Beating the Changing Algorithm AUDIO
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[00:00:00] Let's say you have a reel and it does well. Well is subjective, like this is based on how you've performed in the past. Okay, well, let's take that exact thing and let's start to break it down into which component was it that made it successful. So a great, a great tactic here is the rules of retailer changing one by one, corporate retailers are closing their doors, and some call it the death of retail, but those rules never apply to independent retailers like us.
[00:00:28] We're writing our own rules. We're here to answer the questions about how to grow your business. Stay competitive and still have a life. I'm Josh Orr and this is the Retail Initiative Podcast. What's up crew? Hope you're doing well, that life is good in your world. I've been having a lot of conversations recently, and this is something that I've been hearing in Facebook groups and communities that I'm involved in, and it's around changing algorithms where we're trying to do things on social, but it's not gaining traction.
[00:00:59] In fact, [00:01:00] one of the biggest examples was a conversation with someone. Who was telling me that their business like blew up. In 20 17, 20 18, but their business every single year since then has been in decline. And you know, they were blaming a handful of things from the economy to covid. And the, the interesting thing in that is some of the seasons where they were blaming, most businesses were actually growing.
[00:01:22] Like through Covid, most businesses were growing in 2020 and 2021, especially online. And that's where this business, a huge chunk of their business came from. And they had gone through a training that I do with my friend Tara. At Ruthie Grace, it's called Manifest. We'll talk about that later. But she was talking about her business.
[00:01:40] She was like, look, she grew when Instagram was easy and it was so easy to get a hundred thousand followers, but now no one can do that. And this was a, this was hard to hear because the truth is you still can't, there are people that are gaining traction on social right now and the [00:02:00] algorithm hasn't broken.
[00:02:01] It's just changed. And look, change is frustrating when your, your whole marketing strategy is built around one thing and that's pulled out from under you. I get why that's frustrating and, and I've been in that situation. I bet you have as well, where you've built around one thing, but it shifts. And so the question becomes like, okay, we can either blame the algorithm and we can say that this change in algorithm is going to impact my business and accept it, or we can take control of it.
[00:02:31] Because here's the good news about changing algorithms and when it seems to become much more challenging. If it's challenging for you, if it's challenging for you and your business, guess who else it's challenging for? It's challenging for your co competition too. What is challenging for you is challenging for them and the people that are going to win.
[00:02:53] The people that are going to make it on top are the ones that stay curious enough to figure it out. And [00:03:00] so what does it look like to take control? Like how do we actually figure out this algorithm thing and make progress in our business? And so what I want to do is I wanna start with some principles. I wanna start with some ways to think about it.
[00:03:13] And then I would, I'd like to give you some tactical tips, some ways to think about it that I think can help you. So first rule number one when it comes to keeping up with changing algorithms is to stay curious when something works. Be curious about it. Why did that work? What was it? Was it the creative style?
[00:03:34] Was it the audio that we used? Was it, was it the outfit that we were featuring? Was it the way we were communicating? What was it like? Why did that work? And then we can start to test, which I'm gonna get to a little bit more, but staying curious. And then on the other side, when it doesn't work, when that reel you spend a ton of time on doesn't take off, we, we have to start asking.
[00:03:56] We can get frustrated about it and, you know, go ahead, be frustrated for a [00:04:00] few minutes, but then we have to move on to, okay, why, why did this not take, take the traction that we thought that it should? Because not everything's going to work. And instead of being frustrated by it, let's become fascinated by it and say, okay, what could we have done differently?
[00:04:16] Like, what was it, the creative style, what the same things I listed earlier for why it succeeded, applies to why it didn't work. And one of the easiest, you know, mindset shifts to make here is to create a disconnect. Because in marketing it is a massive, to a degree, a game. It is a game to figure out what things are gonna work and we can't be connected to any one thing, cuz ultimately we're gonna throw a bunch of hooks into the sea and see which one actually gets bites.
[00:04:44] And if we we're so invested in any one of them, it's, it's gonna be difficult and we're going to be along for this emotional ride. And instead it's kinda like, okay, we just, we throw hooks. And you know what? Like which one catches, catches? Have you ever been in that situation where [00:05:00] you spend a ton of time on a reel, you you're editing and editing and it's perfect.
[00:05:06] You post it and it's like a hundred views and then there's the one where you're, it come Friday and you're like, oh my gosh, we have not posted a reel in a while. We should probably do one. Hey, you can, you get in the corner and do this thing and you do it. You edit it super fast, you throw it on a random audio and that one just blows up.
[00:05:21] And. Why is that? Well, that's great. Let's figure out what was it about that particular thing? So thing rule number two, test creative. So let's say you have a reel and it does well, well is subjective, like this is based on how you've performed in the past. Okay, well let's take that exact thing and let's start to break it down into which component was it that made it successful.
[00:05:46] So a great, a great tactic here is take the exact same audio and put a new creative style to it. Take the same audio that blew up, but put a completely different creative style and then take a different [00:06:00] audio. And record a reel in a very, very similar creative style. That way we can start to see, okay, was it the audio that really pushed this, or was it the creative style?
[00:06:10] And then once we have the winner, then we can start to model those multiple times so that way each of them game traction in a similar way. So that's one of the best things that you can do is test your creative around, okay, if this did well, what was it that did well? And number three, Go with the flow.
[00:06:31] What I mean here is the algorithm pushes what the app wants people doing. Like right now it's reels. If you click on the explore tab on Instagram, you're gonna notice that most of the pages filled with reels. And so right now, one of the best places you can put your focus is in your real content. I'm not saying don't do post.
[00:06:52] But what I am saying is that reels and entertainment is where the algorithm is pushing people. And so we don't want to go against the [00:07:00] flow too much. Instead, we really want to, you know, figure out what does the app want people doing, and then we provide that thing. Because it's going to change. If you're listening to this in 2025, it is likely that it's no longer reels.
[00:07:16] It is some other form of content that, that the algorithms are pushing for all I know it could be on a different platform. So again, rule number one, stay curious and hey, a, a side note on that one that I didn't say earlier in staying curious, don't get stuck doing things that aren't working. Like you can do something where you're like, Hey, this should work.
[00:07:39] We shouldn't to give it time to gain traction, but eventually it does become crazy that we keep doing the same thing over and over and over again. I had a conversation with someone, it was, this was actually a client and they were telling me that their social had quit working. No one was liking their posts, there was no traffic from their site.
[00:07:58] And I looked, and for about [00:08:00] six months they had been posting the exact same style stuff. The same backdrop, the same caption styles, the same everything. And then we wonder why it's not working anymore. Well, at some point we have to say, okay, clearly this isn't working with what people are wanting. Let's shift and let's shift and continue to test that creative rule.
[00:08:23] Number one, stay curious. Rule number two, test creative. As things work and things start to gain traction, start to pull different components out. And, and build content in those different things to figure out if it was the audio style, if it was the creative style, if it was the hooks that you're doing.
[00:08:40] And then number three, go with the flow. All right, so those are some of the ideas. Then I want to get into two pieces. So let's first talk through what your real need to have. Your reels need to have three things. And this is all from Russell Brunson. He is a, uh, a business guru. He owns a company [00:09:00] called ClickFunnels, um, but he teaches this framework called hook Story offer.
[00:09:04] Hook story. Offer means that you first, everything starts with a hook. When you think about when you're scrolling through reels, so you're lying in bed at night, scrolling through your reels, those first like three seconds. Someone decides, am I interested in this or I'm not. So when we start a reel with like, Hey girls, I'm just hopping on here to say whatever, like that doesn't hook people in.
[00:09:28] But instead if when we hook people, did you know there are three ways to style this denim jacket? That gets people curious. If they have a denim jacket, they want to know three ways to style it. So those first three seconds are so important in hooking them in. So we start with the hook. Then we get into the story.
[00:09:45] The story is the body of your real. This is where you are doing your entertainment. This is where you are. Going through your educational content, this is where you're showing styling tips or you're walking through different outfits, whatever this might be, but [00:10:00] this is the body and then the offer is the call to action.
[00:10:02] What do you want them to do? This is that quick, like, you know, tap the link in our bio to shop now. Um, or ending with the caption with your website, just showing briefly those essential pieces. Every single reel should have a hook, a story, and an offer. Now once we do that, we have to start thinking, okay, what kind of reels are we posting?
[00:10:27] What does our content look like? And this applies to our normal post as well, is not just posting everything that's like, Hey, look at this dress. We, it just arrived, shop now. Because eventually like just those kind of sales posts, they're not going to gain attraction that you hope. So what should we do?
[00:10:44] And this is where I like to think about things through the lens of like three content types. You first you have entertainment reels. And this is what most people think of, uh, when they think of reels. These are the funny things that catch people's attention. Now you have [00:11:00] your brand persona, the type of person that your brand is, and you wanna stick with that.
[00:11:06] But what does entertainment look like for them? And so these are typically going to be humorous. They could, they're high engagement. The goal is not necessarily sales, it's just entertainment value. So that's one type of reel. The next type of reel is education. Where we're educating our customer on what we're great at, and we're not educating them about us.
[00:11:27] We're educating them on things that are valuable to them. These are styling tips. Three ways to wear X or five perfect dresses for this upcoming occasion or event. Uh, we're educating them on things that would help their lives. And then number three, it's just inspiration. This is inspiring them to about the perfect thing that you help with.
[00:11:50] And what I mean by this is like when I think about July 4th, you know, in my mind, like there is a perfect version of what that's going to look like and a brand has an [00:12:00] opportunity to show, showcase that to me by having, you know, the guy standing by the grill in an awesome outfit and his family playing in the background, like it's showcasing that idea.
[00:12:11] Well, our inspiration can do that. You're picking what your customer's thinking about and you're showcasing that to them in your content. So again, your content can be split up based on entertainment things that are purely for entertaining value. It's not sales. Yes, like your product is there, but it really takes a back seat to your brand, entertaining your customer.
[00:12:33] Then you get to education content. This is where you are educating them around the things that you do best. And then you end up with inspirational content. This is things that inspires them around what your brand does. Um, so again, you are, we're staying curious with our content. We are going to test creative, and we're going to go with the flow with what algorithms are naturally pushing towards, and we're going to make content that has a strong hook, that gets [00:13:00] people curious, tells an amazing story, and then ultimately tells them what to do, gives them a call to action.
[00:13:05] And this can be in your copy. And then we're going to post content that's not all sales posts, but that's educational, inspirational, and entertaining. So I hope that this one's valuable. I got a little more tactical than I normally do, but I love this stuff and I hope that it helps you in growing. So, Thanks for tuning in.
[00:13:25] And by the way, if you've never checked us out, you can learn more about what we do. We help brick and mortar retailers that are wanting to launch and grow online. You can get more info about [email protected]. So can't wait to see you there, and I'll see you next week.
