Manychat Instagram Summit 2025: Key Takeaways from Top Marketing Experts (Day 1)

The Manychat Instagram Summit was packed with creators, marketers, and social media experts sharing everything from hooks to AI-driven engagement. I took notes so you can skip straight to the strategies that actually matter for your business.

Session 1: Seize Every Opportunity – Mike Yan (Manychat CEO)

Mike Yan kicked off the Instagram Summit with a reminder that today’s creators are operating in a crowded, fast-moving digital world (nearly every post we scroll past on Instagram is by another creator!). Standing out comes down to turning every moment of engagement into a meaningful connection.

And yes, we all know we’re meant to do this 🙄, but how do we actually get it right? 🤔

Diagram showing that having followers that trust your brand is more likely to lead to conversions than just having a mass amount of followers.

While “link in bio” calls-to-action have long been the norm, Mike shared that they actually cause significant drop-off in conversions. Instead, shifting to interactive comment prompts (e.g. “Comment ‘GUIDE’ to get the free download”) has led to massive increases in engagement and results. It definitely gets me DMing more often than not!

By 2030, the creator economy is expected to hit 500 million creators, up from 200 million today, all competing for attention in a world where the average attention span is just 8.2 seconds. Officially less than a goldfish. Oh humanity, what have we become?

Success isn’t just about posting content. It’s about building a system to move people along the journey from:

Passive viewers → Engaged followers → Raving fans

Right now, 70% of inbound audience interactions go unanswered, which is a huge missed opportunity. Mike’s 3C Formula — Content → Conversations → Conversions — shows how to turn interest into trust, and trust into sales.

He also introduced Manychat’s AI Engagement Goals, letting you tell AI what to do after someone replies. It makes it easier to automate meaningful back-and-forths while still keeping things personal. (No, this isn’t an ad - just my notes!)

The main takeaway? Engage.  Every comment, message, or mention is a chance to connect. Use AI to reply faster, build relationships, and seize every opportunity.

What's next?

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Session 2: Get Your Hooks Into Them – Meagan Hall (Socially Plus | Creator Club)

Meagan Hall kicked off her session with a bold reminder: views don’t pay the bills - sales do. She’s all about sales-first content and understanding buyer psychology, not chasing vanity metrics (one more time for the people in the back!)

Many creators are hitting metrics but not making money because they’re creating for the algorithm instead of their audience. Viral posts might feel great, but if there’s no product tied in, they don’t move anyone closer to buying. Hooks are often too broad, emotionally flat, or missing the audience’s real pain points.

A good hook grabs attention in 1–2 seconds, uses words your audience actually says, calls out a deep frustration or desire, and hits that emotional gut punch.

Bad hooks? Too generic, full of jargon, or speaking to what you think your audience struggles with instead of what they actually do.

Examples of how to turn your hooks from generic to 'Banger'

Meagan’s 3-step process for creating hooks that actually convert:

1. Find real-life problems your audience is facing

• Use Webinar transcripts, Instagram Lives, DMs, Facebook groups, Reddit threads

• Use AI to extract the top emotional frustrations from these conversations

2. Identify emotional barriers, not just surface problems

• Example: Surface problem: “I’ve spent too much on courses”

• Real barrier: “I don’t trust myself to choose the right path anymore”

3. Create a living master document

• Brain dump of voiced frustrations, objections, and the exact language your audience uses

Example of a prompt to add to ChatGPT to find real pain points.

Then craft hooks that hit the right note. Proven formulas include:

• Pain first / POV: “Are you stuck on $14 transactions?”

• Curiosity-driven: “How I bribe Instagram to make money for me”

• Storytelling: “After making $2m in 2 years, here’s what I wish I’d learned sooner”

Pair the hook with a comment prompt, freebie, or landing page.

Automate follow-ups via DMs or email (Wix and Zapier are MVPs). I LOVE WIX.

Magic formula: AI helps find the pain → messaging makes them care → automation makes them buy. Flip frustrations into new hook angles, extract why it feels personal, and turn that pain into DM-ready questions.

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Session 3: Just Use Your Phone – Jun Yuh (Entrepreneur & Co-Creator of Creator College)

Jun Yuh kicked off by reminding us you don’t need expensive gear to win big—something I also cover in my Confident Creator Starter Kit (hint, hint 😉).

Jun shared his journey: he had no creative or business background, was a full-time student, and built his own content systems from scratch. He posted every day for 2.5 years, reverse-engineered patterns, and focused on meaningful metrics: can you build a business, provide a community, and create impact?

He started with a digital product, then a physical book, made $1M, launched mentorship, became a judge for Red Bull Basement, and eventually co-founded Creator College.

Key lessons for creators

Know what to post, increase reach, stay consistent.

Jun’s approach? Become the niche. Forget sticking to one topic forever—if you’re multi-interested (like most of us), embrace it. It’s a long-term investment. Your content comes from your unique combination of:

• What: your message

• Who: your audience (psychographics > demographics)

• Uniqueness: your story, pain, passion, skills

These ideas become your content goldmine. I really love this system, which he calls the 'Creator Vision'.

I LOVE THIS.

Jun's Creator Vision system - I highly recommend you work this out for your own business!

Formatting your content:

• Hook: visual, spoken, text? Grab attention fast.

• Story: show transformation. What’s the payoff? What should they do next?

• Visuals: movement, dynamics, clear framing. Don’t confuse high quality with high production. Think simple, engaging, scroll-stopping visuals (like those “this or that” calories videos on Instagram). Study your favourite creators and recreate with your own spin.
  

  

  A screenshot of Jun's segment, where he shared how he maps out his filming days.

Phone content system:

• Map out scenes and angles before filming. Don’t overscript!

• Organise your B-roll for easy editing and repurposing (more on this in my Create with Confidence course).

• Use a simple setup: phone camera, adjustable tripod, clip-on light, clip-on mic (affordable options are in my course).

• Film in segments: 10–30 second clips. Easier to edit, faster to post.

• 3 take rule: 3 tries per line. Still not right? Move on and come back later.

• Use angle swaps: main shot, side angle, zoomed shot.
  

Organise your media:

• Title photo/video albums proactively (“walking outside,” “talking in chair”) so editing is effortless and tied back to your Creator Vision.

  
  

Jun’s mantra: completion over perfection. Focus on finishing and posting, not overthinking every shot (again, more tips in my Create with Confidence course).

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Well, that summarises the first 3 hours of the Instagram Summit! I'll be back tomorrow with the next three topic summaries.

Want more? Make sure to check out my Resources page, or sign up for the Create with Confidence course.