How To Become An Influencer On Instagram

“- What do you do for a living?

- Me? I'm an influencer!

- Oh great, show me your content!”

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This discussion would not have been possible a few years ago. Indeed, the job of content creators has only become "credible" in the last few years. (French people still remember the lynching of the French YouTuber Squeezie on a TV set...)

But then why become an influencer? Is it a valid career in the long term? And how do you go about it?

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Why become an influencer

"Working while having fun" is a dream come true, thanks to many influencers. Because, indeed, creating content that you like on Instagram, YouTube, or any other network, it's a bit like running your own business, your structure, but with values that resemble you and at the pace that suits you best.

In addition to all of this, an influencer will have access to many benefits that make many dreams; like travel, access to exclusive events, receive free products, etc.

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How to become an influencer

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Find your niche

Who are you making content for? Before you jump into the deep end, find out who you want to reach and what message you want to spread.

Knowing your target is elementary when you want to build your community. You have to think about the added value you want to bring to your community, the image you want to give, to show.

This American influencer has understood everything and that's why she is so successful on Instagram

@yuki.reads

Her niche: book lovers 📖😍

Her content: book reviews 📚

And it works! The engagement rate of her community is 9% (which is excellent)

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Define your positioning

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After that, look for content ideas that are consistent with your positioning, this will help you specialize your content by differentiating yourself from what has already been done. Your positioning should correspond to the segmentation of the public you want to target. Instagram is a hyper-competitive market. Finding your style is what will make the difference! To do this, innovate, get inspired without copying and, test things that have never been done before.

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Looking for inspiration? Have a look at the most popular Instagram influencers.

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Find your content strategy

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Your content is the product you're offering, so work on it beforehand! Maybe, choose a general harmony with a filter or a color that comes back on most of your publications, make your feed look good, it's always more pleasant to look at and therefore to follow afterward!

Here's an example of an influencer who understood everything about the harmony of an Instagram feed

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Several free applications and platforms will help you to take care of your feed:

• Preview: Very useful to plan your Instagram feed and anticipate its harmony
• Creator Studio: Schedule your posts in advance to make sure you never miss the peak of the app's traffic, which changes from day to today
• Pics Art: very intuitive application to retouch your photos and add original effects
• Lightroom: for more professional photo editing, you need an Adobe account to access it on your computer but it is free on your mobile!

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Be passionate, authentic, and consistent

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Good influencers are those who are passionate about what they do and authentic to their community. No one wants to follow someone who lies about their life, and you can tell they're only doing it for greed. So don't fall for the influencer cliché and stay consistent with your values and story, because once you lose your credibility, it's very hard to get it back.

Your story is your charm. Don't forget that social networks are platforms of exchange and that your contribution will always be welcome, so don't hesitate to deliver yourself to your community. Honesty is a powerful way to connect with an audience and build a loyal following, and it's what will make your account successful!

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Apply the right SEO strategies

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A nice IG feed is great, but if no one sees it, it's not very useful. There's no secret: to be the boss of Instagram, you need to have a foundation in SEO!

But then, how do you tame the Instagram algorithm? Here are some tips:

• Impose yourself a regularity and quality of content: the most known advice but also the most effective!
• Do not neglect hashtags: without abusing them, 3 hashtags per post allow good referencing and generate on average 12.6% more engagement than a photo that has none.
• Exploit all that the platform offers: story, reals, IGTV
• Do your research and look at the content that interests your audience. Good competitive intelligence is a must in this business. You can use SEO analysis platforms to help you!
• Bonus: Repost your Instagram photos to Pinterest! This is a fabulous tip for SEO on Google.

‍Bonus tip: The time when you post on Instagram can have an impact on your performances. Read more about the best time to post on Instagram in 2022.

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How to become the best influencer

That's it, you're in business! 👏

Now that your career is waiting for you, here are some indicators you can work on to boost the quality of your account to make you more attractive to brands.

Here's the list of indicators, what they mean, and our tips for having all the green lights!

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Metrics to check as a content creator

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• Engagement rate

The percentage of the audience that likes or comments on posts (interacts with the content).

→ HOW TO BOOST IT? ENGAGE YOUR AUDIENCE, ASK QUESTIONS IN THE CAPTION OF YOUR POSTS. YOU CAN ALSO PROMOTE YOUR NEW POSTS IN THE STORY TO BRING IN MORE LIKES!

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Check out our other article to see how relevant engagement rate is for social media influencers.

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• Account growth

Account growth in terms of subscribers over the last 30 days. It indicates if the influencer is on an upward trend or not. An influencer with high account growth is particularly interesting, as his numbers will increase over time.

→ HOW TO BOOST IT? KEEP A REGULAR ACTIVITY ON YOUR INSTAGRAM PAGE, PROPOSE A CONTEST ASKING TO FOLLOW YOU, AND LIKE TO PARTICIPATE: AN ENGAGEMENT AND GROWTH BOOST EVERY TIME!

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• Saturation rate

The ratio in % of sponsored posts produced by the influencer to the number of organic posts. The higher the ratio, the more saturated the influencer's audience is, which in turn will reduce the effectiveness of any future collaboration with the influencer.

→ HOW TO BOOST IT? DON'T ABUSE PARTNERSHIPS, YOUR AUDIENCE WILL TRUST YOU LESS IF YOUR INSTAGRAM FEED TURNS INTO A BILLBOARD.

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• Audience quality

Analysis of the quality of followers (presence or not of bots).

→ HOW TO BOOST IT? SORT YOUR FOLLOWERS, AS SOON AS YOU SEE A DUBIOUS ACCOUNT FOLLOWING YOU, BLOCK IT!

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• Hashtag quality

Determine if the influencer has engaged in massive uses of hashtags or abused "bad hashtags" like #follow4follow

→ HOW TO BOOST IT? USE AN AVERAGE OF 3 HASHTAGS PER POST, BUT DON'T ABUSE THE GOOD STUFF ;)

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• Account activity

Several posts in the last 30 days. Account activity determines if the influencer has been active lately on their account. An account that has been inactive for months has little value to your business.

→ HOW DO YOU BOOST IT? THE GOLDEN RULE OF A SUCCESSFUL ACCOUNT IS REGULARITY. 3 POSTS PER WEEK IS A GREAT PACE AND DAILY STORIES IS THE GOAL PACE FOR ANY INFLUENCER!

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• Subscriber ratio

The ratio between the number of followers and the number of subscriptions. A low ratio could show that the influencer used mass follow/unfollow methods which decreases the quality of the account

→ HOW TO BOOST IT? HAVE FEWER SUBSCRIPTIONS THAN FOLLOWERS, BECAUSE OFTEN THIS HIDES MASSIVE FOLLOW/UNFOLLOW AND IT'S QUITE FROWNED UPON ON INSTAGRAM. THE GOAL IS TO HAVE AN AUTHENTIC COMMUNITY SO AVOID THE MASS FOLLOWING AT ALL COSTS.

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• The ratio of likes/comments

The ratio of comments to likes per post. A high number of likes and a low number of comments can indicate either fake likes or low influence. Fake likes are more common than fake comments, although the latter can also exist

→ HOW TO BOOST IT? ENGAGE YOUR COMMUNITY IN YOUR POSTS, ENCOURAGE THEM TO IDENTIFY FRIENDS IN COMMENTS, GIVE THEIR VIEWS. YOU CAN ALSO TEASE A NEW POST IN THE STORY TO ENCOURAGE YOUR FOLLOWERS TO LIKE IT.

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• Content diversity

Analyze whether the influencer is creative when publishing content. A great ratio shows that the influencer can use different types of formats, which can be a great asset to your business

→ HOW TO BOOST IT? EXPLORE THE DIFFERENT FORMATS THAT INSTAGRAM OFFERS: PHOTO, IGTV, STORY, THE ALGORITHM WILL THANK YOU IN ITS WAY!

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All these metrics are accessible on Favikon!

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One last tip for being a successful influencer that you can apply at the end of this pandemic 😷 ❌ Don't stay locked on the app and go out and meet your followers. It's important to bring a more human dimension to this digital influence. This will allow you to interact with your community and create stronger bonds.

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