Instagram has established itself as one of the most popular social networks worldwide, with over 1 billion monthly active users worldwide and growing. The number of Instagram users in the United States is predicted to surpass 130 million monthly active users in 2022.
You might be wondering how you can benefit from Instagram growth and make some extra cash while doing what you love; the answer is to become an Instagram brand ambassador.
So, what is an Instagram brand ambassador? Instagram brand ambassadors, also known as Instagrammers, are influencers that create highly visual content captioned by short-form written content. It can be anyone on Instagram who loves a brand and is willing to share the great things the brand is doing with his or her large audience.
Instagram has become a significant part of the social media marketing landscape and is clearly here to stay.
Read on to learn what an Instagram brand ambassador is, how to be an Instagram brand ambassador, and discover if it is worth it to be an Instagram brand ambassador. Also see: Can You Make Money by Making Instagram Filters?
What is an Instagram Brand Ambassador?
An Instagram brand ambassador is an Instagram user who consistently promotes a brand’s image, products, or services. As a brand ambassador, you leverage your Instagram prowess to boost brand awareness and embody the values and missions.
Before we explore how you can become a successful Instagram brand ambassador, let’s discuss what an Instagram brand ambassador does.
What Does an Instagram Brand Ambassador Do?
- Instagram brand ambassador creates and grows a following by sharing high-quality content that inspires, entertains, informs, and connects them with their audience.
- Instagram Brand ambassadors begin social conversations about a brand, drive engagement, and set trends amongst their followers, which position them to work with brands on sponsored content.
- Instagram brand ambassadors in lifestyle, fitness, beauty, and travel tend to perform best on Instagram as it lends itself well to visual inspiration, motivation, and quick tips.
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What Do You Need to Be an Instagram Brand Ambassador?
To be a brand ambassador, you don’t need a fancy degree from an IVY league school or an accredited diplomat sent by a foreign country. Being a brand ambassador means
- You represent a brand positively and cheerfully.
- Help raise brand awareness.
- Give consumers a memorable customer or user experience.
Your main role as a brand ambassador is to use your promotional abilities and strategies to strengthen the customer-product-service relationship and influence your audience to buy and consume more.
How to Be an Instagram Brand Ambassador?
Once you become an Instagram brand ambassador, you will need a plan and start creating great content in a niche you love.
1- Get More Engaged Followers
The two key factors are follower counts and engagement rates when becoming an Instagram brand ambassador. Brands usually want to see lots of followers and content that matches their brand ideals.
Your top priority should be getting more engaged followers and keeping your existing audience happy and engaged, which means creating quality content. There are a few things that help big influencers grow their followers and keep their accounts engaged that you can also use.
- You can grow your audience by joining an engagement pod. It is a group of Instagram users who work together to increase engagement on each other’s content through likes, comments, or follows.
- Join influencers groups on other social media platforms – These groups share advice, peer tips, trends discussion, and sometimes brands posting job opportunities. Each group focuses on specific niche topics. To find a group specific to your niche, do a quick search on Facebook and Reddit.
- Respond quickly to your audience’s messages and comments to build a “super fan” base. Always stay real and authentic.
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2- Build a Cohesive Brand Identity
To become a successful Instagram brand ambassador, keep your brand identity consistent and cohesive.
Cohesive branding involves ensuring your brand consistency and making your brand immediately recognizable.
It means choosing specific fonts, graphics, illustrations, colors, and tone of voice and then staying consistent with your brand characteristics.
3- Create a Portfolio and a Sale Pitch Before Approaching Brands
Your portfolio can be a website or anything that highlights your brand identity and achievement and showcase key metrics.
Remember, brands are looking for someone who represents their values and personality. When discussing the possibility of becoming an ambassador for a particular brand or niche, your objective should be to highlight what makes you a good fit for the brand.
I encourage you to ensure that the content you create organically fits with the brands you pitch.
For instance, if you’re applying to represent a health and fitness-related brand, you should showcase that you have a healthy lifestyle, work extensively, and have a decent photographer on-hand and aesthetically pleasing pictures.
Before signing you as an Instagram brand ambassador, companies are going to want to know your demographic stats.
- What age range is your audience in?
- Are they mostly female or male?
- What are their general interests?
- What stage are they in their lives?
If you’re pitching to a company in Canada, they’re probably going to want to know whether or not the majority of your audience is in Canada.
Use social blade to showcase your stats. Your social blade stats prove your authenticity level.
4- Stay active on Instagram
How do you expect a brand to reach out to you if you’re not active on social media?
Aim to post a minimum of four times a week because people will need to keep seeing, which will help you stay relevant.
Staying relevant will help keep your audience engaged and return for more content.
Stay active, and keep posting, commenting, and liking other people’s content, including your audience. Take time to reply to their comments and DMs.
5- Post Creative Content
Try to be creative with your photos because the more creative you are, the more you will stand out from influencers, and brands will want to work. You can be creative with the things that you like to do if you like to dress post up in the cutest outfit ever. Try to be different and creative and do things that your target audience would love.
How to Post Creative Content?
- Make yourself stand out with something that makes you different from everyone else. For instance, you can share things about yourself on your social media account, such as singing videos if you like to sing, posting dancing videos if you want to dance, or makeup post-making videos if you like to do makeup.
- Create a pleasing profile and have clear and aesthetically pleasing pictures. Brands are usually looking for a nice, clean profile. Your profile should show that you are using the products and services in your daily life. A pleasing account means that you don’t want your account to look unprofessional, and you also want to look at yourself as a brand. When you look at yourself as a brand, you want to think of yourself as a business; and act professionally. You want your page to be professional and put out a positive vibe.
6- Create a Personalized Hashtag
With a personalized hashtag, all of your posts will be under one hashtag. It shows that you are serious and professional.
I also encourage you to add your hashtag tag in all the pictures you post or promote for brands you already worked for.
When a brand clicks on that hashtag, they will see all your posts and past promotion under your personalized hashtag. It will help you look credible.
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7- Know your Audience
You should not have anybody on your account who isn’t interested in what you’re doing. And also, you should follow people who are interested in your work.
When you have people doing the same thing as you on your page, it will keep you motivated. Knowing your audience will also help you create content and pick brands that resonate with your brand and audience.
8- Focus on a Niche
Especially when it comes to securing brand sponsorships. Most brands want to work with you, not really because of you, but because of your audience, and if you can guarantee that your audience is the perfect fit for that brand, they’re going to be willing to partner with you again. They’re also going to be willing to compensate you.
When you are consistent with the content you deliver, you will naturally attract that type of audience interested in your niche.
Focus on a niche and partner with a company or brand you are passionate about and believe in.
It will be easier to sell something that you regularly use and love. It will become effortless if you are talking to your friend and you are telling your friend about the brand.
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9- Work with a Brand Network
There are so many brand networks that you can work with that will help you, set you up, and provide you with stuff that will help you become a brand ambassador.
10- Target Small Businesses
Usually, small businesses seek micro-influencers, meaning people with 10k followers and below. They know that micro-influencers are more likely to be trusted.
They know that people with smaller followers are serious and really want it, and they’re genuinely going to post and support the brand.
If you have a few followers look out and reach out to small businesses. They look for micro-influencers rather than somebody who has 50,000 followers. Sometimes people who have 100k to 50,000 followers are promoted.
Usually, big influencers get their engagement rate to decrease as they grow.
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11- Think Like a Marketer
Thinking like a marketer and learning how to market on Instagram will help your page get more engagement.
It is essential to learn how to sell things on Instagram. Even if you have many likes and cannot really sell stuff on Instagram, you will not succeed as a brand ambassador.
Watch Youtube marketing videos on how to market on Instagram and increase your followers’ interest in buying the stuff you’re posting.
12- Carry Yourself in a Professional Manner
Your Instagram account should represent you and the values you hold. When it comes to securing brand deals, the last thing anyone wants to deal with is drama or complaints. Nobody wants someone who’s always in drama or always complaining.
Carry yourself like you are about to go to an interview. Respect and be polite to anyone. If you’re not carrying yourself professionally, you’re not going to look good to these brands. No brand will want to associate itself with negativity.
13- Do not Take Any Shortcuts
Taking shortcuts will not get you anywhere. Staying active and posting as often as you can with hashtags will get you there. I promise it will pay off.
Being a brand ambassador is a long-term game.
Do not buy followers because they are not real and will not help you build your page and not engage with content.
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What To Consider When a Brand Offers to Make You an Instagram Brand Ambassador?
Partnerships Should Always be Mutual
It means that if you don’t see advantages in it for you and your audience, or if the brand isn’t something you can support, you should not partner up with the brand.
Read the Terms and Conditions very Carefully.
Review what they expect from you, and look for ambiguous or not measurable criteria. Keep in mind that the brand is looking to gain as much as possible for the least possible cost.
Always remember that you are entering into a business agreement, not a friendship. If necessary, hire a lawyer, so she or he will help you make crucial and accurate decisions regarding the agreement.
If a brand asks you to sign some documents, always have a lawyer look through them on your behalf. Do not trust the brand to provide you with a lawyer for your benefit. Always make sure that you do what is in your and your audience’s best interest in the long run.
What Does the Brand expect from you, and are the Expectations Reasonable?
Becoming an Instagram ambassador can be a great and fun opportunity. However, avoiding this kind of partnership is better if the brand expects unreasonable results.
Knowing what kind of results you can deliver beforehand is essential by testing out unpaid product recommendations with your followers and gauging their interest.
Don’t do it if the brand doesn’t “make sense,” given your niche. The content you create will look forced and will not benefit either of you.
Check What Type of Remuneration They Are Offering You.
Is it actual payment or discount off their products? Consider the compensation if you decide the partnership is a good match.
If the brand decides to pay compensation, know precisely how you will receive the money (Paypal, WesternUnion, Xoom, Bank transfer). And on what will your payment be based? For instance, per post, per sale, email subscriber, discount code use, or any other conversion metric.
And if your compensation is sampling, try to negotiate the minimum product values. For example, you can only accept products worth at least $25.
Does the Brand have an Established Ambassador Program?
If yes, Try to look for clauses of unspecified requests they may have and review their ambassador program to determine how long your ambassadorship lasts and guarantee compensation.
You do not need to disqualify a brand if it doesn’t have one, but it’s a bonus if it does.
Discuss your Responsibilities and Duties as an Ambassador
Below are a few questions you might want to ask:
- How many promotional posts the brand expects from you?
- What kind of messaging is considered “on-brand”?
- Is the partnership exclusive?
- Are you prohibited from working with the brand’s competitors?
- What type of review are they anticipating?
- Do you have room to be authentic and honest?
Is the Brand Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Compliant?
US Federal Trade Commission aims to protect consumers and competition by preventing anticompetitive, deceptive, and unfair business practices through law enforcement, advocacy, and education.
If they ask you not to disclose your paid partnership, this is not FTC-compliant. In this case, do not work with them.
Don’t Let a Brand Monopolize Your Instagram Account
Too many sponsored posts can be a turn-off for audiences.
A healthy Instagram account has only 7% sponsored content; anything more will impact your followers’ engagement.
What Do Brands Expect from You as a Brand Ambassador?
As an Instagram brand ambassador, always be upfront with your audience about why you are advocating for a product. And make sure not to attach your name to something you don’t believe in to get sponsorship or cash. Your audience can smell that from a mile away.
As a brand ambassador, you can do various things for brands depending on what their marketing needs are:
- Help Brands Widen its Reach: A brand ambassador usually already serves a large audience of people with similar interests. You can help companies reach a much more comprehensive variety of people who have not yet heard of them or their product or service.
- Help Brand humanize your brand: Since you have already built relationships with your followers, they can easily relate to you. Contrary to a faceless brand, consumers can relate more to a human face. Connecting a face with a brand allows people to relate more, mainly when storytelling and authenticity come into question.
- Help Brands increase their online presence: Through your content, a brand can increase its online presence and access different types of people, ages, races, languages, etc. As a brand ambassador, you will boost brands and help them increase their online presence in different time zones, languages, and markets.
- Initiate online word-of-mouth: Start a conversation about the brand and what they are doing.
Is Being a Brand Ambassador Worth It
Becoming an Instagram brand ambassador can have many advantages beyond any financial incentives associated with the position. It helps you significantly grow your brand and gain valuable skills and experience that they may not get with a regular job.
It will also look great on your resume, particularly if you can prove how your contributions helped the company grow.
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In Conclusion
To be a successful Instagram brand ambassador, you should be able to explain to brands why they would benefit from having you on their team.
Now that you know what an Instagram brand ambassador is and how to be one, it is time to commit to establishing yourself as a successful brand ambassador.
Follow the tips outlined in this article, and you will be able to establish yourself as a successful influencer and get brands to contact you to represent them.