Follow-up skills are key with Instagram stories…
@Sumatocoffee we use Instagram stories often. Check us HERE …
We tried marketing software that claimed they were not like bots and could make our brand come across authentic. Fail. The problem with automation software on Instagram is that it will comment on people’s accounts that are not relevant to the brand you are building OR your comment will be not related at all to the picture. People are not dumb. They catch on real quick. The other day our software commented on a guy’s wedding photo about roasting his coffee beans. Fail for us.
Growth and work takes follow-up. When I was a kid I played a lot of tennis. My Dad would make me call back any kid or adult if they called me to play tennis. Even if I didn’t want to play with the person, he made me call them. He taught me follow-up skills. I learned more about life than tennis. Follow-up, follow-up, follow-up….
Growing a brand on Insta takes follow-up and interaction. Even when you do not want to follow-up when it’s late at night and you want to go to bed. Follow-up with the 100+ people watching your stories. Do not be a big dumb company when it comes to customer interaction.

Growing a brand takes time. Use the stories to post videos and photos. We regular post about different brewing methods, the process of roasting coffee, behind the scenes looks at coffee and then we follow-up. We simply check who watches our story and we interact with them on their page OR communicate with them via the direct message. This approach takes time and you cannot outsource it to a bot. It also allows you to really know your audience and what they care about.
We have a team of three people who run our Insta account and so that helps too but as the Founder and CEO of Sumato Coffee I am able to interact with our audience, some of whom are customers and see what they are into. We have a lot of outdoors people, fitness people, tech people, HR people, and yes — cat people.
Get your brand or yourself on there but follow-up. No software needed. Just hustle.
