How Can a Business Use Instagram?
If your business is not utilizing Instagram already, chances are it is not up to its full potential. The primarily mobile photo sharing network had reached 1 billion monthly active users, up from 800 million in September 2017.
That number should be an automatic trigger in your brain telling you that, you need to harness this platform for your business. Harnessing this massive network and the potential to reach thousands and or millions of potential customers will elevate your business to another level.
In 2015, there were approximately more than 77.6 million active Instagram users in the United States. This figure is projected to surpass 111 million in 2019. I will list some key insights that you need to know for your business.
1 billion people use Instagram
80% of users are not from the United States
There is a 39% Women & 30% Male ratio that use the application
59% of users are below 30
72% of teens use Instagram EVERYDAY
72% of users have bought a product on Instagram
I can go on and on about facts that will show you how vital it is to tap into this platform. Hiring a full time Instagram managers can be very expensive and time consuming. Social media managers can cost on average of around 50k+ a year. Hiring a social media agency could be extremely cost effective than hiring a full time social media manager.
Does Your Instagram Manager Understand Your Brand Or Goal?
Your social media manager’s job becomes much easier when you’ve effectively outlined your identity or goal to them.
It’s crucial for social managers to go over your ambitions for the future, what direction you want your company to go and to have a similar mind set as your own.
Hiring the right Instagram manager can help your social media advertising efforts. Meaning, they will engage the right users on Instagram so that your brand will expand with word of mouth and or advertising with targeted ads.
Creating the best targeted advertisement will maximize ROI and make you and your social media manager happy.
Businesses and people often think it is a fast road to building a brand on a social platform. That belief is sadly internally false. Building a social presence on any platform is like a seed, slowly turning into a sapling and then a beautiful tree. Make sure you have the patience and the perfect agency to help you nurture your brand.
The patience will be rewarding.
The Two Most Important Social Media Metrics To Be Tracked
Engagement is number one. Which ever channel you are planning to use, there needs to be measurable conversation around your company brand. The content that is put out to your audience is one of the key ingredients for a recipe for great engagement.
If you do not create the right content, expect to see minimal results. Your Manager should be excellent in capturing your potential customers or clients with savvy sentences and have creative handwriting.
Leads is number two. What’s their track record with Instagram ads? Have they ran a successful social campaign that created leads? Ask them how there approach is and if you agree with that approach. Make sure you have a opened mind, and give their practices a try. Chances are they are willing to meet half way.
It is vital for your social manager to have a fast response rate to your leads. Listening and responding timely will show that you are willing to accommodate at any time. The customer is always first. Dig deep into how your overseer is for your social accounts and see if they are the right fit.
Do They Have a Blog About Their Knowledge?
Ask about their content they are creating and if they are a active blogger.
Ask to view their relevant blogs that will show you what you are getting into and their knowledge.
Social media managers will often produce content in unwanted areas, rather than having their own personal blog. If your potential account manager does not have any blogs, consider that a red flag.
It’s vital that your candidate has a working understanding of how content drives everything in digital marketing... SEO, social media, blogging, and search engine platforms such as Google and Bing. This will put you in the right spot to succeed and will give you the best ROI. A working understanding of platforms that create websites is also a plus.
How Experienced Are They Using on Social Media?
Yes, experience matters, it always has. You do not want someone fresh out High School fiddling with your Campaign budget or trying to target the audience for your ambitions. You want to hire someone with experience, the only thing is that finding someone with 10+ years of experience will be nearly impossible to accomplish. Unless they have been around the Myspace boom and were promoting their content on there.
Even then, most social media platforms are in a league of their own and are not to be taken lightly. So bare in mind the age of a platform because most of these social platforms are no more than 5-10 years old.
Smaller companies can easily utilize 1-3 years of SMM (Social Media Management) experience. A larger company with high levels of online traffic and responsibility will probably want to hire someone with 3-5 years of experience respectively.
Conclusion
These key questions need to be answered in order for you to find the right candidate for your business and goals. Having the right Instagram manager to oversee your marketing efforts on the social platform will give you a huge leg over the competition. Allowing your audience to follow your movement and showing them that you have story, will allow you to have a better connection with them even before making the transaction you are seeking for.
Do your research about who you will pick and take your time in doing so. Trust your gut and leverage all the platforms you can get your hands on, this will only make your business grow. Sometimes it even takes a couple of tries to find the right partner for your company. One of our clients had to go through four agencies to find us. Every agency has a different mind set than the other. Pick the best, with the right cost.