Influencer Marketing on Instagram: How it Works
Instagram is one of the largest social media platforms, which means influencer marketing plays a huge role on the website. Influencer marketing isn’t necessarily a new practice, but it has evolved in recent years due to the surge in popularity of the internet. Today, we’ll break down how influencer marketing is being used to promote brands effectively on Instagram.
Pieces of the puzzle
Typically, there are one to three parties involved with influencer marketing. There can be a brand working with the Instagram user directly, or there can be a third party involved making these connections. In some cases, the Instagram user could be promoting their own brand, which would be influencer marketing at work with only one party involved. In a two or three party scenario, the Instagram user is almost always scouted out by a brand or company. Regardless of who is involved, the idea is to reach a targeted audience.
Using other influencers
Influencer marketing is in play whenever you see product placement by someone sharing something with their audience. By targeting influencers with the right audiences, brands can maximize the potential of influencer marketing on Instagram. An example of a big name celebrity marketing a product on Instagram is Selena Gomez working with Pantene. Selena had already been working with Pantene on commercials and other promotions, but that has now moved to social media. If you scroll through her Instagram feed, you can find pictures of Pantene products and messages of her endorsing the products.
Influencer Marketing by yourself
Someone with a large following on Instagram can use influencer marketing to create and grow their own brands as well. There are tons of ways to make this work, regardless of the niche. Creating a brand or product is easy enough that anyone with an internet connection can do it by hiring a freelancer or coming up with a slogan for a pre-designed T-shirt, which they can send to an influencer partner.
It’s also possible to take a brand and grow it with Instagram even if you don’t have a big following to start with. You can do this by creating social proof through paid followers and likes on your profile and your pictures. To really make this work, you need to have a solid marketing strategy to get more targeted traffic to your profile after the fact. It takes a lot of work, but there is plenty of information online that can help you. To start, check out our What To Post on Instagram Guide for businesses.
Endless possibilities
With accounts reaching follower counts of 60+ million users, companies and brands would be foolish to not work with them. Of course, not everyone has the funds to get a big name celebrity to promote their product. But, there are plenty of internet celebrities with sizable followings who can still serve as a great influencer on Instagram. By executing the right strategy and working with the right people, you can see amazing results from your Instagram influencer marketing campaign. Remember, you can use this lucrative marketing tactic all by yourself with enough work, so get to it!
Featured Image via @Mensweardog
Date: February 26, 2016 / Categories: Guide, Uncategorized, / Author: vivi
