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Have you ever seen your favorite Instagram influencer documenting their daily life on their feeds and stories, showing themselves in the best places, wearing the nicest brands, and wondered how they do it? We will tell you exactly how you can live the same lifestyle in this article. Being a full-time influencer has never been easier, even though there is a lot of competition across social media platforms, the guide we’ve put together for you, will help you navigate the market and cut through the noise.
What is an Influencer?
First, let’s define what an influencer is. An influencer is defined as someone who leverages social media platforms to influence their followers’ decisions. Successful influencers typically offer value on social media channels via quality content that provides specialized knowledge or insight into a niche area, also known as “edutainment.” Influencers also have the ability to build relationships with fans and followers in order to build a strong loyal fan base that they can leverage.
Influencer marketing is becoming mainstream across many industries, therefore, you can garner a follower base for almost any topic. Your influencer income may depend on the size of your audience, how much engagement you get, and your brand collaboration rates. However as mentioned, it is a competitive industry, so you’ll need foundational skills such as: mastering the latest features of different social media platforms; cultivating authentic relationships with an audience; developing content people love; editing audio and video content; live streaming; conveying your expertise or authority on a particular topic.
Increase Followers
Your first step should be choosing a niche to get into and increasing the amount of real, engaging followers you have. The best way to do that is by posting content that followers actually want. This, however, is easier said than done. First, you need to examine the content your target audience wants. This could be product reviews, lifestyle images, or everyday life video posts. You can also check out what other influencers in your niche are posting. This can help you spark those creative juices.
Usually, video posts of any kind are what online users want. In fact, according to Emarketer research, 54 percent of consumers want to see more videos overall with 34 percent wanting to see more social videos. Also look at factors such as the content your audience responds to the most, the type of comments your audience makes on other social media influencers’ content, and the questions and challenges they face to have a better idea of what content would work best for you and your audience. You can also leverage Instagram Stories to attract more followers.
Make Your Instagram Profile Enticing Enough To Follow
When an Instagram user stumbles upon one of your awesome posts, they will definitely check out your profile page before tapping follow. So you better have an enticing profile that converts users to followers.
You need to think in terms of “homepage” when it comes to your Instagram profile. It needs to give up the goods and share what you are about. Include things like a unique characteristic or trait about you in the bio to create a connection.
The profile should also have an email for followers to connect with you. An email is also critical to give brands access to your influence. If you are savvy you’ll also include your branded hashtags and link to a landing page.
You can also get brands to repost your content by participating in hashtag events brands out to make user-generated content. You kill two birds with one stone because when a brand reposts your content, you get on their radar for future sponsorships and affiliate programs. And this is how to get paid for Instagram posts.
Create a Brand
Think of your influencer brand like you would a personal brand, a coherent presentation of your personality, values, passions, and authority on a specific topic that you can use to explore your business potential. Take time to get an idea of the impression you want to leave online and what you want to become known for. You can also create an aesthetic around your influencer brand with colors, fonts, and even a brand voice.
After you’ve created an influencer brand that has a good audience, make sure to engage your followers by:
-Liking, commenting on and reposting content by your followers and fellow influencers in your niche.
-Responding to comments on your posts.
-Start conversations on social media by asking your audience questions about their interests and opinions.
-Message your most engaged followers to ask them what kind of content they’d like to see you create.
Reach Out To Brands
As social media users start to take notice of your content, follow your accounts, and look to you for entertainment or information, brands will start reaching out to you to collaborate. You can also pitch brands directly. You can do that by making a list of the brands you’d like to collaborate with.
Decide how you want to collaborate with them, including sponsored posts and affiliate marketing, as well as how you want to monetize your efforts.
Draft a description of the content you can create to promote various products that you can use for your website or for contacting brands via email or messenger.
It also helps to join an influencer marketing agency that can help manage your influencer career, grow your influence, and help partner up with the best brands to get the most out of your social media presence. ITP Live is one of the leading influencer marketing agencies in the region, make sure to explore our website for more information!