Instagram is a unique social media platform that provides a number of features and opportunities for influencers that other platforms do not.
Naturally, ‘how to be an Instagram influencer,’ is a common question many aspiring influencers ask.
But, what’s so unique about Instagram? For starters, the platform’s distinctive photo- and video-sharing feature lends itself perfectly to creative content.
Additionally, the app’s algorithm prioritizes user engagement, meaning that posts that generate a lot of likes and comments will be seen by more people.
What’s more, with two billion people being active on Instagram each month, it is the preferred platform for brands to execute their influencer marketing campaigns.
That’s not all. Instagram tops the list when it comes to the influencer marketing platforms that brands prefer.
Image via Influencer Marketing Hub
This shows that it is now easier than ever to become an Instagram influencer, gain followers, and monetize your account.
This article will discuss how to be an Instagram influencer in 2022, along with some quick tips on how to get started.
But first, let’s answer the other important question every aspiring Instagram influencer asks — how much can you earn as an Instagram influencer?
It all depends on the number of followers an Instagram influencer has, their trust factor, engagement rates, and field of expertise.
While $100 per 10,000 followers is a commonly used formula, Instagram influencers can charge anywhere from $75 to $3,000 per post. Here’s an estimate based on typically charged rates by many Instagram influencers:
- Nano influencers (1000 to 10000 followers) charge $10 to $100 per post
- Micro-influencers(10K to 100K followers) make $100 to $500 per post
- Macro Influencers (100K to 1 million followers) charge $5,000–$10,000 per post
- Mega influencers (1 million+ followers) charge more than $10,000 per post
You can also get a fair idea of how much Instagram influencers make from the results of a recent survey. According to this survey, an Instagram influencer in the US earns on average, $2,970 per month.
Micro-influencers earn $1,420 per month while mega-influencers make $15,356 in a month. An Instagram influencer who has over a million followers can make $250,000 for just one Instagram post.
Now that you understand the earning potential of Instagram influencers, let’s get to the topic ‘how to be an Instagram influencer.”
If you’re reading this, you already know that becoming an Instagram influencer is not just about posting some pretty pictures.
You’ll need to establish yourself as an authority on the subject of your choice, build trust, gain followers, engage with them, and collaborate with brands.
Does this look complicated?
Not to worry. We have put together a list of tips on how to be an Instagram influencer that makes the process seamless. Let’s begin.
Do you know a lot about a particular topic and love to discuss it for hours together? This could be your niche!
The first answer to the question ‘how to be an Instagram influencer’, is to identify your niche or area of specialty. Here, it’s important to choose a topic that aligns with your expertise and interests, to stay authentic.
The more knowledgeable and passionate you are on this topic, the more the chances of coming across as a credible source of information in this niche.
And, picking a topic will also help you find the right brand partners, who prefer to partner with Instagram influencers in specific niches.
But, which niche should you pick?
For some people, picking a niche on Instagram comes naturally because they already have a compelling interest.
However, what can you do if you have multiple interests? In this case, finding a niche to become an Instagram influencer can be tricky.
Fret not. We’re here to help.
Here’s what you can do to find your niche and become an Instagram influencer if you have several interests.
Make A List of Potential Niches
Compile a list of activities or topics that excite you. To help you, we have listed the top niches for Instagram influencers here:
Note that these are the broad, generic categories that can have several sub-categories.
Remove Unrealistic Interests
Take a close look at your list and think about which ones you will be able to dedicate time and effort to. Identify and remove the interests that you cannot focus on due to a lack of budget, equipment, or in-depth knowledge.
For example, if sailing is one of your interests, but you don’t own a sailboat, you may not be able to post consistently on this topic on Instagram.
Pick a Location
The next step in this guide on ‘how to be an Instagram influencer’ is to pick a location that you want to focus on.
Why is location important? Here’s why.
Every day, millions of Instagram users browse location-tagged posts to find the accounts to follow and the content they like.
Brands that want to reach a target market will also search for Instagram influencers by location.
And finally, adding a location can also boost the engagement rate and give your Instagram account more exposure.
Narrow Down to Sub-Niches
While you may have listed broad categories or niches such as ‘travel’ or ‘cooking,’ it’s important to get more specific. Typically, the broader the niche, the more the content being created in it.
However, users on Instagram are more likely to prefer detailed and specific content. These specific categories of topics are your sub-niches.
Sub-niches can exist in these two ways:
- Within the context of a large topic
- New topics that emerge when two (or more) topics of larger niches intersect.
For example, if the broad topic is cooking, the sub-niches within this context can be:
- Sous vide
- Air frying
- Baking
- Grilling
- Farm fresh produce
Here is an example of new sub-niches created when topics from larger niches intersect:
Let’s say the large niches that intersect are ‘ceramics’ and Buddhism.’ The sub-niche can be:
- #meditationceramics
- #ceramicBuddha
Find the Most Valuable Niches
How “valuable” a particular niche is based on the audience growth and earning potential. The first step to identifying valuable niches is to understand the lifecycle of niches.
All niches and sub-niches on Instagram go through four phases:
- The introduction phase: In this phase, esoteric content is created by a small number of creators and the consumers are typically very passionate about it. There is high engagement with the content and the growth is fast, but because the community is small, the growth ceiling is low.
Because there is low competition, it is ideal for a beginner trying to be an Instagram influencer.
- The growth phase: The esoteric topic of the introduction phase has now become popular. There is rapid growth in both creators and consumers of this type of content. Early-adopter brands create products and sponsor content creators in the niche.
New sub-topics and sub-niches are created and the content quality improves.
If an Instagram influencer is able to create engaging content, the growth phase can be rapid in this phase.
Example: The hashtag #artdoll in Art Dolls sub-niche has 1 million posts at the time of writing this article.
Image via Instagram
- The maturity phase: There is a slow down in terms of interest in the sub-niche and the growth in follower count. The niche or sub-niche can even plateau at this stage.
Growth slows for most accounts while the audiences are distributed around a handful of the most differentiated Instagram influencers whose content is of the highest quality.
You’ll need to create high-quality and incredibly differentiated content that is better than what other established creators are already putting out. As this is a tough ask, transitioning back to the growth or introductory phase is the best way to start growing your followers.
- The decline phase: In this phase, the niche is not able to support growth as there is a mass exodus of consumers and creators. Even the most popular Instagram accounts start to lose followers while new entrants stop posting.
As with the maturity phase, the only way to grow your account and achieve success is to revert to a sub-niche in the growth or introductory phase.
Here’s a summary of the lifecycle of niches for your quick reference:
Phase of the nicheKey characteristicsHow to growIntroduction• Esoteric topic
• Low competition
• Small number of Instagram influencers and content consumersFind and be in the esoteric nicheGrowth• Topic gains popularity
• Professionals and brands enter the niche
• Quality of content improves
• Rapid growth in followersCreate unique and engaging contentMaturity• Growth plateaus
• Only well-established Instagram Influencers are able to capture the valueEither create highly-differentiated or unique content or revert to niches and sub-niches in growth or introductory phaseDecline• Mass exodus of consumers
• Influencers lose followers
• Zero growthTransition to introductory or growth phase to find a new topic
The lifecycle of Instagram niches
Find Trending Topics
About 31% of Instagram audiences are in the age group of 25 to 34 years and 30% are in the age bracket of 18 to 24.
Image via Statista
Clearly, Instagram is popular with younger audiences, and if this is the cohort you want to reach, you need to know what topics they are interested in.
According to Instagram’s 2022 “Trend Report’ here are the categories and topics that Gen Z is passionate about.
- Green/vegan makeup
- Bold fashion
- Digital thrift shops
- Music and dance
- Intricate cooking techniques
- Mental health and holistic wellness (manifestation, art, guided meditation)
- Video games
- Memes
- Social justice
By now, you should have more clarity on the niche and sub-niche you want to create content on. Within each niche, decide on sub-topics that you can write about consistently.
For instance, if travel is your niche, your sub-topics can be vacation tips, camping, wood cabins, and train rides. Keep your sub-topics list limited to between 3 to 5 so that you can focus on creating high-quality content.
Your bio is the first thing your followers will see when they find you on Instagram. It should give all the information your audience needs to become your follower in a concise way.
The catch is that you only get 150 characters on Instagram to do this, so you will need to make every character and word count.
Here’s an example of an attractive Instagram bio. By including “travel, blog, and Insta tips” this Instagram influencer makes sure her profile shows up for these searches.
Image via Instagram
She also tells people she’s going to move to the UK in 2023, letting her followers know the type of content they can expect in the near future from her.
We’ve put together some best practices for creating an Instagram bio that you may find useful.
- Include a catchy description: You can add your job title, your passions, awards you’ve received, or the things that differentiate you.
- Share your interests: Sharing your interests will help you showcase what you’re going to post about. For instance, your interests could be food, beauty, and fashion.
- Add contact information: While you can say “DM me” for any queries, you’ll make it easier for brands and marketers to reach you if you give your contact information.
- Write a CTA (call to action): This tells your visitors what they should do when they view your bio.
Check out this Instagram influencer’s simple CTA.
Image via Instagram
- Use relevant keywords: Including relevant keywords will make it easier for Instagram users to find you. For instance, if you’re a photographer in Arkansas, add the keyword “photographer” and your city to ensure people searching for ‘photographer in Arkansas’ find you.
- Avoid clutter: Use a list format to make your bio easy to scan. You can use quirky emojis or special characters to start bullet points and organize your bio like this:
Image via Instagram
- Infuse humor -A little humor goes a long way in engaging your audience. Take a look at this Instagram bio that is sure to make you smile.
Image via Instagram
Alright, now you know the niche to pick, and how to create a compelling Instagram bio.
What’s next?
As we already pointed out, creating high-performing, unique content is the key to growing your follower base and becoming a successful Instagram influencer.
The goal is to create Instagram content and share it frequently and consistently to stay on the top of your audience’s minds.
How can you come up with high-quality content like this Instagram influencer every time?
Image via Instagram
Needless to say, this is one of the most challenging tasks for anyone who wants to be an Instagram influencer.
Fret not. We’re here to help.
These tips can help you create fresh and engaging content:
- Study your competitors: Look at the type of content other influencers in your niche are posting but avoid copying.
- Know your audience: What type of content, tone, language, and styles will resonate with your target audience?
- Plan ahead: Make a list of topics for the next day, week, or month.
- Be ready: Grab every photo opportunity (dishes, nature, pets, clothes, sales etc.) wherever you go.
- Pick a cause: Talk about a charitable/social cause that matters to you.
- Create celebration posts: Create the content on special occasions such as birthdays, Instagram anniversaries, or other life events.
- Leverage seasonal content: Winter, Halloween, Christmas, to Spring, seasonal content will help you stay current. Check out this post.
Image via Instagram
You can catch people’s attention with engaging videos and photos, but to retain it, you need clever Instagram captions. Note that while you get 2,200 characters (roughly 400 words) to write the caption, it gets cut short to 125 characters in your audience’s feed.
That’s why the most important words should appear at the beginning of your caption. And, the first 125 characters should also include a CTA.
Here’s a good example of a front-loaded, engaging Instagram caption:
Image via Instagram
Here’s an Instagram caption with a compelling CTA and a front-loaded intro:
Image via HubSpot
To sum up, engaging Instagram captions are:
- Short (“Nailed it!,” “Good vibes only,” “It’s pumpkin season!”)
- Sweet (“Hello Sunshine,” “ Sun, sands, and love,” “Oh, hi there”)
- Witty (“Know your worth. And add tax” “When you’re the catch, stop chasing others”)
- Infused with modern lingo (“Swiped right,” “Beast mode,” “Fluent in sarcasm”)
- Seasonal (“Falling for Fall” “Halloween shenanigans”)
- Have a CTA (“Watch the latest video” “Link in bio” “Listen to the podcast”)
…get the drift?
Now, you already know that Instagram is a highly visual platform. This means that you should not only fine-tune your content and captions, but master the content formats that are popular on Instagram — Reels, Stories, and images.
This infographic shows the most popular content formats on Instagram. As you can see, images and videos top the list, followed by text-based posts and Stories.
Image via Sprout Social
But, first things first. You need to know what Instagram Reels and Stories are and when to use each one.
Instagram Reels
Reels are short videos that appear on your Instagram feed and play automatically. The length of these videos can be anywhere from 15 to 60 seconds.
You can add visual effects, music, closed captions, and on-screen text to these videos. Just like Instagram posts, Reels have no expiry date unless you delete them.
Originally published at Attrock.com.
About The Author
Gaurav Sharma is the Founder and CEO of Attrock, a results-driven digital marketing company. Grew an agency from 5-figure to 7-figure revenue in just two years.
