Being an influencer has been a vibrant marketing phenomenon for the past years. If you would like to become an influencer and get a lot of Instagram or YouTube subscribers, you are on the right track.
In this article, we will discuss a step-by-step process on how to achieve this.
How Influencers Took the Place of Celebrities
The original agents of influence were celebrities. Sports, movie, or business stars created profiles on social networks, which their fans immediately started to follow. Such a huge reach of the audience looked perfect for advertisers. But in practice, it turned out that cooperation with celebrities is not always justified. First, it is very expensive. In addition, fans understand where the paid advertising is and don’t hurry to buy the goods or services which are promoted.
Then influencers came to the attention of brands – ordinary users of social networks with audiences from several thousand to hundreds of thousands of people. Among their main advantages are more mundane payment requests and the fact that niche agents have a much higher level of audience engagement.
According to research by Experticity:
94% of users recognize the competence and awareness of influencers in their field;
82% of respondents are ready to follow their advice when buying goods or services.
Choose the Niche You Like
To begin with, you should determine the area of interest that suits you. It must be something that you like and understand. Don’t just repeat after successful people – find something that interests you.
Think about what you like. Maybe you like handicrafts or are interested in different types of cuisine. Maybe you are fond of fashion and constantly follow the trends. Your Instagram posts should show what you’re really interested in, not just random things. You can write about different things at once: for example, about food, travel, and lifestyle.
Add Interesting Information About Yourself
Once you’ve identified your area of ​​interest, tidy up your account. First of all, you need to provide information about yourself, which will instantly attract the attention of the audience. Tell about yourself in a way that will be interesting to others.
Remember, your CV is the first thing brands or potential followers see. So if you want to become a successful Instagram blogger, design it responsibly.
Tell Stories
Posting photos isn’t enough to become a successful Instagram blogger. Text is just as important as the photos themselves because it creates an emotional connection with your followers.
Remember to be sincere – subscribers will notice your fake. The personal stories you share with your audience should be not only interesting but also true.
Take a look at this inspiring story: a girl talks about how she continues to travel despite her illness. The publication caused a heated discussion among subscribers, which means that the audience appreciated it. And when brands want to partner with a blogger, they look more at audience engagement than follower count.
Make your Feed Look Attractive
This is one of the main rules of a successful Instagram influencer. Your photos should adhere to a single theme and look good next to each other.
Choose a particular color scheme or composition. Take advantage of Instagram’s built-in filters or third-party photo editors like VSCO or Lightroom. Take good quality pictures with good light so they look really good. Check out different Instagram accounts for inspiration.
Post Content Constantly
Another main rule of a successful blogger. Most Instagram stars post every day, but some prefer to post photos several times a day, and some a couple of times a week.
Research has shown that increasing posting frequency can increase audience engagement. But choose your content schedule wisely and be sure to stick to it. Don’t make too unrealistic plans.
For scheduling, you need tools that allow you to make scheduled publications, such as Buffer, Planoly, Preview, or Ripl. You can pre-upload your content to these platforms and set the desired date and time of publication. You no longer have to manually publish posts – they will appear automatically.
The Preview works for free, and in Planoly, you can publish up to 30 snoozed photos for free for one Instagram account. At Buffer, you can schedule up to 10 posts for free for three accounts. Ripl works on a subscription basis ($ 9.99 per month).
Use the Right Hashtags
Hashtags help other Instagram users find your account. There is a limitation on the platform – no more than 30 hashtags can be left in one post. It’s better to use all of them, but which ones should you choose?
Remember, popular hashtags aren’t always effective. Since they are popular, then you will have more competitors, and the chances that you will be found are lower.
It is better to use hashtags for which from 10 thousand to a million publications are issued. But definitely not the ones that show over a million results.
Create a Business Account
If you are serious about becoming an Instagram blogger, start a business account that offers a number of benefits.
The main advantage is access to statistics, which allows you to find out not only the actions of your audience but also which posts cause the most engagement and at what time it occurs more often. Your followers’ activity data will come in handy when you discuss potential partnerships with brands. The numbers will tell them about you better than your photos.
One more business account advantage is the ability to advertise it. You can customize the promotion of one of your posts to generate additional engagement.
Use Instagram Stories
The Stories feature is arguably the most popular on Instagram right now. More than 200 million people use it every day. It is the perfect tool for increasing subscribers and getting promoted.
Even people who don’t follow you can see your stories if you add your location data and hashtags to them. If you have more than 10 thousand subscribers, then you can insert the function of following the built-in link into the history using the swipe up.
You can also tag other people in stories so you can not only build connections but also grow your audience.
Interact With your Audience Correctly
On social media, people and how you interact with them play a major role. Engagement is one of the most important factors that will help you become a successful Instagram blogger. When someone comments on your photos – reply, leave mutual likes and comments in their profile.
Here’s how you can increase subscriber engagement:
- Leave a call to action in the photo description.
- Post at a time when engagement is at its peak (to find out, use the statistics available to business accounts).
- Run contests and sweepstakes.
- Create polls in Stories.
- Subscribe to accounts with topics close to you and interact with their content (you will find them using the “Interesting” tab).
- You can also subscribe to certain hashtags so that all relevant content is displayed in your feed.
Connect with Brands
Becoming an Instagram personality takes place in two stages. First, you need to organically build followers and get good engagement. Then comes the most important stage – you start making money.
Once you have over a thousand followers and good engagement rates, start looking for the right brands. Tag them and try to get noticed. Sometimes brands can even repost your publication and draw additional attention to you.
You can email companies that work in your area of ​​interest. It is especially worth paying attention to those who have already collaborated with bloggers. Prepare a pitch explaining why you applied and what you have to offer. It won’t be easy, but some of the answers may surprise you.