Currently at half a billion active monthly users, Instagram is certainly one of the hottest social networks, currently. And where there’s smoke, there’s fire…
It’s been interesting watching the rise of Instagram over the past couple of years. I certainly have been focusing on it, but perhaps not as much as I have on Twitter, which, at this moment, I must admit, might be a mistake.
It turns out that the Instagram Influencer might be the hottest thing out there right now, second only to YouTubers. According to this chart, blogging is rapidly losing influence, giving way to shorter forms of content, like Instagram.
There are are a few things to think about if it’s your goal to become an Instagram Influencer.
Followers and Engagement. Sure, you can buy followers, easy and cheap. But there are two things that any smart business will be looking for when they are considering working with you: followers and engagement. If you buy followers, your engagement will be low, because those accounts aren’t real people. To grow your following, you have to engage. Follow back the people that follow you (as long as they are legit), and find new people to follow via shared hashtags. Like and comment on other people’s posts–IG is incredibly karmic in that way.
Choose a focus. Probably the most popular IGers out there are lifestyle folks: food, fashion, etc. Lifestyle is also a pretty broad category; you may want to niche down further. Your niche will make you more attractive to brands who might want to work with you, because they will want to connect with your audience.
Don’t put all your eggs in 0ne basket. If you have 10K of followers, you can start to charge for sponsored posts, but don’t let that be your sole income source. Figure out other ways to monetize, as well. Many popular IGers use affiliate marketing, or use their IG to sell a particular product or service.
Here’s today’s infographic on Instagram Influencers:
Infographic courtesy of Social Media Today
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