The Instagram content strategy you need in 2025 with Lucas O’Keefe

Akua: It’s the start of the new year and what better time than to revamp your social media strategy. Lucas O’Keefe, who is a social media marketing expert, joins us on the show as he shares some of the best Instagram strategies to help you grow in 2025. Lucas dropped so many valuable insights and after this conversation, you are going to see the platform in a whole new light.

But before we get into it, I’ve got some very exciting news to share. Honeybook just launched their January jumpstart giveaway, and it is designed to help independent business owners like you thrive in the new year. This month, Honeybook is giving away 10, 000 prize packages to 10 lucky winners from professional development funds to expert support in streamlining your business.

This giveaway is all about setting you up for success. Don’t miss out on your chance to kick off 2025 on the right foot. So head to our show notes to learn more and to enter. Now let’s dive into this episode with Lucas and talk all things Instagram for 2025. Hey everyone. This is your host Akua Kanadu and you’re listening to the independent business podcast.

More people than ever are working for themselves and building profitable businesses in the process. So on this show, I get to sit down with some of the most influential authors, entrepreneurs, and creators. To break down the signs of self-made success so that you can achieve it too.

Lucas, welcome to the Independent Visit Podcast. How are we doing?

Lucas: Oh, it’s so great to be here. I’m excited to chat.

Akua: I know. I’m excited too, because I feel like you, number one, you’re one of our partners for our January jumpstart giveaway. And you know, I think a lot of us right now are refining, you know, revamping like a lot of things in our business, but especially our marketing strategy.

So we’re like, what better person to come in than you to come in and help us. So thank you for being here.

Lucas: Yeah, I’m excited. I definitely fall into the camp of people who like and look forward to January for that fresh start to, you know, revise some things that towards the tail end of last year, weren’t really working for me.

I like the new calendar and new strategy, new approach.

Akua: I know you just, you just feel like, you know, just really excited, more confident, you know? So I think like, I think it’s a good time to really ride that wave and just to, as you’re planning, just to see how far you can get. And so I’m really curious about you.

I just would love to know, like in our audience, to just know a little bit more about your story. Like as you, as somebody who has, you know, was posting on Instagram, did you ever think that you would be somebody that people would look towards for education? Or were you just like, I’m just going to kind of post and like, see what happens.

And here we go.

Lucas: Yeah, I never, I never couldn’t have imagined where it could have, it could have gotten me and I’m so grateful for where I am today. I’m actually a elementary school teacher. That’s how I started in all of this, uh, working as a full time elementary school teacher. Saw students talking about content, TikTok, Instagram, all that, uh, interesting entertainment that I feel like they default to instead of television nowadays.

For better, for worse, who knows. Um, but I saw like, you know what? I want to make content. I want to get out there. I’m, I never got into YouTube until recently. So like, you know what? This new short form video craze. Let me, I think I can take a stab at this. And I did and just continued to get into, here’s the content I’m making.

Hey, I’m pretty good at this. Let me share with others what can go into their content and the strategy behind. Today’s wild social media platforms and how they can use it for their businesses as well. And I’m so pleased with the community. I’ve grown from it ever since.

Akua: Why did I think of you with, like, you know, how you see a lot of teachers, like, dancing, like, TikTok trends.

Lucas: It’s funny, because whenever, like, every year I have a new group of students, and they’re like, they either already know about my social media or they learn about it. And I think they look me up, like, expecting to see something, like, like the teacher TikTokers. And then I give them a warning. I was like, Honestly, for a kid, which is good, it’s probably very boring stuff, because this is about business, it’s about, you know, social media strategy.

So I’m glad that once they go searching for me, they don’t find much to stick around and then they leave me alone.

Akua: And you’re like, goodbye. Oh my gosh. I love that though. I think that’s so cool. Um, just hearing about your story and, you know, a lot of the times when we think about our own journeys, a lot of things are always, uh, foreshadowing, you know what I mean?

Like we’re always like there, when you think about your past of like where you are now, like, The universe just always drops hints. There’s always little hints that leads you to where you are now. So it’s really cool just to kind of hear how you honestly have created this huge business in this, this amazing community.

So that’s awesome. Yeah. Thank you. I’m going to keep it real. I feel like Instagram has become a much more unpopular platform. Like I think, not unpopular as if like the amount of people aren’t using it. People are using it. Like, but I feel like a lot of business owners feel like they have to be on it. And so where do you see the biggest like limitation that business owners are doing to where they’re just not seeing growth?

Lucas: Yeah. Um, I will, I will kind of chime in and also say like, I personally find Instagram to be the best business platform still because of all the business features. Like yes, Tik Tok’s always had like reach and regardless of what could happen to Tik Tok, I find like Tik Tok’s always been lacking, like the DM features and like the nice concise DM inbox and all the other business add ons.

And that’s where Instagram is really that sweet spot for me. But as you said, I do find it’s very hard to grow on Instagram right now. Um, and many business owners or, you know, people try and build their personal brand who are hopping on there are getting a little overwhelmed, right? Or disappointed with their growth that they’re finding.

So what I will say as a limiting belief to kind of shed is don’t set the goal of like, you know, 10, 000 followers. 25, 000 followers, 100, 000 followers. I think we all look at the accounts that we follow and look up to. We see the milestones they’ve reached and we say, Oh, I’m not going to be successful until I hit that point.

And that could be very problematic because as we’ve discussed, like. And we will discuss as well, but the state of social media changes all the time. There have been those like low hanging fruit opportunities to grow very quickly. One of those being when Instagram first launched relaunched reels, they were trying to compete with tech talk.

They, to get people to make reels popular. They had to give us a lot of reach. So every reel left, right, and center was getting pretty explosive reach. I know myself and other more photo or graphic design based creators were a little disappointed for a while, but many, many creators really found themselves surging to massive audiences in a fairly short time because of that focus on reels.

That is really stabilized now. And I know that’s just one example, but that’s, that’s sort of stabilized where. I’m, we’re seeing all types of content can really stand and shine as long as it’s high quality. So don’t look at an account that maybe grew during that age or during many different other opportunities.

Maybe they’ve been on for a while. Don’t look at that realize that you are setting out on your own journey And your growth is your growth if you reach a hundred followers That’s amazing. That’s a hundred people who are selecting your account as one they want to see regular. I will say that 2025 and onward, it is, it’s feeling very difficult to get people to hit the follow button.

I know when I look at my own content consumption as a. Doomscroller myself. All, all I find myself doing are scroll, scroll, scroll. I’m gonna, oh, I like this video. I’m gonna share it to a friend. I’m gonna share it to my colleague. I’m very rarely hitting follow on these accounts and many people are finding that.

Akua: Same. Oh my gosh. There’s so many, so many things that you said to unpack. Number one, I love that you said, you know, instead of setting your goals going off of like, I would like to get 10, 000 followers or whatever. I think that’s just such a smart way to set it. Like not to get attached to that instead of viewing it as like, okay, if there is like now a lot of my posts, I’m like, if there’s somebody, even if I use like the mini chat, like there’s somebody, one person that, you know, types the comment and it sends to it, then I can open up a conversation.

Like, that’s what matters to me. I love that. I think now it’s. Just no longer being attached to the vanity metrics because it’s so hard to grow. It is. And I love that you also just like acknowledge that it’s true. I’m the same way I send memes, all types of stuff, but I don’t follow. And I feel like Instagram is trying to make it as easy as possible to follow people like for you to follow.

But a lot of people aren’t taking the bait, like even, you know, with the suggested posts that pop up. And so number one, why do you think that is number one? And then two, how are you navigating that within your own strategy?

Lucas: Yeah, I love that question. And I think that’s perfect for this time of year, especially moving forward.

The reason why I think this is happening is Instagram and social media platforms win regardless of if we follow accounts or subscribe to accounts. They just want us consuming the most content in a short period of time. They want us to be doom scrolling, right? And sometimes when we. Go to follow account, go to visit the profile and you’re right, they have made it easy to follow.

Like usually when you’re scrolling reels, there will be that follow button, but that’s what we call a pattern break. I’m going to break from my behavior of scroll, scroll, scroll, share, scroll, scroll, scroll, share. I’m going to break that pattern and follow. Um, and, or maybe visit someone’s profile. My brain doesn’t like that.

So it’s very easy for us to get locked into these cycles of just consuming. And Instagram social media actually wins the most when we do that. So I believe personally that they don’t really care if we’re following accounts or not, right? They want us to just be consuming content and what that means for a creator now.

is I really think we’re in that timeframe of, or in that, uh, in that era of quality mattering over quantity when it comes for content, there have definitely been times where it was reversed. Obviously quality is always good, but quality takes time, right? There have been times though, where for example, that reels, um, era that I mentioned earlier, when reels had just come in and come out posting a ton of reels, even if they weren’t amazing, just firing them out there was a really good quantity way to grow because it was like lottery tickets with very high chances with very good odds of winning.

The more you post, the more chances are one of them is going to go viral or get very high views and reach and help you grow your account. Now I think the best foot forward we can put in this state where it’s about the content first, the follow second is how can you create a very high quality post even if it means.

Cutting back on your posting frequency. How can you put your best foot forward? Something that is going to stand out, grab attention, get people sharing and say, Hey, I like this post. I wonder if this creator has more, I’m going to hit follow. I think that’s the ideal workflow, the ideal process we want, but it’s very difficult because.

Quality is very difficult.

Akua: Yeah. 1000%. And, um, this just made me think we did an episode a couple of weeks ago talking about like entrepreneurial trends that we’re seeing. And one of the first trends that I shared was that the client customer journey is getting much longer. Like a lot of people now need a lot more information and a lot more time in order to finally purchase from you.

So imagine that as well from following you as well, like, right. A lot of those things can absolutely take time. Cause I think. A lot of us were just bombarded with so many things throughout the day. So we really do want to connect with people that really aligns with us. And so I think, I just love those points that you shared.

I’m just really thinking about quality over quantity. And so as you’re thinking that, um, to get people to hit that follow button, you know, you’ve brought up about how reels, you know, like Instagram had that moment, obviously due to the Tik Tok growing very quickly, where you just saw expand like huge growth.

Do you see Instagram doing something like that again, where they like, we’ll have like, Unless there’s like, like a new feature where all of a sudden it’s a free for all like threads, right? Like we’re like, it’s a new platform. You’re like, yes, let me hurry up and hop on it so I can grow. Do you see Instagram having any other moments like that in the future?

Lucas: I predict, and this is only my own, my own predictions. I predict that we’re going to have a pretty standstill year for Instagram this year, which, which hopefully I view as a good thing. Um, even though something I do for content is I speak about the change and the new updates and that’s very good content, easy content for me that does well.

So on the content side, I hope for a lot of change, but as a creator and user myself, I don’t predict a lot of change. I think that’s a good thing. Just, you know, with whatever does happen to TikTok in the US, who knows? I think Instagram is going to kind of stay the course. They’re going to stick. They’re at a good place right now where Reels has been a huge success, right?

Like I mentioned earlier, they wanted us to create and view Reels. It was a little bit shaky at first where it just felt like. The tiktok trends three weeks later. They’re finally making it to reels. There was no actual method to the search We were just being shown random stuff. I think reels is a very locked in format with tons of content almost Too much content now, which is why I echo back to the quality over quantity.

But I think Instagram’s got its reels in a good place and it’s going to keep it there. And it also needs to realize that it’s not just about video and Instagram isn’t just about video. They don’t want to upset or anger their more photo based audience. So I think it’s in a good spot right now that they should stay at where creators of all different content formats and content mediums for the most part are pretty happy.

Akua: Yeah, and I I definitely agree with that because I, um, Am liking now that they’re finally giving photos more of a push because for me reels do not hit they just don’t Yes, my reels

Lucas: are my worst performing content

Akua: And i’m like, you know, i’m okay with that because I still got my carousel post like, you know, like I I still have other things that bring me joy because I think to also the content creation process you also have to enjoy like with what you’re creating and so, um, I love, I’m like, okay, that’s okay.

Like I still can do a carousel post or like photos like a standstill photo of me still does very well where I’m like, it’s giving, you know, the early tooth, like what the 2000s, uh, of Instagram, And I’m digging it. I’ll, I’ll keep riding this wave, but I, I think it just speaks to the point of the fact that it is at a standstill and there has, there’s different pathways to growth now, I think, which is awesome.

And really just experimenting and seeing what works best for you on your account, which I love that. I think that gives me much more hope as I’m like preparing my content.

Lucas: No, that’s a, that’s an excellent way to put it. Multiple pathways to growth. Something, something I’ve always said is. If you are starting out, if you are brand new, then yes, reels and video, if you can find a style of creating reels and video that works for you probably will be the fastest way to growth.

But, um, it sounds like you and I fall into this category and I’m sure many listeners do. Many of us have already been established or have been creating content and building our audience for years or even months, right? And if you’re in that boat, don’t just jump onto reels because for years people have been saying, that’s the way to go.

I find. And as you said to like, like I said, my reels are my weakest performing content because I grew so much of my audience or the biggest foundation of my audience before reels were ever a thing. I like carousel posts. I like infographics that are nice and visual. And I’m giving more info in the captions, similar to what you described with photos.

I love that, and I’ve built most of my audience that way. So, they, they’re, they’re used to seeing that content from me on the feed, they interact with that. When I throw a reel at them sometimes, they’re like, I don’t even remember who this guy is. Like some people aren’t even used to seeing my face.

They’re like, he gives us infographics. Like I don’t remember following this person. So it doesn’t do as well always. So like, listen to your audience, know that you have a unique audience and they have content preferences. If they probably followed you or you grew your account without using video shifting to video might be shocking to them or it might not really work in tandem with their algorithm habits.

Maybe they don’t really interact with videos. So Instagram doesn’t really show them videos. So it’s important to kind of know your audience, know your own unique strategy. That’s why I love how you called it, you know, multiple pathways to growth.

Akua: Yes. I love that. And even just to add to that is like, you won’t know any of these things until you guys like, till you try, like, you just have to start and just go.

Cause I feel like a lot of us still, it doesn’t even matter how long we’ve been in business, even revamping our strategy. A lot of us get caught up in our head about like, well, I see this person doing it or like, is this the right way? We just. Overthink things because we want to hit this specific goal so much where I’m almost to the point of like, just throw the whole goal away and just actually experiment because even just wanting to touch base two of the, uh, there’s some features now that like make it easier to experiment.

Have you tried those trial reels where like, are you, have you tried it? Nah, yes. Maybe so have you know or do you know anybody that has like seen growth from that?

Lucas: Yeah, so and just for anyone listening So trial reels are very new on instagram and what they are are basically you can post a reel And normally it would be shown to your audience or a certain percentage of your audience well, if you want just like it’s called a trial if you Don’t want your audience to be the first people to see it.

You can select trial. It’ll be sent out to strangers or people who don’t follow you. And Instagram will see how, how the post does with them before then deciding if it should, you know, push it out further or to your audience. So I love the concept. I think it’s like, like you said, I love experimentation. I think experimenting and not being afraid to just.

Put out some experimental content. I think that’s important too, right? We all get locked into this has to perform. This has to perform. This has to do so well. It’s okay to try things differently and do experimentation. Um, so I love the idea of trials. I think they’re still kind of working out some things.

So I haven’t really been too happy with the results just yet. But that could also be because. As I’ve said, my audience doesn’t know me for video as much, and I haven’t really seen it take off. So I think they’re still working out some things behind the scenes. I haven’t, I haven’t seen good results with trial reels, but I do like the idea and I like how Instagram is always mixing new things into the equation.

Akua: Yeah. Awesome. Well, at least I don’t know anybody who’s done it. So I love that. Like you’ve already shared just even a little bit of insight with it. Um, I’m finally going to start playing with it next week. So we’ll see how it goes, but I like to point of like, okay, they’re still working out the kinks and we’re all still figuring it out clearly, including Instagram.

So might as well just like give it a shot and just see how it goes now. Can you walk us through, especially this year of how you would lay out your content strategy? Like really just give us a breakdown, especially of like defining our goals.

Lucas: Yeah, I love that. My favorite, uh, strategy and breakdown for content that I think is very usable for so many different people, regardless of how much time they have, how many hats they wear and how everything they’re trying to juggle and balance, or if this is what they do full time and they have a lot of time, uh, to dedicate to content.

Um, and it’s called the 4 1 1 strategy. So this isn’t something I’ve developed, but I’ve modified it to content. And basically with the way the 4 1 1 strategy works, if you take 4 plus 1 plus 1, you get 6. So this works for every 6 posts you share on Instagram. Now, there’s a lot of freedom within that. 6 posts could be someone’s weekly content output.

Maybe they are sharing posts almost every day. that is six posts a week. Maybe they’re more, more, uh, conservative and they’re posting around three times a week. So those six posts will be spread across two weeks of content. If you get into some other numbers that aren’t multiples of three or six, it gets difficult, but you can work it out.

Um, but the 4 1 1 strategy is basically for every six posts. Four of those posts are your highest value bringing content. So it’s not about selling. It’s not about promoting your business. I’ll get to that in a second. But four out of your every six posts are just pure value. Now value for many people, we automatically think in terms of like education, teaching something, tutorials.

That’s the way I love to share it. And I find that does help me grow my audience. It gets me a lot of shares, but value can also be entertaining people, right? Making them laugh. A meme post can be value, right? People don’t, don’t lock yourself into only thinking of value as educational tutorial content. If that’s what you like.

Go for it. It works really well as a content pillar. I personally love it. It’s my favorite, but see how you can bring value. Ask people what was the most or ask friends, ask family, ask colleagues. What do you look at my feed for 30 minutes? Can you let me know what you think the best post? Don’t look at metrics.

What was the best post of mine that you got the most out of? Ask them stuff like that and learn, but out of your six posts, four of them, the first part of the four, one, one are just bringing value. That’s going to help grow your audience. It’s going to help give you more reach and might improve your engagement, things like that.

Moving on, we have the one and the one. So the other two posts, and you’re going to mix these in across the six, ideally. But one of those, the first one is going to be a hard sell. So that is you are just straight up promoting your business. Hey, everybody. I have a sale on my art prints this month, right?

I’m 25 percent off my entire print shop. Go ahead. Right. That post isn’t going to do as well in terms of reach, right? We know that with ad content, uh, it’s not gonna do as well. That’s okay though. You need to keep your business sustainable and promoting yourself is so important to that. I have personally, and I’ve seen other people fall into the.

The growth trap where you just focus on all of your content being value. That first category I shared. And that can be dangerous because you get stuck. You feel good because you’re getting follows. You’re getting good reach. You’re getting shares and it’s, it’s awesome. It’s great, but you’re not promoting your business.

You don’t have, or maybe you don’t have a business. You haven’t spent time creating a product or a service or an offer because you’re not doing that. And you’re so focused on growth. You’ll grow an audience, but that might be all you have and eventually things change and you might realize I’ve been spending hundreds of hours on this and I haven’t made a dime, right?

So that’s where, uh, we add in the promotional pillar. So four posts of value, the first one. So your fifth post is a hard sell, just straight, clear, fully transparent about it. I’m promoting my business. Here’s how you can work with me. And then the last one, 411, the sixth post. Um, and again, mix them all up.

Don’t do it in this order. Don’t do four value, one cell cell. The last one though, is a soft cell. So a soft cell post is kind of a mix of the two. I might give value in a post. I might say, you know, me on, me on a reel or me in a carousel. Here’s my monthly content planning process. Here’s, you know, here are the steps I follow to plan my content.

I go through, I share it, it’s given value. And then at the end of the post, or at the end of the video, my call to action might be. Give this a try, but if you’re too lazy to do it, you can also, you know, purchase my done for you content calendar, right? It’s a soft sell. I gave value, but I’m also giving a little nudge of how they can buy from me too.

Um, you mentioned that think tools like many chat for Instagram DM automation are super useful for this purpose. I love using it as well, but with this strategy, so four one one. Every six posts, four of them just bring straight value. One of them is a hard sell. One of them is a soft sell. You mix them all up.

I find that is really the best approach for doing all things, getting your business and also getting the growth without getting overwhelmed.

Akua: That is brilliant. Logging that away because I will be doing, I’m going to go back and rearrange everything on, like, I think it’s just, it’s such a great, like.

Foundation starting point and really just gives business owners the confidence of like, okay, this is doable for me to where I can show up consistently and also like feel confident about selling my services. And I loved how you shared about like how many business owners end up in that growth trap where they’re so focused on growth that they literally don’t realize of how much so that this can really like.

Pay your bills and help you grow your business.

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How can we, number one, create that content where, you know, it’s entertaining but also still moves the needle in our business? And then two, how do we prevent not getting into that trap of just only growing?

Lucas: Yeah. And it’s, so I guess for number two first, how to not get in that trap, I’ll tackle that one first.

And it really, it just comes down to like, try like train your audience and show them that you aren’t just, you know, all free value. And it’s going to feel so difficult at first, right? If someone hasn’t done this, the first time you promote yourself or promote something, Um, I will mention my business in particular.

I do a lot of like influencer work. I do a lot of brand sponsored posts, brand partnerships. So that might take the place of my hard sell or my soft sell. Right. And the first time I started doing brand promotions, I was like, my audience is going to hate this. They’re going to call me a sellout. Right. All that stuff.

Everyone gets worried about that because they’ve built their audience. You know, growing on free value for the most part, nine times out of 10, you will find that your audience is actually excited to support you. If you, if you’ve built a community, which social media is all about, as cliche as that is, right?

If you’ve actually shown up and built a community, they’ll be excited to support you and they’ll be happy to see you doing that. Um, and it might not even mean they are. You know, purchasing from you, but you will see the support show up and you got to just try and put it in there. Um for someone who’s just getting started instagram, for example has different formats than just main feed content Right.

So in that 4 1 1 strategy as I mentioned, it’s good to show up and promote those are not Um, those aren’t locked into you know Just your main feed content if you want to do your promo content your soft sell and your hard sell As Instagram stories or showing up on a weekly Instagram live and just giving a deeper look into your product or your offer That’s great, too And that might be more more comfortable for some people who are afraid to do like a main feed post promoting something so there are so many different varieties and Instagram isn’t the only platform out there that gives you access to other different avenues and channels to show up so Find the way that is comfortable for you, but please do try because, um, I’ve seen there’s always, there’s always that quote where it’s like.

If you spend so much time on your, I’m going to butcher it, but if you spend so much time on your social media without making money, then it’s not a business. It’s an expensive hobby, right? We’ve heard that before. And, and you know what, for some people just creating content is okay to be a hobby. That’s all right, but you have to be real with yourself.

If you are, you know, taking time away from your family or your work and things like that to do this hobby, it’s important to rein it in and to make sure, um, that you have your priorities and your, your clear view on what you want it to be.

Akua: Yes. Oh my gosh. I can relate to that so much. When you said earlier that it’s really hard, like, I used to be that person where I would just, Give value.

Like I always think of Oprah, like you get a car, you get a car. That was me. I’m like, you get this, you get that. Everybody, which I think is great. Like, there’s nothing wrong with it. But eventually I was like, um, I have like no money. And so I think that’s just So I’m just really glad that you brought that up and just shared of like, again, just trying.

Um, and again, you’re training your audience. And I, I always think too, we, uh, Mike McCallows, we talked about having a profit first business. He says all the time, like your audience, your customers want you to be profitable. Like, so there’s nothing wrong with selling because if they’re already following you more than likely, they’re going to purchase what you have, whatever it is that you have to offer.

So, um, I love that. And so I. Want to talk about the TikTok ban, because I know you brought it up a couple of times, you know, I know a lot of us are sweating here and a lot of business owners have built, honestly, have grown their businesses where it’s made a huge impact on the platform. And so if TikTok should be banned, um, what are you doing as a business owner?

What advice do you have for business owners, especially if that’s where they were mainly making their money? And, you know, how do they, how do they pivot?

Lucas: Yeah, that’s a great question. And again, we’ll have to see what does happen. I’m, I’m hoping something will change and it will be safe. It’ll be okay. And it doesn’t get banned.

Um, but I, I would be taking the opportunity right now to start growing on other platforms like Instagram. If you are more on the business side of things. LinkedIn is excellent for video short form video content right now too, right? So if you’re more like thought leadership style content or tutorial content, go over there.

Uh, YouTube Shorts is still very new and I expect YouTube Shorts will probably, if TikTok were to be banned in the United States, I could see YouTube Shorts really stepping up to also be up there with Reels and kind of filling that void, especially for many people who maybe find Instagram difficult to grow on.

So. Start doing that now because if it does get banned and it’s like, you know, why two K new year’s 2000 everything, everything’s gone. Everything’s turned off people who are panicking. Then they’re going to be with everybody else. But those who prepare beforehand, uh, they’ll be ready. So start doing it now.

Just start seeing how you can trickle your content from Tik TOK over to Instagram, over to YouTube shorts. So you’re not waiting. Till you hear any news that does possibly happen and doing it with with everybody else, right? This isn’t uh, you want to try to get on get on the train early instead of when everybody’s rushing to it

Akua: Oh my gosh, I love that and that’s such an important thing And I and it’s not hard to do if you already have a crap ton of content already on tick tock You can use that as like a low lift Just to already start collecting that data just to kind of see what works what doesn’t work and then you can start creating even I New and fresh content to go along with that.

And so I like, I feel like there’s like different ways that you can absolutely experiment, but I love that. And I think it’s like, again, just like business owners really think about what your goals are, what type of content, like you mentioned, like thought leadership, like that’s a really great place where you could thrive on LinkedIn.

And I did forget that they do have now they’re, I don’t even know what they’re called. They’re not reels, are they?

Lucas: I don’t think there’s LinkedIn video, but like, but at least in Canada, like when I go into my LinkedIn app, there is like a vertical video feed. I think they’re testing it in Canada right now, but like I press on it and it literally takes me to like, LinkedIn looks like TikTok or Instagram.

It’s just like a full video feed. And you can tell they’re trying to get it there. And A big change in the ecosystem, like TikTok being banned could be what it takes,

Akua: right? Exactly. Like could give that growth to that business owners have been looking for. So, um, I absolutely love that. And so if you could go back in time and you like, say you’re restarting your, your profile, like your, your Instagram again, what is the one thing that you would do differently?

Lucas: I think I would look at more series content. So when I say series, and especially if we’re having to grow now, we always spoke earlier about how it’s. difficult to get people to follow these days. And I think the one thing I can, I can, the one thing to my knowledge that is a good way to bypass the anti follow is to lock people into a series.

So what that means is there’s really no like for the good thing is there’s no like format of like. Your series content has to look like this. You get to decide that. It’s just hard to put in the work and the experimentation to find that winning ticket. But if you do, it’s great. Spend time on it. But, focus on, like, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, right?

Try to think of something that you can stretch out and structure endlessly, really, or at least for, like, 25 episodes. And I think that’s what we’ll get people following and that’s what we’ll get people focused on your feed locked into your content nowadays is it’s going to get people looped into Oh, I need to see what he’s posting or what she’s posting, right?

Or what they’re posting. I need to lock into this account because they did a great series yesterday. I saw part one. I want part two. I want part three. I want part four. And it doesn’t matter if that is education, teaching someone something. It doesn’t matter if it is just humor and entertainment and little acting skits.

But structure your content as a series. And I think that’s the most important way right now to be known for something that people want to come back for, which is why people follow or subscribe nowadays.

Akua: Oh my gosh. Okay. I’m so glad you brought that up because on my blog, I do storytelling trends every year and that was one of the things because I’m like, if Netflix does this with all of my shows, I want to do it too.

And I think that’s just so important. And I always think of Lisa Tisa on TikTok, who did the, who the F did I marry series. Where it was like 50 videos and it equated to eight hours watch time and people watched it. And it was a series of like, see part one, part two, part three, part four. And everybody stayed from one through 50.

And I think, and I, again, it’s that storytelling piece. Right. And I think that’s so important where people want to, they want to be hanging on your every word. They, they want that suspense to fit, even if it’s just even educational, whatever. Um, you know, they kind of want to be hanging because they’re more likely to come back for the other stuff.

And so I think, I think, and I remember too, when Reels and TikTok first started out. Well, first TikTok and then Reels, the series used to be there, but not as heavy, but I feel like it’s made a comeback now. I don’t know, but that’s, that’s, I think, yeah.

Lucas: Yeah. I think it’s, um, yeah, like a series was more just like.

Someone would have like a style of like acting and they might just keep doing that, right? And they were kind of known for that one thing, but I think we’ve now expanded into like, yeah, story time series, educational series where it’s like a mini course you show up every single day. Another thing that’s great about series is how repeatable it can be.

One of my, one of my favorite like Instagram accounts who I believe he’s also on YouTube shorts. Um, he is a Pokemon card content creator. It’s like deep pockets monster, deep pocket monster. And he just opens Pokemon packs every day. But, uh, he has like a jingle to it. It’s like, should I open it or should I keep it sealed?

And he gets millions of hits every day because people want to tune in. He opens like vintage old stuff. That’s very expensive and. Because he’s ripping it open people are like, oh, why would you open that? Um, but he’s doing it so we don’t have to which is kind of the idea of it And he has like jingles to make it like, you know, it’s one of his videos right away He keeps the format the framing like I said the motto all of that is so familiar that people are going back and binging all his old content and they’re following or subscribing for all of his Future content.

He posts every single day at like 11 or at 8 30 PM Pacific time. And I see his content and I see he gets more and more likes within seconds of posting every day because people who are in that audience and enjoy that content want to show up and expect it. Like we would like back in the cable days, we would tune into a TV show every single day to watch it or every weekly to watch it.

Akua: Oh my gosh, I now want to check it out because number one, I don’t have any, I don’t have anything vintage, but I would just be so interested just to watch and like see everybody’s reaction. But I, I love that though too, because again, like he’s trained his audience where like even showing up at the same time, like everybody.

Shows up like, and I think that’s awesome. And I, I like how you just talked about the series, like their story series, there’s education series, like you can make it work for you. What is something that you enjoy talking about or doing in your business? And how can you make that into a series? And so I absolutely love that.

How. Do you keep showing up on social media without the burnout without You know, especially when you get frustration frustrating you’re not hitting your numbers And I think it’s I I love to bring this question up all the time because it’s going to happen You’re gonna see where things are like you’re not growing.

You’re not hitting your goals. How do you navigate that?

Lucas: Yeah, and that is so important Especially as people are maybe looking at this new period in time to get started with some new goal setting and I will just say like don’t Don’t over promise something. Don’t tell yourself you’re going to post every single day for 30 days or even like 60 days or 90 days.

Scale it back and just focus on, you know, I’m going to post three times a week for three months, right? Give yourself more time, spread it out. I think if we go back to like limiting beliefs where we started, I think it is a very limiting belief that you have to post every day. Like I said, we’re, we’re looking at quality.

over quantity. Obviously, if we’re talking brands and people who work with teams, you can get into more, more frequent posting. But I know many of us, myself included, are, you know, one or very few people teams and we already have, we have other obligations. So scale it back. It’s okay to spend more time on your content if that means less content and to take breaks because that’s ultimately going to keep you going in the long term.

So. Kind of full circle to going back to Siri is something I wanted to mention. Don’t like promise how long the series will go on for. I see many people will be like. 30 lessons in 30 days. Right. And then it’s like, well, now you like, whether this content takes off or not, or you might get sick of it early.

You’ve kind of just told people you’re going to do this for 30 days and it’s 30 lessons. Like obviously, yeah, we’re all human. You can back out of that and there’s no harm done, but mentally that might hurt. Right. That might say like, you might feel like you’ve not accomplished something or you’ve failed at something.

Spread it out. Lean on the more conservative side when it comes to content first. That will allow you to get more mileage for your content. If you have, you know, if you have 21 posts and you’re posting daily, you’re done in 21 days. If you have 21 posts and you’re posting, uh, three times a week, I’m gonna, I’m supposed to be a math teacher, but I feel like I’m gonna ruin my math here.

That’s seven weeks of content, right? Seven times three is 21. That’s seven weeks of content versus. 21 days. So three weeks of content, and that is significant. That’s going to last you so much longer. And by just posting three times per week, you have more time to do other things, right? Work on your products, do work for clients, right?

Work on finding clients in different ways than just content. So I definitely suggest keep some. Keep a good bit of balance by pulling back from content we mentioned earlier. Don’t just focus on the growth game. Yes, it’s tempting, right? We all love the endorphin rush of getting followers and all the reach on our posts, but there are so many other baskets to put your eggs in.

Don’t just focus on the growth, lean on the conservative side when it comes to posting.

Akua: Yes. Oh my gosh. Love that. And I have loved this whole conversation. I feel super excited, really inspired because I’m like, this is, I think, and if you’re listening, I think so many of us needed this, right? Like really there’s hope for us y’all.

And so every question that we love to end with is what do you think is the biggest differentiator between the businesses that succeed and the ones that fail?

Lucas: That is a great question. I will go with, uh, consistency. And, and like I just said, um, consistency is not to be confused with frequency.

Consistency is showing up for a long period of time. It doesn’t mean showing up a lot for a long period of time. So do what you can to allow yourself to show up consistently in the long run, and that will win out over the Short run the short term sprint that leads to burnout. It will allow you to learn It will allow you to roll with the punches and ultimately for the most part grow rather than A quick kind of burst or quick experiment, stay consistent.

Akua: Oh, love that. Yeah. This is, that’s such a good, uh, good point. And I think a lot of us as business owners, I know for me, I have been trying to, as I figure out my consistency, also be aware of my capacity because a lot of us will be like, Oh yeah, I can do this and lay out the list. By the time it comes, we can barely roll out of bed.

And so for me, I have been like, all right, what is my capacity today? Cause it’s not going to be the same tomorrow. Like even like if I could do 10 percent or, you know, then 50 percent the next day. Right. And so I absolutely love that to help really determine what our, like, what our consistent, what consistency looks like for us in our business.

So Lucas, thank you. so much for coming on this show. This has been such a fantastic conversation. And for those who want to connect with you, how can they find you?

Lucas: Yeah, I always say Instagram is my main platform of choice. So it’s just at the Lucas O’Keefe over on Instagram and come, come say hello over there.

Akua: Awesome. Well, thank you so much, Lucas, for joining us and for everybody tuning in until next time. That ends our episode of the Independent Business Podcast. Everything we’ve discussed today can be found at podcast. honeybook. com. Head to our website to access for show notes, relevant links, and all of the resources that you need to level up.

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