One of the newest and most attractive careers born out of the internet is being a social media influencer. Being an Instagram influencer consists of sharing visual content on Instagram and building an engaged audience around a niche such as travel, fitness or lifestyle.
Instagram influencers reach a considerable audience and businesses are now capitalising on this by offering to pay influencers to endorse or market their products or services as a way to boost brand awareness amongst their target audience. Fitness influencers, for example, are frequently approached by sportswear brands and businesses selling protein supplements as a way to reach their exact target audience.
Not only are influencers great for creating brand awareness and exposure, but the nature of being an “influencer” means that followers are usually fans on some level and are therefore likely to want to use and own the products endorsed by their stars.
Being an influencer seems like a very glamorous job, which is why so many people are trying to do it. The reality is that it takes consistent and relentless hard work to produce consistent, engaging and innovative content. Even the best influencers take years to build a loyal following. To make money, you need to grow your Instagram following to about 10,000 or more. Once you’re hitting enough traffic, you can begin reaching out to brands in your niche market and offer paid promotions, either through messaging directly on Instagram or sending emails to the marketing teams of relevant companies.
Income differs from promotion to promotion based on the size of your following and the size of the brand. That said, influencers tend to charge anywhere between £100 and £1000 to post a 24-hour story and even more for posting promotional content on their feeds.