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Social Media Decoded
The Future of Digital Growth: A Conversation with Anna Tutckaia, VP of Growth at Manychat
00:21:53
In this episode, Michelle interviews Anna Tutckaia, VP of Growth at manychat, recorded at the Instagram Summit 2025. They discuss the future of digital growth, how AI and automation are reshaping marketing, and what entrepreneurs and brands need to focus on to stay visible in 2025 and beyond.
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- [00:00]
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Michelle Thames
Welcome back to Social Media Decoded. I'm your host Michelle Thames and today's episode is one I am so excited to share. I recently had the incredible opportunity to sit down with Anna Tutskia, VP of Growth, at Manichat Live at the Instagram Summit 2025 in Los Angeles. Anna is the marketing leader with more than a decade of experience driving growth across B2B, D2C and SaaS marketplaces at Manichat. She's helping brands and entrepreneurs scale by leveraging AI, automation and conversational marketing to build stronger connections and drive real results. In this conversation, we're diving into the state of Instagram marketing in 2025. Why conversations in the DMs are the new storefront how automation can actually make marketing more human, the KPIs and strategies teams should focus on for growth and Anna's insights on where AI and visibility are taking us in the next one to two years. This episode is packed with value, whether you're an entrepreneur, a leader, or a brand looking to stay ahead.
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Anna Tutskia
So.
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Michelle Thames
So let's get into My conversation with Anna of Manichat.
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Super excited to be here today live at the Manichat Summit. So if you are listening to today's episode, we are live at the Instagram in Real Life Summit in la. And I am so excited you all to be sitting here with an Instagram head of growth. Anna, how are you today?
- [03:05]
Anna Tutskia
Welcome to the podcast, welcome to the summit and thank you so much for having me on your podcast. So exciting.
- [03:11]
Michelle Thames
Yes, thank you for having me at the summit. So I want to get right into it and talk about your growth and how you even got to manychat. So we've already, you know, given the listeners a little bit about your background, but tell us more about you and how you got involved with ManyChat.
- [03:26]
Anna Tutskia
I joined ManyChat six years ago when we were just starting out. We were in messenger automation and mainly focusing on small business owners and bot builders. We're pretty much the first one to pioneer chat marketing automation was super exciting journey but then we started growing and we grew by adding more channels. Instagram automation, TikTok in LATAM, Telegram, SMS, email. So it's a pretty big mix. So now we are celebrating Instagram because it's an Instagram IG summit, but we are a multi channel platform empowering more than 2 million creators across 170 countries.
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Michelle Thames
Wow. 200 million creators across 170 countries.
- [04:13]
Anna Tutskia
2 million.
- [04:14]
Michelle Thames
2 million. 2 million across 170 countries.
- [04:18]
Anna Tutskia
Exactly.
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Michelle Thames
That is no small feat. So congratulations to you and the manychat team for continuing to expand this platform because it's just so helpful to creators. So I want to talk about what excites you about the work that you do the most right now. Like what lights you up every day.
- [04:36]
Anna Tutskia
Such a cool question. First of all, being part of the creator economy is really exciting. I used to work at the companies where like it's big B2B brands and the deals last years and you never see the result of your work until you know, somewhere down the line with ManyChat since we are growing so fast and we are self serve platform, we have self thousands of people joining weekly and you can see how empowering it is to creators. It's fun to work with creators, it's fun to organize, you know, these types of events for creators. And it's also really empowering to know that some people who get into this business, they can really use the tools that can allow them not only create content and do what they love, but also make money out of it because it takes time to learn, it takes time to learn how to become a business, and it takes time to figure out how to organize it. And I'm feeling very proud that we're a team for, you know, doing that for the industry that I'm passionate about.
- [05:38]
Michelle Thames
Love that. And, yes, I'm super passionate about the creator economy as well, which is why we're here today. And it's just so grateful. I am grateful, honestly, to have platforms like Manichat that listen to creators, because there are a lot of platforms, Right, that we could be using. But I think one thing, and being here today, and there's some secrets, y', all, I cannot say yet. You're just gonna have to sign up for Manichat. That you all have listened to what we have said, like, what would help us in our businesses, and you have gone to the drawing board to create that for us. And that is why I continue to stay with apps and different tools that I use is because you all actually listen to creators. So thank you for that. And you don't just have the apps out there and just do what you all want to do. You actually listen to. Listen to the creators who utilize the apps every single day.
- [06:23]
Anna Tutskia
Thank you for saying that. And we are very lucky because we are business partner, and we are on calls with them weekly. So we pass this information and this request that we're getting from creators, and we build it together with them, which is really awesome to have a partner like that. So thank you for Meta as well.
- [06:42]
Michelle Thames
Yes, yes, thank you to Meta. We wouldn't be here without Meta. Right? I love that. So from your perspective, what's changing in how businesses and creators are using Instagram in 2025?
- [06:53]
Anna Tutskia
Everything is evolving, right? And Instagram is evolving. And I feel like what is changing is creators are becoming smarter in the way they use the platform. We're kind of past the age where we're figuring out how to create content, right? Every person, like, from a small teenager to somebody who, you know, who's been in the industry for so long, know how to create content. They use all the cool tools. And I think right now it's really a matter of how to get the most out of it, how to get the most out of the content that you put out there, how to get the most out of the audience. Audience. So it's not just the numbers, but it's really the connections that you are building, you know, with your audience and the community that you are creating, no matter what goals you have. And then you can be super free in terms of what goals do you want to set for yourself either selling your products or services. What's changing? Creators are evolving with the platform that is evolving. And we're past the days when creators were just focused on creating content. Now I feel like everybody, from young to old, from unexperienced to experience, know how to do it. And now it's the next step to really figuring out how to get the most out of it, how to build the connections that are meaningful, how to build a community, and how to make money out of it. So I think we are in the game to empowering creators to do that, but we're doing it because creators are this way and that's what they want.
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Michelle Thames
Yeah. So I love that. And I think it's very important to, like you said, to evolve as the platform change. Because I've been around the block for a while. I've been doing this for 17 years, and I just seen the growth of Instagram on how it used to be with the clunky platform to, like, now how it is and how you all have seamlessly integrated into that. I think that's just a testament of growth. Right. To be able to grow with the platform and be able to again, listen to the creators and continue to expand.
- [08:48]
Anna Tutskia
So 100%. From your perspective, since you are a creator and you've been in this industry for so long, what changes are you seeing?
- [08:55]
Michelle Thames
Oh, I love this. Being interviewed on the podcast, I'm really just loving all the changes that Instagram is making, I think. Well, let me take that back. I don't love all the changes that Instagram has made, but I do appreciate that it is evolving more into a business platform. Like, yes, we are on there for our family and friends, but I think there is so much to be able to use a free platform to start a business and get your business in front of millions of people, people to change your life in a day. That's my story. I was fired from my job. I was able to use social media to get in front of more people, increase my visibility, and get cool opportunities like interviewing you at the Instagram Summit. Social media has changed my life, and I want to be able to continue to yell that to the mountaintops. And so I've seen so many changes, and I'm here to, you know, ride the wave until Instagram is no longer here. But that won't happen. Instagram is going to be around for a long time.
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Anna Tutskia
But, yeah, powerful story.
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Michelle Thames
Thank you. So now I want to talk about Manichat and the future of Manichat. Now there's some things under wraps that we can't talk about. You just have to sign up for ManyChat so that you know and learn about those. So how is ManyChat helping entrepreneurs, creators and businesses grow faster?
- [10:07]
Anna Tutskia
Yeah, I would say that a lot of entrepreneurs, businesses and creators on the platform, they know what they want to get from the platform, and they know from what they want to get from their business. They want to grow their followers, they want to engage with their followers, and they want to take it to the next level, no matter what their objective is. And manychat allows to expedite it and to do it through automation. So if you want to grow your followers through connecting ManyChat, your engagement grows. And so Instagram algorithms, they see that and they show your content to more people. So that's how you achieve your goal. Growing engagement is you also do it through automation. So every person who comments, every person who shares your comments, you want to engage with them, right at that, right? You want to say thank you, you want to show, to send them a product, you want to send them the freebie. But unfortunately, you don't have time to interact and to sit there all the time 24 7. And that's where ManyChat comes in. And the same thing with closing the sale. It's like while your audience is interested in either going to the retreat that you are promoting or getting your course or buying, you know, this beautiful dress that you're wearing, you can all automate it through manychat. So everything you already know what you want to do with Instagram, you can do it, but using automation.
- [11:31]
Michelle Thames
And this definitely segues into what I want to ask you next is about humanization of AI. There are a lot of people listening, who may be listening, who don't want to tap into AI because they feel like the human touch is not there. So there's a misconception that automation takes away the human touch. How do you see automation actually enhancing authenticity?
- [11:53]
Anna Tutskia
That's a really good question. And you brought up AI to this conversation. And the cool thing about ManyChat is you can do it using AI and you can educate your AI so it becomes really like, much like you like your voice, but you can also build automation with very specific words and very specific keywords. You know, you want your users, your followers to mention and very specific responses that they will receive. So it's like you can do both ways, but then on top of it, you're also there as a person, and you can always jump in, into every automation that is there and to be there for your followers. I was like very often actually had recently some interaction with one of the creators that I follow and there was an automation and I started responding to this automation and then they actually jumped in and they was like, hey, what are your like let's chat. Like what are your goals? How do and even imagine how it ended. They jumped on the FaceTime with me and we had a 30 minute like real person to person conversation and it was so meaningful. But they were able to capture me and to catch me in this moment when I'm interested and be there for me as a human. So you can choose like what way to go and when you are ready to show up when you have most, you know, when you have your time and be there for your followers.
- [13:21]
Michelle Thames
I love that because I am someone who is big on connections and big on building relationships. So I love that if somebody does reach out to me and my automation fires off, I do come back and I do say, hey, you know, how's your day? Thanks for following me. You know, I want to get to know you. So knowing that we can come back and have the automation, you know, take care of the initial first step and then we can come back and then have that conversation, I just really love that and I think that is super important. So for anyone listening, thank you for sharing that because authenticity is important and we want to be able to make sure that we maintain that in our businesses and just the relationships that we build on and off social media. You and that was cool that she jumped on a call with you.
- [13:58]
Anna Tutskia
It was mind blowing. I was so interested into. This is a creator who is in AI industry and they just recently went and learned about cool updates from Meta. Like Meta is releasing like awesome glasses and I was like hey, how was it? And then like he told 30 Minutes the interesting and cool stuff about the event. So it's the nice to have this touch.
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Michelle Thames
I love that yes, human AI is possible. It is possible.
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Anna Tutskia
I would say humans powered by AI.
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Michelle Thames
Humans powered by AI. I love that. So how can small businesses balance? And this is good because we're kind of leading into this organic growth strategies with paid ads, influencer campaigns and automation tools. It's kind of like a big thing altogether.
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Anna Tutskia
Big thing altogether. I would say first of all, let's remember that we don't need to do it all. And very often I would either work with businesses or I would listen to young creators who want to be on all the platforms. They want to be on organic and they want to be on paid and they want to start generating emails and they want to build the newsletter. And then very fast the burnout happens. So you don't need to do it all. Like, you should first start small and understand where do you get where your audience is at? Who is your audience, where they hang out online, whom do they hang out online? And you need to be there, you need to meet where your audience is at. But then once you already know and you can see, okay, I already know them, like, can I add more to that? Can I add automation that can help me grow this audience or build engagement with them, then you can think, okay, maybe they are on this platform and now I can. I know the language that they speak so I can scale it. Because you can't run ads without really understanding who you are targeting and how you're doing it. So you first need to, you know, get the basics. So you are adding ads and you are getting more visibility. And then maybe you start thinking, okay, I don't want to rely just on one platform. I want to bring the users from this platform and to build the email list of my users so I own it and I can communicate them no matter what algorithms, changes are coming. And then you're adding that to the mix. So be gradual, add more, definitely. My recommendation would be once you expand a lot, to own your audience and build direct relationships with them, build your community.
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Michelle Thames
I love that. I love that. Tapped into, dabbled into ads a little bit. So it's good for you to say that. And I'm glad that you said you don't have to do everything at once. I think that is a lot of creators and business owners, you know, what we stand up against. It's like this. We have to be doing this. We need to be on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, YouTube, start a podcast. So start small, right? It's basically what I hear you saying. And we can automate things as we go in just the process. I like to call it the digital ecosystem. Your digital ecosystem grows with just you and you as you continue to grow. So I love that. Now, looking ahead and talking about the future of Manichette, which today I am so grateful to be here to learn about all these new things that you all cannot learn about until a few weeks from now. But I'm so excited because again, just the growth that I'm seeing and it's just so excited to be in the room with creators, to experience this in real life. So trends, let's talk about trends. What trends do you think will define the next one to Two years in social media and digital growth.
- [17:32]
Anna Tutskia
That's a really good question. And I actually want to open up a little bit about all the upcoming cool things that we are coming, but more in a high level fashion that is very connected with Trends. So as ManyChat, we're moving away from pure automation to build to engagement. And the goal of ManyChat is to allow all creators on Instagram to engage with your followers on every step, step of their journey. They start, they meet you, you probably want to say hi, they share content that you posted with your audience. You probably want to do something right at that moment when they send you a dm, you definitely don't want to leave the DM unanswered. So every step that you can even imagine your followers do on Instagram, think on how you can respond to them, how you can get back to them. And manychat will support you with that, I'll tell you that. And talking about the trends, the trends are moving to that direction. Instagram is growing, but creators are growing as well. Every year we are getting, every week we're getting more and more creators into the platform. And you probably heard a lot of conversations on you need to niche down, you need to really understand it's like similar with ads, who your audience is and how to serve them. So the goal I would say moving forward is to focus less on this vanity metrics where it's like more likes, more growth, more followers, but more how do I serve my community the most, how I can build this engagement that people trust me, people believe in me and people believe the content that is authentic. Especially with AI and with all the content that it's so easy to create now, it's very hard to stand out. And the only way we stand out with AI is being people, is being authentic and being there for our followers.
- [19:26]
Michelle Thames
I love that you said being there for your followers. I think community is huge. I am a community builder. I love community. I think that Instagram is that place, Instagram is that place for community if you want that. Right? And so I'm really glad like we've been talking here today, just the trends and things and the updates that you all have coming that are going to add to that, like you said, engagement, right. When you think of Manichat, some people may think of AI, but I like how you are taking it deeper and saying no, we are helping you engage better with your community. And so Instagram is that community platform. So if you're listening and you're not building community on Instagram, it's time to start, because it's not going anywhere. And I want to talk about some advice, because you've been around the block, you've been at some amazing organizations helping them to grow. You're at Manichat now helping them to grow. And so if you could give one piece of advice to entrepreneurs and creators who want to stay ahead of the curve, what would that be?
- [20:23]
Anna Tutskia
That's such a good question. So, first of all, I think it's very important to understand what are your goals, because very often, as I said, people are running into the next shiny thing. And especially right now, I am seeing it with a lot of AI builders, a lot of creators who are just jumping on whatever is there. And I think my main goal, my main advice that I want to say, know where you want to get, understand what gets you there, and understand what type of community and people you need to support you on this journey. And build everything possible to make this community happy. And it all starts with a lot of people are starting off with their first follower. A lot of people are starting off with, you know, their first customer. Make them happy, build everything possible for them, and then you'll see how this growth loops, viral loops will be adding on and it will start growing and then use all the tools that are possible to amplify this growth. But again, it all starts with this first follower, understanding this user and making them a community once they start growing.
- [21:37]
Michelle Thames
So I hope you all had your pins and notepads listening to this chat today, because so many gems you dropped today. And I'm super appreciative if you're listening to this. We are in la. It's at this beautiful one hotel. I'm looking out the window and it's just, I can see, we can see the hills up top. It's just a beautiful place to be able to host something like this for creators to come together to grow, which I absolutely love. And so, again, this has been so powerful. Thank you so much for sharing your insights and giving us a peek into what's next. But for everyone listening, if you would love to share how people can connect with you, how people can learn more about Manichat if they're not a Manichat user. I'm an OG manychat user. I've been using it for a while. But please let us know how we can connect with you for what's next with ManyChat.
- [22:21]
Anna Tutskia
Of course, first of all, you can connect me on LinkedIn. I'm Anna Tutskay, and please connect with us and start using ManyChat. You can get to ManyChat.com and your free 14 day trial. Test out all the features and I'm sure you'll stay because your community and your followers will be happy and you'll see that.
- [22:44]
Michelle Thames
And we'll have all the information down in the show notes. But you all also have a Virtual Summit so let's not forget about the Virtual Summit. This if you are listening to this, it will be ahead of the Virtual Summit so you can go ahead and join the Virtual Summit. We'll put that information down below in the show notes as well so people can join virtually and learn more about Manichat. Thank you so much for being on the show today. This was a treat. I'm so excited about the upcoming changes with manychat and I can't wait to continue to grow my creator business leveraging AI in manychat.
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Anna Tutskia
Thank you so much for having me and coming and joining us at the IG summit and being a ManyChat user.
- [23:22]
Michelle Thames
Yes, thank you so much.
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