Dream of being an influencer? Here’s how you can make it happen.
In association with Kitly
THESE days being an influencer is a viable career choice – especially for Millennials – but how do you convert your #nofilter selfies and brunch snaps into the big bucks?
Kitly is a platform that allows influencers to track their social media insights to help them improve their performance and engagement.
They also provide customisable media kits that link directly to Instagram Insights that can be shared with brands and Agencies making it easier to get work on marketing campaigns.
We caught up with influencer Kesley Heinrichs, also known as , to find out more about Kitly and how it’s helped her make the most out of her following.
Here’s what we learned about becoming an influencer from our chat.
It takes a while to build up your following
You can’t expect to have a large, engaged following overnight. Kelsey found that it took her a long time to get her first 10k followers.
It took her time to work out what they were responding well to and engaging with and once she’d cracked that she went from 15k to 80k pretty quickly.
Engagement is key
Kelsey says “My followers are the reason I’m doing this job, so I try to reply to every DM and as many comments on my posts as possible.
Though it means it’s hard to create boundaries for when I’m working and when I’m not. When I do a post I’ll put aside at least an hour afterwards to reply to comments and messages, and I spend around another half an hour every morning and evening replying to followers.”
You should be paid for the work you do
If you want to make money from your Instagram account then you need to have boundaries between things you’ll do for free and things you expect to be paid for.
Kelsey says that “I try to educate other bloggers and Instagrammers that we should be paid to work. Being a photographer/model and stylist all in one is a difficult job!”
It takes more than just a selfie!
If you want to run a successful Instagram account then you need to get your photography aesthetic down - a simple phone selfie won’t do!
You don’t have to shell out for a photographer though, “I’d always suggest asking a friend or your mum to take pictures of you for your feed, as doing it with someone you’re comfortable with really helps. I was intimidated and nervous at first – I’m not a model after all! – but once you make it fun, it gets so much easier. I also work with other bloggers to take pictures sometimes – it’s mutually beneficial and can be a real social thing."
Find your voice
Defining your personal brand and portraying something unique to you is really important.
Kelsey says “If someone is trying to make Instagram their full-time job, I’d advise being unique in your voice and showing up every day especially when you’re setting up a new account. Uniqueness really helps you stand out. Take care of your audience, be authentic and engage with them.”
Get some help
It can be hard tackling the industry alone if you want to make money from your account. This is where Kitly can help.
“I’ve been using Kitly for some time now and I’ve found it so helpful. When I look at the report on my posts, I can easily see which have performed the best and spot trends of what content does and doesn’t work. Of course it’s important to post what you like and what makes you happy, but it’s great to see what posts get good engagements. That way you know you can create more content similar to your top-performing posts.
For Instagrammers taking the next step, the Kitly media kit is amazing. It’s a really easy way to present a high-quality snapshot of you and your content – and, uniquely, it uses live data, which is brilliant.
Plus, you can show your true reach. I have an interiors account @homewithkelsey, which has around 11k followers - but my true reach is actually higher than that, and Kitly means I can show brands I’d like to work with that this is true. You can also add testimonials from both brands and your followers into your media kit, which is so helpful.
It can be time consuming working with a brand after a campaign to make sure they have everything they need and it takes a while to make and send screenshots. But with Kitly, the great thing is reporting takes a minute using hashtags to create a live link. It looks really professional and impressive and I’ve had great feedback from brands when I’ve sent them the link over.”