Young people are spending less time watching television and browsing websites and more time on social media. This trend is on the rise, and companies are being forced to divert more attention to advertising on social media. As an entrepreneur, being able to build an audience on any social media platform comes with the opportunity to monetize it.
Instagram is one of the best opportunities to build a business in this fashion, since it is highly visual and allows companies to present their most compelling content.
Structuring your Instagram profile and business requires a strategic balance of unique growth hacking and innovative monetization solutions. If your ambition is to launch a career on social media and become an Instagram millionaire, you need to keep the following steps in mind.
1. Focus on content creation
Just as movie stars need to star in the best movies possible, being an Instagram personality requires you to consistently create high-quality content. Your first step should be figuring out what kind of content you want to produce and how to make the highest quality form of that content.
Whether you want to post beauty, fashion, food or exercise pictures, this first step in developing your aesthetic will let you establish and follow through with a clear content schedule. Creating at least one post per day and scheduling enough photoshoots per week to build up a content folder will make routine posting easy.
2. Develop a storyline
As well as creating consistent, high-quality content, you should endeavor to tell a story through your content. Think of your account as a television show that offers followers a glimpse of you and your life.
Publish pictures of interesting adventures and convey a story that people will want to follow. This might be your personal background, a unique skill you possess or a desirable lifestyle. Overall, think about what people want and what they are getting when they come to your channel.
3. Open up to your audience
Social media can be filled with flawed and fake realities, so it’s refreshing whenever an influencer makes an effort to open up to their audience. On social media you can be yourself. Let down your guard and allow people into your life to see the good and the bad. This raw content will build trust and help refine your content storyline.
4. Always be respectful
A lot of influencers try to put the cart before the horse and allow their egos to get inflated. While it might seem like you need to act like a star in order to get the big deals, companies will pass on even the largest influencers if they are a pain to work with.
Remember where your audience started and never talk down to them, since this is the quickest way to lose deal flow and gain a bad reputation. This is a business dependent on how much people like you, so be yourself and respect your audience.
5. Leverage every opportunity
While you are growing your following and developing your online persona, you will begin to get a wide variety of opportunities, which might include influencer marketing, photoshoots and modeling. Take these opportunities seriously, since they will be chances for you to begin building a portfolio of work, content and exposure.
You might imagine a modeling shoot wouldn’t provide much benefit to your channel, but you never know when a photographer will blow up. Furthermore, adding a wide variety of images to your profile can offer depth to your appearance.
6. Collaborate with other influencers
Not only will collaborations get you in front of larger and more diverse audiences; they also involve other “characters” in your channel’s storyline. There is only so much organic growth that can come from content posting and engaging with users. Beyond this, posting your name and brand on other accounts works as advertising for yourself.
As you choose who to work with, think about what other influencers your ideal follower follows. They may have a variety of interests that involve food, beauty and clothes, so collaborating with other verticals can be advantageous.
7. Be active outside of Instagram
There is a large world of other social media and content platforms outside of Instagram. For your direct personal brand, launch and maintain accounts on all of the major social media networks and use the varied demographics to help build a larger reach. It is crucial to recognize that some of the best viral growth comes from external content platforms. Coverage on press outlets allows you to reach millions of potential followers.
8. Be careful who you work with
If you execute these first steps correctly, you should begin to develop a heavily followed presence on Instagram and will likely begin receiving offers to do product endorsement and paid posts. While your followers love you, they hate being sold to and are only following you to consume your interesting content. This means you need to avoid paid deals that are overtly promotional and do not fit into your content storyline. Failure to filter deals could result in stagnating growth and potentially losing followers.
9. Successfully execute deals
When you get offers for deals, make sure the terms of the deal are clear and that you follow through on the deal promptly and according to the terms. Marketing managers talk to each other. If you are unprofessional, fail to deliver or leave them with a bad feeling, you will quickly get a bad reputation. However, if you go above and beyond to make sure your clients are happy with the partnerships, you will find yourself getting repeat business and referrals.
10. Find the right partners
As your business grows, you will likely find it hard to balance managing paid posts, content creation, product partnerships and maintaining a personal life. At this point you need to find the right partners to help manage business operations. Going from thousands of dollars in revenue to millions requires a dedicated focus on business operations.
