Shake Up Your Social Media In Just 10 Minutes
Over here at Freelancing Females HQ, we have been freshening up our looks and trying to make ourselves super presentable for the Fall and Holiday seasons. And of course, here in the year 2019, that has to include our digital presences aka our INSTAGRAMS.
So, this week, we put Milkshake the free Insta website maker app to the test, to see if it could give us that insta-shine we all want to give off. Mark Twain may or may not have said, “Brevity is the soul of wit,” but Kelis definitely sang “my milkshake brings all the boys to the yard” so we were very stoked to play with their so-called Insta websites.
In true peak-crowdsourcing form, we had to go to our Facebook group to see what the ladies thought in the Freelancing Females Fam. Many of you had questions for how to best optimize this handy little tool and… shake things up if you will. First and foremost, we know you are pros and many of you probably have your own websites. We’re diggin Milkshake in addition to our standard site because it’s essentially driving new audiences to the best content for them immediately, and give our Instagram profile a more in-depth and developed feel. So it’s definitely not a mutually exclusive situation.
Now, here are the top tips we gleaned from Milkshake’s adorably polite and very Australian team’s answers to our Qs.
1) Prioritize what’s important.
Think about your business, and the topline goal of your online presence. Milkshake calls that “hero-ing” - Did they invent that term? Either way, make sure that is the super obviously highlighted part of your Insta website. No one should click your #linkinbio and then think “why am I here?”
2) Celebrate what makes you special.
I asked the Milkshake team point blank if my profile was “good” and they immediately called out one of my links was by far the most interesting and compelling (sure enough, after 1 week that link has 5x the clicks of the others so I am going to “hero” it more and give it it’s own card.
3) If you’re a whiz at design, customize away.
Some of y’all are literally magic at graphic design, photography, illustration, etc. For you, Milkshake has a ‘Blank Canvas’ look you can use as a starting to point bring to life. You can change literally all the default colours by adding your own brand hex codes, select from a range of Serif & Sans Serif typefaces and weights, add your logos, original photos, collages, GIFs and graphics, even transparencies and cut-outs. So shiny.
4) If you’re a Design Dunce, let a ‘Look’ (aka template) do the heavy lifting.
I chose a ‘look’ (their version of templates), but then I clicked “SHAKE IT UP” and got to see a dozen very trendy and fresh looks that helped me visualize and experiment with my content in a new way. As a person who would rather die than have to choose a new Squarespace template, this was a low-commitment, refreshing experiment in branding, and the feeling I want people to have when they meet my company for the first time.
5) Don’t overshare.
Minimalism is key on the internet, and there is nothing wrong with having just one card on your Insta website to introduce yourself to your audience.
6) ..But don’t sell yourself short!
The whole point of this blog post, this tool, heck, even Instagram in general, is to celebrate you and your work and draw attention to it. So lavish a little TLC on yourself. Shout out your accomplishments, link to your press, hype up your YouTube channel. We know you’re amazing, now it’s time to tell the world.
7) Keep an eye on performance and iterate as needed.
I was pleased to see that Milkshake has ‘insights’ to track the views of your cards and clicks to your links. I personally am going to be watching my insights closely to see what gets people most excited, and it will be a legitimate value-add to my social media marketing. I can finally stop asking myself, “What do Instagram audiences want to see when they discover me?” Because now I know.
Feeling inspired to try it out for yourself, shine your shoes, and put a bow on it? Great, we thought so.
You can Download the free app for iOS & Android. And if you aren’t quite ready to DL anything yet (we’ve been there) you can still hop over to the Milkshake site to peruse more beautiful content. But then get back to work and don’t miss that client deadline! ;)