How to Ace the Game as an Instagram Influencer
Tags: Influencer Marketing, Instagram, Instagram Marketing, Influencers, Influencer Marketing Tips

Bring your ace game to the Instagram

Whether you are starting as an influencer or you need some guidance to boost your page, you have to make sure that you follow the best Instagram practices. To help you level up in your game, we have compiled below a few tips that will make you grow as an Instagram influencer.

1. Define your niche

When your audience come to visit your page, they look for two things-

· WHY should they follow you?

· WHAT should they expect from your page?

Define your niche. Photo credits sellyblog

This is where niching your content becomes imperative. Once you establish a niche, it is easier to attract both the audience and brands to your page. You can pick whatever you are passionate about, as your niche. If you are a good cook, you can select food as your niche. Other examples can be fashion, lifestyle, beauty, travel, tech, automobiles, etc.

Your niche defines your interest and is of expertise. You cannot go wrong with your game as an influencer if you have a stronghold in your niche.

2. Pick a content pier

A content pier or pillar is the smaller topic that you want to focus on, in your niche. If your niche is beauty, your content pier can be anything from skincare routines to creating bold makeup looks. You need to ask yourself what are you the most passionate about, what do you have good knowledge on, and if you would be able to happily create the content on this topic even if you are not immediately paid for doing so.

Narrowing down to a few content pillars help you establish your authenticity as an influencer and makes you appear more credible.

“For influencer marketing to sustain, authenticity and credibility are the keys”- Priyanka Dayal.

3. Be consistent with your content and posting

If you want to grow rapidly and always stay on the top in the list of your followers, consistency is the key. Schedule your posts and plan the content accordingly. Show up on the Instagram stories every day, even when you are not promoting any product. Be consistent with the content of your posts and make your posts relevant to the audience.

Photo by Charles Deluvio on Unsplash

4. Write meaningful captions for your posts

To stay relevant to your audience, it is of utmost importance that you have a strong caption game. Make your feed make sense for your audience. People are most likely to connect when they find a sense of familiarity in your content. Your captions might have called to action for some brands, but build up a strong story around it that will touch your audience’s core. You can also try to spark great conversations with your audience in the caption.

Informative captions image source- referral rock

5. End your captions with a call to action

Keep your caption short and engaging and end every time with a set call to action. You can ask someone to subscribe to your channels, or just leave an open discussion for people to get to know you and others. You can also ask them for their advice or ask them to share their experiences regarding a relevant event.

6. Focus on building a whole community

“Engagement is the new impressions. It matters as much, if not, more than someone’s reach.” Kristy Samuels.

While the number of followers is significant metrics for your social media page, it is the engagement that really decides your success as an Instagram influencer. You need to build a community around your page who will readily and willingly interact with your posts.

You cannot just post a picture and then log off your Instagram. You need to stay online, add a call for action in your caption, reply to your audience, post interactive stories, and most importantly, you have to ask the audience for their feedback. Just knowing that you care what the audience thinks, gives them a sense of personal touch that they are looking for in an influencer. To be a top Instagram influencer, audience engagement matters more than how many followers you have. Put some effort and get to know them and gain their trust.

“People influence people. Nothing influences people more than a recommendation from a trusted friend. A trusted referral is the holy grail of advertising.” -Mark Zuckerberg.

7. BYOB!

Photo by Austin Chan on Unsplash

Yes! You heard it right! BYOB.

Build your own brand and establish yourself on the social media platform to attract brands and audience to your page. To pitch yourself as an authentic Instagram influencer, you must build a brand for yourself. Give that brand your name and face, know your niche well and align your audience to that niche.

You can prepare a strong social media kit, to begin with, know your engagement and your follower demographics across platforms. Pitch your brand to potential collaborations with utmost professionalism and confidence. These are your numbers, and you cannot go wrong with them.

If you have a strong personal brand, it’s a no brainer for the businesses to pick you for collaborations.

8. Don’t shy away from networking!

“People want to do business with you because you help them get what they want. They don’t want to do business with you to help you get what you want.”-Don Crowther.

If you are wondering why brands aren’t approaching you even after you’ve established a strong presence; that is because you have not strategized over networking. Building a network is as important as building a brand. You should always send emails or direct messages to the company representatives in a professional manner. Make sure that you know whom you are contacting.

“Do your research. You can’t seem like you are emailing every single person in that network. That is the quickest way to get deleted. Use my name and show me that you’ve actually done your research and say the value add.” -Erica Ligena.

A personalized email is more likely to get noticed rather than a mail that addresses all in the company. Pitch yourself even if you are a small account. Engagement rate always matters more to brands than the number of followers.

9. Expand your platform

To be a successful influencer you cannot rely on only one platform; you need to diversify your presence across different platform. With continuously changing Instagram algorithms, it becomes a risky business to solitarily rely on Instagram for your success. You might end up losing a great opportunity. One of the best ways to diversify is by setting up a blog page. Companies are always interested in the influencers that also have a blog page. The blog acts as a portfolio that reflects on your thought process and creativity to brands. It reflects on how much do you know about your niche and how can you connect with your followers.

Photo by Christian Wiediger on Unsplash

Growing your followers across different platforms only means that you are increasing your chances to get paid for collaboration with brands.