Tatiana Kukanova is an Instagram influencer who focuses her attention on fashion and the latest trends, she is also a very good friend of mine. We first met at pre-school and we studied right the way through college together, studying art and design. After college Tatiana knew that she didn’t want to work for someone and that she didn’t want a traditional job. This was around the time that people were beginning to make serious money on both Instagram and YouTube and so that was what inspired her to give it a try. Her original idea was that she would spend 2 years trying to make it big and if she didn’t then she would go the more traditional route, that was 9 years ago and she still hasn’t taken that job.
Content Killer
Ever since the early days when she had nobody but me looking at her Instagram profile she knew that she had to produce the highest quality content that she could. At the time there were quite a few of us who had just finished art college who were helping out on the project and trying to create the most beautiful content possible. To be honest I could never really understand her obsession with the content but I was proved very wrong when things began to take off, because people would then go back through the old content and interact with it, something they wouldn’t have done if the content had been poor.
Slice of Fortune
We were in our regular pizza haunt around a year after all of this had began and the owner was talking to us about how he was going to relaunch the parlor in order to drum up some extra business. He had the local press coming to the launch and so quick as a flash Tatiana asked if she could do some shooting as part of the relaunch, in the hope of getting spotted by the press. The owner agreed and when we arrived that day there were 2 food influencers from the area, both of whom had over a million followers. One of the girls asked Tatiana if she would like to form a partnership for a fashion and food event, and from then everything exploded. You always need some luck, and you also need the foresight to make it happen.
Engagement
It isn’t as easy for Tatiana now as it used to be but engaging with her followers is something which she has always trued to do. She used to say at the beginning that the very least that she could do was to respond to people when they ask her questions or comment on her posts, especially given the fact that these followers are the reason as to why she doesn’t have a ‘proper job’. These days it is difficult just because of the volume of followers but she still tries hard to interact with those who comment and like her stuff.
To sum up, if you want to make it on Instagram, you should focus on content, engage with your audience and keep your eye out for a touch of fortune.
To read more on topics like this, check out the business category.
