0:04

Hey there and welcome to the Girl Means

0:06

Business podcast , the show where we're

0:08

all about helping you feel confident , both

0:10

as a mom and a business owner . I'm

0:13

your host , kendra Swalls , mom of two

0:15

, former teacher and full-time photographer

0:18

and business coach . Each week , we'll

0:20

discuss the challenges , success and

0:22

secrets that make you say I can do

0:24

this , because you absolutely

0:26

can . So pop in those earbuds

0:28

, grab your favorite snack and let's dive

0:31

in , because this girl means business

0:33

. Hey

0:38

there and welcome back to the Girl Means Business podcast

0:40

. This week we have some big

0:43

, breaking Instagram news

0:45

to share with you . All

0:52

right , I had to head in some fun breaking

0:55

news music there for you , okay , so what

0:57

has happened ? Instagram has

0:59

come out this last week with an

1:01

announcement that they are running a test

1:04

a trial , if you will , if you will

1:06

for a new

1:08

paid tier meta

1:10

verified option , and

1:13

I'm going to break that down what all of that means . But there

1:15

was no formal , like

1:17

Adam Masseri did not

1:19

get on social media and say this is what's happening . There's

1:21

been no formal like meta you

1:24

know announcement of this . It's all

1:26

been quietly sent out behind the scenes

1:28

, and what I mean by that is that meta

1:30

has sent out this information

1:33

to , I guess , a select

1:35

group of creators and business owners on

1:37

Instagram , saying that you can opt

1:39

into this if you would like to . We're running

1:41

this test here in the United States and

1:44

anybody can really opt in . Honestly , this

1:46

was just kind of initially sent out to

1:48

these larger creators and

1:51

so , of course , that got people talking

1:53

because , as they were receiving the information they

1:56

were getting online , they were talking about it , they were

1:58

sharing their thoughts on it . Then other people started sharing

2:00

it and it's just kind of snowballed and it

2:03

led me to create this

2:05

episode . Normally , I have all my episodes

2:07

kind of batched and created and ready to go

2:09

, and I'm pushing everything back a week

2:11

because I want to talk about this . I feel like it's

2:13

something that we need to have a discussion around

2:16

, and I wanted you to be aware

2:18

of what could potentially be coming

2:20

down the pipeline when it comes to paid

2:23

pay to play options

2:25

on social media . Okay

2:27

, so let's talk about what exactly this

2:30

is versus what

2:32

it isn't . Now , keep in mind

2:34

this is a test , so

2:36

this is not Instagram

2:38

coming out and saying this is a done deal

2:40

. This is what we're doing . They are testing

2:43

this Now . They have tested this previously

2:45

in Australia , I believe

2:47

, and it did not work . It

2:49

failed . So why they're testing United

2:51

States now ? I don't really know , but I

2:53

guess they're hoping that it will work . We

2:56

have to keep in mind Meta

2:58

, instagram , facebook . They

3:01

are a company . They are a business

3:03

. Their goal is to make money , and

3:06

while we have all been able to use

3:08

these platforms free of charge for

3:10

a long time now and it's been great

3:12

for the most part they are

3:14

still a business and their bottom

3:17

line is we want to make money . And

3:19

so we kind of had an idea

3:21

that this was going to happen at some point

3:23

, like there was going to be some

3:25

tipping point where these companies

3:28

, these social media companies , were going to say like hey

3:30

, it's time to start like paying to

3:32

be here Now , for just the average

3:34

user , you're not probably

3:37

going to ever have to pay to get onto Instagram

3:39

and just scroll videos , but if

3:41

you are wanting to use social

3:43

media as a place to promote

3:46

your business , to sell products or services

3:48

, that is where they are looking to

3:50

start monetizing , and this is kind

3:52

of the first step in them heading

3:55

in that direction is they are testing

3:57

this out Now , again , I'm going to say this one more time . This

3:59

is just a test , so

4:01

there are things that we can

4:03

do as users to

4:06

help , hopefully help

4:08

this to not actually become an actual

4:10

part of Instagram . So , okay

4:13

, let's get into it Basically

4:15

. Instagram has said they are going to start

4:17

offering four paid tiers

4:20

as part of the meta verified

4:22

program . Now , what the meta verified Verified program

4:24

is is back

4:26

in the day , you could go onto Instagram

4:29

and you would see accounts that had this blue

4:31

check next to their name , and that

4:33

blue check meant that it was there to

4:36

let you know that that account had been

4:38

authenticated . So a lot of times it was

4:40

reserved for celebrities

4:42

, large companies , people who

4:44

had a lot of media exposure and

4:47

people who had a high chance

4:49

of being duplicated

4:52

or having somebody try

4:55

to create accounts in their likeness

4:57

, and so having that blue check

4:59

meant that you knew they were verified

5:01

. You knew that they were who they said they were . So

5:03

if you know Jennifer Aniston

5:06

has an Instagram account with a blue check and then

5:08

you get a friend request from , or

5:10

someone starts following you under the name Jennifer Aniston

5:12

with all the same content but no blue check , you

5:14

would know that was not actually her . Now

5:17

there are people who were not celebrities

5:19

who were getting the blue check based on

5:21

applying A lot of times it

5:23

was based on getting

5:27

the blue check based on applying . A lot of times it was based

5:29

on media exposure how well known were you and how much exposure

5:31

do you have in the public ? And so there

5:33

were a lot of athletes , and

5:35

sometimes even college athletes , who had a lot of

5:37

public media attention

5:39

around them and they were getting the blue check . So

5:42

it was kind of a big deal for a while . It was

5:44

this thing where , like , if you had a blue check , you

5:46

were . You were somebody on Instagram

5:48

. Now , I

5:51

guess a couple of years ago , maybe two years ago

5:53

, three years ago , I don't know exactly when they rolled it

5:55

out , they rolled out the paid

5:57

meta verified program

5:59

where you could then pay $15

6:02

a month and you would get the blue check

6:04

and then you were supposed to get like

6:06

additional support

6:08

, some chat support , things like that . They

6:11

never said at any point

6:13

that having that $15

6:16

a month meta verified check

6:18

was going to get you more exposure . That was

6:20

never part of their original meta

6:23

verified plan . Now there were

6:25

people who were saying that that was

6:27

part of it . There were people who were on Instagram going

6:29

well , I have the blue check and I got more exposure , so you

6:31

should do it too . That was never

6:33

the case . Instagram meta

6:35

never said it was never in any

6:37

of their writing that by having the meta

6:40

, by paying for the meta verified program

6:42

, you would get more exposure . So

6:45

that's what they originally said

6:47

. Well then last week , or

6:50

the time of this recording , just a few days ago , they

6:52

have come out and now said that they are

6:54

going to expand the MetaVerified

6:57

paid program to

6:59

include four payment tiers

7:02

. So tier one is

7:04

the $15 a month which has

7:06

been since the beginning or since they

7:08

started it . You get the blue check , you get

7:10

the enhanced profile

7:12

, which means you can add images

7:14

and text to your links . I don't know what that exactly would look

7:17

like . And then they're saying now that

7:19

if you have the $15 a month

7:21

tier , you're also going to be , you're

7:23

going to appear closer to

7:25

the top in search results

7:27

. So that means that if somebody goes to Instagram

7:30

and searches for you

7:32

know , whatever industry you're in or

7:34

your area , that hopefully you would come up closer to

7:36

the top in those searches . You would get to kind of priority

7:38

in those search results . So kind

7:41

of that SEO bump in that

7:44

tier one and that's

7:46

the new piece they've added . So

7:50

prior to this new update that was not a part of the $15

7:52

a month . It was literally you get the blue check , you get additional

7:54

support , that's it . So now they've

7:56

added in the enhanced profile and then the

7:59

search results priority . Then

8:01

tier two would be $45

8:03

a month . You would also get the

8:05

same things in tier one , but then you would be considered

8:08

a featured account . Now they don't actually

8:10

explain what that means . It

8:12

just says featured account . So I'm

8:14

assuming that means maybe you're going

8:16

to be shown more often on the explore page

8:19

or maybe you're going to have a little bit more

8:21

exposure in some way . I'm not really sure

8:23

, but it's just featured account is the way they're describing

8:25

it , and then you also get to add two

8:28

links , or you get to add

8:30

links to two reels per month . So

8:32

what that means is if you are promoting

8:34

something , you can create a reel

8:37

for it and where in the past you've

8:39

had to either send people to your bio

8:41

to click a link or you've had to do like a keyword

8:43

automation , where that you know , you

8:45

say like comment , sale , and I'll send you a link

8:47

to the sale page . Now

8:50

, if you have this $45 a month

8:52

tier , you'll be able to add

8:54

direct links to two of your reels

8:56

per month . So I'm assuming that means

8:58

that they'll have like a little link button on

9:01

your reel that people can click on and it takes them directly

9:03

to wherever you want to send them . That's

9:05

tier two . Now tier three is

9:08

$120 a month . It's

9:10

the same as tier one and two

9:12

, except that you get four

9:15

links in your reels per

9:17

month . So instead of two you get four

9:19

. So you could do one a week . And

9:22

it does say you get more exposure . Now

9:24

what that actually means , it

9:26

does not clarify . So

9:29

that could mean maybe you're getting pushed

9:31

out to more accounts , maybe you're getting put

9:33

on the explore page , maybe they're going to have

9:35

some new featured account , you

9:38

know section . I don't know . And

9:40

then here's the kicker . Tier four

9:43

is $350

9:45

a month . You get eight links

9:47

in your reels per month and

9:50

you get an annual profile review

9:52

, I'm assuming by somebody

9:54

at Meta . So for

9:56

$350 a month you would become , you

9:58

know , a featured account . You would get to

10:00

add these links to your reels . You would have an enhanced

10:03

profile . You get the extra support supposedly

10:05

, which I know a lot of people have said they don't actually

10:07

get extra support as of now . But we'll see . And

10:10

then you would

10:12

. Supposedly again I'm putting all

10:14

this in air quotes because nobody has actually tested

10:17

this that I'm aware of and seen

10:19

results from it because it's so new you

10:21

would supposedly get a better

10:23

exposure , more exposure , more reach

10:25

from your content , because you would be pushed

10:27

out more by

10:29

meta , because you're now paying for

10:31

that exposure . So it's essentially , instead

10:33

of paying I mean , you could still pay for ads , but it's

10:36

like paying for ads but your account

10:38

and everything you create is

10:40

the ad . So I

10:43

don't know . It's very interesting . There

10:45

are a lot , a lot of people who are coming

10:47

out and saying we don't want this , we don't

10:49

like this . I agree , I do

10:51

not like this . Um , I

10:53

do believe that this is one of those

10:55

moments where , similar

10:57

to I've talked about this in the past

10:59

when the NFL this

11:01

last year , this last season , they

11:03

had one game of

11:06

the regular NFL season that was on

11:08

the Peacock streaming platform

11:10

. The only way you could watch it was on Peacock

11:13

and people were in an uproar . They

11:15

were like this is dumb , we're not going to do that . I'm not going

11:17

to pay to watch a football game that

11:19

should be on national television for free . People

11:22

ran their mouths . They were like this is not going to , we don't

11:24

want this . And yet , for free . People ran their mouths

11:26

. They were like this is not going to , we don't want this . And

11:31

yet the numbers showed that people still paid to watch it . In fact , more people paid to watch

11:33

that game than watched a typical Sunday night football game when it's free , on

11:35

whatever station . So

11:37

I say that to say

11:39

that there are a lot of people saying

11:42

that they don't want this . However

11:44

, when it comes down to actually

11:46

this rolling out , we'll see who actually

11:49

pays for it , because , in

11:51

the end , people are really trying

11:53

to grow their business on Instagram and this

11:55

is going to hopefully supposedly

11:57

help them do that . Okay

12:00

, so here's my take on

12:02

this . I believe

12:05

that it is still in the test phase

12:07

. I have maybe

12:10

naively , my suspicions

12:13

and hopes that it will not actually move beyond

12:15

the test phase . I have a feeling

12:17

that the same thing that happened in Australia is going

12:19

to happen here , where people

12:22

come at them saying this is not what

12:24

we want , we're not going to do this , I

12:26

don't want this , we're going to have a lot of backlash

12:29

for it and it will just kind of quietly go

12:31

away . Now , I could be wrong . I

12:33

hope I'm not , but I could be . In

12:36

the event that this does become

12:38

something , then we have

12:40

a decision to make . We as business

12:43

owners , we as creators , have to decide . Are

12:45

we willing to pay these

12:48

anywhere from 15 to $300

12:50

a month to get this exposure , or

12:53

are we going to start looking for other

12:55

ways to grow our business

12:57

? And so this

13:00

is where I feel like it's a good time

13:02

for us to really start thinking

13:05

about okay , what are we doing in

13:07

our business right now ? Are we relying

13:10

solely on social media ? Am

13:12

I putting all of my eggs in one basket

13:14

? Because again , I've said this time and time again

13:17

with social media , we don't own these platforms

13:19

. We don't have control . So

13:21

if Instagram or Meta wants to come up and say

13:23

you owe me a thousand dollars a month to even

13:26

get your content noticed , we

13:28

either have to pay up or get out . Like

13:30

that's just how it is . Like there's a lot

13:32

of people online right now who are complaining

13:35

and they're frustrated and I totally understand and they're like

13:37

how can they do this to us ? Like this

13:39

is . This is ridiculous . Like we're already

13:41

struggling to get engagement and reach

13:43

, and now they're going to make us pay for it . Guys

13:46

, we don't have that control . It's

13:48

like walking into Target and being mad

13:51

because they raised the price of their

13:53

items in their store . Like nobody's

13:55

doing that . Nobody is coming for

13:57

Target because they're like , oh , they raised

13:59

their price of their

14:02

towels from $12

14:04

to $15 . Like , we

14:06

just kind of roll with it . It is what it is . It's

14:08

a company decision . That's exactly what Meta

14:10

is . We have taken this

14:12

ownership of it when we really don't

14:15

have ownership of it , and so

14:17

, in my

14:19

opinion , take that

14:21

information and go . Okay , if I'm

14:23

putting too many of my eggs in the social

14:25

media basket , it is time to take some of those

14:27

eggs out and move them somewhere else . So

14:30

what else do you do ? Well , my

14:32

number one answer to that is

14:35

email . I want you to be growing

14:37

an email list . You need to

14:39

be growing an email list Even

14:41

if this never rolls out , even

14:44

if Instagram stays exactly as

14:46

it is now , even if Instagram's

14:48

reach or engagement goes through

14:51

the roof and you start having major success

14:53

. You need to be building out

14:55

your email list because at any

14:57

point that could all change when

15:01

social media was at its peak , you

15:03

know , during COVID days , when everybody was home

15:05

and everybody was had time to be online

15:07

and on social media and accounts were growing

15:09

like crazy and reels had first come

15:11

out . Even then , there

15:14

were accounts that were getting shut down . There

15:16

were accounts that were losing their

15:18

content because they were getting

15:20

hacked or they violated some

15:22

kind of community standard , and Instagram shut

15:24

them down . And so we

15:27

have to be prepared for that

15:29

to happen at any moment . We have to be prepared

15:31

for Instagram to come up and say we're

15:34

going to change the game on you

15:36

and you have no control over it . If

15:38

you are building an email list and

15:40

you are sending people from your

15:42

social media account from other places to

15:44

your email , even if Instagram

15:47

goes away tomorrow , even if your Facebook group gets

15:49

shut down , even if there's

15:51

a major meta outage and everybody's

15:53

accounts get wiped out , you have a way

15:55

to reach your audience because they're on your email list

15:57

. So your email list

15:59

needs to be the thing that you are

16:02

adding into your

16:04

marketing toolbox right

16:07

now , if you don't already have one . And I'm

16:09

not trying to be like the

16:11

scare tactic type thing here , but ultimately

16:13

, like there are so many pieces and

16:15

I have done episodes after episodes about the

16:17

importance of email and the value of email

16:19

. But beyond just it being

16:22

a safety net for your business , it is one of the

16:24

best ways to get consistent

16:26

sales in your business . So

16:28

if you are listening to this and you're like

16:31

, yes , I hear you , I need to start an email list

16:33

, but I don't know what I'm doing or I don't have a whole

16:35

lot of time , go down to the show

16:37

notes . Grab my free email

16:39

marketing starter kit . I actually

16:42

even have a email

16:44

marketing training video that you can

16:47

purchase for really

16:49

cheap less than $10 . You can watch

16:51

that video . It's about 45 minutes to an hour long

16:53

. It goes into detail about

16:55

what you need to do to get your email list going and

16:58

you can have it set up in a matter

17:01

of hours . It's that simple . And

17:03

then I teach you in there too , like how

17:05

to get people onto your email list , how

17:07

to grow your email list , all the things . But

17:10

if nothing else , that's the thing I want

17:12

you to focus on . If this new Instagram

17:14

update , if anything I've ever taught

17:16

you in this podcast about social media sticks

17:19

with you , I hope it's this that

17:21

we cannot rely on social media

17:23

100% . We have to have a

17:25

backup plan . We have to have something else in

17:27

place , and email is one of the best ways to go

17:29

about that . Some other things you can

17:32

consider is

17:34

, obviously there's other platforms out there . You know , there's

17:36

YouTube , there's , I say , tiktok

17:38

. We don't know the future of TikTok , but there's TikTok

17:41

. There is Pinterest , there's LinkedIn

17:43

. There's a lot of other options out there

17:45

if you want to start diversifying the platforms

17:48

that you are on . Again , those all

17:50

come with their own set

17:52

of rules and standards and

17:55

how to use them , and , again , they're all

17:57

social platforms of some kind

17:59

, so we have limited control . But

18:01

it is good to kind of know , kind

18:03

of diversify where you're spending your time and

18:05

where you're putting your content , and then you

18:07

can also invest a lot more into your SEO

18:09

. So if you are a you know , someone who

18:12

wants to get your business found on

18:14

Google and local searches

18:16

, then putting some time and energy into

18:18

building up that SEO is a really great way

18:20

to kind of give yourself

18:23

a little bit more security when it

18:25

comes to how your audience can find you

18:27

. And I also want to say that with this

18:29

change or with this , you know new

18:31

, you know future of

18:33

social media that could potentially be even

18:36

without that . Honestly , people are

18:38

getting really tired of social

18:40

media . They are starting to feel the burnout

18:43

, and even as just consumers

18:45

. I was having a meeting last

18:47

night with our local PTO

18:49

. I'm , reluctantly

18:51

now , the president of our school's PTO for

18:54

the next year , which should be a lot of fun

18:56

, but we were having our

18:58

last meeting of the year and we were kind of talking about

19:00

changes we want to make going forward for next year and

19:02

how we can get more people involved

19:04

and how we can get more information out there

19:06

. And we do have a

19:09

communications member

19:11

on the board which is primarily a social media manager

19:13

, and I said I think

19:15

we need to expand beyond social media

19:17

, because there are so many people in

19:20

our community who don't rely

19:22

on social media on a regular basis . They don't get on

19:24

social media on a regular basis , and

19:26

so for us to depend on getting

19:29

our information out there via social media

19:31

almost solely is

19:33

not going to help ensure that we reach more people

19:35

. We have to get creative , we have

19:37

to find other ways , and the same thing goes for our

19:39

businesses is people don't want to be spending

19:42

all their time on social media anymore , and especially

19:44

if things like these changes are going to keep

19:46

coming , you're going to start to see people

19:49

falling off a little bit more and more . So

19:51

having these other strategies in

19:53

place is going to help you ensure that you

19:55

don't feel like your business

19:57

is crumbling if social media

20:00

makes a change or goes away or

20:02

isn't doing what you want it to do . So

20:04

that is that for today's

20:06

episode . One more quick update

20:08

I want to give . I put this out on Instagram

20:11

, oddly enough , and Facebook

20:13

, but there's a cool new feature that

20:15

my podcast platform , buzzsprout

20:17

shout out to Buzzsprout , they're awesome has

20:20

added to my

20:22

account , or to all the accounts , and that

20:24

is this really cool text feature . So

20:26

if you go down to the show notes , you will see

20:28

at the right , at the very top of the show notes , there's a

20:30

little button that says send

20:32

me a message or send me a question , or

20:35

, you know , give . I think it says send me a question

20:37

or feedback . You

20:39

can click on that . It will open up a text

20:41

message where you can then send me a message

20:44

with a question . You have

20:46

a thought , you have an idea that you have

20:48

feedback , you have

20:50

for the show , and then it gets sent directly

20:53

into my Buzzsprout account . And so

20:55

the cool thing about that is it's a way for

20:57

you to , within the moment , if you're

20:59

listening to this episode and you have thoughts or

21:01

questions about this topic , about

21:03

Instagram's update and changes , you

21:06

don't have to hop over to social media and message me

21:08

. You can do it right here within the podcast

21:11

platform that you're on . So

21:13

I would love for you to click that . Just send me a message

21:15

, even if you just say hi in it . That'll

21:18

make my day , so I would love for you to try

21:20

that out for me and let me know your thoughts on

21:22

this new update from Meta . All

21:24

right , guys , have a wonderful week . I will see you

21:26

back here next week . Same time , same

21:28

place . Thank

21:32

you so much for tuning in this week . If you

21:34

enjoyed this episode , I would love for you to take

21:36

a screenshot , share it to social media

21:38

and don't forget to tag . Girl means business

21:40

and , as always , we greatly appreciate

21:42

any reviews you leave for this podcast

21:45

. Thank you so much for being here and we'll see

21:47

you next week .