Jessica Stein (@tuulavintage)
With a following of 2.4 million, she is an Australian who caters to the travel segment. Cathay Pacific contracted her for the #lifewelltravelled campaign in 2015.
Nickelson Wooster (@nickwooster)
He caters to the men’s fashion segment in the United States and has become something of a style icon.
Adam Gallagher (@iamgalla)
He has 1.9 million followers and is engaged in the lifestyle segment – this includes fashion, travel and fine living.
Carin Olsson (@parisinfourmonths)
She is a Swedish photographer who clicks some breathtaking pictures for the benefit of her 1 million followers. If you are wondering about the name, that is because she moved to Paris. When she is not taking pictures that capture life in the City of Love, she travels and still keeps her followers amazed with photographs from exotic locations around the world.
Kerri Verna (@beachyogagirl)
She is a fitness instructor who is followed by one million Instagram users. She regularly endorses fitness products and everything else that contributes to healthy living.
Cassey Ho (@blogilates)
She is a Pilates instructor who posts images of her in various poses with Nature as the backdrop. This has the effect of calming down her 1.3 million followers; and she has been named one among the top five health & fitness influencers worldwide.
My Nguyen (@myhealthydish_)
She has close to a million followers and she posts close up pictures of food.
Joy (@joythebaker)
Joy posts mouthwatering images of food, only they are not meals – snacks, desserts, and a lot of interesting dishes that you could try your hand at yourselves.
Emily Henderson (@em_henderson)
She is a stylist who is followed by half a million Instagrammers for her interior design ideas, tips and tricks.
Manny Khoshbin (@mannykhoshbin)
He is followed by over half a million because his is a real-life rags-to-riches story. He arrived in the United States at the age of 14, and today he owns more than two million square feet of real estate. He regularly posts images that are associated with high-end luxury / lifestyle.
If you look at what they all have in common, you would find the following
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- Their posts all have a definite focus
Because of this, their following is not a myriad crowd with multiple interests, but like-minded people who are definitely interested in what they post.
- They all employ high quality photographs for maximum impact
Images are the lifeline of Instagram. The accompanying text is only secondary, unlike other social media platforms where the text is what is most important and the accompanying images only secondary, to reinforce the point.
- Less is better
Their images alone speak a thousand words. What they only need insert in the caption/text are @mentions and #product/event hashtags, so that those who read it are intrigued enough to search for these persons/companies and/or products/events.
To give off the impression that these posts are not commercial, they sometimes mention @persons who head the companies that provided them with something.
“Thanks to @stefanogabbana for making me look great at the #NYFW”
- They remain one of the masses
Being grateful makes them seem like a real person and not a model. They might also mention the photographer who clicked their picture.
- When it comes to fashion, labels tend to have the names of their designers. So this (making followers of influencers think they are mentioning persons when they are in reality referencing companies) can be taken advantage of to see results.
- They try to create a need
What these influencers do is not to show off that they are living a great life and appear snobbish, but create a feeling of want among their followers, as in “I too want that, what he/she is having”.
This is what actually leads to sales, crossing over from the realm of marketing. And to any company, that is what really matters at the end.