One of the most important things for influencers to know about influencer marketing is that connecting with your followers is extremely important. Brands engage with influencers like yourself for the ability to connect with their audience in authentic ways. Connecting with your followers helps build a community which is why followers trust influencers’ recommendations. Not only that, connecting with your followers also improves your engagement rate - an essential metric for influencers.
If you’re just starting out, here are some ways to help you connect with your followers better.
Start a Conversation
When writing a caption for any Instagram post, treat your followers as if they are your friends. There are many ways to encourage conversation among your followers such as asking a question and writing a caption like a text to a bestie.
Fitness influencer, Cassey (@blogilates), does this really well. In the post below, she invites her followers to join her live just like how a friend would instead of simply telling them to tune in. In her other posts, she also invites her followers to share their own thoughts and personal experiences on her posts too.
This is an effective way to connect with your followers as starting a conversation naturally invites people to comment and interact with one another. It also makes your followers feel more connected to you as an influencer, just like a friend.
One thing to note when starting conversations is that it is extremely important to be genuine and appeal to your audience. Followers are humans too and can easily see-through inauthentic captions. The best tip for this is to treat your followers like friends rather than strangers and start conversations about things that your followers are passionate about.
Reply to Comments
Conversations can’t be one-sided. Once you’ve invited your followers to share their experiences or if they’ve commented on your post, you may continue the conversation by replying to their comment. While it’s not necessary to reply to every comment, it would definitely be nice to acknowledge some of your followers' comments by sending a short reply or simply liking their comment.
As shown in the post below, Hyelim (@theseoulsearch), replied to her followers’ comment in a friendly and genuine manner just like a friend would. Aside from that, comments are also an opportunity for creators to share more details about their post. In this case, Hyelim shares more about how this DIY is both sustainable and cheaper.
Replying to comments also provides an opportunity to clarify any questions your followers may have. It shows your followers how you care about them, building their trust in you as an influencer.
Connect Through Hashtags
Hashtags are also a fun and creative way to interact with your followers and build community. Leverage on different types of hashtags or create one that allows your followers to share content with you. Find out more about hashtag strategy in our blog about using Instagram hashtags.
Ensure Your Content Reaches Your Audience
To ensure your content connects with your audience, it is important that your posts are relevant and target their interests. To avoid losing the interests of your followers, work with brands that are compatible with your branding and your audience’s interests. If you’re unsure of what brands match your audience’s profile, Avenue is a free platform for influencers that provides you with insights such as compatibility scores to help you find meaningful brands to collaborate with. On Avenue, you can find a wide range of brands looking for influencers for their upcoming campaigns.
Finally, you want to ensure the great content you are posting is getting seen by your followers by posting at the most optimum timing. Find out more about when to post on Instagram to ensure your posts are appearing on your followers’ feed.
