By now it’s no secret that Instagram influencers can help your brand take its social media game to the next level. According to a Mediakix study, in 2020 Instagram was the most important and most impactful channel for influencer marketing. And with over 1 billion monthly active users, 90% of who follow a business, it’s easy to see why.
But another reason Instagram is great for influencer marketing is that it allows for a variety of content types. The platform offers different media formats and features that let influencers maximize their creativity and keep brand campaign content fresh.
Let’s take a look at some content ideas to use in your brand’s collaboration with Instagram influencers, as well as the different media formats you can use to publish them.
Content ideas
If you spend a lot of time on Instagram, you’ve probably seen some of these at some point. And if you’re new to influencer marketing, these ideas might be new concepts for you. Either way, keep reading for some tips about how to use each of these ideas on Instagram.
Giveaways
Giveaways are a good way to kill two birds with one stone. First, the chance to win free stuff generates buzz about your products among your own followers and the influencer’s followers. Second, the rules of entry help you get a rapid influx of new followers.
When hosting a giveaway with an influencer, make sure you account for both the influencer’s incentive and the prize. In addition to the free products you plan to give away, you’ll also have to compensate the influencer for their content creation. Depending on the influencer’s number of followers, you’ll have to pay them either free products or a monetary fee.
Mommy blogger @demilucasblog hosting a giveaway with baby brand @velvaer_babycare. Source: Instagram.
Normally, giveaways require participants to:
- Follow the brand and influencer
- Like the giveaway post
- Comment on the post, tagging a few friends
By doing this, the influencer gets new followers and engagements (likes and comments) on their post. The brand gets new followers, although you could also repost the content to your profile and let participants enter there as well, thus bringing the engagements to your account, too.
Just be warned that this follower growth may decline once the giveaway closes. People love the chance to win free stuff, so they’ll gladly follow you for the duration of the raffle. However, if your brand doesn’t really speak to them, they may simply unfollow you once they know they haven’t won.
The best Instagram format for giveaways is the standard post. Posts are visible directly on the front tab of your profile, so they maximize the chance that people will enter the giveaway. Further, the comments feature enables you to use one of the many giveaway tools to help you choose a winner.
Unboxings
Unboxings are exactly what they sound like: send your product to an influencer, and let them unbox it for their followers! With unboxings, the audience’s perception of your brand totally depends on the influencer’s candid reaction. So with this type of content, it’s more important than ever to make sure you find influencers who align with your brand, its mission, values, and style.
Unboxings show consumers how products look and work right out of the package. As the influencer opens the box right in front of them, there’s no perceived brand or manufacturer interference. For unboxings, you could use video or a mix of photos and video. If you want to use a mix of the two, Stories would be a good option.
Remember that Stories disappear from public view after 24 hours. If you want to keep them visible for longer than that, add them to your highlights, which appear just beneath your profile’s bio.
Plant e-commerce @bloomscape has a highlights section devoted to plant unboxings by various influencers.
Tutorials
A tutorial, or a demo, is any content that shows people how to do something. Depending on your sector, it could be a recipe, a DIY craft, a makeup look, or a life hack.
Tutorials are a great way to have influencers show off your products in use. For tutorials, it’s a good idea to work with various influencers, so that each can put their own spin on your products. This way you don’t end up with repetitive content.
Further, try to research your target audience’s pain points. What questions do they want to be answered? What problems do they want to be solved? If you know the answers to these questions, let the influencers know. This way, they can design demos that hopefully resolve some of the issues that your target audience is facing.
Beauty brand @morphebrushes collaborates with lots of influencers for makeup tutorials. Here, @samuel.rayy shows followers how to use Morphe’s palette created in collaboration with stationery brand @lisafrank. Source: Instagram.
On any social network, the best format for this type of content is video. On Instagram, that means you have a few options: video posts, Stories, Reels, or IGTV. Reels are limited to 15 seconds, and video posts to 1 minute. So these are only options if your tutorial is really short, like a quick life hack. If you need a bit more time, the best option is IGTV, which allows you up to 10 minutes of content and which can easily be accessed from a tab in your profile.
In this photo, you can see that the IGTV tab is open on @morphebrushes’ Instagram profile. Source: Instagram.
Guides
Guides are another feature that Instagram offers. The main difference between Guides and the other formats is that guides are scrollable, and look more like regular website content. With guides, you can give attention to certain products or aspects of your brand with more space.
Part of a guide by fashion e-commerce @asos. Notice the bookmark icon, which lets users add products to their Instagram Shopping wishlist.
You can also tag products directly in the guide so users can see their name and price. And if people click the bookmark icon next to the product, it goes into their Instagram Shopping wishlist for easy purchasing later on.
Guides are a good way to highlight collections of products or information about your services. You could use them to create shoppable lookbooks, holiday gift guides, recipe catalogs, and more!
Live Q&As
Instagram also has a live stream feature, which is useful for taking followers behind the scenes at important events, or for allowing them to ask questions in real-time. Live Q&As are a great way to promote your products with influencers.
Followers get excited when they have a direct line of communication with their favorite influencer. What’s more, the experience makes them feel like an active participant in the conversation, instead of just a bystander browsing your branded content on Instagram.
Again, like with unboxings, the influencer’s reaction is very important here. Choose influencers who are genuinely interested in your brand or sector. Make sure influencers have had ample time to get to know your products before hosting the Q&A. Answer any questions they may have before they attempt to answer questions for the audience.
Conclusion
These are just a few ideas to get you started, but with all Instagram has to offer, the sky’s the limit when it comes to content! Also, if you’re a bit stuck as to what type of content to publish, ask the influencers you reach out to for your campaign! As content creators, they’re technically the experts and may have fresh ideas you haven’t even considered.
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