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Being an Instagram influencer is not easy, but it is even harder to become one. It’s difficult, but it is not impossible, and there are ways that you can become an Instagram influencer if you stay dedicated and don’t lose your aim. Here’s a complete guide on how to become an Instagram influencer in 2019.
1. Choose Your Niche
The first and most important thing is to choose your niche. It may seem difficult at first with such a wide array of options available to you, but there are some factors that will help you to cancel out the unnecessary choices.
The niche you choose must suit your personality. You have to be passionate about the topic so that you can stay motivated and inspired throughout the whole journey. Otherwise, you are very likely to burn out fast.
Moreover, the niche you choose must be something you are curious about and possess a substantial amount of knowledge about. Remember that simply taking something that someone else is successfully using won’t mean automatic success for you.
You will have to provide expertise about the topic you chose and you can only do that if you actually know something about your niche. It can even be a combination of several topics, so don’t be afraid to mix and match to find what truly feels like “you.”
2. Define Your Brand
Once you know what your niche will be, you have to define your brand. Ask yourself such questions:
- Why do you want to become an Instagram influencer?
- Why are you growing your Instagram?
- Why are you special and how are you different from everyone else?
- Why did you choose your particular niche?
Once you know the answers to these questions, you should be able to define your brand. Think of a mission statement or a motto for your brand and what you stand for. It is very important to establish this now because this will be the foundation for everything you do afterward.
Try to make your brand authentic. Be creative and think of what makes you different from everyone else. If you chose a very narrow niche, then you will have more options for being original as well as more opportunities to become well-known in your field.
3. Craft a Great Bio
Once you know what you will be posting about and who you will be, you can finally start creating your profile. After you choose a great username and profile picture, you have to craft a great bio that will grab everyone’s attention.
Your bio is one of the first things your potential audience sees when visiting your profile. This is why it has to be short and catchy. Think of your story and try to put it in a sentence or two. Alternatively, include several phrases about who you are and what you do.
When creating your bio, think of what kind of influencer you are. If you are a travel blogger, make sure to say where you are from and where you moved to. You can also include hashtags in your bio as well as emojis, so try to spice it up with these little things.
4. Tell Your Story
As mentioned above, your bio has to contain your story in a shortened form. But that doesn’t mean that all your posts have to soulless. On the contrary, your captions must always contain stories about you and your life.
The stories you tell will help you establish a connection with your followers. They must be sincere and truthful because any lies will be easily detected and nobody will trust you in that case. If you don’t want to expose yourself entirely, don’t tell absolutely everything and instead choose what you want your followers to know. As long as you are genuine, you will be doing great.
5. Make Your Feed Appealing
One of the most important components of your profile is your feed. If you make it look good, everyone will see that you are putting effort into it and making it look as good as possible. Always make sure that your posts are edited well and are visually appealing.
In addition to that, remember that they must be edited in a single style to look good both separately and collectively. If you visit some influencer profiles, you will notice this feature they have in common.
For editing your images, consider using professional apps. Here are some popular examples to check out:
Or you can just use Instagram’s built-in filters if you don’t want any additional headaches. It’s up to you to choose, but just remember to be consistent with your editing. This includes temperature, hue, highlights, and so on.
6. Be Consistent
Creating quality content is only one half of the job; the other is posting this content consistently. By having a set schedule for your posts, you will be able to post regularly and never “disappear” for long periods of time.
Posting regularly means that you consistently appear in your followers’ feeds. This is especially important thanks to Instagram’s algorithm. Your followers see posts in their feed from their close friends and family rather than seeing posts from every account they follow. For the algorithm to interpret your account as their close friend, your followers must engage with your posts more often. The same logic is true for Instagram Stories.
But at the same time, remember not to post too much as your posts may be seen as spam by some of your followers and they will simply mute you. Find the perfect frequency and stick to it. This can be anywhere from three times a day to three times a week. Also, make sure that you are posting during the hours when your audience is most active. This way, you will get the most engagement you can.
7. Stay Real
This has been mentioned above, but saying it again will be a great reminder. You must remember to stay real! Being authentic, original, creative, unique – whatever you call it, it all means the same thing: finding your “me” and sticking to it.
Your uniqueness is what will draw people to your account and make them fall in love with your content. Instagram users want to see original posts that have a special style in them that nobody else has. If you can create a personality that will be present in all of your posts, you will be able to attract a certain audience that will enjoy your content.
A great way to build your character is to collaborate with brands that stand for the same values you represent. Showing your followers that you have someone who is like you but still not a copy of you will prove that you are truly unique.
8. Show Vulnerability
Yes, you heard it right. Being vulnerable is what you need to do if you want to become a successful Instagram influencer. Nobody likes fake people, and because nobody is perfect, showing your vulnerable side will only make you look more human.
Showing vulnerability is one of the best ways to become relatable to your audience and help them connect with you. Everyone has their down days and makes mistakes. Talking about such things will only show that you are not any different from your followers and help them realize that you are very much reachable and similar to them.
Vulnerable posts can prove to be the ones that get the most engagement, because people want to give their input on the situation, wish you luck, comfort you, and so on. Here are the four types of vulnerable content you can create:
- Goals: You can start by talking about your goals. These can be anything from your daily or weekly goals to a bucket list you planned out for a whole year.
- Struggles: Everyone encounters challenges on their way to success, and you are no different. Talk about your struggles and how you are dealing with them.
- Fears: Talking about fears may be the most difficult “vulnerable” topic of all. If you don’t want to talk about them at once, wait for the problem to be solved and only then make a post about the things you feared during the time you dealt with it.
- Frustrations: We all get annoyed by different things and people, and it is totally normal to talk about it online. After all, ranting can also make you feel better. Just make sure not to say something you will regret in the future.
9. Implement Hashtags
Using hashtags in your posts is essential for being discovered. Otherwise, how will anyone find your posts? You should always use at least a few hashtags in your captions to make your post show up in search results.
There is no perfect number of hashtags that you must include in your posts but think of five to ten as your best hit. However, Instagram allows you to use as many as thirty tags, so you may want to use them all. If you don’t want to clutter your caption, you can post them as the first comment right after publishing your post.
There are three main types of hashtags you can use:
- General: These are hashtags that are common on Instagram and used by most people. Some examples are #MondayMotivation and #TBT (aka throwback to).
- Branded: These are the hashtags that brands spread, whether it is a brand name or slogan. For example, #JustDoIt and #Adidas.
- Industry: These hashtags belong to certain industries. For instance, if you blog about food, you can use #cookierecipe.
10. Switch to a Business Account
If you are really serious about becoming an Instagram influencer, then you must absolutely get a business account. It is not hard at all, because the only thing you need to do is link your Facebook page and switch your usual profile to a business one, so you won’t have any trouble.
A business account has two major benefits to it. First of all, you will get access to Instagram Analytics showing you the valuable metrics such as engagement, demographics, and so on that will help you determine the success of your content. Second of all, you will be able to run ads to promote your profile or posts and get even more engagement. 
11. Use Instagram Stories
Once you set up and get used to usual posts, make sure to start using Instagram Stories. They are a great way to upload a quick photo or video as well as boomerang or even timelapse. Once you get to over 10 thousand followers, you will also have an option to post links to your Stories by using the swipe-up feature.
Unlike usual posts, Instagram Stories can show up first in your followers’ Stories feeds. All you need to do is have your followers view your Stories a few times rather than regularly engage with your profile or general content.
12. Engage & Communicate
What better way to increase your engagement levels than to engage with your followers yourself? Reply to their comments, post polls in your Stories and reply to their questions there, host giveaways and contest. If there is user-generated content created with you tagged in it, make sure to like it and comment under the post as well as possibly share it in your Stories or even repost it.
Communicating with your audience is all about building relationships. Go live regularly to talk with your followers in real-time. You can also translate your captions to other languages with the help of an online translation service such as The Word Point to reach even more people. The more people you reach and the more you engage with them, the more your follower base will be. Instagram influencer Tana Mongeau responds to her followers in the comments section.
13. Tag Brands & Get in Touch
After you get established as an influencer, you can start reaching out to brands and asking whether they want to collaborate. Don’t be afraid to do it even if you have only several thousand followers – if your reach is good, you will easily find brands who want to work with you.
The fastest way to reach out to brands is to tag relevant ones in your posts. They will notice this and may even feature your post in their Stories or on their feed. Alternatively, direct message the brands you want to work with. Sometimes they may not reply either way, but you won’t lose anything from trying. Up and coming Instagram influencer Brit Harvey tags clothing brand Resurrection in her post.
14. Don’t Buy Followers
Paid followers are a no-no. You may think that this is a fast road to success, but it actually isn’t. Only real people will make up a good follower base that will be dedicated to you. Buying followers is a mistake many newbies do, so don’t take this path and dig a hole for yourself.
To make money by collaborating with brands you must have a good engagement rate. How can you get that if more than half of your followers will be “dead” accounts? Only real people can give you all those likes and comments.
15. Think Positive
This is something that many beginner influencers forget about. Thinking positive and staying motivated is crucial for growing your follower base. Don’t get uninspired at the first challenges you come across. You will always have problems, no matter if you have one thousand or one hundred thousand followers, so you have to learn to deal with them at the beginning stages. Always have your aim before your eyes that will help you remain optimistic even in the hardest of times.
Final Thoughts
In conclusion, the step-by-step instructions outlined in this article will surely help you become an Instagram influencer, even if it takes you some time. Find motivation and inspiration and keep moving on until you reach what you want to reach.
