This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
If you're interested in using social media to reach customers, one of the most important things you can do is monitor your results and adjust accordingly. When you just post whatever you want, whatever you want, chances are you probably won't improve. And if Instagram is just a fun personal platform for you, that's totally fine. With your side hustle, however, if you want to see those improvements, it greatly helps if you can follow the data, not just follow your passion. The problem is that for many people, myself included, we tend to do this on an ad hoc or an anecdotal basis.
Wouldn't it be nice if there was a tool that analyzed the data and made suggestions for you? What if you could then use the same tool to schedule all your posts? Welcome to Side Hustle School. My name is Chris Guillebeau. Today's story, for episode 998, features a New Zealander living in Australia who cracks the storytelling code of Instagram and then decides to make the app of her dreams.
It's called Plan with two Ns, P-L-A-N-N, and it now serves hundreds of thousands of users worldwide and it makes a lot of money. But of course, it all starts with an idea and then the willingness to follow up on that idea. So as we approach 1,000 episodes, I hope that you too are generating ideas or stealing them from me, which is totally fine. That's why we have the show every single day and taking action by following up. So Instagram scheduling app becomes wildly popular.
This story is coming up in just 30 seconds. [Music]
Christie Lawrence, a New Zealander living in Australia, was unable to continue her career in advertising due to an illness that severely limited her mobility for a year and a half. During that time, she began illustrating and selling her artwork on Instagram. That work was bringing in some money and she thought she was onto something. Christie understood that her followers weren't just interested in her art, they were interested in her.
And so she began to share more of her story. She would show her followers when she was experimenting with a new medium, demonstrate the tools she used, and bring them along on that journey. It soon became clear that it wasn't her artwork that was Christie's best creation, but the way she was using Instagram to sell that artwork and ultimately herself to the audience. She saw similarities between what she was doing on her own and the strategies from bigger companies who were lighting up the platform. They weren't selling a product, at least not directly, they were telling a story.
Christie distilled this storytelling code down to four parts. Number one, behind the scenes. Show followers an insider's view of what you're doing. Number two, community. Followers want to see a little humanity, it makes you more relatable, being too perfect isn't authentic.
Number three, inspiration. When we look at social media, often we're looking for some kind of inspiration, but of course it has to be true to the brand. And number four, education. Teach your followers something because there is value in education, it creates loyalty. As an artist, Christie was limited in scale and reach.
She wanted to separate her time from her product in order to reach as many people as possible. And that's how the Plan app came to be, at least after she figured out how to make an app. It turned out that for Christie, unlocking the secrets to Instagram success was the easy part. Plan is a technical solution, but she had no tech experience. However, having worked in marketing for digital agencies, Christie understood the concept of wireframing.
She drew out her wireframes, outlining exactly how she envisioned the app to be, and turned to YouTube to learn how to build them. Even the best side hustlers need a little help, so next she went to a freelancing site and approached app developers to get their feedback. They would point out what was missing, she would go build a new version, and then send it out to another developer to get their input. Eventually she taught herself all she needed to know, and created the initial version of the app herself. So what does this app actually do?
Well, Plan helps users create compelling Instagram stories for their brand, schedule posts, and then analyze what content is keeping your audience most engaged. A lot of people are aware of how powerful the platform can be, but they're not sure how to harness that power. They were clamoring for guidance. Once the app was ready, Christie started working on pre-launch marketing. She designed an elaborate campaign to reach as many female entrepreneurs as she could, especially those who were active on Instagram.
She would message them in a way that created real conversation. And this intense effort, which she spent a lot of time on, paid off. The day Plan launched in the app store, she had nearly 100 influencers talking about it, and she had 1,000 paying users within a week. To celebrate that astounding first week, she shook up a bottle of champagne and sprayed it around the room. Hey, go big or go home.
And it's only been hearts and likes ever since. Word of mouth spread at the hottest new Instagram resource, and Plan now has 650,000 downloads across 120 countries. And I should know, there's only 193 countries in the world, so she's doing pretty good. The app offers a free seven-day trial and then a tiered pricing structure with different options and packages for people with multiple accounts. Plan was profitable before its first birthday, and currently brings in more than a million dollars in annual revenue.
As their customers grow their businesses, Plan wants to grow alongside them. The company is soon to launch a web app with more features to address the needs of its many users. [Music]
Well, this is obviously quite a huge success. Big congrats to Kristi. More than a million dollars in annual revenue, 650,000 downloads and counting.
If you're interested in using this tool, you can check it out for yourself. Get that free trial, seven days, I believe, which we will link up in the show notes. And here are just a couple of quick tips if you're trying to build your Instagram profile and perhaps get a bit more consistent. I should say, first of all, that I don't always follow these recommendations myself. I'm not the best at consistent social media, but I do think they're good practices.
So first, post one photo a day. Don't try to post a whole bunch of stuff, but post at least once a day, seven days a week, and you can do that with scheduling, which is something that this app and some other apps and tools will help you with. So if you want to sit down once a week and plan out, okay, here's my post for the next week, you might not want to spend a lot of time planning that every day, but you should still check in at least and see what people have commented, see who has liked your posts, and reply wherever possible. Next, you might want to try keeping a 24-hour-a-day story going. Instagram stories disappear after 24 hours, but of course, if you post a new one, that kind of resets the clock.
So similar to posting a photo in the feed every day, you can keep your 24-hour story going as long as you post at least once every 24-hour period. You could post now, you could post eight hours from now, and then that resets the clock essentially. So as long as you post, you know, again, 24 hours after that eight-hour period, then you're good to go. You may also want to pay attention to the visuals of your grid. This is something that the plan app does really well.
I was looking at it, and it actually will show you which palette combinations bring you the most engagement. So effectively, it can show you what your followers find the most engaging in terms of the aesthetic or the artwork or those colors. Just a few tips for you there, and of course, we'll include some more in the show notes. Inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is better. Those notes are at sidehustleschool.com/998.
Episode 998. Thank you so much for listening. Be sure you're subscribed. It is completely free. My name is Chris Guillebeau, and this is "Side Hustle School." [Music]
From the "Onward Project."
