Let’s face it: building a committed and loyal follower base is no picnic. To quote Instagram influencer Jason Stone:
“Social media is no longer about family and friends.”
Brands and businesses are getting involved in Instagram. According to Sprout Social, 8 out of 10 hashtags are branded. The platform’s channels are run like businesses, which means it’s getting harder to compete for individuals and marketers alike.
If you’re looking to grow your following quickly, this can be quite the conundrum; especially if you’re new and/or small.
Remarkably, though, a few users have managed to bridge the gap and compete with all the world’s brands as individuals. These people are called influencers, and they dominate the social network with a few specific tactics that allow them to win over crowds of loyal followers.
This article will reveal a few of these strategies and how you can use them in your own business.
1. Create Authentic Experiences
It’s safe to say that ‘fake it till you make it’ doesn’t quite work for social media influencers. If you’re building a network of die-hard followers, they will confront you on any kind of “unusual” behavior, just like if you were suddenly acting shady and different with a close friend. The successful influencers of Instagram show you everything: the good, the bad, and the ugly.
By extension, positive, authentic influencers who can market their personal lives win big. For example, fashion blogger Arielle Charnas (@somethingnavy) has acquired just over 1 million followers on Instagram in the last few years—and her life as a mom is a major part of her content:
The numbers speak for Charnas’ success with very personal posts about motherhood. Within months of starting an Instagram page for her adorable daughter Ruby Lou, the NYC mom acquired 45,500 followers for that page alone with just 32 posts!
The takeaway is that people like a personal touch on their content – especially when it’s positive. Open up and be authentic if you’re a solopreneur; ask employees to get involved in the content if you’re a larger company.
2. Avoid Being a Perfectionist
If you’re starting out on Instagram and striving to become a social media influencer, you may think that creating that perfect grid of photos is what gets you the most Instagram followers.
That’s not quite true, and we’re about to tell you why.
Trying to build that perfect grid when you’re new is… well, impossible. Furthermore, you don’t want a perfect grid to stop you from posting an image because “it doesn’t fit well with the rest of the photos”.
Instead, what most Instagram influencers are doing is picking a theme for their page. This can be a hobby or food or a specific way of treating images with Instagram’s built-in settings.
Take Kim Kardashian, for example. As a celebrity with 146 million followers, according to Bustle Kim K applies the “Aden” filter to most of her photos to give them a consistently aged feel.
Another example: Jack Morris, 26, and his girlfriend Lauren Bullen, 24, met while traveling in Fiji. The two instantly bonded and have been traveling the world together ever since, creating beautiful content and collaborating with brands.
Morris recently shared his style of work with the media:
“I edit all my photos in the same kind of style with my own Lightroom presets so I guess they all look somewhat similar because of that.”
The couple shares 3 million followers between the two accounts and, according to UK Business Insider, charges no less than $3,000 per ad post, having charged $9,000 for their most expensive one yet.
But you may say, “alright, but I’m not traveling yet or charging $3,000 per post.”
Well, here is the good news. The social media influencer market is becoming so big that developers all over the world are creating tools that will facilitate acquiring followers and creating that “picture perfect” grid on your page. Popular influencers recommend trying out the Preview App or Planoly.
The bottom line is, do not limit your content just because you feel like it will not be in tune with your feed. If you feel like the post is relevant and engaging for your audience, post it and the newly developed tools will help you rearrange your posts later!
3. Collaborate With Other Influencers and Brand Channels
If you are an active Instagram user, you’ve probably come across generic pages that acquire millions of followers while tagging moderately popular influencers in their posts.
A good example of that would be Free People (@freepeople) – a clothing brand whose Instagram is oriented towards art and travel, amongst other things. Here’s them featuring a photo of Veronika Heilbrunner, who “only” has about 192,000 followers.
This strategy is becoming more popular now (we’ll explain why in a second). Micro-influencers – accounts that usually have fewer than 50,000 – 100,000 followers – are an excellent way to get followers. Engaging with them is easy, too, so the ROI is way above what you get going for the big dogs.
The main reason micro-influencers are so viable? The price tag on major celebrities. Michael Heller, the CEO of digital-marketing firm Talent Resources, stated that companies are willing to pay sister Kendall and Kylie Jenner up to $400,000 per Instagram post!
That might seem extravagant – but Heller explains that whether they are asked to promote weight loss tea or skincare, the products sell out immediately.
This kind of influencer outreach may be beyond the budget of most brands, but whether we’re talking micro-influencers or million-strong channels, partnering up with others works.
How to Use Instagram Influencers to Build a Large Following
Of course you could buy real instagram followers too, but more authentic way to build a large following is to do what instagram influencers do. And there you have it: the three things brands and influencers do to succeed at Instagram marketing:
- Just be you; viewers appreciate authentic experiences, especially positive ones.
- Don’t stress about making everything perfect. In today’s world of all sorts of tech advancements, there are apps and tools that will help you make your page look however you want it to days after you’ve actually posted. As long as you have a theme and concept in mind, the rest can be taken care of as you go.
- Promote others as well as yourself. Instagram, first and foremost, is a community. Collaborating with other influencers and brands just plain works!
Try them for yourself and let us know how it works!
[All images from respective Instagram accounts]
Ivan Kreimer is a content marketer at Foundr, a leading media company that helps entrepreneurs launch and grow their online businesses. His advice has been featured in Entrepreneur, MarketingProfs, KISSmetrics, among others.