Do Instagram live fan badges really make the platform more fortunate for brands and influencers?
Do you too think Instagram is no longer just a social networking platform?
Certainly, it’s not. Instagram has developed itself as a robust platform for social strategy. Where renowned brands have been using ads for promotions, today, Instagram influencer marketing has gained a strong foothold; rendering a more organic and niche-specific approach.
Though it would be crazy to rethink that influencer marketing service is less than a decade old, yet it has altered the perception of the buyers to buy and the brands to advertise.
Businesses, now, are switching to the icons(influencers), who have successfully created a micro and macro community around their personalities.
The results?
ROI is high and the influencers are raking in the dough.
While the influencers hungry for a more enhanced engagement with their fans could now have another bite at the cherry(Instagram).
Live fan badges feature by Instagram would enable the influencers to reap love from their fans. The followers could purchase a badge during a live video to participate and show their love for their favorite brand or influencer.
With live fan badges, influencers could generate income from the content that they are already creating.
However, this favorable approach is nothing new. Other live platforms such as Facebook, Twitch, and Youtube, have as well, embraced this virtual tipping mechanism for their influencers.
In this feature, Instagram will be offering three options for the followers to purchase a batch during the live video of their favorite brand or influencer: Costs $0.99, $1.99, and $4.99.
What’s in it for the followers?
The chief benefit of purchasing a fan badge is enriched visibility. Fan badges will appear adjacent to the fan’s name throughout the live video. This will make the fans stand out in the comments. The number of hearts for each badge level will be 1, 2, or 3. Also, for embarking upon the fan badge feature, Instagram will not be charging any share from the batch purchases as of now.
Instagram is constantly progressing and renovating its features to keep up with the demand. Given the last count, more than 500,000 active influence over the platform, Instagram is likely keen on developing itself to remain as one the most favorable platforms for the brands and influencers.
What’s more on the platform for the influencers?
IGTV Ads
Instagram has finally rolled out the update that influencers could make money directly on Instagram TV (IGTV).
Since the launch of IGTV in 2018, it will be the first time the content creators will be able to make money directly from IGTV.
The IGTV ads will only appear to the users when they opt to click IGTV videos within their feed. The ads have been specifically built for the mobile versions and could last up to 15 seconds.
IGTV, since inception, has been a powerful tool for influencers to deeply connect with their fans and to showcase their talents. Now with the IGTV ads, such influencers will have a perfect chance to earn money out of their content.
Brand Collab Manager
Let’s assume, you got plentiful followers with rich data, but don’t have any brand collaborations! How would you be able to earn then? Probably won’t.
The proactive initiative taken by Instagram is the key here.
Instagram has announced to expand access to the Brand Collab Manager, which allows the influencers to actively search for potential brand collaborations.
The content creators could leverage the tool and connect with the brands who are actively searching for the influencer to promote their goods by leveraging the relationships they possess with their followers.
Instagram creator account
Is it worth switching to a creator account?
Fortunately, yes, if you want to have a deeper insight into your followers and manage your posts adequately along with valuable information such as:
- Daily follow and unfollow numbers
Daily tracking for the added and lost followers will assist to analyze, which video has had a positive or negative impact.
- Demographic data
The demographics will enable the influencers to gain insights as to who their followers are, in order to deliver them adequate content and to collaborate with the relevant brand accordingly.
Do influencers hold enough potential to captivate the audience for brands and businesses?
Ok, let data paint the picture for you.
- 89% of marketers opine Instagram to be crucial for their influencer marketing strategy
- 80% of marketers consider influencer marketing effective
- 89% say ROI from influencer marketing is comparable to or better than other marketing strategies
Building brand following
Influencer marketing benefits eCommerce entrepreneurs and aid in increasing their revenues to a greater extent.
Influencers already possess a substantial number of followers, who trust their opinions. A higher engagement and ROI could be expected if they communicate the story of your brand with their followers.
FOREO had collaborated with a beauty influencer Zoe Sugg. She simply had gone through her evening skincare routine while featuring FOREO products and the results were quite compelling.
2. Instagram influencer marketing is affordable
Influencer, marketing at Instagram is not expensive though, in contrast to their counterparts. If you have never been with Instagram influencer marketing ever, and running on a limited budget, go with nano or micro-influencer collaboration.
Mini bloggers ensure enriched efficiency while charging less.
Experts suggest influencers with 250,000 followers render 30% and 20% better ROI in contrast to the macro and mega influencers respectively.
However, the cost you’d likely be charged would presumably be contingent on several factors such as followers count, industry type, and so forth. The other consideration involved are:
- Average engagement rate
- The collaboration period
- Best-suited content for your product
- The amount of effort an influencer delves to produce a sponsored post, etc.
3. Influencers create unique and creative content
Gone are the days, when hiring a online marketing agency was just the option for your products’ marketing.
A proficient influencer will not merely promote the brand but also create natural-looking content on their social page, which may further allure fresh ideas for your campaigns.
On your end goal, you can choose one or more of the following:
- Sponsored posts: Influencers will create unique content for your product and publish it as their social post
- Contests: Influencers usually arrange a specific product giveaway or any contest for gaining new followers and to enhance your brand recognition
- Branded content: This option allows you to build and publish branded content over the platform and invite relevant influencers over Instagram to participate. This campaign usually utilized to promote a new product or reaching a new audience
- Reviews: Influencers will simply review your product to provide a fair understanding of its benefits to their followers for trust-building and brand engagements.
4. Influencers may enable your brand to go viral
Olay has partnered with 9 female influencers to organize a campaign named “Fearless 9”.
The main objectives were:
- To connect with the diverse female audience via renowned female influencers
- To enrich brand awareness to encourage women for embracing their real beauty
- To build a brand and boost product sales
Leveraging the #FaceAnything hashtag, Olay decides to commence a movement for females to embrace natural beauty as a 28 Day Challenge.
Results
The Results from the campaign “Fearless 9” was astonishing, which made the brand went viral across the globe.
It’s needless to say that the influencers are the ones who closely follow trends. Hence, they are the first to share hot topics with their followers resulting in an extensive reach and even make the product/brand go viral.
Wrap up
The latest updates from the team Instagram to encourage and enable the influencers to monetize their posts and content will undoubtedly augment the marketability of the platform. Businesses will highly be inclined over Instagram influencers for their brand promotions and the enhanced engagements.
While it is certain from the above-mentioned instances that as for the price, it’s pretty affordable. You can opt for micro and nano influencers who assure a better ROI and engagement at low rates. This way, Instagram influencer marketing could also be an adequate approach for a small brand with a tight budget.
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