Instagram for
Influencers

If you’re reading this guide, your goal is to become an Instagram influencer. You probably have some idea of what you want to name your page so it’s memorable and easy to find. Keep in mind that the terms “Instagram username,” “Instagram name” and “Instagram handle” all mean the same thing.

Your Instagram handle creates the URL of your Instagram page when someone views it in a web browser. It’s also one way other users can search for you within in the app. It’s written with an “@” before the name you choose, like @username. Your username sets the stage for your messaging, even before you post your first image.

When you download the app and see the prompt that asks you to create a username, that’s your “handle” that’ll show up on your page. Go ahead and use your name or something creative and unique to represent your page. It’s not set in stone, so you can always tweak or change your username, especially as you begin to grow your influence.

To give you an idea of a good handle, here are examples of the usernames of three popular non-celebrity influencers:

The profile photo in the upper left-hand corner of your Instagram page is one of the first things a viewer spots. That little image on your page should incorporate five tips all at once:

1. Keep it timeless and evergreen: If your brand is about Christmas in July, then it’s fine to mix the seasons. If your image is out of season, a new visitor may think your page isn’t kept up to date. Keep your profile image timeless by keeping your background and props neutral and not time-sensitive. You also don’t want to take time away from creating content by constantly changing your profile image.
2. Mind your background: Your background will be but a blur, but it counts. Your followers will see your background, and they may even study it a bit to grasp your entire brand and personality.
3. Stay with a consistent aesthetic: Stay on brand while staying with the palette of your page. You want it to blend in well with the other images on the page.
4. Size it correctly: IG profile photos should be square, measuring 110 by 110 pixels. Check to see if the image works well when placed in a circle by using the Edit Profile tool.
5. Upload a portrait, not a selfie: A portrait shot, with a focus on your face so you’re recognizable, is perceived as more professional than a selfie. You’ll also have more control over the results of the image if you have someone else take the photo. As an influencer, you’re selling yourself as a brand in your profile image, so it pays to make it count.

As of this writing, there are three types of free profiles from which you can choose: personal, creator or business. Instagram also gives you the ability to switch back and forth from one profile to another, thought that can sometimes cause confusion and complicate matters. However, if you’re testing the waters, you might want to start basic and upgrade as your influencer status evolves. If you’re planning on becoming an influencer, it pays to know the benefits and drawbacks of each type of profile.

Personal: A personal Instagram account can be set to be private. It’s a simple way to keep up with family and friends. But, it won’t let you have access to special features, and it won’t let you see how your posts and Stories are doing in real time.

Creator: A creator account is designed for Instagram’s high-profile users, most notably celebrities and influencers. It’s similar to a business profile in that it gives you more control of your account.

You can access detailed follower insights and growth tools, such as simplified messaging services. These give you better ways to connect with your audience and increase your brand awareness. Your followers can also shop directly from your account when you tag products in your posts a certain way. If you don’t have a larger retail presence, this may be the ideal account for an up-and-coming influencer.

Business: With a business account, you have access to real-time Instagram Analytics. These data show you how your posts and Stories perform and how your followers interact with content. They include features that you can unlock so you can get noticed. You can also create a digital catalog where you can embed links to products directly in an image. You might start with a Creator account and move to Business as you emerge as a high-profile influencer.

Your profile’s bio is the beginning of your branding and the first thing a follower sees on your Instagram page. You could always study your favorite influencer’s profile bio and figure out why it’s compelling. However, every profile bio is unique because each element that’s included is specific to each brand.

An Instagram bio has relatively few words, but every word has an important job. Here’s what we mean:

• Name: Begin with your brand’s name.
• Username: Next to your name, you can add in an abbreviation or variation of your name that you think may be searchable on Instagram. Or, instead of your username, add in an important keyword that helps viewers find your page.
• Category: The Business and Creator accounts let you add a category under your name.
• Contact: The Business account lets you add a web address under the bio, but it doesn’t count towards the character count.
• Verification badge: This optional but coveted little blue checkmark means you’re a real Instagram account, not an imposter account. It’s a display of authenticity for well-known users. You’ll need to go through a process to get verified on Instagram. The badge is meant for pages that Instagram thinks are “in the public interest.”
• Bio: In 150 characters or less, include a display of your expertise, one or two short hashtags and a swift call-to-action phrase. You can always add an emoji if it’s appropriate.
• Call-to-action (CTA): This short phrase highlights your goal and coordinates with the clickable link in your bio. For example, it’ll compel a viewer to click on your link, plan to visit your store or follow your feed.
• Website: Typically at the bottom of the bio, this field allows you to put in a clickable link, usually to your official website.

Most, if not all, Instagram influencers cross-post on other platforms. For example, there are plenty of influencers on Twitter, which sometimes offers more engagement between influencers and followers than Instagram. YouTube is extremely influential, with an estimated 1.9 billion active users per month.

The key today is to distribute content on all or at least two platforms to capture the maximum number of followers. One component of success in cross-posting on platforms is time management. Time management is a skill that you’ll need as an influencer juggling many balls in the air while running your business.

Photos: The main feature of Instagram is photography, and lots of it. If you love taking photos and posting images, Instagram is the perfect platform for your work. There are plenty of independent photo-editing apps to help you create eye-popping visual content for Instagram.

Apps can help you sharpen or blur images, add text and effects to an image, resize images, put them in a collage and more. You can crop, size and edit right in the app. Always use high-resolution images to keep your visuals crisp and clear.

Videos: When you want to create a 60-second video for your Story or live, you can create and upload a video from your phone. (IGTV is different; scroll down to learn more below.) Just as you can with photos, you’ll be able to find video-editing apps for Instagram videos.

Live: Much like Facebook Live, this is Instagram’s live-streaming feature. You can instantaneously go live to your audience, chat, reply to comments and use split-screen views to engage with viewers/guests.

Stories: Instagram has evolved beyond just photos. Now, you need to put more behind those eye-catching images in the form of Stories. Through your real Stories, you’ll begin to engage with your audience and connect with your followers. The Stories feature, influenced by Snapchat’s functionality, lets you post a photo or 15-second video that’ll disappear from your feed in 24 hours. That makes it imperative for your followers to keep up with your postings so they don’t miss a thing.

Text: Text, including hashtags, is a minimal element that takes a backstage on an Instagram page or feed. Once in a while, you’ll see a long caption. It’s relatively rare because the star of your page and feed is visual content.

IGTV: There’s another emerging type of Instagram-related content, which debuted in 2018, called IGTV. It’s Instagram’s answer to YouTube, and it’s growing in popularity. It allows you to create livestreams between 10 minutes and an hour long. You can set up your own separate IGTV channel and preview it on your regular Instagram page. Check out three popular Instagram influencers and their IGTV channels:

Zoë Sugg: @zoesugg, 9.7m Instagram followers and @zoella, 1.2m Instagram folllowers. Zoe is an influential beauty vlogger. She provides product reviews and beauty tips both on YouTube (with more than 12 million subscribers), and on her top IGTV channel, Zoella Beauty.

Hannah Stocking: @hannahstocking, 17m Instagram followers. Hannah started out vlogging on Vine, then YouTube. She now creates custom content for her IGTV channel, which is called The Science of Beauty.

Lele Pons: @lelepons, 36.7m Instagram followers. Lele made a name uploading videos on the now-defunct Vine. She has millions of subscribers on YouTube and helped Instagram launch IGTV with her comedy cooking show, What’s Cooking with Lele Pons.

It’s easy to make mistakes on any platform and equally easy to fix mistakes on Instagram. Quickly fix your mistakes to redeem your reputation. There are six significant missteps that can damage your journey as an Instagram influencer if you don’t catch them early on:

1. Posting content that’s irrelevant to your niche
2. Using wrong or inappropriate hashtags on your posts
3. Posting inconsistently or infrequently
4. Posting low-quality, non-value content that feels rushed and insignificant
5. Avoiding replying to comments
6. Faking your follower count

Let’s dive a bit deeper into #6 above regarding fake followers. These are follower accounts that actual people don’t run. Having them increases an account’s follower numbers, but it harms an influencer’s engagement rates because real people aren’t liking and commenting on posts using those fake accounts. If you’re found to have fake followers, it can damage your reputation among real followers because it degrades their trust. Brands may also be less likely to want to partner with someone who knowingly has fake followers.

It may be tempting to increase your audience number to make it appear like you’re more popular. But it’s one of the worst influencer practices to participate in. Fake followers are detectable not only to real followers, but also to potential brands that may want to work with you. Here’s how others spot fake Instagram followers:

• Bad content: It’s suspect if you post low-quality content but you have a high number of followers.
• Spikes: If your audience number spikes without a genuine reason, such as because of a viral post, the sudden increase may be all from fake followers.
• Ratios: If the ratio of your audience members to your likes per post is vastly different, that’s a sign you have fake followers. In other words, if you have 200K followers but posts generally receive double-digit likes, that means few real people are seeing your posts.
• Spam: A large percentage of spam comments may indicate fake followers.
• Analytical tools: Brands seeking partnerships with influencers often use digital tools that analyze and uncover follower authenticity.

Name/username: Laura | Sunny Day Family

Bio: Organizing & life hacks from a homeschooling mom to twin boys, 2 dogs, & a cat.
Grab your planner and coffee (or ) and let’s do this.

CTA: Freebies ↓↓

Website: linktr.ee/sunnydayfamily

Name/username: Danielle Bernstein

Creator @daniellebernstein
Founder @shopweworewhat
Giving @wegavewhat
Founder @moeassist
NY Times Best Selling Author

CTA: For inquiries: jen@jenniferpowell.com

Website: shopweworewhat.com

Representation: The Osbrink Agency

Bio:Natural Blonde Curls w/ Big Personalities
Agent: @osbrinkagency
TikTok: StellaBlaise
YT: Stella & Blaise

Website: gf.me/u/za47ka

If you’re hoping to become an overnight influencer, it could happen. There are stories of influencers who took two months to become moneymaking brand ambassadors. More often, you’ll find influencers who’ve worked diligently to grow their presences and brands. Here are three stories of hardworking Instagram influencers who do the right things and learned from their mistakes.

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Melissa Johnson of Best Friends for Frosting, @bestfriendsforfrosting, 103k Instagram followers

Melissa’s company focuses on sharing recipes, entertainment tips and other home ideas. She has a presence on other platforms, including 7m followers on Pinterest. She’s decided to use her Instagram influencer status as a way to gain press and access to projects at different levels.

Melissa shot a commercial for OxiClean and launched a podcast, and she’s currently exploring book deals and product lines. How did she do it? Offering content with genuine value to her audience and responding to as many comments as possible.

McKenzie Guymon, @girllovesglam, 11.1k Instagram followers

McKenzie’s tagline is “REAL beauty for REAL women.” She traded in salon work to become an influencer, also posting across multiple platforms. McKenzie recommends influencers learn from her mistake of taking on brands that didn’t fit her values, which resulted in failed campaigns. Today, she studies a brand before accepting a partnership, making absolutely certain it’s aligned with her values and lifestyle.

Celebrity and mega influencers have over a million followers, and they’re often considered famous rather than influential. Having such a large audience means the influencer may post quite a bit, but the relationships with followers are distant and at best superficial. They do, however, command high payments for greater reach. Super-celebrity Kim Kardashian can command between $250,000 to over $500,000 per post if a company wants her millions of followers to see one of their products.

Influencers with between 1,000 and 10,000 followers are called micro-influencers. They may have fewer followers than regular or mega-influencers, but they likely have more interactions with a highly devoted audience. Because a micro-influencer’s audience is smaller, it’s more targeted. That means the micro-influencer is also highly desirable to a company that has an influencer marketing program. If you have between 5,000 to 10,000 followers, you may be able to command a payment of between $100 to $500 per post.

Nano-influencers have fewer than 1,000 followers. They can be the most authentic, hyper-targeted Instagram influencers with the highest rates of engagement. Nano-influencers are ready to swap products for promotion because they may be just starting out. If you prefer payment, you may have to contend with less than $100 for a post unless you’re in an uncrowded but highly desirable niche for a brand.

As the platform evolves, there’s always a next generation of Instagram influencers. For example, emerging influencers have shifted the Instagram landscape by favoring messy posts or videos rather than perfect posts. They’ve built their own brands rather than relying on brand deals. They’ve taken their content across multiple platforms to increase their social media numbers.

An emerging influencer doesn’t have to be a nano-influencer, however. For example, a new crop of beauty influencers has taken to the platform to offer honest reviews of products. Some emerging influencers won’t take sponsored posts or reviews, either, such as @gelcream with 120k followers. But, even celebrities can turn into emerging influencers. Take HGTV star Joanna Gaines, for example. As her television show became more popular, she emerged as an Instagram home decor influencer.

It helps to understand the lingo of analytics and measuring success when it comes to Instagram. Here are four basic terms to learn:

Insights: These are important measurements to help you get an understanding of the effects your content has on audience activity and engagement. Clicking on the Insights button on your toolbar helps you to find out your followers’ ages and genders. You can see when they tune in and when it’s the best time to post to get maximum engagement on your content.

Outreach: This is the process an influencer goes through to form a relationship with a follower. Influencer outreach helps a follower understand why it’s beneficial to continue following and engaging with you.

Reach: Reach is a measure of your audience size, or the number of followers who value your content. However, a smaller reach isn’t necessarily anything to worry about. A smaller niche in a highly targeted market is valuable to a brand looking for awareness. Sometimes a brand’s message can get lost with an influencer who has a huge general audience.

ROI: “ROI” stands for “return on investment.” This essentially answers the question of whether a campaign paid off and was worth the cost. When a brand hires an influencer to partner with on a campaign, the brand’s marketing professional measures the ROI of the program. Marketers analyze ROI by tracking and measuring performance and goals reached before, during and after a campaign.

Sponsored content on Instagram is content you as an influencer create that includes a specific brand in some meaningful and authentic way. You’ll form a partnership with the brand before making sponsored posts. The growth of sponsored content on Instagram is well documented. It’s one of the best ways an influencer can make money. There are a few key points to learn about sponsored content before you start.

A company may create an influencer marketing campaign to introduce or build awareness about a product or the brand in general. Depending on the company’s goals, the campaign will likely include sponsored posts. If a company approaches you to help with a campaign, you’ll need to determine if the brand and the company’s practices are genuinely aligned with your values before agreeing to the project.

If you do go forward with the campaign, the brand’s marketer discusses content they want you to produce to promote the brand on your page. Images and videos easily promote brand awareness. Sponsored content can be both fun and lucrative to produce, as long as you’re passionate about the company, the brand and the product. In other words, the sponsored post has to make complete sense on your page and should resonate with your audience.

Most importantly, you must tell your audience when you’re making sponsored posts; failing to do so can cause legal troubles. The Federal Trade commission has specific rules that apply to social media and traditional media outlets. As a social media influencer, the FTC requires you to be transparent about sponsored content in post captions. This is part of the agency’s truth-in-advertising principle that endorsements must be honest and not misleading. The FTC offers strict guidelines about alerting your followers in a clear and conspicuous way that you’re posting a sponsored content, specifically for Instagram influencers.

One way to adhere to the FTC’s guidelines is to simply add in a three-character hashtag, “#ad,” to the beginning of your caption. As you begin to take on sponsored content, it’s important to study the FTC guidelines for adherence. Review other influencer posts to see how they handle disclosures. Ultimately, it’s not ethical to let followers believe you don’t have a motive in posting content when a brand is actually compensating you to do so.

Here are three excellent examples of sponsored content. Take a look at the captions to see how the influencers disclose it: