Tips for entrepreneurs who want to turn a social media account into a social media business..
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If you were to ask ten random people on the street if they have an Instagram account, statistics show that six of those ten people have one.
There are over 800 million monthly Instagram users snapping selfies, liking images, and following influencers every day. For most, Instagram is an easy platform to show off vacation photos or gloat about their courtside seats at a playoff game.
But for the almost 32 million bloggers, this platform is an untapped reservoir of potential buyers with an almost religious eye on daily posts from their favorite blogger and money to spend.
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I caught up with two bloggers who use this platform to connect with hundreds of thousands of followers every day.
For the past five years, Sarah and Robbie Tripp have created a lucrative career for themselves by sharing fashion, relationship, and lifestyle tips via Sassy Red Lipstick, a blog they started in 2013. “There’s no doubt that Instagram is where the money is at for bloggers and influencers,” said Robbie.
That same year, blogger Corrine Stokoe acted on a platform idea that seemed to find her first. As a mom of a newborn, Corrine would spend the long Utah winters walking around the mall or down the aisles at Target and look for good deals. “I started posting the deals I’d find on my personal Instagram with the hashtag #someonegobuythis,” said Corrine. “My friends and family loved it and encouraged me to start a blog where I can share the good deals. That’s how Mint Arrow was born.”
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Although it may appear as if The Tripps and Corrine have a glamorous life filled with vacations, nice clothes, and high-end toys.
And they do enjoy all of those things, building and maintaining a successful social media presence takes a lot of work.
So along with a commitment to succeed in this business, here are four main practices that have helped launch these two successful social media platforms.
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1. Find Your Niche
Sarah Tripp wasn’t the first person to post about fashion on Instagram, and it showed in her platform’s lack of momentum. It wasn’t until Sarah used her brand as a voice for body positivity and began marketing to curvy women (Sarah wears a 10/12 dress size) that she started growing a loyal and engaged audience.
“This is certainly a hallmark of successful Instagramers,” says R. L. Adams “They all had the original intent of doing something that they were passionate about to help inspire or motivate others.”
That is the philosophy which also guides Mint Arrow, a site that blends the worlds of deal-finding with fashion blogging. “When I started, people were used to seeing an unstyled info site with tons of coupons, or a site filled with stylized outfits that were out of most people’s price range,” said Corrine. “By trying to combine the two, we’ve created something that is relatable and exciting when we find great deals for our readers.”
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2.Treat It Like A Business
Whether you have 100 followers or 300,000, the discipline for maintaining a robust and profitable following remains the same. Although it may look like The Tripps are, in fact, simply “tripping” around the globe, in reality, each post is a carefully designed image that serves to further their brand and promotional impact. “Your income in this game is inseparably linked to your number of followers,” said Robbie. “It’s simple advertising logic -- the bigger your audience, the more brands are willing to pay for sponsored content on your platform.”
Balance Business Savvy with Authenticity
Both blogging teams admit that metrics influence what strategies they use, but it shouldn’t dictate the feel of the brand. “Metrics aren’t really my focus,” said Corrine. “And when I get really focused on the numbers, I lose what makes everything we do so special.” She said that her ultimate goal is to be the same person online as she is in person. “When someone meets me and says I am who they thought I would be in real life. . . that’s success. That means I’ve stayed true to myself,” said Corrine. “And I think that’s why the metrics are so often in our favor.”
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Be Patient
Even the most committed blogger knows that it takes time to build a strong following. “Social media is a marathon, not a sprint,” says Gary Vaynerchuk, CEO of Vaynermedia. “It’s important to understand that results take time.”
To maintain their following, Sarah admits that she and Robbie work around the clock to ensure they keep up the momentum. For most of social media’s leading bloggers, results took years to present themselves -- not mere months. “A common thread I’ve seen with successful bloggers is that it takes about 5-6 years to get to the point where your platform is established and major campaigns are coming your way.”
“For the first eighteen months or so, I worked my tail off and made almost nothing,” said Corrine. “But around that year and a half mark it started to really pay off.” Now, both her and her husband work on the site full-time and they employ five-member direct team.
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“For your content to achieve its desired effect it must compound over time.
Building a pyramid of content takes patience and consistent effort,” says Forbes contributor AJ Agrawal. “The good news is that this accumulation of content will have long-term effects on your brand, SEO and customer acquisition.”
With 500 million people turning to Instagram every day, the potential for a social media campaign to expand one’s reach holds some provocative possibilities. “There are no rules,” said Robbie Tripp. “You can create your own career path, and you can customize your lifestyle; you just have to think outside the box and be willing to take the risk. This is a whole new industry of opportunity, and there’s serious money to be made if you can create content that cuts through the noise.”
Guest Authored By Ryan Westwood. Ryan is the CEO of Simplus, a Platinum Salesforce Partner. An experienced entrepreneur, he is also a bestselling author and speaker on entrepreneurship. Follow Ryan on Twitter.
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Building a pyramid of content takes patience and consistent effort,” says Forbes contributor AJ Agrawal.
“The good news is that this accumulation of content will have long-term effects on your brand, SEO and customer acquisition..”
Post Crafted By:Fred Hansen Pied Piper of Social Media Marketing at YourWorldBrand.com & CEO of Millennium 7 Publishing Co. in Loveland, Colorado. I work deep in the trenches of social media strategy, community management and trends. My interests include; online business educator, social media marketing, new marketing technology, skiing, hunting, fishing and The Rolling Stones..-Not necessarily in that order ;)
