Branding and Branching out That Coin From The Instagram

So, at this point, you have probably heard of Instagrammers who are cashing in on the pictures they snap that they share every day, and then you would have probably looked at your following and thought, “Well, maybe I can do that too”.

For starters, to break it down or you, just like bloggers, YouTubers, and just about anyone who has amassed an audience on a platform and it is based around the content they produce; this breed of creators, commonly known as Instagrammers have a reach and they spread awareness, and influence their following. 

When put together, these two things, one being having a platform and the other being able to create content that engages, offer the opportunity for Instagram creators to explore multiple streams of potential revenue, whether they want to build an empire or just earn some extra cash and free stuff. 

How many followers do you need to make money on Instagram?

If by now you’re wondering how many followers you need to make it happen, the answer to that, well you will be baffled by it because, well it is “not as many as you think”. 

But bear this in mind it also depends on several other external factors, like what niche you’re in and how easily you can influence your followers, and you can directly tie it to a product category of either fashion, food, beauty, and fitness are popular niches, based on top Instagram hashtags. 

The next classification would be, depending on how engaged your followers are, because, well remember this, naturally, the more engaged followers you have on the app, the better it is for you to be able to make a mark and you can put out content that will influence and help propel you. 

Top Instagrammers make thousands per post on the photo-sharing platform, even those with a smaller but engaged following of 1000 have the potential to start by hopping onto the train of monetizing their post and being able to make money.

How do you make money on Instagram?

Depending on your unique brand of Instagram content, your audience, and your level of commitment, you can monetize your content as follows…

• By doing sponsored posts for brands who have the same target audience as you.
• Joining on as an affiliate and making a commission selling the brands’ products.
• Joining on and selling a physical or digital product, or offering a paid service.
• By selling licenses for your photography or videos.

The beauty out here is that chasing one revenue stream doesn’t necessarily rule out another. The term “influencer” gets thrown around a lot these days.

An influencer is anyone who’s built themselves an online reputation by doing and sharing awesome things online. To their audiences, influencers are tastemakers, trendsetters, and trusted experts whose opinions about certain subjects are respected.

Many brands just can’t compete with that and hence what they do is they partner with influencers instead, to be able to the audience’s trust and engagement and then be able to churn that and align it with the content they want to put out featuring them.

How do you decide what to charge as an influencer?

Typically deals are negotiable and can involve a single post or an entire campaign in exchange for a fee, a free product, a service, a gift, the promise of exposure, or some combination of these, so you need to be sure of what you bring to the table what you would like to do and what you would like to receive from them.

Keep in mind when negotiating that you’re not just offering content but access to your audience, a potentially large reach on one of the most popular social platforms around, and usage rights too. 

So, bear this in mind, do not lowball, but at the same time do not overprice, thus you need to know your audience well, and thus decide what you would like to put out and let them have access to.

How do you find brands to work with?

If you’re big enough, chances are brands will find you, but in the meantime, as you climb up the ranks and build your presence out there, what you can do in the meantime is, you can look for brands to work with that are on a similar level in terms of personality and vibes, so that your audience won’t feel like you’re “selling out”.

You can reach out to brands directly to work out a deal, or at the same time you could get yourself signed with an agency and they will reach out to you from there if they want to work with you. 

When you have a brand deal and then when you are posting content that has been sponsored, the rules in this department may vary when it comes to posting and promoting sponsored content, but for you to be on the safe side and for you to still have the respect of your audience and still have their trust, what you could consider doing is, adding a #sponsored hashtag to indicate sponsored posts. 

If you need reassurance, about 69% of influencers in a new report said that being transparent about sponsorships didn’t affect how consumers perceive their recommendation, so if you got the information from the horse’s mouth, and if these were the results obtained by Instagram, there should be nothing holding you back. 

Instagram also has a “Paid Partnership with” tag that prominently identifies sponsored posts, which some brands might require you to use to disclose your relationship with them.

As 2021 rolled out, Instagram too rolled out a feature by which you can open a shop account on Instagram and add the price of a product, now. These products can be anything ranging from apparel, home goods, jewellery, knick-knacks, prints, content, so why not harness this whilst you still can. 

Do it for the ‘Gram (and get paid)

What started as a hobby, has started the ball rolling, thus making people laugh, doing silly photoshoots with their dog, or sharing pictures of food, which can then, in the long run, be able to benefit them, as this can snowball into their chance to turn Instagram into a source of income fuelled by engaged following

Brace for impact as there is a world of possibilities out there, and then as a creator with a large online or even a small audience it greatly helps as you can then break open opportunities that open the doors to new opportunities that you just have to walk through it.

Also Read - Unconventional Ways To Boost Engagement On Instagram