15 of The Most Talented Instagram Consultants for Hire
Instagram is deceptively tricky. It seems at first glance to be a pretty simple platform. Post some photos, get some people interested in them, build a community, pitch products to sell, you know how it goes.
What about hashtags? What about influencer shoutouts? What about product tagging? What about geographic tags? There are a dozen or more little features and quirks with Instagram that nevertheless prove to be the difference between a decent marketer and a great one.
Hiring an Instagram Consultant
Consultants sometimes have a bad name in business. There’s a sort of ancient meme about them, that a consultant just does what an employee could do, but for three times the cost. While that may be true in a few cases, a lot of times a consultant is just a contract worker with skills you don’t need all the time. You can hire a consultant to work a few hours a week for a lot less than it would cost to hire someone full time.
An Instagram consultant can take you from a mediocre profile to a great presence on the photo-sharing app. All you need to do is find the right one. Well, that, and convince yourself that the benefits are worth the effort.
You already know what the benefits of Instagram are, otherwise you wouldn’t be looking into boosting your presence on the site. What, then, are the benefits to hiring a consultant to do the work?
You save time. Saving time is a huge benefit, both for you and for your other employees. Unless you have an employee 100% focused on social media work for you, chances are your social presence is being at least partially outsourced. Either that, or you’re trying to do it yourself, and spending hours every week that you could otherwise use for more development.
One of the biggest problems with do-it-yourself CEOs I see is the lack of respect for time. All too often, they think “I can do this myself to save money”, when really it’s time that really needs saving. Something like Instagram management? There are thousands of potential consultants who can do that work. Direct development of business connections and products? Only you can do that.
You gain skills. Perhaps not directly, but your organization gains skills it lacks. Rather than putting half-assed knowledge and vague research into practice, you can get someone who truly knows what they’re doing, how to measure the performance of their actions, and how to iterate and improve upon what they see.
One of the dirty secrets of social marketing is that, while there are millions of businesses doing it, only a small handful actually know what they’re doing. Most of the rest are either imitating each other, or making it up as they go along. It’s how you get strange marketing trends like the “live videos” on Facebook that are just static images with some floating triangles. Someone found it worked to defeat part of the Facebook algorithm, other people picked up on it because it worked, and no one really stopped to wonder how such a weird exploit made them look.
Tips for Hiring an Instagram Consultant
When you’re in the market for an Instagram consultant, you need to know how to hire someone who will work with your business, rather than try to hammer your business into shape like putting a square peg in a round hole.
First, you should do a little homework. Learn enough about Instagram marketing to figure out where you stand and what needs you have. For example, if you’re in a fashion industry, make sure to look for consultants that specialize in fashion. There’s no sense in hiring a consultant who usually works with automotive brands and knows nothing about apparel.
Likewise, learn what Instagram marketing features you might be able to use, and find a consultant who knows how to use them. For example, Instagram’s direct product sales can be of great benefit to any brand with a storefront full of a lot of physical products, but it won’t be useful to someone with only one product or only digital products.
Next, you need to be aware of budget. This is a marketing cost, which means you will have potential profits attached to it, but it may be a while before they bear significant fruit. Even the best Instagram marketer won’t be able to generate millions out of thin air.
How much are you able to spend? Make sure to look for an Instagram consultant with the right kind of package available. Some consultants have a flat fee, others offer different packages with different levels of service, and some will be custom pricing based on your needs.
With the basic information in hand, you should go out searching for a consultant to hire. I’ve listed fifteen possibilities below, but there are hundreds more out there. You can check the typical freelance sites like Upwork, Freelancer, and Guru. You can also just Google for freelance consultants who have their own websites set up. Using a freelance hub gives you the benefit of seeing ratings from other clients, but they tend to take a cut of the costs, meaning you’ll end up paying a bit more. It’s up to you which route you want to take.
When you find a freelancer you might be able to work with, schedule a meeting or appointment with them to discuss the situation. Sometimes your chosen freelancer won’t have the time available in their schedule; they could be booked up with other clients. Sometimes they may have a personal reason not to work with your brand, depending on your industry. You never know.
Once you’re in discussion with the consultant, you should ask to see their portfolio and, if possible, talk to a reference or three. Getting an idea of how successful their work has been is always a good idea, and seeing some of it first-hand is always useful.
You should also familiarize yourself with some of the “black hat” Instagram techniques, like hashtag spam, purchased followers, and engagement trading. Seed in a few questions to see if the consultant is likely to be using any of those techniques, and if so, disqualify them. You don’t want to hire a consultant who will get your account banned.
Make sure to trust your instincts. If your gut tells you a particular freelancer won’t be a good fit, even if they look good on paper, feel free to pass. Ask them questions and discuss the situation to your heart’s content, regardless of how long it takes. A good freelancer will be happy to discuss it all with you, so long as you aren’t basically just asking how they do their job so you can do it yourself.
Good Instagram Consultants
I’ve provided a list here of fifteen possible consultants you might consider hiring to manage your Instagram profile for you. I’ve tried to pick a few from each of several platforms, to give you an idea of how to find more.
Tal Navarro owns Social Lady, an incredible digital marketing agency with a broad specialization, including social media, content marketing, and SEO.
She has repeatedly won awards in her native Israel and around the world, including in Forbes and several other business magazines. Her Instagram promotion is some of the best around, promising – and delivering – hundreds or thousands of new fans every month for her clients.
2. Bhuvanesh
Bhuvanesh is a digital marketer who offers a total digital presence marketing solution. He covers landing pages, marketing funnels leading to those pages, and the social media that caps it all off. He also has a free consultation, to discuss potential services and what he can do for you.
3. Elise Darma
Elise is a spectacular presence on social media. Her success is testimonial enough at her ability to help others. Her focus tends to be on freedom; building up a brand presence strong enough to allow her clients the freedom to travel and live life as they choose.
In addition to consulting, she has a “biz in a box” package that helps freelancers start and grow their businesses, and she has an Instagram Masterclass that can get you started and growing up to a point where her other services can have the most impact.
4. Talia Koren
Talia is an Instagram specialist native to Colorado whose own talents helped her grow her profile from 1,000 followers to 100,000 in a single year. If that’s not successful, I don’t know what is. Her blog is full of great information, and she’s an expert in helping others grow. She’s a true consultant; her package of services is a consultation call, a follow-up, and instruction for you to run your own profile following her advice.
5. Marina LeDean
A freelancer based in Austin Texas, she may not have a ton of recommendations, but she has good reviews from those that have hired her. She can cover a wide range of marketing services, from logo design to ad management with, of course, Instagram as one of her core services. She’s quite reasonably priced as well.
6. Fehmir007
A freelancer out of Ottawa in Canada, this consultant has half a decade of experience in social media and content marketing.
Her success rate is quite high, with 100% of her contracts completed on time, on budget, and with user satisfaction. Instagram is one of her core services, but she also handles other social networks, industry and competitive analysis, blogging, and even web design.
7. KES Studio
Run by Kathryn Snellen and Kindal Baki, KES Studio has helped a variety of brands with Instagram marketing, in several industries including business, fashion, food, and beauty. Their client list includes brands like Dotted Line Marketing, Talbots, Sierra Winter Jewelry, and Farm to Market Bread Co. They’ll handle everything from creating a brand strategy and content creation to a monthly calendar and consulting.
8. Laura Bradley
Laura is an editorial consultant and Instagram strategist, with freelance writing experience on top of it all. She knows what she’s doing, and the imagery on her site should sell you as much as anything. She tends to focus on some of the core industries on Instagram, like luxury and lifestyle brands, but is open to discussing services with just about anyone. Go ahead and see if she suits your fancy.
9. Jenn Herman
Jenn is widely recognized as one of the foremost authorities on Instagram marketing, and has a series of services you can take advantage of.
Her Instagram audit is a quick and easy way to get advice on how to improve your current position. She’ll perform social media consultations if you have more specific needs or want advice on other social networks, and she can create a complete social media strategy for you if you’re willing to pay.
10. Christopher P.
Chris here is one of a few Upwork freelancers I’ll list off. He has a fairly low base hourly rate at $20/hour and has completed some 38 jobs as of this writing. His feedback on Instagram projects is stellar.
11. Lauren M.
Hailing from Virginia, Lauren is widely available for a somewhat steeper fee of $99 per hour. She also has excellent Instagram-focused project reviews and has several projects ongoing at any one time.
12. Crystal Schreiner
Crystal is a master of aesthetic on Instagram with a keen sense of how to grow a brand, and her consultation is top notch.
13. Taylor Whitaker
Taylor is a pageant consultant with a serious focus on Instagram. You may recognize her as a former Miss Arkansas competitor and a frequent participant in all aspects of pageant life.
14. Kate Talbot
Kate is a content creator and marketer who has written numerous pieces of content for Forbes and is a frequent guest on programs on NPR, NBC News, and a handful of other high-end news agencies.
15. You!
Alright, so this last one is a bit of a cop-out, but hey. I know a lot of Instagram consultants are likely to catch this post and could want on this list. If you offer Instagram consulting services, drop a comment and we (and our visitors) will give your services a look.