Chapter 5: Growing Your Social Media

Now that you’ve got an aesthetic page with your brand and target audience down, it’s time to cast a wide net and gain as much exposure as possible. So what can you do to get your pics out there on more? Explore pages and feeds so the right people can find and follow you?

Here are some tips and strategies that go beyond your photos and captions, so have a compelling backstory and impressive bio ready!

1. Instagram Giveaways 

When you’re just starting, it can be very challenging to grow an Instagram account. Not to mention, with the current Instagram algorithm, it’s near impossible to grow organically.  

Group giveaways allow you to build a small following first to help launch your Instagram. You can also participate in giveaways as a seasoned influencer to give your account a little boost. Although, here are a few things to consider and watch out for when participating in giveaways:

1. It would be best if you didn’t wholly rely on giveaways to grow your following. 

2. Watch out for the demographic and location of the giveaway participants. It’s important to build a strong audience base from your country because more and more brands look for sales conversion than brand awareness. 

Reach out to us, and we can help connect with some fantastic giveaway services. 

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2. Collaborate with your fellow influencers 

We’ve discovered plenty of influencers by seeing them (positively) featured on the pages of influencers we’re already following. Collaborating with influencers in your niche allows you to gain exposure from their audience. Don’t be afraid to reach out to your fellow influencers for fun collabs. 

Just make sure that the partnership is mutually beneficial. 

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3. Participate on a podcast.

Do you have a lot of unique insights on an important topic you’d like to share? Podcasts are a popular way to get exposure for reasons beyond being ridiculously good looking. Most podcasts last about 1-3 hours with discussions that range from lighthearted conversation to analyzing deep, often emotional topics.

Look through your network for anyone that’s hosting a podcast that talks about topics you’d enjoy talking about. Let them know you’d like to be featured and present what topics you’d like to discuss.

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4. Get interviewed by a magazine. 

If you have a unique platform, such as cooking up healthier versions of common comfort foods, you’d be a great fit to be featured in a magazine article.   

Don’t worry; you don’t need to hit it big for this! Before you reach out to Vogue, try smaller local magazines that focus on small businesses and exploring inspiring stories such as Voyage LA. These magazines often feature indie brands and smaller, upcoming creators making a positive impact on their communities and the world. 

Think of yourself as a business, even if you don’t have a formal business license. Write out your story of why you decided to become an influencer, what your goals are, and what positive impact you aspire to make. Magazines often look for inspirational stories that stand out from the crowd and seek to make a statement.  

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5. Be more involved in your community, digitally.

An organic way to softly promote yourself is to be more involved in your digital community and list your social media as your preferred mode of contact. Post in Facebook groups, write guest blogs, and comment on other Instagram posts.

Of course, these postings shouldn’t be explicitly telling viewers to click on your profile. They should be authentic, informative, well-written responses to the topic you’re responding to. Your goal is to be noticed by providing value, whether it’s an insightful perspective or a funny joke. Start and/or participate in discussions on topics that are important to you and your brand. 

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6. Hire a publicist.

If you’ve got the $$, you can hire a publicist to help you with much of the above. A publicist can help you amp up your exposure by securing brand deals, podcast spots, and interviews

7. Land brand deals. 

Brands often feature their influencers on their page, so this would help put you in the spotlight. 

Landing brand deals is a vital part of an influencer’s journey, so we’ll be dedicating an entire post to that. Sign up for our mailing list and stay tuned!

XOXO,

Irose

Chapter 4: Your Visual Element

One of the first elements you notice upon visiting a new Instagram account is its overall visual look. A page full of pastel desserts, floral dresses, and lighthearted-looking fonts is going to make a different impression from one with a consistent theme of brooding forests, darker filters, and cryptic quotes.

Your visual theme is an important part of your brand that immediately sets much of your vibe. If your brand is vibrant and happy, consider bright colors, colorful graphics, and shooting your #ootd during the daytime. If you’re looking to set a more contemplative, delicate vibe, then an airy, pastel, or muted color palette would represent that well.

Ellen Lora

Tara Milk Tea

See how the aesthetics of the accounts above all evoke a different vibe? One draws a more neutral aesthetic, and the other has a vibrant, feminine and dreamy feel.

A great first step is to think about what mood you want to set immediately. What emotions do you want to convey? And usage of color and tone is a great way to set that mood.

Beyond hues, your page’s visual saturation and lightness are also important to your aesthetic. A more demure look usually uses less saturated colors, whereas a more outgoing look usually amps up the saturation and contrast.

Marianna Hewitt

Helen Owen

Jenny Cipoletti

Editing and filters can give you a boost.

Not every object in your photos can realistically be a part of your typical color palette. Filters will help you keep up a cohesive mood and color scheme. There are a wide variety of filters out there that can make any photo look more sunlight, melancholy, rustic, or straight out of the 1800s. 

Fortunately, you’re not just limited to Instagram’s filters. If you really want to create your own custom filters from scratch, try Adobe Photoshop. For a variety of presets, check out Adobe Lightroom, a software specifically made for editing professional photography. It’s also got a mobile app so you can take it on the go.

Here’s a list of free photo editing apps that’ll help you refine your photos and make them look even more professional. You’ll be able to apply filters, remove red eyes, and make color corrections on easy-to-use interfaces. Just don’t edit your photos to the point where they no longer look realistic --people can tell!

Your filters should be consistent throughout your page. Save a few preset filters that all reflect your aesthetic. Not all your filters will fit every photo -- some will require more customization than others.

Original

High Contrast

Moody

Pastel

Cool Tone

Warm Tone

Your aesthetic should authentically represent you.

Take a look at the overall aesthetic of different influencers and brands. Which ones resonate with you most? What look represents you? Hop on Pinterest and make a few mood boards with content, missions, and values similar to yours. 

Of course, you should choose a mood that aligns with your real-life personality. This is especially important if you plan on frequently responding to comments, posting videos of yourself, or posting written content -- anything that shows how you speak. To help translate your personality into more tangible visuals, think of your fashion sense. What colors and patterns do you typically wear? When you purchase items and are faced with color choices, what colors do you usually choose? 

Think about how your vibe will interact with the content you post. If you’re a fashion influencer who typically wears bright clothing, your vibe should complement this rather than subdue it. If you’re a food influencer who uses colorful ingredients, your aesthetic should make your food look more appetizing. You should know that taking your audience’s needs into consideration are vital in everything you post (which we’ve discussed in our last blog post), so choose an aesthetic they’re likely to favor.

Is this aesthetic consistently feasible? 

How often will you have the means to take photos that include the necessary elements to fit in with that aesthetic? For example, if you live in the middle of a cosmopolitan city but want a rustic look full of barnyards and the wilderness, this may be more difficult for you to attain unless you’re willing to consistently drive several miles out of town. If you live in a country where the sun hardly shines, a bright and sunny aesthetic isn’t going to be easy unless you’ve got the means to travel to frequently sunnier destinations. 

Don’t forget that it’s important to post often to gain traction. Remember, for your entire page to have a visual theme, most of your posts need to stick to certain style guides. Choose an aesthetic that won’t break the bank and rack up car mileage to keep up.

Once you’ve defined an aesthetic that makes sense for you, your editing process will become much more straightforward. An overall aesthetic will further distinguish your brand and leave a visual mental and emotional imprint whenever your name comes up. 

In summary, the important factors to consider when building your aesthetic is defining what impression you’d like to immediately exude, what truly represents your brand, what reflects the mood you’re trying to set, and what is pragmatically feasible to maintain. Draw inspiration from the brands you’d like to collaborate with as well as other influencers and brands whose aesthetics you admire. 

If you need any help with photography or branding, we offer full-service social media management services, including professional photography, guaranteed to reflect your unique identity and help you stand out from the crowd. Feel free to contact us at info@irosesocial.com! Let’s talk about those first impressions.

<3,

Irose

Chapter 3: Defining Your Audience

An engaged audience is critical to a thriving influencer business. Think of it this way: your page isn’t just a stage for your performance; you’re also forming a community.

Defining your target audience helps you create content to not only attract your ideal followers but also serve their needs, therefore creating value that keeps them engaged. It’ll help you create a consistent theme for your page that quickly communicates your brand, making it easier for new visitors to decide whether to click that subscribe button or not.

Who are you reaching out to?

To define your target audience, think about who’d enjoy your content and who you’d like to interact with regularly. This community should be one you authentically fit in with and want to help. 

For example, a food influencer specializing in a diverse, colorful variety of healthy dishes may set a broader category of “healthy food lovers.” That’s a lot of people spanning a wide range of demographics and psychographics! 

Let’s zoom into groups within that category. If most of your dishes are quick to prepare, you should consider targeting “people who like healthy food but don’t have a lot of time to cook.” 

Where are these people located? If your ingredients come from every corner of the world, your audience will generally be living in more multicultural, urban cities where they’re likely to have access to exotic ingredients.

If you’re looking to target an international audience, you might want to use easily accessible and common ingredients and write your captions in multiple languages. If you think a chunk of your audience may have particular food preferences such as being vegan, remember to create content tailored to their needs.

Now let's talk about the psychographics: Psychographics are the personal characteristics of your audience. They include the interests and challenges your community faces. 

People who are interested in healthy eating are also typically interested in exercise and other ways to stay healthy, so occasionally posting a video of you doing 25 push-ups with a dog on your back won't be too off-brand. People interested in diverse entrees may be interested in the history behind them, so your kheer (Indian rice pudding) recipe could briefly summarize the ancient history behind the 1500-year-old dish.

You see how defining your audience can help you refine your content, inspire new content, and therefore help define your overall brand?

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What do they want? How do they want it?

Now that you’ve defined your target audience (urban, cultured, healthy, and busy in this example), you need to understand them beyond your assumptions. Research to make sure you’ve got all the smaller details covered. 

A great way to do so is through social listening. Look at accounts, both influencers, and brands, who seem to cater to similar audiences. What are they looking for that they aren’t getting from these accounts? What are their motivations and aspirations? What requests are they making, and what criticisms do they have? What are their pain points? 

Seeing what delights your target audience and what irritates them will help you gain insight on creating valuable content. 

Do you see how understanding your audience can help you build a strong and loyal community? You'll have a better understanding of how to refine your messages to best resonate with them without changing their initial meanings. 

If you need any help with this, don't hesitate to reach out to us at info@irosesocial.com! We'll schedule a complimentary consultation to help you reach your social media business goals together and land the brand deals of your dreams!

Images by our in-house photographer Sharon

xoxo,

Irose

Chapter 2: How To Brand Yourself To Stand Out

David Ogilvy, the “Father of Advertising,” defined a brand as “the intangible sum of a product’s attributes.” As an influencer, you are the product, and it’s up to you which attributes you choose to define you to create your brand.

A distinctive and crystal clear personal brand plays a vital role in converting viewers into engaged followers. A clearly defined brand makes it easier for your audience to connect with you and understand what sets you apart from other influencers.

A crowd that is genuinely interested in what you have to say and offers is key to building and scaling a viable influencer business. We’ll discuss what a personal brand is and how to define yours.

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Let’s make it clear what a brand is. Why is a clear brand important?

The definition of a brand is somewhat abstract, but you’ve been seeing and experiencing them. Think of what differentiates one brand of makeup from another despite selling the same products: you’re probably thinking of their marketing, packaging, logo, and how they word their emails. Think of a brand you prefer over another that produces similar products with similar quality. Why is this?

Your personal brand is a package that ties together multiple facets of your identity and what you offer. It’s the overall look and feel of what you’re presenting. It’s an intangible energy radiating from your aesthetic, words, and tone of your captions. Think of it as the way you’re delivering your content, or like your page’s personality. It immediately evokes an abstract, gut feeling to a viewer.

Do you want your page to give off a dreamy vibe or a more serious one? Do you want viewers to immediately think “vintage” or “futuristic” when they land upon your page? Whatever you choose, your page needs to authentically reflect your unique personality, aspirations, interests, values, and talent.  Identify which parts of the above you’d like to highlight. 

Your brand should be distinctive from other influencers and be genuinely unique to you. Your personality is what will allow your followers to build a deeper bond with your brand. 

Here are some tangible steps you should take to define this brand.

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Narrow down your niche.

Let’s start with the more concrete, tangible elements on your page. First off, what’s your niche? You probably know some types of content you’re offering, so try to narrow it down. Say you’re a fashionista -- is there a type of fashion you’d like to focus on? 

For example, fashion influencer Jenny Cipoletti stands out with a distinctively feminine, delicate style, while another fashion influencer Jessica Wang consistently flaunts her unique high-fashion style. From each of their pages, viewers can quickly identify those niches and keep scrolling if they happen to like these specific styles, eventually converting to followers. Having a specific, distinctive niche shows expertise in a particular topic, helping you attract a targeted audience.

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Perspective: what’s your value?

Another perspective you can take to define your brand is to think of the value you’re providing. How is your content going to help your audience and improve their lives? Are you presenting in-depth facts about your niche? Will you be writing detailed travel guides? Do you want to be a source of everyday motivation and inspiration towards a healthier lifestyle? A gorgeous feed isn’t enough anymore. You’ll need more substance than that.

Think from the perspective of what problems you’re solving. For example, some influencers are trying to fill a gap they’ve noticed. For example, some influencers like Sarah Tripp saw a lack of curvy influencers and wanted to create a space to encourage body positivity in the influencer industry. 

Analyze your target audience. Think about people who share similar physical or personality characteristics as you. What challenges and frustrations do they tend to face? What do they feel is missing in their lives? How do you plan on easing up their lives and inspiring them? How do you plan on helping them solve their problems?

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Your journey throughout all the above should be genuine. Even if you’re just showing off your life’s highlights and not the days at home eating gallons of ice cream, don’t forget to be true to yourself. Be honest about your values and preferences. Don’t participate in something you’re uncomfortable with just for clout or to jump on the bandwagon.

Your personal brand defines much of your reputation and is the foundation of your influencer business and well, all businesses in general. It’s what people will visualize when they hear your name. It’s what you’ll be known for. So choose a sustainable direction you’ll be proud of in the years ahead, one that makes you and your audience happy.. If you’re looking to take your influencer career to the next level, don’t hesitate to hit us up for a free consultation!

Images by our in-house photographer Sharon

xoxo,

Irose

Chapter 1: Defining & Monetizing Your Brand As An Influencer

Influencers are powerful. They influence purchasing decisions to inspire us in everyday life. Research shows that many people nowadays prefer to listen to product and service recommendations from their peers rather than celebrities and influencers are viewed somewhat like peers yet also experts at once.

So you want to build your dream influencer career? It can’t be done overnight, but it can be done. Before you go forth influencing millions of people through your lifestyle and advice, you’ll need a solid foundation. This foundation consists of defining your brand, which includes your niche, mission, vision, aesthetic, and brand voice.

Your brand is what makes you unique. It’s your expertise, aesthetic, tone -- everything that you’re offering that most others aren’t.

1. Define Your brand purpose and positioning  

Start by introspectively asking yourself fundamental questions about yourself and how you’d like to present yourself.

What’s your niche? Are you a fashion, beauty, travel, or entrepreneurial influencer? It’s essential to have a clear and consistent theme when building your brand. This will be what you’re known for and will set you apart from others in your industry. For example, in the fashion industry, Jenny Cipoletti is known for her very feminine fashion, while Jessica Wang is known for her high-fashion style. Having a crystal clear niche will attract a highly targeted audience and give them the information they’re looking for. A targeted and engaged audience is the key to scaling a viable and sustainable brand. 

Once you establish your expertise in a niche, you can slowly add other types of content without completely throwing off your brand. That means you’ll be just fine showing off your delicious banana bread recipe -- if you’ve already been well-defined as a high fashion influencer.

To better determine what content to put out, you’ll have to look at it in terms of value. What value are you providing? Are you presenting in-depth facts about skincare ingredients? Will you be writing detailed travel guides? Do you want to be a source of everyday motivation? Defining your brand’s overall value will further set you apart from others in your niche and offer valuable information. Now more than ever, you need to be more than just a pretty feed. 

What type of problems are you trying to solve? Some influencers are trying to fill a gap they’ve noticed. For example, some influencers like Sarah Tripp saw a lack of curvy influencers and wanted to create a space to encourage body positivity in the influencer industry. 

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2. Define your audience

As previously stated, a targeted and engaged audience is the key to scaling your brand. All successful businesses have a target demographic and archetype. So let's determine yours!

For example, if your ideal collaboration is Dior Beauty, then it's important to curate your content to garner a female audience. Brands look for influencers who can drive not only product awareness, but also conversions. You won't be the best influencer to represent a beauty brand if your audience is 70% men because they're unlikely to buy the beauty product you're promoting. 

To help you define your audience, here are some questions to ask yourself:

Who am I trying to inspire and motivate?

What products do I want to work with?

What brands do I want to work with?

Will my personality and tone resonate with this audience?

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3. Your visual element  

We are naturally drawn to beauty, so your page should look great while being true to yourself. How you visually present your brand is often the first step to turning a new viewer into a follower. 

After defining your brand's core values, you'll determine the visuals that align with it, such as the typography, graphics, photos, and color palette. If your brand is bright and happy, consider a bolder type, colorful graphics, and shooting your #ootd during the day. If your brand is more about feminine fashion, then an airy, pastel, or muted color palette would represent that well. 

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4. Marketing  

Now that you have a bomb ass brand, it's time to reach wide and let the world know who you are.

Collaborate, collaborate, collaborate! Reach out to a fellow influencer and do a fun post or giveaway together; that way, your page would be exposed to their followers and vice versa. 

If you're ready to be interviewed, you can try reaching out to magazines or podcasts to be featured where you can tell your brand story. Make sure you have an inspiring story to share or valuable input. The more press, the better. 

There are some paid routes you can go if you've got the budget for it. Sponsoring your social page is another excellent way to increase your reach. Another is hiring a publicist to increase your brand credibility and visibility. 

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5. Pitching + Media kit 

It does not matter how persuasive your pitch is if you're not conducting outreach to the right department; in other words, don't waste your time sending partnership inquiries to generic emails like info@lulus.com or hello@peachandlily.com. Sure, you may close 1-2 deals out of the hundreds you send out, but that return is too low for all your hard work. 

We learned that the hard way back when we first started out as an agency. Seeking out high-quality leads, such as pitching directly to the influencer marketing director in charge of paid partnerships is the SECRET to closing the biggest deal of your career.

If you reach out to us we'll send you five relevant contacts for FREE so that you can start pitching and landing your dream deals ;)

We recommend only working with brands you believe in. The brands should authentically suit you and your audience. Do plenty of research to ensure they align with your values. 

What your pitch should consist of: 

Your pitch should consist of a brief introduction and describe why you'd like to work with the brand. Think of it as a cover letter while applying to a job. Don't copy and paste a standard canned pitch. If a brand can detect that, you'll come off as not too interested and rather generic. Personalizing every email will show genuine interest and have to stand out among the others pitching influencers. Do plenty of research on the brand and relate your interests and life experiences to them. If they've advocated for a cause you deeply care about, such as animal welfare, mention that. Using your power for social good is a big advantage for many brands.

Your media kit functions as a resume. Just like a resume, it should be professional, easy to read, informative, and well-designed. We'll dive into more details about media kits in our next blog post, so stay tuned!

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6. Building Email Lists

Email marketing is one of the most effective ways to increase visibility and reach while building a stronger relationship with your network and community. Email marketing is also a budget-friendly way to reach your audience directly while retaining a high ROI. Automation can take some time off your hands and leave you with measurable results.

If you have a blog, encourage your visitors to sign up for your email list so they can be notified via email of all your posts. To encourage subscriptions, you can offer valuable information, discounted services, or exclusive content only subscribers can see.

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7. Scaling + income source 

Once you’ve established yourself as an influencer, there are various ways to scale your business. Identify which tasks you can outsource and automate so that you can focus on the bigger picture and do what you love.

You can also look into working with a reputable influencer talent management agency to represent you as a talent. Working with a talent manager will free up plenty of time, as they’ll handle the pitching, negotiating, and contracting brand deals on your behalf. They typically take a 15-20% commission from each of your projects and don’t charge an additional fee. 

Other ways include creating your own merch, setting up and promoting a Patreon account, selling the free clothes you get from PR agencies or brands on sites like eBay, Poshmark, or ThredUP, and adding an affiliate link on your website, etc. 

We also recommend that you work with a good publicist. While it’s a pricey service, your publicist will help your brand gain the publicity you deserve by helping you get access to exclusive events, press conferences, interviews, etc. This can help return more than you paid for.

Images by our in-house photographer Sharon

xoxo,

Irose

Introducing Our New Influencer Series: The Business of Influence

Can you imagine being paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to take a photo with products from your favorite brands? Can you imagine being paid to go on vacation to Tahiti, Bali, or Cancun by top luxury hotels? 

If this sounds too good to be true, it isn't. It's the reality for thousands of social media influencers every day. Yes, you can make a business off of Influence and just being YOU.

Having the ability to influence other people on a mass scale is one of the most valuable currency. It's a high-income skill that can create endless possibilities; you can work with your favorite brands to create sponsored posts or even launch a brand of your own. Most importantly, you get to inspire, make a positive change, and build a powerful community. 

“Influence is the new power - if you have Influence, you can create a brand. The beauty of the Internet is there’s a niche market for everything, and if you can focus on it, you can build a sustainable and viable business of it. - Michelle Phan ”

Photos by Claudio Robles for our Jolii x Love Leo Influencer event

If you're an influencer and want to take the plunge to create your dream career, follow along with our influencer series! Our new series is designed to help YOU monetize your unique brand with a proven roadmap. 

Our educational series will cover several aspects of becoming a successful influencer. We'll talk about pitching to brands, working with talent managers, photography tips, building a positive brand image, and more from an agency's perspective. 

We've worked with various talents from micro-influencers to celebrities, and we know what works and what doesn't. Whether you're a new or seasoned influencer, we're covering several topics to help you build a brand that converts. So if you want to take your brand to the next level, then stay tuned!

xoxo,

Irose