With the Creator Portfolio, Instagram is launching new ways for brands and influencers to collaborate on the platform. This is another measure to prevent creators from migrating to other social networks. In fact, the problem of monetizing content is one of the biggest issues facing all apps. Hence, what exactly does the Creator Portfolio mean for brands and influencers?
The Creator Portfolio can be found on the Creator Marketplace. Creators are able to put together a media package through the new tool in order to attractively market their reach and past performance. This is interesting for brands because they can get a completely different overview of the performance of their (future) partners.
However, let’s start from the beginning. As early as July 2022, Instagram was experimenting with a creator marketplace as an official destination for creatives and brands. CEO and co-founder of VIEWBUG Ori Guttin comments: “The creator marketplace is an incredible platform to discover, negotiate deals and collaborate with creators on Instagram. It’s super simple and straightforward for us to use as a brand and seems like the creators also understand the platform really well.”
After app researcher Alessandro Paluzzi discovered the welcome screen in the app’s backend code, Instagram has now officially confirmed the Creator Portfolio option. According to this, creators will soon be able to create their own professional dashboards in the app. Easy to create and with a professional look, the portfolio is intended to support and facilitate influencer marketing on Instagram.
The update launched after Instagram chief Adam Mosseri internally noted that Instagram has some weaknesses. The Information reports:
“In [an internal] memo, Mosseri said that surveys of creators showed that Instagram “lag[s] behind TikTok and YouTube on all the dimensions that are most important to creator satisfaction,” including several unrelated to the ability to make money, such as “fun, reach, fair algorithm and care.” Mosseri also said the team is “behind where we need to be” on initiatives to help creators make money on the platform but is “upping our urgency and progress.”
By means of the Creator Portfolio, creators can become more visible to brands and also easily show that they are interested in a partnership. Influencers edit their portfolio according to their preferences: they can customize their bio, show their top posts, and highlight past collaborations.
Within the format, creators are given a free hand, i.e. they have a direct influence on what brands and thus potential partners should see. This also simplifies the former process, as influencers previously had to refer to the listing in the Creator Marketplace, which is only being tested by invitation in the US.
Instagram also offers the feature of an inbox, which automatically prioritizes messages. Then, once brands and businesses are aware of a Creator Profile, they can send fixed-offer projects with a few clicks. Creators can check, accept, and decline these offers directly on the app.
Collage via Instagram
According to the basic principle of a portfolio, creatives use it to present themselves.. Who have they already worked with? What is their expertise? What is their story? In addition, it will soon be possible to set up a specific code for partners, which will ultimately make organic advertising easier. The principle is reminiscent of an affiliate link, but now it can be created and shared directly via Instagram, thus no third party will be necessary.
Speaking of affiliates: here’s how to successfully run an e-commerce affiliate campaign with influencers in 5 easy steps!
According to this, branded content ad codes also make it easier to get advertising statistics and track the ROI of your campaign.
Image via Instagram
As already mentioned, Meta is introducing the update for Instagram in order to keep users, but especially creators, on the platform and to position itself in the competition for talent against TikTok and YouTube. TikTok, in particular, has been Instagram’s great competition for a long time:
Meta came up with a lot of special events for Creator Week 2022 in London. At the “unrivaled showcase of creative talent,” Meta presented “performances, collaborations, and inspiring conversation sessions, and [a] preview [of]new updates” of more than 450 creators from the region. For instance, this included Khaby, Youneszarou, and Sarah Hany. For the participants, there were already many opportunities for collaboration from the invited network.
The 2022 program was themed “Future Ready”, as the use of new technologies and general perspectives and opportunities for “self-realization on the Internet” were in the foreground. Furthermore, Mosseri himself was a guest on a panel discussion. In the live Q&A, Mosseri had to answer pressing questions from the audience. Eventually, the event could also be followed from home and on the app channels, which you can check out here.
On the Kolsquare blog, we regularly update you on news from the industry and give tips on influencer marketing on the platforms Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, TikTok, Twitch, and Snapchat – in short, everything that concerns you as a marketer. Feel free to write to us anytime on LinkedIn if you have any questions or suggestions. You can also request a free demo of our all-in-one IM solution, which can help you in all areas of your influencer marketing campaign.
Kolsquare is Europe’s leading Influencer Marketing platform, offering a data-driven solution that empowers brands to scale their KOL (Key Opinion Leader) marketing strategies through authentic partnerships with top creators.
Kolsquare’s advanced technology helps marketing professionals seamlessly identify the best content creators by filtering their content and audience, while also enabling them to build, manage, and optimize campaigns from start to finish. This includes measuring results and benchmarking performance against competitors.
With a thriving global community of influencer marketing experts, Kolsquare serves hundreds of customers—including Coca-Cola, Netflix, Sony Music, Publicis, Sézane, Sephora, Lush, and Hermès—by leveraging the latest Big Data, AI, and Machine Learning technologies. Our platform taps into an extensive network of KOLs with more than 5,000 followers across 180 countries on Instagram, TikTok, X (Twitter), Facebook, YouTube, and Snapchat.
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