By JESSICA KOUROUNIOTIS, JESSICA MAGDALENA and CHERMAINE WONG

More brands than ever are turning to social media influencers to advertise their products. 

The number of Instagram posts containing “#ad” or “#sponsored” tags nearly doubled to just over 1.5 million posts worldwide between 2016 and 2017, Recent data collected by influencer marketing group Klear. 

 A 2018 survey of social influencers around the world found nearly 80 per cent of those surveyed considered Instagram to be their main platform for collaborating with brands.

Celebrities such as Kim Kardashian have been known to charge up to $500,000 per Instagram post, while influencers with hundreds of thousands of followers can charge up to a few thousand dollars per post. 

However, smaller influencers can be more appealing to growing brands as they often do not charge for promotional posts.

Melbourne-based fashion blogger Steph Kourouniotis, who has more than 23,000 Instagram followers, says it is difficult for influencers to make a living through Instagram.

She says when businesses work with smaller influencers there is usually little, if any, payment involved.

“Usually you need to already have a large following in order for a company to be willing to pay for a post," Ms Kourouniotis says.

Smaller influencers often receive offers from smaller businesses and brands, such as cafes, who are trying to grow their follower count.

“You really get to help that brand grow in regards to their exposure, and that’s a good feeling knowing that you’re helping [them] to develop,” she says.

Despite having received promotional products, invitations to events and offers for brand collaborations, Ms Kourouniotis says that she, and many influencers she knows, have never received money in exchange for posts.

“If you’re still growing your following, it is difficult to make a sustainable income. I currently work two jobs and Instagram is more of a hobby to me, and I’ve chosen to keep it that way.”

A 2016 survey of 2500 micro-influencers found only 42 per cent of those surveyed had been paid to create branded content.

Of this group, 84 per cent of influencers said they charged less than $250 per branded Instagram post and 97 per cent said they charged less than $500 per post.

According to a Bloglovin Marketers survey, 70 per cent of online brands look for the size of an influencer’s following when wanting to endorse, and some look at where they are based. 

Indonesian makeup influencer Annette Setiawan, who has more than 38,000 Instagram followers, describes the endorsement process in Indonesia as “brand-friendly and target-audience based”.

“Usually, brands from Indonesia tend to look for influencers that match their own company’s aesthetics and style,” she said.

“I have a very colourful personal style. Therefore the brands that would usually approach me are clothing or cosmetic companies that sells more fun and intriguing lines.”

Ms Setiawan says the number of followers is not the main selling point.

“In the Indonesian context, numbers is not that important of a criteria that brands look for when wanting to endorse, but also the influencers audience preference,” Ms Setiawan says. Brands are attracted to influencers with a common target audience. 

Indonesian lifestyle blogger Karin Novilda, professionally known as Awkarin, has constructed what she calls the “A-Team” – 12 good-looking teenagers her age that attract lucrative brand deals.

Awkarin describes The A-Team as “a new-step in her online career” as she works to mentor up-and-coming social media influencers and teaches them how to work with brands and endorsement deals.

In Singapore, endorsements are serious business transactions where contracts and lengthy terms and conditions are involved.

Singaporean YouTuber Melissa Ang, who has more than 16k followers on Instagram, described the endorsement process as a two-way relationship.

“Usually local brands or shops would source out influencers to mention positive things about their company, but similarly influencers can also be the ones emailing or PM-ing (private messaging) the companies they are interested in to collaborate with,” she says.

“Contracts and lengthy terms and conditions are also very common within Singaporean influencers, especially with endorsements that have large sums of money involved.”

Misaki Cosmetics co-owner Me Lee says they have a have a number of criteria that influencers must satisfy in order to secure a brand deal. 

Influencers that work with Misaki Cosmetics must have “50,000 or more followers”,  Ms Lee says, and they look for frequent engagement between the influencer and her followers.

However, not all influencers who have reached out to Misaki Cosmetics have been successful in securing a brand deal, she says, and those with low quality Instagram pictures have been turned away from the company.

The company does not partner with influencers who are likely to have fake and paid for followers, she says. 

Misaki pays influencers through a commission-based system, used to track the influencer’s impact on sales, assessed on a monthly basis.

This commission based system involves influencers circulating their discount codes for Misaki Cosmetics, which provides shoppers a discount at checkout. Influencers then receive commission for their promotion, Ms Lee says.

She advises collaborators to be consistent and only post quality photos relevant to the targeted audience, which for them is the makeup industry. Posting only makeup-related posts, photos and content – without personal food or travel photos – was the secret to gaining over 60,000 followers on Misaki Cosmetics’ Instagram page, Ms Lee says.

How an influencer brands themselves on their page is crucial to their content development, because their branding affects how relatable it is for their followers and whether or not the followers can connect with the content.