Take-aways from the Takeover
The Back Story
When I first started on IG in late August, a mom acquaintance Valerie, invited me to do a Takeover on her page. Valerie is a sleep consultant @talkin.sleep, with a 16K+ IG following! I had no idea how to even use IG back then, so I told her I’d love to do a takeover “once I got used to Instagram.” After 4 months of practice using IG, I signed up for the Movement Maestro’s Instagram Intensive @themovementmaestro . And I reached out to tell Valerie, I’d love to do a Takeover early March!
The Way Back Story
Valerie and I met at a mom & baby group when our almost 3-year olds were newborns. I had completely forgotten about the free presentation I did for the moms in that group. I had gone over tips to avoid injuries, core and pelvic floor recovery, and answered questions. I was sharing my knowledge to be helpful. I didn’t own a business. I wasn’t trying to drum up clients. I was just an exhausted and sleep-deprived new mom, who wanted to help these completely clueless moms (not clueless in a bad way, but clueless in the sense that no one ever told them how to care for their own bodies postpartum! WTF?!). Anyway, imagine my surprise when Valerie brought up that she STILL remembers my tips 2.5 years later! She said that’s why she was really excited to have me on her page, because she knew I had so much to share.
Night before Takeover
Turns out I misunderstood what a Takeover was. I thought I was going to show up for an hour and answer questions. Apparently a Takeover is where you show up and share your whole day, and answer questions along the way. So now I’m a little freaked out. I had no idea how many questions there would be or how I was going to do this with the 2 kids at home. I planned to show up around 10 AM and see what would happen.
TAKEOVER DAY
Around 10 AM, I logged into @talkin.sleep account and there were already FORTY questions! “My SIJ hurts, and I’m due next week, Help?” to “I feel like a prisoner at home. Tips?” to “I have no energy to workout, I see other moms doing it and I feel so guilty.” and almost every other question had “I still have a mummy pooch HELP!”
Phew.
My immediate reaction was “How the eff am I going to get to all of this today?!” I didn’t have handy posts to answer each question. I have maybe 75 posts total. So I ended up doing a ton of talking in my Stories. I wanted to show more of myself, going to the park, working out at home etc, but it was impossible to do all that if I also wanted to answer the questions. I can’t just be in a public park with 2 young kids and bury my head in my phone. So I stayed home and spent the day doing the Takeover while my husband pulled through and handled the kids most of the day (minus the breastfeeding ;)
A guest in someone else’s home
It was interesting to have access to an audience that Valerie had already built trust with. It was also a very different audience than was on my page. I really felt like a guest in someone else’s home. My own audience has been primed with my style of messaging, so they kind of self-select. There are more than enough fitness pages out there claiming to shred your mummy tummy or drastically change your physique. And that’s cool. I just ain’t one of those pages. And my audience knows that.
But Valerie’s audience was new, and different. I didn’t want to go off on tangents on this Takeover, so I kept it mostly business, answered as many questions as I could as professionally as I could, threw in a couple selfies, and signed off after putting in a 10-hour day.
10 Take-aways
Tell people what you do. Don’t assume they know. Because they don’t. Not everyone knows what a PT is, plus not all PTs are equal. I only introduced myself once at the very beginning. I wish I had done it numerous times for people who were tuning in later etc.
Tell people what to do. You can work for free for 7 hours but no one will follow you if you don’t TELL THEM TO FOLLOW YOU! Like, how simple, right?! *face palm* I had been on her page for 7 hours, sharing my posts and answering questions, when Valerie caught up with the Takeover and sent me a message saying, “Um, tell them to follow you!!!!” So towards the end, I finally snuck it in there and boom, sudden rapid increase in followers.
It’s called social media, so socialize! It’s like Shanté says, you have to train the click. When I was doing the Takeover, Valerie sent me a message and said “Use the stickers!!!!” And so I tried to use a sticker with almost every question. And it worked. The more engaged the audience felt, the more they viewed the Stories.
When you have a freebie, make sure you tell them it’s FREE. Another *face palm* Thankfully I snuck it in right at the end and told them it’s free and how to sign up. 41 people did! If you’re doing a Takeover and they have a swipe up function, use it! That’s one less thing people have to do is search and click. Enjoy the privilege of using it to link to all your stuff.
Don’t be afraid to give. Listen, I GAVE. And gave. And then gave some more. I answered over 50 different questions. And I loved it! I’m a nerd like that. I love thinking. I love problem-solving. Answering the questions was the easy part.
What was insanely hard was getting each clip in 15-30 sec, writing captions, AND using stickers (polls, slidey thingie etc), while breastfeeding, and trying to manage 2 kids at home (don’t worry, my husband was around so I wasn’t flying entirely solo)….it was just a lot. I hadn’t planned for a 10-hour day. So I paid for it the next few days (slash the entire next week). I know it will get easier with practice, and I know to set better boundaries next time, so I’m not on there for 10 freaking hours!
Expect that you will be exhausted afterward. PLAN ahead to have posts ready to go since now you’re going to have a sudden increase in your audience and they’ll be excited to see what you have for them. I didn’t plan ahead, because, well, I didn’t know what to expect and didn’t realize I would be investing all that time into it, and that I’d be so drained afterward. I would have liked to keep my posting frequency of 4-5 posts/week, working up to posting daily. And instead I’ve gone way down in my posting frequency since. Part of me feels guilty, and the other part of me says, okay, take a breather. You just did a LOT. Chill, then get back to it.
Plan wisely. This Takeover ALSO coincided with the end of my first launch AND the beginning of my second launch, so timing-wise, for next time…DON’T DO THAT! There was a lot of emotional exhaustion from putting myself out there so much (introverts, I’m looking at you). So yeah, don’t think you’re a superhero who won’t feel drained and can handle everything. You deserve rest, fool!
Remember why you were invited in the first place. Because you know your shit. The person who’s invited you already likes you and knows you’re awesome. When you feel nervous, just remember that.
It won’t be perfect, but it’ll be awesome. I got so much exposure, I pushed myself out of my comfort zone, I answered 50 different unique problems that people had.
Real talk - it was actually pretty freaking hard! I’m not going to pretend it was easy. Answering the questions itself was easy. Being “on” for 10 hours with a brand-new audience that I didn’t know, was hard. Figuring out how to save each answer clip and going back and forth to see the question and then answer it, that was hard. And took up a LOT of time.
And really, did I need to answer that many questions? Nope. Even Valerie kept saying I don’t have to answer it all. But me being me, I couldn’t stop myself once I started. It was an ultra-marathon of a day for me. And I know for next time, I’ll set a stronger boundary and keep to it. Or I’ll wait til the kids are in daycare, so I can actually think in peace ;)
The outcome
175 new friends (I made it past 1000 followers!)
41 people signed up for my 2 freebies & email list (I’ve basically doubled my email list)
Almost double the views on my Stories
More engagement in my polls (these people have been trained to click)
More moms commenting on my posts and responding to my Stories
Conclusion
Glad I did it. Take some rest. Then, keep going.
Surabhi
