How to Become an Influencer on Instagram Without "Selling"

How to Become an Influencer on Instagram Without Selling

Instagram is a solid social media tool that you can use to gain influence. With Instagram people are basically taking sneak peeks into who you are via snapshots and quick 15 second stories.

In a nutshell, it's a lifestyle app like Facebook, minus all the rants, right?

It's the one social media app I use daily. I've built a following that's sitting steady at around 18k followers (@batmantravels) and I can tell you firsthand that Instagram influence is real. I have merchants reaching out to me all the time offering me all kinds of goodies to be a brand ambassador for them and show off their stuff.

I've been given free meals, free stays at hotels, free clothing, free luggage, free sunglasses, free watches, and more.

But, as someone who promotes Wealthy Affiliate as THE training community for anyone looking to create a successful affiliate marketing business of their own, you may find it surprising that almost none of my Instagram posts have anything to do with Wealthy Affiliate.

So How Can You Maximize Your Influence using Instagram Without Coming Off Like a Salesman?

Where Instagram really sets itself apart is that in allows you to share your passion through simple photos and stories. It's not like Facebook or Twitter where the main way to communicate is through the words in your posts.

With Instagram a picture is truly worth a thousand words. So to maximize your influence, it's time to truly highlight your passion visually.

Now, if you're a Wealthy Affiliate entrepreneur you may think, "OK, let me make post after post about this incredible training community that is teaching me how to have my own successful affiliate marketing business." I mean, Wealthy Affiliate definitely delivers, right?

From the training courses, to the live weekly webinar training, to the tools and resources available, this platform is second to none and easily the best platform for turning a blog into revenue.

And you can get it all for less than $1/day.

However, in a lifestyle app that focuses on photography, how do you make affiliate marketing sexy, or even interesting?

Focus on Your Passion

I mentioned at the top that almost none of my Instagram posts have anything to do with Wealthy Affiliate. Yet, I'm definitely using Instagram as a tool to promote Wealthy Affiliate. So how is this done?

Through Instagram I'm highlighting the reason that I even looked to create an online business. That reason is travel.

I wanted to build a business that could potentially fund my travels and travel with me. That's why I searched for and eventually found Wealthy Affiliate. And because of WA I'm now traveling more than ever.

So what do I feature in my Instagram posts? I feature my travels.

And do you know what is the number 1 question I'm asked as I share my travel adventures?

"How do you travel so much?"
"Well, funny you should ask..."

By focusing on your passion you'll generate interest on how you're doing what you're doing.

Let's say you're using the training here at Wealthy Affiliate to build a business around your passion for fitness, or maybe you're building a website around electronics, or maybe it's baby clothes, or basketball shoes, or video games, or travel photography... or WHATEVER.

Instead of making post after post about "Want to Learn How to Work From Home?" and sounding like EVERY OTHER AD YOU'VE SEEN ON SOCIAL MEDIA, focus on your passion. Create posts around your love for your niche.

And yes, if you're someone who works full time as an affiliate marketer, then affiliate marketing itself is definitely one of your passions. No need to hide it. Just don't make every post a sales pitch about it.

Share who you are. Share your day to day routines. Well, the ones that are somewhat interesting. :)

Some of my best buddies here are sharing their lifestyle through Instagram and they're doing it right. Are there subtle pics of the "office" at home? Sure. It's genius, actually. "How do you work from home?" is going to be a very popular question in the minds of their followers.

But instead of being over the top "selling" and taking the life out of their Instagram feed, they are injecting it with life and passion.

Got a new post that your audience would love? Use your Instagram stories to promote it. I'm a huge fan of letting my followers know that I've just published a new article about "xyz" and it's now available on my site.

I don't do it for all my posts, just the ones I feel may be relevant.

When I was in Las Vegas at the Super Affiliate Conference did I share that? Absolutely. My passion is travel and that was an all expense paid trip made possible by the training community I learned EVERYTHING from.

In that case, it was an absolutely relevant share and of course I made sure to share it.

Been working and researching for new content all day? Don't be afraid to share a quick story that shows how you're at your laptop working.

You don't even have to show a post title for what you're working on. When done right, that quick 15 second snippet from your Instagram story is doing its job planting that interest in your followers so they want to know more.

You have one link on your Instagram profile. There's nothing wrong with linking to your website from there.

If you're sharing your passion on Instagram, it would make sense that your one link on your profile leads to the website you created right here at Wealthy Affiliate where you blog about your passion, right?

And the great thing is you're not needing to shout it out to your followers till their sick of it. It's a natural transition that flows.

Personally, I link to my website that covers all my travels (batmantravels.com), and from that website under the "Travel Like Me" tab, I share the platform that is responsible for funding my travels.

The Training at Wealthy Affiliate Applies Further Than to Just Your Website

We're taught here to be relevant. We're taught to create the best user experience possible for our audience. We're taught to "show" our audience the answer they're looking for, not just "tell" them, or worse "sell" them.

As you progress through this training, building your site further, growing your traffic, don't hesitate to use platforms like Instagram to further your influence.

It's something I enjoy, and by focusing on passion instead of selling, you won't feel like you're "working" at all.

Like travel pics and travel adventures? Follow me on Instagram @batmantravels.