Instagram was created primarily with the purpose of encouraging communication through images. For years, it did the job just fine and garnered a huge number of users in a fewer time span. Now, it is home to so many businesses, aspiring youngsters, influencers, it is a creative space and a tool to propagate views and opinions. This transformation of Instagram is indeed worth applauding. In a way, it shaped the culture of the digital generation. 

It might be criticized for seizing our time all day, distracting us from other important chores, and making us go back to the app just milliseconds after we have closed it. Well, can’t give Instagram a bad rep for our guilty pleasure, can we? 

Instagram has made so many changes to it both app-wise and business-wise. It was acquired by Facebook, it was given commendable business features, analytics, amendments made in the story feature, the algorithm and we can go on and on about its tiniest transformations that have made an impact on users and especially businesses and influencers. These transformations have only added more to the transparency that this app can bring. While the influencers have constantly tried to build the best connections with their followers, Instagram has always helped them to keep with it by enhancing their user experience from time-to-time. 

Not to forget, that this can be highly leveraged by businesses too. Almost every business and brand in today’s time has a social media presence which can also be considered as a necessity now in the business realm. Brands can use Instagram to build their personal space where they can have their own presence, be known for their own content and communication. Along with that, they can collaborate with influencers who have already created their space and persona on social media over the years. But the question is how to use influencer marketing on Instagram? 

There is so much to know about influencer marketing on Instagram. While everything will unfold as you get into the process practically, here’s a beginner’s guide for you to get started on a good note. 

There are certain myths that float around when it comes to choosing influencers on Instagram. The criteria for selecting the influencers sometimes fall in the pit of fallacies which are not apt. Let’s understand some of the dos and don’ts of influencer marketing on Instagram to help you get a better perspective as you get deeper insights further. 

1. Use all kinds of influencers and not just macro or mega influencers

People, in general, believe that you must target the most famous influencers and not the small ones. But it is not true. Let’s understand the types of influencers present on Instagram based on their number of followers. 

• Nano Influencers: Nano influencers are influencers who have followers between 1,000 to 10,000 on Instagram. These are influencers who are just getting started. However, it is not the number of followers that makes them an influencer. It is their goals and content that define them as Instagram influencers. 
• Micro-influencers: Micro-influencers have followers between 10,000 to 1,00,000. These are people who are still paving the way for becoming more valued, authentic, and noticeable. 
• Macro-Influencers: These are established influencers with followers between 1,00,000 to 1 million. They have made their space on Instagram and are highly known for their content and niche. 
•  Mega influencers: These are influencers who have more than a million followers and are mostly celebrities. But now, even macro-influencers who started from scratch on Instagram as a generic user, are falling into the bracket of mega influencers. 

While these are just categories and the mega and macro-influencers might seem the most tempting as well as the appropriate option for influencer marketing, you are not entirely right. Micro-influencers and nano influencers have an equal level of hold over their platforms and are capable of high ROI. 

The factors that you need to consider before which influencer to choose are your niche, budget, goals, and availability of the influencer. 

2. Focus more on engagement than the number of followers

Engagement rate is used to analyze how often the influencer’s community engages with them and how actively they are involved in the content. How to figure out what is a good engagement rate? Here is a general overview. 

• Less than 1% of engagement is low.
• Anywhere Between 1% to 3.5% is good.
• Between 3.5% to 6% is good
• The engagement rate above 6% is very high engagement.

Some influencers even have an engagement rate of 10% or more. The metrics you can use to find this out are likes, comments, shares. Another attribute is to look up for their hashtags. Most influencers have their content revolving around their hashtags which helps them and you to find out how engaged they are with their content. That also tells you how their communication works and what kind of audience do they cater to. 

3. Use content marketing and not just influencer marketing

Influencer marketing can be done at regular intervals or at specific events. The rest of the time what works is your own content. Influencer marketing cannot work on its own. It needs the support of content marketing for your Instagram presence to be promising. Brands often make this a question of content marketing vs influencer marketing, which one is better? But in reality, they are interdependent. 

Through influencer marketing, the influencers promote your brand and drive the traffic towards your desired platform. From there, it is solely your content that will keep the audience engaged with your brand. 

Always keep your Instagram updated and consistently post content on it. This is so that when people visit your platform through the influencer’s platform, your content seems relevant and relatable enough to the audience. Your content should focus on talking about the experience that your product can bring for your audience and not just the products. Your content should add value to the audience’s timeline. Understanding what kind of audience do you want to target, what are the topics or content that they are interested in, which platforms do they like to engage on, which feature do they engage with the most are some factors to consider when planning your content marketing strategy. 

4. Aim for long-term collaborations

Influencer marketing is a marketing strategy that you can experiment with, use it only once or keep using it over and over. While we suggest the latter option, it also depends on your brand and goals. But if you are planning to go all out with your strategy, then aim for long term partnerships with the influencers. 

Primarily because then the frequency of your visibility on their page which will make you noticeable. Another reason is that it increases the relevance of your brand and builds trust. When the users see the influencers use a product for a long time, they are tempted to give it a shot too. Long-term collaborations are also pocket-friendly compared to one-time collaborations. In a way, influencer marketing is all about an individual who has a vast community of followers being an advocate for your brand and products. It takes time to convince the audience to buy your product and especially if you are a new brand. Long-term collaborations just make it a lot easier. 

Instagram is clogged with content. But there are still some content buckets that are less explored but are worth it. 

5. Use and influencer marketing platform

Finding the right influencers for your business can be a little tricky sometimes. There are a lot of things you have to manually look into and analyse before you decide to work with them. But not if you use WORD Marketplace. On this influencer marketing platform you just have to post a campaign brief and influencers who are interested in it or are capable of creating the content will do the same and send it to you for approval. Then all you have to do is pick the best ones for your campaign. 

1. Interviews

Interviews give an insight into the concerned brand or project or the individual being interviewed. It builds connectivity and the audience is always curious to know the lesser-known facts about different subjects that interest them. You can do some fun interviews with the influencers that you collaborated with or have them on board to conduct the interviews of other personalities. 

2. Podcasts

Podcasts are creating a buzz like never before. And a lot of platforms are promoting it too. Podcasts can be about anything and are a great way to engage with your audience. You can decide your speakers and topics of discussion by the choice of your audience. Since everybody is looking for collaborations, you too can bring big personalities and other influencers for some discussion over varied topics. 

3. Reviews

The first instinct after you see a product on Amazon is to scroll to the bottom and check out the reviews on that product. This goes the same with every product. For influencer marketing, your content can be about getting your product reviewed by the influencers. Try to keep it as transparent and honest as possible. This is the chance for you to get candid with the influencers and you must do so because the users dig it. 

4. Tutorials

A lot of influencers already do tutorials as a part of their personal content. So brands too can explore this themselves by having their influencers do a tutorial on how to use your product. The goal here to highlight the efficiency and value the product can bring to the users. 

In influencer marketing, the sky’s the limit. You have the freedom to choose any trend, set any trend, propose a new idea, play around with your creativity, and explore the unexplored. This is how the journey of influencer marketing started in the first place. Just keep in mind that consistent effort will bring great results.