Monetizing Instagram account

WildWes · Dec 7, 2018

Hello!

I have an Instagram account related to one city in US where I post a few photos every day. I got an approval for reposting from 100+ photographers and I use their photos and give them a credit in the caption of my posts. Over the past few years, I gained around 20k active followers, and engagement is around 30%, sometimes more, sometimes less. All of the followers are real people and I never did anything blackhat with that account (buying likes, comments, etc.).

Account has a unique name and I was thinking about making a digital marketing agency out of it. Do you think that would work with brands?

My idea was to reach out airlines and ask them for complimentary flight to that particular city. Other than that, my plan was to reach out a few hotels and see if I could get a complimentary stay for promoting them on instagram? I researched my competition and there are a few similar accounts with a lot more followers (100k+), but their engagement rate sucks - I get way more comments and likes on the photos I post, even though I have less followers.

Do you have any other ideas how I could monetize that account?

Nessuno · Dec 7, 2018

Is it a popular tourist destination? As you mention hotels and airlines. You could promote affiliate offers to these hotels and airlines. Or promote some ways to get there for cheaper.

Instead of asking them for a complementary stay; why not ask them for $$$?

blackbeans · Dec 7, 2018

Since your account is tied to just one city, why not ask that city's tourism board for a sponsorship? You can also hook up a promo deal with tourism-focused businesses in your city like hotels/tour companies.

WildWes · Dec 8, 2018

Nessuno said:
Is it a popular tourist destination? As you mention hotels and airlines. You could promote affiliate offers to these hotels and airlines. Or promote some ways to get there for cheaper.

Instead of asking them for a complementary stay; why not ask them for $$$?

Yes, it's a really popular tourist destination. I was thinking about promoting affiliate offers, but I also thought that maybe I could open a website and put link in my bio on Instagram, and then write sponsored post about airlines and hotels. That way, I won't promote affiliate offers, but I would list them as the brands I worked with (or my sponsors). Do you think that would work?

And yes, I would ask them for $$$ too, but since the page is doing really well, I would like to visit the destination too, especially if I could get airline ticket and accomodation for free in return for website post and shoutouts on my Instagram page.

WildWes · Dec 8, 2018

blackbeans said:
Since your account is tied to just one city, why not ask that city's tourism board for a sponsorship? You can also hook up a promo deal with tourism-focused businesses in your city like hotels/tour companies.

Nice idea, thank you for a suggestion. I will try to contact a city's tourism board and see how it will turn out.

rhinocervs · Dec 8, 2018

From what I saw on IG, ppl form agency when they have 3-5+ 'very' popular accounts = when they're able to offer posting single or more than 1 (promoted/sponsored) post to - multiple popular accounts in a same time + same theme/niche.

That carries its own cons (mainly - sharing profit across mutiple people)

... But it works!

So - my idea is for you to get a circle of trusted pals (shoutout 4 shoutout can be good way to start achieving that. Ofc, w/ ppl who have similar # of followers AND have a same theme as you do.) and eventually - cover more than 1 account (yours), with - digital agency. (Single website where you can form - various packages/services.)

Those who pay are certainly willing to pay - more, for larger reach (more than yours 20k) - thats the logic behind "working together" as opposed to - alone.

Edit: sorry 4 typos, I'm on the mobile...

scrn1 · Dec 8, 2018

What city is it might have some opportunities feel free to DM me.

socialdaddy · Dec 8, 2018

WildWes said:
Hello!

I have an Instagram account related to one city in US where I post a few photos every day. I got an approval for reposting from 100+ photographers and I use their photos and give them a credit in the caption of my posts. Over the past few years, I gained around 20k active followers, and engagement is around 30%, sometimes more, sometimes less. All of the followers are real people and I never did anything blackhat with that account (buying likes, comments, etc.).

Account has a unique name and I was thinking about making a digital marketing agency out of it. Do you think that would work with brands?

My idea was to reach out airlines and ask them for complimentary flight to that particular city. Other than that, my plan was to reach out a few hotels and see if I could get a complimentary stay for promoting them on instagram? I researched my competition and there are a few similar accounts with a lot more followers (100k+), but their engagement rate sucks - I get way more comments and likes on the photos I post, even though I have less followers.

Do you have any other ideas how I could monetize that account?

We own a 200k+ city network here in germany across several city's- the easiest way is to promote your service to local shops / hotels / restaurants. Let them not only pay for your reach but provide a decent amount of marketing strategy (e.g. Content creation such as text or photo where you highlight the benefits of the given shop / hotel / restaurant) and show them their benefit to work with you. You'll step up your game soon from $20 per Post to $300 per content creation + post and probably never gonna pay for food again

If you don't live in that city - try to get a person which do the sales for you and give him a share. More share - More motivation -> More income

WildWes · Dec 8, 2018

rhinocervs said:
From what I saw on IG, ppl form agency when they have 3-5+ 'very' popular accounts = when they're able to offer posting single or more than 1 (promoted/sponsored) post to - multiple popular accounts in a same time + same theme/niche.

That carries its own cons (mainly - sharing profit across mutiple people)
... But it works!

So - my idea is for you to get a circle of trusted pals (shoutout 4 shoutout can be good way to start achieving that. Ofc, w/ ppl who have similar # of followers AND have a same theme as you do.) and eventually - cover more than 1 account (yours), with - digital agency. (Single website where you can form - various packages/services.)

Those who pay are certainly willing to pay - more, for larger reach (more than yours 20k) - thats the logic behind "working together" as opposed to - alone.

Edit: sorry 4 typos, I'm on the mobile...

Thank you for your reply!

I got offers from other people in the similar niche for shoutouts, but I never actually done that because from my perspective it looked like they were buying followers. They have a lot more followers than me, but around 10x less like and their comments are non existent. That's why I didn't want to to shoutouts because I am not looking for fake followers or follower who won't engage with the content I post.

Other than that, it's almost impossible to find trusted accounts in similar niche to form a digital agency, because there are unfortunately no accounts. How would you go around that? Do you think that it would be possible to do the work only from 1 account + website? Maybe I could offer a post on my Instagram page 1 time per month for a few months? What do you think about that?

I somehow hope that I could do this by myself, even if the profit is lower. Recently I found some high quality sources of photos, started really putting an effort in to content and I noticed follower growth of around 10-15% weekly.

WildWes · Dec 8, 2018

socialdaddy said:
We own a 200k+ city network here in germany across several city's- the easiest way is to promote your service to local shops / hotels / restaurants. Let them not only pay for your reach but provide a decent amount of marketing strategy (e.g. Content creation such as text or photo where you highlight the benefits of the given shop / hotel / restaurant) and show them their benefit to work with you. You'll step up your game soon from $20 per Post to $300 per content creation + post and probably never gonna pay for food again

If you don't live in that city - try to get a person which do the sales for you and give him a share. More share - More motivation -> More income

Wow, that sounds really nice! Do you know the people who are owners of the account in person, or you manage each account by yourself?

Thank you for the suggestions! Since I don't own a network of accounts, I would definitlely offer content creation (text+photo), post it on the homepage of my website and put a few posts on my instagram page over a couple of months, plus of course a few stories.

Sounds nice, it seems like I could try the finest restaurants there

Really looking forward to that.

It's impressive because I started this account out of pure love with the city, I created all the content with a lot of effort because I actually enjoyed doing it, and now when I see that I could use it to get some benefit out of it, it's really a great feeling.

socialdaddy · Dec 8, 2018

WildWes said:
Wow, that sounds really nice! Do you know the people who are owners of the account in person, or you manage each account by yourself?

Thank you for the suggestions! Since I don't own a network of accounts, I would definitlely offer content creation (text+photo), post it on the homepage of my website and put a few posts on my instagram page over a couple of months, plus of course a few stories.

Sounds nice, it seems like I could try the finest restaurants there Really looking forward to that.

It's impressive because I started this account out of pure love with the city, I created all the content with a lot of effort because I actually enjoyed doing it, and now when I see that I could use it to get some benefit out of it, it's really a great feeling.

I own all of those accounts by myself, yes. As I'm not able to do sales in all those city I perform as much as possible via Instagram Direct / E-Mail but have in every city someone which promotes my service from here to there and actually take the photo if needed

WildWes · Dec 8, 2018

socialdaddy said:
I own all of those accounts by myself, yes. As I'm not able to do sales in all those city I perform as much as possible via Instagram Direct / E-Mail but have in every city someone which promotes my service from here to there and actually take the photo if needed

Awesome! Sounds like a lot of work, but it's definitely worth it!

Thank you very much for your answers, it really means a lot! If I think of any questions related to promoting my services, I'll let you know!

Monetizing Instagram account

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