Let me tell you all a story.
Since you are here right now, I take it you are looking to setup or build your new referral-oriented Instagram account. In order to bring you the best content I could, I made a new persona account, and begin testing techniques to succeed as a referral persona. So, with a little bluster and a lot of gusto, let me – the rBux Member Guru – give you an edge in creating your new Instagram persona!
The first step was to pick a niche and stick to it like glue on a 5-year old’s hands. Too many people try to spread their tendrils wide and as a result, don’t ever get deep enough. Pick ONE niche market and put all your Cthulhu tendrils into solely that. For our purpose here, we want depth, so no kiddie pools. I chose the market of Rock Climbing, but you don’t have to. Between my personal curiosity of the community and the perfect alignment of all these market factors, the Climbing market was the perfect constellation for this trial.
See, that’s just it! The internet is full of major celebrities who are serious influencers in tons of markets, but these specific niche markets are full of dedicated followers. I discovered that the Climbing market was a tight community of people. It broke the one nine ninety rule! The activity of the observers was so high. Look, far from telling you to investigate Climbing as your niche, but there are so many out there; pick your niche and follow my lead!
I had just chosen my niche, thought up of a witty username, and a unique hashtag. So, then I posted my first photo, and proceeded to follow about 700 other accounts, varying from large users to small users. For anyone with over 2000 followers, I sent them a DM explaining that I was new to the influencer game and asked if they had any tips. These DMs were so effective; these small communities are full of supportive people, and they will give you tips to growing into an influencer. In my case, I got lucky. One of the other influencers invited me to a group that specifically is for influencers to gather. I thought of this as uncommon, but I have had peers attempt to become personas after my quest, and there seems to be a constant of generosity.
See, I had begun to build a following and had a niche picked out, now all I needed was product to refer. This is where that new group I joined came into play. I entered everyone of the draws and giveaways my friends were having, and I won 4 of them. This gave me enough product or store credit to keep posting new items without any extra investment. Remember, we make our own luck in this world.
The final chapter in this tale is with a shameless promotion, not by me, but of me by one of the friends I had made. One day she asked me to like a large sum of her photos in a row, so I complied. To my surprise, she had screenshot it and posted it to her story telling her massive 24k followers to check me out. I rose to nearly 2000 followers overnight. By now I sensed my experiment was at its conclusion, so I began to taper off that new account, but the experience I gained while running that persona was very valuable. The key to surviving these niche markets is community. Community has the power to break the one nine ninety rule: a rule that dictates that 1% of users create content, 9% interact with it via comments or other mediums, and 90% simple observe as ghosts. When in a community market, 50% of users interact with your content.
These communities are not far off from cults mind you, but who says a persona can’t be a member of an Instagram cult? Simply force your way into an invitation, like I did with my DMs. Then follow the rules of the cult until you become a power user. The hard part is not figuring out how to be an influencer, it’s keeping up with the work of being one. Look, for those of us with personas’ who have under 5000 subscribers, getting sponsored is rare. rBux allows us to make money as influencers, and at our own speed. Trust me, I didn’t spend a penny on this demo account and I have over $100 in product now, so you can do it too. Be the micro-influencer. The world is full of possibilities, why not get PAID for your persona.
This tale has been lived and transcribed by the rBux Member Guru, and now it is to be lived by you.
