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Social media marketing, advertising, and growth

Mircea Toma

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Hi there! This is my progress and execution thread.

I wanted to start this a while back but, from stupid reasons, I almost put it down. I said, hmm, who would read this kind of topics and who is interested in what I do.

But, today, I will kickstart this thread and write about my progress and how I will leave my footprint into the world of entrepreneurship.

I will start with a short introduction about what my conditions and chances for success are.

So, I am currently living in Romania, a second world country that has miraculously survived communism and now 2/3 of people are still brainwashed from that era with stupid socialist mentalities still stuck in the sidewalk or many of them in the slowlane...

The government doesn't do any help, because, the people who lead your country are the same as the people who live in the country...

But, I am not here to rant about these conditions. Just skip this part if you hate this kind of talk.

__

I am 22 and a half years old, student, technical university, totally hating technical stuff and not good at it. After 2 years of failing, I've had a minor success with some friends... we started an Instagram marketing agency, and racked in a few dozen clients.

I decided to broke up from them, as the share didn't split evenly between us, and I wanted to avoid ego clashes.

Fast-forward 6 months from that incident, in the present, I signed up last week for an electronic signature (issued by our National Fiscal Administration) in order to open my first company. This will help me with the bills that I will issue for my clients and with the registration for the company in The National Trade Register Office.

I am currently working on my website, I almost did the whole homepage, contact us, how it works and blog page.

The next steps I will take are:
  1. Opening a bank account and deposit 200RON (42 euro) -- this is the minimum the government is telling you to put in order to start a company
  2. Speak with my grandmother to let me use her house in order to set up my company in the Trade Office records.
  3. Write some documents for The Trade Office
  4. And voila, after 3 days from the submission of the documents, I will have my own company.
Don't worry, I already have a client, who will be paying me over 500$ for what I will do for her. I will be working solo and this will be good revenue for the start. 500$ can buy you lots of stuff in Romania :)

__

I will come with updates the upcoming days. I am so relieved that I took the action and I wrote this thread. I have a lot of things on my head these days, but I am happy that this came to life.
 
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Johnny boy

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If you are collecting monthly payments from customers, I would suggest a service that charges their card or bank account automatically each month. I use quickbooks and collect their credit card info to set up recurring payments and I never have to send them a bill that they can choose to put off paying. It is so nice to wake up at the beginning of the month and see thousands deposited into my account without sending any invoices. I'm pretty sure you can use quickbooks in Europe. It should help filing your taxes and keeping good financial records. I have no idea how Europe works with that stuff though.

How are you finding clients?

And what are you offering them?
 

Mircea Toma

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If you are collecting monthly payments from customers, I would suggest a service that charges their card or bank account automatically each month. I use quickbooks and collect their credit card info to set up recurring payments and I never have to send them a bill that they can choose to put off paying. It is so nice to wake up at the beginning of the month and see thousands deposited into my account without sending any invoices. I'm pretty sure you can use quickbooks in Europe. It should help filing your taxes and keeping good financial records. I have no idea how Europe works with that stuff though.

How are you finding clients?

And what are you offering them?

Hello Johnny! I was collecting with Revolut, a mobile app where you can set up recurring payments and make payments online or to your friends in your phone book. I also collected with PayPal recurring payment feature.

I am not an expert in law, nor have I contacted a lawyer to talk to about how I will issue the bills to the customers. But, as I know from my mere 22 years of life, companies here need bills in order to pay companies the money they owe to them. I will also set up contracts to have a stronger law bond.

Sorry if I am left-handed with what I wrote here, but do not have a very good command on laws in my country and I will improve on this, promise :).

Preferably, my ideal customer will be from the USA, with a marketing budget of over 5K-10K, wanting to raise brand awareness, social proof, sales and leads on Instagram and maybe other social platforms too, I will think deeper about this.
I plan on sending cold-emails and connecting on LinkedIn focusing on what I did for my actual clients and presenting them the number and results and also telling how my service will affect their brand.

I can also offer them a 3-day trial where they would see how it works and this will surely appeal to them.

My services are: Instagram organic follower growth, like boosts (over 490 likes on every post), comments (over 20 comments on every post), Influencer marketing(finding the perfect influencer for their brand and creating contests, shout-outs, collabs), Facebook messenger bot (this will enhance their lead gen, customer support, or other desires of the client), powerlikes from bigger accounts(over 500 likes, 20 comments, 500 views) only from high authority accounts from their niche, we can schedule posts for them and send DM to 25 new followers every day.

Please pardon my english if you don't understand something :)
 

MHP368

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Welcome,

It seems difficult to start a company in romania! my...

So you have a background in instagram thats good. I'm curious, what clientele benefit from that? (like i'm genuinely curious, this isn't a leading question)

"My services are: Instagram organic follower growth, like boosts (over 490 likes on every post), comments (over 20 comments on every post), Influencer marketing(finding the perfect influencer for their brand and creating contests, shout-outs, collabs), Facebook messenger bot (this will enhance their lead gen, customer support, or other desires of the client), powerlikes from bigger accounts(over 500 likes, 20 comments, 500 views) only from high authority accounts from their niche, we can schedule posts for them and send DM to 25 new followers every day."

It seems like with a little work on your end you could do a full package social media management company (since you already dabble in facebook) , might I suggest that you take some time with this first client and map out exactly what it is you do, you'll want that process locked down for when you eventually scale things and hire out right?

good luck, will follow the thread
 
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Mircea Toma

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Welcome,

It seems difficult to start a company in romania! my...

So you have a background in instagram thats good. I'm curious, what clientele benefit from that? (like i'm genuinely curious, this isn't a leading question)

"My services are: Instagram organic follower growth, like boosts (over 490 likes on every post), comments (over 20 comments on every post), Influencer marketing(finding the perfect influencer for their brand and creating contests, shout-outs, collabs), Facebook messenger bot (this will enhance their lead gen, customer support, or other desires of the client), powerlikes from bigger accounts(over 500 likes, 20 comments, 500 views) only from high authority accounts from their niche, we can schedule posts for them and send DM to 25 new followers every day."

It seems like with a little work on your end you could do a full package social media management company (since you already dabble in facebook) , might I suggest that you take some time with this first client and map out exactly what it is you do, you'll want that process locked down for when you eventually scale things and hire out right?

good luck, will follow the thread

Hello! Thanks for the $ and welcoming :)
Yes, it is hard but luckily I do not need to complicate myself with inventory or complicated stuff like e-commerce.

That's why I prefer the services business and acquired the skills to do so. With this client, my perspectives changed a bit because I was determined before I met her to open a dedicated Instagram Agency, but she wants to do almost all social platforms without Pinterest, Quora or Medium.

She wants graphic design too... For me it's not that complicated as I know to do 95% of the workload but as MJ said I prefer that my business will fit into the CENTS model. I want to scale it and not be time dependent.

I will follow your advice, I will sit down with my client, map out all her ideas on a piece of paper and think about the strategy. She said that we will collaborate a long time from now. She is also a gateway into the industry, as she can also recommend me to all her connections, so more $$$ for me.

Thanks for following my thread :).
 

Mircea Toma

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Alright, so one week already passed from when I started this article.(I can only write in weekends when I can unwind and let my imagination go wild). So, these are my highlights from the last week.

  • I finished the Homepage for the computer version, I still need to finish for mobile and tablet.
  • I finished the Contact page for computer, tablet, mobile.
  • I finished the How It Works page only for computer.
  • I jotted down a blog concept and slapped it on the website. Hopefully, it will look astonishing in the near future...
  • I sent a request to my National Trade Register Office for my company name, still waiting for some reply.
  • Met with my single client that I have, and agreed to do work for the upcoming 3 weeks. As I am working with her for the last 4 months, she gave me more work to do like, a website page that will represent her next workshops, a facebook messenger bot that will aid the registrations for the workshop.
In the upcoming weeks I have my calendar full of work for the client, for sure I will scale this up and hire someone as I really don't want to grind and work every day for clients. But for now, this will give me a quick buck that I will eventually reinvest in the agency.
 

Mircea Toma

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New Update - One more week passing by.

This week my anxiety has peaked, having to do many things with my family for Easter preparation, I still put hours into what I do for my 1 client and for my agency.
  • I almost finished my clients' website. The one I was talking about last week.
  • I decided that my best option will be to pay someone to make my Bureaucratic procedures for the registration of my agency.
This is what I did the last week, as the work for this client is a bit complicated. I do not have much knowledge about website development and I got stuck quite a lot in the process. But luckily I worked things out.

This is a personal journey for me, that I enthusiastically took to upgrade all my skills.

Stay tuned folks...
 
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GoodluckChuck

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Great progress so far. If $500 is a lot in Romania I can see why you're excited for $5000!

I wonder about your methods of Instagram management. You mention numbers of likes and comments. Are you buying likes and followers?

Why 400 likes and not 4000?

I'm wondering where these numbers come from and why they matter?

What is the end result your going for and what is the basis of the service you offer? Instagram marketing can mean many different things.
 

Mircea Toma

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Great progress so far. If $500 is a lot in Romania I can see why you're excited for $5000!

I wonder about your methods of Instagram management. You mention numbers of likes and comments. Are you buying likes and followers?

Why 400 likes and not 4000?

I'm wondering where these numbers come from and why they matter?

What is the end result your going for and what is the basis of the service you offer? Instagram marketing can mean many different things.

Hello!
Yes I am currently buying likes and comments from a big trusted network of niche specific services.

These are fixed amounts of likes and comments. I will base my pricing aroung these. They matter because every like counts when you want to get viral. Hashtags matter too, and content too. So , I will select my client carefully before I do any businesses.

I want to do only Instagram Marketing and Messenger Marketing. I want to do all the services, ultimately.
Also, in the future I will hire when I will have 3 clients paying me.

Hope this clarifies what your questions, I am happy that I can add value here.
 

MattR82

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Your fee is $500 and then the client pays outside of that for any of the costs related to shoutouts etc?

Not sure how I feel about buying likes and comments to be honest. I don't do it, but it was a lot of work to get to a respectable point without it.

I'm a big believer in influencers/shoutouts and competitions though, if done the right way.

I'm very interested to learn more about power likes though. Do you go out and make your own networks from bigger accounts or do you pay for them through a specific service?
 
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GoodluckChuck

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Like Matt said, buying likes and comments is a game you have to be super careful at. I have an account now that was ruined because the last agency bought likes and followers.

Our strategy is 100% engagement and relationship building with the normal fundamental SEO and keywords.

I guess if you're buying likes and comments just make sure they are coming from the right areas and that you actually have real people in the target market engaging.

The numbers might impress the ckient at first but their bank account will tip them off eventually.

I don't know enough about Instagram marketing to give certain advice so take all this with a grain of salt and pave your own way.
 

Mircea Toma

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Your fee is $500 and then the client pays outside of that for any of the costs related to shoutouts etc?

Not sure how I feel about buying likes and comments to be honest. I don't do it, but it was a lot of work to get to a respectable point without it.

I'm a big believer in influencers/shoutouts and competitions though, if done the right way.

I'm very interested to learn more about power likes though. Do you go out and make your own networks from bigger accounts or do you pay for them through a specific service?
ll

Hi there! I don't buy likes and engagement at all. I found a network that I pay for in order to get likes and comments for accounts.

This will give me leverage in the negociation process, when I will discuss price :D. I can bring up the classic "If I will bring you tomorrow 1000 likes and over 15 comments you will do business with me?".

SO, Just to further clarify, I am not doing something black hat like buying followers and engagement, I am just grey-hatting a little :)
 

srodrigo

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Opening a bank account and deposit 200RON (42 euro) -- this is the minimum the government is telling you to put in order to start a company

Not sure how much is 42 euros worth in Romania, but doesn't sound too bad. In Spain you need to deposit 3000 f*cking euros capital to start a company (plus another 500 spent on the setup itself).

Best of luck BTW!
 
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MattR82

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Hi there! I don't buy likes and engagement at all. I found a network that I pay for in order to get likes and comments for accounts.

This will give me leverage in the negociation process, when I will discuss price :D. I can bring up the classic "If I will bring you tomorrow 1000 likes and over 15 comments you will do business with me?".

SO, Just to further clarify, I am not doing something black hat like buying followers and engagement, I am just grey-hatting a little :)
Fair enough. but that still sounds like buying likes and engagement to me haha.

I'm honestly not trying to be negative - I think you are genuinely wanting the best for your clients - but I don't know if this method is good for them and they probably don't even realise it. 1000 likes and 15 comments don't mean anything if it isn't coming from people genuinely interested that are potentially going to buy from them. Especially if Instagram goes ahead with hiding likes.

I know people have a lot of success though with using power likes from people relevant to the account etc to get onto explore though. Is this what you are trying to do?

I'm still trying to figure this all out for myself, but am about to go the way of using Instagram story ads to help prop up organic as I'm a bit worried about how risky these other services are. Getting someone's IG account shut down would be a disaster.
 

Cvince

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Hi there! I don't buy likes and engagement at all. I found a network that I pay for in order to get likes and comments for accounts.

This will give me leverage in the negociation process, when I will discuss price :D. I can bring up the classic "If I will bring you tomorrow 1000 likes and over 15 comments you will do business with me?".

SO, Just to further clarify, I am not doing something black hat like buying followers and engagement, I am just grey-hatting a little :)

This is a very unethical way of obtaining clients. You're proving fake engagement under false pretense. Sounds like fraud.

Diving even further, all bot accounts have a time limit to their ip addresses. Every follow and like your providing will vanish within the year.
 
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Mircea Toma

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Fair enough. but that still sounds like buying likes and engagement to me haha.

I'm honestly not trying to be negative - I think you are genuinely wanting the best for your clients - but I don't know if this method is good for them and they probably don't even realise it. 1000 likes and 15 comments don't mean anything if it isn't coming from people genuinely interested that are potentially going to buy from them. Especially if Instagram goes ahead with hiding likes.

I know people have a lot of success though with using power likes from people relevant to the account etc to get onto explore though. Is this what you are trying to do?

I'm still trying to figure this all out for myself, but am about to go the way of using Instagram story ads to help prop up organic as I'm a bit worried about how risky these other services are. Getting someone's IG account shut down would be a disaster.

Hey! Yes I am selling powerlikes too. They will come from accounts that are in the same niche that I will be working on. So it's legit and real. They will really help you.

Why will it be a disaster if you state in your contract that they will sign that "I am not responsible for your accounts' health, so you should sign at your own will" or smth like that. This will surely keep your hands clean.
 
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Mircea Toma

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This is a very unethical way of obtaining clients. You're proving fake engagement under false pretense. Sounds like fraud.

Diving even further, all bot accounts have a time limit to their ip addresses. Every follow and like your providing will vanish within the year.

How do you know they are fake? Have you done any research by yourself? Do you know all services on the WEB?
Please come with facts to your claims or something that's tangible. I provide real value to my clients and had some clients in the past that got REAL tangible results from me and are HAPPY too!
 

MattR82

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Hey! Yes I am selling powerlikes too. They will come from accounts that are in the same niche that I will be working on. So it's legit and real. They will really help you.

Why will it be a disaster if you state in your contract that they will sign that "I am not responsible for your accounts' health, so you should sign at your own will" or smth like that. This will surely keep your hands clean.
I mean it's a disaster for them, if their account gets shut down for doing things against Instagrams TOS.
 

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Do you create contests/giveaways and spread the word via paid ads? Why yes, why not? How's that worked for you?

Why did you choose Instagram? Why not AdWords or Facebook? They're both more revenue oriented than just Instagram.

What are you trying to accomplish when doing Instagram for your clients? How can you tie your actions to their revenue?
 
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Mircea Toma

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Do you create contests/giveaways and spread the word via paid ads? Why yes, why not? How's that worked for you?

Why did you choose Instagram? Why not AdWords or Facebook? They're both more revenue oriented than just Instagram.

What are you trying to accomplish when doing Instagram for your clients? How can you tie your actions to their revenue?

Yes, I will also create contests and giveaways for my clients. Mainly I will spread the word for my brand via LinkedIn, because I do not have very much money to spend on ads and also I lack Advanced Paid Ads knowledge to fructify every penny saved.

I chose Instagram a while ago, mainly 2 years ago and spent time learning all the INS-AND-OUTS of this platform and every opportunity that comes from it. I also have knowledge on AdWords and Facebook Ads but I am not proficient like Instagram.

My perfect client looks like: - A struggling company or professional that has difficulty increasing his reach and engagement on Instagram and needs a sudden boost to land on the explore page.
- I also provide scheduling of posts and growth reports.
- I also provide Instagram growth via follow/unfollow and other methods.
Also my client needs to have a good product and/or service that will go hand in hand with my services for the best growth and revenue.
 

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