How to use Instagram influencer tactics on your next photo series
Here’s what worked and what didn’t on a recent series of profiles for Annenberg Media.
Fashion and lifestyle influencers are changing the way we use Instagram. Once a platform mainly for editing and sharing photos with family and friends, the app has now transformed into an easy, profitable e-commerce business model for influencers.
As an avid Instagram user and fashion-influencer follower (I read fashion blogs daily and I worked as an editorial intern for a blog and lifestyle brand, Cupcakes and Cashmere, last spring), I decided to try a bit of a meta experiment: using influencers’ Instagram techniques on a series about “influencers” at USC (though not all of the Instagram variety — I interviewed students studying film and medicine and others pursuing fashion and acting).
I saw the series as a fun opportunity for Annenberg Media’s audience to learn more about USC students who are making waves on and off campus while practicing my photography skills and experimenting with long-form captions (which seem to be relatively unexplored on Instagram, as I rarely see them, aside from on Humans of New York and certain news outlets, such as NBC).
Though I wasn’t trying to sell or promote anything through Instagram, I saw influencers’ tried-and-true strategies—being conversational and open with their followers, engaging with and responding to their loyal followers and setting a high bar for quality photography, visuals and videos—as worth exploring for a storytelling series. Here’s a look at what I learned practicing these strategies on the Instagram account of USC’s on-campus, student-run newsroom.
What worked: a conversational tone.
My goal was to cover a variety of subjects, delving deep into one in every post. Each caption consists of small paragraphs answering both basic questions about what each influencer is involved in and questions covering their specific field, interest or passion.
My first post, where I interviewed a student fashion blogger, was very to-the-point — the who-what-where tone answered the important questions, but not in a conversational way.
By beginning the post with “Who:” the reader doesn’t get a sense of the project or a reader-friendly introduction to the person. And the post doesn’t get any more conversational. Subject headers are short and blunt: “What,” “How she started,” “Inspiration,” “Brand collaborations.”
Starting the posts like the one below make long captions more conversational:
“Meet the next #USCInfluencer in our weekly series: Sophie Wix” is more inviting. And the overall tone of the piece and subject heads— “Why she’s an influencer,” “How she balances it all,” and “Favorite thing about research” — are more conversational as compared to the first post.
TL;DR: Be sure to give the reader context when writing a profile-style caption. Starting with something like “Who:” is more abrupt and less informative than “Meet our second #USCInfluencer, [name].”
What worked: when (and where) readers do engage, engage back.
At the bottom of each #USCInfluencers post, I asked for reader participation. I sought input from readers, asking them to let Annenberg Media know if there was someone I should feature.
But, I searched through our Instagram DMs, and unfortunately we didn’t get any messages from our nearly 1,300 followers.
Though I didn’t receive feedback through DMs with influencer suggestions as I had imagined, I attempted to engage with readers where they were most active: in the comment section.
On my first post, where I featured Samantha Sohl of the blog Preptista, several of her fans and friends commented. When Samantha thanked Annenberg Media for the feature and another reader wrote that it was a great post, I liked both to acknowledge I had seen the comments.
Without a huge Instagram audience, it’s understanding that we didn’t get a lot of DMs. But our audience engaged in other ways. It’s a great example of why it’s important to pay attention to where your readers are and meet them there.
What worked: tag, tag, tag.
I wanted the series to be informative about various fields and how USC students are contributing to them, so I tagged on-campus organizations and companies the influencers referred to to give readers a better understanding of what they’re involved in.
Tagging organizations and companies the influencers are involved with gives context to readers who may not know much about the influencer’s field and builds credibility with those who do. For example, one influencer not only had a full feature on Local Wolves’ website, but she was also the most-read student fashion contributor for Teen Vogue when she was in high school. For those who don’t know much about fashion publications, they can learn more about Local Wolves and Teen Vogue by clicking their tags. And I think it’s safe to say that those who do follow fashion publications will agree that writing for Teen Vogue as a high school student is pretty impressive!
I also tagged the influencer him/herself in each post. Doing so gave readers the opportunity to explore their pages, learn more about what the influencers do and/or reach out if they wanted to learn more.
TL;DR: Tag relevant companies, organizations and people, because it allows readers to be informed by giving them the links necessary to learn more.
What worked: quality photography.
I used my sister’s Nikon D5100 for my Instagram series. And when possible, I planned interviews and photoshoots when lighting would be best. Instagram’s aesthetic is built on beautiful photography, so I wanted the portraits to be high quality.
The above photos had the highest engagement of all five posts — both got 75+ likes and several comments, whereas the other three posts had 40–50 likes and fewer comments.
Though I can’t pinpoint the exact reason these two portraits had the highest engagement, I do think they are the highest quality photos I took. I don’t know if the quality of the portraits was what prompted more readers to like and engage in the comments, but on a platform like Instagram, which rewards aesthetically pleasing photography, it wouldn’t surprise me if the quality was a contributing factor to the higher engagement.
What I would do differently.
1. Write shorter captions. I consciously made the profile captions as long as possible to give a detailed profile of each influencer I interviewed, but if I were to redo the project, I would write shorter captions. Rather than trying to give a full profile of each influencer, I would pick a more specific purpose for the project and then write shorter captions to fit that purpose.
For example, rather than making the purpose of the project to simply write profiles on USC’s most influential students, I would make it something like, “write profiles on USC’s most influential students with the goal of informing students of how to get involved in their industries.” That way, rather than having a full profile with 5–6 paragraphs on each influencer, I could have 2–3 : “Meet [influencer],” “On balancing school and [activity],” and “Advice for aspiring [profession].” Following a format like this would allow me to maintain the consistency I talked about earlier while fulfilling a more specific goal.
2. Prompt engagement where the audience is, rather than asking them to engage in a new space. At the end of every post, I asked readers to DM suggestions for students we should feature in the series. Nobody gave suggestions via DMs. Instead, all feedback on the posts was given in the comments section.
If I were to do this project again, I would pay more attention to where our followers engage and ask for their engagement there, rather than elsewhere.
Though the central purpose of many influencers’ posts — to promote their brand, sell affiliated products, or share their personal/professional lives — is quite different than that of a newsroom, their strategies can apply to various types of storytelling. A series of profiles is a way to build consistency and test a post format.
Being conversational and open with followers, engaging with and responding to readers and posting quality photography, visuals and videos are all critical for newsrooms to maintain a competitive social strategy, especially on Instagram.
