The influencer marketing industry is predicted to be worth $16.4 billion this year. Businesses small and large are seeing the financial benefits of linking their brands to the right influencers.
There are currently 500,000 active influencers on Instagram who could potentially help to accelerate growth in your business and help with brand awareness. Selecting the perfect influencers to work with can be tricky though.
How relevant an influencer is to you, and how authentic they seem, can be two major factors in determining whether you should link up. How and who they engage with are also critical points to consider, and it may be worth looking at who they follow on Instagram too.
Have You Ever Wondered Who Is Following Who on Instagram?
Perhaps surprisingly, there are some well founded reasons for wanting to see who is following who on Instagram. Although privacy is obviously a concern in this area.
A concerned parent may be worried about influences from recent acquaintances, and businesses may want to see if a potential influencer link-up is a good fit. Around 79% of businesses choose Instagram as number one for influencer marketing, and 61% of online consumers trust influencers. Clearly then, linking up on the platform could be of value to both parties involved.
But, if a chosen influencer is engaging with rival businesses, or has beliefs that don’t match your company’s ethics it could negatively impact your brand.
How Can You See Who an Individual Has Recently Followed on Instagram?
Online privacy is of crucial importance today, and Instagram has in place rules and technology to help keep its users safe. The problem then is to find a way to see who someone recently followed without violating Instagram rules.
Some third-party apps will let you spy on other Instagram accounts. The use of these could end with you being shadow-banned, or worse, removed entirely from Instagram, so these aren’t recommended.
Unfortunately, Instagram doesn’t put the following lists in chronological order. The causes for this are unclear but are likely to be linked to privacy controls. Therefore, the only safe way to discover who someone recently followed is to create a brand new Instagram account and use a third-party tool to gather the necessary data.
Can You View an Instagram User’s Following List?
If chronological additions are not a key concern, then you can still view a person’s following list. If the following list is private then you may need to send a follow request.
Instagram takes privacy seriously as any social media platform should. Once you have been accepted you can then view their following list and their list of followers.
However, you should be aware that even micro-influencers may have a list of thousands, so trying to gather information this way may not be financially rewarding.
How Does it Help You to See Who Influencers Have Started to Follow?
If your business wants to use influencer marketing then you have to understand what value it will bring to your brand. Are you going to raise your online visibility, and sell more products, or will the collaboration be a poor fit?
When deciding on who to use, understanding effective influencer targeting is essential. Your business will have an impact on the influencer you use too, so a positive match needs to be made.
If your chosen influencer is following and engaging heavily with extreme political groups, it may be hugely damaging to your brand for example.
What Can the Right Influencer Bring to Your Brand?
Generally, it is ideal when an influencer has similar beliefs to your core brand and can align with your mission statement and corporate responsibility charter.
For instance, if you are the owner of a chain of steakhouses, it may not be ideal to link with a vegan influencer. While that example is a little clumsy, there are plenty of bad link-ups in the world of influencer marketing including Kendall Jenner and Pepsi’s disastrous diversity campaign.
You can boost a brand’s visibility through influencer marketing, and it is estimated that for every dollar spent this way, $5.78 can be recouped– if the right influencer is found.
Summary
Finding out who your chosen influencers have started to follow isn’t that easy. While third-party apps and websites can provide the information needed, it means flouting the terms and conditions of Instagram and risking being banned or having privileges restricted.
Perhaps the best way to ensure your influencer marketing campaign goes well is simply to find individuals on Instagram with genuine followings, who seem to match your brand’s standards. Authenticity and relevance will go a long way, and while you may not be able to see recent additions to a following list, you can still check out the group as a whole to make an assessment.
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