How influencers create income from Instagram
With 500 million daily active users and about 1 billion monthly users, Instagram can be a great vehicle for generating income. “Influencers,” savvy social media users who have the power to inspire and motivate their large audience of followers, can generate income on Instagram in a few key ways, from paid partnerships to the promotion of products or services.
Natalya Syanova, who posts on Instagram at @natashas_baking and authored the book “Sourdough Baking with Kids: The Science Behind Baking Bread Loaves with Your Entire Family,” offers some tips on ways to make money on Instagram.
Become an influencer.
Establishing yourself as an influencer is a way to attract brands that might extend opportunities like affiliate relationships or sponsored posts. Becoming an influencer is easier said than done, however. To get started, you must find your niche, figure out your content strategy, post compelling photos and captions consistently, and interact with followers.
In short, Instagram users have to see that you’re the real deal. “The content and information which you are sharing on Instagram has to be useful, and it’s great if you can back it up with your own results,” Syanova says. She regularly posts baking tips and tutorials with images that drive followers to her website and book. She also works with brands on sponsored posts.
Create sponsored posts.
One way to make money on Instagram is to create sponsored posts for a brand. Here’s how it generally works: A company pays an Instagram user, preferably an influencer with a large following of other users, to create posts that highlight or promote the brand.
“From my experience, the more followers I gained, the more interest I got from the businesses within the industry,” Syanova says.
When creating sponsored posts, Syanova says it’s important to know your worth. When negotiating terms and rates, consider the terms of compensation, whether you’ll be provided advance payments for supplies and if you will receive a product in exchange or monetary compensation. “Sometimes it is appropriate to accept certain products as compensation for a collaboration, but it is important to remember that being an influencer is a job, and it requires a normal compensation,” she says. When it comes to how much you can make, Syanova says it’s difficult to say since it depends on a wide range of factors like the size of your following and level of engagement.
Nurture affiliate relationships.
Another way to make money on Instagram is through affiliate relationships. With affiliate marketing, you share links to certain products with your users and receive a commission for each user who makes a purchase after following that link.
Syanova says that affiliate relationships can become a more stable source of income if you are continuously promoting a product, but she says “it depends on how much effort and attention you dedicate to it.”
With links, it’s important to stay true to your personal brand and make sure what you post offers value to your followers, while also honoring the relationship you have with the brands you’re working with. Syanova puts it like this: “You have to appreciate those partner relationships once you build them, and it’s important to provide value with your content.”
Promote your products or services.
Instagram is a great place to highlight your own products or services, too. The visual nature of the platform lends itself well to promoting an array of goods and services.
“For me personally it plays a huge role in promoting my baking courses and my cookbook,” Syanova says. “This platform helps me to speak directly to people who are interested in this specific subject/topic as well as to grow my audience.”
Put in the time.
As you’re considering ways to make money on Instagram, be sure you have plenty of time to devote to the platform. Many influencers recommend thinking about it as a full-time job.
“It’s a full-time job and even more,” says Syanova. “I create content seven days a week. I interact with my followers in a daily basis multiple hours a day, answering their questions and helping them improve their bread baking results.”
Create the right KPIs.
It’s important to set some goals related to metrics — or key performance indicators — that will help you measure your success.
For instance, Syanova focuses on engagement and says gaining a certain number of followers is not one of her goals.
“It’s not a KPI that I measure my success against,” Syanova says. “I think it is more important to be useful to a few thousand people rather than having hundreds of thousands of followers that just scroll through your work. I think reach and engagement of the audience are a lot more important. These factors dictate where you stand and how you grow. They determine whether your posts are the correct ones to be recommended to users that engage with similar posts and topics.”
Enjoy the ride.
Making money on Instagram requires a lot of hard work, but it’s also a way to spend your working hours doing something you love. As you’re considering the different ways to make money on Instagram, make sure you’re staying true to yourself, your personal brand and your business. That will go a long way to giving you the motivation to log the long hours the job entails.
“It is important to remember that nothing lasts forever,” she says. “Social media and Instagram constantly change. Trends and algorithms are changing very fast. If you are ready to dedicate all your time and effort to a social media, you have to follow all the trends and keep current with tech updates. Be creative and consistent, and you will have a good chance to make a good living off Instagram.”
How to make money on Instagram:
— Become an influencer.
— Create sponsored posts.
— Nurture affiliate relationships.
— Promote your products or services.
— Put in the time.
— Create the right KPIs.
— Enjoy the ride.
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Ways to Make Money on Instagram originally appeared on usnews.com
