How to become an influencer on instagram and get paid
How to Become an Instagram Influencer and Make Money
Instagram influencers can earn anywhere between $1000 and $8000 a month, with some of the larger macro Instagram influencers earning six-figure salaries.
It’s no surprise then that plenty of people would like to take a shot at becoming “Instafamous.”
With 17.6% of the world’s current population using Instagram, you can easily gain a large following, if you follow the right steps.
In this article, I’ll teach you how to become an Instagram influencer with this simple guide.
How to Become an Instagram InfluencerHere’s what you need to do to become an Instagram influencer.
1. Choose a Niche You’re Passionate About
To become an Instagram influencer, the first thing you need to do is find a niche that suits your personality. This needs to be something you’re passionate about. Something in which you have a good deal of knowledge and interest.
Just because someone else is doing something and is successful, doesn’t mean you should too.
So, what should you do?
To become an Instagram influencer in any field, you will need to post creative, engaging content regularly. So, selecting the right niche is very important because you will have to spend a considerable amount of time researching it and posting content on that topic.
Maybe you’re great at DIY crafts? Or maybe you love food, and have a great deal of interest in different types of cuisines? Maybe you’re into fashion and the latest styles and trends?
Your Instagram posts should reflect whatever truly interests you and not just random stuff.Your niche might even be a combination of different things, as long as you stick to it.
Example:
Skye McAlpine is an Instagram influencer who blogs about food and travel. Currently, she has over 220 thousand Instagram followers.
Skye posts about all things food and travel, whether it be a new holiday destination or sharing her latest food creations, there’s never a boring moment on her Instagram page.
As an influencer, she uses her platforms to promote her online shop, which sells tableware, cutlery, and decorations.
2. Create a Noteworthy Bio
Once you have decided on your niche, you need to create an attractive Instagram profile.
The very first thing that you need to focus on is creating an Instagram bio that immediately catches people’s attention. It should talk about your story in a way that engages people.
Here are some tips to create an excellent bio if you want to become an influencer:
- Remember your target audience when adding skills.
- Use relevant keywords related to your niche.
- Make sure your contact information is there and easy to read.
- Don’t forget it’s your bio, so don’t be shy to let your personality shine.
Remember, your bio is one of the first things that a brand or a potential follower will see on your account.
So if you want to know how to become an Instagram influencer, you first need to learn how to create an attention-grabbing Instagram bio.
Example:
Influencer and travel blogger Helene Sula has a compelling and attractive Instagram bio.
In the name field, this social media influencer has cleverly included “lifestyle blogger,” which will help her profile to rank higher when people search for lifestyle bloggers.
Her reels and stories are mostly about cultural shocks and what it’s like living in foreign countries.
3. Share Your Stories
If you think you can become an Instagram influencer just by sharing photos, you clearly have it all wrong. The captions that go along with those photos are just as important as the photos themselves.
If you want to become an Instagram influencer your stories need to connect with your social media followers on an emotional level. Give them a reason to trust you, follow you, and engage with you.
However, in your quest towards engaging followers don’t forget to be genuine. Coming off across fake will only turn people off of you.
Instead, share personal stories that are interesting and authentic.
Example:
Check out this inspiring story from a travel blogger named Curbfreecorylee. This social media influencer talks about how he continues traveling with a pre-existing medical condition.
Not only does he inspire people to live their best life, but he offers excellent travel tips for planning your perfect trip.
4. Make Your Instafeed Appealing
This is one of the prerequisites if you want to learn how to become an Instagram influencer. Not only should each of your photos be visually appealing, but your entire feed should look appealing when viewed as a whole.
This means that all of your photos in the feed should look good, individually and collectively.
So, what can you do?
Many Instagram influencers follow a particular style of editing, so that the color and composition of their photos is uniform. You can use photo editing tools like VSCO or Lightroom to edit your photos or you can just use the built-in filters on Instagram.
Also, make sure that your photos are taken in high-resolution and with plenty of light to make them look really good.
Example:
Check out Zoë Sugg’s account on Instagram for an excellent example of uniformity.
Zoe’s photos are all color graded in a similar manner.
She has even used her expertise to create an Instagram template and story planner app called “Template | Story Planner,” which you can find on her website and the Apple Store.
5. Post Content Consistently
Posting content consistently is key if you want to become an Instagram influencer. Most Instagram influencers post daily or once every two days.
However, some of them post a few times a day or even a few times a week.
Studies have revealed that an increase in your content-posting frequency can boost engagement rates. However, when you decide what your posting schedule needs to be, make sure that you choose wisely.
It needs to be something realistic that you can actually stick to.
Setting an unrealistic goal that you cannot adhere to will not help you in any way.
If you find sticking to a schedule difficult, you can schedule your posts with tools like Buffer, Planoly, Preview, or Ripl.
These platforms allow you to create your content in advance and set the dates and times for posting. So you don’t need to do it yourself, but your content gets posted automatically.
Preview is free for use and so is Planoly for 30 photos per month on a single Instagram account.
Buffer allows you to schedule up to 10 posts for free across any 3 of your social accounts.
Ripl offers subscriptions starting at $14.99 per month, but also has a free basic plan with limited features.
What’s more?
You need to remember that posting content isn’t the only important thing. The content that you post must be grammatically correct and should be of high quality.
To ensure that your content quality is top-notch, you can utilize tools such as ProWritingAid.
This tool checks your grammar, style, and helps you find the right words for your content. As a result, you’ll be able to post high-quality content to Instagram.
6. Choose the Right Hashtags
The best tip anyone can give you on how to become an Instagram influencer is to use hashtags. Hashtags are important because they help your content be found by other Instagram users.
Instagram allows you to use a maximum of 30 hashtags on a post, but I recommend starting with three to five hashtags at first.
But what kind of hashtags should you choose?
Remember that hashtags that have high search volumes aren’t necessarily good for you. Because high search volumes imply high competition.
So the chances of your post being discovered using those hashtags are bleak.
Instead, choose hashtags that have decent search volumes and maximize your chances of appearing in the top posts.
Ideally, use a combination of hashtags varying in search volumes from above 10,000 to 1 million.
But definitely, not more than a million.
But how can you find reliable hashtags?
To find the right hashtags for your Instagram posts, I recommend using HashtagsForLikes.
This AI-powered tool goes through your profile and finds the best hashtags for you. Alternatively, you can enter any hashtag on the platform, and it’ll show you its performance. This can help you ascertain which hashtags will create the most impact for you.
If you’re still uncertain about using hashtags correctly, check out my complete guide to using hashtags on Instagram in 2022.
Example:
For example, this post by an influencer uses the hashtag #adventurecouple. This is the top post for this hashtag having search volumes of more than 105,000.
7. Get a Business Account
If you’re serious about learning how to become an influencer, you need to get a business account for your Instagram. There are numerous benefits of switching to a business account.
What are they?
The most important benefit is that with a business account, you get access to Instagram Analytics. You’ll be able to see not only your follower demographics but also which posts are getting better engagement. You will also be able to see the days and times which give you the best engagement.
To become an Instagram influencer, it is important to understand your audience and learn what content works best for them.
Follower demographics are very useful when it comes to pitching to brands for collaboration. Because numbers speak louder than words.
The other advantage you get with a business account is the ability to run ads. You can promote one of your posts if you want, in order to get some additional engagement.
So, getting an Instagram business account is an important step if you want to become an Instagram influencer.
8. Leverage Instagram Stories
Instagram Stories are probably the biggest thing right now on Instagram.
More and more users and influencers are joining this bandwagon.
In fact, more than 500 million Instagram users are using them every day. This makes them a perfect weapon to grow more followers and gain visibility.
Even people who aren’t your followers can discover you from your Instagram Stories. By adding hashtags or locations to Instagram Stories, you can be discovered by more people. And if you have 10,000+ followers, you can include an outbound link using a “swipe up” option on Stories.
What’s more, you ask?
You can even tag others on your Stories and give a shout-out to other accounts.
This is not only a great way of building relationships but also growing your own following. Because those accounts are likely to return the favor too. And this means you get more visibility.
Because of these benefits, a lot of influencers use Instagram Stories. And if you are serious about becoming an Instagram influencer, you should start using Stories now.
9. Engage Meaningfully
Social media is all about people and how you engage with them. Engagement is one of the most important factors that will help you become an Instagram influencer.
When someone comments on your photos, make sure that you reply to them.
Also, return the favor by liking and commenting on their posts.
Here’s a checklist that you can use to increase the engagement rate on your posts and become an Instagram influencer:
- Include a call-to-action in your caption
- Post at a time when you’re likely to get maximum engagement (use insights if you have a Business Account to find the best times)
- Host giveaways and contests
- Use polls in Instagram Stories
- Follow similar accounts and engage with their content
- Use popular and relevant hashtags or create your own hashtags
You can use the “Explore” option on Instagram to find content that you can engage with.
Also, you now have the option of following hashtags so that relevant content shows up in your feed.
10. Tag Relevant Brands and Contact Them
There are actually two stages of learning how to become an Instagram influencer. The first, of course, is to grow your followers organically and engage them.
The second, and probably more important for some, is to make money as an influencer.
So, once you have grown your followers above a thousand and have a decent engagement rate, start your brand outreach.
The easiest way is to tag relevant brands on your photos to put yourself on their radar. Sometimes brands even feature such photos on their Instagram account giving you greater visibility.
Here’s a great example of micro-influencer Johnny Hochstetler showing off some of his tech and adding Apple as a hashtag to the post.
What else can you do?
You can also send direct messages to brands you think are relevant to your niche. Especially, if you have seen them collaborate with other influencers in your field.
Work on a pitch that talks about why you are reaching out and what you can offer them. I’m not saying it’s easy but you might be pleasantly surprised at the responses.
You can even join platforms like Grin, InsightPool, HYPR, InfluencerBay, TRIBE, and TapInfluence to find and connect with relevant brands.
Some of these platforms need you to have a certain number of followers to be able to participate in campaigns. So, use this channel when you have reached a certain follower count.
11. Do Not Buy Followers
This is a rookie mistake I’ve seen many Instagram influencers make to pave an easy road to success. Paid followers are no good to you. If you want to become an Instagram influencer and make money, organic leads are the way to go.
Yes, I know it’s not easy and it certainly won’t happen overnight. But hey, there’s no easy road to success.
Paid followers can be detrimental to your growth because these followers won’t be engaged enough.
So your follower count will increase without any substantial increase in engagement.
What’s more?
It’s not that difficult for brands to identify influencers with paid followers. If someone realizes that you have a high percentage of fake followers, you could lose your credibility in the industry. This could affect all of your future collaborations or lack thereof.
Getting caught having paid followers can be detrimental to your success as an influencer. If you’re really serious about your goal to become an Instagram influencer, you need to do it the right way.
FAQsQ1. How do you become a paid Instagram Influencer?
A. The time it takes to become an influencer on Instagram depends on your ability to identify a niche and grow an audience that trusts and looks to you for recommendations.
Once you have more than 1,000 followers, you can start trying to monetize your Instagram channel.
This can be done through affiliate links with brands, sponsorships or even launching your own brand and online shop.
For more on monetizing your Instagram channel, click here.
Q2. How long does it take to become an Instagram influencer?
A. The time it takes to become an influencer on Instagram depends on your ability to identify a niche and grow an audience that trusts and looks to you for recommendations.
Q3. How much does an Instagram influencer make a year?
A. How much an influencer makes yearly depends on their followers, engagement rates, number of brands they work with per year, and other partnership specifics.
And although there's no one-size-fits-all price, most brands follow the $100 for every 10k followers or one cent per follower rule. But that's just the basic starting point.
Brands will also consider an influencer's engagement, the campaign's length, budget, and other factors.
Q4. How many Instagram followers do you need to become an influencer?
A.
Unfortunately, there's no magic number to becoming an Instagram influencer. You also need to have engaged followers and influence over their decisions.
However, there are numbers you can use to get an idea of how many followers you need to become an influencer:
1,000 to 5000 followers – Nano-influencers
5,000 to 100,000 followers – Micro-influencers
More than 100,000 followers – Macro-influencers
Global figures or household names including successful artists, musicians, actors, sportspeople, etc. are called mega-influencers and have millions of followers.
Q5. Is it too late to become an influencer?
A. No. It's not too late, but you will have to work harder to ascend to the same level of fame those already in the industry have attained.
The influencer industry is now saturated, and anyone with a voice worth following or an expert in something can be an influencer.
Therefore, to succeed, you need to offer something different, be relatable, and gain high engagement.
You also need to have something you can bring to the table for brands looking for partnerships.
Q6. How can I become an influencer overnight?
A. Becoming an influencer overnight is not possible.
You have to invest time, effort, and resources. It will also involve finding a niche, building a brand, garnering engaged followers, etc., which takes time.
Q7. Is becoming an influencer hard?
A. Yes, and it takes more than posting engaging photos.
It also:
– Takes time to establish yourself
– Has no regular hours
– Attracts criticism and bullies
– Requires a full-time commitment
– Requires skills to help with marketing, branding, PR, research, data analysis, post-processing, – web management, writing, etc.
– Demands flexibility to keep up with changing trends and audience behavior
– Calls for authenticity and uniqueness to stand out
– Offers an unstable income until you become successful
Ultimately, it takes hard work, patience, consistency, time, and a creative mind that consistently produces unique and engaging content.
Q8. Can you be an influencer with 1000 followers?
A. Yes.
With authentic engagement, influence, and an audience that trusts you, you can become an influencer even with just 1000 followers.
It’s true that you cannot become an Instagram influencer overnight. You will need to be patient and make sure that you follow the above steps, to become an Instagram influencer.
It might take a few months, but trust me, you will definitely start seeing results.
I’ve seen and helped quite a few individuals land brand partnerships within a few months of following these steps. And there’s no reason why you can’t do so as well.
Can you think of any other tips on how to become an Instagram influencer? Let me know in the comments below. And if you’re looking for some personal guidance to become an Instagram influencer, get in touch with me now!
How To Become An Instagram Influencer In 2022
When you look at the Instagram ‘rich list’, you see celebrities charging over a million dollars for every post they write about their sponsors on Instagram.
The reason these celebrities are able to charge so much is less about their Instagram influencer status and more about them being popular celebrities in general.
The rest of us on Instagram are never ever going to be able to command such high prices mainly by virtue of our Instagram following. However, there are plenty of Instagram influencers who have been able to quit their day jobs and pursue their mini-celebrity status full-time.
In this article, I am going to take you through a very solid step-by-step plan that can help you become an Instagram influencer from scratch.
That’s right – you do not need an existing following on Instagram to be able to succeed here.
Let’s get started.
Step 1: Sign up for Instagram
I doubt anyone looking up online to become an Instagram influencer does not already have an Instagram account.
But hey, I did promise you that I’ll teach you how to become an influencer on Instagram from scratch.
So, the first step, inevitably, is to get hold of an account.
It’s no rocket science. Click on this link if you are on Android, or on this link if you own an iPhone.
Once you download the app, you may choose to either sign up with your Facebook account or directly with your mobile phone number or email address.
Source: InstagramAt this step, you will also be prompted to pick a username. Do so carefully since this will be the handle that you will be promoting.
Here are a few pointers to picking a good username:
The first choice (and the best one) is your full name. There are a couple of reasons why I think it’s the best. First, it gives an air of credibility. The internet abounds with fake profiles and questionable information.
People are more likely to trust something that comes from a real person than claims from someone who hides behind the cloak of anonymity.
We will be discussing picking a niche further down in this article, but if you already have picked a topic, then you could also pick a username that aligns with this topic.
However, this is only a good idea if you also own a website by the same name. This way, you can put elaborate content on the topic on your blog while sharing visuals and other related information on your Instagram profile.
Regardless of what username you pick, make sure it does not come across as spammy or salesy.
For example, if you are Lisa Smith publishing content about yoga, your usernames could be something like @lisasmith, @lisa_smith, @lisayogaqueen or @everythingyoga. But usernames like @_best_yoga_advice or @_yoga_queen__ may not be equally good.
Step 2: Pick a niche
At this point, it is important to note that the success of an influencer is not measured by the number of followers they have.
Well, your follower count indeed matters. But from a business perspective, that is not the primary measure of a good influencer.
Instead, a good influencer is one who enjoys popularity in a very narrow niche.
Here’s why – building a large following is not too difficult.
There are plenty of tools online that can help you grow your following.
The problem here is that you are not the only one using such tools to grow your Instagram following. Plenty of other people are doing the same too.
When a business wants to rope in Instagram influencers to market their product, they tend to go with those users whose audience tightly aligns with your target group.
Otherwise, they may end up spending money on an audience that has no intention to convert.
So, how do you pick the right niche? Here is a quick guide.
Competitor Landscape
The niche you pick must have plenty of competitors vying for buyer attention. Marketers in such industries tend to experiment with different customer acquisition channels which means they may not be too afraid to spend money on something like Instagram influencers.
Product is WOM-driven
When was the last time you checked online reviews from other buyers before ordering a ball of cotton, or corn?
Commodity products do not need reviews.
They are literally the same regardless of who or where you buy from.
The niche you pick must-have products that can be described visually and elicit customer interest in product reviews (word of mouth).
Beauty products, home decor, and automobile accessories are all good examples of products where a buyer may be interested in watching elaborate product reviews before buying a product.
More importantly, from an Instagram perspective, these products need to elicit impulse purchases from the buyers. Influencer marketing may not be ideal for planned purchases.
Not too many influencers
There are a ton of beauty Instagrammers. That’s a problem of plenty for businesses looking to hire influencers.
But for you, the influencer, too many fellow influencers in your niche only means that you are not a rare commodity.
Pick a niche where there are not too many influencers already. This way, there are not enough of you already which means that businesses are ready to pay a premium to hire you for a campaign.
Step 3: Learn photo/video editing
One of the basics to earn a good following on Instagram is to be good with photos and videos. Sure, Instagram does provide you with the basic tools like filters and captions. But in order to stand out from other Instagrammers, you need to learn to capture good photos and videos.
Pro Tip: Do not overdo your visual effects. Pick a filter or image capturing style and stick with it for all your Instagram posts. The objective here is not only to make your posts look professional but to also be able to make your posts stand out. Your regular followers should be able to identify your posts even without having to look at the username.
Source: @thefrootilifePro Tip 2: Hopper HQ has a top-notch image editing software built right into our software. Do not waste money on another tool, and use our tool for all your scheduling needs.
Source: Hopper HQ’s Image Editor – try free for 14 daysStep 4: Publish Consistently
The key to becoming a successful Instagram influencer is to publish content consistently.
There are a couple of reasons why.
Firstly, your followers are not all online at the same time. Publishing content throughout the day lets you reach followers through different times of the day.
Secondly, the Instagram algorithm takes a number of different factors into account while deciding the visibility of your posts. This includes post recency (how fresh your content is), post engagement (how well your post is received by the first few people looking at it), and past interactions (how well were your earlier posts received by the specific follower).
When you post consistently, you take care of content freshness. Also, it gives you an opportunity to experiment with different types of content, hashtags, and also know when your Instagram followers are most active.
Want to be a really successful Instagram influencer? Check out Hopper HQ’s scheduling tool. It’s free to try for 14 days and comes packed with features that let you plan out your entire posting schedule for days, or even months in advance.
This way, you create all your content at once and can publish them throughout the day.
While at it, also experiment with the different kinds of content that Instagram has to offer. Some kinds of content work well as Instagram Stories. Others work well as Reels. Try out the different content types to see what your followers enjoy. Keep experimenting.
Step 5: Grow a Following
At this point, you have the entire setup ready to start becoming an influencer. The only thing stopping you is a lack of followers. Targeted followers, that is.
There are plenty of articles online that teach you the exact tips and tricks that you need to succeed here. Here is a short guide on how to do this.
- Follow other users in your niches. If you have picked a very small niche for your Instagram account, start by following accounts in the broader niche or shoulder niches. For example, if you post content about hairstyling, you could not only follow other hairstyling Instagrammers, but also beauty vloggers and people talking about makeup, skin care, etc.
Also, follow all the hashtags relevant to your niche.
- Engage with their content. Make helpful observations and tips in the comments. The ideal way to do this is by prefacing your comments with a sentence about what your Instagram account is about. Going back to the example of hairstyling, you could comment on a post about hair care with a comment like
“I’m a hairstylist and I talk a lot about this specific advice on my Instagram account.” –
You could follow it up with some more helpful advice that the original poster may have missed. This way, you establish yourself as an expert and get people to check out your account.
- Once you have grown your account to a few hundred followers, start collaborating. Partner with other accounts of similar sizes in your broader or shoulder niches and share a shoutout about each others’ accounts on your Instagram profile.
Pro-tip 1: Do not simply announce their account.
Share something useful from their post and then tag them within the post. Also, seek the same from the collaborator. This increases click-throughs and following.
Pro-tip 2: If possible, designate a specific day and time for collaborations. For example, Tuesdays at 2 PM. This way, your followers know to expect a shoutout to another account and may not lose interest in your posts simply because they don’t enjoy this kind of content.
You will just need to follow the above steps on a consistent basis for several weeks or months for you to gain traction and start seeing an organic spike in followers for your Instagram account.
Step 6: Open for business
At this point, you already have thousands of followers to your Instagram account. A four or five digit follower count may be impressive depending on the niche you have picked.
In some cases, you will need to work more and grow your targeted following to six digits at least before seeking good influencer marketing offers.
There are three things you need to do in order to find successful offers.
Set up a bio
The bio sets the tone for what your Instagram account is all about. Truth be told, you may have required a great bio from the beginning.
But regardless of what your bio read until now, you will need to reword to make it interesting for your potential sponsors.
The best Instagram bios talk about two things: what your account is all about, and how potential sponsors can reach you.
A lot of businesses trying to find suitable influencers on Instagram still do it the old-fashioned way – via Google Search. A great bio will help them find you with the right keywords.
Giving them an email address or website contact form is a great way to be contacted directly. While your Instagram DMs work too, you may potentially lose their message if you already receive DMs from tons of regular users as well.
Showcasing an email or website contact form is the best way to make sure you see every potential campaign offer that comes your way.
Switch to a Professional account
If you haven’t already done this, now is a good time to switch your account to a business profile (AKA Professional account). In doing so, you get access to several analytics features that a potential sponsor may want to look at before hiring you for their influencer marketing campaign.
Switching your account to a business profile is easy and can be done in a few steps. You will need a Public profile and also may need a Facebook Page associated with your Instagram account. Connect your Instagram account to this Page and voilà, you are done.
Partner with Influencer databases
There are several influencer database companies online that businesses subscribe to. The job of these database companies is to build a long list of potential influencers across different industries that a business may be interested to work with.
Some of these companies also work as middlemen between the business and the influencer in setting up the influencer marketing campaign.
Write to these influencers and share your profile to be included in their databases. In most cases, it costs nothing. As a matter of fact, if you are already gaining a lot of traction with your Instagram account, chances are that your account is already a part of their database.
This way, when a potential advertiser is interested in hiring an influencer, your profile may be recommended to them by these database companies.
In conclusion – be patient & consistent
Reading this article, it may seem like becoming an Instagram influencer is quite simple and easy to do. That’s because it really is. What separates you from the rest is how patient you are, and also how consistently you can churn out content – even in the early days when you do not have a lot of followers.
Getting the first hundred or even thousand followers may be the hardest part of becoming an influencer. And it is here that a lot of people quit.
Dedicate a couple of hours of your day everyday to publish top quality content and follow these steps mentioned above to find success as an influencer.
If this seems daunting, don’t shy away from getting help. Hopper HQ makes it very easy for aspiring influencers to post quality content consistently. Check out our app by clicking on this link. It’s free for 14 days and costs less than $20 a month. That’s an investment you must make to be able to earn thousands of dollars in influencer marketing down the line.
11 Tips on How to Become an Instagram Blogger and Start Making Money
Pick a Niche You Like
First, you need to define an area of interest that suits you. It should be something that you love very much and understand. Don't just follow successful people - find what interests you.
For example, you found a fitness blog with a huge following. Should you also write about a healthy lifestyle if you are indifferent to it and you know nothing about it? Of course no. Remember: it is useless to pretend on social networks.
Photo: Instagram
Think about what you like.
Maybe you love needlework? Or do you like food and are interested in different types of cuisine? Or are you into fashion and constantly follow the trends? Your Instagram posts should show what you're really interested in, not just some random stuff. You can write about different things at once: for example, about food, travel and lifestyle, like this blogger. As you can see, she publishes on these topics equally.
Enter interesting information about yourself
After you have decided on the area of interest, put your account in order. First of all, you need to provide information about yourself that will instantly attract the attention of the audience. Tell about yourself in a way that others would be interested.
Remember that your CV is the first thing brands or potential subscribers will see. So if you want to become a successful Instagram blogger, be sure to design it responsibly.
Photo: Instagram
Take a look at the profile of travel blogger Helene Sula.
The line with the name is "travel blogger", so her account will be issued for such a search query. The biography tells a brief story about how she went to Germany to explore Europe. At the same time, the girl left everything she had, except for the dogs and her husband. Draws attention, doesn't it?
Tell stories
Posting photos is not enough to become a successful Instagram blogger. Photo captions are just as important as the pictures themselves. Tell stories to create an emotional connection with your followers. Give them a reason to trust you, follow your account, and engage with you.
Do not forget to be sincere - subscribers will notice your falseness. The personal stories you share with your audience need to be not only interesting, but also true.
Photo: Instagram
Take a look at this inspiring blogger story in which a young woman 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 the number of followers.
Your feed should look attractive
This is one of the main rules of a successful Instagram blogger. Your photos should not only be beautiful, but also adhere to a single theme. And this means that all profile photos should look good next to each other.
Many bloggers choose a particular style of photo manipulation, such as a consistent color scheme or composition. Use Instagram's built-in filters or third-party photo editors like VSCO or Lightroom. Take high-quality pictures with good light so that they look really good.
Check out this Instagram account for inspiration. His publications are perfectly sustained in a single style.
Photo: Instagram
Constantly publish content
Another main rule of a successful blogger.
Most Instagram stars post every day, but someone prefers to post photos several times a day, and someone a couple of times a week.
Research has shown that increasing the frequency of posts can increase audience engagement. But choose your posting schedule wisely and be sure to stick to it. Do not build too unrealistic plans.
To work on a schedule, you will need tools that allow you to make scheduled publications, such as Buffer, Planoly, Preview or Ripl. You can upload your content to these platforms in advance and set the desired date and time of publication. You no longer have to manually publish posts - they will appear automatically.
Preview is free, and Planoly allows you to post up to 30 pending photos for free per Instagram account. Buffer allows you to schedule up to 10 posts for three accounts for free. 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 publication. It is better to use them all, but which ones should you choose?
Remember that popular hashtags are not always effective. Since they are popular, then you will have more competitors, and the chances of being found are lower.
Photo: Instagram
It's better to use hashtags that generate from 10,000 to a million posts. But definitely not the ones that show more than a million results. For example, this blogger's post uses the #adventurecouple hashtag. More than 46 thousand posts are issued on it.
Get a business account
If you're serious about becoming an Instagram blogger, get a business account that offers a number of benefits.
The main advantage is access to statistics. You will be able to find out not only the actions of your audience, but also which posts cause the most engagement and at what time it occurs most often.
Your follower activity data will come in handy when you are discussing potential brand collaborations. Numbers will tell them about you better than your photos.
Photo: Instagram
Another advantage of a business account is the ability to advertise it. You can set up a promotion for one of your posts to generate additional engagement.
Use Instagram Stories
The Stories feature is perhaps the most popular feature on Instagram right now. More than 200 million people use it every day. This is an ideal tool for increasing subscribers and promotion.
Even non-followers can see your stories if you add your location 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 story using a swipe up.
Photo: Instagram
You can also tag other people in your stories, so you can not only make connections, but also increase your audience.
Interact with your audience the right way
Social media is all about people and how you interact with them. 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 on their profile.
Here's how to increase subscriber engagement:
- Leave a call to action in the photo description.
- Post at the time when engagement is at its peak (to find out, use the statistics that are available for business accounts).
- Run contests and giveaways.
- Take 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 follow certain hashtags so that all relevant content appears in your feed.
Tag and connect with brands
Becoming an Instagram person happens in two stages. First, you need to grow followers organically and get good engagement. Then comes the most important stage - you start making money.
Once you have more than a thousand followers and good engagement rates, start looking for the right brands. Tag them in relevant photos and try to get noticed. Sometimes brands can even showcase your post and get you some extra attention.
You can write to 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 in which you explain why you applied and what you can offer. It won't be easy, but some of the answers may surprise you.
You can use Grin, SocialPeeks, InsightPool, HYPR, InfluencerBay, TRIBE or TapInfluence to search for brands. Some have restrictions on the minimum number of subscribers required to participate in advertising campaigns.
Don't buy followers
Many Instagram bloggers make this mistake. If you want to become a media personality and make money, your best bet is to grow your audience organically. Yes, it's not easy and it takes time.
But bought subscribers are not useful because they do not interact with your content and do not increase engagement. And the less engagement, the lower the chances that brands will want to cooperate with you.
Source.
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10 indispensable tools for working with Instagram
12 life hacks for using Instagram Stories
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5 tips for those who wants to become a blogger
How to become an Instagram influencer: a step-by-step guide
Instagram has long turned from a platform for sharing photos and impressions into a business platform and an opportunity to monetize your business or yourself as a brand.
In 2021, as in 2020, influencers are still at the helm and it is through them that huge arrays of advertising will pass.
More than 80% of Instagram users follow company pages. This means that brands will continue to actively promote services and products through bloggers. Brands will spend around $15 billion on influencer marketing by 2022, according to Mediakix. In 2019, the amount was only $8 billion.
According to Business Insider, 79% of brands use Instagram for influencer campaigns, 46% use Facebook, 36% YouTube, 24% Twitter, and 12% LinkedIn.
Today, being an influencer is not only pleasant in terms of communicating with subscribers and forming your own cultural or social layer, conveying your ideas, but also trite because it is profitable. In the US market, influencers charge between $75 and up to $3,000 per post.
And if earlier large advertisers used to advertise only on the profiles of celebrities (stars, actors) with a million audience, today brands are increasingly turning to nano-bloggers, influencers in specific narrow niches for help.
How to Become a Successful Instagram Influencer
One of the fundamental principles that is always important to keep in mind if you plan to be an influencer is that you must be trusted by your followers. Gather a high-quality, albeit small, audience loyal to you and your ideas.
Try to be honest, open and unique in your profile. Communicate with your audience as equals. To create a trusting relationship with the audience, you have to work hard. Get ready to devote a lot of time, effort and energy to your Instagram, carefully select topics and posts, post content regularly. You will have to show dedication if you really want to become an influencer.
In the heyday of Instagram blogging, many people mistakenly assume that becoming an influencer is mega easy. But it is not so. Anyone can become an influencer, but it takes effort. Blogging is not just an abundance of emoticons in the text, a photo of your breakfast and coffee. To become an Instagram influencer:
- Use your personal photo as your profile photo.
It's the first thing subscribers see. It is advisable not to change the avatar too often and be recognizable on it, so that subscribers can easily see whose content they are consuming. - Build and maintain your personal brand. In particular, identify yourself. Are you a travel blogger, dog lover, party animal, wine connoisseur, body positivity advocate, or seafood lover? Choose a couple of things, characteristics that make you different from others. Some personal touch. There are a lot of dog lovers, but you have to find something to stand out from a new angle. Perhaps you are a zoopsychologist or you travel with a dog by car to non-trivial places.
- Be clear about who you are and what you're talking about in your profile header. And if something has changed, be sure to update the text. If you cannot form in a couple of lines what you and your profile are about, then you have not decided for yourself. Then the logical question is: what needs of subscribers will you cover? To figure out what your profile might be about, ask yourself: what do you like the most? What are you good at? What could you write about just like that, without even getting paid? What is important and interesting to the audience?
- Have frank conversations with your audience, find out what they like.
- Never resort to gray or black methods of cheating subscribers. Inactive bot accounts will ruin your statistics and results in the feed.
- Don't forget to post your face regularly. People prefer to see a real person in profiles, and not just beautiful photos or great texts. And even if you, as it seems to you, have the most ordinary life without adventures, travels, career achievements, remember that you can always find your audience and become popular if you show your personality and find your own peculiarity.
- Be clear about who your target audience is. Who are these people, what are they, what are they fond of, what ideas do they support. And starting from this portrait of a potential audience, try to give them the content that they need. If you want to be an Instagram influencer, and not just run a page like a personal photo diary, then you must first give content and topics that are interesting to your audience. This does not mean that you should adapt and write on uninteresting topics, but keep the needs of the audience in focus.
- Be open and honest with your audience so that you have a strong connection.
- Engage subscribers in a dialogue, ask them to comment, express their opinion. Reciprocate them, don't skip reactions or comments. Go to your followers' profiles and give them feedback too.
- Create a content plan, keep stories or texts in reserve in case there is no inspiration or fresh updates. Get serious about creating and posting content on a regular basis. Get inspired by other profiles, Pinterest pictures or people's stories. If you need help, use the content posting planners. This will free up time and make the feed more organized.
- Work on the aesthetics of your profile. Use some photo editing software. Create a unified blog style. If possible, select photos for posts so that they look harmonious in the overall grid.
- When your profile becomes interesting to advertisers, don't betray yourself and your audience with inappropriate rude advertising. Collaborate only with those profiles that really resonate with you, that the audience will like and will not cause confusion.
Agree, if you are a childfree who lives with two cats and likes to drink pinot noir in the evenings, it is unlikely that advertising for children's toys will be adequately perceived by your audience. - Keep a balance between advertising and non-advertising content. Even if partner brands are great for your audience, do not forget that there may be too many ads.
- If you are not ready to reveal any details of your personal life or secrets, then feel free to set boundaries, clearly, but without aggression, clarify with subscribers what questions you definitely should not ask. An influencer has the right to personal boundaries and is not obliged to turn the soul inside out.
- Learn how to competently interact with haters, determine the edges when you just need to block. If you see a frank hater - do not enter into long discussions with him, most likely he is not here in search of answers and the truth, but to merge his negativity.
- Remember to regularly post to stories.
Stories on Instagram sell, increase awareness and reach. - Write good texts. Do not just write unsubscribes or long reads. Take a copywriting course or analyze the texts you like in terms of the writing techniques used. Read more of those posts that resonate with you to train your skills.
- Choose the right hashtags. Don't choose too high volume, use a combination of hashtags with different search volumes from 10,000 to 1 million. But definitely not more than a million.
- Go to your business profile to access analytics. Add email, contacts, so that it is easy for brands to contact you.
- Use Instagram's analytics tools. Analyze the audience, popular posts.
- Inspire your audience. For example, for challenges, revision of habits or ideas, for healthy eating or for solo travel and exploration of the world, yourself.
- Interact with the audience regularly. Add links to projects, materials that you want to share in the header. Use calls to action.
- Create a community, a safe space where there will be common interests, support and an interesting exchange of resources and ideas.
- Tag your favorite brands/places for free.
- Interact with other influencers. Arrange general broadcasts, share the audience.
- Invest in paid promotion to attract your audience.
- Decide what influencer is for you - the main income or additional income and interesting pastime. It is important to understand the goal and, based on it, build your profile.
- Estimate yourself: how much does advertising in your profile cost. To do this, you need to study the engagement statistics, analyze the audience, average prices in the market.
- Create an interesting and unusual pitch for advertisers.
- Invest in a phone with a good camera, lighting, photography equipment. On Instagram, visuals are very important.
- Live and enjoy real life. This way you will be more likely to produce interesting, relevant content for your audience.
We also recently looked at how much Instagram influencers actually earn.
How an Instagram Influencer Finds Advertisers
According to a Morning Consult survey, 54% of Gen Zers and millennials would like to become social media influencers. Members of this generation themselves trust influencers more than just celebrities when it comes to online content.
Millennials are willing to "sell" the brands they like at a relatively low price. This state of affairs makes nano-bloggers and influencers even more in-demand businesses. Brands are increasingly targeting the average user and less and less the exorbitantly expensive celebrity ads.
Rakuten Marketing conducted a survey in 2019 that found brands spent 40% of their annual brand spend on micro-influencers and 28% on stars.
Most often, brands focus on the reach of your profile and niche. That is, if you have a small but active audience that shows high engagement, then the chances of attracting the advertiser's attention are very high.
