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Posted on Dec 1, 2016

Being An Instagram Influencer And Why It’s The Greatest Job In The World.

The job you've been looking for might just be in the palm of your hands... literally.

by notyourtypeoftyper

Community Contributor

Dream job? Easy. Getting paid to just live my life. I used to ask the question "What is so different between the Kardashians and I?." I mean sure I spend the majority of my free time with chip crumbs down the front of my old pyjama shirt as I finish the 7th episode of whatever television show that I have emotionally invested myself in. Yes, maybe every day is a bad hair day when all it takes is someone sneezing all the way from Columbia to completely mess up my hair.

I want a job that's entirely flexible and allows me to go ahead and live my life and be paid for it. Then I found a possible solution: INSTAGRAM INFLUENCER

I got talking to a friend of mine who spends her time as an Influencer. I found out she get's paid to promote products, write reviews, eat wonderful food and take selfies or photos of the places she travels to... Bitch.

GIPHY

I asked her if she could run me through a few different ways to become an Influencer and this is the information she handed me, that I will in turn hand to you.

Social media has proven to be a very successful way of connecting to a mass of potential customers for brands and Advertisers. Anyone that has a large number of organic (real) followers becomes known as an Influencer.

Influencers on social media have become prime candidates for brands to use to market their products. Sometimes it's as simple as posting a product on their page and sometimes an influencer may even be approached to be involved with other Marketing campaigns like commercials or events. I know a few that have been given travel packages and by that I mean FREE flights, FREE accommodation...FREE!!!

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1.So, How does one become an Influencer?

2.What content do you need to post be a successful Influencer?

3.How do you get an organic (real) number of followers?

4.How do you get in contact with brands or they get in contact with you?

5.Why do I have so many questions?

Don't get me wrong, sure there is money to be made. Also, there is the benefit of hopefully eventually reaching that end goal of not having a 9-5 desk job and being able to work remotely. To achieve this level of Influencer success isn't a walk in the park there is a lot of work involved. Influencers work hard at producing good content for their followers. They may also spend money at the start in order to reach the goal they have set for a number of Followers. This includes the help of companies (Such as Mapiac) that organically grow your followers. Now that you know the benefits of Influencer fame let's go through the three main steps to becoming an Influencer...

Firstly, you need to figure out how you want to brand yourself. What do you want to be associated with?

* Health and Fitness

* Beauty and Cosmetics

* Spirtuality

* Travel

* Fashion

* A mixture of some or all of the above.

Start by looking at other Influencers and try to see how they have branded themselves.

There are various ways to brand yourself. Sometimes it's good to gather ideas and emulate them, they have a structure that works for them which makes them so successful.

The top three characteristics associated with a strong influencer page are:

1.ACTIVITY: Make sure not to over post or essentially "spam" users. Don't use hashtags and if you do, Don't over do it.

2.QUALITY: Create quality content that is user driven and creates an interesting online identity.

3.ENGAGEMENT: Engage with people. Try and collaborate with other users. Post photos or art of other users you enjoy and credit them by tagging them on the photo and in the caption. Write back to other users or write interesting comments with substance on their page. Engaging with other users is a good way to ensure that they engage with you.

Below are some good examples of successful Instagram influencers who show all three characteristics on their page.

There are various methods and measures to producing good content on your Instagram page. Your content should be:

* Visual: Make sure it's aesthetically appealing. Use photography apps or tools to enhance or edit your posts. Use techniques such as flat laying or colour themes to make your images stand out.

* Have a voice: A good way to engage with people and show your identity to the Instagram community is to voice your opinion on matters that you're passionate about. If you don't feel like expressing social ideological views then focus on creating another kind of voice.It can be a humorous or insightful one. Offer tips or advice if you specialise in a particular area. Engage people with interesting and well thought out content/ captions.

FOLLOWERS!!
FOLLOWERS!!
FOLLOWERS!!

This is the single most important factor to being an influencer. Having a large mass of followers. Though not just a large mass of followers but a large mass of ORGANIC or REAL followers.

Some people buy fake followers as a cheap and easy way of growing their following. I want to stress how bad this is. Many brands are able to see the lack of engagement and therefore you lose any chance of being a reputable or prospective candidate to use for their marketing. It is important to either do this organically which is usually a very, very slow process or you can go through a company that will grow them organically for you.

How to get organic followers? Well, There are two main ways:

1. Engaging with others on Instagram:

It's important to engage with people who have similar interests, whether it be following them or liking their content. Though don't like too many people as you want to have a larger ratio of people who follow you to who your following. Instagram has become a very popular medium for marketing and therefore obtaining organic followers is a lot harder these days.

2. Companies:

I highly, HIGHLY recommend spending a little money in order to make a lot of money in the future.

There are some amazing tools which people have used to grow their followers organically until they reach their target and they start to grow automatically. One company that my friend recommended to me and which I highly recommend is Mapiac.

DON'T even think about looking at this step unless you have STEP ONE AND STEP TWO under your belt. Brands are primarily concerned with numbers and how many organic followers are engaging with you in order to obtain organic followers you can grow them slowly yourself though this is extremely time consuming and unless you're ready to play a long waiting game then don't expect sudden results. You can also go through a company so that you are able to focus on producing great content allowing them to focus on targeting an organic audience for your page and grow it for you. Mapiac is my personal favorite to go through as it's affordable and the results are pretty incredible because they can grow anywhere from 5,000-10,000 organic followers monthly.

How to Connect with Brands?:

There are services available that connect brands with influencers. Keep in mind, They only will do this if you have a strong following with actual and organic followers who are interacting with your account as opposed to "ghost" followers.

Takumi:

Website: http://takumi.com

Takumi allows users with anywhere from 1,000 followers up to connect with Brands.

Snapfulence:

Website: http://www.snapfluence.com

Instabrand:

Website: http://instabrand.com

theright.fit:

Website: http://theright.fit

A very reputable and extremely professional service in Australia which connects talent with brands & clients. I would recommend this company as one of the best in the business.

Sometimes Brands will even contact you directly on your page and it's important to leave your contact details (An email not a number) on your page as a way to be contacted.

So with all this information it's time for you to start to grow your Instagram account, become an influencer and enjoy the freedom, flexibility and joy that social media fame can offer!