I was talking to my dad earlier about Instagram... and he asked, 'How can I see photos on Instagram without being a member?' Yikes! But do you know I had never thought of that? Actually how to see photos on instagram without being registered is a real necessity, because even though Instagram now has staggering numbers, there are still some people in Italy who don't have a profile! So I decided to dedicate a weekly article on my wine blog with the most beautiful photos I posted on Instagram during the week... do you like the idea? 😍 This inspired me to dedicate an article to the world of wine influencers and the thorny topic: how much does an influencer cost on instagram?
I confess that years ago I did not see Instagram as a powerful medium of social media marketingbut a few days before its eighth birthday (6 October 2010 was the official launch) I can admit that I was wrong. In my defence, I must say that the Facebook takeover has improved Instagram so much and developed the great potential that a image-based social network could have had it in him. To this day I am still annoyed by the huge buying and selling of followers and likes on this platform, and you can't understand how much I bite my tongue when I see the profile of the instagrammers on duty who is the phenomenon with thousands and thousands of followers bought... and then has an engagement of 1-2%! Alongside this absurd market, however, there are the 15 million Italian users using Instagram every month... a staggering number if you think that in Italy there are 60 million of us and there are old people, children and babies!
Alongside the real influencers, in all categories, there are hordes of 'mommy bloggers' and minkie babes of all kinds on the hunt for the free little product, who don't give a damn whether it's a pair of pants, a lip gloss or a bottle of wine. The company's goal is to increase turnover with the influencer's work, not to give away its product to yet another hardened mommy blogger/blogger/reviewer. In my opinion a 'real' influencer can only promote things relevant to his niche. I give an example for my part that works best: I I am a wine blogger specialising in bubbles and food and wine pairing with a focus on home decor . What is natural for me to promote? The ingredients I use to prepare the dishes that I pair with the wines I taste, tableware, placemats and centrepieces, furnishing items, capacious bags/backpacks essential for wine tourism and other travel accessories, notebooks and smartphones for my work as a wine blogger, comfortable shoes for walking in any situation... well, it's not natural for me to promote a pair of earrings or a set of make-up, for example! 😄
Today the biggest companies in the world use influencers on Instagram to promote their products. At first glance I know that the idea of paying for an instagram post seems absurd to you, but if you have a business you have certainly bought some advertising in your life, and even if you did it yourself, how much did it cost you to show your product to 10,000 potential target customers? And to 100,000? And to 1 million? Besides, a TV broadcast or an advertisement in the newspaper is 'noise' (sometimes even annoying) in people's lives. I for one, when I was still watching television, used to zap during commercials, or distract myself to make a hot tea. When, on the other hand, your potential user is on Instagram, they look with great interest at the photos of the profiles they follow! The world of wine in Italy is a niche, so micro-influencers are invaluable for promoting your company to a truly interested audience.
But how much does a micro-influencers cost on Instagram?
Remember that the professional management of an instagram profile is a job in its own right and therefore a studied post should be paid according to the number of followers (let's call it 'coverage') and the engagement that the influencer you have chosen offers you. To be clear, an Instagram profile with 10k followers that for every post makes 600 likes is worth more and has a better reputation than an instagram profile with 100k followers that for every post makes 1000 likes! The general rule of thumb for big American brands (who started playing this game before us) for calculating the price of an influencer per post is 1 cent per follower. Translated:
- 10,000 followers x 0.01 cent = 100 €.
- 100,000 followers x 0.01 cent = € 1,000
- 1,000,000 followers x 0.01 cent = € 10,000
Consider this 'good' price for a engagement of the 5%to be decreased or increased to 40% depending on the magic number of engagement. A wine influencer with 30K followers and an engagement rate of 5 %for example, asks on average 280 € for posts and 75 € for a series of 5 stories. Take this price with a grain of salt, but learn to 'weigh correctly' the influencer you want to target: hundreds of thousands of followers with an engagement of 1-2% only serve to ask you for more money and then maybe end up with the same number of likes and comments as the honest micro-influencer with 'only' 30k followers!
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Unless you plan to target a big influencer with millions of followers, don't consider engagement lower than 3%. And even if you had such a high budget for an instagram campaign, in my opinion it would not be money well spent: if you take a TV personality with a million followers, how many of them are actually fans of your product? No, it's not worth it for your company to invest €10,000 on a single photo of the VIP on duty... it ends up like TV advertising! Choose a niche micro influencer (or better still, more than one) that is compatible with your brand image and target audience. Think about it: are you more likely to increase sales with 10,000 non-target likes or with 1,000 target likes?
I am a micro-influencers on Instagram because I only activated my profile a few months ago and I can't 'boast' the numbers I have here on the wine blog (where I only accept advertising from companies that don't even bottle a pin!)... but I am growing strongly because I publish high quality content and my engagement of the 6.4 % speaks for itself!
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In summary: Managing an Instagram profile is a job that costs time and therefore money. Be wary of those who ask you or offer you free collaborations (except in the very rare case that you sell a product that the influencer wants for him/herself and is therefore willing to offer it), especially if we are talking about a user with more than 30k followers... they are probably bought and only serve as a lark to receive free products and samples. Do you want to be a lark?
Now that you have a clearer idea of how much an influencer costs on Instagram and what kind of influencer your business can use... how about taking a look at my latest posts together? 😍
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My last 2 weeks on Instagram:
See you soon on Instagram then! 😍
Chiara