Five Ways to Use Instagram to Dramatically Improve your Business: “Everything posted should be well developed around a niche that people are very passionate about” with Christian Lovrecich & Candice Georgiadis
Marketing has always interested me. I’m that guy who watches the Superbowl for the commercials instead of the game. At 23 years old, I started my first company, and I began to study marketing and how to target customers. At that point, I was working with traditional marketing, such as mailers and similar print materials. I’ve always been somewhat of a “techie,” and I’ve always seen the value of developing technology, using the internet, and keeping up with day-to-day changes of how we communicate and obtain information. I’ve been a social media junkie since it began. I knew it would be huge and continue to grow and affect marketing and advertising. I wanted to be a part of it, and here I am!
I had the pleasure of interviewing Christian Lovrecich, a speaker, trainer and consultant in internet marketing, social media, niche marketing, niche market lead generation, branding , business development and also is the founder and CEO of Lovrecich Media, which is a full service digital advertising firm that focuses on driving sales to businesses using the power of digital marketing across all digital platforms.
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’ve always been an entrepreneur at heart. Even as a kid, I was always trying to sell. Besides the adrenaline rush of making a deal, I love providing a service or item that makes someone else’s life easier or makes them happy and more fulfilled. Sales has always been a part of my background, so I have significant experience and have done my share of “cold calls” to make sales and obtain clients. I’ve always been interested in finding a better way to match potential customers with the goods and services provided by businesses.
Marketing has always interested me. I’m that guy who watches the Superbowl for the commercials instead of the game. At 23 years old, I started my first company, and I began to study marketing and how to target customers. At that point, I was working with traditional marketing, such as mailers and similar print materials. I’ve always been somewhat of a “techie,” and I’ve always seen the value of developing technology, using the internet, and keeping up with day-to-day changes of how we communicate and obtain information. I’ve been a social media junkie since it began. I knew it would be huge and continue to grow and affect marketing and advertising. I wanted to be a part of it, and here I am!
Can you explain to our readers why you are an authority about Social Media Marketing?
Once technology became available and accessible on the platforms we now have available online, I started to dig deep to learn everything I could about it. I took every course, read every book, and reached out to the biggest industry names. I’ve also put my own money, blood, sweat, and tears into testing and selling my own products/services and building brands, which has given me valuable experience and allows me to help others succeed. I know what works and what doesn’t. Most importantly, I continue to grow, keep up with the day-to-day changes of the platforms, and have never stopped learning. I’m constantly in touch with people in the industry and attend multiple events a year to keep up with the latest changes and trends on every platform out there.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started this career?
I decided to test the idea of promoting my agency to help others to grow their businesses with the power of digital media because people everywhere I went that knew what I did always asked for my help. When I was starting out, I needed to create case studies to be able to show big companies results, that we knew what we were doing, and what was possible when it came to the return on investment of their marketing budget, which is commonly referred to in the industry as “ad spend.” I reached out to a friend who owns a real estate brokerage and began a digital ad campaign for him on Facebook. Immediately, we got so many leads his team couldn’t keep up. We actually had to dial back the campaigns and he had to bring in other people to handle all the leads we generated. It’s an example of how I helped a business grow and take it to another level, and that is what makes me the most happy and passionate about what I do.
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?
When I was learning about selling on Facebook when the platform first became public for advertisers, I decided to test a shirt that I knew would be a winner because it was a very niche specific design. It was a niche I am passionate about and the design looked awesome! I hired a company to make the shirt as the orders came in and to ship them to the customer directly. I launched the campaign for a Black Friday deal. It was an instant hit! The orders were coming through 24/7, and I was super excited because it was my biggest success at the time.
You’re probably wondering where is the mistake? Well at the time I had the design made, I looked at it on a monitor that wasn’t calibrated, and I made the huge mistake of not ordering a sample for myself. It turns out black print on a navy blue shirt does not show up well in person. After the orders went out, I started getting bombarded by messages on our fan page and emails complaining about the product. Customers emailed me pics of the product. It looked horrible.
That shirt went on to make about $12,000 in sales before I pulled the plug because of the faulty design. I believe in quality and taking care of my customers over anything else, so by the time I was done sending replacements, processing refunds, and giving away gift certificates to make everyone happy, it actually cost me a lot more than that. In other words, the irony is that my first “real winner” in ecommerce ended up costing me a lot more than the revenue it generated. Lesson learned, and I NEVER made that mistake again. Every product is sampled and checked for quality control before we even put it online for testing to see if it sells.
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 really depends on the particular product or service but Facebook , with is massive amount of user data is by far the most cost-effective platform that produces the best return on investment, if used correctly. Interestingly, the cost of advertising with Facebook keeps increasing every year because big brands are finally becoming interested in using the platform; however, most businesses really underestimate the power of the platform because they simply don’t know how to correctly utilize it to get maximum return on their investment in ad spend.
For example, a campaign of ours is being run for a software company in the SAAS (Software As A Service) niche. We built a highly targeted campaign on Facebook where our goal was to acquire new clients by offering an online presentation of how the software works (a “demo”), with an ad spend of approximately $1,500. As a result of the campaign, we were able to book 23 demos. Out of those 23 demos, 6 were brought on as clients, and the lifetime value of each of those clients is $8,500 in revenue per year for the software company. Cleverly targeting the right people can give you a massive return on your investment. In this case the return was over 30 times the investment made.
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) Your Instagram account and everything posted should be well developed around a niche that people are very passionate about. For example, if your niche is CrossFit, post videos related to lifting heavy weight and activities that CrossFitters can relate to as opposed to videos showing how to do yoga poses. In this example, even though both videos relate to fitness, the Instagram algorithm sees the weight lifting video as CrossFit related and drives the post to the feeds of CrossFit fans. Your post will then rank higher on their feeds, giving it a high chance of appearing on the “explore feed” of your target audience, which is the page of Instagram where posts are suggested to users based on their interests. This is how posts go viral.
2) Post videos and make use of the “stories” function. We are seeing in the industry that videos are reaching further than photos or other forms of posting because Instagram’s algorithm is pushing video hard across the platform, especially with the use of stories and IG TV.
3) Check your Instagram account analytics, study which type of content your users like and interact with the most, and keep giving them what they want. Going back to the CrossFit example, if your video posts about burpees get the most interaction, then post more about burpees. It’s working!
4) For posts and hashtags, quality is better than quantity. Keep a minimum of 2 hours between posts. If you post too frequently the algorithm detects you are creating too many posts and works against you by automatically pushing them down on the feeds of your target. To make these posts more effective, use a “call to action” on every post, which is a directive to visit your store, website, or the link in your bio. For hashtags on your posts, although Instagram allows you to use 30 hashtags per post, you shouldn’t. Your post will appear to be spam and Instagram’s algorithm will “shadow ban” the post, which means your content won’t appear on a person’s feed unless they already follow you. This prevents you from reaching new followers and growing your audience. 8 hashtags is the sweet spot for getting the best results.
5) Research trending posts on the explore feed related to your niche. Look at which posts are getting the most likes and interaction. Look for comments made by real users, not bots. Model your content after those posts that are trending the most. Pay attention to the type of content and the hashtags being used on the top posts so you can incorporate that information, improve upon it, and make it into your own successful post.
6) Don’t play the follow/unfollow game. This will attract bots. Focus only on following high ranking accounts. For example, people who are important in your niche that have millions of followers. This will help your account get real followers and become a high-ranking account of its own.
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. 🙂
The education system needs a complete overhaul. Unfortunately, education in the US and many countries focuses on memorizing material and test scores. We need to focus on real life skills and how to put ideas into action. People would benefit more from that kind of education system and, in turn, they will be more motivated and end up in careers they love and enjoy. It will help our country become more productive. We have great technology at our disposal and it should be used interactively to educate our kids.
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 would have to say Mark Cuban. He’s a billionaire in the tech sector and followed his passion for basketball by buying the Mavs and turned the franchise around. He’s invested in many startups throughout the years, and I like that he’s involved and spends time helping others realize their entrepreneurial dreams. I respect that many times he makes an investment in the person behind the business, not just because of the business itself. He came from nothing and went all the way to the top through hard work and determination. I admire his involvement in many different business sectors, and I aspire be able to do one day as well.
Thank you so much for these great insights. This was very enlightening!
Five Ways to Use Instagram to Dramatically Improve your Business: “Everything posted should be well was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.