How do you achieve Instagram VICTREE?

Turns out, it’s actually not that tough, it just takes a little bit of forward planning, and a touch of charisma!

We were joined by none other than Tori Packer, founder of The Small Business Community on Instagram, to discuss all things IG for Biz. From inspirational case studies of businesses doing it right, to figuring out what’s best for your business, Tori helped us understand the wonderful picturesque world of business Instagram.

In fact, you can watch the whole thing here:

So, Why Do I Need To Be On Instagram?

As a small business, if you’re not on Instagram, you could be potentially losing out on some incredible reach.

As Tori puts it, “There are 1 billion active monthly users on Instagram, so you get access to this incredible audience for free!”

Just because your brand may not be “visual”, or your industry caters to a different demographic, doesn’t mean you can’t use Instagram to promote for your business.

“And all you need is a cheeky little smartphone,” Adds Tori, “and a bit of get-up-and-go about you.”

Instagram also provides you with some incredible opportunities for word-of-mouth, as people see your fun images or videos, and then talk about it to friends and family.

What Are Some Pitfalls to Avoid?

Tori has some great advice for businesses looking to avoid making major mistakes on the platform.

“Avoid selling on social media!” she says, “Nobody likes to be bombarded with the sale.”

In a brick-and-mortar store, you want someone to help you, not bombard you with sales. It’s an easy way to lose a customer if you come in guns blazing, and the same thing applies for social media.

“Social media was built to be social and for connection,” Tori says, “the premise behind your page has to be that connection piece.”

It’s totally fine to sell on the platform – just make sure you’re connecting with people first before bombarding them.

Tori also adds a little golden nugget for us: Do you want to know what your community wants to know? There’s this awesome free website called answerthepublic.com and type in a keyword with your industry.

It will show you all of the questions that have been asked in Google that correlates to your keyword. It will help you understand what people are searching and what they need answers to the most.

Time to Achieve VICTREE

So what does this all have to do with VICTREE? Well, the acronym stands for:

  • Value: Make sure your post will be found valuable by your audience.
  • Inspire: Use your post to inspire your audience.
  • Connect: Connect authentically with your audience by telling a story.
  • Transform: Show before and after photos, or what has happened after using your services.
  • Recognize: Understand your audience’s pain points and help them with your post.
  • Entertain: Do something fun, funny or witty to get your audience’s attention.
  • Educate: Provide answers to your audience’s questions, or answer some frequently asked ones.

Tori believes this is the best way for businesses to engage their audiences and use Instagram to their advantage.

The VICTREE method starts with the V – Value. Provide value to your audience with every post – this goes back to answering questions and being helpful to your potential customers.

The following letters are there to help you pick and choose the type of post that you’re going to be putting up (making sure it aligns with Value!).

For example, you might choose to provide Value by Inspiring and Entertaining customers with some funny videos.

Or, you might provide Value by offering a Transformation and Recognizing. For example, using before and after photos, and finishing with an “I know we’ve all been there” for recognition.

Using any combination of these for your post will help you connect and engage your audience in a more meaningful way. Plus, using it as a guide for posts will help you when you’re struggling to think of what to post.

Whichever way you use it, the VICTREE method ensures you’ll become an Instagram hit to an eager and waiting audience on the platform.

You can download Tori’s VICTREE method here: VICTREE Method.