Are you a persuasive and natural leader with some niche interests? Find out how to become an Instagram influencer here, and put those traits to good use!

What Is an Influencer?

I’m sure you’ve heard the term before. The “influencer lifestyle” often conjures mental images of flashy holidays, expensive fashion, and super yachts. However, an influencer can be someone with, well, influence around any topic or industry.

An influencer is someone who tends to work with brands and companies in order to promote products or services. They use their social media following and reputation to help increase brand awareness and push sales. Essentially, they lend their good name to a company.

On Instagram, which is both a content sharing app and powerful social media marketing tool, an influencer will use attractive photos and engaging video content to work their charm.

There isn’t a set-in-stone number of followers someone has to have before classifying as an official influencer. In fact, there are different types of influencer depending on the size of your following and whether you grew popular before joining social media. From nano to mega influencers, someone could have 1000 to millions of followers on Instagram.

How to Become an Instagram Influencer

It may look like an easy life being an influencer, but it does take plenty of work. You have to be strategic and creative with your content, and employ some shrewd marketing to get results. Organically growing your following on Instagram in the first place can take long enough. Here are our top tips on how to become an Instagram influencer, that even a beginner can get on board with!

Find Your Niche

To become a successful influencer, you need to stand out from the crowd. This is why finding a niche is an important step in this expedition. What’s perhaps more important is that you find a niche you are truly passionate about. This goes for content creators of all kinds, but if you’re creating content you aren’t passionate about, people will be able to tell.

You’ll have better luck focussing on something specific that you’re knowledgable about. Going for the expert status, rather than a Jack of all trades approach is best.

Optimise Your Bio & Profile

If you want anyone to find you on Instagram, be it followers or potential brands to work with, you need to have your profile set up properly.

Opting for a business account is a great way of appearing professional, plus it makes you more easily contactable.

Make sure your bio is engaging and informative. You need to let people know what you do and what you’re about, whilst catching their eye. Also, ensure you include keywords related to your area of interest, as this will help you appear in searches.

If you have a website or link provider that can lead people to learning more about you, definitely include this on your profile. Lastly, take advantage of the Name and Username fields. Since Instagram will show your username when you engage on the platform, you should make this recognisable as you. You can use your name, or your name plus what you do. But, the name field is a good opportunity to add keywords and increase searchability. Rather than entering your name again, you could instead say “brand influencer” or “content marketing”.

Master Video Content

Video content like Reels and IGTV performs incredibly well, in terms of engagement. Of course, posting still images on your feed and story will still garner interest, mastering short form video content is sure to boost you along on your way to becoming an Instagram influencer.

Take a look at what other sorts of videos influencers and brands are creating. Taking inspiration from what clearly works already is a great way to inform the videos you make. This can also help you stay up to date with the latest trends and content crazes.

Post Consistently

As with so many things in life, consistency is key. It’s no good shooting an amazing video, and putting together a knock-out caption if you’re only going to do it every other Saturday or Sunday afternoon-ish around 2 or 3pm, maybe…

Staying present on Instagram will keep followers engaged and interested, and will also help you cast a wider net for bringing new followers in. Brands want to work with influencers who they know they can rely on and trust to shout about their products when they agreed to.

Engage

Social media is a community. Sure, it has an uglier side, but what community doesn’t? This shouldn’t put you off interacting and engaging with your followers and the IG community. Liking other people’s posts and comments, as well as responding or commenting will help you to connect with others.

Networking and building a great reputation for yourself is key for becoming an influencer. It’s easier to influence and persuade people if they actually like and admire you.

Find the Right Brands

You can hope that brands approach you as your following begins to build. However, you’ll get more work if you take a proactive approach and contact companies yourself. However, you should be picky with whom you work with, otherwise your followers could get confused. A photo promoting a new makeup range one day, and a video showing off high-end fishing tackle the next? Maybe just pick one or the other.

Ensure you work with brands whose morals align with your own. For instance, if you’re a devout vegan, avoiding working with brands that use animal testing is wise.