Amber:
Welcome to Episode 12 of the Gem Finders Podcast.

Shaun:
I'm Shaun.

Amber:
And today we are talking about selling on Instagram.

Shaun:
Yes. That was our livelihood for almost the last two years.

Amber:
So we do have a lot of experience in that department. And if you listened to Episode 1, you'll know that when I started this business—when I began reselling for a while—it was just on the marketplace platforms: eBay, Poshmark, and Mercari. And then I decided that I was going to make this into a business and get serious about it, so I wanted to start a website. And as I was exploring options for that, I created an Instagram page for the business.

And what I quickly realized was that people were interested in actually shopping on Instagram. Up until that point, I had only considered Instagram kind of like a promotional tool to get people to the website. And then we ended up selling—well, it was just me at the time—but I ended up selling so much on Instagram that it kept me so busy that I didn’t even have time to start a website until much later. So it was a very surprising resource and platform that ended up being a core part of the business for a very long time.

Shaun:
I would have never even thought about Instagram as a selling platform before you started that. You know I'm terrible at social media to begin with, so even just posting on Instagram for promotional reasons was hard enough for me, let alone thinking about going through the whole listing and selling process on Instagram. I would have never considered it. I would have thought that it was a terrible idea just hearing it on paper.

But it turns out that there are tons of successful businesses that do that.

Amber:
Yeah, and I didn’t even realize that until I created the account and started interacting with other little Instagram vintage businesses, and I was like, oh my gosh, like they are selling on this app. So that is kind of how we began selling on Instagram, and then for about two years, it was really the heart of our business. It was where almost all of our sales came from. And then eventually we did start a website, but that was not until much, much, much later.

And the sales that we were able to generate on Instagram really surprised and carried us through for a very long time. So we will get into kind of how we created that success and the tools that we used on Instagram, the different options and different ways that you can use Instagram for selling. And then we plan on talking a little bit about the pros and cons—what’s great about it, but also what’s not so great about using that as a sales point for your business.

Shaun:
Yeah, even though it wasn’t something that I would have considered as a selling platform, it really was relatively easy to get started on it. You don’t have to set up a store to sell on Instagram. I know that’s what they would like you to do, but you can just post and people find you if you’re using the right hashtags or whatever you're doing to draw attention to you.

So it really is—it’s an easy way to start selling. I think overall, it’s a lot less overwhelming than the platforms. 

Amber:
And that’s kind of a good place to begin talking about the tools on Instagram, because there are specific tools on Instagram designed for selling. But to my knowledge, you have to have a website before you can utilize them.

Shaun:
We’ve never utilized any of them, have we?

Amber:
No.

Shaun:
We’ve never utilized any of them. I mean, you have to pay for them, don’t you?

Amber:
I honestly—I’m not sure how it works. So if you’re looking for answers in that department, this is probably not the podcast for you, because I have not paid a single dollar to advertise or sell on Instagram up until this point.

Shaun:
Well, I mean, anything—

Amber:
Yeah, anything.

Shaun:
We’ve also done very little research into—I know that there are ways that we could probably advertise for free on—I don’t know necessarily on Instagram, but on other platforms, and we haven’t really even explored those. I think that we should probably do that.

But yeah, I know that there are tools, ’cause I’ve looked at them, but I’ve never really tried to use them on Instagram, so I don’t know if they cost anything or not. You would think Instagram is probably trying to milk every cent that they can.

Amber:
I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a percentage that was taken out from the sales. I don’t know how that works. But the gist of it, as far as I’m aware, is that if you have a website—and I don’t know if it’s any website or if you have to have certain platforms—but if you have a website, you can kind of upload or connect your catalog of items, and then it will allow you to link directly to products and create shoppable posts where you can tag like which item it is and things like that. So I do know that there are some specific tools on Instagram for selling that honestly—the only reason that we haven't explored them is just because there have been so many things to explore, and we haven't really had time to see what they're all about. But they are there.

Shaun:
I mean, I get ads in stories all the time from—I don't know why I get them, half of the time the businesses aren’t related to anything that has to do with any of my interests. But I do get—you know, I’ll go through my stories, and after one story ends, it’s like a story of ads from somebody who's paying, I guess, to have their stories promoted. I would imagine that has to cost something.

Amber:
That's not even what I’m talking about. I think that's probably something that you can do, but there are ways just to tag the products, and I don't know if that costs anything. And I know at one point that Instagram had at least tried an actual live selling platform or live selling tool.

Shaun:
This is news to me.

Amber:
Yeah, and I think maybe like two years ago they cut that. So it was kind of like before we would have been in a place to utilize it. But Instagram does have some specific tools that are built for selling. However, there are also a number of other ways that you can sell on Instagram without leaning into those specific tools for businesses.

The way that I had started was just posting photos and stories. And I really didn’t have expectations at the time, but I did quickly realize that people were looking and people were buying, and that kind of opened up a whole new world of marketing and selling outside of the reselling platforms.

And I had—for a while—I had listed on both. I had listed things on eBay, Poshmark, and Mercari, and I had also been promoting things on Instagram. And then eventually it got to the point where I just had to do Instagram, and I stopped listing on those platforms because the orders from Instagram were keeping me so busy.

Shaun:
I think that the big draw with Instagram is the community and the social aspect. I think that’s what draws people in, and I think that’s where it has a big advantage over the traditional marketplace platforms.

You know, I think that people really like the ability to interact with the person that they're buying off of and get to know them and build this connection with them. I think that it encourages them to shop from certain people more, and they know what to expect.

I think that a lot of the time with the marketplace platforms, a lot of the stores are more broad. Whereas on Instagram, I think that there's a lot more like niche sellers, and people can connect with them and relate to them a lot easier than they can with a marketplace store—an eBay store or whatever.

Amber:
I agree. And it's easier to keep up with what people have and kind of their current inventory. And I think it really promotes and facilitates repeat buyers in a way that the other reselling platforms don't.

Because when I was selling on those platforms, I hardly ever had people shop from me again. Even like on Poshmark—'cause there is like, and I think even Mercari, maybe even on eBay—you can follow stores, but I don’t think I ever had somebody purchase from me more than once. And if it was, I mean, it was maybe two times at the most. But it wasn’t like now, where we have customers who have placed 60 orders with us over the time that they have been following our shop.

It’s been a really great thing for the business, but it also has its drawbacks too. But let’s talk a little bit about the how-to and the specifics of like how to actually do this before we dive deeper into the pros and cons.

So the different ways that you could sell things on Instagram—and obviously I think if you’re creative, the possibilities are truly endless—but the elements of Instagram you could use for reselling are: Stories, Carousel posts, Reels, Live sales, and just Direct Messages too.

Shaun:
And the broadcasts—that kind of falls into the direct message category, but it’s a little different.

Amber:
Yeah. And we haven’t created a broadcast channel yet, but a lot of the other shops that I follow, they have broadcast channels that they utilize almost as like an announcement system. And I do think that there are ways to use them to interact with your customers a little bit, but it’s kind of like a direct message where only the shop can post. So people can like things and people can answer questions and answer polls, but only the shop is the one who is posting, as far as kind of what I’ve observed on the outside.

Like I said, I haven’t set up a broadcast channel yet, even though we have talked about it. And within those things, there are obviously a bunch of different ways that you could use those features to create content and promote your shop.

So when we think about Instagram Stories, I used those a lot for kind of everyday content, behind-the-scenes content. We post a lot of Stories about what we’re finding when we’re antiquing. A lot of times that is the first touch point somebody has with an item that we’re bringing to the shop—it’s kind of like the first place to see it and the first place that the customers can get familiar with. I think our whole workflow of selling on social media really does begin with Stories.

Shaun:
Yeah, for sure. I mean, like you said, that’s the easiest way—it’s the quickest way that you can get these products into the minds of our customers.

It’s also cool because it’s way more real-time, and people can interact. You know, you can post the polls, and people can interact right away. And you know, we’ll post them while we’re still in the store. Sometimes we won’t buy an item unless somebody says they want it right then and there, or you know—the results of a poll. Sometimes we'll take a picture of an item, and maybe it's a little more expensive than we would like it to be. We'll post a poll asking what the general consensus is, if people are interested, and then we'll finish shopping and come back to it. Sometimes we'll get it based on the results of those polls. And I just think that that's a really cool element—to be able to have that instant, real-time interaction with customers. Whereas sure, you can post something and people can like it and comment, but people know to check Stories before posts. I feel like that's how I look at it. Like when I log on Instagram, I check Stories first.

Amber:
Yeah, because Stories are right there. And with Stories you can instantly see what's new, whereas with a post, it could be a post from 10 days ago popping up on your feed. So like you said, it is much easier to see a real-time kind of snippet of whatever that shop or that person is doing at that moment.

Amber:
And I also think—this piggybacks off of what you said—but it's a very cool way to make people feel like they're involved in the business. That has been one of my favorite parts, is that we have kind of created this community of customers who, it feels like they are in this business with us. And I know at the end of the day they’re not, but that's what it feels like. They are giving us their suggestions, they are telling us what they like and don’t like, and we use a lot of that feedback to direct the business and the decisions. And not just decisions about what to bring to the shop, but also decisions as far as how to make it easier for customers to shop. I think that kind of channel that we have created for customers to communicate with us has been very powerful.

Shaun:
Yeah, I think that that is the core reason why the business grew as much and as quickly as it did—was that connection we were able to build with people and, like you said, to make them feel involved. And I also think it goes both ways. You know, I think they realize they’re not part of the business, but it just helps build that community aspect. Not only do they feel connected to us and the business, then they connect with each other, and it's really cool to see the customers interact with each other and support each other and grow the community that way too. It's not just built around us. It's built around the customers themselves too. Customers support customers, and it's just—it’s a cool dynamic that we've been able to create.

Amber:
I agree. And that happens more so during the Instagram live sales and sometimes in the reels and the posts. But Stories, I think, is where we have set the tone for the community, so I think it's a really important first step. But outside of those behind-the-scenes or first-look kind of content, I haven’t done this in a while, but I've also used Stories to sell—to list items or do sales. Like, a lot of people do story sales where they say, “Okay, at 7PM we're going to do a story sale,” and they put a bunch of items in their Stories and people can shop right then and there. Sometimes it’s new items, sometimes it’s items that are maybe reduced price—you could do a clearance sale. So you can utilize Stories in a variety of different ways to help support your community and your business. Announcements.

Shaun:
Like flash sales, things like that. You can use it to—I know that kind of takes it off of Instagram and more onto the website, at least now—but that’s another way to sell. You know, flash sales, things like that. Just say, “For the next three hours everything’s 15% off,” whatever.

Amber:
Yeah, it often is the quickest way to get in touch with our audience, even though we then have to rely on Instagram to show it to all of them. And it does not show it to everybody. And that can create some issues that we can dive more into later. But it's a good way to quickly reach at least a chunk of our audience.

Shaun:
A very small chunk.

Amber:
A very small chunk.

Shaun:
I mean, when you look at the numbers, it’s like 2%, maybe. Yeah, it's not a lot. I mean, you're—you’re at 14,000 followers and your Stories typically reach 100 people.

Amber:
No, give me a little bit more credit than that!

Shaun:
I would say if I'm posting a lot of Stories, I’m lucky if by the end 250 people are still watching them. But if I am a little bit more strategic and sporadic with my Stories—or if I let all of my Stories run out from the day before, like if I wait a full 24 hours before I post again—then sometimes that number gets up to like 700. And this is also another way that you have to play Instagram’s games, because that makes no sense why that should be a thing, but it is. It's a real thing.

Amber:
Yeah, you would think they would want you to utilize that feature to keep everyone up to date with your day. Like, you would assume that’s what Stories are for. But for some reason, when you let them reset and then post again, it reaches way more people. So I don't know why Instagram kind of rewards that behavior, but it’s a good multipurpose tool.

Aside from Stories, we have the posts that come up on the feed. So those are going to be Reels, those are going to be carousel posts with just static images—well, I think you can now have videos in carousel posts now. So carousel posts, you can just post whatever you want and they scroll through, and people can see like a couple different things in a row. Sometimes I use that to show a batch of recent items. Sometimes I use that to show a couple of the promotional photos that are styled for the collection. We don’t normally use photos so much as behind-the-scenes type content. I don’t really think I post any photos on the feed for just posts—like general posts.

Shaun:
Hmm, not usually, no.

Amber:
No, those are a little bit more curated, a little bit more kind of salesy, because I do have a personal account. So I do try to keep the business account pretty business-focused. And I think that for the most part, that has served us really well. Because I know that sometimes when you are following people and they are merging both of those worlds, I think that there are a lot of pros and cons to that too—having a brand and a business account that's just one account versus having two. But I think that the separation has been helpful for me and I think that for the most part, it's worked for us.

Shaun:
You are an incredibly private person, but at the same time, like, you want to share everything. It's really... I don't even know how to exactly explain it. But you like to keep so many things private—like personal details and things like that—but you also want to share everything that we're doing. Does that make sense?

Amber:
It does, and I agree. I never thought about it like that, but I think you're 100% right. And I think that comes down to—this is gonna shock you—control.

Shaun:
(Laughs)

Amber:
I like to be in control of the narrative and what I’m posting on the internet. And I feel like I do have a little bit more control when I can post personal things—or not even just personal things, but like home projects and things about the house and things like that—on one account, and the business stuff on the other account. Because sometimes I feel that it’s really hard to show up on Instagram as a person when I’m not feeling great or when my mental health isn’t at its best. But it is easier to kind of hide behind a brand and just post business content as opposed to personal content.

And I think that when I was blogging back in the day, it was really hard to show up on the days where I wasn’t feeling like it. And it’s one thing—I think that part of owning a business is showing up no matter how you feel. Even when you don’t feel like being productive or you don’t feel like being motivated, you still have to show up. That’s just part of the gig. That’s what you signed up for. But I think that showing up and working on the business, and showing up and presenting yourself and your face and your personality on social media, are two different things. Because I can show up for the business pretty much any day—no matter what I’m going through, there are always tasks that I feel capable of doing. But I do not feel that way about showing up and showing my face on social media.

So I think having the two accounts has helped me kind of separate that for myself. And I don’t post on the personal account consistently, but I show up on the business account consistently.

Anyway, I think it’s important just to think about that as you’re setting up your business on social media—how much of your personal life you want to show, and what you want to set that precedent at, for how much of your personal life you’re going to integrate into your business.

Shaun:
Whatever direction you decide to go, you need to make sure that you’re strategic about it.

Amber:
Yeah.

Shaun:
Because I think that it’s really easy to get carried away, no matter what direction you choose to go. You know, you could get carried away with posting too much personal content. You know, sometimes for some people, that might feel easier than the business content.

Amber:
True.

Shaun:
That’s not necessarily a bad thing if you’re strategic about it, because you can really build a strong connection with people if you’re really putting your whole life out there. And you know, I know a lot of people—that’s what they want. They really want to get to know every little detail about somebody. And you know, that really helps them rally behind them and support them. And that could really help grow your business. But again, you really have to make sure that you are strategic about how you approach that.

And then on the other hand, if you are just too business-minded and super salesy, I think that really turns a lot of people off. And, you know, they're like, “Who are you? Who am I buying from? Can I get to know you a little bit?” So again, I don’t think either way is better than the other—it’s just all about how you strategize it and how you approach it.

Amber:
I agree. I don’t think that one is better than the other either. I think that it is a matter of—and I know I say this a lot—but creating a business that works for you. And really taking a look at your personality, and your—what you can handle, and what feels reasonable and doable for you, and then making sure that you set your business up in a way that supports that. Because if you’re someone who can share their life on social media very naturally and that comes naturally to you, then it’s not a bad thing to work that into your daily or weekly routine.

But if you are somebody who has a more challenging time with that, then you might not want to commit to doing that as regularly. So I think it’s really important to think about what’s going to work for you—not necessarily what’s going to work best for the business. Because I think you have to merge both of those worlds—what is going to be most strategic, but also what can I show up to consistently.

And I think that that brings up another point about Instagram. Even though it can be easy, and it can be fairly easy to get exposure and to get sales on a platform like that, it also requires an incredible amount of consistency to do that. And so if you are somebody—if you have a full-time job, if you have kids, if you have a lot going on in your life right now—I really recommend starting on the reselling platforms first before you think about an Instagram shop. Because if you can't show up consistently on Instagram, you're doing yourself a disservice. Because you have to create content, whether it's business content or personal content or a mix of both. You have to be creating and generating and posting content pretty consistently in order for your following to grow and in order to be able to establish a presence and a community on the platform.

I think that if I wasn't as dedicated to being consistent as I have been throughout this whole journey, I don't think we would have found this level of success.

Shaun:
Instagram is just so picky and demanding in a lot of ways about how much content it wants, or it just will not push your channel or your content out to anybody other than your followers. And half the time, it won't even push your content out to your followers. Like we said—for example, you know, you're at 14,000 followers and 250 for the stories, and we consider that good. Like, that's insane.

Amber:
Like, I don't know if 250 is good, but—

Shaun:
Well, but that’s like a higher number. Not necessarily good, but that's like one of the higher numbers that you said you can get—unless you let them expire. That's insane. If you have 14,000 followers, then your content should be getting pushed out to all of those followers.

Amber:
Yeah, but it doesn't work like that.

Shaun:
Yeah, I know it doesn’t work like that, but it's just—it’s crazy to me that if you follow an account, it really doesn’t mean anything. It doesn’t mean that you're going to see their content. You, as a follower or a supporter, you now have to go out of your way to make sure that you're seeing the content from the channels that you choose to follow. That’s ridiculous. That should not be an extra step.

I know that, you know, some people follow thousands of accounts—and I mean, that’s a personal choice. If you want to do that, whatever, you know, that’s your choice. But say you’re only following, you know, a handful of accounts, you should be able to easily see the content from those accounts that you choose to follow. That’s my opinion on it.

Amber:
I can tell that you're very passionate about this subject.

Shaun:
It's just—I hate the social media game. I hate it. I've never been a huge fan of social media. And now that it is so greedy and so demanding in so many ways, I want absolutely nothing to do with it.

Amber:
But it's almost—I don't know if you can have a business in 2025 and not be utilizing social media. I don't know if you can have success.

Shaun:
I hate that.

Amber:
It is—it’s very time-consuming. It’s very mentally consuming too. And it’s very hard to not let it take a hit at your self-worth.

Shaun:
And it's also—it’s not just, “Oh, I’m just going to do Instagram.” You have to do all of the social medias.

Amber:
You don’t have to.

Shaun:
If you really want to be successful, you pretty much do. I mean, it’s just crazy. And more and more keep coming along. And it's like, “Oh, you need to get on this now. You need to post your content on this.” And it's—it’s too much. It’s way too much.

Amber:
It’s a lot to keep up with. It’s a lot to handle. It’s a very big load. And I think that at some point, you do have to pick and choose where you're going to show up. But I feel like we could talk about that—we could talk about social media as a whole. I mean, I have been in social media since social media started, you know? Like, I have seen the whole evolution, and I definitely have a lot to say about that.

Shaun:
Just take me back to the MySpace days. I was fine with promoting myself on MySpace.

Amber:
I wish I could have seen your MySpace back in the day.

But something that I had started talking about a little bit is—I think it’s so hard to not let it affect your self-worth. Because when you have 200 views on a story, or you work really, really hard on a reel, or on photos for a carousel post, or, you know, whatever it is—or it could be a collection for a live sale—and the numbers just aren’t there, it is—it’s a shock when you're like, “I have this many people following me, and they can't even see the content.”

Shaun:
Like, we have people messaging us all the time, and they’re like, “I'm not seeing your posts. I don’t get your notifications. I've turned them on, and I can't find your live sales.” So on one hand, it's hard not to think that, like, well, I’m the problem—that my content is not enough, it’s not good enough, I’m not sharing enough, I’m not working hard enough. It’s really hard to feel like you’re doing enough.

Amber:
But on the other hand, when you start having customers and followers reach out, and they’re like, “I haven’t seen your stuff in months,” then you’re like, “Okay, it’s not just me.” And I do understand a little bit why an algorithm is necessary. Because we can’t just not have an algorithm—because there’s no way that we could ever hope to consume all of that content. But it should be easier to keep up with and follow the people that you have actually selected to follow.

Shaun:
You touched on it—you just said it briefly—but the other element that goes into it is it’s not just creating the content. It’s all of, like you said, the sharing, and finding the keywords and the hashtags and all of that stuff. Creating the content itself, I don't mind if it was just creating the content and we had the money to hire somebody to do all the social media—that would be a different story.

Amber:
I would love that.

Shaun:
If it was out of our hands, sure. If we just had to create the content, that would be great. But there is so much work. Like this, for example—we have to set up everything beforehand. We have to make sure that the audio is good, we have to make sure that the video is good, we have to make sure that the lighting is good. Then after this, we have to transfer all of the files, we have to edit all of the files—

Amber:
Don't say too much, this is the next episode!

Shaun:
Hahaha—it's not about it, it's about what we've learned.

Amber:
I was just trying to promote it right then and there—haha. I was trying to be clever, and it clearly fell apart. But our next episode, we are going to talk about producing the podcast and kind of what we have learned so far in these first 12 episodes. But anyways.

Shaun:
It’s just, you know, there’s all these steps. And, you know, that takes—because again, we say this all the time, but we're the only ones doing everything. So you know, I'm editing all of the audio, I'm editing all of the video. And then it goes to Amber, who listens to it and approves it, and then I work on the transcript to go on the website, make the cover photo. And then I'll make the shorts to go on social media. I’ll send them to her, and she’ll post the shorts. And then, you know, she has to come up with the titles and the hashtags. And then, you know, she's the one who usually shares them. So there are so many steps that come after creating the content that I don't think a lot of people realize how many steps there are, how long they take, and how defeating and frustrating it is when you put all of that time—like this, we’re filming it on a Monday, it has to go up this Friday—so the rest of my week is gonna be spent editing this because it takes a long time. And I shouldn’t say this, but I know when we post this it's gonna get no views.

Amber:
We don’t know that. We don’t know that. But okay, we gotta get back on track because we're supposed to be talking about Instagram.

Shaun:
But this is—this is tied to Instagram.

Amber:
It is. It is.

Shaun:
This all ties to Instagram. Because this is eventually going to get shared on Instagram where it’s also probably not gonna get any views because the algorithm hates us right now.

Amber:
But part of that—part of the problem is because I get to the point where I have created and edited and posted the content, and I am trying to do it on so many different platforms right now, that by the time I get the content posted, I have to head back to creating all the content for all these other things. So like right now, we’re really falling short on those steps that happen after you post something. So I am, you know, struggling to get all of the podcast clips out. I am struggling to even find enough time to reply to all of the comments, which I really believe is something so important.

And I'm so grateful that people have taken their time to watch our video and comment on it, and I want to be able to respond to everyone and engage with them and have a conversation about what I just posted. But I’m too busy, like, creating the next batch of content and trying to keep up with kind of this circus of constantly pushing out content in hopes of some of it being seen and some of it being shared and some of it resonating. And so I think it’s important to just kind of recognize that it’s a lot of work. I mean, you don’t need to make it as much work as we have made it, because we are on a lot of platforms and we are creating a lot.

But even if you are just focused on Instagram, and you’re going to put your shop on Instagram, creating the content—it’s a huge undertaking. And I don’t think people realize that. And I think that’s why a lot of shops start on Instagram and they quit really fast, because they don’t really realize how much time and effort it takes to not only source and find the products and clean them and inventory them and everything like that and ship them, but then you’ve also got to create content around them in order for them to be seen and in order for people to watch your stuff. And you have to, like, try to entertain people somewhere in there, because the entertaining content is what does the best. And so—it’s a lot.

Social media can feel so overwhelming, but at the same time it can be such a great tool. So it’s exhausting keeping up with the pros and the cons of Instagram. I know we said we were going to kind of talk about that in the second half, but I do think it all works together. When you’re determining your Instagram strategy and how you’re going to use the different tools that you can on Instagram, it’s also important to understand what the pros and cons of them are and what you’re getting yourself into.

Because I am so incredibly grateful for Instagram and the connections that it has created for us—not only with customers but also with, you know, other shops. And friendships and collaborations and opportunities. But it's a lot of work to kind of continue to find success.

Shaun:
It's hard to decide what you should prioritize.

Amber:
Yeah.

Shaun:
I think that's the biggest thing. Because there are so many things that you can do. It's like, okay, which ones should we do, which ones do we need to do? And it's really hard. And I think that that's also constantly changing. Because I think that Instagram is constantly changing what it's looking for. Yeah, so you have to adjust. And Instagram doesn't like clearly state anywhere like, "This is what we're pushing right now." You know, "This is the kind of content that we're looking for." It's just all.

Amber:
You gotta guess and hope for the best.

Shaun:
That's—well, I'm trying to find the word to—there's a word that's on the tip of my tongue...

Amber:
Throw spaghetti on the wall and see what sticks? Isn't that a... I swear that's like a phrase.

Shaun:
I don't know that I've ever heard that one, but that's nowhere near what I was thinking. I can tell you that. But Instagram doesn't clearly tell you what it wants. You just have to guess. And, you know, people kind of theorize about—based on what they've seen—that okay, this is currently what Instagram is pushing. This is the type of content that you need to create. So it's very hard and it's very exhausting trying to constantly keep up with that and figure out, you know, what should we focus on this week.

Amber:
Yeah, and I think all of that whole discussion comes into play with Reels. Because Reels are really where the growth happens. Reels are really where you have the opportunity to go viral. Because Stories—it's rare that somebody outside of your followers sees your Stories. And I would say to an extent with carousel posts too. I do think that there are some posts that end up kind of like on the Discover or Explore pages or whatever—I know it happens—but I think that Reels, Instagram Reels, and posting, you know, short-form video content on Instagram is really what gives you the opportunity to expand your reach, expand your customer base, and to grow.

Amber:
And it's very hard to figure out like, what combination of elements do you need to have in your content in order to be able to create a Reel that's going to go viral? And that might not mean a million views, but at—you know, at this point, even a Reel that gets 10,000 views, I'm happy with. So it is, like Shaun said, it is a guessing game trying to figure it out. And it's hard that you just don't know what to create to make your video a success. But you really always have to be kind of thinking about, "What can I create that's going to do well enough to expand my reach?"

And so you can use Reels for a variety of things. They can be showcasing your products. They could be—we do a lot of hauls of showing everything that we just found. We do a lot of behind-the-scenes content in the Reels, and a lot of like "shop with us," a lot of "here's what our day looked like of sourcing," things like that. So you can really use Reels for anything that you want. But the hard thing is that the promotional content—the content that is really kind of focused on your product—those are the Reels that get the least amount of views.

So it's like, in order to promote your business, you have to step outside of your comfort zone and create all of this other creative, entertaining, funny, relatable—whatever kind of you're going for—you have to create all of this other content just with the hope that it will reach more people who will then go to your profile and like maybe be interested in what you're selling. Because you can't expect the Reels about what you're selling to be the Reels that do well, because it just doesn't happen.

Shaun:
Not only just stepping out of your comfort zone—you have to find the balance of what is still true to myself and my brand. You want to create the content that is currently trendy and going viral, but you have to find a way—I shouldn't say you have to, because there are people who completely throw their morals and their styles out the window to create content that—

Amber:
Not here!

Shaun:
—but yes. You will absolutely not do that. So in our case, it's beyond just, "Okay, this is what's trending right now, this is what we're gonna do." It's like, "Okay, this is what's trending right now, but this is not us at all. How can we make it us? And how can we fit this into our style?"

And I feel like that puts us at a bit of a disadvantage sometimes. Because your moral compass is...

Amber:
Choose your words wisely.

Shaun:
Hahaha.

Amber:
Think about the next thing that's gonna come out of your mouth...

Shaun:
It is... Unflappable.

Amber:
Unflappable!

Shaun:
That's the best way I can put it right now. So trying to—because I feel like 9 times out of 10, trendy content is pushing the boundaries of, you know, morals in some way or another. So trying to make that work with our brand is very difficult. And it just adds another layer of complication.

Amber:
Well, and there's also all of the, like, you know, copyright infringement and everything that happens with doing trends and using sounds. And I'm always thinking about that too, like...

Shaun:
Really?

Amber:
I don't want to get in trouble, I don't want to break any rules, I don't want to steal anybody's content. But I mean, to an extent, you're not wrong. And we don't—we don't lean into the trends a lot, and we don't do a lot of trending audio and a lot of trending Reels. And part of that is because, like, you have to be so quick. Like, I will figure out what a trend is—and a lot of times I see it on TikTok first—but I'll figure out what a trend is, and then I'm thinking about it for a week of like, how can I apply this to my business? And by the time I've come up with an idea that feels like it's true to myself and relates to the brand. By the time I figure that out, the trend has passed. So leaning into trends is a lot of pressure and a lot of urgency. And I do feel like one of the reasons that we don't reach a ton of people—and we don't even reach a ton of people within our audience—is because that's what Instagram wants right now is trendy, entertaining content. And we don't do a lot of that, so, you know, there's a lot to consider when it goes into Instagram. But at the end of the day, most of our sales still come from Instagram, and we are still showing up, and that is working. You know, that is working somewhat.

I think the last thing we really need to talk about—and we can expand on this in a whole other podcast episode—but I don't think we can leave without touching on live sales.

So the most beneficial aspect of Instagram for us has been live sales. Not only from a selling standpoint—like sure, that's nice—but from a community standpoint, from an interactive standpoint, from the perspective of really getting to know our customers and their personalities and their styles. That has all happened during live sales.

And we are scaling back on them, and a couple episodes back, we kind of talked about why we aren't doing Instagram Live sales anymore and why we are doing very few of them. But they have been a huge part of our success. And when I started this business, I never imagined going live because it still feels very outside of my comfort zone. But I started doing live sales, and people started showing up and they started shopping.

And it's not a perfect system, because I don't think Instagram particularly wants you to use their live stream feature for selling. And I do think that we're getting to the point where eventually Instagram is going to implement some kind of something where they're charging for people selling on the platform. But at least for right now, you can still have an Instagram live sale. And how that works is we usually have a collection of items that we're showing, and then we promote them a little bit beforehand with stories and reels and content and photos. And then we show the collection during the live sale, and then people can claim the items in the comment section. And then after that, we invoice them. So that is kind of how that works if you're going to use Instagram as a live shopping platform.

Shaun:
Yeah, I don't think we need to get into too much detail because we have talked about this a lot in previous episodes. But it has worked great for us and, like I said, it was the main reason for our success for the last couple years. But it has tons of flaws. And again, we touched on this majorly in an episode a few weeks ago talking about why we quit Instagram live sales. It's a shame because it was so successful for us, and I think we just—you know, we saw the writing on the wall. That more issues kept arising and things kept feeling like they were getting worse and worse, so we felt like we had to explore other opportunities.

And we just had our first live sale on the website last week!

Amber:
That was exciting.

Shaun:
Yeah, and it went really well. So you know, we're optimistic about that. But you have to have your own website set up—that's a process. So I think that it's a lot easier for someone getting started with this to jump into Instagram live sales and try that, because it's easy to do. It's really easy to set up a live and to sell on the live. The issues come from Instagram itself with filtering comments and not showing that you're live to other people.

Amber:
And the lags.

Shaun:
Yeah, there's often time—a lot of lag. We'll have 30 to 40 second lag sometimes. It's crazy. So again, it's easy to set up, it's easy to do, but there are a lot of issues that are out of your control, and that's where we really got frustrated.

Amber:
Yeah, and I wish that Instagram would just work on a live shopping feature. Because I would even like—pay a percentage to be able to have a successful live sale on Instagram where the features were functioning. And you know, even if we could connect our products, like that would be great. So many people are on Instagram so often throughout their day that I think that it would be really great to like meet them where they are already rather than having to take them off the platform. But to my knowledge, Instagram doesn't really have anything like that in the works, so we kind of had to figure out something else because we were just running into tech issues, and that was creating a lot of problems.

But I would still recommend it. I would still—especially if this isn't your full-time thing. And it's hard for us because we're trying to support two salaries. But I think that if you're just doing this as a side hustle or something that you love, or you just want to be able to make a little bit of extra money each month, I think that live selling on Instagram is still a great—a great way to do that. And I think it's a really great way to get to know your customers and a really great way for them to get to know you. Because I think that—I don't share a ton of personal content on our business page, and I think that people have really gotten to know us through the live sales and interacting with us in real time. So definitely something to consider. And let us know in the comments if you have any other questions on live sales.

Before we leave you, I also want to bring to your attention that you also need to consider what you're going to use for payments if you're using Instagram for selling. So before we had our website, I used PayPal and PayPal Business. Do not use PayPal Friends and Family, okay? Protect yourself. Allow the shopper to be a little bit protected too. Always use like Venmo Business. Try to avoid Friends and Family for Venmo and PayPal and things like that.

So I would use PayPal for everything and I would email the customers an invoice. And then when we started our website, we now use Shopify, and they have an invoicing feature too. So just make sure that you are being professional with your payments. Make sure that you have documentation of what the customer bought—any flaws—be really kind of specific about that, just in case you would ever get a claim started against you and you'd have to prove that the item was in this condition, or the item was this price, or that they bought it on this day.

So just make sure to keep records of those types of things, because I think that a lot of shops don't do that, and I think that it hurts them in the long run when they have to kind of provide any proof of a transaction. And I think that it also seems a little bit more professional and a little bit more legitimate to the customer to know that you're going through an official invoicing platform. So just a note on the business end of things to be careful about how you accept payments.

Shaun:
Just be transparent about everything. That's the best way. I think that also attracts more customers—if you're transparent about the flaws and transparent about how you're invoicing. Just be upfront that, you know, I'm going to use PayPal Business because it offers both of us more protection. I think that if you're transparent and you explain why you're doing things, customers are way more understanding, and they are way more likely to support you and purchase from you.

Amber:
Yeah, because part of the thing with Instagram is that a lot of people are not familiar with how to purchase on Instagram. So I think that when you can add that level of like, I'm using something official to accept your money, it seems a lot less like, "Oh, I'm sending $40 to a stranger." You know? So just consider that. It's definitely something that we run into a lot—like, people don't really understand kind of like how it works, and I have to educate people all the time in messages about how shopping on Instagram works or how live sales work.

And I think that even though at the beginning it can be a little bit time consuming, it's also really powerful for you to be that one that's explaining how this process works. And I think that that establishes the relationship and adds a certain level of trust and comfort. And I'm really grateful that so many people have, you know, trusted us to shop with us on Instagram.

This is a very condensed version of this. There are so many different ways that you can use Instagram for your shop and to support your business. And there are a lot of pros and cons about putting so much time and effort into social media. And again, just make it work for you.

Shaun:
Let's wrap it up.

Amber:
Because the longer we talk, the longer it's gonna take Shaun to edit this. So we are going to wrap up episode 12. We will see you back for episode 13, which is going to be about the podcast in general and how that's going—so stay tuned.

Let's go find some vintage!