Have you ever tried writing a “professional” DM? Sure, we’ve all reached out to a potential connection on LinkedIn, hoping they’d help us land a job, work with us on a project, or just give us some sound advice. But what about on a platform not exclusively made for networking — like Instagram? Instagram is less crowded with these kinds of professional asks, which means your message may actually get read. At the same time, writing the message itself is still a challenge. Do you sound too eager? Do you sound like a spam message? Are you being annoying? When should you follow up if you don’t hear back? I talked to Jesty Beatz — a musician and post-production specialist who’s built his career through DMs — for his advice on how to network on Instagram. He shared with me why Instagram is a great place to network, and gave me a step-by-step guide on how to improve my chances of getting read and replied to. Subscribe to HBR Ascend on YouTube for more videos on work, life, and everything in between. Transcript ELAINY MATA: Do you want to know something? JESTY BEATZ: What’s up. ELAINY MATA: So the second person I DMed just responded to me. JESTY BEATZ: Bang bang, I love it. ELAINY MATA: This is awesome. JESTY BEATZ: I love it. I love it! ELAINY MATA: Real question, have you ever thought about networking on Instagram? I’ll be honest, I’ve never even thought about it. I only see Instagram as a place to post life updates in an aesthetically pleasing way — or look at memes. Why not? Why not delve into Instagram and grow your network in a professional way? OK, let’s talk about The Professional DM, how to write one, how to prep for one, and how not to look like spam. JESTY BEATZ: Everything good in my life has come after I was annoying. And that’s just an insight I had right here in this conversation with you. ELAINY MATA: This is Darrell Green, also known as Jesty Beatz. He is a music producer based out in Ohio. When he first moved to LA to build his music career, he needed to build connections. He found that using Instagram was a better, more personal way to connect with people, rather than just emailing or using LinkedIn messaging. JESTY BEATZ: Instagram humanizes the prospect. They’re not just a resume. They’re not just a person who has a job title that you want one day. An exec who is on LinkedIn, they’re getting bombarded in their inbox like crazy, you know what I mean? But on Instagram, where they’re posting their fishing trip on the weekend, it’s not as crowded. ELAINY MATA: But he does still spend time on LinkedIn before he even goes on Instagram, just to get some info. JESTY BEATZ: I find the connections that I need to look up, and talk to, or see what companies, or projects, or mutual people we have. Then I transfer over to Instagram. I’m searching relevant hashtags, I’m doing all the recon I can, and I give them a follow. ELAINY MATA: So you have all your info and you probably feel ready to go on Instagram. But before you do, you have to figure out how you are going to work with this person and how you’re both going to benefit each other, and be confident in your offer. JESTY BEATZ: What are you offering them? Are you offering them money, you know what I mean? Or for them to work on your project? Or, are you going to offer your services to kind of help what they’ve got going on? And I found that people have 100% responded more favorably to me when I have taken the initiative to find out what they have going on and present what I have, a value for them. ELAINY MATA: So now that what you want to say, it’s time to go on Instagram and find your people. And once you do, engage with their content. JESTY BEATZ: The best-case scenario would be you’re interested in that, too. I don’t want you to go in there and just be completely fake. But when a person posts about an award, or posts about a dog, or a vacation spot, or something crazy, click the heart. Say “Hey, I’d love to go check that out. Where is that?” Or if they’ve tagged the location, just check it out. Have you been there? Do you have anything to add to this conversation? Liking, commenting, if they have a call to action at any point — post on your stories. Do what you got to do to kind of let a person know that you’re around, and active, and engaged with the content that they’re putting out. ELAINY MATA: Is there anything that we shouldn’t do? JESTY BEATZ: You should not come across as spam. You should be genuine and authentic in your interaction. Don’t like every post. Interact with the things that you know something about. You have to be patient, you have to wait. ELAINY MATA: We figured out what we offer. We found them on Instagram. We liked their posts. We commented, we engaged with them. Now I go in for the kill, right? JESTY BEATZ: Don’t do it. This is not a quick thing. This is a long-haul approach, you know what I mean? The long tail, we’re patient here, we’re patient. So, basically, what I try to do is if a person will follow you back, I will DM them, you know what I mean? But at the end of the day, OK, say they like my comment. I’m trying to stack a few of those likes, so let’s just say three or four likes. If they reply to your comment back, I count that, too. ELAINY MATA: All right, we followed, we engaged with their content, they engaged back. We see indicators of interest. It is now time to write that DM. Ugh. This was a lot harder than I thought. JESTY BEATZ: How do I put this? “Hey, we should collaborate,” is a little abstract, you know what I mean? My ask is always an offer. So the first time that I ever got a content job, it was because I noticed that someone’s videos had a buzz or a humming sound in the background of their audio. It wasn’t clean, it wasn’t fresh. So I was like, OK, what can I do? This is my moment. I downloaded the video, I cleaned the audio. And then, I put it back together, and then I uploaded it, and I sent it to him. “Hey, I noticed that your video had this. This is a four-step process on how to clean up your audio so that you’re getting the result that you want. If you want, I could do it for you, peace.” I gave it away and told them how to do it. The person responds, now I’m taking care of their post-production audio. ELAINY MATA: And now, we wait. Hopefully, they don’t leave me on read. What if I’m left on read, though? — JESTY BEATZ: Oh. ELAINY MATA: — and I go in, I’m really excited, and I DMed this person, and they just, “seen 12 minutes ago?” JESTY BEATZ: “Seen 12 minutes ago” is all good. You know they saw it — people are busy, people are busy. Or they have a social media person who’s handling their social media, who’s like, “Oh, I don’t know how to respond to this, let me back on out here.” Follow up. You don’t have to do it every day, but follow up in a week, “Hey, just following up, I’d love to help.” ELAINY MATA: If you don’t hear from them, that is okay. All you have to do is just message them and follow back up. I know that sounds scary, but what’s the worst that can happen? I don’t want to seem annoying, or that I’m harassing them, or something. JESTY BEATZ: You can be annoying. I understand. It was something that I definitely had to deal with as a person. ELAINY MATA: Permission to be annoying, says Jesty. JESTY BEATZ: Yes, be annoying. Well, you don’t want to be annoying. But you want to be persistent. There’s a thin line between annoying and being persistent. I think that people kind of psych themselves out of opportunities because they did not persist. It’s their loss, because they are rejecting the value that you’re willing to bring to their thing. It’s not personal, just go to the next person. ELAINY MATA: So what if I receive a “no?” What do I do next? JESTY BEATZ: Awesome. Woo! Write it down. All right, look, get a calendar on your wall, put all the dates, whenever you get a no, write it down, and highlight it, and get excited. You want to fill up your calendar with nos. Why? Because that means you’re closer to the yes. It’s a real thing, just by doing, and getting better, and troubleshooting, you’re getting better at the pitch, you’re getting better. And you will end up where you’re supposed to be. ELAINY MATA: So I’ve changed my mind about using Instagram when it comes to networking. And since I’ve done it, I do feel better. And I’m not going to lie, I was scared at first. But the more you keep doing it and the more persistent you are, the more comfortable it will be to just network in general. Do you want to know something? JESTY BEATZ: What’s up? ELAINY MATA: So, the second person I DMed just responded to me. JESTY BEATZ: Bang bang, I love it. ELAINY MATA: Be persistent, be confident, and just put yourself out there, because you never know what you’re going to get.
