So you want to be an Instagram influencer? You hear you can make money doing this or at least get a free meal once and awhile. Being an Instagram Influencer isn’t all fun and games. There are definitely strategies you need to implement to be successful. Here are proven strategies we have used that will help you become a successful Instagram Influencer.
What is an Instagram influencer?
An Instagram influencer is a person who shares their love of a particular topic or even a few topics (food, fashion, travel, hobbies, crafts, beauty, etc) with the potential to influence other people to start a new hobby, dine at a particular restaurant, travel to an exotic location, attend an event, learn a new skill or maybe donate to a great cause.
Every person has the potential to be an Instagram Influencer even if it is just for your own family and friends. Some influencers go on to influence thousands or hundreds of thousands of people they don’t even know. These tips will ensure you are ready for the journey to become a successful Instagram Influencer.
Pick the most popular niches on Instagram
The first step to becoming an Instagram influencer is to find something you’re passionate about that you can share with the public. This is called a “niche”. That means sharing about the things you love like a hobby or something you know a lot about like travel or fashion. You do not have to be an Instagram expert. All you need is a working knowledge of the topic you want to become successful in. Pick a topic (or niche) that suits your personality and don’t just try to copy someone else and be like them. You are a unique person with a unique personality so use it to become an Instagram influencer.
Some of the most popular niches on Instagram include food, travel, beauty, fitness, fashion, celebrities, and pets. That doesn’t mean that what you are interested in sharing isn’t popular and that you can’t do well at it. This just means that these are the biggest Instagram Influencer niches covered by a lot of people. You could get lost in a sea of people all sharing the same thing. It is better to pick what you are good at, what you like or if you pick one of the larger topics, make sure you specialize in something within the niche. If you pick food, for example, maybe you could specialize in just pizza or desserts or just food in your local region. If you pick the fashion niche maybe you could specialize in shoes or clothes for a specific body type. The possibilities are endless.
How do you increase engagement on Instagram?
Engagement is one of the most important aspects of growing your Instagram account because it determines whether your post will get seen by more people or just a few. You want to obtain as much engagement as you can within the first 1 to 2 hours of posting.
One of the best ways to get engagement fast is to belong to a group of Instagrammer in the same niche (called a pod). Each person in the group (pod) likes and comments on the new post you write and you in turn do the same when they have a new post.
A second way to get fast engagement is to add a “call to action” where you ask your audience a question in hopes of getting a response. Write something like “Comment YES if you agree”. Using emojis often makes your text look more clean, simple and engaging. Using a second call to action is often helpful or even add it in a second comment under your original text. Example: “Follow @yourusername for more delicious food pics and tag a friend to let them know.”
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Proper use of Hashtags on Instagram in 2019
A hashtag is a topic that people follow on Instagram. It is usually one word of a string of words put together without any spaces. It starts with the symbol #. An Instagram hashtag is clickable so if someone taps on it, they will see all of the photos that hashtag added to the description.
In 2019 you should not be using simple words for hashtags like #food #fashion #travel. There are millions of people using these simple hashtags and your photo will never get seen. The best way to use hashtags in 2019 is to use hashtags with less posts. When you start typing a hashtag Instagram will give you suggestions so if you can’t figure out a good hashtag that has less posts you will be presented with a list and can see the exact amount of posts next to each one. This will help you choose a better hashtag to use. Instead of using #food, for example, which has 335 million posts, you could use something like #foodloversofinstagram which only has 25,000 posts.
How often should post each day on Instagram in 2019
When you first start out posting on Instagram you want to post 2 or 3 times a day. Yes, we are talking about posting multiple times each day. If you want to be successful on Instagram this is what it takes. You can’t post once a day or even take a day off if you want to make sure to keep the interest of your followers. There is always someone else they will follow and people have a short attention span and lose interest fast.
What is the best time of day to post on Instagram
The best time of day to post on Instagram is when people are most active. We feel the best times are 12 am, 3 pm, 6 pm and 9 pm ET. However, you may want to experiment with a variety of times until you find what works best for you. A good rule of thumb is to leave at least 3 hours in between each post.
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Where do I get great photos to post on Instagram
If you aren’t a great photographer you are out of luck if you want to be successful on Instagram. Instagram is all about photos – great photos. If you don’t have great photos your Instagram account won’t grow. Which would you rather follow? An Instagram account with okay photos or an Instagrammer with great photos!
The Instagram influencers you follow who are making money are posting great photos. They are either good at take photos, have a professional photographer working for them or they could be getting free stock photos from sites like our own.
GRALLIM.com offers professional free photos you can use on Instagram. There are also other free stock photo websites you can use and you don’t have to give credit to the photographer to use the photo. We have compiled a nice list of these free stock photo sites for you to check out and make sure to browse our site to find some photographs you can use in your niche.
Write the best caption for your Instagram photos
The caption is the text that appears underneath your photo on Instagram. You will use it to interact with your audience. It is important to note that only a certain amount of this text will show unless someone clicks on the dots to expand the rest so add the most important text at the beginning and keep that part short. You have to grab them right away. The text can be just as important as the photo or video. Make sure you utilize hashtags and emojis in your caption too.
So now you have a good idea of what it takes to be a successful Instagram Influencer. Make sure you implement some of these key strategies into your account today.