In years gone by, if you had a hobby or interest that you were passionate about, you may have shared this with a small group of people in your everyday life, but your wealth of knowledge and opinions on the subject may have largely remained unknown to the general public.
In today’s market, things are very different. People who are passionate about their hobby, business or cause are quickly becoming social media influencers as the public follow their every move across social media.
And it’s not just individuals who have a passion for fashion, a love for great food, or who are becoming a fitness inspiration, small businesses are following suit – and it’s translating into profits.
Christine Watson, Digital Marketing Trainer at Watson and Co Chartered Marketing, works with social influencers on a daily basis.
In fact she’s running a 1-day Content Creation Bootcamp for Business Instagrammers on Friday September 8 with her company Training Matchmaker at ESpark, Lombard Street Belfast. During the bootcamp Christine will walk delegates through setting up their own Instagram strategy, objectives, content themes and actual content for the year ahead.
She said: “Social media influencers generate content that others are interested in seeing, and engage with their audience regularly, and by doing so gain online followers on popular social media sites such as Instagram. As a result, they often have the opportunity to work with big-name brands – by getting free product samples to review, by being invited to attend launch events, and (if their following is big enough) by being paid to promote products and services.”
Christine will be joined by journalist, author and digital content specialist Tina Calder from Excalibur Press who will be challenging delegates to create quick and engaging content relevant to their niche.
“Creating content for social media shouldn’t be a chore, it should be something that interests and excites you. However, more often than not small businesses and social media influencers get lost in procrastinating about what that content should be.
“During the Content Creation Bootcamp I will be giving attendees step by step instructions, templates, links to how to guides, online help zones and some top tips to effectively create, curate, aggregate and develop their content strategies.”
Christine’s Top Tips For Becoming A Social Media Influencer:
1. Content is King
Instagram is obviously very image-focused, so high quality, attention-grabbing, and attractive images are the key to success. Check out other influencers in the genre you want to be in to see what they’re doing, and benchmark yourself against the quality of their posts. See what everyone else is doing, and then try to inject your own personality into your posts so that you stand out.
2. Quality Not Quantity
With Facebook and Twitter, we are used to quickly and frequently posting our thoughts and images, but with Instagram, you have a limited amount of time to make significant impact, which is typically based on the visual alone – not the caption underneath it. People will usually only read the caption if the image draws them in first, so focus on posting high quality content, even if that means you don’t post as frequently.
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3. Engage With Your Audience
Encourage your audience to comment on your posts by asking questions, and don’t forget to respond to them when they leave you feedback. Communicating with your audience is key to keeping them engaged, following your account, and encouraging them to interact with you more regularly.
4. Know Your Hashtags
Hashtags are a key factor in reaching the right audience for your posts. Be selective when choosing hashtags, making sure they are relevant to your content, see what is trending and what your competitors or influential people in your industry are using – figure out how you can incorporate the trends into your theme to maximise on reach.
Each image is allowed up to 30 tags, and research shows that posts with more tags = more engagement, but only if they are relevant!Posts with at least one hashtag average 12.6% more engagement than those without, according to a study by Simply Measured. If your hashtags don’t easily feed into your copy, you can separate your hashtags from the caption by burying them below the fold i.e. beneath dots and line breaks.
Avoid hashtags that desperately solicit likes and followers eg #Follow4Follow – using these will attract bots, spammers and other users who have no intention of engaging with your blog in any meaningful way. You may also wish to create your own brand and campaign hashtags – keep these short, simple and easy to spell.
Also sense check them on Instagram to see if anyone has previously used them or indeed if they communicate unintended meaning as was the case with #Susanalbumparty for example. It’s also important to have variation in the hashtags that you use, as Instagram has had a few issues with “shadowbanning” accounts that use the same hashtags repeatedly. This means the content no longer appears in searches for those specific keywords, negatively impacting your potential reach.
5. Integrate your Marketing
Let your tribe know that you are on Instagram. Business cards, websites, email signatures and other social media channels can direct your connections to follow your Instagram account. It might also be worthwhile taking steps to make local PR, Marketing and Advertising businesses aware of your blog and how to contact you to ensure you receive invites to events and product samples relevant to your blog themes and your followers interests.
6. Abide by the Law
In the UK the CAP code covers product placement. If you are getting paid to promote a product or service on your blog then you should make your followers aware of this. You should also be aware and compliant with intellectual property, copyright, data protection, email privacy regulations and Instagram rules too.
7. Benchmark
Follow the accounts of top bloggers worldwide and in your locale and take learnings from their content. For example @Lailaloves Instagram stories have a call to action: “swipe up for the jeans” which takes a follower to a website page to be able to purchase the products promoted. If you don’t wish to be seen following competing blogs you can always create a Instagram account specifically for research and benchmarking
8. Create a Business Account
On Instagram you can create a personal account for an individual, or a business account that has the added benefit of giving you insights into how your page is performing (also called “analytics”). A business account also has the added benefit of allowing you to add a link to your website, as well as other contact options such as email, phone number and directions. Over 700 million people worldwide use Instagram every single month and 80% of instagrammers follow a business on Instagram.
9. Be Location Specific
This tip is particularly relevant for bloggers that are promoting local products or services, for example a restaurant or retail location. Instagram posts give you the option to include a location, which will make it easier for Instagram users who are close to you, to find you. Indeed Instagram posts with a location tagged have a 79% higher engagement than posts without.
10. Stay Up to Date
Platforms such as Instagram change all the time. Keeping up to date with these changes and being one of the first to trial new features and functions can set your blog apart. Follow @Instagram and @Instagramforbusiness on Instagram to learn about best practice and launches such as Instagram Live now enabling guests to feature
For more tips, tricks, and advice on how to make Instagram marketing work for your small business, sign up to the 1-day Content Creation Bootcamp for Business Instagrammers on Friday September 8 at ESpark, Lombard Street Belfast:www.watsonsmarketing.com/
