Instagram is currently “the king of social media” and a significant part of many people’s social life worldwide. About 1.28 billion people actively use Instagram monthly, while about 500 million are active on a daily basis.
These facts prove that Instagram is an excellent platform for boosting brand awareness and building your target audience. One way to maximize this platform while making money for yourself is to become an Instagram influencer.
Instagram influencers are active Instagram users with excellent Instagram bios and large followers, known to post consistently, and have built credibility on the platform. They leverage all these to help other businesses drive traffic, and they get paid.
Interestingly, anyone can make money from influencer marketing on Instagram, particularly because you can now become a micro-influencer with 1,000 – 100,000 active followers.
Perhaps you are looking for how to become an Instagram influencer; we have put together 9 easy steps for you in this article.
9 Tips to Become an Instagram Influencer
Becoming an influencer on Instagram does not have to be a difficult process. Asides from being a good content creator, here are the tips to become an Instagram influencer:
1) Find Your Niche
You need to find an area of interest and stay focused on creating niched content from the beginning because this would help you to build a targeted community that would grow to trust and love you over time, which makes your influencing goal achievable.
Why? It is better to be good at one thing than do “everything” without excellence. Examples of the different niches that exist are food, beauty, fitness, fashion, and many more.
Deciding what niche to go for should be easy if you answer the following questions first; What am I really interested in? What do I enjoy creating content on?
2) Get a Business Account
An Instagram business account is recommended for a smooth influencing experience instead of a personal account because of the many extra features attached.
Some of which are Instagram Insights and the Instagram Analytics tool, which allows you to see your detailed account information. Such details include your post engagement rate, which content gets the best interaction, the time your audience is most active, and many more.
With a business account, you can also add a contact button, indicate your industry on your profile, schedule content posting, and run paid adverts to boost awareness and attract new audiences.
3) Complete Your Attractive Profile
Your Instagram profile is a representation of your personal brand and the first thing people would see when they decide to look you up on the platform; hence, you must put in the effort to make it perfect.
A good Instagram profile consists of a high-quality profile picture with a clear background, an easy-to-remember username, a bio description with keywords related to your niche, a call-to-action, and relevant hashtags.
The Instagram bio description should be kept within 150 characters, and you can also include one or two relevant universal emojis to emotionally connect with your audience.
4) Create Great Content and Captions
Instagram is a highly visual social media platform with loads of content, so you must put in extra effort if you want users to engage with your content. Remember, the better your engagement, the more money you can make as an influencer.
Post only high-quality images and videos. You should also develop an aesthetic pattern for your page and post accordingly to make it catchy.
Also, write creative captions that can encourage multiple engagements. With the use of Instagram Insights and Analytics, you can identify the content your audience best resonates with and strategically create more content and captions in the category.
5) Post Consistently
Consistency is essential on Instagram in relation to your content choice, the time you post, and how frequently you post. You need to post at particular intervals to constantly drive high engagement to your page as an influencer and retain your followers.
Check your Instagram insights from time to time to identify when your content gets the most attention because that would be the best time to always schedule your content so that you don’t miss out.
6) Grow Your Instagram Followers
The Instagram algorithm is great and can easily push your content to new audiences on the platform if real-life engagement is detected in high numbers and ultimately help you get more followers and engagements.
However, to achieve these high numbers, your first approach can be to buy verified Instagram followers who would interact with your content and push you to where you want to be.
Buying is the easiest and fastest way to build your followers and get more post engagement. All you have to do is make sure that you buy from a prestigious seller who provides natural followers from real accounts.
7) Choose the Right Hashtags
Hashtags are proven hacks to increase post visibility on Instagram. With the right hashtags, both old and new Instagram users can easily find you by using the search button on the platform.
It is, therefore, important for you to research the most relevant hashtags in your niche and use them whenever you post content.
Instagram allows up to 30 hashtags for each post, but you must also avoid using over-used hashtags because they reduce your chances of being found among other users.
8) Engage Your Followers
When it comes to Instagram, your followers come first because they have the capacity to help you hit your goals faster.
So, rather than post what you feel like, post what your followers want. “How do I know what my Instagram followers want?” Instagram has made it easy with the Insights feature on business accounts.
Check out your engagement rate often and post content based on your observed data. Other activities such as hosting live sessions on Instagram, using Instagram stories, and replying to comments are excellent strategies to engage your followers as well.
9) Network with Brands
Every business owner needs networking to thrive, and so does a social media influencer. You can follow other brands on Instagram, interact with their posts, and, if possible, pitch to brands that are in your niche. Remember to remain concise and professional when reaching out to brands directly.
The influencer career also involves collaborating with other social media influencers to create content, such as media kits, which can be shared across various platforms. That way, you are putting yourself “out there” before users beyond your Instagram followers and creating more opportunities for yourself.
Conclusion
Instagram influencing is a hot cake, but you must be a dynamic content creator if you want your audience to stick with you and attract brands to hire you for influencing gigs.
If followed thoroughly, the tips explained in this article are enough to help you start off and sustain your career as an Instagram influencer in this content-driven era.