When agencies choose influencers for their campaigns, some elements of the Instagram profile are given more weight than others and we want to make sure you know what those are! So let us share with you how an agency looks at your feed, your metrics and your past collaborations.

Your Feed

By now we all know that the consistency and style of your feed is important. When curating your feed, try to achieve a look that you can call your own. Your look, your feel. You want your followers to recognize your style. From the way photos are taken and edited to the tone in your captions, does it all sound like it’s you?

Here is a good example of a page that clearly tells a story. The posts follow and match in style, which give off a very sincere and genuine feel. @hintofgrey’s feed gives her followers a clear picture of who she is. Her life is displayed in a sincere and beautiful way.

Screenshot of @hintofgrey’s IG Feed

Now for photos, your choice of filters and edits need to make sense. For instance, notice how Irene from @hintofgrey mostly posts images with lower saturation and where areas of shadow are brighten. Your audience chose to follow you because you make them feel a certain way and it’s crucial that even off topic photos carry the same type of feeling with them.

No need for costly and complicated editing tools, the VSCO photo editing app is free and it has become a favorite of many of our influencers. You can get inspired by how others edit their photos from Youtube tutorials or guides on Pinterest. Pick your style, make it consistent with your captions, your bio and make sure that your followers know what to expect from you.

Your Engagement and Your Followers

Follower count is important although unlike in the past, agencies are now taking an in depth look at your following and your engagement. As you know, the use of fake followers is a big issue and for now it can still fool some brands. However, many tools that detect bots are being developed and influencers that purchased their followers will soon be very easy to recognize. Needless to say we never work with influencers that we suspect have fake followers.

So what are agencies looking for? Put simply, we want quality. We determine quality with a high level of engagement and a large number of thoughtful comments that tell us your followers care. As a micro-influencer with less than 20k followers your engagement rate shouldn’t be below 5%. It’s a good sign if you’ve made friends in the Instagram community that support you and a some die hard followers that love everything you post.

Not an easy feat I agree. But as an influencer today, it’s necessary that we feel your followers look up to your work and lifestyle. Would they take your product recommendations seriously? We love seeing a post create a conversation in the comments.

Your Past Collaboration

It shouldn’t surprise you that we look at your past collaborations. Think of your sponsored posts as your portfolio. If your past collabs were creative the likelihood of you being chosen for future campaigns will be much higher. Work with brands that match your personal style and vibe. If ⅓ of your posts are sponsored that’s too much. If all your sponsored posts seem careless with ungenuine captions and use photos we’ve all seen too many times agencies will see that too.

Most importantly, the world of influencers can get surprisingly small. Marketers do speak to each other. A good campaign can get you referrals and even more sponsors. Over-delivering on your end of a collaborations will help you more than you know!

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