Do you know that Instagram has become one of the top social media platforms in less than a decade? With more than a billion active users on a daily basis, Instagram is the go-to site for digital marketers to promote brands. Along with that, the social site is also the preferred choice for solopreneurs and influencers. If you are looking for ways to make money as a food influencer, you have arrived at the right place. In this blog, we will discuss in details about tips and tricks to make money online using Instagram.
Where to Start?
The marketing 101 tip for any social site is to make followers and post frequently, but every other influencer is doing the same. So, what’s unique about it? Let’s start with that part!
Reach and Influence: We all know that businesses pay money to Instagram influencers for their posts. The equation is pretty simple, i.e. the post helps them in getting exposure to the influencer’s audience. However, you won’t get a few thousands of followers overnight. Everyone has to start with a handful of audience members. However, reach assists only till the first stage of the sales funnel, i.e. awareness.
To generate sales, you need more than just a substantial amount of followers and that is persuasion skills. With a good budget, you can get to a million followers in a few months, but numbers won’t compel brands to tie up with you. For that, you need to be an Instagram personality. If you have persuasive skills, it is all about time that you gain followers and money come along with it.
Engaged Followers: There’s no doubt that more followers will increase your probability of appearing on more feeds. But what’s the benefit of all this if your posts are falling flat. In today’s social media world, it’s all about engagement. It reflects that you’re assisting people around you.
If you are not getting reactions like shares, likes, or comments from followers on your posts. There are some issues that need to be fixed. As a food influencer, try new things always in your posts. You can include things like the nutritional values of any edible food that you have posted. Besides this, you can also post related to any restaurant, including safety measures and precautions that they are taking to safeguard food items.
For further engagement, you can give the details about the ingredients used while making the food. Nowadays, people are more inclined towards organic products. You can create videos on organic processes and products in your posts to be exclusive. If you are concerned about making compelling videos, there are a number of free video editors available out there that you can use to edit videos online with just a few clicks of buttons.
Plan your posts strategically: Without proper planning, even an awesome campaign can go haywire. A few tips if you are creating your account from scratch:
- Pick a name that reverberates with what you are pitching. So choose your business name in a way that reflects what your account is all about.
- Instagram bio is the first impression for your visitors. It is like the first draft of your story that you are pitching to a producer, so, keep it simple, crisp, and to the point.
- In the bio, use emoticons to redirect viewers towards the CTA. And don’t forget to put some of the food emojis in your bio.
- Use links of the bio smartly, as it’s the only clickable link on Instagram that can direct the visitors to any landing page.
Now, coming to the strategy part, plan the number of posts in a month and always include videos in any social marketing campaign. Try to maintain a calendar to streamline your process and stick to it. Be creative, and avoid being monotonous. Again, Instagram is a visual medium, and quality videos and images are a must-have requisite for better engagement. You can also do live sessions to keep your audience engaged.
Post frequently and engage with the commenters: Frequency of posts replying to comments is the basic way to forge a long term relationship with your audience. As per research by Tailwind, accounts with frequent postings have higher engagement compared to those who post once or twice in a month. And with every new post, there is a higher probability that your following will increase.
The engagement with your commenters will give them a feeling of being valuable. Never let any conversation go unattended. With time, brands have realized the true potential of user-generated content. They are authentic, verified, and increase your credibility as a brand.
Smart use of hashtags with a witty caption: We all know the power of hashtags. It has been used on social sites since 2007 and is used to club similar posts in a basket. Do you know that you can use up to 30 hashtags in every post? Now-a-day, social sites are flooded with hashtags, do proper research before using them in your posts.
The other important thing is the caption. The post is in the spotlight. However, captions can act as a complement to the post. Or, you can be witty with it and be the stark opposite of what you are trying to convey in the post to add a touch of humour. You can also add CTA in it or use @mentions to give shout outs for any other account.
Conclusion:
Besides all of the tips mentioned above, you can leverage IGTV to share long-form videos or stories for short 60-second videos. Stories can be a good way to keep connected with your audience on a day-to-day basis. People love to share & view stuff that their friends and influencers are doing in their daily lives. Lastly, always focus on videos in your posts, and there are several free Instagram video editors available online to aid you in making compelling videos. Be consistent, creative, and mix things up to keep the audience hooked.
