Preview Mode Links will not work in preview mode

The SuccessLab Podcast: Where Entrepreneurs Collaborate for Success


Aug 5, 2014

In this episode (lucky #13), I’m in The Lab with Chris Grabe, co-founder of Resource Phoenix and Localati. He’s a realtor here in Phoenix, but he’s working to integrate the “new school” into the profession. He focused on building relationships and forming a hub around his business, which has had an ancillary benefit of keeping the business pipeline full. In this episode we talk about how he built this community and some challenges he had to overcome.

Highlights from the interview: 

  • Chris and his business partner created Localati because they wanted an alternative to the traditional networking meet ups.
  • They started on meetup.com, but wanted to create their own tool (localati.com) so they could have more control.
  • They focused on keeping it fun and social, not introducing business into the mix, unless the conversation happens naturally.
  • Creating these social events had an ancillary benefit…they got to know their target customer really well.
  • Chris suggests when building community - focus on something that you are going to do anyways and build a community of like-minded people. People you want to be around.
  • Don’t rush trying to build a community. It takes time, but stick with it.

Weekly Biz Hack: On average Instagram has 200 million monthly active users who share an average of 60 million photos per day. What’s more, the photos being shared are generating approximately 1.6 billion likes per day, so there is potential for high engagement if you post the right content. A lot of businesses are picking up on this and shifting some of their focus away from networks like Facebook, where engagement has been dwindling, and more to Instagram. If you haven’t started using Instagram for your business, it’s worth taking some time to strategize how to incorporate it into your marketing mix.

Luckily there are some amazing tools being developed specifically for Instagram that enable making managing and tracking the social network much easier. Below are a few I’ve found useful.

  • ScheduGram - created by a consulting company based in Australia, it allows you to schedule posts, as the name implies. They do charge for the service - $13 per month for a single Instagram account, which isn’t bad, but it jumps to $40 per month for up to 5 Instagram accounts. Slightly pricey in my opinion, but it is an excellent tool if you manage more than one account.  
  • Latergramme - another web and app-based tool that allows you to schedule posts, but this one is free. You can quickly upload photos, write your caption then drop it into a calendar layout. There are a couple of limitations though. It doesn’t actually post to Instagram for you, instead it send an alert to your phone reminding you there is a scheduled post. Once you open it, it brings you to Instagram to complete the post. It is still easy and convenient, but does require that extra step. It also doesn’t allow you to manage multiple accounts from a single dashboard, so again if you manage multiple, you’ll have to log in and out.
  • Iconosquare (formerly Statigram) - this is another free web-based tool that allows you to see and respond to new comments, check your feed and post history, and the most interesting feature…check the stats of your posts. You can get a detailed look at your most popular posts, follower growth rate, engagement among followers and non-followers, times of day and days of the week that got the most traction, and the list goes on.
  • Instaport and Instagram Downloader - tools that allow you to download images from other users. Great for sharing photos posted by your community on other platforms (giving them credit of course). 
  • IFTTT - If This Then That is also great for setting up an automatic download of these images to a Dropbox file. You can drill down to only download photos taken with a certain hashtag, or in a specific region, or that referenced a specific name or user. 
  • Repost  - a mobile app that allows you to repost content from your Instagram community. It gives them gives full attribution so you don’t have to worry about poaching content. Sharing content from your community is a great way to deepen engagement.

Of course these are just a handful. There are more and more Instagram apps and tools popping up frequently, but these are a few of my favorites at the moment. 

Weekly Action Item: This week’s action item is fairly simple…check in on your action items from episode 5 and 9. Did you outline what your what thing is? If not, take some time this week to do that. And provided you have your one thing, are you scheduling time daily or at least weekly to work on your one thing? If missed this one, check out episode 9 on dedicating time to your one thing. For those of you that, let me know how it’s going for you. Are you staying on track? Has it gotten easier or now habitual? I’d love to hear from you. Please leave a comment below. 

Quote of the week: Ok, love him or hate him, this is a decent quote: “As long as you’re going to be thinking anyway, think big.” ~ Donald Trump

Next week we’re in the lab with Paul Blais, a fellow podcaster at Doubt the Doubts and The Potter's Cast. He has an awesome story...he's serial entrepreneur who made a shift a few years ago to pursue a passion. In the midst of all of that he was diagnosed with cancer, but this inspired him to create his blog and podcast, Doubt the Doubts, as a way to encourage people that anything is possible once you get past your inhibitions. So don’t miss that one! Until then, have prosperous week!