Are you curious about what’s trending in the world of Instagram influencers in 2023 and unsure whether they should focus on Instagram Reels content or video content posts? And are you questioning why brands are working more closely with micro-influencers and how collaborations bring in more traffic? Certain factors allow your brand to get the best influencer campaign results, and Dash Hudson has identified the top trends to help answer these questions and optimize your Instagram performance this year.
What are Instagram Influencer Trends?
As you are probably aware, Instagram influencers are users with the power to motivate potential product or service buyers. These users are seen to be credible, authentic, and trustworthy. While not all influencers have a tremendously large following, they always have high engagement rates, and their presence on social media can significantly impact the market. As a result, brands use influencers to increase brand awareness and sales.
Instagram influencer trends are ones in which these users most often participate to' influence’ their audience. Keeping up to date with these trends is essential to staying ahead of the competition and allowing your brand to adapt its content strategy. Dash Hudson has created influencer benchmarks for influencers and brands to see the most important metrics and baseline performance benchmarks to help their influencer marketing growth strategies.
Why Follow Instagram Trends as an Influencer?
Following trends as an influencer can be quite beneficial as it can help you stay in the loop without falling behind on social media. Not only will this allow you to maintain your following, but it will also help you reach a larger audience since most Instagram users are Millennials and Gen Z—groups that value staying on top of the latest trends. Due to the more significant number of Instagram users in this demographic, you can increase your engagement and reach by staying up-to-date with their interests.
Following trends also play a significant role in staying ahead of your competitors. You'll gain popularity before your competitors when you know what's trending and jump on it early.
Influencer trends on Instagram have had a tremendous impact on social media marketing. The influencer industry has vastly changed throughout the years, increasing brand awareness and success by driving more traffic to brands’ websites. Increased traffic showcases your brand to new potential customers, which has surged recently as the influencer industry has evolved and grown. Due to the notable effect influencers have on their followers, they can have a remarkable social impact by informing them of new products, services, developments, and breaking news. This is more impactful than advertisements since audiences associate the information from influencers as more organic and trustworthy. To learn how to build an influencer marketing strategy that can drive business results, Dash Hudson has created an Influencer Marketing Guide E-Book to learn how to source, optimize and measure creator content.
Influencer Marketing Trends on Instagram to Follow in 2023
Influencer marketing on Instagram has grown drastically throughout the year, nearly doubling its size since 2019. It is a form of social media marketing involving product placements and endorsements from online creators. In today’s competitive marketing landscape, brands are partnering and collaborating with influencers more than ever, as Instagram remains the most popular platform for such tactics. In this case, influencers and brands will have the opportunity to increase their following, generate new leads, and more by keeping up with Instagram influencer trends in 2023.
Here are some Instagram influencer marketing trends to look out for in 2023.
Instagram Reels
Instagram Reels allow you to express your brand or personal story creatively through short videos. They can last up to 90 seconds which can be individual clips or several combined. You can then add music, text, closed captions, and visual effects through the app to enhance its impact.
Instagram users go to Reels to participate in trends, find new ideas and collaborate with other Instagram users. Reels bring a larger audience because it’s an effective way to reach an audience aside from your followers. Moreover, 50% of Instagram users find Reels through the explore page, suggesting why Reels bring in a larger audience. The benefit of reels over Instagram videos is that you have access to music and other editing tools, such as on-screen text and filters.
Instagram Shopping
Instagram Shopping is a set of features that allows people to shop for your pictures and videos across the platform. This feature is excellent for influencers since they can directly promote products from various brands they partner with on their profile. It also allows followers to tap the ‘view products’ button, where they can purchase the tagged products using Instagram checkout. This makes it easy for users to find products and checkout in a few simple steps.
Instagram Stories
Instagram Stories are beneficial to influencers since they can upload exclusive pictures and videos for 24 hours on their feed, unlike posts that stay on your feed indefinitely. Due to the majority of Instagram users looking for genuine raw content, Stories are ideal since this type of content is most often shown there. Influencers can use Instagram Stories as a platform to show behind-the-scenes and exclusive content, which users love.
With Instagram Stories, users can access filters that are unique to stories only. The filters can range from color effects to various effects made by numerous Instagram users. Stories allow users to upload music and on-screen text of their choice to their pictures and videos. Another benefit of Instagram Stories is the repost feature. Influencers often will repost content to their stories, which is a noble way to bring new traffic to their page. You can reach more people this way, such as those who may have missed your post.
Additionally, Instagram Stories also allow users to add links. Since influencers are often asked where they purchased certain products, they can use shoppable Instagram story stickers on their story to link products to their followers.
Influencers and brands can see their Instagram Story insights on the Dash Hudson platform to determine how they perform in comparison to posts and Reels. This can also let them see what story content is more appealing to their audience and thus make more informed decisions about their content going forward.
Micro-Influencers
Micro-influencers on Instagram are influencers with a smaller following. This type of influencer is increasing in popularity and becoming more trendy due to their audience feeling more relatable to them due to their smaller ‘community,’ which is also often associated with higher engagement. They are usually more successful at selling products since their audience feels more connected to them, and they are more likely to purchase something they suggest. Over 91% of people have said they trust micro-influencers more than traditional advertising tactics due to their relationship with their audience.
Additionally, working with micro-influencers is more cost-effective for brands than with macro-influencers since they have a smaller audience.
The Metaverse and Virtual Reality
The metaverse and virtual reality is an emerging and quite futuristic trend that is giving influencers a new creative way to promote themselves and their products. Furthermore, the Metaverse is a form of virtual reality where users can create and modify the environment itself, although the virtual worlds continue to exist even when you’re not playing.
A prime example of this trend is the rise of virtual influencers. Virtual influencers are fictional characters generated by computers with realistic characteristics, features, and personalities. Brands are increasingly partnering with them and will most likely expand even more as brands join and experiment in the metaverse. A supporting example of a virtual influencer who is quite successful on Instagram is Miquela (@lilmiquela). This virtual influencer was created as a 19-year-old girl who lives in LA and has gained quite a popularity on social media. She has over 3 million followers on Instagram and has since partnered with some of the biggest brands, such as Pacsun, Prada, and Calvin Klein.
An example of an influencer who has joined the Metaverse and saw increasing performance on their platforms is the artist Travis Scott. His avatar on Fortnite (a metaverse) held a nine-minute concert that 12 million people attended. With that single gig using the metaverse, Travis Scott made $20 million.
By joining the metaverse in its emerging stages, you can build your social connections virtually and network early on since this trend is so upcoming. You can also keep up to date with what is happening on the new platform and stay in touch with what’s to come by adopting early.
Instagram Insights by Dash Hudson
Instagram trends can help influencers excel in their niche due to their knowledge and staying ahead in what is up and coming to engage followers. The Dash Hudson platform enables Instagram influencers to excel in their niche with Instagram Insights. It provides several metrics to allow you to see what your audience engages with, daily, weekly, and monthly reporting, as well as customized analytics. Dash Hudson is key to helping influencers optimize their performance on Instagram through actionable, quality insights that will save you time and help you be more efficient.
FAQs
What type of content is best for Instagram 2023?
Although Instagram posts are this platform's original form of content, video-based content is increasing and will be the future of content marketing. That being said, the use of Instagram Stories and Reels is performing the best as of 2023.
What will influencer marketing look like in 2023?
In 2023, influencer marketing is much more than brands working with big names who have a large following. Micro-influencer marketing is increasing, and brands are working with smaller influencers due to their higher engagement rates. Therefore, companies are working with both micro and macro influencers in 2023 to optimize their content marketing strategy
What is the current trend in influencer marketing?
Regarding influencer marketing, there are several current trends to follow. Instagram Reels and Instagram Stories are beginning to take over the classic, static feed. Micro-influencers are the new macro-influencer. In addition, the Dash Hudson platform has a trend and reporting section where you can discover trends you have never seen before.
How to find trending Instagram influencers?
To find trending Instagram influencers, you can do your research, but to save you time, the Dash Hudson platform can surface all UGC content you’ve been tagged or mentioned in, sort it by highest potential reach, and analyze it based on what your audience likes to help identify and highlight influencers who might suit your brand.
