Episode 805: High Followers, Low Views? Here’s What Might Be Happening on Instagram With Mika Kinney

EBT805 – Mika Kinney

[00:00:00]  Megan Porta 

If your Instagram reels suddenly are not getting any traction, or if you have a solid follower count but your engagement and views feel weirdly low lately, this episode is going to connect a lot of dots. Mika Kinney of Joy to the Food joins me to break down the difference between content designed for growth and content designed for monetization, and why Instagram rewards those two things very differently.
 

She shares gold on how to maximize the first two to three seconds of every reel, how use stories and carousels more strategically, and what food creators should actually be offering followers if they want to turn attention into revenue. This conversation completely shifted how I think about Instagram in 2026.

[00:00:46]   Intro

Hi food bloggers, I’m Megan Porta and this is Eat Blog Talk.Your space for support, inspiration, and strategies to grow your blog and your freedom. Whether that’s personal, professional, or financial, you are not alone on this journey. 

[00:01:01]  Megan Porta

Hello Mika, welcome back for your. What is it, third or fourth time? I can’t remember.

[00:01:05]  Mika Kinney 

Yeah, I don’t know.

[00:01:07]  Megan Porta 

It’s been a few and it’s been a while. So we’re due for a fun conversation about Instagram today. In case people don’t know you, just introduce yourself and your blog and your business and all of that quick.

[00:01:19]  Mika Kinney 

I’m Mika. My husband and I started our blog, our food blog, Joy the food, back in 2021 and, and two years ago, after being hit by helpful content, we went all in, or I went all in on Instagram because I took the website full time. So we’ve grown to almost 500,000 today in just a little over two years.
 

And it’s changed our life. And I am on a mission to tell everybody about it and really differentiate between following and reach. So that’s been a game changer for us.

[00:01:52]  Megan Porta 

Yeah, I think this is going to be a next level Instagram talk. So if people are just getting into Instagram, do you feel like this would help them, this conversation? Or is it more for people who are focusing on growth and who really want to dig into the platform?

[00:02:11]  Mika Kinney 

I would say if you’ve been posting consistently on Instagram for at least a month, it’s for you. But I would say that first month is. Is probably just reach and then you get into the nitty gritty of okay, how do we convert these people?

[00:02:25]  Megan Porta 

Yeah, okay, cool, let’s dig into it then. Right? Let’s just get into like what is okay. Reach is if you have a reel or a piece of content on Instagram that gets a lot of views. Right? You have good reach.

[00:02:42]  Mika Kinney 

Yep, yep. And reach is dependent on your follower count. So. So if you have a follower count of 1,000, but you’re getting a reach of 10,000, that’s a really good metric. The larger you get, the lower actually your reach ends up being. And so that number starts to flip. But the general rule of thumb is carousels are going to reach around 90 plus percent of your audience, and reels will reach maybe 30%, maybe 40% of your audience so that you can use that as you will.But one reaches your current audience, and the other one reaches new people.

[00:03:18]  Megan Porta 

And you want to reach new people as much as possible. Right. So if your reels are getting even better than that, then great. That’s good.

[00:03:26]  Mika Kinney 

Yeah. Like, your reels are crushing right now. Right. Like, you’re getting this crazy reach, and so you want to try. And if you’re getting that crazy reach. That’s amazing. And then try to convert them into followers. Reach is really important for people knowing who you are, because when you have a small account, they just don’t know, and they don’t know what they don’t know.

[00:03:44]  Megan Porta 

Yeah. So do you start there always? Like, we. Our first goal, first and foremost, is to get the good reach, and then from there we can kind of build.

[00:03:53]  Mika Kinney 

I always recommend the reach is number one. You know, ways you can get that as a small account is having your recipe in the caption at the beginning, which I know is controversial sometimes, but it definitely helps because the longer the caption, the longer they stay on that video. If you can get your reach nailed, then you can start figuring out how to convert those people and how to get them to your to stay on your page and come back for more and more.

[00:04:19]  Megan Porta 

And monetize, right? Like, figure out ways to sell to them and get brands interested in all of that as well.

[00:04:26]  Mika Kinney 

Yep. Yeah. Small creators are really a brand favorite right now because you can get this really great reach with a small following. It really doesn’t matter how big your following is or how little you. You can get great reach, and brands love that.

[00:04:40]  Megan Porta 

Do you have any tips for getting to that point of getting good reach? I look at a lot of accounts, and I see accounts with, like, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50,000 followers who have pretty small reach. What if they want to, you know, reach that tipping point where they’re, like, actually making those numbers go up a little bit?

[00:05:04]  Mika Kinney 

Yeah. So if you’re getting small reach and you have 50,000 followers, but you’re getting a reach of like 8,000, it’s not the end of the world. But there’s definitely something wrong with the video itself. I would test carousels at that point to try and re-engage your current audience. If you’ve had this following for a while, say you used to get good reach last year, carousels are a really good way to re engage your audience.

[00:05:26]   

And the way that the algorithm works is that first couple hours it gets pushed out to your people and. And that first interaction, those first interactions are really key to whether it gets pushed to the next level of the algorithm. So if your base is not engaged anymore, maybe they forgot about you, because people follow hundreds and thousands of people sometimes, and so the odds that they’re gonna see your content are not as great as you think that they would be.

[00:05:52]   

So re-engaging that current audience is gonna help reach overall. And then it becomes digging into the analytics, making sure that whatever videos did well, try and replicate that voiceover or the beginning of the video or a certain style. Maybe it’s slamming dough on a counter, maybe it’s turning the instant pot lid.

[00:06:12]   

Whatever that is, try and hone in. And then once you figure that out, you can rinse and repeat. And that’s like, the beauty of it is you rinse and repeat until it doesn’t work anymore, and then you do it again.

[00:06:23]  Megan Porta 

Yeah. And again and again and again. Something I have been noticing lately, and it’s like, we all know this. I’ve known this forever, but for some reason recently, it just clicked. You know how that happens. The first two seconds are so important, and there’s really no point in, you know, putting all of your effort into the second 10 or second 15 if people aren’t watching that.

[00:06:48]   

So it’s just so important to nail the hook. And I know you’ve talked about this before, like you talked about this at Flavor Media, just stacking hooks and doing like a text overlay hook, a music hook, or a voiceoverlay hook, like trying to get people engaged on different levels. Can you talk about that a little bit?

[00:07:08]  Mika Kinney 

Yeah. There’s different types of hooks. So you can have, like you said, you can have a text overlay hook. You can have your first line of your caption, you can have the actual video, and then you can have the music itself. I like to try and stack three hooks, and if they all work nicely together.

[00:07:26]   

So one of the easiest ones to do is to start a recipe from the beginning. Instead of starting it at the hero image, start it there, and then include a text overlay that says, like you’re doing, you know, yours are really key right now. Like, this shouldn’t work. And people are like, what do you mean it shouldn’t work?

[00:07:42]   

So they continue to watch. And then that first line in the caption is say, I can’t believe this did work, but this is what I did. And then they click into that and they read further. So those are three levels of hooks. You could do trending audio where you know, there’s some funny ones right now, like pushing an empty shopping cart and it says, I don’t need anything from Costco.

[00:08:03]   

And then the base, the beat drops and it is a full cart and things like that that are just funny. But they play into that hook because you’re like, okay, why do you have a cart if you don’t need anything? And then it ties with the beat drop too. So you’re kind of hitting anybody that.

[00:08:20]   

Some people don’t listen with audio, some people do. Adding captions to your voiceover so they can read it. If they don’t listen, that’s another thing. But it’s a fine line between getting those hooks and tricking people, if that makes sense. Or becoming too busy where you have text flashing all over the place.

[00:08:40]   

But it doesn’t need to be overly complicated. There are people who do beautiful text overlay that looks like it’s been edited in multiple softwares or something like that. And those do great. But you can get just as good a reach with just a really solid single line hook.

[00:08:58]  Megan Porta 

Yeah, yeah, that’s a great explanation. The curiosity, I think, has been huge for me in growing my reach. Just like you said, this shouldn’t work. People are like, well, what shouldn’t work? And then they see that an instant pot is involved, so they’re like, oh, well, what is she making? And I’ve found that that’s a really good way to get people to watch.

[00:09:18]   

And it doesn’t have to be instant pot. It can be anything. Like just creating that kind of curiosity tension, I think really gets people past second two and three and into whatever the rest of the reel.

[00:09:31]  Mika Kinney 

Yeah, like another one. Like five minute dinners are crushing right now. Like dump and bake. So you have a pan and it just. Literally all it says is 5 minute easy dinner and you dump everything into a pan. So that sort of stuff is another

[00:09:43]  Megan Porta 

way to do that and use AI too. Don’t be afraid to do that. Right. To just like generate ideas. And I get some of my ideas from AI. It’s like, what is something that’s going to make people really curious or create tension right away? And I can get some really good ideas that way.

[00:10:01]  Mika Kinney 

Yep. And you can have AI too. Like, you can download your metadata from Facebook for Instagram reels and stories for the last 90 days, have it go through and come up with. Because that metadata shows the hook that you use. It shows the caption, it shows length of video. Like, it has a lot of data.

[00:10:17]   

So it’s a really great way to quickly have AI go through and say, like, all my videos that did really well were 22 seconds, or all of them were over a minute. That’s good information to know.

[00:10:28]  Megan Porta 

I didn’t know that ChatGPT could do this, but I’ve been doing it recently. You can put the video, like, before you publish it, just upload the video to ChatGPT and say, analyze this. And like, xyz, this is what I want. And it is so good. Mika. It was like, okay, right before the.

[00:10:47]   

Right before the clip where you show the top of the fudge. That clip could probably be trimmed by 0.2 seconds. I’m like, what? How did I know that? But it was. It was, right. I was like, yeah, that was probably a little bit too long. So use that. I. I had no idea that it was that sophisticated.

[00:11:05]  Mika Kinney 

I know. Yeah. And what’s cool is, you know, there’s a lot of softwares that do that, but you don’t need the software. You can just use ChatGPT, you can use cloud, you can use whatever. Just drop your video in and it’ll really help you with that. And. And you can also drop in screenshots or videos.

[00:11:18]   

It can’t pull the links directly from Instagram, but you can drop in ones of ones that you like, accounts that you like to try and help you analyze. Like, okay, these are accounts that I like. What is the common theme and how can I implement this? So that’s another one. Or I don’t like this.

[00:11:34]   

Like, I don’t want to do that. So you know, things like that. And you can build it into a skill too, into your AI, which is nice. So then it always remembers so you don’t have to reprompt.

[00:11:45]  Megan Porta 

By the way, Mika is starting an awesome mastermind for people on this topic. So we’re going to talk about that in a little bit, but I wanted to kind of tease it. I’m so excited for you that you’re doing this.

[00:11:55]  Mika Kinney 

Yay.

[00:11:56]  Megan Porta 

I think people get a lot from it because you have so much passion for Instagram and it really shows. So keep tuning in for that.

[00:12:05]  Mika Kinney 

Yes. We’re filling up so we’re excited.

[00:12:08]  Megan Porta 

Yeah. Oh, good. Yay. That’s so exciting. Okay, so you’re growing Instagram, you’re getting a lot of reach and then you’re like, okay, well I actually want to maybe sell some things or make money. How do we bridge that gap?

[00:12:23]  Mika Kinney 

Yep. So people need to have a reason to follow you. So the nature of recipe videos is people see a recipe video and they save it, they like it, whatever, and then they move on. There’s no real connection for them to stay. Unless it’s part of a series or unless. And even a series can be hard because people don’t necessarily follow along with that.

[00:12:46]   

I mean, like I said, they’re following so many people, it’s hard to keep track. So they need a really clear, distinct reason to follow. That’s where video text overlay comes in that shows your personality a very, you know, ones that work really well are just short clips, like seven second clips that are you doing something mundane in the kitchen, making meal prep or whatever.

[00:13:11]   

And that says a POV is a really great way to do it. POV, I heard you were looking for, or POV, you’re looking for 20 minute dinners that your teenage boys are going to love. And you found me. So it has to be so distinct. But it should also play on content that has done well for you.

[00:13:31]   

If you suddenly, you know, if you were to do that one but you have desserts, then people aren’t going to connect the dots because they would go to your profile and they’d be like, wait, there’s desserts. Like, don’t follow. So it needs to, yeah, so it needs to fall. But it’s, it almost is like.

[00:13:48]   

So it has to be so obvious that people have no reason to not follow. And having those specific videos takes away a lot of the pressure of trying to have viral videos. Because viral videos are great, but the follower count on a 1 million video that you gain is maybe for this, for a recipe is maybe like 3,000 people.

[00:14:10]   

A 1 million video that has that POV that says exactly what you’re about. You is going to have a follower account. It could be 100,000 followers. Right. So it’s a huge difference between a follower video and a recipe video. Just because of the nature of how people interact with recipes. Having that also makes you more approachable by brands because you have a defined personality behind it.

[00:14:38]   

For a long time, our videos barely had my face in them and they still barely have or don’t have it as much. But in an effort to be more in front of the camera and not necessarily talk, but just like more of me mixing or whatever brands like that brands want somebody who.

[00:14:57]   

People are obsessed with you. Which can be hard as food bloggers because we’re so used to being behind the scenes. You don’t necessarily need to. But it also is a kind of going back to old school blogging in ways that you could tell, you know, this is my grandma’s recipe. Like you can do that stuff on social media and people love it.

[00:15:17]   

They want that personal connection. So that’s a really good way to get start converting people. Once you get those followers, I would say anywhere over 10,000 followers, maybe even less. If you have a very engaged base, you can start selling things. And where you’re going to sell things is stories. Stories is where you’re going to get those warm leads that are ready to purchase.

[00:15:39]   

So you could sell affiliates, links, you could do ebooks, you could do, you know, mastermind, whatever it is, that’s where you’re going to sell it.

[00:15:47]  Megan Porta 

Okay, going back to the different type of reels. So follower reels you call them, I have dabbled in that and they just never work. Like they get my reach for recipe videos. Recipe reels are, are, is great. But every time I try one of those follower reels, it’s like, like I don’t know if I’m doing something wrong.Do I just keep trying? Do I do one a week? How. How do I find one that actually hits?

[00:16:20]  Mika Kinney 

So I guess my question is what is the text overlay that you’ve done and what is the.

[00:16:25]  Megan Porta 

Well, I haven’t done any recently, but it’s kind of along the lines of what you’re saying. But for my, but you know, for instant pot, like what’s the pain point? Like turning on your oven or wanting to. You want to make desserts without an oven or something like that. And I don’t know if I’ve ever included what you found and you found me.I think that’s brilliant.

[00:16:47]  Mika Kinney 

So I would say such a defined like the instant pot. Another way to do that that might work well is you know, do the video of you eating whatever it is with the instant pot visible and then the text overlay. POV you never understood or you never. You never understood the instant pot trend or you never understood you could make dessert in your instant pot until you found me.And then it goes into a compilation video of the videos you’ve already done that I’ve taken like the hero image.

[00:17:19]  Megan Porta 

That’s good.

[00:17:20]  Mika Kinney 

So, and then it sends them, you know, a carousel DM or an email list of all of them or whatever. Yeah, something like that. Because it’s such a defined instant pot that you might need to physically show that versus just a typical b-roll. And then it also gives them. You’re going to get more engagement because people want all eight recipes or whatever.

[00:17:42]  Megan Porta 

Yeah, okay, that’s good. So, yeah, just for other people, just leaning into. Like you said, don’t do something that doesn’t align with what you’re doing. Leaning into your niche and who you are and why you want people to follow you, I guess.

[00:17:56]  Mika Kinney 

Yes. Yes. Yeah.

[00:17:58]  Megan Porta 

Okay. And then back to stories. If people listening just haven’t gotten into stories, they publish reels, carousels, et cetera. Where do they start with that? Do they start selling right away? Do they get to know people on stories?

[00:18:13]  Mika Kinney 

Yeah, I would not sell right away. Is it Gary V? I never say his name. Gary V. He has this concept of jab, jab, jab, jab, jab, left hook. So this idea that you give away free things three times and then your fourth time is a sell. So people do need to get to know you first.

[00:18:37]   

So I would start with doing a reply recipe story so you know a photo of dinner on your family table and it says just made this in 20 minutes and it was so good. Reply dinner and I’ll send you this recipe plus, you know, my list of 25 other easy summer dinners and then do that as your first story.

[00:19:01]   

That’s going to up engagement because you’re going to get replies. If you’re using Grow or Manychat, like use one of those to help do those responses. Then your second and third slide can just be casual, personal, whatever is going on. I would do that for probably a couple weeks and then you could start selling.

[00:19:19]   

Then you would do the reply recipe story, follow it up with your sec with one or two links and then close with like a personal one. That kind of blocks tends to work really well. But you want to do all your stories at within the same hour. Cause the difference between posting, you know, like I post 1 at 12 and say I get busy with lunch and I don’t post another till two, that drops the real reach by like 10,000.

[00:19:46]   

So you’re missing out on a huge chunk of link clicks by not posting them kind of squished together. And not that you always have to do it, but if you want to be strategic and get the most link clicks, like that’s definitely the best way to do it. Because then all the stories can expire and then you can start over the next year.

[00:20:04]  Megan Porta 

Right? Yeah, I’ve heard that from multiple people too. But I think stories is such a good chance to let people get to know you on a personal level without like, it can. Can kind of feel unnatural in a real, like, you know, adding your face and adding too much personality there. When it’s like this is about a recipe, but in a story, you can put anything up and people can get to know your personality.

[00:20:27]   

And I think it’s such a good. I think there’s no better chance to do that than in stories.

[00:20:32]  Mika Kinney 

Yeah. Yep. Yeah. And if you’re including, you know, a lot of us have roundup recipe or roundup posts, and those do really well in stories because I feel like people feel like, oh, this is kind of a special place where I’m getting more than just a single one off recipe. So it can feel like even though you’re requesting them to get a recipe from you, they enjoy it because they’re getting.They feel like they’re getting more from you.

[00:20:57]  Megan Porta 

Right. Let’s see, what else? Oh, brands. So if people want to monetize through brands, is there a certain number of followers? Is there a certain number that they need to have before they do so.

[00:21:13]  Mika Kinney 

Not really anymore. I just saw a poll from a fellow creator who pulled. Her audience is mostly creators. So she polled people based on how many followers they had and how much they were charging for reels. People, you know, 1,000 to 10,000 followers are charging up to $2,000 for a reel. Sometimes it really depends on your reach and your engagement these days.

[00:21:36]   

So I would say if you get an average reach of over 20,000 and you have an engagement rate that is above even like 3%, which at that number, your engagement is probably a lot higher, probably closer, around 10%. Then you can be reaching out to brands, you can charge them, you’re making an ad for them.

[00:22:01]   

So even if your reach is not as high as you know, even if your reach is 100,000, 200,000, you’re making an advertisement for them that they can use. You can offer a white listing so they can use it on their channel and that’s an additional fee, things like that. So in today’s day and age, almost having too many followers is almost a downside because all they want is engagement.

[00:22:24]   

And they can get more bang for their buck these days with smaller creators because you’re getting this great reach, but they’re still charging less. So if you have better reach. Right. If you’re getting a hundred thousand views on a small account. You should be charging based off of your average reach and engagement, not off of your follower count.

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[00:24:27] Megan Porta

Yeah, it’s a new era, isn’t it? I feel like things are so different. It used to be only followers that people looked at and now it’s. You can have really small follower count and massive reach. It’s really weird.

[00:24:44]  Mika Kinney 

Yeah.

[00:24:46]  Megan Porta 

New. New era, I guess.

[00:24:49]  Mika Kinney 

But yeah, it definitely opens up a lot of avenues of revenue for people, which is exciting and I know if you have a phone, you can do it.

[00:24:57]  Megan Porta 

Yeah. And I love that smaller accounts, those smaller follower account number accounts can actually reach out to brands and feel confident about it and make decent money and have a diversified revenue stream. It’s really cool.

[00:25:14]  Mika Kinney 

Yeah.

[00:25:14]  Megan Porta 

All thanks to Instagram and knowledge from Mika. Thank you Mika.

Is there anything else about monetization? So you kind of mentioned like affiliates and digital products, brands, any other ways traffic Obviously getting traffic to your site. How else can we make money from Instagram?

[00:25:33]  Mika Kinney 

I mean, Instagram has. Instagram has a very small bonus creator fund. So, you know, you might make carousels, make good money. Or I shouldn’t say good. Like our carousels with say a combined reach of 1 to 2 million made like a hundred dollars this month. So not like great ROI, but it’s money that you don’t have to do anything else for Instagram.

[00:25:58]   

Another thing that’s been taking off, obviously Facebook, but cross posting from Instagram to Facebook has been doing really well. And anybody can monetize there. The big thing with Instagram is, and Instagram has publicly said this, that they are trying to make the platform easier for people to get brand deals because they cannot financially make the creator fund work.

[00:26:20]   

And so because of that, that’s why you have this collaboration feature that they came out with last year. So brands can see in real time how the reel is doing or the content. They’ve added their own affiliate platform that I haven’t really messed around with yet. You just want to be careful not to sell too much because.

[00:26:41]   

And you have to kind of strategically think about how are people interacting? You know, your core is a recipe. So how are people interacting with that recipe? If somebody like, for us, we do a lot of desserts, a lot of baked goods, people are not typically responding or making baked goods every single day of the week.

[00:26:59]   

So we limit it to posting those or try to like three days a week. And I do find if we post more than that, they do worse. So thinking about how that works. But, you know, a dinner account, people need dinner every weeknight. Maybe they’re gonna go eat out on the weekend. So you could post every weeknight and it works great.

[00:27:18]   

So thinking about how that kind of interacts and then time of life and then thinking about, okay, what is this free content that I can offer people? So when I go sell them, like, you know, we have an app that we sell, we have our affiliate links, we have ebooks, everything that you could sell.

[00:27:40]   

When you go to sell that, people don’t feel like it’s just sell, sell, sell. And I say that, but I post affiliate links every single day. Maybe I’ll take a day off every like one to two, two weeks, but almost every day and I have yet to have a decline or anybody say that, because people are invested in what you believe works the best.

[00:28:04]   

So people, and most of the audience on Instagram is women. Women are more likely to buy. So thinking about, like, okay, I’m going to post these affiliate links. So I will post content during the week now that I’m calling like my playground because I don’t post it to go to the site. I just post completely informational, like maybe a Costco haul or funny or things like that.

[00:28:29]   

And it has drastically improved our overall reach of our recipe videos and it’s improved our engagement of the account overall, which makes it a lot easier to sell because I think the whole goal is to create an account that no matter what it is that you are selling, people will buy it. That’s like the best way to build the brand and the revenue.

[00:28:49]   

And so the easiest, least barrier of entry, affiliate links for sure. Pick one and just stick to that one and double down on it. We like Amazon because it has a great click through rate. It has a great conversion rate because it holds the cookies for 24 hours. You could do whatever you want then if you already have ebooks on your site.

[00:29:09]   

People love to buy ebooks from people because they’re like, you’ve developed all these recipes, just always connect it to something personal. That’s like the big thing on Instagram. So, you know, I’ve developed, you know, I have a thousand recipes on my site, which is common for bloggers, right. And these 10 are the ones that I always tell people to make.

[00:29:32]   

That’s a very great way for a story to convert because it’s like a thousand. But these are the 10, like these are the ones that you have to make if you’re going to make any of them. These are the ones. And people like that expertise and they like that kind of background of like you actually tell people to do it.

[00:29:52]  Megan Porta 

I so appreciate how open you are. Thank you, Mika. I always learn something from you every time we chat. We should probably chat every day. I’ll call you every day and just be like, hey, Mika, here’s what’s going on. Yeah, exactly.

[00:30:03]  Mika Kinney 

I always tell you, I’m like, can I ask you these questions?

[00:30:07]  Megan Porta 

Oh, it’s so good. Can I ask you a question about captions? So I am currently putting all of my caption or my recipes in caption because of what you said earlier. And I’m kind of experimenting right now. Like a lot of the content I’m doing is just a test. I don’t have it all on my blog.Some of it is. Some of it is not. Some of it is going to go on my blog because it’s doing well.

[00:30:30]  Mika Kinney 

That’s exactly how we started our first. So, yeah.

[00:30:34]  Megan Porta 

So recipe and caption obviously for those that aren’t on the blog is good. At what point do should people start trying to get people like comment for a recipe and get traction over on the blog if they have recipes there.

[00:30:48]  Mika Kinney 

For you, I’d start now, but I would do it in a way where you have in Crowded Kitchen did this early on too where they would put the recipe in the caption but the very like not the first line but the second line would say comment recipe. So people have the option. So it’s kind of a pick your own adventure as a warm up, kind of like a runway.And then once you consistently get that, you know more people replying recipe then play around with taking it out. So I think what we did is we did that for maybe like two months and then we started taking it out completely. Nowadays I still do maybe like one or two recipes a month, sometimes three that have it in it, like off the cuff things that are just for fun and they do really help.

[00:31:32]   

So I would still sprinkle them in once you get that established because it’s really just training your audience. So you just need a runway and people are very used to the reply recipe now. So give them the option first and then phase that out altogether.

[00:31:49]  Megan Porta 

Okay, so I have some questions like what you would do if you started over today. But first I want you to talk about your mastermind because obviously you have all of this great information to share. You are starting a program. Is it just for food bloggers?

[00:32:07]  Mika Kinney 

Yeah. So our big thing is food creator for food creators. Right. So what we found with similar Instagram things is you’ll get a blank template of hooks, but they’re not specific to food bloggers. And having somebody who has has a food blog who’s been through all this, that’s like the really key thing is we want to help other food bloggers grow their accounts as well as like recognizing that when you have a big following, that’s a different path than if you’re starting from zero.

[00:32:44]   

And so they take different models to get success. So if you already have the following, we have a mastermind that is to help you monetize better if that’s your goal, if or re engage your current audience. If you have a small following, we have a track for that. So it runs, it’ll run July to September, but we’re capping it at 10 people because we want to keep it small and intimate.

[00:33:08]   

We’ve had a really great outpouring of success. We’re going to every month includes a call with me. You have access to me on Discord whenever you want. So you can send me your videos if you want. You can ask for feedback, any of that stuff. I’m, you know, have office hours whenever.

[00:33:28]   

And then we also. I’m also doing audits, so those have been really fun to kind of dig into other folks account, but I, again, I cap them at 4 because I just want the quality to stay really high and I want to make sure I have the proper time to dig into it.

[00:33:41]   

Um, so we’ve maxed out those for this month, which is amazing. And people have been really excited. And so we’ve heard a lot from people that having a food creator doing this is. Is the big game changer because I’m right there with you guys. Like, algorithm’s always changing. We’ve grown from nothing to something.

[00:34:02]   

It hasn’t been slow and steady. We’ve been really strategic. Because I come from an engineering background, everything I do is with an ROI in mind and analytics at the forefront, while also trying to avoid burnout and, like I said, you know, structuring it. Like, I’m gonna. I’m here to help you. If your content’s doing well, but you’re overwhelmed, I can help you with that.

[00:34:22]   

If your content isn’t doing well, but you don’t have the time because you’re staying home with your kids, I can help you come up with a schedule that is gonna allow for that. Because we want to have fun. It comes through in the videos, especially if, you know, I’m a big believer in, like, if you’re not in a good mood, the universe is not going to put it in a good mood.

[00:34:41]   

And so, you know, you need to take a step back and, and figure out a sustainable way to grow your. Your business.

[00:34:49]  Megan Porta 

Yes.

[00:34:50]  Mika Kinney 

Especially with Google. And we don’t know what’s going to happen this week, really, with the search. And it’s all the more reason to have social proof and social brand. Yeah.

[00:35:02]  Megan Porta 

Yes. And there’s nobody better than Mika. Honestly, you’re just like, if you watch just a few of Mika’s reels, you will want to be her best friend. She is so fun and sweet and. And forthcoming with information. Obviously, all of the stuff you’ve delivered today. So how do people get this offer? Like, where do they go?

[00:35:24]  Mika Kinney 

Yeah, you can go to Mikacreative.co. Um, we can put it in the. The episode notes too, but. Yep, you can go there or you can send me a message on Instagram at Joy the Food, but I will resume. Yeah.

[00:35:39]  Megan Porta 

Okay. So Everyone, I’m. You might get an outpouring of. Yeah. Interest there. So be ready.

[00:35:48]  Mika Kinney 

We want more the merrier.

[00:35:49]  Megan Porta 

Yay. So if you had to start over today, so you’re at the place I remember you were at, like, was it 3k, 3000 followers or something and you just decided you’re gonna go all in and make this happen and within a few months you exploded. If you were back at that 3k or whatever it was spot, what would you do differently?

[00:36:13]  Mika Kinney 

So I think what I would do differently is what changed the game for us is I started to like actually review the numbers and be strategic. This idea of whatever works, rinse and repeat is what I would do earlier on is like figuring out what it is that is taking and then just continue to do that more and double down.

[00:36:41]   

But if I were starting over today, I wish I would have been in my content more. I wish I would have done that from the beginning. Because having your face as the brand initially, it’s like that’s not what the trending videos are doing. They’re very hands and pans or quick movements, like bright light.

[00:36:59]   

Like I was replicating a style, not necessarily my style. And I wish I would have been better at that because you see some other creators like Justine Doring Snack list, I forget she’s amazing at this and she is so forward in her recipes and who she is. And I think that’s a really big differentiator to if you want to get, you know, deals with New York Times, if you want to go on brand trips, if you want to be an ambassador for these brands, you need to be in the content.

[00:37:33]   

And I wish I would have done that differently. But otherwise I think following that same template, like you’re doing like having recipe and caption, like doubling down on recipes that work, just getting them up on social first and foremost, you can get that content out is all. Exactly what I would do again, I would just do more of me in it.

[00:37:52]  Megan Porta 

Yeah, I love that answer. I love getting into analytics too. I ignored it for a really long time and here’s a trap I fell into. And I think a lot of other creators can relate to this where you, you do a format like here’s what I’m going to put up, I’m gonna put up a 15 second reel and here’s kind of, you know, the clips I run through and then you just keep repeating that format no matter what and you don’t look to see if it’s actually working.

[00:38:17]   

You just keep doing it and you’re like why am I not getting traction? Why is this not working? And then you start digging into the analytics and like, oh, this reel did a little bit better. Why is that? And then you refine it. Maybe do voice overlay instead of music or whatever. Yeah, I think we just get all.

[00:38:38]   

We all get into that rut occasionally where we just repeat without analyzing. And I think that is such a trap for food for any Instagram account.

[00:38:49]  Mika Kinney 

And it happens at any stage. I mean, we went through just like six months ago, that’s what I was doing, right? Like, I had. I know it’s easy thing, right? And then you just do it again and again and you’re like, oh, my God, this is the definition of like, insanity, right? Doing the same thing, the same thing over and over and expecting different results.Like, why am I doing this?

[00:39:10]  Megan Porta 

Yeah.

[00:39:10]  Mika Kinney 

So, yeah, so it happens with another follower account. And this audit I just did, I’m like, she’s in the same position where you get stuck in a style and a thing that you do and you just do it again and again and it’s like, why isn’t this working? Like, okay, we need to adjust and review and come up with a new plan.

[00:39:28]  Megan Porta 

Yeah, change it up once in a while. I think you’re really good at that, though.

[00:39:32]  Mika Kinney 

We should change too.

[00:39:34]  Megan Porta 

Yeah, exactly. All the time. I love your videos pop up and I’ll just be like, oh, my gosh, that is not something I’ve seen from Micah before. You do different things all the time and you’re always experimenting. Do you think that’s important for us to just, like, if we have an idea, even though it might seem off the wall or funny, too funny or too crazy or whatever, just put it up and see what happens.

[00:39:58]  Mika Kinney 

Yes and no. And I said this to myself last summer that I need to, like, chill and not experiment so much because sometimes it becomes a little bit out there. But I think I am such a believer in. In vibes, which is going to sound wild, but, like, if something pops in your head, do it, like, right then.

[00:40:22]   

Right? Like, just do it and go for it. I mean, like my video, like, bang my head on a wall like that I was like, insane, right? Like, I’m signing, like, what are we doing? I’m like, just go with it. Just, we’re going to run with it.

[00:40:41]   

I really think you should experiment. I would say maybe like one a week at most that you’re experimenting. Unless it’s a tried and true format of, like, you’ve seen other people do. Really well with this content. And you’re. The more you do, the more data you have and the more your gut is going to lead you in the right direction.

[00:40:58]   

Right. But at the same time, if you’re not uncomfortable with it, you’re probably not pushing it quite as much as you could. And so you’re gonna have some. That tank. I mean, like we had one that had like no views really. And I’m like, man, but we tried it. Okay. Now we know that that’s kind of the threshold.

[00:41:20]   

Like we’re not gonna go past that.

[00:41:21]  Megan Porta 

Yeah. Not that level of crazy.

[00:41:25]  Mika Kinney 

That one was too far. So you know that the more data. I’m such a fan of data. Right. The more data you have, the more your gut can help you figure out what you’re doing. So, yeah, I think you should experiment. Just keep your core, your core.

[00:41:40]  Megan Porta 

Rein it in promptly if needed. If it’s not working. I did an experiment a few weeks ago. So I have a videographer come in to film for YouTube for me once a month and we do mainly long form videos. But she also provides me some vertical, like polished, you know, clips. And I put them mainly on YouTube.

[00:42:02]   

But a few weeks ago I was like, I wonder what would happen if I put like combined the clips like I do for Instagram reels, but using her footage and put it on Instagram. And it did horribly. It was. And I kind of assumed it would. I was. Because it’s not me filming it.

[00:42:18]   

I was in it. But it was very like the lighting was perfect and it was polished and I had my hair curled and.

[00:42:25]  Mika Kinney 

Yep.

[00:42:26]  Megan Porta 

And I was actually really glad to see that data.

[00:42:29]  Mika Kinney 

Yeah.

[00:42:29]  Megan Porta 

I mean when I look at my feed now, I’m like, oh gosh, that that reach really stinks. But I’m glad that I know and I’m not going to do that again. So stuff like that is, I think.

[00:42:39]  Mika Kinney 

Yeah. And I was going to say having those clips. This is kind of an aside, but I saw somebody take the polish YouTube clips wrap and then while they’re filming that, set up your phone to film you doing kind of some off the cuff stuff while you’re still set up. But do. There’s that.

[00:42:57]   

The voice overlay. And I’ve never actually done this, but where you use like a David Attenborough voice where it’s like this. Megan, that’s so brilliant. While you’re doing this setup, it shows people behind the scenes, especially if you can show them like the light and the camera. So it’s like a whole production.

[00:43:15]   

They want to see that. But you’re filming with your phone and that’s a really good way to get followers because they’re going to get to know you. You know, if your boys come in at certain times, you know, different things like that, that’s, you know, a really good way to double on your content so you’re doing less work.

[00:43:29]   

You’re still getting that behind the scenes.

[00:43:31]  Megan Porta 

That’s so creative. I love that. And it’s kind of funny and, and weird at the same time, which I love.

[00:43:37]  Mika Kinney 

Yeah, yeah.

[00:43:39]  Megan Porta 

What else do we need to know, Mika? Anything we’ve missed that you think listeners would be like, oh, so glad you mentioned that. Any last bit, last minute tidbits?

[00:43:49]  Mika Kinney 

I don’t know. I mean, just like a little thing on carousels, they are just popping like crazy. Right? So if you have a video that did well, go make it a carousel right now. Because if you post that carousel within the next, within like a week or two when you did the video, it will take.

[00:44:07]   

But it needs to be. Everything on Instagram these days should be conversational. Like, you can’t just say like eight Memorial Day recipes that doesn’t tell anybody anything. If you have a video that did well, then go make it a carousel. But that first slide, you treat those first three sides three slides the same way that you would treat the first three seconds of a video.

[00:44:31]   

So every single one of the slides needs to encourage a swipe. The first one should be connecting to you. So the ones with people’s faces eating the food does really well. Like, hey, I just. Or I’ve made 27 instant pot fudge recipes. I didn’t realize, but I did. Yeah, and this is why.

[00:44:52]   

And I get it. Or something like that. They swipe to the next one. The next slide does not start the recipe. The next slide says, at first I tried putting peanut butter in the instant pot and that was good but not great. Then you go to the next slide. Then it says, then I put white chocolate next slide.

[00:45:09]   

Then I put condensed milk next slide. Then I did milk. Then I put the lid on. I let it go for 15 minutes. And then that last slide says, comment recipe. So like stick to like a 7 to 10 slide series. But those first three slides should be treated the same as the first three seconds of your video and continually get them through.

[00:45:28]   

And like, it’s a bit of a mind game. But yeah, that’s how they’re getting the reach.

[00:45:33]  Megan Porta 

So carousels, I’ve noticed, go largely to current followers. So are you, are you creating carousels in hopes that it gets so much engagement that it starts getting pushed out to non followers or like, I don’t know who I’m talking to in my carousels. I’m confused because I was creating them thinking that they would go to non followers, but they’re not.

[00:45:56]   

So I’m like, well, these people already saw the reel, so they’re probably like, oh, okay. Thank you for the double information. I don’t know. I’m confused by them.

[00:46:03]  Mika Kinney 

Yeah, they are going to go to your current audience and I think especially for smaller creators, they’re even going faster to like the Explore page. So I think you’re exactly right that creating the carousels for. Creating carousels for your audience, your existing audience. But in a way that is going to. Because the more people that swipe to that third slide, the more likely those are going to get pushed out to Explore page.

[00:46:31]   

And the way that it seems to be happening is Explore will show people one slide and then if they kind of interact, then later on they’ll show them a different slide from that same carousel set. So you’re getting a double viewing.

[00:46:42]  Megan Porta 

Okay, that makes sense.

[00:46:45]  Mika Kinney 

But it just, it really just matters on the style and that it’s very conversational. Like, you know, it just. Everything on Instagram needs to connect to people and just feel like you’re talking to a friend.

[00:47:01]  Megan Porta 

Yeah, well, you said it perfectly before. Think of it as the first three seconds of your reel. And we’re so used to thinking, like, how do I get people to keep watching that I think that makes sense in carousel format. So. Okay, cool. I am going to make a carousel today and I’m also going to do a follower style reel today.

[00:47:20]   

So I’ll let you know how it goes Mika.

[00:47:22]  Mika Kinney 

fFingers crossed.

[00:47:24]  Megan Porta 

Yes, fingers crossed. Well, thank you. I feel like I just absorbed all kinds of gold. This has been amazing. We so appreciate all the value, as always. And if you’re interested in Micah’s group, go to the show notes page we’re going to put together for Micah. So eatblogtalk.com/ we’ll call it JoytotheFood4.

[00:47:44]   

I think this is your fourth time back, so go there. You’ll find it there. And, yeah, reach out to her. Is there anything else before we say goodbye? Do you have any, like, I don’t know, words of wisdom? Anything your son has said lately that’s cute and wise and funny?

[00:48:02]  Mika Kinney 

He says a lot of funny things.

[00:48:05]  Megan Porta 

I know. I love little kids sayings.

[00:48:08]  Mika Kinney 

I mean, maybe don’t do this with Instagram, but he says all the time. What if we stayed up all night and the sun was up all night? And I’m like, then I could do so much work. And he says, me too. I have so much work to do. I have to go cut down trees with dad.

[00:48:26]   

Okay. That is a lot of work. His other thing he had to do was he had to get the dog pool ready because he said, mama, dogs don’t like clean pools. They only like dirty pools. So we put all the dirt in the dog pool.

[00:48:40]  Megan Porta 

Okay, that’s. See? Words of wisdom.

Right. Well, thank you so much, Mika, and have a great rest of your week. And we appreciate you. Thank you for listening, food bloggers. See you next time. 

[00:49:00]  Outro

Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Eat Blog Talk. If you are craving learning, connection and increased productivity at a low monthly cost, join the Eat Blog Talk Inner Circle. Go to eatblogtalk.com/focus to join. I will see you in the next episode.