these “signals”, and there are thousands of them. They include everything from what time a post was shared to whether you’re using a phone or a web browser, to how often you like videos. 

I’m going to share what IG considers the four most important signals across Feed and Stories, roughly in order of importance, so that you can see how it ties into your marketing.

1. Number one is - Information about the post. These are signals both about how popular a post is – like how many people have liked it – all the way to the more mundane information about the content itself, like when it was posted, if it’s a video, how long is it, and what location, if any, was attached to it.
   What you want to consider for this first bucket is how creating content that is relatable, funny, shareable will increase the likelihood of others seeing it in their feed because the more people that like your stuff the easier it will be for others to see it.
   
   
2. Number two is Information about the person who posted. Instagram says that this helps them get a sense for how interesting the person might be to you, and includes signals like how many times people have interacted with that person in the past few weeks.
   The thing for you to consider here,  is that  your connections (your followers and those you follow) matter. So a question I want you to think about is if the goal is to increase your ability to reach more potential clients - then How many people are you following that you would like to do business with? Are you engaging with their content to strengthen those connections because this will not only help you show up in their feed but in their friends feeds too.
   
   
3. Number three is your activity. This gives IG an understanding of what you might be interested in and includes signals such as how many posts you’ve liked. So, while I understand many of us want to spend less time on social media, because I fully understand you might feel there are more important revenue generating activities you could spend your time on - my suggestion here is that if that’s the case - just become more intentional about the time you do spend on there. Be purposeful about searching for new connections, as well as engaging with the ones you value and want to deepen relationships with.
   
   
4. And number four is your history of interacting with someone. This gives them a sense of how interested you are generally in seeing posts from a particular person. An example is whether or not you comment on each other’s posts.

Ok, now I imagine much of this might feel like review but it’s important to come back to so that you can leverage social media as a tool for growing your business, building better relationships online and not just for posting content. If you want  your content to be seen, those behind the scenes efforts are a bit of a pain but will help your organic growth. Because we all want as much of that as possible because ad spend isn’t cheap.

Now let’s talk about the Explorer page of Instagram. As of the recording of this podcast in June of 2023, it’s that little magnifying glass on the bottom left next to the house image when you’re in the app. 

The explorer page is designed to serve kind of like a mini search engine to help you discover new things.  The explorer page is 100 percent customized for you, based on all of the things I mentioned earlier about how you use the platform. If you’ve ever watched the Social Dilemma on Netflix, then you’re very familiar with just how much time developers spend understanding our search and engagement habits - because of course their goal is to keep us on the platform for as long as possible. So anytime you click on something and engage with the explore page the more targeted your search will become.

Now let’s talk about why ending up on the explorer page should be a goal for you as an entrepreneur or small business owner. 

I want you to think of this explorer page kind of like ranking on google. Imagine someone typing in real estate agent, financial planner, flower shop, or dentist into google and your website pulling up first. That would be gold for your business wouldn’t it. Now it’s possible to have this very thing happen when you have a great SEO strategy. Literally the whole purpose of SEO is to create content that google can search through and pull up as the most relevant for a search about a specific topic. 

So you want to take this same approach to your Instagram strategy. Because it’s a no brainer that creating great content on IG can help you reach potential prospects and customers. 

So what can you do to increase the chances of your business pulling up in your ideal clients explorer page? Or even as they scroll through reels.

First, remember IG creates a customized user experience. So I want you to take some time and think about what things interest your ideal client. What kind of music do they listen to, what books do they read, what TV shows make them laugh, or do they binge watch when they stream? You want to take the same approach IG developers take in knowing their audience so well that the content you create really hits home and gets featured in their feeds. 

In real life, think about it. If you know your ideal client loves THE OFFICE and you make a reel parody, or create a meme that mimics something they know, like and follow, of course the chances of them seeing your content will increase.

Every marketing person on the planet will always tell you that everything you do with marketing starts by knowing your ideal client first. Figure out who they are and tailor your content, visuals, and copy (the words you use, the way you write, the tone of voice you use) to them. 

Here’s a second exercise for you. Take a look at your own explore page first. Try to understand how it’s working, why you are being fed the content you are? What hashtags, captions, visuals, etc. are being used? And then ask yourself how can you tailor your content to reach your ideal customer audience or community the same way? 

The way IG is currently working leads me to share that you should create content that is easy for users to engage with, and right now that means your focus should 100 percent be on reels first and second carousels. Instagram loves pushing out reels to people. Their platform is literally dependent on us as creators to make stuff they can share. If our marketing is entertaining, funny, relatable, solves problems, and is custom tailored to the kinds of things that our customers want and are already engaging with - then Instagram will happily promote our content on their explorer page.

I could do a whole episode on Reels best practices by the way, but some key things to consider are things like: making vertical videos, so the reels algorithm rewards you, adding captions, music, and splicing help too. Most important is that you make your content entertaining or educational. People get on to these platforms to relax, give them something fun and addicting to come back to - or even educational to help them learn things they didn’t learn before. Now the trick of course will be to do this in 60-90 seconds - which is about all our attention spans can handle. 

Second focus on Carousels. Instagram carousel posts are one of the most engaging formats brands can use on the platform. I use Hootsuite to schedule some of my content their social media team finds that, on average, their carousel posts get 1.5x more reach and 3x more engagement than regular posts on Instagram. Why?

The temptation to swipe left, it seems, is hard to resist — especially when there’s a persuasive cover slide. One word of advice though - please avoid using small hard to read, long form text on these carousel posts. No one will read it. They’re on their phones so err on the side of usin large fonts and if you have a lot to communicate - like a client testimonial for example - take the key concept of what was said. People simply won’t read long tiny text paragraphs. Give your followers the chance to stop doomscrolling and start swoonscrolling as Hootsuite calls it - with thumb-stopping carousel posts.

Next, think about the best times to post. When you know your ideal customer - then you know if they’re up and at it by 5am or late night owls scrolling into the wee hours of the morning. Get them to see your stuff while they’re on.

Now, I know I mentioned hashtags earlier. You might think they’re irrelevant and kind of old school Instagram, but  you would be misled. Hashtags and keywords still make traction even in 2023. But be warned, gone are the days of spamming your posts with as many popular hashtags as possible. Instead, now it's all about quality over quantity. Instagram prioritizes posts that are deemed relevant and valuable to its users, so it's critical to use hashtags and keywords that are most relevant to your content and target audience. For example I know my reels are going to go further when I include a hashtag like #smallbusinessowner or #smallbizowner (which is a short variation) than when I don’t. So use keywords to help you show up in searches, so it's easier for new people to find you.

Finally, you have got to get into the habit of tracking your IG analytics. Depending on the kind of account you have (which if you’re running a business of any kind) is not a personal account. So for me I can see my professional dashboard easily when I’m in my profile. It shows me insights about my account, for example how many accounts I reached in the last 30-90 days, how many of those accounts were non-followers and the best part is it will show me which of my stories, reels and posts have the greatest engagement - so that I know how to create more of the same kind of content. I could choose to go into each individual post as well to view similar  insights. 

This is powerful stuff Instagram is sharing with you. They are literally trying to help you reach more of their platform users by telling you what users want to see more of.  I’d also recommend subscribing to or visiting Instagram’s Blog content. I’ll include the link in the show notes. 

They are always sharing insights to help their creator community.

Ultimately I hope today’s episode has helped you see the value of the IG explorer page in your marketing arsenal and how it serves as a bridge to connecting with like-minded people. It’s a golden opportunity for you to reach more of your highly desired target audience.

Thanks for joining me today. To create an Instagram marketing strategy that matches your business objectives and sales goals - schedule a discovery call with me at writebrandmarketing.com. I’m Ali Garbero, copywriting is what I do, content marketing is what I create, more customers is what you get.