It’s the dawn of a new age in Instagram where influencers are no longer just pretty young things. Rather, women who have taken a ~few more~ turns around the sun are now dominating the platform.
Here’s how to become an Insta-Gran, and make it work for you.
Sarah Jane Adams has 180,000 loyal Instagram followers. In one of her most recent posts, she wears a brightly coloured quilt-like dress with green and pink stripy socks. It’s to raise awareness about Underwork’s campaign #igiveasock, which sees the underwear company committing to donate up to 20,000 pairs of socks to those in need. It was liked over 5,500 times.
This is just one example of many of the ways businesses are using “Instagrans” to reach the new 50+ super consumer who is fit, youthful, time and disposable income to spend. “Our research has found there more than 700K over 45’s now on Instagram in Australia. And the over 50s age group is actually one of the fastest-growing groups,” says Natalie Giddings, the Managing Director of The Remarkables Group that specialises in influencer marketing. “They are a diverse audience actively seeking like-minded people with an engaging take on their interests and life stage. This surge of users is, in turn, stimulating the rise of the more ‘mature’ social influencer.”
“All of this means that we are seeing really exciting opportunities from companies for people over the age of 50 with audiences in this age group,” says Natalie. “They can be very lucrative. For example if you have a sizeable following (like 100,000 plus followers), you can be looking at earning $1,000 per post.”
Becoming an Instagran isn’t as difficult as you might think either. According to Natalie, there are four key things to focus on:
1 – Express something unique about you. What makes social media and Instagram in particular so popular isn’t the platform itself, but the individuals who express themselves through it. Sarah Jane’s colourful style and quirky, fun personality is what helped her amass a whopping 180,000 followers. She is so successful, that her new, more personal account, @mywrinklesaremystripes has added another 22,000 followers to her community. Moral of the story? Accentuate what makes you different.
2 – Choose a niche. People are looking to connect on social media and one of the easiest ways to do that is to use your passion to build a like-minded community. Yoga teacher Lou Kenny (@lou_f_kenny_) posts inspirational shots that celebrate greying hair, natural beauty and, of course, yoga. Shots of her stretching and bending on the mat in the studio and by the beach have amassed her almost 9,000 followers. The key here is to be genuine, partly because you’re going to have to talk about it a lot, partly because people can smell a fake.
3 – Be consistent. Similar to how you tune into your favourite TV or radio show or catch up with a friend on the phone, people will want to hear from you regularly. Violet B from @a_stylish_age demonstrates effortless style daily to her 14,000 followers on Instagram, as well as regularly posting Instagram Stories that women of all ages love watching. A good rule of thumb for consistency is at least once a day, but for stories, the more the better.
4- Don’t think it’s too late. A veteran in the blogging world, Nikki Parkinson from @stylingyou was already on the other side of 40 when she started her blog in 2008. Her popularity (almost 60,000 Instagram followers) has proved that savvy women of every age group want to be inspired and read handy tips and tricks, no matter the age of the storyteller. So don’t let your age put you off any longer.
Natalie Giddings is the Managing Director of The Remarkables Group, specialists in Influencer Marketing. If you are interested in learning more, go towww.theremarkablesgroup.com.
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