Step one: dye your hair purple
Being an Instagram influencer seems like one of the best jobs that you could have nowadays. You’d be making money while doing something you already spend hours on daily — posting and scrolling on Instagram. However, becoming an actual influencer on Instagram isn’t as easy as it may seem.
Let’s break down what an influencer on Instagram is and what they do, as well as how you can become one.
Table of Contents
What’s an Instagram Influencer?
Contrary to popular belief, working as an Instagram influencer is different from simply sharing content on Instagram. An influencer is a social media user who influences decisions that other people — their followers — make. An Instagram influencer is someone who’s made a reputation around a certain subject or “niche” on the platform. You can also say that an influencer is considered to be an expert in their niche or at the very least knowledgeable about it.
As an influencer on Instagram, you have the power to change public opinion. If you have a small following of 1-2k users your influence on their opinions might seem insignificant. However, you have more personal contact with your followers than random advertisers, and your opinion on something would have more value and authority in their eyes.
Do You Get Paid as an Influencer on Instagram?
Instagram is considered the best influencer marketing platform by all major brands. The already established social media influencers also note that Instagram gives them the best engagement rates of all the platforms. So how much money can you make as an Instagram influencer?
The exact amount is impossible to calculate, as you are the one who sets the fees. Instagram influencers charge anything between $70 and $3000 per post. Don’t forget that you also have Instagram Stories, Reels, and IGTV — you can turn all of them into a source of income as well.
How To Become an Influencer on Instagram
So you’ve decided to become an influencer on Instagram. Now you have to think about putting together your content on Instagram so that it has an impact on your community of followers and drives their behaviors. While every influencer’s path is different and unique to their own brand, you can start by following our easy guidelines.
Choose Your Niche
Whether you already have a personal brand or not, the first thing you need to do is choose your niche on Instagram. A niche would be something you’re either passionate or knowledgeable about (or both). Is there something you’re good at? It could be anything from professional skiing to growing organic vegetables in your backyard.
Your niche could also be a mix of things too. For example, if you’re an English teacher and a father of two, you can focus your posts around your knowledge in both spheres and then pick and mix your content.
Make an Attractive Instagram Profile
The first thing new users that find you on Instagram will see is your profile’s appearance. If you already have an account on Instagram, make sure to tidy it up. Sometimes deleting your old account and creating a new one from scratch might be even easier.
The things you want to focus on here are your bio and your feed. Your bio needs to be catchy but it should also tell your story. Think of a way to use those limited symbols, as well as emojis to showcase your expertise in the niche that you chose.
*03_instagram bio*
When you start posting photos and videos, you need to take into account not only how they’ll look individually but also how they’ll appear in your feed. Choosing a particular style or a color scheme works well here.
Consistency Is Key
The next step is to set a posting schedule and stick to it. You might want to start posting every day or even multiple times a day straight away but in reality, it’s better to assess how much time and effort you’re willing to put into it first. Instagram algorithm values consistency. It’s better to set realistic goals and start slow rather than go big in the beginning and burn out quickly.
Make Use of All Instagram Tools
Bear in mind that if you want to make it on Instagram as an influencer, you can’t just post photos. If you want to earn your followers’ trust, you need to share your stories and expertise with them, and you can do that through writing captions for your posts.
On top of that, you can and should use all of the tools that Instagram offers for content makers: Instagram Stories, Reels, IGTV. All of them allow you to post different types of content on the same Instagram account, so that your followers are always engaged and come back for more.
There are a few other things that you can do to bring more diversity into the content you post on Instagram. They include hosting contests and giveaways, using polls in Stories, using relevant hashtags that are popular in your niche, including a call-to-action in captions.
Get a Professional Account to Monitor Your Analytics and Post Ads
You should switch your Instagram account from personal to professional as soon as you get serious about becoming an Instagram influencer. A professional account on Instagram allows you to do two important things: access your Instagram analytics and run ads.
Using Instagram analytics, you can get to know your audience better by studying your follower demographics and the days and times when people visit your profile. Ads you can use to share promoted posts with users that don’t know about your account yet. Both features are crucial for getting better engagement on Instagram.
Contact Relevant Brands and Influencers on Instagram
This might be one of the most important steps and a final stage of making it on Instagram as an influencer. Once you’ve grown a sufficient following and engagement rate on Instagram, you can start monetizing your account.
One way to do that is to find brands that are relevant to your niche and tag them in your posts to make them notice your account. It’s even better if you get featured on their Instagram accounts, as this gives you more exposure. You can also contact brands directly via DMs and offer collaboration.
Contacting other influencers in your niche is another good strategy. Aside from exposure to new users, you can also get interesting collaboration deals out of it.
Should You Focus All Your Energy on Instagram as an Influencer?
It seems like people simply spend more time on Instagram compared to other social media networks, and that’s something that you should keep in mind as a future influencer. However, you might reach a bigger audience if you use several different platforms simultaneously, for example, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.
You can even go as far as to link your Instagram account to Facebook for automatic reposts. That way you won’t have to waste time on posting the same content on each network separately.
