My Colleague Averages 43 Hours, 9 Minutes on Instagram Weekly — Are You Creating Content That Resonates With Your Followers & Drives Conversion?

Consumption of content is at an all-time high due to the pandemic ravaging the whole world. The digital space has taken all of us prisoners, with brands now more than ever convinced of the importance of a digital presence. As an influencer, this is the perfect time to demonstrate your value to brands as well as retain and grow your followers. In doing this, it is important to ensure that your content resonates with your followers and provides conversion opportunities to truly leverage this amplified focus on digital.

The other day, a friend asked what I think about influencer marketing. In her opinion, an influencer couldn’t compel her to buy a product because most of their content fails to resonate with her or are inauthentic. As a PR practitioner, I recognize influencers as a successful platform for brand marketing so I concluded that she was either not following the right people or her right people are not creating the right content.

On Sunday, I got a notification on my phone about my average weekly screen time. It was 64hours 9minutes; I spent most of this on Netflix, wow! I see where my data goes. That aside, my Instagram screen time for the week was 9hours 18 minutes, and Taiwo our Redrick go-to girl for infuencer marketing campaigns spent 43hours 9minutes on Instagram. She is always in the know about the influencers that can achieve our client’s digital goals.

There are a lot of people like my colleague Taiwo, who spend a lot of time on Instagram. Instagram has proved to be a great tool for marketing over the years and influencers have been known to bridge the gap between the brand and consumers driving authentic brand messaging. It’s important that as an influencer you create content that resonates with your followers to drive conversion for brands, that way you demostrate your value by generating ROI. So ask yourself, am I reaching the Taiwo’s, the Somi’s and the in-betweens?

This brings me to the crux of my article, how to create original content that resonates with your followers. Some questions you should ask yourself:

• Who am I?
• What am I passionate about?
• What sector will I like to influence or what sector do I already speak about?
• What images/videos do I post that my followers engage most with?
• How do I continue to create said content?

What should guide your CONTENT!

Conversion — Awareness is great but lots of brands are looking for conversion and it is important to create a strategy to address this and ensure ROI.

Own your narrative — Credibility and Consistency. These should be the words that guide your career. Last year, I worked with an influencer who posted two competing products side by side, now both captions were highlighting how good each product was but comments showed how confused her followers were, the questions in their minds probably were, so which one should we buy?

Note your target audience — know your target audience, create a strong connection between your brand and audience.

Tell a story — A good story always keeps people coming back.

Engage your audience — give them something to “chew” on. Posts that encourage your followers to state their opinions are very important. This is an opportunity to get real-time conversions and feedback.

Navigate the trends — Yes, jump on the #donotleavemechallenge or the #whoachallege but remain true to your narrative, be original, inculcate your essence into the challenge.

Timing- Identify the right time to post your content. Examine the insights of your platforms which are informed by your audience.

I have touched on the ‘how’ and ‘what’ now I will tell you about why. I recently started following Opeyemi Famikun, a food critic/food blogger, and every day, I see conversions on his page for businesses. He has successfully built a food community that listens to his share of voice and this is translating to income for brands he partners with. I have personally ordered food based on his recommendations. I enjoy traveling, so when I found Tosin Oyewole I was excited. He has influenced certain vacation choices, saved me money which translated to a more enjoyable experience. These are some examples of influencers who have successfully created content that resonates, and that converts.

The digital space will never be neglected again, it has finally proven its worth and that it is a necessity for any business, so this is a great time for influencers. As an influencer, we want you to win and it's important to create content that resonates but ultimately, drives conversions.

Somi Ifeh is passionate about PR particularly Public Image Management. In her free time she loves to read or binge watch Anime or Kdrama. She loves to travel and has a blog dedicated to her adventures called Explore With Somi her travel persona. She enjoys cooking and hopes to start a cooking blog soonest.