Instagram Shoutouts In 2020: A Beginner’s Guide

Everybody’s talking about Instagram shoutouts. How do I get one? In this article, I’ll share with you how to obtain your first shoutout in 5 easy steps!

Our team develops technical solutions that let people all over the globe start independent online businesses.  Just read this article to learn how you can launch your own profitable eCommerce website with the lowest cost possible. 

We test these solutions ourselves: we have several self-managed stores where we test our software (mainly the dropship spy) and experiment with marketing strategies to provide you with up-to-date  info in our blog articles.  That’s why we can tell you so much about online business promotion!  For example, we’ve been using shoutouts for over 3 years now, so we definitely can share a couple of secret tips here.  Let’s go! 

What does a shoutout mean?

As usual, we’ll start with the basics. A shoutout is a promotional post of your product that is published on someone’s else page, not yours.  It is typically posted by an account with a large amount of followers - an influencer  account. 

It can be an account of some type of community or a personal page, but in any case, the page  owners are not the actual manufacturers or sellers of the product they’re promoting. 

Social proof factor makes shoutouts a much more interesting advertising format than traditional  sponsored posts.  In comparison to sponsored posts, shoutouts are often more engaging.  Viewers are less likely to skip over them without paying any attention, and, if they  trust the account’s owner, they will take note of this recommendation. 

So, how to get a shoutout for your store products?  We’ve prepared a detailed roadmap for you - just follow these simple steps! 

Step 1: Make sure shoutouts will work for you

You need to begin with some basic research.  Ask yourself the following questions: Does your target audience use Instagram at  all?  What are these people interested in, and what can motivate them to make a purchase?  And, most importantly, are your products appealing enough to make a beautiful and catchy Instagram post? 

Step 2: Create a store account on Instagram

Most likely, after your research, you won’t see any obstacles to getting a shoutout, and you’ll get even more inspired to give it a try.  At this point, you’ll need to make an Instagram account for your store, if you don’t already have one. 

Pay attention to the content of your account.  The best strategy is to mix entertaining and educational posts with photos of your products.  Also, make sure that your post descriptions contain hashtags and so-called call-to-actions,  such as ‘tag a friend’ or ‘follow the link in bio.’ 

When your page is filled with attractive and engaging content, it looks current and trustworthy  - both to your followers and to your future shoutout partners.  Make sure you have a link to your website in the bio! 

Step 3: Choose the items you will promote

Now, your account is ready to start promoting, and it’s time for you to pick the products  you’ll be advertising through a shoutout.  You should choose either a highly demanded product or a promising item that is coming  into fashion right now.  The strategies for choosing these 2 types of products are quite different. 

If you want to pick a bestseller that is guaranteed to bring you profit, start with AliExpress dropshipping research.  In the search bar, type in the product category which suits your store, and filter the results  by the number of orders.  The first results page will give you more than enough ideas.  Don’t forget to check the item’s review and the buyers’ feedback - you’re looking  for a high quality product, right? 

Then, to make sure the chosen product is presently in demand, you can go on Pinterest and see what’s trending there.  Does your item fall into this range?  And, to make absolutely sure you’ve made the right decision, you can also do a product search on eBay.  Here, you can see how many times the products have been sold and decide whether this item is worthy of your attention.

If instead of a best seller you want to promote a promising new product, you’ll need an  alternative strategy.  On AliExpress, filter the search results by date - you’ll get the newest added products first.  Of course, they will have zero reviews and no rating data to rely on, so to keep yourself safe from fraud, you need to pay close attention to the seller’s overall rating. 

And now, once you know which item you’ll use for a store shoutout, the only thing left  to do is import it on your website and create the perfect product page.  If you don’t know how to do it, just follow the detailed guidelines on our blog. 

Step 4: Find the account for placing shoutouts

Here comes the most interesting part: choosing the blogger who will spread the word about  your amazing product!  To find the right person, you need to understand what is interesting and relevant to your target audience and look for an account that provides suitable content.  If you followed our tips on how you find your niche, you might go for something you know really well.  In this case you might already have an idea what kind of blogger or even which specific  bloggers would be a good choice for you.  They might be local celebrities or thematic blogs found on Instagram.  But even if you have no idea who can do a shoutout for you, you can find related blogs.  Just type your audience’s interests in the Instagram search box and check the accounts  that match them. 

Look at this one.  It features different accounts in every post and this post is definitely a shoutout.

So, you can ask this blogger to highlight your product also.  The best idea is to select accounts with more than 100,000 followers - but remember that the more followers an account has, the more they will charge you for a shoutout.  Make sure these followers aren’t just bots - there should be enough likes and comments under the posts.  And, look at the page’s content to see if this blogger just randomly posts some pictures  mixed in with ads, or really invests in making a captivating page. 

There are also some special marketing tools to find influencers like hypeauditor.com or  clouthq.com, but you can manage to find them yourself for the first few times. 

Step 5: Order a shoutout

Now, you’re ready to go!  Just write a direct message to the account’s owner.  Introduce yourself and ask if it’s possible to request a shoutout.  Here is a sample text:

Don’t be shy to discuss the shoutout details: you should agree on the payment terms, shoutout  placement format, the time of its publication and the duration of the promo.  It is also a good idea to learn more about this account’s followers: when they are most active and what types of content they prefer.  It will help you create the most efficient shoutout for this blogger. 

After you’ve sent the picture and the caption to the blogger, don’t forget to place an identical post on your own account.  It will be useful to the people coming to your page after seeing a shoutout.  You, in turn, will be able to answer their questions right under this post. 

When the promotion is over, thank the blogger for the collaboration, and see how many sales  you’ve gotten during this period.  If you like the results, go ahead and try it again with a different product.