Have you thought about hiring an Instagram Influencer for your local business? Instagram Influencers can be of great help when it comes to directing potential audiences to your Instagram business page. You can create a profitable relationship with someone in your city, right from your phone thanks to Instagram Influencers! 

So, what is influencer marketing, exactly? 

Influencer marketing is a form of collaboration. A business collaborates with an influential person to promote a product, a service or a campaign. Celebrity endorsements were the original form of  influencer marketing, but in today's marketing world, social media influencers with a niche market can be even more valuable to businesses. These people have dedicated and engaged audiences on social media. 

Why should I hire an Influencer on Instagram?

With a Influencer partnership, your aim could be to:

•  Increase your followers on your Instagram account
•  Kick off a marketing campaign of a new product or service
• Drive traffic or invitations to an event that you're hosting at your business

Finding the right Influencer for your Business

The best place to start your Instagram Influencer search is your Instagram followers. Create a post on your feed or a poll in your stories telling your community exactly the type of person for whom you are looking to represent your business and ask them to nominate themselves or a friend. Your followers are going to tell you who they love!

Another resource for awesome Instagram Influencers are Influencer Marketing Platforms  (IMP’s).  IMP’s  are great tools to help companies find social media influencers. Some of these programs also allow companies to manage their influencer campaigns.  Upfluence, is a great IMP to discover s, manage campaigns and send products. Click here for more information! 

Qualities to Look for in an Influencer 

Influencers  must be relevant to your customers. If you can find an Influencer who is also your “Ideal Customer”  then you're golden. They will appeal to your followers and to the community that you're working to create. Your  must appear to be authentic. Instagram is very social, and usually if you feel like someone is acting vague or not representing a brand that they believe in, you're probably right. 

via GIPHY

A great influencer drives engagement. When you review their Instagram account do they inspire comments from their followers and do they respond to those comments in a timely manner? Check their engagement ratio.  The engagement ratio on Instagram is calculated likes plus comments divided by followers. 5% engagement is considered amazing. 3% is fine, but  when people start getting 20,000 followers, 30,000 followers, if they have more than 1%, it is outstanding. 

Finally, your  Instagram Influencer must be active. Are they posting every day to their feed and stories?  Do they have a mix of personal posts and sponsored posts creating a social feel that your community would enjoy?

Working with an Influencer

You first want to start with how many posts a month they are willing to post for you.  Once they make their suggestion, then you start your contract negotiations. Usually, a long term contract is in their favor, meaning they’ll be glad that somebody's not hiring them for just one post. So I suggest maybe asking for 15 posts a month, maybe five posts on the feed, five on the story and  five product posts. 

 Instead of $300 times 15 posts, offer them $3,000 a month for those 15 posts. If they said they charge $100 a post, offer them $1,000 a month for those 15 photos for six months. The benefit that you will get from the long term relationship is exponential. 

How do I know this was successful?

My two favorite ways are tracking a link or tracking a code. For links, Linktree will be a good  friend of yours.. Most or big Instagram accounts are using Linktree to create multiple links in the bio of their Instagram account. If they’re doing that, all you have to do is ask to see their Linktree account, see how many clicks that link got. This way you can determine if you are getting enough publicity from the Instagram Influencer.

You could also give the Instagram Influencer  a code that they could tell all of their followers to use when they want to connect with your business. The Instagram Influencer could mention using the code ‘Meredith20’ at checkout, or something along those lines. This way you'll know that all the ‘Meredith20’ codes are specifically targeted to your business. 

According to Influencer Marketing Hub ,”Influencer Marketing related services/companies grew 26% in 2021, to 18,900 worldwide. Growth was highest in the United States, which saw a 30% increase in  agencies, platforms, and services”. This is why using  marketing to grow your small business is a power move, and will offer huge growth to your business! Are you ready to hire an Influencer Instagram?!