Instagram Influencers sit by the beach.

7 Tips To Become An Instagram Influencer

So you think you can ‘gram?

Becoming an Instagram Influencer is to today what ‘making it big in Hollywood’ was to the ‘90s. It seems like the goal of every second person is to have tens of thousands of followers, get paid to promote brands, and achieve what we all crave – social media fame. Don’t get us wrong, the dream is an attractive one, but achieving ‘Instafame’ is easier said than done. Here are 7 tips to set you apart from the rest.

Tip 1: Understand If It’s Really Worth Your While.

Let’s start with the cold, hard reality. Becoming an influencer is hard. Many of us think, ‘if I just do X, Y, and Z, I’ll be somebody. Just a few hundred more squats and I’ll be partying with Bella, Kendall and [insert famous Insta person here]’. The truth is, there’s only a low percentage chance that you’ll become a successful influencer, earning a consistent income. Ask yourself: how many people do I know have made it big on the ‘gram? The answer is probably one, maybe two, if any. 

Unless you’ve been very genetically gifted (or, if you’re the Herbert twins, genetically gifted and identical), it’s going to take a LOT of time before becoming influential. To most of us, becoming ‘Instafamous’ is going to be an improbable task. Do you know the percentage of actors that make it in Hollywood? Neither do we, but it’s probably infinitesimally small.

That’s not to say that it’s impossible. If God didn’t grace you with the looks of a Madi Edwards, or a Beau Whittington, it just means you’re going to have to work harder. I mean, if you’re 6’10” and from a basketballing family, you’re more likely to make it in the NBA than if you’re 5’9” and from a family of mathematicians (side note: 17% of all male Americans over 7’ play in the NBA).

One of the most common reasons you hear people wanting to be an Instagram influencer is so they can “be paid to go to Bali and post photos.” Okay, that makes sense. That would be nice. But let’s break down that dream a little further.

Getting your Instagram to the point where you have enough followers, and a strong enough personal brand to be able to get a free holiday is going to take hundreds of hours. Literally.

Let’s say you spend 500 hours to get there. If you spend an hour a day on your personal Instagram – which isn’t unheard of – that’s 500 days. So say in about a year and a half, you become an influencer with a following that warrants a paid trip to Bali, flight and villa included. Nice! 

But here’s the thing. If you earn just above minimum wage – say, $20 an hour after tax – after 500 hours of not working, you’ve ‘lost’ $10,000. You could have had 5 Bali holidays in the time you spent to get 1 paid trip (that isn’t guaranteed!)

Could your time be better spent invested elsewhere? What if you invested 500 hours into learning how to do great Facebook advertising, like us? What if you invested 500 hours into becoming an expert in something you’re interested in? Your return on investment is going to be a lot higher.

It’s very likely that just like when you’re a kid playing Runescape for hours on end to get your woodcutting to level 75, you’ll realise that it was all time wasted.

Tip 2: Be Honest With Yourself. 

I’m 5ft 8″ and average looking… I know that I’m not going to be Calvin Klein’s next runway sensation… And I’m okay with that. If you’ve never had a paid modelling gig, but you’re trying to make your way to Instagram fame as a ‘freelance model’, it’s highly likely you’re on the wrong track. 

This is the hardest tip of them all and is the reason the majority of people fail… You have to be honest with your approach. With both yourself and with the content you post.  Your channel needs to be authentic. You need to know who you are, what you’re interested in, and what you believe in, to ever be successful on Instagram. Some people truly are Byron Bay models that spend their day at the beach collecting stones, making sandcastles and playing the guitar with friends. That’s a great story to tell.

If you live in Brisbane City, get to the beach every third weekend, don’t know how to surf and don’t really have a true interest in nature… Don’t try an emulate the aforementioned Byron Bay goddess by posting 15 photos of that one time you went to the beach. Authenticity is key.

True, there is a lot of, shall we say ‘constructive representations’ on Instagram. Okay, a lot of people lie. But generally, the only people doing this are those that are insanely attractive, with follower bases centred on lust (or envy).

For the rest of us, be honest. When you post “always thinking about tacos” with a picture of your Louis Vuitton bag, designer sunglasses, expensive jacket and your BMW steering wheel in-frame… we know you’re not thinking about tacos. You’re using that as an excuse to show off all your expensive shit. People aren’t dumb… don’t do that. Again, authenticity is key. 

Tip 3: Have a niche.

Following on from tip 2, unless you are genetically gifted, don’t run your channel as a ‘model’. Models are models because they’re in the top 1% of people who were graced at birth with good looks. Lucky them. But if you’re not a model, all isn’t lost! There are other ways to become an influencer. And honestly, being at the top of a niche audience with a few thousand followers can be more profitable than being a B-Grade model with tens of thousands. 

The whole concept of being an influencer is that you can influence people (who would have thought right?). Take celebrity endorsement, one of the basic tenets of advertising, as an example. When people see George Clooney drink Nespresso, the default thought is ‘if it’s good enough for George, it’s good enough for me!’. It’s fundamental. It also positions the brand based on the existing status of that influencer and the relationship they have with their audience.

It follows then, that even if your follower count isn’t in the hundreds of thousands, niche categories can still offer good returns, for example:

• computer gamer

• vegan chef

• toddler fashion

• women’s golf

• Brazilian JuJitsu instructor

You may not be Australia’s ‘Next Instagram Top Model’, however, a few thousands of niche, highly engaged followers can be just as profitable.

In my case, I am setting up my personal brand as a digital marketer, because, well… that’s what I am. I like surfing, but I’m not a blonde haired semi-professional from Byron Bay. I like martial arts, but I’m not a UFC fighter. I like to stay fit and healthy, but I’m not a PT. Digital marketers don’t get hundreds of thousands of followers and don’t get paid to go to Bali. And that’s okay. I get paid for business clients. It only takes 1 person to discover my personal and business brand, and that may pay for me to get to Bali. It’s not always about the number of followers. No ‘Happy Humpday” posts required.

Tip 4: Offer Value.

People are cautious before tapping the follow button. Everyone is worried about that dreaded ‘following-to-follower ratio’, that so obviously defines your importance as a person. But, for this reason, you have to offer value. And that value needs to be tailored to your niche audience mentioned above.

So, if you’re a woman’s golf influencer, posting about your Saturday night out on the wines with the girls, while fun for you, may not be offering any value to your followers. They’re following you because they like women, in golf. 

If you want to be a travel blogger, then you need to actually, travel – blog. Travel blogging is far more than posting pretty pictures; it’s about helping people get the most out of their holidays. Unknown destinations, local only eateries, cultural sensitivities often forgotten etc. Owning a DSLR camera and going on a 3-week overseas vacation a year (or a one-time sabbatical), doesn’t make you a travel blogger any more than pulling out a splinter makes you a trauma surgeon.

If you’re someone that’s thrown away their desk job, speaks 5-languages and is touring around the world for 2-years surviving on $1 a day – document that shit! That’s a concept that will get traction because it offers value. It’s interesting. People want to know if it’s possible and see what that particular journey entails. They want to dream that, one day, they too can go travelling on $1 a day.

Tip 5: Benchmark. 

This is a common business term that holds direct relevance to our situation. Look at people who have been successful at what you want to do, and ‘benchmark’ (imitate) what they’ve done. Remember ‘good artists copy, great artists steal’ – Picasso. Study their profile, their trends, their themes. For example, it’s common for models to use applications that whiteout backgrounds, so that the subject pops. It essentially makes nearly every photo you post look like a modelling shoot. Not a bad plan of attack – on brand. If you’re a vegan chef, you may notice lots of close-ups of food, or perhaps, lots of shots of the chef cooking the food. Spot these trends and follow suit! 

Tip 6: Be Consistent. 

This is least thought about but absolutely vital. You need to be consistent with all that you do on Instagram; from how often you post, to what you post and how you caption. Being an influencer is about keeping everything ‘on brand’: your personal brand. If you don’t yet know what your personal brand is, refer to tips 2 & 3.  

Tip 7: Exposure. 

Pro-tip: getting Instagram followers is a lot like getting people to purchase products. The same marketing funnel applies.

Awareness -> Consideration -> Conversion

Firstly, you need to generate awareness. People need to know your profile exists. Have a public profile and use hashtags. Engage with profiles that have similar target audiences to yours. Use likes, but more importantly, comment. Commenting has a far higher click-through rate. Also, generate click-throughs to your page from other web-sources. 

Once people know about your page, they need to choose whether your page is worth letting that following-follower ratio slip, ever so slightly. That’s where all the points in this blog post come in. If you’ve followed the tips here, you’re in with a better chance. 

There you have it, our top-7 tips to becoming an Instagram Influencer. Let us know what you think in the comments below! Get ‘Graming! 

 

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