Light, Camera, Action!
7 Steps to Become a Popular Instagram Model

Forget those times when the start of the modelling career was associated with a number of tough challenges. You had to meet strict requirements, be conventionally beautiful or handsome and pass a complicated test in model agencies. Now almost all of these rules are gone: everybody can be a model if they wish.

The miracle thing that made this all possible is Instagram. This platform gives plenty of vast opportunities for you regardless of who you are. You can promote yourself being a designer, musician, plumber, waiter, business coach, or even housekeeper. People who are positioning themselves as a “mom”, “husband”, or “student” also have a lot of things to tell about their lives.

However, the most popular personalities on Instagram are models or celebrities who are somehow related to modelling. Cara Delevigne (@caradelevingne) and Gigi Hadid (@gigihadid) both have over 41M followers, while Kendall Jenner (@kendalljenner) can boast of 92.1M followers. It's unbelievable, but only 15 countries in the world have more population! The audience of Kendall Jenner is one population of Germany + 10 extra million people.

It may seem to be unfair, but the fashion industry is the fastest-growing one on Instagram. In our previous article, we mentioned that an average Instagram brand is threefold more popular than an average brand which belongs to other industry. Insta models often become the public faces of clothing companies. Some social media experts even aligned them with the supermodels we had in the 80-90s.

Do you want to start your modelling career but never dared to take the first step? Instagram gives you a chance, don't miss it. And we at Bigbangram will help you build your ladder to fame using best tips on “how to become an Instagram model“.

1. Define Your Style

If you decided to become an Instagram model, you probably already have an interest in fashion, clothes, or photography. You have clothes from specific brands in your wardrobe and know your style well. Still, it needs improvement.

Clearly define what type of an Instagram model you would like to be. Some of them promote traditional high fashion clothes, the others tend to be more “underground” but no less popular. Your personal style will define the brands with that you will collaborate in the future.

2. Create Portfolio

Even though you are not going to sent photos to any model agency, you need to create a so-called portfolio. In fact, your portfolio will consist of all photos you have in your profile. But at the early stages of every Instagram account, users add at least 10 photos just to fill in and give a basic idea of their brand or personality.

So should you. To create a quality but diverse Instagram model portfolio, we recommend you to have a photoshoot of at least 3 different looks + dilute professional photos with some self-made pics. Even popular Instagram users take selfies, so don't neglect them.

3. Gain New Followers

Sometimes the quality content is enough to gain a lot of followers. Still, if you don't have a lot of friends and acquaintances, it may be a bit difficult. It may take a very long time to reach the first thousand in a case when you just post great pictures and do nothing else.

To speed up this process, you need to know some marketing tricks which might help you. First of all, you can create a sequence of posts before even posting them. Instagram's official application doesn't have a scheduling feature, but some third-party services have. You can track the best time to post on Instagram and set up posting according to your research. This way, you will gain more likes (and likely followers) and better engagement.

Another way to boost the number of followers is to use mass-following technique. This easy method involves liking and following a lot of people and imply the probability that some percent of them will follow you back. Later, you unfollow those users and enjoy your increased audience. This technique is great because you will get real followers who will follow you because they are truly interested in your content and/or personality.

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How to automate your Instagram communication?

It’s vitally important to have active followers. Of course, when you are at the beginning of your modeling career, you can handle your Instagram account by yourself. You just spend a few hours a day on Instagram, looking for collabs, sending messages with collaboration invitations, and answering on Instagram Direct. If you want to save your time, run your Instagram effectively, and professionally consider automation of all communication processes.

Instagram Direct Mass Messaging
The feature allows you to send automatic messages to your new followers and current ones. You can apply filters to narrow your target audience. So welcome every new follower, pay him or her attention, ask for feedback. Imagine as many variations as you can. The more answers you get, the more engagement you'll have. And we all know that high engagement will give you a chance to get into Instagram recommendations!

Instagram Direct Chat
The feature allows fast and easy communication on Instagram on your PC or Mac. It's a web service, that can unite chats from several Instagram accounts. As a result, you have access to all your conversations on every computer you want. It fastens workflow and makes it extremely convenient.

Instagram Direct Search
The feature of Instagram Direct Chat helps to find any account you want and start immediate communication. So you can make a list of accounts: photographers, models, make-up artists, hairstylists, and offer any sort of collaboration. Plus, you can search for any keywords in your inbox. Never miss anything!

All features mentioned above are available on the new Direct Module by Bigbangram. Automation saves days of your precious time and allows focusing on more serious issues.

4. Look for Collabs

Try to reach out to models and photographers which are more popular than you. Look not only at their number of followers but also at the engagement rate. The more comments from real users they have the better. Also, it is a nice indicator if the model or photographer has a lot of posts where he or she was mentioned by other users.

How to collaborate with other models on Instagram? You can interview each other or go for a walk and post the vlog-like video or simply make a selfie. Another way to win even more followers is to create a joint advertisement of a brand you both use.
How to collaborate with photographers on Instagram? If you want to have photos from a high-level photographer, you can agree with him or her to shoot on a TFP basis.

Bigbangram explains: TFP (“time for pics” or “trade for prints”) is a type of a free agreement between a photographer and a model when the first one gives a number of photos in exchange for model's time.

TFP basis means you will have a photoshoot and won't pay for it. A photographer also won't pay you for your work but he or she may be interested in your image and use you as the model for some of his/her projects. So all parties benefit.

If you collab with people who more popular than you, they can mention your profile in their posts. So you will automatically widen your outreach and get a chance to win their followers, too.

5. Engage with Your Audience

Posting is not enough anymore. Just like you want to feel your followers need you and enjoy your posts, they want you to interact with them more often. People love famous personalities who treat their followers as friends or at least “guests” of their pages, not as a mass of random people.

To show how you appreciate their support, you may write captions or post stories directed to them. Also, it would be nice to ask their opinion about your outfits and content in general. Finally, we have Instagram polls to use in stories, so you can ask them to choose between just two options — that's very simple but enjoyable.

After gathering a large group of keen fans, you can proceed to your first contest. Arrange a “giveaway” — we all love to receive free rewards. The other great example of the contest is profile advertising. Some of the budding models or photographers might enjoy if you'd tell a word about their pages.

Set simple rules for each contest: don't make your followers leave Instagram and visit some third-party sources, just ask them to like your 10 recent photos or take a screenshot of your “contest” post and publish it in their own feed. Both parties profit again: you receive a bunch of new followers, and your fans get a real chance to get something from you.

6. Post Stories and Videos

Videos and stories are no less popular than photos on Instagram. And probably even more. See what stats say: 33% of all content in your feed are videos. This means every third post of yours may be video. “What can I do, if modeling is not about videos?” — You may ask. Well, Instagram models often make “how-to” videos or record the process of make-up. The popular format are stop motion animation videos which resembles well-known gif files.

If you are tired of manual posting and want to save your personal time, BigBangram has a great feature for you: Automated Posting Tool! Just imagine, that you can schedule all your posting, set up all publication dates to the timezone you need, forget about alarms and everyday control for publications. Bigbangram offers not just a scheduler, but a possibility to buy immediate likes for planned publications!

Stories are truly booming: 22.3% of Instagram users even prefer watching stories over scrolling feed. Not surprising: people are sharing their daily moments using stories, not a regular posts. The majority of users are interested in private lives of their friends or celebrities, and stories are the best way to know more about it. Because of this, don't neglect stories. Make your followers happy by sharing some personal information about you and/or some backstage materials.

Constant Instagram Popularity Growth

If you want to have a popular account, get into recommendations, and get a massive flow of organic traffic, you need to have a stable source of active followers for your Instagram account. How can you get it without any risks? Trust your promotion to a reliable automation tool.

To draw attention to your Instagram model account, create an individual strategy, and set up auto like, auto follow according to hashtags, locations, or even usernames. As a result of your audience continually grows, and you get your piece of fame!

Inflact can narrow the target audience, so you interact with profiles, which are your potential followers. If you set up the tool for particular hashtags, you can find advertisers or photographers to collaborate.

7. Focus on the Value

Stop liking and start thinking about how you can improve the quality of your posts and increase the engagement rate. In other words, focus on the value you bring to your followers.

Content is undoubtedly king, but what about other promotional activities? Popular Instagram model is definitely not that person who should do routine tasks as a part of the account promotion. In the era of marketing automation, you can delegate them to special software such as Bigbangram. We offer you an all-in-one Instagram bot which will like, comment, follow, and send direct messages to your followers instead of you. It’s pretty convenient: all you need is to target the audience and set the campaign.

In simple terms, it works in this way: you are enjoying your photoshoot or take the video for your new vlog, while Bigbangram is liking and mass-following people to attract even more attention to your content. You have time for the things you love, and we take care of the daily grind.