How To Become An Instagram Influencer, 14 Tips For Beginners

How To Become An Instagram Influencer

How To Become An Instagram Influencer

How To Become An Instagram Influencer, 14 Tips For Beginners

become an instagram influencer

Instagram influencers get paid to channel their creativity and post beautiful photos. Not to mention the freebies and extra perks that come with being an influencer on social media.

Considering all of this, it’s no wonder you want to join the ranks of famous Instagram influencers and start making money as a creator.

Before you dive in, however, keep in mind that becoming a social media influencer isn’t as easy as it sounds from afar. It involves months of hard work and consistency, so you have to be committed.

This post gives you a detailed guide on how to become an influencer and monetize your influence on Instagram.

To make the process easier for you, we’ve divided the guide into three sections – preparing your account, growing your influence, and working with brands. While the steps focus on Instagram, keep in mind that many of them can also apply to other social platforms.

With that, let’s find out how you can start your journey to becoming famous on Instagram.

Preparing Your Account

1. Choose a Niche That’s Right for You

To become an Instagram influencer, or any social media influencer for that matter, you need to find a niche to focus on. To stay authentic, make sure you choose a niche that aligns with your interests and skills.

In other words, it should be something you know a lot about and can talk about for hours without getting bored.

This is crucial if you want to eventually become an authority figure on a particular topic. The more passionate and knowledgeable you are about the topic, the more people will see you as a trusted source of information on the subject.

Also, brands narrow down ideal influencers based on relevance, so choosing a niche can connect you with the right brand partners.

For example, Izzy (@infusedwithtea) is super passionate about baking and plant-based teas. That’s why she regularly posts plant-based recipes and eye-catching photos of her creations.

Instagram Influencer - Choosing a Niche

2. Decide on your ideal audience

After deciding on your niche, think about the types of people who would be interested in it. This makes it easier to understand your audience and find effective ways to connect with them. So you can decide on a content strategy and a personal brand voice that resonates best with them.

For example, Signe Hansen (@useless_dk) is a stylist and jewelry designer who promotes sustainable living and minimalism. She mainly targets women who love to look good but want to maintain a sustainable lifestyle. So her posts mainly consist of tips on how to style certain outfits in different ways.

Instagram Influencer - Ideal Audience

3. Have a Creator or Business Profile

If you're going to be serious about becoming a social media influencer, you also need to be serious about your analytics. To better learn how to grow your influence, you need to keep track of your audience demographics and how people are interacting with your content.

Keeping track of your audience demographics will help you stay on top of the latest influencer marketing trends and give you insight into the types of content your audience likes to see. That’s why it’s so important that you switch from a personal Instagram profile to a creator or business account.

Instagram previously only had business accounts for influencers who wanted to analyze their performance on the platform. This allowed you to:

Access Instagram Analytics to get data about your posts and followers

Add links to your stories

Promote your posts as ads

However, it doesn’t let you go private on Instagram. Also, since it’s not specifically for content creators, it lacks a few features that Instagram influencers would find useful.

It then launches Creator Accounts, which allow Instagram influencers to access a number of special features for creating content. With an Instagram Creator Account, you can:

Access Instagram Creator Studio via desktop

Get creator-specific analytics insights like engagement stats and follow/unfollow rates

Tag featured products in your feed posts

Filter your inbox to prioritize important messages.

Keep in mind that you won’t have the option to connect your Instagram Creator Account with third-party tools. So if you plan on using third-party analytics and scheduling tools, this might not be a good choice. Otherwise, you can check it out to see if it meets your needs.

Check out our previous post to learn all about setting up an Instagram Creator Account.

4. Write a compelling bio

What’s the first thing you see when you want to learn about a specific Instagram account? Chances are, before you scroll through the posts in their feed, you’ll probably see their bio.

Your bio gives people a summary of what your content is about and whether it’s relevant to their interests. It’s usually the first thing potential followers (and potential brand partners) see when they see what you post.

That’s why writing a compelling bio is crucial if you want to become an Instagram influencer. Make sure it accurately describes what your account is about.

Use keywords and phrases that are relevant to your niche for this, but don’t clutter the space too much as it can be difficult to read. Keep the information easy to scan and understand by separating different sections with a list format and/or non-textual elements.

For Instagram influencers, it also helps to include your contact information so that businesses can reach you for searches. If you run a blog or have a project you want others to see, be sure to include a link to it.

For example, if you’re a student who makes money from your blog and Instagram, you can engage your audience across platforms by interlinking the two channels. Additionally, make sure you’re using a voice that reflects your identity.

For example, check out the following bio from Jessica Clifton (@impactforgood). She structures the information in a list format and uses emojis here and there. She’s added her contact information and relevant links for potential brand partners.

Instagram Influencer - Influencer Instagram Bio

5. Have a profile picture that represents you

Your profile picture is the first thing people see before they visit your profile page, giving them a glimpse of your account and content. In fact, it can be the thing that makes them click on your username and check out your feed. So it should be able to immediately captivate people and draw them in as they read about you.

For example, a travel influencer might have their profile picture in a natural setting, a food influencer might have pictures of them cooking or eating, etc.

Meg (@meg.ikarp), an influencer, uses a self-portrait in her personal art style as her profile picture. It accurately represents what she does and what her personality is like.

Instagram Influencer - Influencer Personality

6. Decide on a Feed Aesthetic and Stick to It

The way your feed looks as a whole makes a lasting impression on your audience. An impressive-looking feed that feels cohesive will immediately draw people in. It will show them that you are serious about creating high-quality content that is worth following.

So the first thing you need to do as a social media influencer is decide on an aesthetic for your feed and stick to it consistently. Choose an aesthetic that fits your personality and reflects the mood you want to portray through your content.

For example, someone who wants to promote sustainable living and minimalist living will likely want a feed that looks clean, simple, and refreshing.

To maintain a consistent aesthetic across your feed, plan each photo with your feed in mind. Also, try to take photos in similar lighting and use the same filters and presets when editing them.

For example, see how Sam Ushiro (@aww.sam) posts a series of bright, pop-colored photos to give her feed a sunny and playful aesthetic.

Instagram Influencer - Themed Feeds

Increase Your Influence

7. Keep Your Feed Fresh

One of the best ways to increase your influence is to post consistently and provide new content to engage your followers. While there’s a lot of debate about the ideal posting frequency, try to post a photo or compelling reel at least once a day. Even if that doesn’t work for you, aim to provide your followers with at least a certain number of posts per week.

According to a study published in Social Media Today, posting too frequently on Instagram can actually reduce your engagement per post.

However, it increases your overall engagement, which can be important for gaining more visibility and attracting new followers. Studies have shown that doubling your post rate per day will get you 1.6X more engagement.

8. Prioritize Quality

How To Become An Instagram Influencer, While posting frequency is important, don’t sacrifice quality for posting more frequently. Quality should still come first because it’s the exact reason why people are following you instead of other Instagram influencers in your niche.

When we talk about quality, remember that it’s not just about posting high-resolution photographs (although that’s still essential). Rather, it’s more about publishing content that will be valuable to your followers and your target audience.

Does it serve a purpose? Does it teach them something or entertain them? In other words, does your audience gain something from your content?

For example, fashion influencers like Autumn Rain (@autumrainn) create content to provide their audience with style inspiration and fashion tips.

Instagram Influencer - How to Become an Instagram Influencer - Influencer Engagement - Relevant Hashtags - Content Creation

9. Make the Most of Hashtags.

When it comes to Instagram, nothing drives content discovery better than hashtags. If someone clicks or searches for a specific hashtag, they will discover posts that use the hashtag in the caption or comment. This helps people find content that interests them and connects them with relevant content creators.

In fact, John Koch of Tomosan ran an experiment with hashtags on Instagram and found that they increased content visibility by 4,473%.

So if you want to grow your Instagram following, make sure you are using highly relevant and popular hashtags to increase content visibility and ultimately attract potential followers.

Instagram provides you with hashtag suggestions when you type a related hashtag in the search bar. You can use the tools to discover the most popular and trending hashtags related to your niche.

For example, see how health food influencer, Carissa Stanton (@broccyourbody) uses several relevant hashtags in her post. The post provides a recipe for poke bowls and includes hashtags like #pokebowls, #diypokebowl, and #healthyrecipes. It has received almost 10,000 likes.

Instagram Influencer - How to Become an Instagram Influencer - Influencer Engagement - Relevant Hashtags

10. Focus on Meaningful Engagement

How To Become An Instagram Influencer, While there are shortcuts to growing your following and increasing your engagement, these options are often not sustainable. They get you followers and drive engagement, but only for a limited time. So it’s not a viable option when you want to make a lasting impact and become a successful Instagram influencer.

That’s why it’s important to focus on meaningful engagement from the start. Avoid buying likes and followers to start with, and don’t rely too heavily on contests.

While running a contest can help you gain new followers, you don’t want people following you because they want to win free stuff. So save this option for only occasionally rewarding your loyal followers or even giving your brand partnership some traction.

Instead, focus on consistently delivering high-quality content. Even if you don’t add to your feed regularly, engage with your followers through Stories. Use Instagram Stories to ask or answer their questions, run polls, give them a glimpse into what your daily life is like, and more.

You can even use Keyhole Social Media Account Analytics to monitor your post performance and follower engagement. This will provide you with valuable insights and recommendations on how to drive better engagement with your posts. This tool analyzes your post data and suggests the best time to post, optimal post length, and more.

Instagram Influencer - How to Become an Instagram Influencer - Keyhole - Social Media Analytics

In addition, create more opportunities for engagement. Write captions that make people want to engage with your posts and comment on them. Share personal stories that they can relate to and ask questions that they want answered.

More importantly, don’t forget to return the favor and actively engage with the people who engage with you. This means answering their questions or at least liking their comments. Check out how Joey (@shethespy) interacts with his followers and answers their questions.

Instagram Influencer - How to Become an Instagram Influencer - Influencer Engagement

Working with Brands.

11. Set Your Rates

How To Become An Instagram Influencer, One of the hardest parts of being a social media influencer is deciding how much you’ll charge. It’s crucial that you have a clear idea of ​​what a reasonable rate would be, considering factors like your follower count, engagement rate, niche, and content quality.

You can’t expect brands to pay you $250 per Instagram post if you only have a few thousand followers who rarely engage with your posts. At the same time, if you have 500,000 followers who are actively engaging with your content and you’re charging $50 per post, you might want to reevaluate your pricing.

Deciding on a reasonable rate helps you set a baseline for your value as a content creator. Additionally, it also helps you connect with brands that are a good fit for you because influencer pricing is often an essential criterion in their search.

If you’re not too sure about a reasonable rate, consider using the Instagram Money Calculator from Influencer Marketing Hub. It gives you an estimate of how much you should earn per post, taking into account factors like followers, engagement rate, and average likes per post.

Instagram Influencer - How to Become an Instagram Influencer - IG Money Calculator

12. Negotiating Terms

Negotiating terms and contracts is an important part of being an Instagram influencer. Here, you talk about what you’ll do for a brand and what they’ll do for you. It’s like making a contract. Talk about how many posts you’ll make, what kind of content you’ll create, and how much you’ll pay.

An important aspect to iron out is the billing terms. These are basically when and how you’ll get paid for your work. You want to make sure these terms are crystal clear so there are no confusions later. For added professionalism, you might consider using a blank invoice template instead of writing your invoice by hand. You can simply fill in the blanks on the template, saving you time and making you look more organized.

13. Have a media kit ready

How To Become An Instagram Influencer, If you’re serious about becoming a social media influencer, you’ll also need to prepare a media kit that will help potential clients learn more about you. Simply put, this digital portfolio serves as one of the best portfolio websites where you can showcase your personal brand, work, and accomplishments. Essentially, it serves as the final presentation that entices potential clients to collaborate with you.

Instead of creating different media kits for different social networks, you just need to create one that contains information about your stats across all platforms. It should include the following key details:

A bio that highlights your name, location, personality, interests, and other pursuits

A high-quality photo of yourself

Your contact information

Detailed follower and engagement statistics across various social networks

A breakdown of your audience demographics

Previous campaigns you’ve worked on as well as testimonials from past clients

Try to compile all of this information into an attractive visual presentation so that you stand out from the rest. Be sure to use a color palette, fonts, and images that fit your personal brand identity.

14. Find Brands to Work With

How To Become An Instagram Influencer, Next comes the part where you find brands to partner with. You can either contact brands directly or even join influencer marketing networks that can connect you with the right campaigns. However, these cannot guarantee that you will be connected with brands that you are passionate about.

A pro tip for organically discovering brands is to join and/or start conversations within your ideal brand-partner’s reach. Chances are that these brands are listening on social, and will see your mentions, and if you have the following to back them up – they will likely reach out to you.

For example, borrow a page from the world of makeup influencers. Influencers like Victor Ramos make sure to tag the brands they want to promote and give them a quick push in a way that shows that you are an amazing source of influencer content out there. If your content is a good fit, chances are that brands will reach out to you or at least repost it.

Maintaining Your Influence

As hard as it is to build and grow your influence on Instagram, there is no guarantee that you will be able to maintain it forever. So you need to work consistently to maintain the influence you have built over the months and years.

To do this, you should constantly measure your performance to see what works and what doesn’t. This will allow you to scale and adapt your content strategy based on what people want to see at that particular time. Additionally, it makes it easier to provide your brand partners with visible campaign results so they can accurately measure their influencer marketing ROI.

Be sure to stay on top of trends and join the trending and important conversations within your niche. Most importantly, engage with your followers to stay connected and build a loyal community.