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One of the most interesting and exciting ways to discover new Instagram accounts to follow may be the shoutout. Shoutouts are simply recommendations of other Instagram accounts that your followers may find interesting and enjoyable. Shoutouts can be a good way to help others build their Instagram following -- and they may just return the favor.
What is an Instagram Shoutout
Instagram is a powerful marketing tool used by over 70% of advertisers. It means that marketers constantly look for robust ways how to make advertising campaigns on the platform more effective and let a bigger number of people see them.
One of these approaches developed is a shoutout. It is a process when one user promotes another IG user on his or her account. How does it look like? One of the users creates a post or a story that shows benefits or @ mentions another user as well as contains a call to action to check the profile, products or services offered by this person.
How To Shoutout On Instagram? An Instagram shoutout can happen in a few ways:
- Paid shoutouts: These shoutouts are a classic influencer marketing tactic. This is when you pay a user to promote your brand, typically with cash or via an exchange for a free product or access to your service.
- S4S (shoutout for shoutout): S4S is a simple trade – they agree to give you a shoutout on their page if you give them a shoutout on yours.
- Voluntary shoutout: The Holy Grail of shoutouts. This is when someone is just so darn happy with your product or customer service that they give your brand a shoutout without you even having to ask or pay.
Some users agree to advertise other people’s accounts or products only because they do like them and want to share a piece of advice with their followers. However, there are users who do not mind taking money for promoting other brands and companies by means of shoutouts. Usually, these are influencers with a bigger number of followers whose engagement rate is high enough to influence others.
How to Find Relevant Accounts for Shoutout
It seems very easy to get a shoutout but what about its efficiency? In fact, not all accounts agree to advertise other people and brands’ profiles. Moreover, there is no sense to offer shoutouts to users who have little in common with your IG account. People interested in a healthy lifestyle would hardly ever subscribe for an account sharing examples of a bakery. You got it, right?
Therefore, there are three basic points to consider if you want to learn how to get shouted out on Instagram.
Similar content
Experts advise putting more effort into finding potential companions for shoutouts. The first criterium for a user to consider is the type of content posted by the account. Naturally, it should be close, similar or connected in some way with your regular posts. People who enjoy traveling would be interested in the national dishes of other countries or some products to use on-the-go. It is important to check several recent posts with the highest level of engagement and compare them with your own content. If you see that your posts can be appreciated too, it is possible to contact the account holder.
Similar audience
One more factor to consider choosing an account for a shoutout is what kind of audience do inmates it. Probably, accounts devoted to fishing and hiking would attract men more often, while fashion and treatment are a sphere for ladies, first of all. One more important aspect is the median age of followers – not all millennials will like modern fashion trends by the way. But the most important thing is the location. If you offer certain services in one city, there is no sense to attract followers from another state or country.
Experts advise searching for accounts that have a similar number of followers as well as true engagement features. It is strange to see only 40 likes with the account that has 40,000 subscribers – probably they are fake or purchased. Consider the engagement rate and tone of the profile to avoid attracting spammers!
Hashtags
The easiest way to find accounts specific to your industry is to use relevant hashtags. It is enough to begin entering the hashtag and Instagram will hint you about the most popular hashtags on this topic. Choose hashtags according to its relevance since too popular accounts may not be interested in S4S with you.
For example, if you’re selling men’s clothing, some good hashtags to kick off your research might include:
- #menswear
- #mensfashion
- #fashion
- #style
- #mensstyle
- #streetwear
- #menstyle
- #streetstyle
- #menwithstyle
You can also brainstorm your own or get ideas as you do searches. I recommend keeping a list handy so you have a “database” to reference.
Once you have a good list, type your hashtags into the Instagram search bar, and browse through profiles until you find some good candidates.
Instagram shoutout apps
If you have the budget, consider a specialized Instagram shoutout app that’s designed to connect brands with the right Instagrammers.
An Instagram shoutout app like Shoutcart.
If you’re interested, you’re able to message them securely through the platform to handle all of the details.
Platforms like these can be a real lifesaver if you don’t have the resources or bandwidth to spend hours sorting through profiles on your own.
What is Shoutcart?
Shoutcart is an online marketplace where you can buy and sell social media shoutouts. If you’re an influencer, you can sell shoutouts on Twitter and Instagram. If you’re a marketer, you can buy shoutouts through the self-serve platform. There is a minimum $50 to fund, which shouldn’t be a roadblock for any serious marketer. All payments are processed through Shoutcart, giving buyers and sellers and added layer of protection (vs. paying influencers directly).
Shoutcart Features
Shoutcart is a well-designed platform with an intuitive user interface. You can search for influencers by keyword or use the following filters:
- Channel (i.e. Twitter/Instagram)
- Type (i.e. Page/Personal)
- Category (i.e. Fitness or Cars)
- Language
- Country
- Age
- Sex
- Activity Time (i.e. Active at Night vs. Active During the Day)
- # of Followers
- Score (A Shoutcart metric for ranking users)
The main search page is where most of the research is done. If you want more details on an influencer, you can click on their username.
An influencers page will show:
- A Description
- Audience Demographics
- Pricing
You can choose from a variety of pricing options that vary by promotion length and whether or not you want to include a link.
Overall, the platform is straightforward and easy to use. Simply browse through the influencers and find ones that may be relevant to your project. If there’s a good fit, choose your pricing, and submit your promotion.
How Collaboration Works for Buyers
The collaboration feature is only available on orders that have one influencer in the campaign. If you wanted to order from multiple influencers, and have the option of allowing the influencer to edit your campaign, you will have to process multiple orders, one influencer at a time.
Simply opt into “Allow influencer to propose edits” on Step three of your campaign flow.
Just make sure to include a final draft of your caption and file. The collaboration option is not meant for influencers to do the leg work for you. You must provide your desired caption and file you wish influencer to post. An influencer will simply suggest minor tweaks and changes like:
- rewriting caption to something influencer typically says
- adding trending, relevant hashtags
- adding call to action
- changing posting time of day for maximum engagement
- fixing a typo, etc.
Keep in mind if no agreement is reached between you and influencer before the end of the 3 day collaboration period, the original caption and file will be posted accordingly, this is why it is important to make sure your caption and file are top-notch, not a rough draft.
Here is how it works:
- You will submit an order 3 days ahead, that is the “3 day collaboration period”
- The 3 day collaboration period starts the minute you submit the order
- Your order is officially sent off for review to the influencer, three things can happen:
- Influencer thinks your caption, file, and time is perfect. The influencer will approve that order right away and your order is officially finalized, waiting to be published accordingly.
- Influencer may propose some minor edits to your caption, file, and time.
- Influencer may not have time to suggest edits within that 3 day collaboration period, so the original caption and file will be published accordingly (this is why it is important your caption and file are top-notch).
- As soon as the influencer proposes edits to your order, you will get an email notification. You will need to review the new changes and either approve by clicking the “Accept to Publish” button or suggest more edits by clicking the “Propose Edits” button.
- If you approve the order, it is officially finalized and ready to get published accordingly.
- If you propose more edits, they will be sent back to the influencer for review. The influencer will either approve the new edits or suggest new. And so on, until both parties come to an agreement. If no agreement is reached by the end of the 3 day collaboration period, the original caption and file will be posted accordingly.
Visit >> Shoutcart.com
Author: Madelyn Weber
Website: Shoutcart.com
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