Instagram is continuing to surge in popularity, now with over one billion monthly users across the globe. As the platform expands, many users are becoming “influencers,” where they post information that can impact the decisions of their followers. These influencers can have a great impact, as their posts are viewed by large numbers of people and can help drive everything from product sales and exposure to consumer sentiment and opinions.
Many influencers receive compensation for their posts, but most average users may not know how to use their posts to be awarded products, service or even cash. Heartbeat, the leading platform rewarding women for sharing brands they love on Instagram, has over 200,000 members, aka “Ambassadors” and has developed tips that can help anyone expand their followers, become an influencer and receive compensation.
Top Five Ways to Become an Instagram Influencer:
– Find Your Niche – Determine what area of interest you want to focus on. By focusing on a key topic, you have the potential to gain like-minded followers and increase your exposure. Make sure your niche is something that is of interest to you, so that your passion came come through in your posts.
– Write a Bio with Impactful Keywords – Your bio is searched and scraped by hundreds of Influencer Marketing dashboards every day. These tools allow marketers to search by key topics, which may result in a brand reaching out directly to you! If your Instagram is focused on a key topic, then make sure your bio reflects that. Use key words that describe you and your background, what interests you most and what makes you unique. You can also include a link in your bio that goes to your personal homepage, so that potential followers can learn more.
– Make Sure Your Page Looks Great – Instagram can be a cut-throat place. So, if you want to stand out, you have to fit into some standards of “great” Instagram accounts. That means taking the time to curate a consistent look and feel. Using tools like Later.com, you can create a look and feel to your IG account that is consistent while remaining authentic, and of course looks good in the grid layout. This stuff is important, so don’t skimp on refining your Gram to be consistent!
– Use the Right Hashtags – There are too many hashtags on Instagram to keep track, but there are always hashtags that are trending better than others. One of the best ways to get discovered is by including these in your posts. Hop into the Discover area of Instagram and review the captions of some of the top influencers being listed, they are often the ones driving the traffic to the tags and if the post is recent enough you can grab some of the traffic associated with those hashtags. You can bet if Ariana Grande, or Demi Lovato is using a tag, it’s going to get attention, so use it!
– Be Active and Interact – You definitely need to engage on Instagram with others in order to be noticed, this is the same for any open social network like Twitter or Reddit. If you’re participating in the community around you, it will participate back. Getting involved in the comments of a popular post, and responding to others is a great way to draw people to your page. We suggest doing this with accounts that are focused on topics that are relevant to your page. Remember the Golden Rule though! Be nice, helpful, and interesting and others will be drawn to you!
By expanding your audience of followers, you can be more attractive to brands looking to partner with influencers.
For example, the “Ambassadors” on Heartbeat typically have between 300 and 5,000 followers, but the most important factor is engagement. If an Ambassador has real followers and is getting a high number of likes and comments, they are more likely to be offered paid campaigns or campaigns with product gifting.
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Jay Jay Ghatt is also editor at Techyaya.com, founder of the JayJayGhatt.com and JayJayGhatt.com where she teaches online creators how to navigate digital entrepreneurship and offers Do-It-For-You Blogging Service. She manages her lifestyle sites BellyitchBlog, Jenebaspeaks and JJBraids.com and is the founder of BlackWomenTech.com 200 Black Women in Tech On Twitter. Her biz podcast 10 Minute Podcast is available on iTunes and Player.fm. Follow her on Twitter at @Jenebaspeaks. Buy her templates over at her legal and business templates on Etsy shop!
