Instagram sponsorship isn’t news. Every brand wants a celebrity to endorse their product. It’s hard to find an answer to the big question: How to get paid on Instagram? In this introductory section of our popular eBook Becoming an Instagram Influencer we’ll cover the basics and get you off to a solid start.
In fact, Instagram sponsorship isn’t even a new human behavior. Royal endorsement of Wedgwood earthenware in the late 1700s is one of the earliest recorded planned marketing campaigns using influential people to drive sales. Sometime around 1760 the brand petitioned for and received permission from the British monarchy to call their new collection “Queen’s Ware.”
The campaign ultimately kick started an enduring brand. Wedgwood has lasted for over 300 years and is, to this day, associated with luxury standards.
Like Wedgwood, most brands with a budget for such things today will tell you a specific type of celebrity is important to cultivate a unique look; to capture an intangible essence of what it means to be “us”, to live our brand, to be in our inner circle. They aren’t wrong to think that way.
In 2017 Instagram sponsorship or influencer marketing has become, at its core, the employment of people with specific influence or expertise to create and participate in your brand marketing strategy, usually leveraging their own popularity on social media platforms to drive value. That’s how to get paid on Instagram and maybe turn a side gig into a career.
Understanding the single most important thing about Instagram Sponsorship
The Instagram algorithm is a secret set of factors that control who sees your posts. Internet speculation about the exact factors that impact the algorithm can run wild, but the reality is nobody but Instagram’s product team knows for sure. It’s also always changing, so what you read today may not be true tomorrow.
That said, from the perspective of Instagram, it’s likely that anything designed to surface high quality content will contribute. That means photos and videos that get immediate likes, comments, and shares will be shown to more people, and accounts that generate more interesting content will get more views and likes.
If you want to get more followers on Instagram pay attention to the way your posts are distributed, and look out for changes. Generally, if you follow the tips in this guide you’ll be in a great position to address how to get paid on Instagram.
Instagram’s algorithm is a secret blend of programming that controls which posts load when you scroll, and who ends up in the trending category. It’s super important because the algorithm only shows the best content to users, so if you don’t know how to play into the algorithm your pictures will get fewer likes and comments.
Ultimately, you’ll need to pay close attention to what kind of content gets the most engagement from an audience, and as your following grows adjust tactics to match. Here’s a few other key pointers:
- Upload content when your audience is paying attention. Getting Instagram performance analytics means switching your account from personal to business. Within about 24 hours you’ll be able to see who engages with your content and when they are more likely to do so.
- Use hashtags where users are browsing, like when you go to events, concerts, or restaurants. Using these types of hashtags will be more likely to result in new people seeing your content, and more followers.
- Instagram’s algorithm likes content that quickly engages followers. Lean on your pod (see above) to like and comment on your posts as soon as they are live, making it more likely new users who do not follow you on Instagram will see your content too.
Why brands are laser-focused on Instagram Sponsorship
Instagram is an ever-changing platform to share images and grow your online brand. It’s also the number one social network where brands pay for Instagram sponsorship to create beautiful images of products.
And brands are, quite literally, addicted.
Modern marketing has become about finding the holy grail of viral content, and in doing so marketers are being forced to pay to play. They’ll do just about anything to get mentions from original content creators on Instagram. That means you – the influencer – are right in the middle of the biggest gold rush since the dawn of marketing on the web.
Getting a mention in the form of highly visual, exciting, and entertaining content is part of every marketer’s goals. Not only that, but they want a range of styles and people posting, which makes their efforts appear more organic and genuine.
Most importantly, these days micro influencers are all the rage. Brands are hunting for accounts with at least 2,000 engaged followers, but no more than 100,000. This introductory post is just the first chapter of our Instagram Influencer Guide eBook. It contains a legitimate and free method of quickly growing your follower count into that range. If you’re looking for a way to automate likes for Instagram or grow your followers with bots this is not going to help.
How to get paid on Instagram: Developing a killer content strategy that makes you money
Doing something well usually means doing something you love. And what better place to start than your hobbies? You usually take up a hobby because you enjoy spending time doing something that invigorates your mind.
Thinking about starting in the fashion world? Hopefully you already live and breathe fashion. That energy will come through when you start creating content about your hobby. It’s an intangible, but very easy to identify trait of the people who know how to get paid on Instagram.
So what do you love most?
Instagram loves specialized content that can’t be found elsewhere. You should pick something that you are passionate about and that photographs well. Using high-contrast imagery featuring idyllic or perfectly constructed images will get followers’ attention, and be more likely to net you entirely new followers. Niche or very specific hashtags can also have a big impact on your follower count.
“2 years ago I started out sharing pictures of food, which was going great until I hit about 10k followers. I knew I needed to get deeper into a certain aspect of cuisine that really interested me, so I started pursuing that. Creating niche content was the secret, because in half a year I was able to get to over 100,000 followers no problem, and still growing.” – Anonymous Instagram Influencer
You’ll also want to decide what you are asking people to do. It could be as simple as following your page. But you may also want people to visit your website or use a branded hashtag you invent. Either way you’ll need to think about this before you start down the path of likes for Instagram. Document your plan in writing or images so you can reference it later when you are really getting things moving.
At this point you can create a new account or change your current account to fit the exercise you just went through. Everything should be clear about your niche and what kind of content your account will be sharing.
Growing in a winning content niche = $$$
Start by finding Instagram pages that apply to your niche. Look for accounts that have high quality content and lots of comments and likes for Instagram. Engagement with real people is a big tell that you’re looking at a good page, and may start to show you how to get paid on Instagram. Once you have a list of 5-10 accounts you can dig a little deeper.
Document the hashtags and handles (@names on Instagram) that these accounts request for mentions. Most popular Instagram accounts will repost content from users that follow their guidelines. You may want to start a spreadsheet to keep track of all this information. It’s going to come handy in the next few steps.
The right Instagram sponsorship @ handle is more important than you think
Think long and hard about your account name. Does it read as funny, weird, or memorable? If not, you’re missing out on one of the most important tricks to getting Instagram followers and ultimately how to get paid on Instagram. Those followers will notice when you like or comment on other content, and then explore your account. Now all you must do is sit back and get free Instagram followers that are interested in your content.
“The first account handle I had was just a play on my name. When I started to get more attention around my account, I decided to change it to a funny thing my friend came up with – we tested it out with our friends and every person was laughing that heard it. After the switch people were liking and commenting a lot more, it was like the smallest change with the biggest impact for me personally.” – Anonymous Instagram Influencer
How to create professional-looking content for free from your couch
You may already be a renowned photographer. But if you are like most people you may struggle for high quality Instagram content early on. That’s where royalty free stock images come into the picture. Try looking up photos from Pexels.com and Unsplash to get you started. You can use any of the photos for free – even for Instagram sponsorship – and credit the original creator (it’s still an accepted courtesy to do so).
Search for images that have an authentic and stunning personality and save them to your computer for user later. Think about what you would appreciate and what will get you the most likes for Instagram. It’s the only method that reliably answers the challenge of how to get paid on Instagram. You may want to build up a library of this content so you don’t have to go searching every time you want to create a new post. That’s important because for this method to be successful you will need to post 2-3 times per day at minimum.
Thanks for reading our free first chapter. You’re just getting started! Download the entire eBook and learn how to get Instagram followers and make money working for the brands of your dreams in as little as 90-days on Instagram.
