Day: January 16, 2019

How to Use Instagram To Dramatically Improve Your Business: “Target psychographics as well as…

How to Use Instagram To Dramatically Improve Your Business: “Target psychographics as well as demographics”, With Candice Georgiadis & Michelle Chuang

Instagram is one of the fastest growing social platforms in the world right now with advertising revenues just right below Facebook and Twitter. The advertising platform enables a brand to target its customer not only by demographics but also psychographics, making it one of the most efficient way to finding the right customer. But it’s essential for brands to post regularly and consistently. The most effective frequency is once per day. This volume may be daunting for companies that are struggling to produce content, but to establish a strong relationship with your customers, consistency in the frequency of communication is vital.

I had the pleasure of interviewing Michelle Chuang, Principal of MMS Brand Consulting, LLC and the founder of lifestyle blog www.MimiStrawberry.com. With more than 15 years of experience in senior leadership roles at marketing-driven organizations such as Starbucks and Chevron, Michelle has developed effective marketing strategies to increase brand awareness, drive customers loyalty and deliver revenue growth across online and offline channels for multiple businesses.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?

I was an aspiring journalist back in college and had a fantastic opportunity to work abroad in Beijing as an on-air talent for CCTV in China. Due to unexpected life events, my relocation plan fell through. Instead, I ended up joining Starbucks and began this incredible journey developing an exciting career in marketing for the last 15 years. When I look back, marketing and journalism are similar in many ways. Both are about telling a meaningful story and engaging your audience. The only exception is that journalism is based on an unbiased viewpoint, whereas marketing is about taking a strong position on what the brand represents.

Can you explain to our readers why you are an authority about Social Media Marketing?

The beauty of marketing is that it is ever-changing. Marketing is about connecting products and brands with people and through technological innovations like social media, people now have unprecedented access to connecting with products, businesses and each other. The emerging growth of social media marketing in the last decade has really presented social platforms as an effective and engaging channel for marketers to connect with their target audiences. Instagram alone grew five times from 100M users to more than 500M users in just the short span of 3 years. That is why I invested my energy early on in learning social media, to thoroughly understand the capabilities of multiple social platforms and the best way to utilize each of them to more impactfully engage with consumers to generate the result that we aim to achieve. Then in the summer of this year, I started www.MimiStrawberry.com, a lifestyle blog site with the purpose to inspire readers to live a more well-rounded life. MimiStrawberry.com is my creative platform but also a gateway for me to further engage, experiment and experience to gain insights into the world of social media. Also with influencer marketing now exceeding to become a billion dollar industry, MimiStrawberry.com provides me with an inside connection to developing a holistic social marketing strategy involving influencers that will drive brand advocacy.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started this career?

Hmm, this is a tough one. Since I’ve been in marketing for nearly two decades now, I feel that there are so many exciting stories, but at the same time, none are particularly fascinating. I will say that marketing is a very dynamic career to pursue and no two days are the same. Many may feel that it is a glamorous profession with parties and events, but there are also tough days like being on your feet all day staffing a trade show booth or walking the streets for a grassroots marketing program. I’ve had my share of attending cool events and meeting celebrities like Ryan Gosling and Mylie Cyrus, but I’ve also spent countless days traveling through airports and endless nights working in front of your laptop to meet deadlines. The critical thing to recognize is that there is no substitute for hard work but the more you do, you will get better at it. And the better you get, the more satisfaction you’ll get from your job.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

As a first-generation Chinese American, I never immersed myself in the American pop culture growing up. I never followed the top 40 charts nor did I listen to hip/hop music or followed any celebrity news. Then when I started working for a large retailer, I started dealing with strategic partnerships that required dealing with PR partnership and celebrity appearances. One day we were in a meeting strategizing about an upcoming product launch, and the team was discussing which celebrity we should invite. A bunch of names was thrown out, and one person suggested “The Black Eye Peas.”

I couldn’t help but follow up with a sincere question to the team, “Is Black Eye Pea a person or the name of a snack?” There was a long silence followed my question then an outburst of hysterical laughter filled the meeting room. As you can imagine how embarrassed I was. Right then, I realized that being good at your job is very different from doing well in school. You may be well-versed in all the business principles, but a well-rounded professional also needs common knowledge in the field that you operate in, to be successful in your job.

Which social media platform have you found to be most effective to use to increase business revenues? Can you share a story from your experience?

When it comes to selecting the right social media platform to increase business revenues, it would depend on the type of the business, price point, stages of the marketing funnel and transaction process of the sale.

Generally speaking, Facebook is the most effective social media platform due to its algorithmic capability in targeting a specific audience group through demographics and psychographics. Facebook’s industry-leading capabilities are rewarded with leading in ad revenue at 11B+, while its sister company Instagram is another effective platform due to the ability for users to shop directly on the image, within the app. Particularly for small businesses such as fashion apparel or other mom & pop shop that has lower price points, Instagram is a great way to engage with the intended audience and drive sale conversion, all at the same session within the app.

Let’s talk about Instagram specifically, now. Can you share six ways to leverage Instagram to dramatically improve your business? Please share a story or example for each.

1. Growing the brand awareness of your business

Instagram helps you find and engage with your target audience (through hashtags.) There are over 500 million users on Instagram daily, and those users are always looking for what interests them through hashtags and “look-alike” aka, people that Instagram suggests to follow. This enhances the relevancy of content and connects the brand closer to its intended audiences. And because Instagram is visual-focused, (image, short video, etc.,), it broadens the scope of reach of the audience through other in-app features such as Instagram stories, live TV, etc.

2. Increased engagements with your targeted audience

Brands can quickly engage with audiences through Instagram through engagements of Like, Comments and Saves. Brands generally see engagement rates 10x higher than Facebook. This creates a personal touch to connect with your customers and also presents positive brand image through its social sentiment. For businesses that are looking to conduct customers research/feedback, Instagram is an incredible platform to implement simple questionnaire as a way to gain input from users. Plus, the more businesses engage with Instagram users, the more exposure your feed will receive by the Instagram algorithm.

3. Stay up-to-date on what’s happening in the market and the competitive landscape

Instagram is also an effective way to stay up-to-date on what’s happening in the market and also with competitors. By following key trade partners and competitions, companies gain a good pulse on crucial announcements in the industry as well as what promotions that are happening with their competitors, securing an edge in the business they operate in.

4. Utilize as a source of benchmark to stay up-to-date with your customers.

The Insights section of Instagram is a brilliant way to provide current metrics about your business. You can utilize the metric to determine the effectiveness of your content strategy, which headline and copy is generating most engagement and which Call-To-Action is triggering most conversions.

5. Instagram as a method to survey and “test-and-learn.”

If you’re thinking about a product or consumer research, then the Instagram story function may be a great way to ask questions and get immediate feedback from your customers (followers.) Not only it will present you with the data that you are looking for, but it also shows customers that you’re interested in gathering their feedback, adding positive sentiments to the relationship that you’re looking to build with your customers.

6. Cultivate a strong relationship with your customer

Instagram is one of the fastest growing social platforms in the world right now with advertising revenues just right below Facebook and Twitter. The advertising platform enables a brand to target its customer not only by demographics but also psychographics, making it one of the most efficient way to finding the right customer. But it’s essential for brands to post regularly and consistently. The most effective frequency is once per day. This volume may be daunting for companies that are struggling to produce content, but to establish a strong relationship with your customers, consistency in the frequency of communication is vital.

Because of the position that you are in, you are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂

I always think the world can use more compassion and I believe a more compassionate world starts with loving ourselves. Love is like a three-tier pyramid. We must first love ourselves by building a foundation of healthy self-esteem and self-respect, then we can give more love to the people and things around us, offering more help and minimizing prejudice. Finally, when we’re good to ourselves and great to others, we will end up with a better world.

Some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them 🙂

I’ve recently been reading AI Superpower by Dr. Kai Fu Li, the world-renowned expert on artificial intelligence. In the book he argues because of unprecedented developments in AI, dramatic changes will occur much sooner than many of us expected.

And what’s more fascinating is that as the US-Sino AI competition begins to heat up, the US and China needs to both accept and to embrace the great responsibilities that come with significant technological power. Most experts already say that AI will have a devastating impact on blue-collar jobs. But Lee predicts that Chinese and American AI will have a substantial impact on white-collar jobs as well.

I share Lee’s vision of AI, and the need for us as humans to embrace this science. Just like industrialism advanced the world of agriculture. AI will make us smarter and better at our jobs and in our lives. We just need to embrace it and have the drive to learn.

Thank you so much for these great insights. This was very enlightening!

How to Use Instagram To Dramatically Improve Your Business: “Target psychographics as well as… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

“How to create social media content that your audience will value” With Candice Georgiadis &…

“How to create social media content that your audience will value” With Candice Georgiadis & Adwaiz CEO Patrick Smith

The goal with each Instagram post should be to captivate and engage your audience. For example, if you are the owner of a food or drink brand, your posts should aim to make your following hungry or thirsty. For a restaurant it is important to showcase more than just food and drinks. Take your audience behind the scenes and show them what the people working behind the bar and grill are up to. Showcase a facet of the restaurant that people wouldn’t see through traditional channels. You need to create content that will be valued by your audience, rather than simply create a video because everyone is saying you need this to succeed. Always ask yourself, what does your audience expect and does your post deliver that.

I had the pleasure to interview Patrick Smith, the CEO of Adwaiz, Patrick started his entrepreneurial career at age ten DJing at parties and weddings, while at the same time showing a great interest in building websites with photo editing tools such as Photoshop and Lightroom. When he first came to London three years ago, Patrick’s passion for photography and technology spurred him into creating his own Instagram account, ‘Londonfoodboy’, which showcases London’s best food and drink, and is now one of the most respected ‘foodies’ in the London scene. Shortly after, Patrick founded his own social media and influencer marketing agency, Adwaiz, in April 2017, with headquarters in Central London.

Thank you so much for joining us! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?

In August 2016 I started my own Instagram account, ‘Londonfoodboy’, with the aim to document the best of the London bar and restaurant scene. The success of this account quickly became greater than I could’ve possibly dreamt of. Not only did Londonfoodboy become really popular amongst my followers, but I also noticed that my account caught the interest of the food and drinks industry.

As an Instagrammer myself, I quickly identified that there was a substantial gap in the market, and specifically that brands and influencers had no easy way of connecting, which ultimately inspired my first venture within this space.

I decided to launch a series of events called Someetup, with the objective to start a conversation between brands and influencers. At Someetup, companies such as UberEats, JustEat and Shake Shack were able to meet with some of London’s most influential social media stars, and exchange their respective business needs with each other. Hosting these events, we soon began to get approached by the attending companies, who would ask if we could help build content for them, and manage their social media.

This was when I realised the business potential of what I was doing.

In April 2017, I rented a desk in a friend’s office and less than a month later, I had ten paying clients and hired my first employee. This became the start of my company, Adwaiz. Today, less than a year later, we are a fully formed social media and influencer marketing agency of 30 people, and have worked with world famous brands such as Glenfiddich and Moet Hennessy.

Can you explain to our readers why you are an authority about Social Media Marketing?

As an influencer myself, I have a true passion for digital storytelling, and insider knowledge about the social media space that many other founders of agencies of our kind are lacking. With over 4000 influencers in our network, we help our clients — which range from established brands to stellar start-ups — to be more engaging and inspiring across all social media, particularly focusing on content creation, social media management and influencer marketing. We are hugely proud to have worked with some of the UK’s top names such as The Ivy Collection, Jamie Oliver, superstar chef Richard Corrigan and Stonegate, just to name a few.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started this career?

Before I moved to London, a close friend of mine gave me a phone number which belonged to a very influential real estate agent in London called Gary Hersham. I was told to only use this number ‘in case of an emergency’.

I moved to London without knowing anyone, or having any business connections and experience within the UK market. One night, I got talking to a young gentleman at a local bar, who wanted to introduce me to a man he had recently met.

He arranged for me to meet him 3 days later at a restaurant in the renowned London department store, Harrods. We got on very well and by the end of the meeting, I asked about the contact I had and whether he knew him by any chance. Surprisingly, he asked me why I wanted to get in touch with him, so I explained how I got the number. He then revealed that Gary Hersham had been his closest friend for 30 years, and that I did not need to call him.

I deleted his number immediately and the new connection I made in Harrods is now a very close and dear friend, as well as my mentor, who has helped me progress through every step of my career ever since.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us on what lesson you learned from that?

When forming my C-suite team, I was close to making one of the biggest mistakes of my career by not recruiting the right person for the role of CFO.

At the time, it was obvious to me that I had already met the right person for the job, it just happened to be that the most qualified candidate was also the person I was engaged to.

I was advised time and time again not to get my fiance involved in my company, because of the potential negative effects this would have not only on my relationship, but also on my company. For a brief period of time I was considering looking elsewhere for a CFO, but in the end, I followed my instinct and hired my fiance.

As a company founder, this is one of the best strategic decisions I have ever made, and just as I had expected, my fiance is now one of my most valuable team members.

Which social media platform have you found to be most effective to use to increase business revenues? Can you share a story from your experience?

It generally depends on the brand’s target audience and on the campaign’s key objectives, but for all food and drink brands, the most effective platform tends to be Instagram. Instagram is particularly effective because you are able to showcase your products using captivating and engaging content.

For the brands that I’ve worked with, I have seen a significant ROI from using Instagram. More footfall and traffic has resulted in not only increased brand awareness, but also significant increases in revenue. Some of the clients that we work with have seen an impressive 40% increase in revenue by working with us for only six months, and using social media as their main marketing channel.

We know that 30% of millennials would be less inclined to visit a restaurant if it had a weak Instagram presence. With this in mind, the goal for every marketer should be to treat their social platforms, and especially Instagram, as their shop window.

Ultimately, the most effective platform is the one that works best for you and your business.

Let’s talk about Instagram specifically, now. Can you share 6 ways to leverage Instagram to dramatically improve your business? Please share a story or example for each.

a) Content is everything.

The goal with each Instagram post should be to captivate and engage your audience. For example, if you are the owner of a food or drink brand, your posts should aim to make your following hungry or thirsty.

For a restaurant it is important to showcase more than just food and drinks. Take your audience behind the scenes and show them what the people working behind the bar and grill are up to. Showcase a facet of the restaurant that people wouldn’t see through traditional channels. You need to create content that will be valued by your audience, rather than simply create a video because everyone is saying you need this to succeed.

Always ask yourself, what does your audience expect and does your post deliver that.

b) Context

You should know your style, tone of voice and how to portray your brand in the best possible way. Use your personality and the concepts you have created for your brand.

Find out what works for your brand. From my own experience, I have noticed that authentic content works better than polished (magazine quality) content. Be consistent no matter which direction or platform you choose.

c) Make people rave about your products.

Today, in this new era of social media, anyone that comes to a restaurant or bar and tries your product is a potential influencer. Make sure to use every opportunity to create brand ambassadors and encourage user generated content to be posted. Maybe invest in a small light from Amazon to hand around and make sure the restaurant social media handle is available for everyone to see.

Engage with the people that have posted online about their experience at your restaurant and maybe offer them a drink on their next visit as a small thanks.

I recommend using micro influencers to support or amplify a message. As a part of my influencer marketing offering, we have created a model we call 1/9/90. By using specific influencers whose audiences fit a desired demographic, they act as the 1% who will influence the 9% of engagers (who comment, contribute and share) who will then go on to influence the remaining 90% of the market (who read, rate and consume).

d) Attract talent, not just customers.

Instagram is a great platform to attract talent and send traffic to any job ad. Utilise your workforce to showcase why anyone should work with you. This is ongoing work (not just when you are looking to recruit people) and you have to include everyone in the team. Create a strategy and send the login round for people to share stories and build content. Don’t be afraid to show or give away too much.

e) Motion creates motion

As in all businesses, motion creates motion. That applies to social media too. In this logic, you need to give out ten likes to get one in return. Make sure you treat your followers as a community. Engage, share and encourage/motivate them to respond. Give them a reason to follow you and be more concerned about them unfollowing you, rather than not gaining enough followers.

f) Make a plan and create a strategy

My father always said to me, ‘You need to make a proper plan, because proper plans prevent piss poor performance!’. Find out what works for you and utilize the content to produce new content. Create a strategy and a set of pre-planned posts in advance. This will solve your everyday hassle of finding something to post.

Since moving to the UK I’ve been appalled at how kids eat and the lack of healthy options available, especially in the restaurant trade. Most children’s menus consist of empty calories, white carbs, fried foods and sugary drinks. I would like to challenge all restaurants to create smaller portions and make more options available.

I would love to use my influence to support great people like Jamie Oliver and his campaign to reduce unhealthy food choices in British schools and support the youth of the future to make better and healthier choices. I would be extremely proud if I could help inspire a movement which taught kids how to appreciate the value of buying and eating local, fresh and healthy foods and I believe a change in the restaurant trade would help us achieve such an attitudinal change.

My fiance and I are huge fans of the Obamas, and a double date with Barack and Michelle would be an absolute dream for both of us.

We spend everyday working on communication strategies for our clients and I would be really interested to learn how they have both managed to effectively communicate to mature audiences but also appeal to younger generations.

Personally, I have always been fascinated by how Mr. Obama is able to skillfully communicate with such great enthusiasm, and really get his message through to people around the world, of all demographics, and across all platforms.

It was also during Barack Obama’s presidency that social media really exploded on a global scale. The year Obama became president, the White House joined Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Vimeo, iTunes and MySpace, in 2013, the first lady posted her first photo on Instagram and in 2015, the president sent his first tweet from @POTUS. And in 2017, the White House posted its first official story on Snapchat. Barack Obama is arguably “the first social-media president”, and in my opinion, the biggest influencer out there.

“How to create social media content that your audience will value” With Candice Georgiadis &… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

“Why a founder needs to be highly aware of trends as they pop up” With Pokeworks Co-founder Kevin…

“Why a founder needs to be highly aware of trends as they pop up” With Pokeworks Co-founder Kevin Hsu & Candice Georgiadis

One story I would say isn’t really a mistake, but more of a funny coincidence, was when the new “Pokémon Go” mobile app game came out. There were a lot of correlations between Pokéworks and Pokémon, even to the point of media reaching out to us for comment. To our surprise, we did start getting a good amount of Pokémon Go players to our store to catch Charmander. This did help attract a new audience for us, which ultimately taught us the lesson that we need to be highly aware of trends as they come up and to be ready to act on them immediately.

I had the pleasure to interview Kevin Hsu, the Co-founder of Pokeworks

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?

Social Media platforms have exponentially become the single most important marketing tool to utilize to channel brands to the “right” audiences. So, it was only natural (not only for Pokéworks, but what I believe a large percentage of marketers out there) to either adapt or be left in the dust.

For me, social marketing truly started at Pokéworks with social marketing our first store in Midtown. Our product being very photogenic with the vibrant colors and the different combinations and textures, immediately became “Instagrammable” and something that was readily shared amongst friends, family and colleagues.

In 2015, Instagram was just starting to be more prevalent for food influencers, therefore between myself and Pokéworks’ other co-founders, we would constantly seek out ways to benefit from the platform, A/B testing different content strategy, and keep track of analytics like a hawk to find better ways to reach new followers and engage with our existing fanbase.

Can you explain to our readers why you are an authority about Social Media Marketing?

Honestly, I don’t believe in anyone being an authority on social media marketing, mainly because the platform is ever-changing. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter will always have new features and tools that change the game on how audiences consume content. There is always that constant challenge of finding a pattern that achieves goals based on the newest ways that audiences receive content and engage in the digital space.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started this career?

When we first started at our first NYC location, we had setup a “Instagram your Creation” wall, which would feature Pokéworks fans’ poke bowl creations on the wall. Of course, this wasn’t the most technologically advanced way to feature fan photos, but it did inspire eaters that came into our restaurant to take a picture of their order and share.

From there, office colleagues, friends and family started noticing these colorful photos on their feed, which inspired them to race over to try Pokéworks for themselves. Soon after, these photos started garnering attention from national media, including a foodie video showing our Poke Burrito creation that went viral in 2016, resulting in 50+ million views across the world. From there, we knew we had to accelerate our knowledge on social media in order to continue nationwide growth expansion.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

One story I would say isn’t really a mistake, but more of a funny coincidence, was when the new “Pokémon Go” mobile app game came out. There were a lot of correlations between Pokéworks and Pokémon, even to the point of media reaching out to us for comment. To our surprise, we did start getting a good amount of Pokémon Go players to our store to catch Charmander. This did help attract a new audience for us, which ultimately taught us the lesson that we need to be highly aware of trends as they come up and be ready to act on them immediately.

Which social media platform have you found to be most effective to use to increase business revenues? Can you share a story from your experience?

Each social media platform appeals to different audiences for different purposes. For the food and restaurant industry specifically, Instagram rises above the rest as it is more of a visual outlet. Our target audience as a restaurant brand can be easily reached via Instagram vs. other platforms since our concept is highly visual. For this reason, Instagram allows us to easily share our core product with our target audience.

Let’s talk about Instagram specifically, now. Can you share 6 ways to leverage Instagram to dramatically improve your business? Please share a story or example for each.

1. Build Your Audience: Share your content on Instagram through your own channel, but also share across by hashtag or collaborating with other influencers. All these avenues are great building up brand presence. At Pokéworks, we value influencer relationships and encourage influencers to visit our restaurants as these influencers can play a vital role in furthering brand awareness.

2. Listen to Your Customers: Provide an open channel for feedback. We have learned first-hand that when you engage in two-way communication with your customers, you open the door to receiving unique insight into your customer preferences of the brand, product and overall experience.

3. Engage, Engage, Engage: Although it’s important to constantly reach new audiences, it is just as important, if not more to keep an active two-way engagement with your audience as well. When you engage with your audience, you can establish loyalty amongst your customers and audience.

4. Content with Intent: If your brand has a cause or mission statement, it is important to be transparent with that upfront and keep it consistent with your social media posts and stories. Your mission does not have to be in every post, but you must ensure your audience understands what your brand is all about.

5. Insights in the Details: Although Instagram can improve on providing more analytics capabilities, it is important to track very closely on how each of your posts performs and determine how it can improve in future posts. We have learned that if you don’t review analytics and insights, you will never be able to grow your social presence or your brand.

6. Instagram Stories vs. Posts: We are beginning to see more engagement with stories, but it is still important to keep posts going just the same as your posts to keep your brand relevant and visual so long as they are regularly shared. Stories offer unique engagement tools to gather feedback from your audiences which can be critical to brand and social presence development.

I personally strive to be conscious of the food that I eat and conscious of what I am putting into my body. I appreciate when restaurant brands have transparency with their customers in terms of the food being served. Healthy eating is not just a trend, but a necessity to ensure you are eating something that is good for your body. At Pokéworks, we are striving to deliver more clarity on the sourcing practices we have with every item we serve. Brands like Sweetgreen, which I personally admire, are on the forefront of this and we believe we can do our part to encourage healthier lifestyles.

This is more of a personal request, but if either Danny Meyer, for the great successes with growing Shake Shack from simple ‘burger + fries’ concept to a worldwide brand, or Eddie Huang, for the similarities in backgrounds growing up and being a key influencer for Asian American entrepreneurs out there (and being a Taiwanese 1st generation as well). I would love to just be able to kick it with them.

“Why a founder needs to be highly aware of trends as they pop up” With Pokeworks Co-founder Kevin… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

“Why you should treat your social media profile as a portfolio or resume” With Candice Georgiadis…

“Why you should treat your social media profile as a portfolio or resume” With Candice Georgiadis & Gabriel Bianconi

Your profile is the first thing people see when they come across your brand. There isn’t a single recipe for a successful profile, but you have to make sure it has high-quality content and reflects your brand’s identity. For example, a brand whose audience is teenagers shouldn’t use the same messaging as one targeted at older professionals, but both should provide consistent, polished, and engaging content. First impressions matter even more when hundreds of thousands of brands are competing for attention on social media.

I had the pleasure of interviewing Gabriel Bianconi. Gabriel is the founder of Scalar Research, a full-service machine learning and advanced analytics firm. In addition to its main consulting practice, Scalar incubates innovative technology companies. We’re about to spin out our first project, LABEL Talent Management, a talent agency for digital influencers and models. LABEL leverages proprietary technology to create innovative content, campaigns, and events. He began his training as a B.S. & M.S. student in computer science at Stanford University, where he conducted research on artificial intelligence. He’s also worked at Google, Facebook, startups, and investment firms.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?

Absolutely! Thank you for having me.

During my five years in Silicon Valley, I immersed myself in the tech startup ecosystem. I spent time at large companies such as Google and Facebook, startups, investment firms, and research labs.

I started Scalar after noticing a huge gap between groundbreaking academic research in computer science and traditional industries that could benefit from these innovations. Our goal is to bridge this gap and help companies tackle complex business challenges with data-driven products leveraging cutting-edge machine learning and data science.

At this point, Scalar is focused primarily on consulting with existing companies across different industries, but we’re also starting to incubate our own projects. The first one we’re working on is LABEL.

Can you explain to our readers why you are an authority about Social Media Marketing?

I wouldn’t necessarily call myself an across-the-board “authority” in social media marketing. It’s such a fast-changing field, and I’m still learning and experimenting with a number of topics.

That said, I’ve found success in coming up with innovative ways to leverage social media for growing businesses. In particular, LABEL makes heavy use of Instagram to connect with hyper-relevant local talent and partners, and distribute our content.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started this career?

Shortly after we started LABEL, we decided to organize a community-driven photoshoot. We reached out to a number of Instagram influencers and professional photographers to organize a pop-up photoshoot at the High Line in New York City.

We were very surprised to find out that all the parties involved were very interested in collaborating. The event was a great success and inspired us to use social media more heavily at LABEL.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

The funniest mistake was that we didn’t realize that you need a permit to have photoshoots at the High Line and almost got in trouble. Make sure to research the venue carefully!

But the biggest lesson came from an earlier mistake. Initially, we didn’t communicate the value of working with LABEL clearly enough. Our conversion rate grew considerably after we iterated our pitch based on the questions we’d get. I strongly believe that iterating quickly with a continuous feedback loop is essential for finding product-market fit.

Which social media platform have you found to be most effective to use to increase business revenues? Can you share a story from your experience?

Currently, we work exclusively with Instagram influencers. The advantage of Instagram is the ability to search for very specific content. For example, the post location feature is very granular; you can often find a lot of content created at a specific venue that’s relevant to your project. This enables us to quickly search for the right people to work with and communicate with them while using our profile as a portfolio and social proof.

Let’s talk about Instagram specifically, now. Can you share 6 ways to leverage Instagram to dramatically improve your business? Please share a story or example for each.

1) Connect with people on Instagram proactively

Most companies using social media are focused solely on their own profile — publishing content, and sometimes engaging with their existing audience. Instead, search Instagram for people you’d like to connect with and engage with them proactively.

Rather than waiting for their audience to find their profiles, businesses should actively go after potential customers, partners, and collaborators on social media. The main component behind LABEL is that we partner with hyper-relevant local content creators by proactively searching for and messaging people for those projects.

That said, it’s important to note the difference between what we’re suggesting and spamming others. We don’t blast messages to thousands of unrelated accounts; we manually message specific accounts that could be a great fit for a specific project with tailored content.

2) Treat your profile as a portfolio or resume

Your profile is the first thing people see when they come across your brand. There isn’t a single recipe for a successful profile, but you have to make sure it has high-quality content and reflects your brand’s identity. For example, a brand whose audience is teenagers shouldn’t use the same messaging as one targeted at older professionals, but both should provide consistent, polished, and engaging content. First impressions matter even more when hundreds of thousands of brands are competing for attention on social media.

3) Create value for your audience

Many brands focus on the content they’d like to promote rather than the content their audience wants to see. These aren’t necessarily aligned. Repetitive and spammy content will likely turn off your followers.

Instead, focus on what your audience is interested in. Even if the content doesn’t directly help you increase your revenue, creating valuable content will encourage sharing and engagement, which, in turn, later helps grow your company.

4) Encourage sharing in creative ways

Your audience is more likely to share your content with others if you’re providing value. That said, there are many creative ways to encourage people to share even more so.

For example, giveaways are a great way to encourage sharing. Sunny Co. Clothing, a bikini brand, recently went viral after a (controversial) giveaway that promised a free bikini (S&H not free), as long as people followed their accounts and reposted their content. The profile quickly grew from fewer than 10,000 to over 750,000 followers.

There are many other creative ways to encourage people to share your content, such as tagging friends and reposting.

5) Engage with your followers

Don’t treat your social media profiles as a one-way street. Brands often post content but completely disregard individual customers interacting with it. Instead, consider replying to comments and direct messages. Many brands, especially on Twitter, successfully use social media as a channel to talk to customers.

6) Cross-promote with other marketing channels

Many companies keep their marketing channels siloed, especially on social media. Brands often have profiles on multiple platforms, but they’re completely independent.

Instead, cross-promote your channels on Instagram, and vice-versa. Encourage people to follow your social media accounts on your website and mailing list (and potentially even on the physical product, by adding them to flyers or packaging). Similarly, encourage people on your Instagram to connect with your brand on other channels, too — ideally by offering some value in doing so, such as a coupon code for signing up to a mailing list.

Social media is a place where we idolize people with large followings and meticulously created content. We at LABEL want to make it accessible for everyone and inspire anyone to express themselves in their own positive way.

Arnold Schwarzenegger. I’ve always been impressed by his accomplishments across multiple domains: bodybuilding, business, entertainment, and politics. Most people confine themselves to a single field, but he was able to reinvent himself successfully over and over.

Thank you so much for these great insights. This was very enlightening!

“Why you should treat your social media profile as a portfolio or resume” With Candice Georgiadis… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.