← Call Her Creator with Katelyn Rhoades
Call Her Creator with Katelyn Rhoades
108. The Weekly Scroll: Early Access Reels, 2025 Search Trends, TikTok’s Nearby Feed + What It Means for Your 2026 Growth
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- [00:01]
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Hello, hello, and welcome back to another episode of the Weekly scroll, where instead of spending hours scrolling for updates, I scroll for you. I read the articles, I sift through the noise, I decode that jargon, and I highlight the changes that actually matter for your brand, your visibility, and your income. But today, I need to start with something very big. Like, really, really big. In my opinion, like, Influence Marketing Studio just hit our first 10,000 followers. Big 10,000 followers, you guys. Like, we opened this account back in 2021, and it's been a slow burn. You know those agencies that, like, put their clients front and center? Obviously, like, we're a social media agency. We are so busy growing other people's accounts that we don't really prioritize our own Instagram page. It's definitely like our ugly stepchild that is like, okay, who doesn't have something extra on their plate? Can you post for us this week? Hitting this milestone feels emotional in a way to me. I literally remember sitting with the girls early in our days, like, probably 2022, and just telling them, like, come on, guys, we gotta get to 10K. Like, we're a social media agency. We gotta prove to people that we know what we're doing. And granted, I was growing my own account. Dkaitlyn Rhodes, where most of you have heard of me or found me from my own account. But growing our agency account just proves, like, showing up consistently. You can do it, you can do it. Like, at the beginning of this year, we made a commitment and we said if we're leading business owners into smarter, stronger, more confident marketing, especially on social media, then our own brand deserves that same energy. So you guys showed up for us. We showed up for us. 10,000 people believe in what we're building and they trust our strategy. They love our take on the ever changing social landscape. And it just feels like proof that the work that we've quietly done behind the scenes is landing exactly the way we hoped it would. So before we get into the updates, I just want to say this. If you've been thinking about getting your social media off your own plate and into the hands of a team that truly gets it, we are officially opening early access client spots for Q1 of 2026. Now we do have limited openings for full social media management. We typically focus on Instagram, Facebook. We're a reels focused strategy, but we also do carousels, storytelling, strategy, branding. The whole white glove done for you experience is at Influence Marketing Studio. I'm actually very proud of the agency that I've built Shout out to my amazing team, Darby, Gracie, Abby, Taylor. You guys are so amazing and you've really, you know, helped me build the business of my dreams. But if you are out there listening and you're ready to move the needle on your own social media in 2026, now is the time to lock in your spot before we fill up for the quarter. The link is in the show notes and we would love to support you guys. Okay, deep breath because I'm just still smiling. I was running around my house. If you want a live, like a live feedback live.
- [03:20]
I don't know how you'd explain it. If you want to see me act a full live, go look on my Instagram and watch my reel of hitting 10,000 followers because I am screaming and I am running around the house. Today's episode is brought to you by Club Influence, the membership, where we send you weekly trends, viral real prompts, and trendy Canva templates. Every single Monday, more than 200 business owners are inside, saving two to three hours a week because the content, ideas and and assets are literally done for them. Your invitation is waiting for you in the show notes. All right, let's dive into this week's updates. These are good ones, dude. Good updates this week. So first update is Instagram is testing early access reels. So basically, what's going on, it's pretty interesting. And honestly, this might become like one of the most effective growth levers that creators have seen in a while, but they're experimenting with early access reels. So what does this exactly mean? It means you're going to be able to upload a reel and lock it so that only your followers can view it for a period of time. I actually am really excited about this because if we have a following and they are truly here for us, then I think we're going to get really good engagement before it goes to unknown people. Because what I'm worried about is, like, when we share a post, right, the algorithm shares it to, like, people who follow you and then also people who don't follow you, non followers. And so if you're trying to nurture people that are already following you, then these non followers might not understand or get your lingo or, I don't know, know who you are. And they. So they might not engage. And then the algorithm starts thinking, okay, this is a crappy post, when actually it's not. It's just being seen by people don't. Who don't really know you or who you talk about or what you do. So I like the idea of making my followers see my content first and then if they like it, yeah, sure, send it to more people. I don't know. I don't know how you guys feel about this. I think it's cool. Everyone else sees it blurred out with like a countdown timer and like a little nudge that says follow this creator to watch early. So even on top of your followers watching the content, it's going to create some FOMO to people who don't already follow you. Right? So it's like follow this creator to watch early. It's essentially like a hype feature and it's micro exclusive. It's loyalty based distribution. I don't know. This is pretty huge in my opinion, because Instagram is finally rewarding, hopefully an engaged audience, right? Not just whoever shows up on the platform that day, but whoever is like connecting with you and engaging with you. This is Instagram saying, if you can build community, if you can build that loyalty, if you can build connection, we'll help you grow. And that's what we all have been begging for at a mossery. So this is also a massive nod towards where social is headed for 2026. The platforms want creators to cultivate depth, not just reach, but connection. And they want community, not just content creat, which means the creators who win are the ones who know how to build relationships and not just views. So why does this matter for you? Not all views are created equal. Now, a couple episodes back, I actually, it was this week I talked about visibility because at the end of the day visibility, it's, it's what gonna. It's what's going to make you grow on this app. But connection is what is going to build those deeper connections and help people convert and buy from you. So Instagram seems to be testing features that reward loyalty over virality and I am here for it. You may soon be able to drop content the way artists drop albums, basically with this, this update, which I think is pretty cool. And then also, why should this matter to you? Well, your warm audience is more important than ever before. So don't always be creating content for new followers because I feel like that's what we've started doing is we're always creating content to pull in followers. But now you can just think like, okay, if this piece of content is going out to people who are already following me, I don't have to start from scratch here. I don't have to act like we're strangers. I can talk to them. So I love it. Your excellent item for this Update is to start warming up your audience now. Get in your DMs, engage with people, ask questions and stories, reply to comments, build your little corner of the Internet like it's a membership. And by the way, this is exactly what we do inside of Club Influence. Each week we give you trendy content ideas that spark conversations that grow community. And they work with Instagram's direction, not against it. We are algorithm lovers over here, so we work with the algorithm. If content drains you creating it, then just join the club. Like, let us do the brain work so you can show up and shine. All right, this one's kind of cool. Number two update of the week is that Google just released their year in search for 2025. Can I have a drum roll? Like, what do you think was the most searched stuff for 2025? Are you ready for this? So this is one of my favorite end of the year tools because it tells you exactly what the world cared about, right? What people were confused about, what they needed, answers to what they searched for at 2am this is the emotional pulse of an entire year in one giant data set. But here's why you should care. Search trends equal content prompts, right? So this is a gold mine for all of you that are like, what should I post this week? Well, let's go see what Google released for the biggest searches in 2025. Every question people ask on Google is a content opportunity for you. On Instagram, on TikTok, on YouTube, on your blog, for your website. The topics people search this year are topics that they'll still be searching in Q1. Guarantee it if you want to grow in 2026, don't just post content, answer questions. Search is demand and you are supply. And here's the bigger shift happening. Social SEO is now the top of funnel, right? So 24 of people prefer social platforms over a Google search. I know half of Gen z is using TikTok versus Google, which is crazy to me. I. I'm still a Google user, but if I want like a recipe or something, I'm going over to TikTok because not only am I going to understand whatever it is that I'm cooking, but I'm going to see video of it. So I love that. So keyword captioning matters for your content. This is what's going to help you get on Google. Explainer videos matter again. If people are googling something and they're seeing your explainer video pop up at the top, they're going to click that video and watch it. Series a signature Content series. Oh, those matter so much. You can go back to what episode was it? 99. The secret to building a viral signature series on Instagram. This is going to help you create your own series. So you're probably thinking, okay, Caitlin, tell us what people were searching for. So some of the things that I read that people search for in 2025 and K pop Demon Hunters. That topped the charts, which was really crazy. Um, what else was there? Okay, so the trending searches for the United States of America. There's. It's different for like every country, right? So like the trending searches. Charlie Kirk. K pop demon hunters, Labubu, iPhone 17. What else? That was like the top searches. Let's see who was the top people. Tyler Robinson. D4VD. David maybe. I'm not sure. I'm so out of the loop when it comes to stuff. Erica Kirk. What about entertainment? Let's see what actors. Actors. Pedro Pascal. So funny. He's number one, dude. Pamela Anderson, number four. Charlie Sheen, number five movies. K Pop Demon Hunters, Sinners. The Minecraft movie. Happy Gilmore 2. Oh, yeah, we watched that. That one was on Netflix. That was pretty funny. TV shows. The Hunting Wives. I freaking. I loved the Hunting Wives. I felt like. I felt like I was turning red every episode, but I loved it. The White Lotus. I saw season one, but I haven't seen any other seasons. The Pit, the Summer I turned pretty Squid Game. Reunions. Love Island, House of. Or Secret Life of Mormon Wives. Love is Blind, Season eight. So you get the. You get the drift. The year in search. In 2025, all you have to do is go to Google and you can go look up all of the searches. It was pretty crazy to see all of those different searches for the year. If you've been ignoring searchable content, this is your wake up call. Okay? In 2026, visibility will belong to the. The storyteller, the problem solver. Not just the aesthetic only creator. What else was in there? Multi platform engagement is also now the norm. So consumers don't stay in one place. And we kind of already know this. They bounce between a couple different apps, right? TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Reddit, Pinterest, Google. Your brand story needs to follow them, right? That doesn't mean you need to create five times the content. It just means you need like a consistent story across platforms in tailored formats for each one. And if this overwhelms you. Hello? Hi, it's me. This is literally again what we do for our clients at Influence Marketing Studio. We create a unified content ecosystem that Works everywhere. So like we're creating content for Instagram or Facebook, but then we're going to twist and turn it a little bit for LinkedIn or Pinterest. So if that's something that you want. Going into 2026, our Q1 roster is officially open.
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- [14:16]
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Okay. Reddit. I love me some Reddit. Reddit communities are making decisions. So Reddit is no longer fringe Internet culture. It is mainstream. It is powerful. Nearly every Google search now services a Reddit conversation, which I have totally seen lately. I actually prefer going to Reddit when I do Google something because that's going to be real conversations from real people. So like, if I got a weird bump on me like the lump under my arm last week I was on Reddit, seeing what everyone else had dealt with. People trust Reddit. They trust the Reddit threads more than brand websites, more than influencer reviews, more than almost anything else online. And here's the kicker. This is a gold mine for brands who understand culture. They engage genuinely, they don't show up salesy. They provide real value. So if you're not paying attention to Reddit, you're missing the conversations happening before people even consider your offer. This is where trust is built. This is where objections dissolve. This is where people quietly gather opinions before ever clicking your profile again. This is why multi platform brand presence matters more than ever. All right, last update of the week. TikTok just launched a nearby feed in Europe. So basically what this means, it's. It's a matter of time before this hits the US in my opinion. This feed shows users content based on their physical location. So for local businesses, this is game changing. If you post from your storefront, your event, your city, your service area, you could end up in a local discovery feed without spending a dollar on ad. TikTok is positioning itself as a search and discovery engine, not just an entertainment app. So Again, young people are already using TikTok instead of Google. We just talked about that. That's how they're finding restaurants. That's how they're finding events. That's how they're finding things to do. Local creators reviews. So if you have a local business and you're not creating TikToks, I don't want to say you're leaving money on the table, but you're definitely leaving visibility on the table. And this is also why our agencies, local clients like restaurants, shooting ranges, med spas, boutiques, realtors, they're seeing huge wins with reels plus local discovery strategy. Use those geotags, guys. Tag your location. And that wraps up this week's scroll. Do not just listen, but put this into motion. Try that hook. Test that title. Post the reel. Answer the question that your audience is already searching for. Show up in the spaces your customer already trusts. Small, consistent action each week builds massive momentum over time. And before you hop off, just two little quick reminders. Club Influence is open weekly. Viral prompts, trends, hooks, scripts, canva templates, content ideas delivered straight to your inbox every Monday. Get inside, save yourself time. Get ahead of the trends and influence Marketing Studio is accepting Q1 clients. If you want full social media management, this is your moment. We're coming off of a huge growth year and with our own account hitting 10,000, we're more energized than ever. If you can't tell on this call, I'm just so psyched right now for from excitement and you know we have limited spots so they will fill fast and of course, huge thank you to Stan. Stan Powers the call her creator podcast and gives creators like us the easiest place to build, sell and scale digital offers without tech headaches. If you want to sell your first digital product or scale the ones you already have, Stan is the tool you need. All you got to do is click that link in my show notes. All right, I'll meet you here next week. Same time, smarter strategy, newer updates, bigger momentum. Peace out.