If you have a personal brand or are thinking of starting down this path, Instagram is currently one of the best places to do it. This social network already has billions of users, so it can be the ideal platform for growing a new business: your own.
The novelty that Instagram presents, from this point of view, with respect to other previous social networks such as Tuenti, Twitter or Snapchat is the personalisation of advertising. While we already knew that social networks were a good promotional tool for companies, Instagram has given rise to personal branding, being you, as a person, your own company: influencers.
These figures are now incredibly well known, and need no introduction. Perhaps what is needed is to find out how they organise themselves to achieve the results they do.
Build trust
If there is one thing that differentiates an influencer from a catalogue, it is the trust they inspire. The power of influencers lies in the closeness and comfort they inspire in their followers. Open the doors of your life (as much as you feel comfortable) to normalise yourself so that the people who follow you can empathise with you. Word of mouth is, has always been and will always be the most effective form of advertising. If a friend recommends a band or a brand of clothes, you trust their judgement and take a look. You have to be that friend through the screen and for this it is essential that you show something of yourself.
Focus your product
It is essential to build trust. A person who advertises anything randomly does not generate reliability. Although most influencers are dedicated to the world of fashion, being an influencer does not have to mean advertising clothes or accessories. It is about you, as a person, being the axis of advertising, that the brands that work with you come to you so that you give value to their product.
On this basis, you can be an influencer of food, travel, music, sport... Almost anything. We are even seeing more and more the concept of activist on instagram, a kind of social influencer. The most important thing, in order to create loyalty among your followers and guarantee your success, is that it is something that you are truly passionate about, that you know perfectly and that is part of your day to day life.
Determine your niche
Not all generations like the same thing and, furthermore, not all people who like something are a unified mass. You must choose what age group and what type of consumer you want to catch. In other words, create your buyer persona, a semi-fictional profile based on real data that can create a generic idea of who would be interested in your content and create it with them in mind.
Follow trends, hashtags and formats
Instagram is a fast-moving world, and trends are trending today and won't be in two days. It is important that you offer the content that is popular at that moment (audios, videos, formats, hashtags...) and share it at the right time. It is a good idea to follow some hashtags like #viral to know what is trending. Join reels, IG TV videos and anything else that might come up.
Organisation
No improvisation. Although we have seen how this process arose spontaneously, that is over. Nowadays, being an influencer is a recognised profession and does not arise naturally. Some influencers such as Dulceida, one of the first in Spain, have repeatedly told us how the work was forged little by little without them being aware of what they were creating.
Nowadays, we already know Instagram's algorithms, the tastes of the public, the mechanics of consumption, the best times to publish, the content that works best... This market has been studied in depth, although it continues to evolve. This means that there is now a "strategy" that can lead you to be an influencer beyond the luck of being noticed.
Of course, create an account as a public and company profile to be able to analyse what works best for you and how you can get better results: insights will be your best friend.
Consistency, Quality and Timing
No single business is easy. To reach a number of followers with which you can earn enough income requires time and effort. If before "anything goes", now that being an influencer is recognised as a job, quality is demanded. Just scroll down the profiles of the most experienced influencers and see how they have improved the quality of their videos, their photos and the way they advertise.
The issue of timing is relatively new, but very efficient. Choose what time your audience is most active or what days of the week it is most useful to post a photo. It's about capturing the attention of one person in a sea full of other people trying to capture it. The best times, according to statistics, are usually after lunch and after dinner. Avoid times like early morning, midday or mid-afternoon, as this is usually when everyone is busiest.
Before, we used to see how influencers used to expose their content in a much more spontaneous way, but, for some time now, we can already sense how their content is organised in a calendar. They themselves, in fact, communicate it so that we are aware of it. Hence the typical "this Sunday I'm publishing a very special photo" or the reminders.
Move, contact and offer yourself
As we said, Instagram is an organised market and any action is agreed by contract. There are many influencers, or people trying to be one, and you need to be noticed. Contact the brands, show them your profile and orientate yourself towards what they want. Don't wait for anyone to call you. Start with smaller and less known brands, and you will see how your followers grow little by little.
Another good idea is to collaborate with other people who are at the same stage as you: mention each other's profiles, recommend each other or do things together. Symbiosis always adds up as Instagram is not exclusive. It is true that it is interesting to differentiate yourself and offer something that others are not already showing.
