Instagram - Finding Influencers - Clueless newbie - help please!
My first post here. I'm sorry if this question sounds REALLY dumb! But I want to know how this works before I start pouring money into it.
I'm just starting out my journey as a dropshipper. I've spent a few weeks researching and learning and I'm pretty much ready to jump right in and get started. However...
I've been trying to get my head around Instagram from a business owner's perspective and, while I get the gist of it, I'm still not quite sure how it REALLY works. I've been going round in circles for 2 days now and my brain hurts! I'm pretty tech-savvy but until now have never been interested in Instagram, so it's a massive learning curve for me. I'm hoping to get some advice from you guys in here. This is what I did (and it didn't work!)
I decided to play around with an item that I thought would probably be quite popular, just to see how I would get Influencers and how they would promote my stuff. So, I looked for mugs with cats on, because everyone loves cats... right? :confused: I guess if I were the owner of a Shopify store that sold mugs with cats on, I would find Instagram Influencers that also loved cats, by typing "cats" into the search bar. Up comes "cats_of_instagram", so I click on their page. They have a massive 9M followers and loads of engagement on their page. But I can't find any photos of items they might be promoting... No mugs. No t-shirts. No, well, ANYTHING. So, am I right in assuming that not all people on Instagram with a huge following will promote your stuff??
Next, I tried to use an Instagram Influencer Marketing Platform. I searched for cats_of_instagram and... they didn't even appear. So I searched for "cats" instead and a load of Influencers came up. I clicked on a few of these and there were just lots and lots of photos of their personal lives. No mugs. No STUFF of any kind. There must be a LOT of people wanting to sell cat mugs on Instagram, so where are all the ads??
I'm so confused. What am I missing? Do Influencers even promote your stuff on their Instagram account or does it work some other way? Why can't I find hardly any STUFF people are dropshipping, when Instagram is supposed to be one of the best ways to promote your store?!
Again, sorry if I sound like a dummy but I guess I have to start somewhere!
Any advice will be very gratefully received!
Cearion Uy - Marketing Advisor
www.influencerauditor.com