Instagram is a unique social media platform that provides a number of features and opportunities for influencers that other platforms do not.
Naturally, ‘how to be an Instagram influencer,’ is a common question many aspiring influencers ask.
But, what’s so unique about Instagram? For starters, the platform’s distinctive photo- and video-sharing feature lends itself perfectly to creative content.
Additionally, the app’s algorithm prioritizes user engagement, meaning that posts that generate a lot of likes and comments will be seen by more people.
What’s more, with two billion people being active on Instagram each month, it is the preferred platform for brands to execute their influencer marketing campaigns.
That’s not all. Instagram tops the list when it comes to the influencer marketing platforms that brands prefer.
Image via Influencer Marketing Hub
This shows that it is now easier than ever to become an Instagram influencer, gain followers, and monetize your account.
This article will discuss how to be an Instagram influencer in 2023, along with some quick tips on how to get started.
But first, let’s answer the other important question every aspiring Instagram influencer asks—how much can you earn as an Instagram influencer?
It all depends on the number of followers an Instagram influencer has, their trust factor, engagement rates, and field of expertise.
While $100 per 10,000 followers is a commonly used formula, Instagram influencers can charge anywhere from $75 to $3,000 per post. Here’s an estimate based on typically charged rates by many Instagram influencers:
You can also get a fair idea of how much Instagram influencers make from the results of a recent survey. According to this survey, an Instagram influencer in the US earns on average, $2,970 per month.
Micro-influencers earn $1,420 per month while mega-influencers make $15,356 in a month. An Instagram influencer who has over a million followers can make $250,000 for just one Instagram post.
Now that you understand the earning potential of Instagram influencers, let’s get to the topic ‘how to be an Instagram influencer.”
If you’re reading this, you already know that becoming an Instagram influencer is not just about posting some pretty pictures.
You’ll need to establish yourself as an authority on the subject of your choice, build trust, gain followers, engage with them, and collaborate with brands.
Does this look complicated?
Not to worry. We have put together a list of tips on how to be an Instagram influencer that makes the process seamless. Let’s begin.
Do you know a lot about a particular topic and love to discuss it for hours together? This could be your niche!
The first answer to the question ‘how to be an Instagram influencer’, is to identify your niche or area of specialty. Here, it’s important to choose a topic that aligns with your expertise and interests, to stay authentic.
The more knowledgeable and passionate you are on this topic, the more the chances of coming across as a credible source of information in this niche.
And, picking a topic will also help you find the right brand partners, who prefer to partner with Instagram influencers in specific niches.
But, which niche should you pick?
For some people, picking a niche on Instagram comes naturally because they already have a compelling interest.
However, what can you do if you have multiple interests? In this case, finding a niche to become an Instagram influencer can be tricky.
Fret not. We’re here to help.
Here’s what you can do to find your niche and become an Instagram influencer if you have several interests.
Compile a list of activities or topics that excite you. To help you, we have listed the top niches for Instagram influencers here:
Note that these are the broad, generic categories that can have several sub-categories.
Take a close look at your list and think about which ones you will be able to dedicate time and effort to. Identify and remove the interests that you cannot focus on due to a lack of budget, equipment, or in-depth knowledge.
For example, if sailing is one of your interests, but you don’t own a sailboat, you may not be able to post consistently on this topic on Instagram.
The next step in this guide on ‘how to be an Instagram influencer’ is to pick a location that you want to focus on.
Why is location important? Here’s why.
Every day, millions of Instagram users browse location-tagged posts to find the accounts to follow and the content they like.
Brands that want to reach a target market will also search for Instagram influencers by location.
And finally, adding a location can also boost the engagement rate and give your Instagram account more exposure.
While you may have listed broad categories or niches such as ‘travel’ or ‘cooking,’ it’s important to get more specific. Typically, the broader the niche, the more the content being created in it.
However, users on Instagram are more likely to prefer detailed and specific content. These specific categories of topics are your sub-niches.
Sub-niches can exist in these two ways:
For example, if the broad topic is cooking, the sub-niches within this context can be:
Here is an example of new sub-niches created when topics from larger niches intersect:
Let’s say the large niches that intersect are ‘ceramics’ and Buddhism.’ The sub-niche can be:
How “valuable” a particular niche is based on the audience growth and earning potential. The first step to identifying valuable niches is to understand the lifecycle of niches.
All niches and sub-niches on Instagram go through four phases:
Because there is low competition, it is ideal for a beginner trying to be an Instagram influencer.
New sub-topics and sub-niches are created and the content quality improves.
If an Instagram influencer is able to create engaging content, the growth phase can be rapid in this phase.
Example: The hashtag #artdoll in Art Dolls sub-niche has 1 million posts at the time of writing this article.
Image via Instagram
Growth slows for most accounts while the audiences are distributed around a handful of the most differentiated Instagram influencers whose content is of the highest quality.
You’ll need to create high-quality and incredibly differentiated content that is better than what other established creators are already putting out. As this is a tough ask, transitioning back to the growth or introductory phase is the best way to start growing your followers.
As with the maturity phase, the only way to grow your account and achieve success is to revert to a sub-niche in the growth or introductory phase.
Here’s a summary of the lifecycle of niches for your quick reference:
| Phase of the niche | Key characteristics | How to grow |
| Introduction | • Esoteric topic • Low competition • Small number of Instagram influencers and content consumers | Find and be in the esoteric niche |
| Growth | • Topic gains popularity • Professionals and brands enter the niche • Quality of content improves • Rapid growth in followers | Create unique and engaging content |
| Maturity | • Growth plateaus • Only well-established Instagram Influencers are able to capture the value | Either create highly-differentiated or unique content or revert to niches and sub-niches in growth or introductory phase |
| Decline | • Mass exodus of consumers • Influencers lose followers • Zero growth | Transition to introductory or growth phase to find a new topic |
The lifecycle of Instagram niches
About 31% of Instagram audiences are in the age group of 25 to 34 years and 30% are in the age bracket of 18 to 24.
Image via Statista
Clearly, Instagram is popular with younger audiences, and if this is the cohort you want to reach, you need to know what topics they are interested in.
According to Instagram’s 2022 “Trend Report’ here are the categories and topics that Gen Z is passionate about.
By now, you should have more clarity on the niche and sub-niche you want to create content on. Within each niche, decide on sub-topics that you can write about consistently.
For instance, if travel is your niche, your sub-topics can be vacation tips, camping, wood cabins, and train rides. Keep your sub-topics list limited to between 3 to 5 so that you can focus on creating high-quality content.
Your bio is the first thing your followers will see when they find you on Instagram. It should give all the information your audience needs to become your follower in a concise way.
The catch is that you only get 150 characters on Instagram to do this, so you will need to make every character and word count.
Here’s an example of an attractive Instagram bio. By including “travel, blog, and Insta tips” this Instagram influencer makes sure her profile shows up for these searches.
Image via Instagram
She also tells people she’s going to move to the UK in 2023, letting her followers know the type of content they can expect in the near future from her.
We’ve put together some best practices for creating an Instagram bio that you may find useful.
Check out this Instagram influencer’s simple CTA.
Image via Instagram
Image via Instagram
Image via Instagram
Alright, now you know the niche to pick, and how to create a compelling Instagram bio.
What’s next?
As we already pointed out, creating high-performing, unique content is the key to growing your follower base and becoming a successful Instagram influencer.
The goal is to create Instagram content and share it frequently and consistently to stay on the top of your audience’s minds.
How can you come up with high-quality content like this Instagram influencer every time?
Image via Instagram
Needless to say, this is one of the most challenging tasks for anyone who wants to be an Instagram influencer.
Fret not. We’re here to help.
These tips can help you create fresh and engaging content:
Image via Instagram
You can catch people's attention with engaging videos and photos, but to retain it, you need clever Instagram captions. Note that while you get 2,200 characters (roughly 400 words) to write the caption, it gets cut short to 125 characters in your audience’s feed.
That’s why the most important words should appear at the beginning of your caption. And, the first 125 characters should also include a CTA.
Here's a good example of a front-loaded, engaging Instagram caption:
Image via Instagram
Here’s an Instagram caption with a compelling CTA and a front-loaded intro:
Image via HubSpot
To sum up, engaging Instagram captions are:
…get the drift?
Now, you already know that Instagram is a highly visual platform. This means that you should not only fine-tune your content and captions, but master the content formats that are popular on Instagram—Reels, Stories, and images.
This infographic shows the most popular content formats on Instagram. As you can see, images and videos top the list, followed by text-based posts and Stories.
Image via Sprout Social
But, first things first. You need to know what Instagram Reels and Stories are and when to use each one.
Reels are short videos that appear on your Instagram feed and play automatically. The length of these videos can be anywhere from 15 to 60 seconds.
You can add visual effects, music, closed captions, and on-screen text to these videos. Just like Instagram posts, Reels have no expiry date unless you delete them.
It’s possible to create sophisticated videos that stay on users’ feeds using Instagram’s editing tools.
The only ‘con’ is that Reels are limited to video content.
To sum up, Reels:
These are short clips of not more than 10 seconds that appear on top of the Instagram feed as little circles. You can post multiple ‘Stories’ in sequence but they will only show up on your audience’s feeds for 24 hours.
However, you can pin the Stories permanently to your profile using the “Story Highlight” feature.
An Instagram Story is ideal:
In short, Instagram Stories:
While each has their advantages and disadvantages, they are best used in a complementary way. When done right, both Reels and Stories are effective in building an engaged audience and helping you succeed as an Instagram influencer.
Now, let’s see how to optimize your Instagram images, as you’ll need this skill as an Instagram influencer.
The point of posting images in your Instagram posts is to ensure they ‘stop the scroll.’ But, how can you ensure every image is a ‘scroll-stopper’ like this one?
Image via Instagram
Here are some tips that can help:
Image via Instagram
Make sure to use the right photo editing and image compression tools.
Now, let’s talk about Instagram carousel posts. Instagram allows users to add multiple photos that are viewed by swiping to the left. You can add up to ten videos or images to your Instagram carousel posts.
Carousel posts will help you reach new audiences, boost engagement, and drive product sales. After all, these are the goals that matter to anyone who wants to know how to be an Instagram influencer.
Not sure how to use Carousel posts? Here are some creative ways to use them in your posts:
Whatever way you use them, note that all your Carousel slides must be uniform. This is because the size or format of the first slide in the post will apply to all the frames.
Whether it is Instagram Reels, Stories, or image posts, you can’t afford to ignore the power of hashtags that can boost the reach of your content.
Many Instagram users search for topics, people, or information using hashtags. Adding them strategically to all your posts is the best way to boost your organic follower count and engagement.
The hashtags you need to use will depend on the niche and topic. For instance, if you are posting about ‘chocolate,’ you can type the word #chocolate on the Instagram search bar to find these hashtags:
Image via Instagram
An important part of learning how to be an Instagram influencer is to learn how to find the best hashtags in your niche. An easy way to do this is to use hashtag generator tools, some of which are free.
Now the question you might be asking is how many hashtags you need to use. To be honest, there’s no ‘right’ number of hashtags that will give you the results you want.
While most experts agree that 11 hashtags per post is a good number, you can add up to 30 hashtags for posts and up to 10 hashtags for an Instagram Story.
Typically, Instagram influencers use between 1 and 3 hashtags per post.
The key to being a successful Instagram influencer is to maintain consistency when it comes to posting content.
Preparing your content in advance and scheduling your posts is a great way of achieving consistency.
You can open an excel sheet and create your own content posting schedule. If this is tedious, you can always use content scheduling tools such as Ripl, Buffer, Preview, or Planoly.
These tools help you create your content ahead of time and schedule the posting by setting the dates and times. Once you set the date and time, the platform automatically posts according to the schedule.
But, when is the best time to post on Instagram? This depends on many factors including your niche, location, the content type, your target audience’s lifestyle, goals, and so on.
These are the best times to post Instagram Reels according to a study.
Image via Influencer Marketing Hub
Additionally, you can also schedule your posts on specific days and events when users tend to be active on Instagram. According to a study, Instagram users are most active on occasions such as sporting events, holidays, award shows, and pop culture events.
Image via Sprout Social
In addition to knowing how to be an Instagram influencer, it’s vital to retain your authenticity. Being vulnerable, transparent, and honest is the key to gaining the trust of your followers. This will help you build a long-term relationship with your followers and succeed as an Instagram influencer.
What are the ways of connecting with your audience?
For starters, you can follow them back and like, comment, or share their content. You can also pick accounts in related niches and follow them to expand your reach.
For instance, if you post about hairstyling, you can follow Instagrammers who are also into hairstyling as well as beauty, skincare, and fashion bloggers.
And, follow any relevant hashtags in your niche.
When engaging with your audience, make helpful observations and offer expert tips as comments. Preface your comments with what your Instagram account is all about. For instance, if you are a yoga expert, you can preface your observations with:
“I’m a yoga teacher and I post a lot of instructional videos on my Instagram account.”
By now, you should have your Instagram account up and running, and perhaps, have gained followers. At this point, you need to start collaborating with other influencers and brands.
Collaborating with brands and other influencers will help you boost your follower count and engagement rate.
One way to do this is to leverage Instagram's collaboration feature.
The ‘Collabs’ feature was launched in 2021 by Instagram that lets two users share the same content in their respective Reels or Feed.
Image via Twitter
The way this works is simple—one Instagrammer creates the post and invites another user to become the collaborator. The content appears in both accounts after the collaborator accepts.
The collaboration can also be between a brand and an Instagram influencer. Check out this Collabs post shared between @jenneatsgoood and @drinkculturepop.
Image via Instagram
Of course, you can also reach out to other influencers and partner with them. For instance, you can give shout-outs to each other or collaborate to co-create content.
But, make sure these influencers are not your direct competitors.
Now, we come to the primary reason that made you search for answers to how to be an Instagram influencer—monetizing your Instagram account.
Let’s see how you can do that.
If you haven’t done this already, you should switch to an Instagram business account. This will give you access to analytics features that are important for you to monetize your account.
Marketers looking to fine-tune their influencer marketing strategy want as much data on your account as possible before they hire you as an influencer.
Here are the multiple ways to start earning money as an Instagram influencer:
As a brand ambassador, an Instagram influencer promotes the brand and its products on an ongoing basis.
This arrangement is mutually beneficial for both the Instagram influencer and the brand as it boosts customer trust and engagement for both.
Regularly posting about the brand for six to twelve months will help you maximize your earnings as an Instagram influencer.
While brands are on the lookout for micro, mega, and nano influencers, you can also reach out to them. A recommended way of doing this is with a media kit.
Instagram influencers showcase their value to brands by including these details in the media kit:
Take a look at the media kit shared by the Instagram influencer, Alicia Collins.
Image via Insider
It’s extremely important to include demographic information because brands make a decision based on whether their target audiences align with yours.
This is where Instagram Analytics Tools come into the picture. You can use these tools to include detailed information about your Instagram account, performance, and followers.
A common way of making money for Instagram influencers is to post sponsored content promoting a particular brand.
This can be in the form of a Story, Reel, post, or Carousal post based on the brand's preference and your engagement rate. It’s the easiest way to collaborate with a brand and make some quick money.
Remember, you can create sponsored posts for many brands, but be selective about the brands you collaborate with for a long term.
Instagram has a shopping tab displayed on the home screen that makes it easy for users to find new products, brands, etc.
What’s more, the platform is also rolling out the Instagram Checkout feature which means users need not leave the app to make a purchase.
Image via Instagram
You can create your own range of products and sell them on Instagram or promote other brands’ products using affiliate marketing and earning commissions.
Q1. How do you start as an influencer on Instagram?
A. Here are the steps to get started as an Instagram influencer:
Q2. How to become an Instagram influencer?
A. In this article, we have listed the steps for those who want to learn how to be an Instagram influencer. Follow the steps mentioned above to succeed as an Instagram influencer.
Q3. How much do you make as an Instagram influencer?
A. This depends on the number of followers Instagram influencers have, their engagement rates, and their niche.
While the typical formula used is $100 per 10,000 followers, here are the usual rates based on follower count:
As an Instagram influencer, you can create your own rate sheet and negotiate with brands to set your own rates.
Q4. How many IG followers do you need to be an influencer?
A. There isn’t a magic number or defined criteria to be called an Instagram influencer. Some nano influencers have only about 1000 followers. Despite low numbers, you can still be a successful Instagram influencer if your engagement rates and trust factor is high.
Q5. Do Instagram influencers get paid?
A. Yes! Instagram influencers can get paid a lot, depending on their audience size and engagement.
However, there is no set rate that all Instagram influencers receive. Rates can vary depending on the brand or company being promoted, the type of sponsorship agreement, and the influencer's audience size and engagement.
Q6. How do I boost an Instagram post?
A. There are several ways to boost your Instagram post. Instagram offers a flexible way to boost your post by determining your budget and goals. To do this, follow these steps:
Other ways to boost your Instagram posts include adding relevant hashtags, tagging others in your posts, collaborating with other influencers, and adding a compelling caption.
Q7. Can anyone be an Instagram influencer?
A. The answer is yes, anyone can be an Instagram influencer as content creators are the new rage on social media. However, you’ll have to take the time to learn how to be an Instagram influencer, be willing to work hard. and be patient till you see the results.
Many famous influencers like enterpreneur Gary Vaynerchuk, started out with very few followers. Vaynerchuk worked hard in his father’s wine store before he started creating videos to talk about various wines.
By sharing his insights on social media, he eventually became the ‘go to’ guy for all things wine.
Q8. Is it too late to become an influencer?
A. It’s never too late to be a social media influencer. Marketers are looking to increase their spending on influencer marketing, while the audience is more willing now than ever to follow authentic and relatable people.
You can take inspiration from Helen Ruth Elam, a 92-year-old internet celebrity who took to social media at the age of 85. She has currently over 3.6 million followers on Instagram and earns $9,815 per promotion.
Q9. How do you get sponsored on Instagram?
A. Here are the steps to follow:
Q10. How do I find a sponsor?
A. Before you find a sponsor, make sure to follow all the steps we have listed in this article on ‘how to be an Instagram influencer.’ Once you have a decent number of followers, you can start reaching out to brands with these steps:
Congratulations! You are now armed with the 10 smart tips that will help you become an Instagram influencer.
If you are interested in learning more about boosting your Instagram presence, please leave a comment and we’ll get back to you in a quick time.
Looking to fast-track your success as an Instagram influencer? We can help!
Reach out to us for content marketing and affiliate marketing services.
If you’re a smart entrepreneur, you’re likely searching for the best AI chatbots for your…
At a time when marketers need data to inform email marketing decisions, it's important to…
As businesses grow increasingly competitive, the only way for companies to survive is to be…
Every online business owner aspires to attract the right traffic, boost user engagement, increase retention…
Why do you need to know about the best backlink analysis tools in the business?…
Are content writing tools the best bet to bring the right balance between creativity and…