When I first started Legacy Greens, I loved using Instagram to connect with my community and share my story. It is a fantastic tool in building a brand and keeping customers informed.

Fast forward almost five years later, my ability to disconnect from my phone has become concerning. I sometimes spend more than an hour per day on the Instagram platform alone! Since Instagram introduced it's storyboard feature, my frequency in content creation has increased. I often post 3-4 stories per day, and then another 3-4 posts per week. And it can't just be a well executed photo, I also need to have something to say. A well executed caption is equally important. There's just so much to think about! 

Anyways, I'm ready for an experiment.

Question: How important is Instagram to my business?

Hypothesis: Instagram is moderately important, contributing to approximately 5-10% of monthly sales.

Experiment: 

• Logout of Instagram for the month of February.
• Let customers know about our plans not to use Instagram for that month
• Engage more with customers in-store, specifically asking for feedback on their experience, their purchasing decisions, and their values.
• Continue our monthly e-newsletter (you can sign up for that if you'd like: E-newsletter sign up)
• Compare sales data for February 2020 against sales data for January 2020 and February 2019. 

Now, I know those scientific minds are poking holes already in my scientific method (or lack there of), but bear with me.

I'm very curious about this experiment for the many reasons, for example:

• Will removing distractions such as Instagram have positive effects on my ability to focus and get more productive work done. Will I be able to do better in other aspects of my job, and thus have a positive impact on our bottom line
• If we open the store on Family Day (which we are planning to do, 12-4 on Monday, February 17), will anyone know about it if we don't post about it on Instagram? Will it be crickets?
• Will the customer in-store experience be heightened if your discoveries are made in person (i.e. you find out we have Seville oranges!). Sometimes finding out new information in person is so much better! 
• Will people forget about us!?
• Will removing Instagram (and, while I'm at it, I'm going to delete Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube) allow me to have better human-to-human connections. Lately, I'm trying to put energy into being present, and I am looking forward to this experiment from both a professional and personal perspective.

I'll be honest, I'm definitely a little nervous about this. Hoping that I can share the results with you in a future blog post! In the meantime, would love to see you in person at Legacy Greens! We're open Monday-Friday, 10:30am-7pm and Saturday 10am-4pm. We also have a telephone at the store: 519-741-5858. And you can email me at jordan@legacygreens.com.

See you soon!

Update: Read the Results of this Experiment!