Being a social media influencer is not an easy task. It requires consistent creativity and hard work to build your credibility as a content creator for specific themes. Your (increasing) credibility will then make (more) clients want to work with you.

Clients want to see quantitative business value in the content creators make. The primary challenge as a social media influencer is delivering your committed results so that clients will want to collaborate with you on future campaigns.

Therefore, it is imperative that you not only produce quality content but also ensure that the KPIs you have set can be achieved. This also helps build your credibility as a creator. If you can show that your content can produce results consistently, brands will increasingly consider you as an effective channel through which to market their brand.

Once you understand how to set your Key Performance Indicators (KPI), you must then set up your Business Profile on Instagram. If you would like to know how to convert your account to a Business profile, read this. Don’t worry, you can convert your account for free.

Below are a few ways to achieve your KPIs comfortably, and even exceed them. (Remember, if you can exceed your KPIs, you could consider raising them, and then consequently increase your rate).

1. Producing QUALITY content

For the content you produce to perform well, it must be:

• Engaging: Social media is primarily a channel for people to interact, so producing high-quality content which captures your audience’s attention and engages them is the most important consideration for building your follower base, and ultimately, your credibility. Always produce content that people can relate to and engage with.

• Original – Take time to figure out what you can do differently from what has already been done. Brainstorm original ideas (it’s okay to be inspired by other creators, as long as you don’t copy their work) and create content based on those ideas.
• Native – Influencer Marketing is a type of native advertising in which the paid content is displayed in a form, function, and quality similar to the content of the platform where it is placed.

For example, if you are an Instagram influencer who produces funny comics, the content you post should also be in the same form. If you post a picture with just words (without illustrations) – which is instead done on Twitter – or a photo of you holding your client’s product, the content you post will seem out of place on your profile, and will not be engaging your followers sufficiently. Remember, your followers will be expecting content that you created in your own style, and not intrusive ads.

• Targeted – Different types of content are appreciated differently by people of different demographics.

Hence, if you post a picture of, say, you doing a ‘dab’, your older audiences may not understand it, hence not engage with your content. This is why you must ensure that your content is suited to a majority of your audience – you can find out how to access your audience’s demographic profile in this article.

2. Posting content on optimal times

On your account’s Insights page, you can see information about your audience, including demographics. In addition, you can also see which days, and at what time during specific days your followers are most active on Instagram. Posting your content during peak times (when most of your followers are active online) will increase the chances of your post getting more views

3.Promoting your content via other social media channels

At the end of the day, being a social media influencer is a job, so sometimes you will have to do what it takes to get the results. If you land a project in which you’ll have to produce Instagram photos, you may increase your content’s reach by cross-promoting it on your Twitter and Facebook pages.

4.Using Instagram Stories to promote content

In addition, you could also create an Instagram Story to draw the attention of viewers to your post, and potentially ask them to engage with it. You can see how to do it, in the diagram below:

As most of you would know, an Instagram Story is only visible for 24 hours. To ensure that your content can reach its KPI within the agreed time period (usually 7 days), you could post an Instagram Story to promote your post for free, instead of using paid promotions. On the day of the posting, promote your post through an Instagram Story. If by the third day the post has not achieved half the expected number of views, you can re-promote it via another Instagram Story.

5.If needed, using paid promotions to boost your post

If you follow all the aforementioned steps, you should be able to achieve your KPI. However, if those tips don’t work, you could try this tip, but do it only as a last resort! Paid promotion requires a certain amount of budget, which means your earnings will technically be reduced.

In order to promote the post, you will need to have a Business Profile. This can only be done through Instagram’s mobile app. To boost a post, click on the ‘Promote’ button at the bottom right of your post.

When you promote your post, ensure that the profile of the target audience you want to promote to have the same characteristics as your followers. Don’t just plainly advertise your post without a target audience. Otherwise, your post will be shown to random people, who may or may not be your followers on Instagram.

We hope the tips we’ve shared above help you achieve your intended KPIs, make sure your client is satisfied with your performance, and convince them to collaborate with you again in the future. As a result, you will be able to build credibility and a reputation for yourself as a social media influencer. Do remember, though, the quality of your content is still the most important factor in determining how it performs.

If you can consistently produce high-quality content, your credibility will increase, and eventually, you will see the number of your followers rise. As a result, you will feel increasingly confident in raising your guaranteed number of views/KPI to possible clients.

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