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Hey, this is Sharan Srivatha. Welcome back to the Business School podcast. And in this episode, I have something ultra, ultra tactical for you. If you do anything on social media, this episode is for you. So recently, the Instagram CEO has been going around dropping all these tips about what's going on from my algorithm, tips, growth hacks and best practices to literally understand Instagram, get more reach and grow faster on the platform. So what I did is I spent several hours consuming all the videos, the interviews, the press releases directly from Instagram, and I put together this list of the most effective tips directly from the source to grow in 2025. I break it all down for you step by step, starting right now. One thing is for certain, just because it's tried and true doesn't mean it's working right now. So the big question is this. Where can you learn what is working right now? The strategies, the tactics, the psychology, and the exact how to. How to grow your business, how to blow up your personal brand and supercharge your personal growth. That is the question, and this podcast will give you the answer. My name is Sharan Srivatha, and welcome to Business School. If you want to grow on Instagram right now, then this video is for you. Here's what most creators don't know. The platform has changed the and the rules are being rewritten right now. And here's what's crazy. The head of Instagram has basically leaked the entire game plan. Adam Mosseri, the CEO of Instagram, has been dropping hours of insights from press tours to podcasts. And you add to that these leaked memos or internal updates or new best practice reports, and it's super clear that there's a new playbook that's coming about. Here's the best part. We've studied everything so that you don't have to and you will not believe what we found. And what we did is we boiled it down into a framework that I'm calling the IG viral system. These are 10 secrets for 10x growth right now in 2025. Now, please, this is not fluff. This is the real stuff that creators are using right now to grow, including me, and not guesses and definitely not recycled advice. These are the actual tactics, the habits, and what I call the platform signals that the Instagram algorithm is rewarding. And if you are not using them, you're going to be falling behind. So here's the good news. They are all learnable. By the way, as I went through this, it blew my mind, because as I stacked each of the 10 secrets. It keeps getting better with each one. So let's break it down and I'll show you how each one builds on the last. Now, I don't want to be that guy, but if you stay with me to the end because the final insight is the one thing that top creators obsess over and I had to stack it for you to explain it. So if you just focused on that, it could change everything in your content. I promise you. Cool. Let's jump into the 10 secrets starting with secret number one. Stack the spike. So after a viral interview, for example, Patrick bet David, as you know, the creator doesn't pause. He posts bonus clips right away. Like behind the scenes or raw reactions right after the PBD show. Like I don't know if you saw this episode with Tony Robbins and Tony arrived on the helicopter. That footage was the extended the energy of his viral interview for days. Now here's how to do it. You gotta check your insights. If a post is two times above the above average reach, then that's a signal. So within 24 hours just post a follow up that builds on that same topic, just a deeper different angle. And in the caption reference the momentum. Say hey, a lot of you asked about blank. Now here's why that matters. This one tactic can 3 to 5x your weekly reach because you're compounding attention while it's peaking right now. That brings us to secret number two. I told you this is going to go fast. Secret number two is to decode the winners. Next up. This one will save you time and it also gives you direction. And that's what I wanted to think a lot about is if you want to post content that lands, you have to start by studying what's already working. Now I don't mean to copy, not to copy, but to decode what the platform is, is rewarding right now. Now here's what, here's what to look at, right? So number one, you look at the hook, what is said in the first three seconds. Number two, you look at the caption. Is it long form storytelling or is it a snappy one liner? Number three, you look at the edit style. Are they using jump cuts or zooms or text overlays? And number four, you look at the engagement type. Are the people commenting or sharing or saving and what's the video actually asking for? So for example, let's say you are a real estate creator. Find the top five performing foes from like Orion Sirhan or the Broke Agent, my friend Eric Simon and analyze what's Consistent. The hook, the hook format, or the visual framing or the pacing or what the call to action is. And model it. I'm serious. Model it. You don't have to copy it, but apply that same structure that's already worked to your own market with your listings and your voice. You know, you've heard this phrase from Gary Vee that talks about document, don't create. And what does that mean? It means don't wait for the perfect setup. Show what you're already doing today. Just break it down and teach it and narrate it. And this reduces the content planning time by 50% because you're already building on what's already in motion. So start here. Study five viral reels in your niche this week. Just look through the feeds of whoever is the top creator in your feed, right? Then you just reverse engineer and then you post. That's it. Because what it'll teach you is it'll get you the reps or doing the right thing, the right way. Cool. All right, now for secret number three. I call this batch your brilliance. I want to talk about how to scale without burning out. This is where the most efficient creators are. They're not more creative, they're more structured. So let me give you like a system that I use. Number one, you record one three to five minute video each week. From that, you cut three to four short form clips. Then you design two to three carousels that extract the best ideas. Now, I don't know if you know Dan Martell, good friend of mine, great creator. He does this consistently. His 8 habits reel, which I watched. One camera, one hallway, one banger line. And he says, start on hard mode. And he used that throughout all the pieces. Now here's why this matters. This model lets you publish like 8 to 10 posts per week from one single shoot. So you have fewer filming days and you have more volume. And the best part is zero burnout. It's like, honestly, it's pretty brilliant actually. So you don't think about when you are going to get your next content creation time because that stresses most people out. It's. It's structured just like going to the gym or doing team meetings or date night. Right? All right, here is secret number four is to hook the second swipe. Now, what does this mean? This is a pretty subtle one, but it has a huge impact on carousels. And if you're not aware, carousels reach your current audience more and reels kind of reach your audience and get you more new audience reach. So if you're just getting New reach. Your current audience is not seeing a lot of stuff. That's why this is subtle. But it has a huge impact on your own carousels. Instagram often gives your carousel a second life meaning if someone scrolls past the slide one, the algorithm may then reserve it up starting at slide two. Like, it's brilliant, right? So it automatically moves the carousel to the next second slide and then it shows them when they're back in the field again. So how does this work and how do you structure your slides? So here's kind of like the tactical approach. So slide one should be the hook or the headline. Slide two is a second punchline or a rehook or proof that meet meets the hook of the headline. And slide 3, 4, 5 is the payoff, meaning give them the goods right now. Here's why this matters Most creators will front load all their value. But by placing your second best slide second, you double your shot at rehooking the scroller. This simple kind of the sequencing trick has increased our carousel saves by over 40%. Honestly, that's insane. By the way, let me give you a pro tip. You can take your best performing emails if you send email marketing and turn those into carousels, because those are the ones that's performing right now. That's actually what we. All right, let's go to secret number five, which is win the first three seconds. So this is probably the most important one and the most ignored. This is your audition. If you don't grab attention in the first three seconds, they're gone. You've heard it right, that the hooks are really important. But why is that only the top creators can make good hooks? Well, here's a few things that I found. One, one of the best techniques is called the dog whistle method. And it's really simple. You start your video by calling out your target audience directly. So you say something like, hey, if you're a real estate agent, then this one is for you. Or you say, hey, if you run an E commerce brand, then listen up. That phrase the dog whistle, only your people hear it. And when they do, they stop, they scroll and they lean in. Right. I also use some other proven hook frameworks. One is the contraire end hook framework we start with. And most people get this wrong and then you tell them what's wrong. Or the future pacing, the future cast framework, which is, hey, in 90 days this thing will be everywhere. And you tell them what the thing is. Or you can use the problem twist reveal method, which is you could say, hey, here's a problem here's the twist on the problem, and let me tell you the solution. The first few seconds are everything, and we know that we are actually consumers of that. But let's be honest, it is a pain to always come up with a great hook and most of us actually forget because we're too close to the content. We are focused on the edit, the upload, the caption, and the hook just becomes an afterthought. That's why I always start with a few proven hook frameworks, ones that I know that the algorithm and the audience already like. So what I did for you is I put them all into my personal hook framework cheat sheet. It's totally free. I use this every day. Just grab it below. Use it to brainstorm your next few videos and see if it helps you do what it does. For me, right here's why it matters. If you can lock people in for the first three seconds, the odds that they stay for the full reel, which is not much longer, go way up, right? So think of this as a movie trailer. If the first few seconds don't hit home with you, you're skipping to the next one. Instagram notices and people stay and it rewards you for it. You've got to master this moment. And you're not just improving retention, you're boosting your reach every single time that you do that. That. That's good. This is getting fun. All right, let's go to secret number six. This is probably not what you think, but I have found this to be so helpful. The secret number six is to sync your soundtrack. So this one can boost watch time without you saying a single word. Audio is one of the most underutilized tools in reels, but it directly impacts how long someone watches because it keeps them engaged in this process. So here's a tactical framework for choosing your audio. If your video is educational or value based, use like a calm lo fi or ambient sound. If your video is motivational or storytelling, use kind of like upbeat tracks or light like a cinematic build. If your video is highly casual, like a before and after or a product reveal, then use some rhythmic transitions like that match some visual beats. If your video is like caption driven or carousel style, honestly, this one just skip the audio entirely. Let the visuals carry it. Sometimes I'll just pick the most famous song and just so it's cool because I wanted to add some music. But adding the audio is awesome. So you may say, yeah, yeah, but Sharon, where do you find great audio fast? I don't have all this time. Here's the answer. First, use the trending tracks filter by Mood inside the Reels editor, like that's it already does it for you. Then use the saved music feature to collect music that fits your brand. You can do that too. Also for like Evergreen or licensing friendly audio. A lot of people use this. Let me tell you a few options because you're going to have to edit this into your video overall. So there is Artist IO which has like cinematic sounds, emotional, and they're searchable by mood. You have this site called Storyblocks, which is a library of royalty free music which has very clear usage rights on what you can and can't do with it. I think there's another one called Epidemic Sound which has got built in Mood filters and loops and has plans for creators. There's an also another one called Soundstripe. It's great for agencies overall. But I like all of these because you can search by Mood, which is a super, super nice touch. So for example, let's say you're a fitness coach and you're breaking down a workout. Use the chill beats to like slow the pace and have them focus on the form of the workout. If you're a mindset coach and you're sharing a vulnerable story, use like a light piano or cinematic chords to kind of like deepen that emotional tone and connection. You got to know why it matters, because the misaligned audio increases the drop off. Like if you're teaching something that is technical and you have rave music in the back, it feels weird. And when the tone feels off, people are just going to swipe even if the content is great. So matching your audio to your message can increase the completion rate of your video because they don't want that audio to end by 30 to 40%. Which is one of Instagram's top reach drivers, right? Staying the reachability, the staying curve. So here's a pro tip. If you're in doubt, mute everything and just read your captions out loud. Whatever emotion that triggers, find the music that mirrors that emotion. I call this the the small hinges that swing big doors. Right? All right, here's secret number seven, which is to nail your captions. By the way, if you are not doing this, half your audience is missing the message. Remember, 50% of your audience watches without sound. That's insane. So now I've tested every caption tool on the market and I keep coming back to captions AI. It's super clean and super simple and fast. So here's a trick I've learned. You know, use two to three colors max. To keep it kind of on brand, keep the text time to the punch lines and avoid kind of long big blocks of wall of text. I have one idea per line. Now please, please, please, please, please, please, please keep your captions in the same spot on the screen for every video. It creates consistency, which helps viewers like follow along pretty effortlessly. It's also soothing, it's also predictable and it like increases retention because I know exactly where the caption is going to come up. Now, I don't know about you, but people watch on small devices and when they're distracted, it's no fun. So use larger fonts to kind of improve the readability, especially on mobile. By the way, this is a massive brand hack. Using the caption is also a very subtle way to stay on brand. So as your video editing style or presentation shifts, no matter what's in your video, keep your caption style, font colors, background positioning consistent because that becomes your signature branded look. So here's why it matters. Think of captions like subtitles in like a foreign film. If they're hard to read or placed randomly, you're tuning out. But when they're styled clearly, placed consistently, people are like totally locked in. And that's exactly what you want. The crazy part is this. Just fixing your captions might be the easiest, easiest win of all. Instagram's own data shows this. The better retention equals more reach. And the consistent caption style can boost watch time by close to 30% or more just by keeping their eyes on the screen longer. How crazy is that? Okay, all right, you got that. So here's a thought for secret number eight. And this is my favorite one actually. It's, I call it mimicking the trailer. So this one is about stealing a strategy straight from Hollywood. So I live in Orange county, not far from la, and, and stealing the strategy straight from Hollywood. Think about this. Your short form videos are essentially the trailer to your movie. My friend Alex Hormozi told me that the entire reason you actually make short form is to get people to want to watch your long form mind blow. Right? Meaning they shouldn't explain everything, but they should make somebody desperate enough to see the whole thing. Like a James Bond trailer. You got explosions and one liners and suspense and they give you just enough to make you crave for the rest. That's your job, to load the most emotional, highly resonant, high contrast, insight driven, cool moments up front. And if you want like a winning structure, I'll kind of break it down for you. I actually Looked at some of the highest performing videos and I found that number one, the hook, kind of the first three, four seconds makes, makes them stop. And whether there's some conflict or some fear or thinking about the feedback, the second is you state the problem. So kind of 4 to 12, 13 seconds, you state the problem and you state the pain very clearly once you've stated the problem. Number three is like you got some kind of insight. So you give them a shift in their thinking in some way. The last part of it is you just wrap it up. You leave them with some kind of open loop or a takeaway on what they should do. So how do you actually build this? Very simple. You re watch your long form content. You clip the one to two sentences where your tone, your insight or your story hits them hardest and you place that in the first 10 seconds of your short. Then you wrap the one line that makes them all want more. Right? The best part about this is when you track, you don't just, you don't just have to make the short form video. Find the best lines on the long form. That's what your editor can do. Find the best lines on the long form, then make the short form out of it. They don't make the trailers first. They make the movie first. And then they take that biggest and most impactful parts of the movie and they splice it together into the trailer. That's the best part. So for example, if you are a financial coach, don't say, here are three tips to budget like that's boring. Instead you would say something like, man, I was $80,000 in debt and nobody knew about it. That's the explosion of ideas, right? And the reason it matters is you only have seconds to make an impression because their thumb is on that screen like they are. When you're watching YouTube, your thumb is not on the screen. When you're listening to a podcast, your thumb is not on the screen. But when you're on Instagram, your thumb is on that screen and. And you can't wait to swipe it. You can't wait to do that. And that's why this really, really matters. You only have seconds to make an impression. So front loading, the most magnetic, most memorable content increases retention by like 2 to 3x. And more retention means more reach, means good things for you. Remember this, the Instagram algorithm wants trailers that hook people and gets them to stay. Not lectures that drag on that people kind of click off of. Cool. All right, we are almost done. I want us on to secret number nine. You Gotta answer your people. So here's where a lot of creators accidentally kill a bunch of momentum. So now let's be honest. It's kind of ridiculous that someone would stop type a comment on your post and you don't respond, me included. Imagine this. You're giving a. You're giving a keynote in front of 400 people, right? And someone raises their hand and says something thoughtful. You see that and you just ignore it and you keep talking. Now that's exactly what happens when you leave comments. You put all this effort making the video, someone watched it and was thoughtful enough to comment it, and you left your post unanswered. Now, let's be real. You're not going to be able to catch every comment, especially if you're posting multiple times a day. By the way, I have been super guilty of this too. Sometimes I forget to check all the replies on every single post. So especially when things are moving super fast. So that's why I try to have my team and me scan through all the comments. And I still want to get better at this myself. But if you're just getting five to 10 comments per post, there is no excuse. Every one of those should get some form of reply or even like, you know, a smiley face emoji. So here's a system that I want to share with you. You got to create a simple content comment response routine for yourself. So when you open the app and you open Instagram, number one, open the app, number two, open, respond to all the comments on your recent post. Number three, respond to all the dms. And number four, only then start scrolling or browsing or doing other things. This will force you to like, open the app and not go to what's on the feed right away. Open the app, go to your post, find the comments, respond to your comments, go to the DMs, respond to your demons, and then you could start browsing. Now, if you can set aside, you know, a couple of blocks like this, but if that's part of your everyday routine for looking at social, you will never miss them at all. By the way, if you have a team, assign someone to do the same thing to monitor and tag you on anything that is worth responding because somebody took the time to respond and comment. When a comment sparks a new idea, screenshot it that's your next post or proof for your next video. Here's why this matters. Comments are a live signal to the algorithm that people actually care. And when you engage with it, it kind of increases the comment velocity, right? Which is a ranking Trigger inside of Instagram. So the bottom line is, if someone taps comment, they are leaning in and you and me should lean back. And also, I don't know, it's just the human thing to do, right? Respond to the comments because someone else did it for you. All right, here's the last big Secret secret number 10, which is to hijack the headlines. I really think you're going to like this one because this is how you become the source. The source in your niche. Because speed beats polish sometimes. And this is where creators who act fast can win big. I'm going to show you an easy way to do it. So if something happens in your niche, in your sector industry, don't wait to script or schedule it. Post your take right away within 24 hours of the next morning. The raw is fine. Done is better than perfect. And this is the perfect opportunity to use green screen. Why? Because the headline or the article, if it says, you know, some big thing happened, the headline or the article, and you screenshot it and put it on the back and you're doing the green screen, that, that is your visual hook. You just need to layer in your face and your voice. The scroll stopper is already built into your format. The hook already exists in the headline of the article, and your job is just to react to it. And the auditory hook tip is you just start by restating the headline out loud and then just drop your point of view in a different way. So, for example, let's say there was a Forbes headline that says Instagram cuts reach for business accounts. So you can open with, hey, you're not going to like this, but Instagram just confirmed this change. Now they will listen to what you're saying and they watch the headline and it keeps going. And your face is front on the article. Boom. That's the scroll stopper. Now here's why this matters. This content feels raw and real. It's not polished, it's present, it's a, it's a now thing. And you have replaced the news. Think about that. You have replaced the news. And Instagram algorithm rewards early movers on this trending content. Because everybody wants to get a hold of this. Here's a pro tip. If you are consistently the first to report on these niche specific trends, honestly, I will tell you this. You become the source. There's multiple accounts in our space, in the real estate, in the business space that do this and you can easily just 10x your reach. Because what people will do is they'll, they'll review that and they'll share it. And now you get more shares based on that. Gary Vee calls it day trading. Attention. You get the attention and you day trade it. Right? And it's not that you're not following the trend. You are the trend. You are the new station for the day. Now, here's the crazy part. If you've read this far, if you've talked about us this far, if you've been here this far, you know what's working. And so the question just is, will you use it? I want you to forget the tricks. Just forget the tricks, but focus on the big four. Plus, I'll give you a bonus, as I promised. Number one, getting your content shared. Number two, making it swipe worthy. Number three, mastering the first three seconds. And number four, posting with some kind of rhythm, not randomness, like that's what we talked about in the. In the 10 big secrets. Please know this. Instagram is not dying. They're too big to die. They. They got. They got it going on. It's evolving. And how you evolve with it is the question. But I promised you a bonus, so here's your bonus. And honestly, this is worth the price of admission. It might. The. Might be the most important lesson of them all. So maybe you know or maybe you don't. I've been a business advisor for the last 10 plus years to some of the best biggest creators and influencers in the world. And here's the one thing that I've learned that they all have in common. They all optimize for one thing. Shares. Yep, shares. Because here's the truth. If a piece of content gets 0 shares, I will tell you right now, it's not going viral. But if it gets 20,000 shares, I guarantee it's taken off in some way. So every time you make a post, you have to ask yourself, why would someone want to share this? And if you can't answer that, you got to study what you share. What was the last post you shared? Why did you share it? That's what other people do too. We got to study creators in your space and then reverse engineer that. Because what made someone share this? What was the emotion? What was the insight? Why was the way it was packaged? Or what was it? The holy grail of Instagram is getting shared at scale. And here's the thing. This isn't something you're born with. It is a skill. It can't be fully taught because there is some understanding to it, but can absolutely be trained. So if you start optimizing for shareability, I promise you Shares change everything because everything improves when you get more shares, you get more reach, you get more followers, you get more engagement, you get more growth. And your account just is super, super active. So that's your mega bonus for sticking with me till the end. And this might just be your biggest unfair advantage in the game. Hey, if you like this, drop me a comment with your favorite tip and I'll see you on the next one. Hey Charon, I have a cool gift for you since you like this podcast. I actually have an ultra super secret private podcast that I make make just for my partner companies and the CEOs and influencers that I advise. It's called 10K Wisdom because I try to wrap $10,000 worth of value in every single episode in just under 10 minutes. That's why it's called 10K Wisdom. It's raw, it's real, it's got no intro or outro or anything like that. It's just straight to the point and to the insights. Since since you like this podcast, I think you will like that. So for the first time, I'm making it available to you. Just go to 10kwisdom.com the number 10kwisdom.com and my team will activate it for you as my gift. Go to 10kWisdom. I'll see you there.