What Do Brands Look For In Your Insta Feed

Influencer marketing is one of the many industries that have been impacted by the Pandemic in that the already extremely volatile market has seen the addition of numerous new creators willing to unleash their creative potential for display for an ever-increasing audience. These budding talents come from all walks of life and make age seem like just a number. However, with the recent revolution in social media, the real question that arises is — “How do brands choose from such a vast creator pool?”. In other words, “What do brands look for on your Insta feed?”

The only real way that remains for creators to then attract the brands of their dreams is by carving a niche for themselves. While for some creators this is the only way to be right from the beginning, for many others finding a niche is a gradual process that involves a ton of hit-and-trial to finally be able to organically discover their USP (which later on becomes their niche) and amass an audience that has a flavor for their content. If there’s one constant for the two categories, then it is AUTHENTICITY. Gone are those times where the number of likes and followers were the only enablers for creators to make the cut. Now more than ever, authenticity is the lens through which brands identify their potential marketers. Broadly, some of the major factors that can make creators stand out in the crowd are –

• Authenticity.
• Brands love creators whose profiles scream Authenticity. It goes without saying that brands have the means to identify plagiarism and strictly prefer staying away from profiles containing copied content. They appreciate creators who have something to call their own, so much so that they skew towards organic content even if it’s not shot with the best camera quality. With so much experience in getting their products to the market, brands have an eye for creators who stay true to their area of expertise and their audience.
• Other endorsements and collaborations
  As counter-intuitive as it sounds, too many sponsored posts on the feed tend to diminish the brand’s confidence the creator. Even more so when the creator has endorsed too many similar/competitive products. This is true because endorsing too many similar products clearly indicates lack of promise to any one particular brand while screaming “#Sponsored”.
• Your Audience
  Your audience base is what helps you strengthen your roots as a creator since they enable growth by continually engaging with your content — liking, sharing, commenting, and acting on your piece of expert suggestion. It is imperative that your audience base appeals to the brand since that is where the final consumers of the brand’s products come from. The brand thoroughly analyses your audience for its demographics to gauge if that is the population segment that they want to target through their promotions. It is crucial to the brand that your audience is organic, how they engage with your posts and if they act on your recommendation of products and provide active feedback.

While it would be extremely remiss to downplay the importance of numbers — of followers, likes, engagement rate, etc., it is only astute to recognize that authenticity is the real game-changer in the world of influencer marketing.