Instagram shoutout is an influencer promotional strategy. It occurs when a popular Instagram account mentions another account in a post or story. The account giving the shoutout may encourage followers to take specific actions. For instance, an Influencer in your niche mentions your account and includes a shoutout in post caption urging followers to follow your account. When done right an Instagram shoutout can boost the followers of an account overnight.
Examples of Shoutouts
Some top brands usually promote their fans and ambassadors via shoutouts. The screenshot below shows Nike giving a shoutout to @samanthakerr20.
In the screenshot below, @canonusa gave shoutouts to seven different accounts @alialimay, and others.
In the screenshot post below, popular comedian, Kevin Hart gave a shoutout to his designer @asheleynorthstyle.
How much does a Shoutout Cost
It is important to note that the cost of a shoutout is mainly dependent on how creative and convincing the one who made it. Just a trivia, it’s possible for a well-known brand or influencer can give shoutout for free! A common instance that we see on Instagram is that Canon USA gives shoutout daily to photographers who use Canon as their camera. These photographers have their photos taken with a Canon product and used hashtag #MyCanonStory for a chance to get featured for free. Imagine how many potential followers would visit their page if they are mentioned by Canon USA on their posts – potential followers and customers will be coming in for these aspiring photographers!
How to Budget for a Paid Shoutout
To budget for a paid shoutout, these following variables need to be considered:
Size of account
Influencer’s engagement rate usually determines how much they charge for a shoutout. The higher the number of followers on an account, then the higher the potential of reaching more people. However, it is possible for two different accounts with the same number of followers to have different engagement rates. Likewise, an account with lower followers may have more or same engagement rate compared to another account with more followers. As a perfect example, Christiano Ronaldo has more followers than Kylie Jenner but Kylie’s post generates more engagement than that of Ronaldo’s as can be seen in the screenshot below according to InfluencerMarketingHub analysis.
Industry
The brand industry can also affect how much an influencer will charge in giving a shoutout. The perceived gain from the shoutout will also determine how much your account will be charged. A shoutout for an automobile company recommending a new car model will be more expensive compared to a shoutout for a skincare product. The value of your brand products and industry impacts shoutouts price.
Duration of the shoutout
How long is the shoutout on the influencer’s page? Influencers with lots of followers usually charge per hour. You are more likely to get discounts if the shoutout spans a wide duration of time. Check your budget first if you can’t afford to pay for a long duration. Before anything else, do research on the active time of your influencer’s followers who will be most likely interested in your brand. You can use this to determine the best time to get the most out of the shoutout.
Bio Link
A shoutout just mentioning your account will be less expensive compared to another that will include the link of your site or store. If you can afford the mention of your brand as well as including the link of your Bio, then why not grab this privilege!
What are the different ways to get a Shoutout
If you have been wondering how to get a shoutout, there are different ways this can be achieved and as stated earlier, the result and cost of each are dependent on how creative you can be, especially if you have a low budget. Some of these methods of getting shoutouts are free, some require favor for a favor while others require nothing but monetary commitment.
Here are the ways to get Instagram Shoutouts
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Individuals
Individuals usually called “influencers” such as celebrities and professionals with lots of followers can give a shoutout. To use this method, you need to be a good communicator and negotiator towards the influencers. It can either be free or paid depending on what you are bringing to the table.
- Free
Have you ever heard of S4S? It means Shoutout for Shoutout. The deal here is simple; an Instagram account will give another account a shoutout while the other will reciprocate by doing the same. It is just like leveraging on each others’ followers. To do this, you need to have a considerable number of followers to convince the other party and to make the effort worthwhile too. For instance, if you have 20,000 Instagram followers, it will be difficult to negotiate and nearly impossible to convince an Instagram user with 125,000 followers for an S4S deal. If you are convincing enough, such an influencer can do it for free. - Voluntary Shoutout: This does not require any lobbying from you. An influencer who is impressed with your product or what you are doing can give you a shoutout on their page. That is why this is called voluntary. This will surprise that there are several influencers who are actually doing this. In a survey conducted by Influencer.co, about 78% of influencers agree they have done a non-paid shoutout in three months!
- Paid:
What happens when you don’t have enough followers to convince another account for an S4S? Or the influencer is not interested in such a deal but you are in dire need of the influencer’s engagement? This is where the paid shoutout comes in. Just as discussed earlier, there are several things that will determine how much an influencer will charge for a shoutout ― such conditions include the number of followers and the duration the shoutout will be on their page. Again, one thing to always ask an influencer before paying for shoutout is their rate of engagement. The number of followers can be deceiving sometimes since it doesn’t translate to a rate of engagement.
Examples of Influencers giving Shoutouts to the Instagrammers
Popular American female musician, Selena Gomez gave a shoutout to @Coach bag as part of a partnership deal. Gomez has more than 160 million Instagram followers. The shoutout she did for Coach brand has gathered no lesser than 4.5 million likes. You can imagine how much exposure she gives to the bag making company.
@Coach recently has above 4 million followers. Some of the followers can be attributed to Selena’s shoutouts. But if you have any reason to disagree, here is a convincing comparison.
The screenshot above was posted on March 22 by Selena. @Coach posted a picture of Selena with one of its bags on March 30, and guess what? It has only above 90k likes, lesser than 100k likes as at the time of writing this article. These likes are also influenced by the fact that the picture of Selena was featured. In spite of that, Selena’s account reach can in no way be compared with that of Coach. You can now evaluate the power of a shoutout and why the cost may justify itself at the end.
Below is a screenshot of a female fashionista @ada_oguntodu giving a shoutout to fashion store @missguided.
British fashion illustrator and designer @hayden_williams gave a shoutout to a female musician, @kimperas after designer a cartoon of her. This kind of shoutout can be a voluntary shoutout.
Below are more examples of Influencers’ Shoutouts:
Influencer Anum Bashir (@desertmannequin) can be seen in the screenshot below giving a shoutout to some Samovar group in Dubai (@samovardubai).
Cristiano Ronaldo (@cristiano) shouted out to female footballer @martavsilva10.
Brands or Publications may also offer Shoutouts
Aside from individuals offering shoutouts, notable brands may also offer shoutouts. Most of the time, brands use shoutouts to announce their partnership with an influencer. They also use it to improve customer loyalty and engagement. In the screenshot below, fashion company Miss Guided used a shoutout to announce their new partnership with @hayden_williams
In the screenshot below, Nike (@Nike) did a short biography of the New York Giants baseball team running back, Saquon Barkley (@saquon).
To celebrate Rafael Nadal (@RafaelNadal) achievement of a trophy away from being the greatest of all time, the sportswear company @Nike did a shoutout as can be seen in the screenshot below:
Hulu (@hulu) also showed their love for their actresses by giving a shoutout as can be seen in the screenshot below.
The online publication @bestofmenstyle gave a shoutout to a fashion designer, @christosnewyork who made the trouser in the picture.
Marketplaces/Platforms to buy Shoutouts – What do they Charge?
There are online platforms that deal with shoutouts. They will help you connect with reputable influencers with followers that will be interested in your brand. Some of the one’s available today include:
Instagram influencers register on the platform to advertise their service. The platform also has filter features to segregate these influencers based on industry, so that you can choose the ones that are most likely to positively impact your Instagram page. The prices on the platform are not fixed. Each influencer is allowed to fix his/her price. Therefore, anybody interested in their service can choose the best for their account. Influencers with about 102k followers may charge between $30-$125 or more. While an influencer with $974k followers listed her shoutout price as $60-$200.
Influence.co is one of the platforms to get Instagram influencers service. It allows influencers to register on its platform. There are lots of reputable influencers on the platform. One of the things that makes the platform stand out is that it usually includes the estimated engagement of registered influencers. With this, anybody booking their service can estimate from the start how much the shoutout will positively impact Instagram account and probably business.
Aside from that, the platform also allows influencers to upload their past rendered services which can also be used to gauge the expected return after the shoutout.
Influence.co is one of the reputable platforms to get shoutouts.
ShoutCart is dedicated to promoting brands through shoutouts. It features influencers in different industries. You will be able to see the Influencers’ number of posts so far, their rate of engagement and of course, the number of followers. Also, you will be able to view their account demography follower’s age and gender.
Here are some other platforms you can check out for a Shoutout service:
- https://www.fiverr.com/gigs/shoutouts
- Hypefactory.com
- Hireinfluence.com
- Influicity.com
- Klear.com
- Experticity.com
- Tribegroup.co
- Readypulse.com
- Revfluence.com
- Ifluenz.com
- Hypetap.com
- Speakr.com
- Neoreach.com
- Weconnectsocial.com
- Instabrand.com
How do I find someone to give me a Shoutout?
Identify different influencers you believe their shoutout can promote your account. They should have at least 100k followers. Send them DM. Most of them may not reply; that is why you will need to send as many as possible influencers.
Where to look?
If you want to save yourself the stress of combing Instagram to get an influencer for your account, check out one of the platforms we mentioned (scroll up to Marketplaces/Platforms to buy shoutouts section).
What to ask for?
Shoutouts are expected to boost your organic Instagram growth through followers and give you a larger exposure. To ensure this, make sure all or most of these questions are answered by the influencer:
- Number of followers
- Rate of engagement
- The average number of likes on a photo
- Number of posts so far
- Result of former shoutout service
- Followers demography
- Duration of the shoutout
- Are the followers and engagement real – not from bots?
- Guaranteed number of followers in return
What to watch out for?
Evaluate the number of returned followers to your account as a result of a shoutout, divide it by the hours/minutes (depending) and monitor progressively. If you are not getting as many as expected, contact the influencer to notify him/her. There is nothing that needs to be watched out for except how well the shoutout is helping your account get more followers and exposures. Without any of these, the essence of the shoutout may not be achieved.
Conclusion
Shoutout is usually classified as an influencer marketing and this method of marketing is gaining lots of waves in the Instagram marketing industry. According to Oberlo, influencer marketing is worth $1.60B in 2018.
Shoutout is one of the best ways to leverage other accounts in your industry to promote yours. You can do a Shoutout for Shoutout (S4S) strategy which is usually free. You also convince an influencer to give you a shoutout for free. And if all of those are impossible, consider paying for their shoutout.
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