Yes, that’s right – five years of the Instagram Rich List!

This year we’ve seen women continue to dominate the leaderboard, accounting for 56% of the highest-earning influencers on Instagram in 2021. We’ve also seen enormous growth in the representation of influencers in Africa and Asia, with influencers from these locations making up 25% of the overall list in 2021.

What’s more, this is the first year that a Kardashian or Jenner hasn’t made it into the top 3, with Ariana Grande knocking Kylie Jenner to fourth place.

Just as we did in 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020 Hopper HQ have produced the official:

2021 Instagram Rich List! 

Based on internal data, agency rate cards and public information, you can now find out just how much your favourite Instagram stars are earning for their sponsored posts…

The Top 10

#1 Cristiano Ronaldo

306 million followers
$1,604,000 per post

After five years on the list, Cristiano Ronaldo finally takes the crown and sets a new record with the highest ever potential earning since the list launched in 2016, making an average of $1.6 million per post.

#2 Dwayne Johnson

249 million followers
$1,523,000 per post

Last year’s ‘King of the Instagram Rich List’ drops to second place, after he dethroned Kylie Jenner in 2020.

#3 Ariana Grande

247 million followers
$1,510,000 per post

This is the first time in the list’s history that a Kardashian or Jenner hasn’t had a top three ranking, with Ariana Grande climbing two places securing the third spot.

#4 Kylie Jenner

244 million followers
$1,494,000 per post

Despite being knocked out of the top three for the first time since 2017, Kylie Jenner is still the highest-earning of the Kardashian Jenner family.

#5 Selena Gomez

240 million followers
$1,468,000 per post

Selena Gomez climbs one place making it into this year’s top 5, after placing second in 2018. Since then her potential earnings on Instagram have almost doubled.

#6 Kim Kardashian

231 million followers
$1,419,000 per post

After entering the list in 2017 in second place, Kim Kardashian drops to sixth and continues to be the second most influential Kardashian Jenner on the platform.

#7 Lionel Messi

223 million followers
$1,169,000 per post

After dropping out of the top 10 last year, professional footballer Lionel Messi climbs back up into seventh place and is the highest earning influencer in South America.

#8 Beyonce

189 million followers
$1,147,000 per post

After holding on to her #7 spot for two years in a row, Beyonce drops to eighth place this year.

#9 Justin Bieber

180 million followers
$1,112,000 per post

Justin Bieber holds on to a spot in the top 10 for the fourth year running and remains the only male musician there.

#10 Kendall Jenner

171 million followers
$1,053,000 per post

Kendall Jenner climbs back into tenth place, after initially placing there back in 2018. She is the third Kardashian Jenner to place in the top 10.

Want to be considered for next year’s list?

We’re now taking applications for influencers looking to be considered for the Instagram Rich List 2022 – if you’d like to nominate yourself or your client, complete this form.

The post The 2021 Instagram Rich List — Who Earns The Most From Sponsored Instagram Posts? appeared first on Hopper HQ.

It doesn’t matter whether you’re new to creating content for your business’s social channels or you’re a seasoned content creator trying to break through ‘creative block’, we’ve got you covered!

This is the first episode is a series of webinars aimed to help you supercharge your social media marketing. Whatever brought you here, you are not going to want to miss this one.

Watch the full webinar below:

In the next episode, we’ll be showing you how to develop a social media marketing strategy that delivers results. You can register your interest here and we’ll be in touch with more information.

Here are some of the brands we referenced during the webinar:

• Aldi UK
• Colors Collective
• The Hippie Shake
• Never Fully Dressed
• Homethings
• ASOS
• Wild

Interested in learning more about Hopper HQ?

We run a weekly group demo every Tuesday at 5 pm (GMT) which you can register to join here or feel free to reach out to our support team to book a 1-1 demo call.

The post Creating and Sourcing Engaging Content | Webinar appeared first on Hopper HQ.

Modern technology has proven its benefits by improving efficiency, productivity, and creativity within an organization. Making it vital to a modern business’s success.

In marketing, in particular, there are a number of systems and tools that work to streamline marketing efforts and produce a better outcome for the entire organization.

Automation

Automation is becoming increasingly popular in recent years because of its benefits for both startups and enterprise-level companies. By definition, the technology works to complete processes with little or no assistance from humans. Instead, it optimizes your human workforce and allows their skill sets to be used in more complex marketing projects and assignments.

Digital and social media marketing departments can find an immense amount of benefits from automation when it comes to posting. The Hopper HQ Instagram marketing tool, for example, integrates all of your Instagram accounts into one automation system. In doing so, you are able to draft, schedule, and post social media campaigns for your company. You can also collaborate with other team members to edit and configure your posts on each account. Then use Instagram to your advantage and track any campaign’s growth through Instagram Insights.

This type of automation technology can be extremely beneficial to eCommerce businesses, bloggers, and startups because you can automate your social media campaigns with ease and from wherever your jobs take you.

Outside of social media, marketing is still filled with an abundance of repetitive and time-consuming tasks that contribute to the lack of efficiency. A tool like Robotic Process Automation (RPA) offers a user-friendly interface designed for organizations of all sizes to complete a number of business-essential tasks with minimal effort.

For marketing needs, the technology collects data across multiple areas of your business to allow you to make more informed and strategic decisions. This includes the ability to speed up tedious data processes and quickly execute web searches on competitors to be utilized in analyses that drive your marketing decisions.

Augmented Reality

The term “augmented reality” has traditionally been associated with its use in entertainment or video gaming systems to increase the gaming experience. More recently, however, it is being used in a number of different areas of businesses to improve our social media marketing and user experience.

Augmented reality, the overlay of images on our current reality, provides us with a brand new experience of products and services and works to showcase it in our own environments. To give you a better understanding of how you may have seen augmented reality yourself, think of apps like Snapchat’s facial filters and the popular game Pokémon Go. Both use augmented reality to immerse pictures and figures into the consumer’s world.

Similarly, this same idea can be used to support and grow marketing efforts. Many companies are combining their marketing campaigns with the augmented reality filters of Snapchat and Instagram. Not only does this increase the visibility of your brand to a younger market but the augmented reality creates an elevated, and memorable experience as well. 

For companies within the furniture or interior design industry, augmented reality can be especially important to utilize within the company’s content and product presentation. For example, companies like IKEA and Target use augmented reality to help customers view products in their own homes. By opening your camera or taking a photo of the space, you can virtually insert the product into your desired area. In this particular example, you may even notice its power in improving the sales and retention of your products given that customers aren’t guessing if the product will look right or fit properly in the space.

Internet of Things

The Internet of Things (IoT) is arguably one of the most powerful and complex technological tools in the digital age. Simply put, it is the vast connectivity between the internet and devices like sensors and smartphones. The technology can connect a number of devices from private networks to gather data, analyze it, and help to drive out business decisions. This data in return can be used to strategize for marketing campaigns as well.

In a range of industries from retail to insurance, IoT technology can help to develop a deeper understanding of your customer and in return market to them. Retail in particular has used iBeacons to allow the IoT to work its magic. With iBeacons set up, stores can track the movement of any customer throughout the store who has location services turned on. If that customer has opted to receive marketing messages, the iBeacons can also gather data in regard to the customer’s demographics, purchase history, etc. With the data collected, it can be used to market customer-specific campaigns in and outside of the store to increase the engagement and possibility of a customer completing a purchase.

A simpler and slightly more affordable option may be IoT implementation through QR codes. It is super easy to generate these codes using a QR code generator. Instead of the IoT collecting data through and around iBeacon towers, it can only collect information when and where the QR code is scanned. With one scan, you can offer product-based marketing campaigns to your customers and derive customer information from the device that scanned the code. Retailers have offered deals and promotions, fun videos and games, and ways to customize your products. All while collecting useful and informative data. 

You may have noticed that the common trends among all of these technologies is that they collect or organize data about customers and the entire company. Each one works to make the data collection process simpler and more efficient which is why they are such powerful tools in marketing. As they are becoming increasingly popular throughout the world in a range of industries, it becomes more and more important for you to adopt them in your own business and keep up with the competition in such a fast-paced digital age.

The post Top Tech Innovations for Business Marketing appeared first on Hopper HQ.

For the first time in the list’s history there has been a drop in fees for influencers on Instagram, even among the highest earners, as marketers and brands have reduced influencer budgets due to the impact of the Coronavirus pandemic.

What’s more, this is the first year that a Kardashian or Jenner hasn’t taken the top spot, following controversy regarding Kylie Jenner’s billionaire status earlier this year.

Just as we did in 2017, 2018 and 2019, Hopper HQ have produced the official:

2020 Instagram Rich List! 

Based on internal data, agency rate cards and public information, you can now find out just how much your favourite Instagram stars are earning for their #spon posts…

The Top 10

#1 Dwanye ‘The Rock’ Johnson

 187.3 million followers
 $1,015,000 per post

Dwayne Johnson knocks Kylie Jenner off the top spot to earn $1 million per post for the first time, as his earning increase by 15% since 2019.

#2 Kylie Jenner

 181.5 million followers
 $986,000 per post

Following the unceremonious stripping of her billionaire status by Forbes, Kylie Jenner has been dethroned after two years on top. Making this the first year a Kardashian-Jenner hasn’t been number one.

#3 Cristiano Ronaldo

224.8 million followers
 $889,000 per post

While Cristiano holds on to third place for the third year running and remains the only European in the Top 10!

#4 Kim Kardashian

 175.5 million followers
 $858,000 per post

Kim Kardashian holds on to fourth place for another year, with her own billionaire status being called into question.

#5 Ariana Grande

 191.1 million followers
 $853,000 per post

After knocking Selena Gomez out of second place in 2019, Ariana Grande has dropped three places this year to #5.

#6 Selena Gomez

 180.3 million followers
 $848,000 per post

Selena Gomez slips one place this year, three years after she was crowned top of the first Instagram Rich List in 2017.

#7 Beyonce Knowles

 148.7 million followers
 $770,000 per post

Beyonce has held on to her spot at #7 for the second year in a row.

#8 Justin Bieber

 139.3 million followers
 $747,000 per post

Justin Bieber remains the only male musician in the top 10, climbing two places since last year.

#9 Taylor Swift

 135 million followers
 $722,000 per post

After being the only new entry in the top 10 last year, Taylor Swift drops just one place to #9.

#10 Neymar da Silva Santos Junior

 139.3 million followers
 $704,000 per post

This is Neymar’s third year in the top 10, slipping just one place since last year.

Check out the full 2020 Instagram Rich List here – featuring the highest earning social media stars across:

Want to be considered for next year’s list?

We’re now taking applications for influencers looking to be considered for the Instagram Rich List 2021 – if you’d like to nominate yourself or your client, complete this form.

The post The 2020 Instagram Rich List — Who Earns The Most From Sponsored Instagram Posts? appeared first on Hopper HQ.

Dedicated to helping brands navigate the rabbit hole of public relations, marketing and social media, Anne and her co-founder (and husband) Glen, have a combined work experience of over 25 years. With the recent changes to Facebook and Instagram, Wonderland are now helping small to medium businesses in New Zealand and beyond, navigate the rapidly changing social media marketing landscape.

Working with Anne over the last couple of years has been an absolute dream, so I was eager to finally pick her brain about why SMEs shouldn’t be afraid of social media marketing and what her secret sauce is to killing it on the ‘gram!

Anne, for those who don’t know you already, please introduce yourself…

I’m one half of Wonderland Firm PR & Social Media, the business I run with my husband. I’m also an American romance author who now lives in Wellington, New Zealand.

Could you tell us a fun fact about yourself and Wonderland Firm?

Fun fact about me: I was one of 4 people who provided clapping as extra percussion  for a song on Michael Jackson’s ‘Invincible’ album. I also worked for Jason Alexander for a number of years – he played George Costanza on Seinfeld.

Fun fact about my business: It started in my living room in LA, years ago, but it took me moving to Wellington NZ, and partnering with my husband Glen, for us to get Wonderland up and running.

What a claim to fame! So, how long have you been on Instagram and in your opinion, why should more brands be adding it to their own marketing mix?

I posted my first Instagram picture on November 4th 2011 and since then I’ve watched this amazing network ebb and flow.

Brands should add Instagram (IG) into their overall marketing plan because it adds a visual and very interactive element to the mix – not to mention, most folks find it easier to deal with than Facebook these days.

With IG also working with Shopify for added shopping features, it has the potential to put smaller businesses, without a lot of reach or in not-so-populated parts of the world, on the social media map with brand awareness while also increasing sales.

I think Instagram is amazing when it’s used as part of a larger strategy, definitely don’t have all of your eggs in JUST the Instagram basket or JUST the Facebook basket. Diversify!

Businesses’ relationship with social media has changed significantly, even in the last few months. With Facebook re-prioritising friends and families, where do you think this leaves businesses? How should small to medium businesses prepare themselves for the change?

With everything we’ve seen with Facebook’s privacy issues I think it’s a great time for all of us to adapt! Change isn’t pretty – it’s uncomfortable and it’s unknown, but guess what? If you want to market and rep your business on Facebook, then you’ve got to look at your strategy and tighten it up.

I think SMEs need to either devote time or fill a role where this is a priority to social media or hire third parties to do this for them. If I’ve learned anything myself, I see our roles changing as social media strategists. The addition of stories and groups requires more time and energy, if you want to do it right.

Small to medium business are at the heart of Wonderland Firm – what would your advice be to SMEs that can’t afford a social media manager and what are your top tips to success on social media? Are there any essentials you’d recommend for their tool kit?

Schedule your posts, with a platform like HopperHQ, and get a strategy together – this is a collaborative process, so it’s all hands on deck when you’re an SME. Plan, prepare and be patient.

What would you say to small businesses and brands that don’t feel their product or service lends itself to Instagram, but are eager to join the community?

Why not try, just think out of the box? If it’s an industry where people struggle with content, like law offices or construction, get an intern or someone who can take behind the scenes pics and share.

Run some tests with the audience and your content, and maybe look into an engagement tool to help you target even more specifically, with an aim to drive traffic to your site.

I tell people to look for the humour, the funny to share – we all need a laugh these days, don’t we? Last resort, if you try and try and feel like your posts are just hitting nothing, try another platform. There ain’t no shame in that game

As Instagram push new features to make e-commerce even easier on the platform, do you think having a strong Instagram shopfront has become more important than a beautiful website, or should they be considered equally weighted?

Equal for sure! One thing I learned long ago is that a social network can disappear, so keep up a website or blog because you JUST NEVER KNOW. I’m not saying that Facebook nor IG are ever going away, but with this year’s events it has made our offices pause and look at our back up strategy as a Plan B (and does anyone remember Friendster?).

Keep your site or blog updated and keep it a part of your overarching plan.

If you’re in Wellington, New Zealand be sure to check out Wonderland Firm’s upcoming ‘How to Become a Social Influencer‘ workshop taking place on the 14th July. There are limited spaces left and you can find more information over on their Facebook Page.

The post Meet Anne Buttar of Wonderland Firm | Hopper HQ Spotlight appeared first on Hopper HQ.

Here at Hopper HQ, we’ve been sifting through your feature requests and are incredibly excited to announce the launch of what has been one of the most requested features since the dawn of Hopper HQ.

Our developers have had their fun teasing you all, but it’s finally here: Facebook scheduling has landed on Hopper HQ!

No more need to switch between services, you can now schedule all of your social media content for Facebook and Instagram from the comfort of your Hopper HQ dashboard – hallelujah!

How do I get Facebook scheduling?

1. Head to your Hopper HQ account settings and hit the ‘Add Facebook Account’ button
2. Allow Hopper HQ access to post to your Facebook page on your behalf (you’ll need to be admin of the page to do this)
3. Select the page you wish to connect to Hopper HQ
4. Start scheduling!

What’s more, Facebook scheduling is available at no extra cost – all of our plans will now allow you access to support multiple platforms, for example a 2 x Monthly plan will now allow you access to 2 x Instagram accounts and 2 x Facebook pages.

As always, send all of your feedback to us and we’ll continue working to actively improve your scheduling experience Facebook.

We can’t wait to hear what you think!

Team Hopper HQ

The post Facebook Scheduling Is Here! 🎉 appeared first on Hopper HQ.

After an unconventional start, Kate loves living out in the middle of nowhere and having the freedom to run her company remotely, helping interior designers and home stagers better market their own businesses. From building websites to nailing their social media strategy, Kate assists her clients with all things digital marketing.

For a first edition of Hopper HQ Spotlight, we had the pleasure of chatting with Kate – better known as Kate The Socialite and founder of Socialite LLC – about the importance of strong personal branding and the benefits of marketing on Instagram.

Please introduce yourself…

Hi, I’m Kate the Socialite, and I specialize in helping interior designers and home stagers market their businesses with ease.

Could you tell us a fun fact about yourself or your business?

The email newsletters I create for my clients often land them new projects mere minutes after being sent to their contact lists.

How long has Instagram been part of your marketing strategy and in your opinion, should brands consider add it to their own marketing mix?

I’ve been on Instagram for around a year and a half. Prior to that, I focused only on Facebook and Google+. Since adding Instagram to my social media marketing strategy, I have gained even more clients and have grown my mailing list (which sends people into my sales funnel if they aren’t ready to buy right now). I’ve also started fielding requests from other brands who want me to promote them.

If you want to establish yourself as a professional and make it easier for magazines to find and feature you, you absolutely must have an active presence on Instagram.

In your opinion, why is a strong, personal brand so important when selling your expertise as a service and how did you go about establishing ‘Kate the Socialite’?

Oh, such a good and multi-layered question! I once operated under a different name, but it didn’t attract my ideal client. Since I now work solely with designers and stagers, I needed a business name, logo, website, and overall aesthetic that would appeal to them. To catch the right client, you have to present yourself as the right bait.

My brand (aka, the personality of my business) is me and my potential clients need to first know, like, and trust me before they will hire me or buy from me. I could be selling the best digital product or service on earth, but no one will care about it if they don’t first care about me.

As the business owner, it’s my responsibility to give them something to care about and to facilitate that relationship with them. I need to go find them and become the solution to their specific marketing problems–and that’s exactly what I’ve done. My clients are located all over the US, UK, Canada, and Australia.

As Instagram gives people the opportunity to communicate their personalities through great visual content and engaging Stories – your own feed gives a great snapshot into who you are – how do you determine what falls under your personal brand and your personal life?

I love this question and have several answers for it:

• If I’m in the middle of a situation, I don’t share it. I wait until it passes, even if it’s good. This allows me to live in the moment, reflect on the situation as a whole, and be able to craft a cohesive story around what happened. If I’m about to share something “negative,” I first make sure to take a positive perspective on it, to find the grain of truth or the encouragement that can help someone who is in a similar situation. If I can’t find that angle to my situation, I don’t share it.
• I also don’t share stories that involve other people, even if they are close to me, unless I have their permission.
• I make sure I’m not whining, complaining, or speaking badly about someone else. Every Instagram caption I write affects how people will think about me and my business. I have to be careful with every post.
• That said, I avoid political posts. However, I don’t hold back when talking about my faith in God. I don’t push it on people (and I work with a diverse clientele), but I share it because it is a huge part of who I am. It affects every decision I make, how I run my business, and how I serve my clients.

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From your own experience, what would your top tips be to any interior designers or home stagers just starting out on Instagram, to help them stand out within the community?

If you feel like a tiny voice in a room full of shouting people, just know you’re not the only one. Instagram is making it more and more difficult to get your posts noticed. Here are a few things you can do it fix that:

• Post content that will inspire, educate, and / or entertain your audience.
• Avoid salesly, promotional posts (you should only use posts like this 20% of the time)
• Establish an aesthetic for your feed; curate it and guard it closely, even when sharing content from others.
• Avoid posting low quality, grainy, blurry, or poorly lit photos (especially if they are photos of your work); professional photography increases the perceived value of your service and makes your posts more likely to be shared by shelter magazines (Home & Garden, anyone?).
• Use 25-30 hashtags on each image you post.
• Craft a caption that tells a story or allows fans a glimpse behind the scenes, even if it’s short.
• Post consistently, at least 4 times per week. (Post consistency is the main reason I switched to HopperHQ. I love that Hopper auto-posts my content to Instagram. I can truly set it and forget instead of being bothered by push notifications on my phone.)
• Avoid Instagram pods; at face value, they sound great, but they actually skew your analytics. Bottom line: If you have to be part of a pod in order for your posts to get noticed, you need to post better content and follow the tips I listed above

We loved your podcast on the ‘8 Dangerous Marketing Tactics You Should Avoid’ – having dispelled some marketing myths, what do you tip as the Instagram marketing tactics interior design businesses and brands should be considering in 2018?

To grow your Instagram following in 2018, serious think about and answer these questions:

• What is your end game for Instagram? Do you plan to wildly chase the likes and treats fans like numbers instead of people, or will you commit to authentically engaging with the fans you’ve gotten organically (aka: not from a pod)?
  
  
• If you crave more fans on Instagram, why? More fans do not equal more money in your pocket. Instead of amassing random fans, commit to knowing who your ideal client is and to posting things that you know they like.
  
  
• As yourself, “How much in enough? Once all these people start following me, what am I going to do with them?”

You have to have a plan in place ahead of time that will ensure you are attracting your ideal client and ensure that you are able to take that ideal client off social media and into your mailing list–where the sales happen. Instagram isn’t the end all-be all.

Instagram is a powerful tool, but it only works if you do. It’s time to get serious about using Instagram as the beginning of your sales funnel for your interior design or home staging business.

Take step one: Get a Hopper account and schedule out a month’s worth of posts. You will not be disappointed with the results!

If you aren’t sure what to post on Instagram or if you have trouble with creating captions, head over here: www.socialitevault.com

You can follow Kate on Instagram @kate.the.socialite and tune into here podcast, ‘The Kate Show’, here!

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The post Meet Kate the Socialite | Hopper HQ Spotlight appeared first on Hopper HQ.

While Facebook and Twitter have long been known as great platforms for community management and YouTube a hotbed for content creators, Instagram has combined the power of all existing networks and elevated the profile of influencers and their, well, influence! 

Some consider the practice of Influencer Marketing to be controversial (with the FCA making a number of revisions to their guidelines and policing campaigns pretty aggressively), but there is a strong argument for this approach over traditional marketing techniques. More and more consumers are using ad-blockers and reaching for our mobile phones during tv commercial breaks has become habitual for huge numbers of us. Ultimately, it’s becoming increasingly difficult for brands and advertisers to reach their audiences through traditional marketing channels.

Influencer Marketing provides businesses (small and large) with a unique opportunity to reach their target audience authentically, and some studies are already showing huge returns on investment. However, this doesn’t mean that Influencer Marketing is a silver bullet strategy, in fact there are a number of pretty big risks involved and it’s important for business owners to properly research influencers before starting any campaign.

To find out more We reached out to the Hopper HQ community to see how important they think Influencer Marketing is to the future of Social Media, Digital and Content Marketing, exploring whether this marketing tactic is viable for brands or a craze that’s set to disappear in the near future. Here are some of their thoughts…

Is Influencer Marketing A Profitable Marketing Strategy For Brands ?

“Yes. Influencer marketing is one of the foremost marketing methods used by brands today. Because social media has had a huge impact on our lives, brands have taken note and began reaching out to those that have created a following and have them do the majority of their marketing instead of creating traditional campaigns and they are reaping the benefits two fold. This strategy has an extremely high ROI because it is all commission based meaning they don’t spend any marketing dollars unless an influencer generates a sale; unlike traditional marketing, the dollars are spent up front without knowing if it is going to work or not!!” 

– Miki Taylor, Taylor & Co. Travel

“Consumers are invested in the influencers they follow and the stories they tell. Influencers don’t take this lightly, they carefully curate their content, endorsing companies that align with their voice and personal brand. They’ll never sponsor a product that they don’t believe in themselves And it shows, consumers are starting to trust influencers more than a celebrity. A report by ZD Net found that 30% of consumers are more likely to purchase a product form a non-celebrity, and a whopping 70% of millennials prefer peer endorsements. You can’t ignore that anymore. With social media algorithms continually changing, it can be a challenge to get your content in front of your customers and grow your brand organically. One way brands can get in front of their consumers is through influencer campaigns. A recent study by Nielsen shows that for every $1 invested in an influencer marketing campaign will return $6.50, all the way up to $14. Once companies start to see the power of influencer marketing, we’ll see it become a credible strategy. You’ll even see them teaching this in Marketing 101 college classes – if they haven’t already… If there’s anything I’ve learned over the years, is not to ignore new strategies, including influencer marketing. Influencer marketing is here to stay, trust me.”

– Michelle Beauregard, MUNA

“Influencer marketing should certainly be an integral part of your tool kit in 2018. Micro influencers will play an even bigger role than before as trusted community based influencers able to target specific audiences. On the other hand, brands should be aware that Facebook is clamping down on being transparent with any partnerships influencers may have in their content and will be creating better options to disclose this in any marketing material. The transparency this brings will certainly change the way influencers are used.” 

– Gweirydd Davies, S4C

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“At KitNipBox, we’ve worked with social pages and lifestyle bloggers that have generated direct and immediate conversions for us, proving the influencer strategy to be totally worthwhile. At the same time, however, we’ve worked with dud accounts that garner little to no engagement and zero conversions. The takeaway here is that so long as a company dedicates time to research influencers that not only speak to their market, but also boast a legitimate following (re: their audience is not composed of bots), then influencer marketing can be an exteremly legitimizing strategy for brands, both emerging and iconic.”

– Diana Regal, KitNipBox

“Absolutely, but it depends entirely on the credibility of the influencer. Social media has made it so easy for brands to strike up relationships with anyone – really quickly. It’s really important that they still exercise caution, connect with the right people, and see it as a long term relationship, not just a quick transactional ‘fix’.”  – important to regulate

– Tom Pearson, Greener Media

“Influencer marketing, when used thoughtfully, can be a highly effective strategy for brands. What brands need to remain aware of is being highly specific and selective about who they work with. Does the influencer share their values? Is their audience the same as the brand’s target market? Working with someone just because they have a big audience isn’t good enough but if you get it right it can be a highly effective strategy.” – important to regulate

 – Henry McIntosh, Twenty One Twelve Marketing

“In today’s world of ad blockers, algorithmic feed changes, and fake accounts… Influencer Marketing is a great strategy (when done correctly) to get in front of – and convert – high quality audiences. Where most brands fail with Influencer Marketing is by treating influencers as a one-off transaction (instead of a relationship), and / or selecting influencers based on vanity metrics (instead of holistically based on their reach, relevance and resonance).” – regulate

– Yan Budman, Spark Social Solutions

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So, it comes as no surprise that Customer Success has become increasingly popular since 2012, with more businesses integrating customer success managers and departments into their organisations.

More businesses are coming round to the realisation that, your customers have considerably more power by authentically reviewing you, than your marketing team does convincing people that they’ll derive value from your product.

At Hopper HQ, the evolution from a Customer Services department, to a team focused on Customer Success, came about in three key steps: better dissemination of user feedback, understanding of customers and customer processes.

“The Birth of the ‘State of Play’”

As a small team, supporting customers in over 70 countries and working from a huge product roadmap – weekly reporting was an important step in our move towards customer centricity and helped to transform my role, from primarily supportive, to focus on helping our customers be more successful.

While weekly reporting isn’t revolutionary, the benefit of reviewing new feature suggestions weekly (rather than monthly or quarterly) and assessing our feature roadmap according to customers’ appetite, has been crucial in ensuring we’re developing in the right direction and delivering the most value possible to Hopper HQ users.

These regular assessments of our product roadmap and customer desire help us to stay agile, in an increasingly competitive market; ensuring we don’t waste time on features our customers have fallen out of love with.

Moving away from simply supporting our customers to really taking the time to listen to them and disseminate what we’ve learned within the team, has been transformative to the way we approach customer services and how it fits into the wider business.

“Customer Personas”

At Hopper HQ, we support thousands of Instagram accounts worldwide and our customers range from individuals establishing their personal brand to some huge agencies, supporting hundreds of clients globally. This is where the importance of well-developed customer personas comes in, as these users have distinctively different needs, desires and interests.

Beyond its status as an important addition to any customer support team’s toolkit, well-developed, realistic customer personas are key to all departments within your business – they certainly helped us to better focus our efforts and steer development on Hopper HQ. Not only are they instrumental in understanding how you should be communicating with your customers, they’re an important step towards optimising your approach to acquiring new customers of all shapes and sizes.

It’s no secret that developing customer personas is time-consuming and takes a considerable amount of research, effort and revision, but the benefits of having them are palpable. Getting to the nitty-gritty of what makes a customer tick can be instrumental in helping you to encourage greater brand affinity, as well as re-affirming the fact your customers are human and should be treated as such (a sentiment I feel particularly passionately about).

Having the confidence to adjust our approach to Customer Services – armed with our detailed personas – allowed us to build rapport authentically and better communicate with our users. After all, customers value human support and we believe that a ‘human-touch’ is fundamental to Customer Success.

“Create More Magic”

Armed with our customer personas, the next stage of our evolution into a team determined to help our customers become even more successful came with an alternative approach to the development of customer journeys.

Already familiar with UX mapping and evaluation (we regularly review various processes on Hopper HQ, to ensure they’re logical and efficient), we were beginning to approach customer journeys equipped with a new philosophy – our mantra: ‘create more magic’!

Logic, practicality and efficiency are still at the forefront of our minds when approaching any new project or update on Hopper HQ, but we were now on the lookout for opportunities to delight our customers and create magical moments. That’s not to say that we haven’t always done our utmost to please our customers and build rapport, but we wanted to ensure that we were doing so across the entire product, ensuring this wasn’t solely the responsibility of customer services.

By proactively seeking to delight our customers and further our relationship with them at every possible junction, we moved away from simply reacting to users’ requests and issues into a new world of Customer Success. This was a really exciting transition as Hopper HQ’s customer base is diverse and one of the best things about my job is having the opportunity to network with awesome people and discover new, innovative brands & agencies worldwide.

Focussing on Customer Success at Hopper HQ has helped us to increase customer satisfaction, reduce churn and better guide development; but most importantly it has forced us to really understand who are customers are in an authentic, human way. Actually investing time into learning names and getting to know our customers’ businesses has been enlightening and incredibly enjoyable!

If you find you’re getting stuck in the monotony of traditional Customer Services and finding it difficult to see your customers as people not numbers, it’s definitely time to invest your efforts into making your customers more successful and rebuilding your relationships with them.

The post Evolving From A Customer Service Department To A Team Dedicated To Customer Success appeared first on Hopper HQ.

We were so excited at the introduction of Instagram stories, but three months down the line, Instagram have changed the game, by introducing mentions, links and an integrated version of their incredibly fun Boomerang tool.

So why is this update such a great addition for businesses and bloggers? Well, the obvious reason is that the integration of links allows you to drive more traffic to your website or blog, partnered with really engaging and lively content. Unfortunately, this feature is currently only available to verified Instagram users, but still is a huge step for Instagram, as it marks the first time links have been allowed in the platform, outside of your bio. By simply swiping up, when watching a story, your followers will be directed straight to the link, via Instagram’s in-app browser.

Nathan Sharp, an Instagram product manager told The Verge this new addition was a response to the huge number of brands using Stories.  “It was a question of trying to keep this seamless, linear narrative experience,” says Sharp, but so far there’s no word on whether all users would be able to posts links eventually.

Mentions are also a key feature that sets Instagram stories apart, from their rival Snapchat. Now you can mention your contacts, providing their handle is moderately sized, sending them a notification via direct message. This is a great way for businesses and bloggers to work collaboratively, as you can help other Instagram users to discover new accounts, with an easy clickable link to their profile.

Using the type tool, when editing your story, start with an ‘@’, which will bring up a list of your frequent contacts. Once you have tagged them, their Instagram handle will appear in your story with an underline. All your audience has to do is tap once for a preview of their profile and again to visit the profile; this could be a great way of boosting your business account’s followers or even featuring a brand you’re working with. However you decide to employ this feature, we think it’s a definite bonus!

While we’re saying goodbye to Vine, the original app for looping your videos, Instagram’s Boomerang tool has surged in popularity and has been a great way for so many Instagrammers to inject some life to their profile. The integration of the tool to their stories feature is a welcome addition, allowing users to be more creative with the stories they share. You can now tap the Boomerang icon, within stories, to create a loop of a (roughly) 1.5 second video or a burst of up to five photos. In stories, you can even change reverse your camera mid-shot, another great addition.

This a massive step for Instagram, who seem to have finally overtaken Snapchat and are well on their way to creating a stories format that is far more creative than the Snapchat original. We love it and can’t wait to see what’s to come.

The post Instagram Adds Links in Stories [Plus Boomerang Integration] appeared first on Hopper HQ.