Instagram has become one of the most important social media platforms around. Many successful influencers have been able to make a career out of their online presence.
An effective influencer marketing can trigger the interest or purchasing decisions of the consumers. It’s no wonder why brands are making connections with big Instagram influencers.
If they can do so, you undoubtedly can as well. You just need to know how. Here we reveal the four powerful tactics that successful Instagram influencers do to gain more active followers;
Make the Most of Your Bio
One of the first things that influencers do when they started out on Instagram is they set up their account and bio.
Remember, they have as many clickable links in their bio as you do – one. The difference could be that they know how to use it. You want to make sure that you’re putting the best link for your business in there. While it’s tempting to link to your websites’ home page, this doesn’t do a lot for engagement.
Instead, try using a tool that links to multiple pages – or try creating an Instagram landing page on your website where you offer your Instagram followers something for clicking through. This could be subscribing to your weekly newsletter, a free e-book or even just a video that you know they’ll want to watch.
This way, you’re using the extra attention you get on Instagram to drive traffic and make conversions happen. It’s important to remember with landing pages that because Instagram is a mobile app, they need to be mobile-friendly.
If you’d rather not go the landing page route, it’s vital that you include clear and concise contact details so that potential clients can get in touch with you quickly, without any work on their part.
Whether this is a link or physical directions to your store, you’ll give your audience a better chance of connecting with you.
Plan a Solid Content Strategy
Once an influencer has sorted out their bio, they’re going to sit down and think about the type of content strategy that’s going to push their account forward into success and popularity.
While you may think this is complicated, it doesn’t have to be. In fact, a lot of successful influencers know that all it takes sometimes is a few basic rules. Once you’ve laid your base for your content strategy, you can start to flesh it out.
Here are some basic rules for creating content:
- Have an account theme.
- The aesthetic is the most critical part.
- Be consistent with everything.
- Video is the new medium.
When it comes to having a theme for your account, this is what’s going to attract potential followers first. You may have noticed that those influencers you like have a consistent theme running through all their posts.
This makes them easily recognizable, and you remember them.
While your product or service may be worth using, potential followers aren’t going to know this until they try it. Instagram is a visual platform – this means that possible clients need to be attracted to how you portray your business before anything else.
When thinking about consistency, the process is simple: achieve regularity with your message, and don’t forget to post a lot.
This is because Instagram tends to have a snowball effect: the more you post, the bigger you’ll grow. A lot of influencers didn’t get to where they are today overnight – they posted consistently for a long time.
Video is fast becoming one of the most popular forms of media on Instagram. You may already be used to checking your influencers Instagram stories or anticipating the posting of another video. Video mixes things up and keeps your audience interested.
Do Things That Don’t Scale
While you’ve still got an account that has growing to do, it’s important that you keep doing things that can’t be automated.
This is particularly relevant when you’re just starting out. People love that personal touch you can achieve when you’ve only got a few thousand followers, and they’ll quickly start to appreciate the work you put in to connect with your audience.
Influencers do things like exploring potential hashtags to see what’s popular in their industry. They also try to engage directly with their audience through comments. While your account is still small, it’s important to reply to every comment you get.
Once your account starts to get a bit bigger, it’s going to be challenging to keep up with the engagement. Unfortunately, the reality is that nobody has the time to sit around and reply to hundreds of comments all day.
This is an excellent time to start outsourcing your engagement so that you can continue to get real Instagram followers for your account. There’s a good chance that those influencers you love are also at a point where they have to outsource their engagement.
Make the Most of Shoutouts
Like you already know, Instagram is a community. This means that you need to take time to connect with your community.
A lot of your influencers will be familiar with the concept of paying for shoutouts. When they were up and coming and had influencers above them who they admired, there’s a good chance they didn’t stay passive for too long.
They would have reached out to the people they admired on Instagram and asked if they could pay them for a shoutout.
You can approach your influencers directly by making an outreach list, and creating your own budget, so you go in ready to negotiate.
Final Thoughts
Instagram is naturally an excellent platform for people like you who want to become influencers and have a long list of real Instagram followers to their name.
While it may not be easy, it can be done – just take a look at what your influencers did. If this step by step guide worked so well for them, then it can certainly end up working for you as well.
Remember, nobody became an Instagram influencer overnight. The more effort and time you put into it, the better results you will achieve.