Take Charge Of Your Social Media and Grow Your Influence with Michelle Berman

Michelle Berman breaks down her structured Instagram system for mortgage and real estate professionals, covering content calendars, daily engagement routines, and Instagram features like IGTV and the small business story tag. Best for LOs who know they should be on Instagram but feel overwhelmed or inconsistent. The episode is moderately promotional for Michelle's course but contains several concrete, actionable frameworks.

Takeaways you can run this week

• Build a 4-pillar content calendar: identify your four content types (lifestyle, value/education, market info, personal brand), then use them to plan 7 days of posts in one Sunday sitting — Michelle says this takes about one hour.
• Run a daily engagement block: Michelle's structured routine is 45 comments + 20–30 story replies per day, done in a single sitting. She and her assistant timed it at under 18 minutes. Schedule this block the same time each day.
• Use Planoly's 'Quick Schedule' feature to find YOUR audience's top posting times — ignore generic 'best time to post' articles. Planoly analyzes your specific audience's consumption patterns and offers the top 3 time slots per day.
• Get swipe-up links without 10,000 followers: record a short IGTV video on a topic (e.g., current rates + low inventory), upload it, then share to Stories — the IGTV share creates a swipe-up that links to any external URL you choose.
• When a client, agent, or partner tags you in their Instagram Story, immediately re-share it to your own Stories with a short blurb. This doubles the eyeball count for both accounts with minimal effort.
• Use the Instagram 'Support Small Business' story sticker to tag a local business you frequent (coffee shop, restaurant, etc.). They'll likely reshare it — giving you access to their entire audience and building local SOI relationships.

The playbook

1. Step 1: Identify your 4 content pillars (e.g., lifestyle, market data, value/education, personal/brand story).
2. Step 2: Every Sunday, plan the next 7 days of posts using those pillars. Write all 7 captions in one sitting (~1 hour).
3. Step 3: Schedule posts in Planoly using the Quick Schedule feature to auto-select optimal times for your specific audience.
4. Step 4: Each day, complete the engagement block: 45 structured comments + 20–30 story replies, done in one sitting (~18 minutes).
5. Step 5: Turn on post notifications so you can reply to comments in real time as they come in.
6. Step 6: Whenever tagged in a story, re-share immediately with a short personal blurb to amplify reach.

Worth quoting

“If you don't have time to be communicating and connecting and building relationships with new clients, then you have a bigger problem.”

“You don't have to talk to everybody. You just have to talk to the right people.”

Best for

LOs who have an Instagram account but post sporadically and have no system for engagement or content planning.