Social media has become an essential and consequential part of our lives. It is impossible to imagine our days without it. From Facebook to YouTube, Instagram to Tiktok, Twitter to Snapchat, these social media applications have influenced our lives so much. Even when we are out there enjoying ourselves, most of us are secretly worried if our photos are going to be Instagram worthy or not. We worry about our Facebook check-ins and whatnots. Social media not only influence our day to day lives, but they also have a tremendous impact on markets and business.
Influencer Marketing- Billion Dollar Industry
Brands have started paying social media influencers, specifically Instagram influencers, to promote their products. According to a survey, in the upcoming years, the brands are expected to spend about 10 billion dollars on Instagram influencers marketing. This includes e-commerce companies, clothing brands, mobile, automobile companies. In short, every company out there is looking for social influencers to promote their brands today.
This makes it the best time to enter this field because this market is going to be very saturated in the coming days. So, if you are reading this article right now, you may be wondering about how you could kick start your influencer career on your Instagram. No need to worry. We have created a simple and complete step by step guideline for you to follow.
Pick Out Your Niche
Choosing your niche is the most critical factor if you want to be successful. To get noticed by the brands, you must stand out. If you choose a niche that is favored by most of the influencer’s community, then you have nothing unique to offer, and you would drown in the sea of influencers. Brands want to see uniqueness and creativity even in the ordinary. Your main goal as an influencer to become something extraordinary. (No pressure, though!)
Create an Attractive Instagram Feed
Unlike Twitter or Facebook, which is all about words, Instagram is all about visuals. Your audience and brands will attract to your account more if your feed is appealing and attractive. Instagram is all about aesthetics. The best investment for your Instagram influencer account is to buy a good quality phone or a DSLR camera. Try to take good quality, non-pixelated, and non-blurry photos for your feed in good lighting, most preferably in daylight. You must edit all your photos to create a consistent theme and aesthetic throughout your feed.
Captivate your Audience
Although Instagram is a platform that is all about photos and visuals, one cannot deny the significance of captions and words. Your audience or brands won’t get the purpose of your feed and photos unless there are written words. Brands expect you to market their products with both your photographic content and the caption. So, to attract both audiences and brands, you will need to write beautiful and engaging captions. We do not expect you to become a writer. You have to captivate your followers with your words.
Post Consistently
To be a successful social media influencer, you have to attract an audience and increase your followers, and this is only possible if you post regularly. Instagram has a unique algorithm. The more consistent and regular you are with the application, the more favor you will get from it. If you post your content and engage with your audience regularly, Instagram will push your content higher up in their feeds. It is a great way to increase followers, as Instagram will also add you to the suggestion list. At the beginning of your influencer career, you will have to take help from tools like LeoBoost that will help in boosting your Instagram followers.
Use Hashtags
Hashtags are essential for increasing the reach of your content. Relevant hashtags can get you 12.6% additional engagement on your content as well. For example, you’re a Men Fashion blogger. You can use all the hashtags related to Men Fashion, fitness, styles in your stories, and posts. It will boost your reach and get you more followers and an online presence.
Get in Touch with Your Target Brands
Once you have gained enough followers (more preferably 5000), you can reach out to your target brands that are well within your niche. Never hesitate to contact brands by yourself. Brands are interested in influencers who are confident, even if they have fewer numbers of followers. To attract brands, all you need is good, attractive content and a loyal following who is influenced by you.
EndNote
We have mentioned all the necessary steps you must take to become a successful social media influencer, but you must go through trials and errors before you can succeed.