What are brands looking for on your Instagram feed?

As the world is getting used to the challenges of this pandemic, influencer marketing found a way to continue evolving at a rapid rate. With more and more marketing opportunities coming their way, brands have started widening their horizons and metrics when it comes to choosing the right influencer to market them.

Traditional criteria of reach and engagement still plays an important part, but now there are other aspects that are being kept in mind. In the realm of influencer – brand relations, authenticity and legitimacy have the strongest hold. The brands after all these years have understood that it’s not just about the number of followers, but the impact you, as an influencer, be it nano, micro or big, have on your audiences.

Be it a small budding or a big established influencer, if one wants to work and collaborate with brands, maintaining your social media becomes an undeniably important job. The media platforms can differ, but you need to find out the one that works for you best and make use of it in the most efficient manner, as it is your workspace and the first ever impression the brands form of you, defining your qualifications as an influencer.

Being authentic, real, and relatable is the key to be a great influence in the lives of your followers. This becomes the basis for brands to connect with you, because no brand wants to get lost in a sea of sponsored advertisements and spend money where the ROI is uncertain. They now focus on strategic plans to place their brand where the audience notices it- in a natural, content-driven space.

The following are the things the brand look for on your feed when looking to collaborate with you for campaigns:

1. Balanced feed.
   Having a balanced feed becomes a must. What a balanced feed means is that you have a carefully thought out layout for your personal content and your sponsored content. Normally, we would recommend a 3:1 ratio, which means 1 sponsored post for every 3 personal organic posts. An unbalanced can be a major turnoff for any brand and can cause a hindrance in the collaboration process.
2. Niche audience.
   Before your content is approved, the brands check if your feed and followers’ vibes match with theirs. Having a niche audience becomes a foundational requirement as no brand wants to fight for attention. The narrower the niche, the better it is for the brand to reach it’s target audience. As for the influencer, your content needs to be niche, so that while collaborating, your area of expertise is clear.
3. Authenticity.
   Being an influencer comes with it’s set of responsibilities. You are responsible for influencing a certain number of people, so being genuine and real should be your default setting. No brand wants to associate themselves with someone who has plagiarised content on their feed, as it sends a wrong message to the end consumers. The brands check how authentic your followers are, depending on the traction that you receive on your content, through comments, feedbacks, shares, to find out how much your audience/followers value you and how their brand will be valued.
4. Consistency and Engagement.
   Being consistent towards your role of being an influencer and uploading regular content gives an idea to the brands of how serious you are about it. Being consistent in turn will increase your visibility, and then your follower count. The brands have realised that having small amounts of authentic interested followers is better than having a huge follower count with minimum engagement. So try to be active and interact with your audience for increased engagement and make sure you are the most active within the first 30 minutes of posting to gain maximum traction.

With this said, we at VavoDigital connect the best suited influencers and brands together to initiate a symbiotic relationship in this overly competitive marketplace. Contact us, to know the best personalised strategies for your growth and brand collaborations