Latest / Host Planet: Airbnb, Holiday Let, and Vacation Rental Insights / Instagram Strategies Every Airbnb Host Needs to Know

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Instagram Strategies Every Airbnb Host Needs to Know · Host Planet: Airbnb, Holiday Let, and Vacation Rental Insights

• 0:00
  Hello and welcome to House Planet Bite Size, the podcast
• 0:03
  brought to you by House Planet and Housefully.
• 0:05
  My name is James Farley, the founder of House Planet, and our
• 0:08
  goal is to share everything you need to know about buying and
• 0:11
  managing short term rentals. Today's guest is Jennifer Knight
• 0:14
  from Savvy Social Solutions and she's got five ways you can
• 0:18
  supercharge your presence on Instagram and turn lookers into
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  bookers. OK, real talk now for all you
• 0:24
  hosts out there, you know that moment when your guest messages
• 0:28
  you again with, hey, what's the Wi-Fi code?
• 0:31
  Or you're staring at 5 different calendars wondering if you've
• 0:34
  accidentally double booked the cottage.
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  Yes, we've all been there. That's why here at Houseplanner,
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  control centre. It handles bookings across all
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  really slick digital guidebooks that stop all the repeat
• 0:58
  questions. Honestly, it just makes your
• 1:00
  life easier and keeps your guests happier, helping you
• 1:04
  achieve those all important five star reviews.
• 1:07
  And here is a little bonus. If you're a House Planet
• 1:10
  listener, you can get $500 off on boarding the house for lease
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  property management software and 30% off digital guidebooks for
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  life. Just hit the link in the show
• 1:21
  notes and use the codes Planet 500 for the PMS and House Planet
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  GB for the guidebooks. And if you'd like a proper
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  walkthrough, there's also a link to book a demo with Frank Bosey
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  from Postfully. He will show you how it's all
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  works. Less stress, more bookings,
• 1:39
  sorted with Postfully. Jennifer, thank you for joining
• 1:49
  us on host planet Bite Size. You've got five ways hosts can
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  supercharge their presence on Instagram, so take it away with
• 1:57
  tip #1. Absolutely.
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  So my first tip for everybody is post mini tours specifically on
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  for Instagram. People love seeing like behind
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  the scenes. They want to know where they're
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  going to be. So if you know, if you're
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  posting like this is where where you're actually at, it's going
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  to be huge and people are going to love it just because it gives
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  them that little bit more of just like your booking site of
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  like, oh, where am I staying? They like to see it in more
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  details. Excellent.
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  Yeah. So mini so so you mean this it's
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  just a case of like taking a video of your rental?
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  Is it as simple as that? And then then just uploading it
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  as a Reel on your Instagram. Yeah, it can be as simple as
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  that. You can make it more
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  complicated, but if you don't have to overcomplicate, don't do
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  it honestly. You know, just showing like,
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  hey, this is this room. Maybe you do it that way and
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  then highlight different rooms depending on, you know, each
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  week that you do it. You can do it that way.
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  Excellent. So when you're doing the video
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  as well, would you say that you should be in shot or should you
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  be talking over it? What do you think's the best
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  format? It really depends.
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  If you have multiple people that can help you film, it's great to
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  be kind of walking through and talking about different, you
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  know, features and things. If you're by yourself, you don't
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  have to. You can put music over it.
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  You can do voice overs. It kind of just depends on what
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  your feel and branding is. Superb.
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  OK then, so a mini tour is tip #1.
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  What's tip #2? So right now the Instagram is
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  changing a lot. They've just introduced where
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  you have SEO and you can show up on Google searches now.
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  It's a big thing that's happened.
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  So using the location where you're at, either in your video
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  content or in the caption can really help because now when
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  people are Googling, you know, places to stay in Arizona, you
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  can pop up if you're using that location.
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  So you want to be making sure you're saying this is where
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  we're at? Yeah, it is important.
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  And I've noticed a little difference actually.
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  So for example, like we're recording podcasts all the time
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  and I'm always recording from the UK and our guests are all
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  over the world like you today you're in the States, we're
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  often talking to people in Europe and everywhere.
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  I always put UK. Would that be right?
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  You just would you always put like for your property, the
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  location of your property. So you can say just UK, you can
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  get more specific if you really just want to attract people that
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  are looking at that specific area.
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  It doesn't really matter how detailed you get, as long as
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  there's something there. And in relation to showing up in
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  Google searches there, I imagine the impact of this is people
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  that are posting on Instagram are starting to get a lot more
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  eyeballs on on their content. Is that what you're seeing?
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  Yeah. So Instagram, you used to only
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  be able to find it on Instagram, maybe your profile would show up
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  in Google searches and things, but now they're allowing it to
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  show up on Google searches as well.
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  So the more you're posting and the more you're using that tool,
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  you're going to show up more often.
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  Makes sense. OK, superb.
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  So tip #3. Yeah.
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  So guest love is what we're going to call this.
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  And really what that is is showing testimonials and
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  showing, you know, if you can get your guests to go on camera,
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  that's gold. Not a lot of people are going to
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  do that. They're going to do a written
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  review. So even just showcasing like,
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  hey, we have people staying with us, we're staying busy.
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  If you can show that, it's going to boost your credibility and
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  it's going to build trust with people that might want to stay
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  with you in the future. And in, in terms of testimonials
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  as well, if you do have a written testimonial, I guess you
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  could put that in a nice, I don't know, Canva design
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  something and use it on your stories or maybe as a post as
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  well. I guess you're taking advantage
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  of all those great reviews that you're getting.
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  Yes. So definitely put it in a Canva
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  post, put it in the stories, make it look pretty.
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  Because if it's just like a screenshot, a lot of people are
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  just going to scroll past it. It's going to look clunky in
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  your feet. So don't do that.
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  Yeah, I think this is the point is if you've got those great
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  reviews and if you're running a good rental, you're going to
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  have loads of good reviews. Utilize them.
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  Utilize them really well. OK then, Jennifer, so tip #4.
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  So tip #4 we're going to talk about why you're going to stay
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  with them. Essentially, what makes you
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  different. So obviously you're running a
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  business and you're not the same as the one down the street.
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  So show why Do you have a pool and the other place doesn't?
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  Do you have a really cool game room?
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  What show those unique things? Do you have a working farm?
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  Like if you can get down to what makes you you, you're going to
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  attract different people and you're going to slowly start
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  attracting those people that want that experience.
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  Definitely showing those unique selling points and I guess
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  always thinking about what your target guests want.
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  If you've got a certain guest avatar, you know they're coming
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  for a specific reason. Maybe they're a business
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  traveller and they want to know that there's great Wi-Fi.
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  They want to know there's a parking spot, they want to know
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  there's a cafe next door. Show those, show those things to
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  your potential guests. OK then, Jennifer, so tip #5.
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  Yeah, so we're going to talk a little bit about your bio.
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  So a lot of people get confused about this and they might just
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  say Airbnb host in this location, but that's your first
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  selling page. So you know, you have your
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  website, you have your booking pages, but a lot of people are
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  going to go to your social media.
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  So can I look at your page and immediately know who you are,
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  where you are and what makes you need unique?
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  Because if I can't, it's, I'm not going to stay and I'm not
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  going to call you. So really make sure that all the
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  information is there. Excellent.
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  And what would be the kind of the best practice for a buyer if
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  you're a property manager in a certain location, what are the
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  key things that you've got to have in there?
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  Yeah, location, of course. You want to make sure that
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  people know where you are, anything that makes you unique.
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  So, you know, if we're targeting people that need great Wi-Fi,
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  make sure you put great Wi-Fi there.
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  If you know you're targeting people that want a great
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  vacation and have a pool house, say that.
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  So really the things that make you unique, who you are and
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  where you're at. Superb.
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  OK, 5 great tips there. So we've got put the mini tour
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  together, use the location tags, show the testimonials that
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  you're getting, outline what makes you different, and of
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  course get your bio right when it comes to frequency of
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  posting. And I imagine, and there's a lot
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  of property managers out there thinking, well, I've got a few
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  rentals. I don't really know much about
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  social media. I don't know much about
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  Instagram. How do I get started and how
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  often should they be posting? Oh, that's a sticky question and
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  everybody you talk to is going to have a different answer for
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  you. My rule of thumb for my clients
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  is typically the more you post, at least the very least you're
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  going to show up on people's feet more.
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  So the biggest thing with how often you post is you want it to
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  be consistent. So whether you're going to post
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  every day or three times a week, it doesn't really matter if you
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  don't have that time to dedicate to it.
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  However, you need to make sure it's it's every single Monday.
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  It's every single Tuesday at the same time.
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  That's more important than your frequency.
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  And what are the types of posts and the types of content that
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  you've seen have the most impact in terms of converting people
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  from lookers into bookers? Anything that makes you unique.
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  So really types of content do really well.
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  If you have any Reels, those tend to get more views on
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  Instagram. That's not always the case with
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  businesses because they can't always, you know, have the video
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  content. But professional photos do
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  really well as well. So, you know, anything you can
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  get that looks clean, Don't be posting a grainy photo that your
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  grandma took because that's not going to do well.
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  It's not going to reach the right people and it's really not
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  going to reflect great on your brand.
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  So make sure it looks clean is the biggest thing.
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  And in terms of your your grid, which is your profile page, I've
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  seen lots of kind of really manicured grids over the years
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  and they look amazing. How important is it to get that
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  grid right? It's becoming less important.
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  Definitely 2-3 years ago it was highly important to do that.
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  Now I don't see it being as important.
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  People aren't looking at it as like that full picture.
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  They're kind of just seeing like a post here and there.
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  So of course, if you can get it to match, better do it.
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  But don't spend, you know, the next 12 hours stressing over it
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  either. And are you finding the reels
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  and, you know, people looking through the stories that's
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  become more of a focus for Instagram than kind of the the
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  standard posts which go on somebody's grid?
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  Yeah, definitely, definitely. Stories get a lot of attention
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  right now. Definitely getting reels.
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  It's going to put you in front of new people.
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  And that's really the goal for most of the time is get it on
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  other people's radar for when they actually want to book their
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  vacation. They're going to go with.
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  You So if you've got that video content, make sure you use it
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  often and wisely. OK.
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  So tell us a little bit about what you're doing in the States
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  and your company, Savvy Social Solutions.
• 10:56
  Yeah. So I own Savvy Social Solutions
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  and we actually specialize in the hospitality industry.
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  So restaurants, hotels, you know, all the hosts that might
• 11:05
  need it. And what we do is we take it off
• 11:07
  completely off their plate. So if they don't have the time
• 11:11
  or the mental power or they just want to go kayaking instead of
• 11:14
  focus on the social media, we take care of it.
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  We've seen some great results. I mean, some of my clients have
• 11:19
  had 70,000 views organically and that's, that's a difficult feat
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  just because you know, it's hard to get that momentum.
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  We really specialize in making sure you're consistent, making
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  sure you're on brand and we're promoting you.
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  Superb and where can people find out more information?
• 11:36
  Yeah, so we of course have our Facebook and Instagram page, but
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  also our website savvysocialsolutions.com is
• 11:44
  pretty easy and you can find out more.
• 11:46
  All right, check it out. We'll put those details in the
• 11:48
  show notes along with the contacts for Jennifer.
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  Jennifer, thanks so much for joining us on House Planet Bite
• 11:53
  Size. Yeah, thank you for having me.
• 11:56
  Great to chat with Jennifer Knight there about Instagram
• 11:59
  tips. Remember to highlight your USPS
• 12:01
  and always tag the location. All right, that's it for today's
• 12:05
  episode. Remember this podcast is brought
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  That's it for today's episode. Until next time I'll be hosting.