Jumper Media CEO Reveals Instagram Top Tips

Based in sunny San Diego, Jumper Media is an Instagram-first agency helping brands reach new customers and generally becoming social media rockstars. Meanwhile, they’ve dedicated their own Instagram to showcasing brands who are ‘crushing it’ on social media, which is exactly why I wanted to shine the Hopper HQ Spotlight on them…

Working with almost 2000 businesses in a team of just 30 people, Jumper has grown rapidly since it was born in 2016, and isn’t slowing down anytime soon. With its headquarters set against a Californian coast, their company culture leaves nothing to be desired, as I learnt when stalking the business on Instagram – team bonding aboard a yacht anyone?

       
An insight into Californian agency life at Jumper Media, we’re not jealous at all.

Even though I didn’t get to go to San Diego to meet the team (or try out the company branded surfboards) for myself, I was lucky enough to have a chat with Colton Bollinger, CEO and Co-Founder of Jumper Media, to talk all things Instagram and find out a bit more about the agency and their awesome client work!

After some classic chat about British vs. Californian weather, we got on to the good stuff…

So Colton, what were you up to before Jumper Media, and what led you to establish it?

Before Jumper I was actually working in another start up in the golf industry! We were running an app for golf instructors to schedule and manage online payments. That’s what drove me into Instagram and social media, as I was managing that side of things for the business. I had a prominent golf company reach out to me after they’d seen how I’d grown both my personal and the company’s social profiles. They asked me to manage theirs as well, which is really what jump started everything! I picked up more and more clients to the point where I couldn’t do it myself anymore. My 2 best friends were in San Fransisco at the time and we came together and decided to form the company – and somehow the clients kept rolling in!

Colton Bollinger, CEO & Co-Founder of Jumper Media

So Jumper Media is a social media agency, but it’s Instagram specific?

Yeah it’s primarily Instagram, we offer full management as well as content creation. We also manage paid ads on Facebook, but don’t tend to create content or do general account management for any other social network. 

Awesome! So why did you decide to focus on Instagram?

When I first started in this industry, content seemed to be created Facebook first and then it was shared to Twitter and Instagram. Over the past two and a half years, I’ve seen that shift. Basically 100% of content is Instagram first now, and I’ve been along with the clients as that shift has happened and they’ve been trying to keep up. There’s many different dynamics that go into creating content for Instagram versus Facebook, with stuff like Boomerang and Stories, people have had to adapt. Quite honestly I just think people are spending more time on it! In my first sales pitches when potential clients asked me why they should invest in Instagram, I would just ask them what they did when they went to the bathroom these days, and most of the time they weren’t on Facebook anymore, they were scrolling Instagram. 

The Jumper Media team in their collaborative office space in San Diego

That makes sense, Instagram is undeniably addictive and has become a necessity in any social media strategy! So say a client comes to you guys wanting full Instagram management as well as a certain amount of content creation, what’s Jumper Media’s process from there? Could you talk me through it?

Sure, so for content creation the first thing to do is understand all the finer details like where they’re based, what the product is, whether it’s going to be shipped to us or if we can travel to them etc. Typically with our content creation packages, we include a 3-4 hour video/photoshoot for a client’s product, service or business. So we’ll schedule out the videographer to get a date in the calendar, then they’ll either send us the product and we’ll plan the shoot internally, or where possible we’ll go to shoot at their location. 

From there we put together a rough shot list and get some clear ideas from the client of what they want us to capture or create. If there’s any models necessary we aim to plan around it – most of our clients are small to medium businesses so we try and save them that expense by suggesting they use people they know!

If the client has given us some content in advance we start publishing that prior to the shoot to get some buzz going. If not, we can shoot and edit everything up in under a week and get it over to the client for approval. Once that’s done we create a 2 week content schedule which the client can approve and make amendments to, and then we start posting! With any client, that first month is all about learning the voice of the brand, getting feedback from them on what they liked and what they didn’t – and most importantly, finding out if they want to carry on working with us or not!

That last part must be pretty vital, as I’m sure it takes a great deal of empathy and communication to get into the mindset of another business in order to produce unique and authentic content for them?

Completely, and we never create 100% of content for a client. Even if we’re doing content creation, it’s only ever a supplemental amount to their overall content strategy. We still want them to be telling company stories you know? Like posting boomerangs of their company culture and their colleagues doing funny stuff in the office. We want them to capture a sense of the behind-the-scenes fun aspect of the business, as that’s something we can’t really create for them day to day. It’s a collaborative effort!

Some of the team at Jumper Media in their office headquarters in San Diego

I think that’s really important, especially with Instagram making it easier than ever to get to know the humans behind a business with Stories and Live! So Colton, agency life must have its trials and tribulations, what issues would you say you struggle with day to day?

Hmm…mostly managing communication with the client! There’s a lot of people who can run an Instagram account, you can read enough blogs on best practise and watch enough videos to educate yourself to be a social media manager. But what sets anyone apart in order to work with clients at scale, is really the communication and expectation between both parties, and how you handle and meet those expectations.

I suppose it’s not just managing and nurturing Instagram accounts, but also the relationship between you and the client!

Exactly, and that’s our biggest challenge day-to-day I’d say: how can we get better at communicating with our clients, setting expectations and ensuring we meet them. A client is never unhappy when they agree to expectations and you meet them, but they’re always going to be unhappy when you set expectations that are not met!

Strong selfie game from the women at Jumper Media

Definitely. Now Jumper Media gets amazing engagement on Instagram, so you guys clearly practise what you preach! One grievance we often hear at Hopper HQ is that it can be hard to think of content ideas when you don’t have a product to photograph. What advice would you give to other B2B companies to improve their Instagram content?

Okay so there’s 2 good approaches here. I think most B2B businesses realise Instagram is never going to be their biggest avenue of sales. Instagram is more of a consumer facing platform, it’s just how it works. So the app may not be the best place to spend lots of time and resources to gain clientele, BUT, it’s a great source to motivate and attract new employees! Some businesses will focus their efforts primarily on recruiting through Instagram. They invest time in showing company culture and giving the consumer an idea of what they do – it’s a tactic that we’ve used with our own clients. At Jumper we’ll strategise a content plan around the question: ‘how do we show people how awesome your company is and attract them to want to work for you?’. 

That’s a really interesting strategy! And if your profile is appealing to your ideal employee, chances are it’ll have the same effect on your ideal customer too. What’s the second approach?

Precisely! The other approach is becoming the thought leader in your industry, which is kind of what we did with our own profile. We just look for other businesses who do a great job with their online marketing – they could be some of our clients, local businesses, or even lead gen! If we highlight a business we’d like to work with on our Instagram, we’ll point out what they’re doing really well and maybe even something they could improve on. But the big takeaway from that is that they get a notification on their Instagram saying ‘@jumpermedia tagged you in a post’ and they’re gonna be like “who the hell are jumper media??”.

It’s a great conversation opener, they’ll come to our page and get an idea of who we are as a brand and hopefully research what we do. Granted, not every business is going to be managing their own Instagram, they could have an agency like ourselves managing their accounts, and chances are the person at the company might never actually see it! In that sense it may not be the best lead gen, but it’s still a good strategy. It makes your page look good and then when people visit they can see businesses that are succeeding on Instagram and get inspired to improve their own content.

Any final tips?

I’d suggest using this strategy to highlight existing customers! That’s one thing we’ve definitely learnt – whenever we highlight a current client, they really love the gesture and the exposure, and they see a lot of value in it. It’s a great way to keep clients happy and potentially attract a few new ones!

Also, keep in mind that the number 1 goal with any Instagram content is consumer value – Instagram is first and foremost a consumer facing platform – so if you’re not giving something for the consumers to come back to and value, they’re not going to want to follow you. 

We’ve featured @jumpermedia on our Instagram #HopperHQSpotlight – check it out

Great thanks Colton! Are there any industries or sectors you think Instagram marketing is most difficult for?

The hardest one that we’ve come across is service providers like lawyers. They’re quite difficult businesses to market on social media, so then it’s really about showing a sense of humility and personality around the professionals in the company. There’s undeniably pre-conceived notions about professions like law, people might think the employees are sly or even untrustworthy. So the way you need to go about a content strategy is by thinking: ‘how can we dismiss those stereotypes from a consumer who comes to the page?’. For example, showing that they have kids, they like to play volleyball, drive cars and so on, it shifts the ‘sleazy lawyer’ image into a real, relatable human being. Every company is different, but I think that’s a great first step for businesses who you perhaps wouldn’t traditionally think would be on Instagram. 

For my final question, I’d love to know what you look for online to help you stay at the top of your Instagram game?

For the most part just being on Instagram all the time, that’s the number one thing. My team follow blogs from all our competitors and news sources to keep up to date with what’s being posted, what’s not, what people are looking for, and we’ll go to Google to see what’s being searched for in the Instagram space. Personally I just go to Instagram itself, I look at sponsored ads, see what other businesses are doing well, get inspiration and ideas for our own clients. There’s a lot of stuff you wouldn’t see unless you’re on the platform a lot, as everything people are writing about and sharing is already dated! 

Amazing!  Thanks for your time Colton.

No problem, thanks for reaching out!

📸 Keep up to date with Colton and Jumper Media on Instagram 📸