Instagram Manager: Why This Role Is Vital to IG Operations

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Karen Lin

Instagram 101 | Feb 09, 2024

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Time is gold for any busy business owner. There’s so much to do and so little time in a day. They need to run their usual business operations, forge new marketing strategies, and be on top of customer care. So, when you throw social media marketing and content strategy into the mix, they’re in for a loop. That’s when an Instagram manager (and other cool social media management tools) swoop in to save the day.

Social media managers help streamline an Instagram business’s ways of working. From creating content calendars to communicating with customers, they help tremendously to maintain a positive online presence for a brand.

Today, we’re diving into why businesses invest in social media management by hiring a manager or using third-party management tools. Keep reading to learn more about it and whether it’s a great idea for your business.

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What Is an Instagram Social Media Manager?

An Instagram social media manager is a person who is part of a brand’s professional digital marketing team. Their role is to maintain a solid and positive Instagram presence for a brand.

These managers oversee the planning of marketing strategies and publishing the social media content that comes out of them. They also do post-campaign work, like analyzing post performance and engaging with customers once content has been published.

Here are just some of the specific tasks Instagram social media managers are typically expected to do for their clients:

  • Crafting an Instagram content strategy that will boost brand awareness and engagement with potential customers.
  • Brainstorming and producing posts that align with the brand’s overall digital marketing strategy.
  • Creating a content calendar to know when certain posts should go live.
  • Publishing social media content at the right time.
  • Setting up and running paid ads to boost business.
  • Engaging the community on Instagram. This means replying to post comments, private direct messages, and, most especially, pressing customer concerns as soon as possible.
  • Analyzing a brand’s posts and drafting IG performance metrics reports to gain insights about a campaign. The brand uses these insights to enhance its overall Instagram strategy.

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Why So Many Businesses Are Hiring for Instagram Manager Jobs Today

If you’ve been looking to start a digital marketing career, you may have noticed a rise in Instagram manager jobs. But why is Instagram management so in demand today?

The simple answer is that business owners can no longer be full-time marketers and run an Instagram page efficiently. They can’t focus on marketing, finances, manufacturing, and distribution while posting content on Instagram. Brands need to have a rich, engaging, consistent online presence if they want to make an impression on Instagram users. An IG manager dedicates their time to building exactly that.

But social media managers aren’t hired just because the business owners are busy. Their expertise in the social media platform is crucial, too. Instagram keeps growing day by day. There are more features to explore, new trends to keep up with, and changes to the algorithm almost every year.

Along with these constant changes and waves on Instagram, the platform is also becoming way more competitive. More and more brands flock to the platform to reach their target audience. So, you need a trained social media manager to make your brand stand out and shine on Instagram.

These experts are well-versed in Instagram’s key features and algorithms. They know the best practices for campaigns and the most effective audience engagement strategies out there. And they know how to gracefully implement it on your Instagram page to reap all their benefits. That’s the true value of hiring an Instagram expert to manage your brand’s page.

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Options for Instagram Manager Tool to Simplify Running Your Business on IG

IG managers should know the ins and outs of running an Instagram page like the back of their hand. But they need to use their time wisely and efficiently to do all their social media tasks, too.

That’s why many smart social media managers will use Instagram manager tools. These tools help make Instagram management way easier and more organized. Here are just some of the tools the best IG managers might use regularly to run their client’s pages smoothly.

Third-Party Social Media Management Tools To Streamline Daily Tasks

The most common tool an IG manager uses is social media management software. These third-party tools help organize all the tasks a social media manager is expected to accomplish.

These tools will typically have a dashboard where a manager can perform all tasks associated with running an Instagram page. On that page, they can create content calendars, schedule posts, and analyze campaigns. It streamlines and consolidates all the work a manager needs to do daily into one page.

Some tools might even help managers keep an eye on comments and DMs that come in from customers. They’ll typically be able to reply to these customer concerns straight from the tool. That way, they don’t need to switch from the tool to the Instagram app. Everything they need to do to manage a brand’s online presence, they do straight from the software. Easy and efficient.

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Instagram Business Manager To Organize a Brand’s Professional Assets

Most managers are expected to maintain not just a brand’s Instagram page but the rest of their social channels, too. Maintaining several pages can be tricky, even for the most efficient social media managers. Luckily, Instagram Business Manager (better known as Meta Business Manager) makes the task a lot easier.

Rarely does a brand focus its digital presence on one platform. It’s always an ecosystem of channels. Business Manager helps put everything in one place. This tool allows you to organize and manage all your pages related to your business. This includes your Instagram page, Facebook profile, product catalogs, ad accounts, event pages, and other brand-related, Meta-linked digital assets.

On Business Manager, an agency or manager can track post performance and manage ad assets across all the brand’s platforms. The business owner can give the manager access to all this information while retaining ownership of all the accounts.

Setting up a Business Manager is pretty easy. As a social media manager, you just need to ask your client to permit you to access their pages. When they grant all the necessary permissions, you’ll be able to see the data on all these channels and assets. You only need to go through the permissions process once.

Instagram Ad Manager for Setting Up and Managing Paid Assets

Aside from managing organic posts, social media managers are also usually in charge of creating and running paid ads. This is something they do on Instagram Ad Manager.

Instagram Ad Manager makes it incredibly easy to set up ads that meet a brand’s specific objectives. The platform takes a manager through each step to create, run, and manage a brand’s ads. Here are just some of the things you can do on the platform:

  • Choose your campaign’s objective. Instagram’s algorithm will work to push your paid ads in placements that will best help you achieve these goals.
  • Upload your creative visual content, whether they’re photos or videos.
  • Define your specific target audience. You can choose specific audience demographics and psychographics to ensure your ads reach the right people.
  • Select your ad placements. Instagram offers plenty of ad formats, from feed ads, Story ads, Reel ads, and so many more. You can even ask Instagram to run your creative ads on “automatic placements.”
  • Set a budget for each campaign.
  • Set a schedule for when each ad asset should run and when it should stop.

Note that a brand needs to have a Facebook page before running ads on Instagram. That’s why linking all of a brand’s assets via Meta Business Manager is super important!

A male social media manager organizing ads on his laptop through Instagram Ad Manager.

What Is the Best Instagram Manager App Out There?

We’ve talked about the general tools and software social media managers use to run a brand’s page more efficiently. But what is the best Instagram manager app in the market to help IG experts achieve a brand’s goals?

There are hundreds of social media management tools out there today. So, the answer isn’t so straightforward. These tools and programs have their own unique features and niche offerings.

Before choosing to invest in a management app, you need to understand the specific demands of your Instagram content strategy. The best management app for your brand will depend on what you want the tool to do for your page. So, it’s important to have a firm grasp of your digital marketing objectives.

Here are three reliable, tried, and tested management apps that you might love, depending on your brand’s goals on Instagram.

Hootsuite for Classic Content Scheduling and Analytics

Hootsuite is one of the most popular tools for classic social media content management. On the platform, you can create content calendars and set schedules for when you want each post published. The platform even tells you when the best time to post on Instagram is for your target audience. That way, you get the most engagement possible on your brand’s content.

Don’t have a knack for content creation? Hootsuite can help you generate captions and ideas for posts with its AI-powered system. They’ll also let you in on the best hashtags to use to reach your intended audience.

You’ll also be able to see how your uploaded posts are faring with Hootsuite’s social media analytics reports. They show you the lowdown on your posts’ organic and paid metrics so you know how well your campaigns perform.

Sprout Social for Top-Notch Customer Service and Automated Engagement

If your main concern on Instagram is managing community engagement and customer service, Sprout Social is for you. While the platform also has features for publishing and analytics, its engagement automation is outstanding.

Sprout Social helps managers organize a brand’s direct messages to make customer care more efficient. Their AI systems can automate responses to make handling large quantities of inquiries and complaints smoother and easier. Here are some of their key offerings in this niche:

  • Inbox consolidation to organize all the DMs you get from customers.
  • You get notifications for spikes in messages. This is great for quickly determining if there’s a brand crisis you need to handle.
  • A chatbot builder to help you answer customers’ questions and concerns faster.
  • Case assignments and tagging to help your customer service team prioritize the most urgent and pressing concerns and complaints.

Brandwatch for Big Data and Influencer Marketing

Lastly, we have Brandwatch, a platform that operates in the niches of big data analytics and working with content creators.

The crème de la crème of Brandwatch’s offerings is their social listening tool. With top-notch consumer and marketing intelligence from billions of online sources, you can see conversations surrounding your brand quickly. This gives you an idea of audience sentiment, trends, and other insights you can leverage in your marketing strategies moving forward.

But aside from that, Brandwatch also offers seamless, end-to-end influencer marketing solutions. They have a database of over 30 million content creators all around the world. They have systems to help you choose the best, most effective influencers for your campaigns. Plus, you can liaise with creators and manage their content and payments straight from the platform.

A laptop screen that shows a social listening and analytics report.

Proper Instagram Management Can Help Your IG Business Page Grow

From planning and publishing content to crafting analytics reports, social media management tools are a huge help to any brand. You can get help managing your Instagram by either hiring a social media manager or investing in online management software. Either way, it’s going to be a big load off your shoulders as a business owner.

Not only does proper Instagram management help you run your daily operations on the platform, but It also helps your brand’s page grow in the long run. With engaging marketing strategies, top-notch customer service, and data-driven campaigns, you’re sure to get more and more followers later on.

Are you looking for a faster way to grow your business page? On top of hiring an Instagram manager, you can enlist the help of a growth service like Path Social.

Our targeting algorithm hunts down people within your target audience who will love and engage with your content. Then, we promote your posts to show up on their IG feeds. As a result, you can expect an increase in organic followers and genuine engagement with your content. We do the heavy lifting to grow your Instagram page, and you can focus on your business. Start gaining more fans and followers today with Path Social!