In a market saturated with nearly every service and product at our fingertips online, we search for connections to make our purchase decisions. Social media plays a significant role in that, meaning branding and online profiles are more important than ever for attracting and retaining customers.
Social media has long been the bridge connecting consumers to brands, but the ways brands connect with users on social media is once again evolving, specifically on Instagram.
Hiring social media marketing companies to run your Instagram is fading out.
We know it’s a scary thought as a business owner or manager that already has enough on your plate. Hear me out.
You might find it odd that, as an internet marketing company, I am telling you to stop hiring us for social media management. You’ve probably been told by numerous marketers over the last five years that you need social media management and need to be active on Instagram.
This is all true; however, what you need is social media consulting, not social media management.
Here’s the difference:
Social Media Management & The Disconnect on Instagram
Before we dive deeper, it’s important to know what you’d be hiring your Instagram management company to do. There’s a common misconception as to what is included in Instagram management. Many times, it simply means posting and scheduling content on your feed with a handful of relevant hashtags.
However, what many companies don’t realize is that these social programs do not include:
- Social media engagement – sharing stories, replying to comments & DM’s, commenting & liking other posts, engaging under relevant hashtags, etc.
- Reel + Lives – which is now one of the essential aspects to gaining and keeping followers engaged on the platform.
- Social media consulting – in-depth and hands-on training from your social media provider to successfully grow an Instagram account.
To be successful on Instagram, you need to be an active member of the community and participate in every aspect of the platform, from commenting and liking on other’s posts to regularly sharing stories. When the management team is simply posting every other day, your account acts more like a zombie account with minimal engagement. But that’s all they can do with a limited social media budget.
When I was growing my account on Instagram (@shaleewanders) I spent an hour a day simply engaging with other users.The moment I stopped putting the daily effort into the platform is the day my account stopped growing.
Why Social Media Management is Fading Out
As an internet marketing company, we aren’t you and your company. We won’t be in your office daily to showcase and take stories of the behind-the-scenes. We can’t go live on Instagram to show followers how one of your products is made.
The truth is, we can pretend to be you on Instagram, but people will catch on. That’s just how social media and evolved.
Because you know your company best, and people on Instagram want authenticity. They want to connect with you, not a brand you hired to run your account simply because the world told you that you need an Instagram.
When it comes to the ‘why,’ it comes down to budget and how you, as a business owner, will be able to receive social media assistance without paying thousands of dollars a month. When adding everything that should go into a successful Instagram management campaign, it gets pricey. Yes, you can still hire a social media management company and be successful on Instagram, but you will also be paying for the hours it takes to succeed on the platform.
Unless you have thousands of dollars to pay for an entire Instagram-growth-focused social media management program, social media consulting is more affordable and yields the same, if not better, results.
Just because social media management for Instagram is fading out does not mean you are on your own. At Send it Rising, we don’t feel right taking the money of brands who want to pay for social media management when we know very well it will not produce the best ROI with their current budget.
Instead, we consult with our social media clients. We sit down with them, help set up their accounts, follow relevant people in the industry, and research hashtags. We give them all the tools to be successful on the platform.
We stay on top of Instagram updates and algorithm changes, so they don’t have to. We then meet with the team bi-weekly or monthly for social media consulting to give step-by-step guidance to success on Instagram. They learn from social media influencers first-hand how to build, grow, and retain followers on one of the most competitive social media platforms in the world.
The perfect social media program pairs social media consulting with social media experts/influencers and a motivated team ready to grow their business on Instagram and beyond.
Social media consulting programs dive into every aspect of Instagram features, including
- Stories – best practice for posting engaging stories and interacting with other stories. This includes asking questions, utilizing music & stickers, and making interactive templates.
- Engagement – how to engage on Instagram, including commenting & liking on other posts, responding to comments, and encouraging engagement on your own posts.
- Reels – how to edit, add and post using one of Instagram’s newest features and brainstorm topics that will receive the highest engagement.
- Lives – when to host lives, including best days/times, and how to set up, host, and manage successful lives for IGTV.
- Saved Posts – how to create content that is more likely to be ‘saved’ by those who view and engage with your posts. Followers saving your post is the top way Instagram gauges relevancy and interest in your feed.
- Carousel Images – how to generate, edit and post interactive carousel content.
Navigating the New Instagram Reality
Okay, okay, okay…I know I threw a ton of information at you that you didn’t necessarily want to hear. Knowing that you can’t simply hire a marketing company to take Instagram off your hands for a few hundred dollars monthly is probably a pretty big curveball.
It’s easy to get lured into $200/month social media programs as a small business owner with a limited budget. As much as we wish that could work, the competition, market, and Instagram algorithm require a lot more hands-on involvement.
Instagram’s software has continued to evolve over the years to better identify and block spam accounts. In many ways, these are positive updates. However, it also means that without the right tools and engagement tactics on the platform, your account might also be flagged as spam by the platform, which is precisely why social media consulting is now favored over social media management.
As an internet marketing company, we are successful when our clients are successful. It’s our job to stay on top of these updates to best provide the needed tools to clients for success and growth. We could easily keep pretending social media management for Instagram works, but instead, we choose to be upfront and honest with our client base, even if it’s not necessarily as straightforward as they initially hoped.
The Future of Social Media
Social media continues to evolve. I always tell clients that what we are doing today is not what we will be doing next year. But success online comes with the constant ability to adapt. When looking at the world’s timeline, social media and the internet is still extremely new, which means all the formulas and algorithms are still being written and perfected.
Most importantly, one size does not fit all when designing and implementing social media campaigns, whether it’s consulting or account management. The first step is to inquire with an internet marketing company to go over goals and current metrics to decide the next steps. Know your goals for the program, whether it be growth, engagement, sales, or brand awareness.
Building my Instagram was one of the smartest and most profitable things I did for my personal brand. It opened the door to countless opportunities and connections that benefited and furthered my business. Most importantly, it established a sense of community. Even though I no longer focus on growing my Instagram account, my followers are my friends and family. They continue to be my biggest supporters. And for that, the work was always worth it.
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