IG Summit Recap Day 2 

It’s that time of year again, ManyChat hosted the Instagram Summit. A two-day event chocked full of industry expert advice for you and your business to succeed on the ever-changing social platform, Instagram. 

Taking a walk down memory lane let’s take a look at some of the key takeaways from day two of the summit where we will learn from experts like Mario Moreno, Brian Donnelly, and Dot Lung. Here are the top pieces you might have missed. 

1. Engaging customers on direct channels

It’s no secret that Instagram is a play zone for many business users. It’s a place where users come to be creative, show off their products and service, and ultimately engage with their audience. Brian Donnelly from Meta gave some great insight into engaging with your IG audience but one thing, in particular, stood out. Click to messaging. Instead of having your audience click through to a landing page or website, it’s best for them to engage in messaging. Here’s why:

• Personalization: Customers want to know if businesses can meet their needs and specifications. Messaging through ManyChat for example allows you to set up conversations that take into account names, gender, and specific customer details.
• Convincing customers that their needs have been met: Before committing to purchase with your business, customers want to know if your product or service will meet all or most of their unique needs. With a traditional sales page, they may have to go through several steps to find the answers they’re looking for. But through messaging, the answers are easily accessible. 
• Keep their engagement: On a landing page or website, customers typically can quickly lose interest for a number of reasons, but through messaging it’s harder to lose a customer that’s engaged in a conversation with you. 

2. Finding brand partnerships

As expert Mario Moreno brought to our attention in his breakout session, Influencer marketing is a real thriving industry. One that is poised to surpass the $3 Billion mark here soon. What does this equate to? Opportunity for brand partnerships. 

And it’s only projected to grow. Because of online shopping and brands increasing their social media presence the market for influencers are on the rise. But how can you reap the benefits of all this potential? First, you need to understand the different types of partnerships available, these include:

• Traditional Brand partnerships
• Product Exchange Partnerships
• Content Creation Brand Partnerships
• Affiliate Style Brand Partnerships
• Ambassador Partnerships

Next, you’ll need your arsenal of pitching equipment to be taken seriously as an influencer such as:

• A media kit including:
  • Follower counts + Engagement rate
  • Featured Platforms
  • M/F audience breakdown
  • Demographics
  • Content categories
• Portfolio
  • Sponsored work
  • Organic work
  • Rates

Once you have a grasp on the types and your must-haves here’s how to get your foot in the door:

1. Make a list of your favorite brands and look up their influencer/ social media manager on LinkedIn 
2. DM the brand on Instagram and ask for their influencer/brand partnership contact
3. Post about the brand on Instagram and tag them + use their branded hashtag
4. Send an email to their influencer team expressing your interest in a brand partnership

3. Women growing their business ventures using social media

As you can probably guess this segment features our outstanding women’s panel which was comprised of Natalie Ellis, Co-Founder, and CEO of BossBabe, Sue B. Zimmerman, founder of Sue B. Zimmerman Enterprise, and ManyChat’s very own head of marketing Anna Tutckaia. Here are some of the top takeaways from their discussion:

• Own your audience: Of course, Instagram and Facebook are powerhouses for drawing attention to your brand and starting a conversation with your customers but you don’t want to contain your audience on a rented platform. You need to own your audience. This happens in the form of growing your email list. 

• Don’t be afraid of CTA’s: Speaking of growing your email list, this is a product of how much work you put in, namely how many opportunities you present to your audience with CTA’s (call to action’s). For example, adding that clear CTA link in your bio, going live on Instagram with multiple CTA’s, and creating content that is both savable and sharable.

• Check your metrics: Each month go into your insights and look at what content drove the most followers and engagement for that month. If you have another metric you want to look at such as view then sort for what piece of content brought you the most views for the month. The bottom line is to use your insights to craft your upcoming content creation. 

• 9/10 don’t fill the name field properly: Many people don’t understand that Instagram is basically a mini-website with its own set of SEO features. One of the biggest mistakes our experts see is people not filling their name field properly making you virtually unsearchable without it. 

• The human element is important: Followers and customers want that intimate connection with you and that only happens with more video, reels, and showing your face. Too many people rely on graphics that don’t deliver the same human element as those other aspects of Instagram do. 

4. Crafting a personal brand to build your community and becoming a person of influence

Our last expert is Dot lung who developed what many call a fool-proof method to achieve success on Instagram. She calls it the D.R.A.G.O.N method which is an acronym for:

• Dialogue
• Relatability
• Authenticity
• Give Value
• Opinion
• Niche

All of which ultimately result in sales and becoming a person of influence!

But what are the benefits of becoming an influencer?

1. Instagram has over 1 Billion users and counting which means the market is there to make some big cash. 
2. All of the big brands are on Instagram which will allow you to attract your dream clients
3. With bigger brand budgets comes the opportunity to charge premium rates
4. You can avoid the problematic headache of having to pitch for business

As we can see there are some pretty sizable perks to becoming an influencer but what is her best advice for creating this dream business as an influencer. Dot describes them as the 7 steps.

1. The mindset of the influencer: People care about themselves not about you. Anything you post on IG should always be for others, not yourself. Make content that serves.
2. Community is key: “Your network is your net worth”, meaning you need to focus on connecting and building trustworthy relationships.
3. Practice servitude: “When in doubt… Give, give, give and give some more” Social media is all about value exchange. 
4. Express confidence: “Perfectionism is just another word for insecurity”. Don’t care about what others think always display confidence in your work.
5. Share your beliefs and values: Why do you do what you do? Share your brand story, your why, and your philosophy on repeat.
6. The ABCs of building trust: Trust takes time and you should be playing the long game. The ABCs include Authenticity, benevolence, and competence.
7. Show your face: Show up as the leader with your face taking the main stage. The more your followers see you, the more they trust you, and the more sense of community you will share. 

ManyChat powering your Instagram Influence  

From what we’ve learned today all of our experts come to the table with new ways to explore creativity, growth, and engagement on Instagram but they all share one commonality — ManyChat! 

For more information on how ManyChat can help you grow your business and social media presence, try our ManyChat for free today and join the thousands of other business owners who trust us in their chat automation needs.