Ever since Instagram has become the most popular social network, far surpassing historical platforms such as Facebook and Twitter and even the popular Snapchat, you’ve heard stories about people making a living, when not getting rich, by using this platform, and now you too want to gain recognition. What you want to know is how to become an influencer on Instagram as you believe you have all the credentials to become a famous and appreciated person. The final goal is to get companies to pay you to advertise their brands and create posts.
Well, I will warn you: the path to success is long and studded with many climbs. It’s not easy to become famous on Instagram, let alone become actual influencers! You must add certain personal qualities and skills to the formula. However, if this is what you want to become, I definitely don’t want to discourage you, on the contrary, I urge you not to give up.
During the course of this tutorial, I will therefore provide you with some practical tips on how you can base your work on Instagram, thus creating a strategy that will eventually lead you to become an Instagram influencer. Are you ready to begin? Very well, let’s start then.
Curate your Instagram profile
If you want to become an influencer and you have chosen to do so using Instagram as a platform, it seems clear to me that first of all you have to take care of your profile to the best of your ability, regularly publishing quality content.
I’m here assuming that you are already mastering all the tips regarding the use of Instagram itself and its most popular tools and which can be summarized in the following key points: biography, username, and profile picture.
These elements are the first that are viewed by users and companies, therefore you will have to upload an image that best represents you for your profile photo and you will have to write an engaging bio.
Also take into consideration the possibility of inserting hashtags in the bio text field for your Instagram profile, so that people and/or companies can easily locate you by searching by hashtags.
As for the profile photo, it is essential to use a profile image that depicts yourself at your best, perhaps a close-up shot that portrays you in an attractive way.
The username of your Instagram account is also very important as this is the name that will represent you within the social network and will be the one through which other users will search for you on the platform.
Posting content on your profile
If your ultimate intent is to become an Instagram influencer, then you will have to start working hard on posting content on your profile. First, identify the sector of reference and then begin to publish quality photos regularly.
In case you have chosen a reference sector in which there are already established personalities, then you will have to work on creating your own personal style in order to achieve popularity through the publication of original content.
You can choose to take photos with a professional camera or directly with your smartphone, then apply filters to the photo taken or perform photographic retouching through photo editing programs or applications.
Get lots of followers
Once your Instagram profile is launched, you will need to work hard to reach a considerable number of followers. They represent your value to the companies that are going to partner with you.
Since popularity does not just come out of nowhere, it seems right to give you some targeted advice on the best strategies you can easily use to increase your follower pool within the social network.
Increase interactions with your posts by using hashtags
Instagram is a social network that is mainly based on visual content but, when you post a photo or video, you can create more interactions through hashtags.
Hashtags are nothing more than labels to categorize published content. In one post on Instagram, you can insert up to 30 hashtags in order to increase its visibility. In fact, people who use Instagram do searches by hashtag and will thus be able to view the post you published.
Using hashtags is therefore very important to reach your potential audience and to make them interact by commenting on the content you publish. The hashtags must be included in the description of the post and must be related to the subject or object present in the published image.
If you do not know which hashtags to insert, you can resort to using some online services such as ToInflact and All Hashtag, or other free applications that are able to tell you which are the most popular “labels” and which you can then use for the post published by you.
Comment, like, and follow other users
Another piece of advice I want to give you is to interact with other users of the platform. Instagram is in fact a social network that favors interaction between users through the use of likes, comments, and private messages.
You can also increase your popularity by following other people on Instagram in order to get noticed by users who have the same interests as you. Obviously, the people you follow may not be interested in returning the “follow” but following other people is still a way to get noticed.
Also, consider the possibility of interacting by liking and commenting on the posts of other users; especially use the comment function as this will allow you greater visibility.
Use Instagram stories and streams
Another Instagram feature that you can use to increase your followers and thus take the path that will lead you to become an influencer in your field is related to the use of all Instagram features including Stories and Live Streaming.
Specifically, the Stories concern the publication of videos and images that you need to tell about today, in fact, they disappear from your profile, feed, and messages after 24 hours, unless you add them to your profile as Featured Stories. You can insert mentions to other users and hashtags in order to obtain a greater reach.
The Stories but also, and in particular, the Live Streaming, are an excellent Instagram tool that will allow you to improve your relationship with your audience. Through the latter you can show yourself in real-time and talk to the people who follow you about what your passions and interests are; in fact, it is a feature very capable of involving users.
Expand your audience
To become an influencer on Instagram you need a lot of followers and for this reason, another suggestion is to expand your audience by publishing Instagram content also on other social networks such as Facebook.
In fact, the Instagram application gives you the opportunity to share your content even within your Facebook page or profile. By acting in this way you can also reach your friends who are not yet subscribed to Instagram or who do not use this social network.
To carry out this operation you will need to connect your Instagram account to your Facebook profile or to your Facebook page: then tap on the button with the symbol of the little man at the bottom right to view your Instagram profile and then tap on the button with the symbol of the gear and tap on the word Linked accounts.
Through this section, you will have to tap on the Facebook button and then add your profile or your Facebook page. Through the Connected Accounts section, you can also connect your Twitter or Tumblr profile.
By acting in this way you will have connected other social networks to Instagram but before publishing a photo on Instagram you will then have to manually authorize the sharing of the content on other social interaction platforms; you will find this setting in the preview screen for publishing a photo or video on Instagram.
Contact companies to collaborate
Once you have gotten a considerable number of followers, you must just wait for companies to contact you, or you can certainly be more active and start privately contacting the companies you wish to collaborate with.
To do this, you can choose whether to contact these companies through their official website or through a direct message on Instagram indicating, in both cases, your willingness to start a commercial collaboration and why you think you are a good fit.
Publish sponsored posts
Before concluding this tutorial on how to become an Instagram influencer I would like to give you one last tip.
If you have achieved your goal and have been contacted by a company to start a collaboration, be transparent with your followers and indicate to them that the content you published was sponsored by a company: in the caption of the post then insert hashtags such as for example #ad, #sp or #sponsored. I’m sure your followers will greatly appreciate your sincerity.