I am an Instagram influencer, and it took me good 3 years to reach 100K followers. Being an influencer on social media, be it Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, or any other social media platform is easier said than done. It requires a lot of efforts, hard work, consistency, and dedication to become a successful influencer on Instagram and make money.
In this post, I will share everything I followed to become an influencer and to reach this level. Instagram is all about pictures, but just putting the pictures will not make you an influencer, you need to follow certain strategies to gain a good number of loyal followers and get good engagement on your posts.
How to become an Influencer on Instagram
These 10 tips will help you become a successful Instagran Influencer and make money online:
- Make up your mind
- Select a niche
- Make a business account
- Effective bio
- Good content
- Know your audience
- Captions and Hashtags
- Tag the brands
- Interact with followers
- Follow your favorite influencers.
1] Make up your mind
This is something very important. Do not just dive into Instagram; you first need to make up your mind that you want to become an influencer on Instagram. You have to accept the fact that it’s not going to be easy or quick. You have to work patiently and consistently for a few initial years to get good and loyal followership on Instagram.
2] Select a niche
Once you have made up your mind, select your niche. Think, think, and think again. What could be your niche? What are you best at? What can you give to your followers? What would anyone follow you? These are a few questions which will help you decide your niche.
Do not start with something you just want to. Make sure you are good at that because there is no place for average on Instagram. You at least have to be good if not great. Select something which you can stick on. Do not start with fashion and then jump on to food or travel or tech. It is not always important that you are good at something you like to do, so, think well and then select your niche.
Let me give you an example, I like to do makeup, but I am not good at it, so I should not choose beauty as my primary niche.
Makes sense?
3] Make a business account
Instagram has two types of accounts, private/personal, and business account. If you want to start your career as an influencer on Instagram, you would need a business account. Don’t worry, it’s free. You just have to select Business Account while creating an account on Instagram. You can, however, change your existing personal account into a business account too.
Why a business account?
Because only in a business account, you can check all your insights like who all are your followers, their gender, their age, etc. What time your followers are most active on Instagram, which city or country your followers are from, and much more.
These insights will help you understand your audience more and will certainly help you get more engagements on your posts. Post what your audience likes and also check the time when they are most active, and that should be your posting time on Instagram.
Also, with a Business account, you can use your bio information better, add CTA buttons, run ads, and gain more followers and engagements.
Note: You cannot run ads through your private or personal Instagram account.
4] Write an effective bio
Your bio on Instagram or any other social media platform is your digital introduction, make it as effective as possible. Instagram allows you to use only 30 characters, so do not waste that space by using fancy words or symbols. Make your bio short and crisp.
Keep it simple and straight forward, something which describes you and your work the best. Nobody is interested in when did you first cut your cake or when was your first cry, so avoid such silly sentences and write who you are and what you do.
5] Good Content
Content is certainly the king, be it your social media or your blog. People will follow you for your content, so make it at least good if not great. Instagram is all about pictures, so make sure your pictures are of good quality. Also, see if you can provide some value to your followers through your pictures.
If you are into fashion, you can post some styling tips, if you are into ‘beauty’, you can post some beauty tips or if you are a tech blogger you can post your reviews of various gadgets for your followers.
Post the content suiting your profile and audience, though it’s okay to surprise the audience sometimes with an off-topic content once in a while. The best idea is to share your day-to-day lifestyle with your followers. Eating breakfast at some good place, share it on your stories, trying some new dresses, record a try-on video, and post it. Your followers just want to know what you do, where you go, what you eat, what you wear etc. Give them the best.
6] Know your audience
It is very important to know your audience well. What age group they belong to, what are their interests, what is the location. You can check their interests by analyzing your own posts. See which type of post gets the best engagement, and do more of such posts. Post what your audience wants to see and make them stop, engage, save, and share your posts. Check out these Instagram Tips and Tricks to get more engagement on your posts.
7] Engaging Caption and Relevant Hashtags
Not too long, but try to write a good and engaging caption with every post. Ask questions and opinions from your followers in your caption; this will force them to engage on your post. Basically, you need to put a CTA (call to action) in your post but make sure your caption is relevant to your post. Instagram allows 30 hashtags in one post, initially use them all. You can stop using all 30 once you gain a good number of followers and regular engagements.
8] Tag Brands and Get Ready For Collaborations
Do not forget to list your email ID in your bio so that the brands and companies can approach you for the collaborations. Also, be prepared to share your insights because most of the brands ask for the insights for your promoted content.
I would suggest you promote the products or services you truly like and admire. Don’t make your Instagram feed a shop. Give your honest reviews and opinions to benefit your audience.
Start tagging the brands to get their attention. If your post is good enough, the brand might reshare it on their page, bringing in more exposure for you. You can also send them direct messages to the brands relevant to your niche for the collaborations.
9] Be Active on Stories
Instagram stories sometimes give you more reach and engagement than Instagram posts. Be very active in your Instagram stories. Keep them real; make a connection with your followers, and interact well with them.
10] Follow your favorite influencers
I am following all my favorite lifestyle and fashion influencers; you should do the same. Find some great and successful influencers of your niche and follow them. Try to learn from their Instagram posts, their style of posts, their captions, their stories, etc. Also, keep commenting on their posts you like and try to interact with them. You never know, they might give you a shoutout, and you may get some extra followers and limelight.
How to make money with Instagram?
Instagram is one of the best and most popular modes of digital advertisements. Brands want to showcase their collection on digital media, and when it is about Instagram, we influencers are the mode of advertisements. I promote various brands on my profile, and brands pay me for that.
One of the most asked questions by the newbies is that when can we start charging money to the brands, to which I answer, you can start asking for money after 20-25K followers on Instagram. It will increase as your fanbase grows. Before 20K followers, you can do the barter collaborations wherein you get the products in exchange for the promotions on Instagram, which again is not a bad deal initially.
This is not all, start your journey as an Instagram influencer, and you will learn everything step-by-step. I am at 106K followers and am still learning and trying to make my profile better and better. In short, be influential to become an influencer!
Read next:
