5 tips for anyone to become an Instagram influencer

Friday July 14, 2017 , 3 min Read

With more than 700 million users, Instagram is well on its way to becoming the most popular social media platform. Started in 2012 as a quaint little photo sharing app, it has quickly risen to fame as a mass favourite and why shouldn’t it? It’s fun, easy, and quick. However, Instagram is not only restricted to sharing pictures of food or your pet—what if you could turn a simple photo-sharing app into a source of business and revenue?

Image: Shutterstock

If becoming an influencer is your passion and if you want an Instagram audience that will promote your brand, read on.

Begin with a goal

Like with everything else, be on Instagram with a goal and work towards the fulfillment of the same. Instagram is filled with two kinds of demographics: partners and customers. The former are people who are in the same industry or niche as yours; they may or might not be your competitors since they can help in promoting your business by liking or commenting on the pictures you post. The latter are the people you want to convert into customers or your target market. Research on the accounts belonging to both the demographics to find out what’s in trend and what’s not. Identify popular hashtags they use and implement them on your own posts to get the optimum exposure.

Create a page that converts

Instagram does not allow links on the posts; however one can include a link on a story or on their bio, i.e. on the profile. Remember, the kind of profile you build will directly contribute to the number of converts. Write a bio that appeals to your customers and which seeks to explain what your product does; tell them how it would benefit them. Get an outstanding profile photo to make your business as serious as possible. Include links in the bio for the followers to click on; include tidbits like offers and discount as click bait! The best way to stay on top of your game is to change the link in the bio with each update.

Editorial calendar

If you want to stay ahead of your competitors, be sure to create an editorial calendar that basically tells you what to post when. It not only saves time but also schedules each post to make your updates look more consistent. Try and mix up your posts once in a while in order to guard against coming across as too salesy. One may also choose to repost or imitate other’s successful posts as long as the due credit is given.

Publish and engage

When it comes to social media, nothing can beat engagement. Once the editorial calendar is set, follow it every single day/hour. The key to cracking Instagram is to keep posting regularly and engaging in conversation which includes following people/accounts in your niche and liking/commenting on their posts. More often than not, you will get a follow back and that’s the goal here. Try to convince others as to how genuine your profile is.

Analyse

After you’ve got the ball rolling for a few months, it’s time to review your post performances in order to find out what works and what doesn’t. The idea here is to bring about a result that shows what you should do in the future; go ahead with the initial plan or scale? The kind of posts with the least amount of engagement should be scrapped off of the editorial calendar.