Ask questions. Get answers.

Thought you might be interested in joining this discussion too @Bridget Holland @Saijo George @Graham Vale 

Anything and everything that some-one else can do better or more efficiently providing it doesn't compromise the integrity of your business and level of service to your clients. Front line customer related activity are the ones which are higher risk to outsource.

I sincerely hope it isn't the future.  I have used crowdsourcing for small jobs, and have been really happy with most of the outcomes.

But I feel you loose the intimacy of a relationship. One of the joys of being in business, is getting to know your suppliers, and them getting to know you.  The feeling that you are working together to build/create something wonderful is one of most important aspects for me to be in business for myself.  Having people lower their prices, and churn out work, doesn't create an environment, where talent can flourish....and I do not think you can get truly clever, well considered results.

Thanks for your question Nick - I run Lifestyle Elements in Adelaide, Australia (and also work with Adrian who is mentioned below!). A personal concierge is like a personal assistant for your life - we tick off your 'to do' list. Most of us have a huge list of things to do that we just never get around to. It doesn't matter if we are perfectly capable of doing it, these things just don't get done because they aren't urgent, but they are still consistently hanging over your head. Alternatively, there may be an urgent situation that crops up - say you lose your luggage and urgently need to get a new suit delivered to a hotel - who on earth do you ring? Why, your personal concierge of course! We are the extra pair of hands, the back up person, and the person with an array of contacts and suppliers at our fingertips to help you - plus we have people on the ground to get stuff done. If you'd like to find out more you can visit the Lifestyle Elements website. We can assist you with services throughout Australia and internationally - and if you just have a question, please don't hesitate to get in touch. Thanks for your contributions below Rowland - I work regularly with Adrian and can also highly recommend him :)

I think you'd benefit from some stratigec advice for your exact situation, which isn't really possible with the amount of detail in your post. 

So to answer your two specific questions:

With hashtags it's best to mix them up, and use a combination of large volme tags and smaller ones so you have a chance of getting noticed.
Paying to have your posts seen can be very effective, but if you're interrupting people's feed with a sponsored post you best have something worth butting in for! In my experience using Instagram as a placement for promotions run via Facebook Ads Manager are more effective than the boosting options available in the Instagram app.

Influencers can be worth the price if their followers are your target market and highly engaged, but it can be complicated to find the right ones if you don't know what you're looking for. There's also a lot of people who have a lot of followers and virtually no actual real world influence, but you could try using one of the influencer platforms like Tribe where you can ask for a specific type of content you'd like to see and influencers can put forward a submission. You're not obliged to use any of them if you don't think they're a fit for your brand.