How to Get Instagram Influencers to Promote Your Next Branded Video

Instagram is the online billboard every brand should consider since influencers are ruling social media with millions of followers. Brands use partnerships with these self-made celebrities to promote their products and produce branded content. The cross-marketing that is available through social media tagging is an indispensable tool for marketing a video. However, if you’ve never partnered with an influencer before, it can be hard to know where to start. Here’s how you can get influencers to rep your brand:

Find an influencer.

There are resources like Social Bluebook, OpenSlate, and Tubular.io that allow you to find influencers by age and gender demographics, location, and brand relevance. Another efficient way to find the right match is to type in a hashtag relating to your brand (fitness, travel, fashion, etc.) and explore the “top posts.” These are posts that share the hashtag you’ve typed in and they connect you to Instagram users with large followings. You can contact these influencers by direct messaging them or sending them an email outlining your brand and the content you are looking to produce.

Choose someone whose posts align with your project and brand.

The point of working with an influencer is to reach their audience, so you should find someone whose audience would be interested in your company. For example, influencer Lauren Drain Kagan, may be a great fit for a nutrition brand to partner with since her posts are exclusively focused on fitness and nutrition. Every influencer works on crafting a personal, highly-visible brand through their social media accounts. This makes it easy for you to look for someone whose personality, ideas, and fans best capture the audience you’re trying to reach.

Negotiate Rates.

Rates for social media postings relate directly to reach and engagement. There are no set rates, so brands are able to negotiate with influencers directly. A common figure used by influencers is $1,000 for every 100,000 followers. For influencers with less than 25,000 followers, one branded post can range from $200 to $500. When negotiating with influencers, gifts can be used to sweeten the deal. For example, if your company sells leggings, offer a flat rate for a photo or video post and ask them to select three pairs of pants off of your website as an extra thank-you.

Have them star in your video.

On Instagram and YouTube, influencer-marketing works best when you have them star in your video, you tag each other, or add their name to the title of the video. Then, when a YouTube or Instagram user searches that influencer’s name, content will appear that has the influencer’s name attached — including yours. For example, when designer Rebecca Minkoff launched her “Holiday My Way” campaign, she used social media star Arielle Vandenberg as her lead. When you type Arielle’s name into YouTube, the holiday video pops up on the first page of your search. A search for the influencer’s content becomes an opening for brands to make their appearance.

Have them post a photo before releasing the video.

The strongest plan of attack for influencer collaboration is the photo/video set-up. Have your influencer post both a photo and video, tagging your brand. That way, the photo appears on the influencer’s page and on your brand’s page, in the tagged photos section. This provides more opportunity for viewership since your brand will show up in multiple posts. Influencer Matt Cutshall worked with T-Mobile on an ad series and used these video and photo posts to advertise T-Mobile’s data plan:

Have them post a story linking to your video.

The story feature on Instagram is extremely valuable when working with influencers. You can work out a deal with the influencer that requires them to post a video on their Instagram story advertising the video that your brand has released. There is a tagging feature that allows influencers to place your brand’s handle on top of the story, along with a “swipe up” feature that will redirect them to the video link.

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By Lena Drake, Storyhunter Writer