We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Amanda Kohal a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Amanda, thanks for joining us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?
Side note: so many great topics to choose from, thank you for allowing me to share my idea and approach :)
Idea: The Instasite & New Approach to Social Media
I’ve worked in social media and marketing for over 12 years and have always been an early adopter of platforms. As well, super curious about algorithms, online behaviours and patterns that lead to building a significant online presence and cult-like communities.
A big believer in experimenting with new tactics that lead to community growth and conversion. In 2021 my business started to take off; The Wolfe Co is a boutique social media agency that helps business owners get more clients, not just followers
At the time, Instagram was my primary social media platform. I was in the habit of posting to my feed at least once a day, 7 days a week and was quickly approaching the 10k follower mark. But, like most business owners, I was beginning to get burnt out from content creation (it took me 2-3 hours to create a single carousel post — yikes). On top of that, because the business was starting to take off, my calendar was filling up with client work and the hours of the day were few and far between to create.
As an experiment and from a need to scale back the number of times I was posting to my feed, I took to Instagram Stories to continue to share daily content (at a capacity that worked for me). Stories had always been a big part of my strategy, but I was also curious to test what my growth and conversion would look like if I ONLY posted to stories for the next month or two.
A bit more context when it comes to my stories: it was this content that helped my brand/business gain traction. We were living in Mexico at the time, and while my feed was all business, my stories shared personal moments from our time in Mexico, musing and TBH, random snippets of my day that I thought nobody would give a heck about.
Going back to not posting to the feed and only posting to IG Stories. At first, my community was sending me DMs wondering where I was because they no longer saw new content on my feed. I decided it was time to communicate where I’d be hanging out and where new content would be posted. Daily. I communicated this in my bio, on a single feed post and of course, in my stories. Soon enough the traffic, I once had to go to my feed, was now being redirected to my stories.
It was at this moment, that I decided to dig a little deeper into the Instagram algorithm and the type of audience/viewer that was consuming the different features.
I built this into a funnel that flowed as such;
Reels – Audience: non-followers – Metrics impacted: Reach, Impressions, Follows (Grow)
Feed – Audience: non-followers & followers – Metrics: Profile visits, link clicks, saves, likes, comments, shares (Grow & Connect)
Lives – Audience: followers – Metrics: comments, shares (Connect)
Stories – Audience: followers – Metrics: clicks, responses, tap backs (Connect & Convert)
DMs – Audience: primarily followers – Metrics: subjective — type of comments (Connect & Convert)
Knowing this, I was able to better align my content to the type of audience that was consuming in that space and attach goals, based on the primary metrics impacted from that feature.
This lead me to explore other algorithms like TikTok, LinkedIn, Pinterest and YouTube which ended up igniting my ‘light bulb moment’: We have been using social media all wrong.
The gurus across social will tell you to post 3x a day, 7 days a week (and that’s just on Instagram) — this “advice” has left many entrepreneurs and business owners burnt out and frustrated thinking they need to keep up with trends and short-term tactics.
In 2022, once that light bulb moment hit, I developed what I now call “The Instasite and new approach to social media” — which is a complete social media strategy — 80% of it being automated. The wildest part is that it works for every. single. industry.
And I know that sounds like guru talk — but the strategy categorizes platforms into two spaces: growth platforms and nurture & convert platforms. Picking at least one platform from each of the categories will ensure a holistic approach to social, covering all primary outcomes of; grow, connect, and convert.
The Instasite piece of the strategy falls under the nurture & convert category and is exactly what it sounds: like a website, but for Instagram. Studies show that over 40% of people are now going to social media for their initial search of a brand/business before they hit up the Googler. So why don’t we mimic the experience of a website, but on your socials?
I made a few TikToks in the summer of 2022 that ended up going viral a few months later. I filmed these in my car, they took me 10 minutes top to bottom to create and lead to over $100k in sales. I’m still catching up almost a year later.
My husband and I were in the middle of painting our house, and no wifi connected yet as my phone was pinging like crazy. Not only from sales of my Instasite DIY Guide, applications to work with me, and new email subscribers but of comments from business owners feeling relieved that they finally had a strategy that made sense for their business, socials and their content creation capacity.
The funny thing about all of this is that I thought I had missed a huge opportunity with those TikTok videos because I didn’t provide a call to action like, “get the DIY guide in my bio”. I was kicking myself for not saying this. But it turns out, audiences on TikTok are allergic to that type of direct selling. My “mistake” ended up changing my business and my life.
TikTok videos for reference:
Amanda, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
BIO:
Founder & Digital Strategist of The Wolfe Co. and creator of The Original InstasiteTM, Amanda provides business owners with access to reputable resources, community connections and trusted guidance/education to start converting on social.
After working as a brand marketing manager in corporate, Amanda ventured on her own and took her love of digital marketing and ran with it. From helping clients earn $10k from just 2 Instagram stories, $77k from one DM and $28K social media launches, Amanda has turned many personal brands and service-based businesses into cash cows.
Her efforts have awarded her two RBC + Women of Influence nominations and a Bronze in the 2019 Canadian Marketing Associate awards in the Customer Experience category.
More about the Company:
We exist to redefine business + education on social media. Beyond skill teaching and training there are many gaps in the way of building a business on social media. The Wolfe Co serves as a home and community that amplifies and educates business owners, supports growing brands, and connects industry experts. We aren’t for everyone and provide a no BS approach. Think we’re too wild? Get out of the jungle.
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
Oof… I was at a major crossroads of burnout or burning it all down. I chose the latter.
When my business started to take off, naturally I started to hire more support. I was on the path to building a big ace agency (at least that was what I thought I wanted at the time). We were taking on multiple social media management clients, all being assigned their own team of at least 3 to manage their socials.
We were growing faster than we could vet, hire and onboard. After months of working in a smaller capacity with a colleague, I brought her on as my 50-50 business partner. A note to the business owners out there…. unless they were there from day 1, never do a 50-50 with your brand (this was my first lesson).
Things were going well for a while until I noticed some odd behaviour from my “business partner”. A lot of our confidential documents were being duplicated, trade secrets were being shared on her social media as her own ideas and some distance from clients. A few weeks later, I found a proposal she created (using our branded templates) to work separately with one of our clients. I never heard from her again. Later had found more content duplicated and used on her socials.
Naturally, I was devastated and unsure of where I should take the business. I decided to let any existing client contracts expire with a generous off-boarding plan and recommendations to work with another agency.
Pivoting was so stressful at the time. I was confused, hurt and scared that I wasn’t going to be able to figure it out. There were a few months there when I thought I was going to have to dip into my own savings to pay the rest of the team. At the 11th hour when I was just about to start looking for a 9-5 job again, my signature method was born: The Instasite, a few TikToks went viral and we were on our new (and existing) path.
Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?
HIGH-VALUE CONTENT. I am talking about in-depth tutorials that should be paid, but that you’re putting out there for free. One of the most important things I’ve learned about running an online business is that access to information isn’t the problem. Clients are looking for execution.
My primary content format has been 3-minute, face-to-camera (or talking head) tutorial videos. I break down concepts and social media strategies in depth. Without the whole “join my webinar to find out more”. I answer the questions flat out. For anything that requires a custom strategy, social media management or complete done-for-you service, I redirect to the application to work with my company.
Share your knowledge. Don’t be afraid to go deep.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.thewolfe.co
- Instagram: thewolfe.co
- Linkedin: amandakohal
- Other: TikTok: amandakohal
Image Credits
Images in the Blazer – Photographer: Douglas Joya – portraitsbydouglasj