Social media has long been a point of some debate. Most users take part in order to communicate with others who share a like mind. But it can also be a platform through which great influence can be imparted from famous people and public figures.

That last part is an interesting bit. Doing so can involve some level of fame, particularly on platforms such as Instagram and Twitter. If you are looking to learn how to become a public figure on Instagram, there are definitely a few things worth knowing.

What Is a Public Figure on Instagram?

There can be some confusion about what it really means to be a public figure on Instagram. Before you can worry about how to become a public figure on Instagram, you should first know what the entire endeavor entails.

On Instagram, a public figure is someone who is of great public interest or fame. Typically speaking, this is a celebrity, musician, sports hero, or politician, but it can also be someone who is an “influencer.” An influencer has a large following and can be used as a marketing tool in order to influence trends upon their followers.

What makes it difficult to become a public figure is that there is no set follower count. Public figures on Facebook are measured by the impact they have on their followers. They can have anywhere from 1,000 to 1 million followers.

Having said that, anyone can become a public figure with a few profile changes. Whether that actually makes you a public figure depends on who you ask. A lot of people give themselves that title, which implies that they have a lot of followers and that this is their occupation.

How to Get to Be a Public Figure on Instagram?

This is kind of a tricky question to answer. Technically, anyone can become a public figure on Instagram. It is just a matter of going into your settings and changing the status. Doing so is a relatively simple process, too.

There are two ways in which you can create a public figure account: personal and professional. They both work about the same. You need to go into your account and check whether it is set to personal or professional. You can switch your account one way or the other, following the prompts throughout.

At the end, there should be a “public figure” option that comes from a dropdown menu. All you do is check that and you are officially a public figure.

In reality, having your profile set to “public figure” does not automatically make you one. For the most part, the social media community considers someone of great influence or fame to be a public figure.

The goal if you are hoping to become a public figure is to gain some influence and popularity. The more followers, the better, but there must be some impact over those followers. There are more than a few accounts that have paid for followers to get their numbers up but are not truly public figures.

Finally, getting a verified badge will definitely help. This means that Instagram has confirmed that the account belongs to a brand, celebrity, or a public figure. That verified badge can also give credibility to the account, making it seen as legitimate in the eyes of other users.

What Entails Public Figure Status on Instagram?

As mentioned previously, there is some debate as to what it means to be a public figure. Though it can be as simple as changing a few settings in your profile, that is more of a technicality than anything else.

Being a public figure means having some kind of palpable reach or celebrity. It means that you have some notable influence over your followers, such as directing them to a particular social trend or even influencing them to buy a product or service.

A public figure also means having a notable following. Though it is possible to become a real public figure with only a few thousand followers, the most notable of public figures will be in the hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of followers.

There are some serious benefits to becoming a public figure, too. Most “real” public figures have more than 30,000 followers and get real engagement. You might see accounts that have well over 10,000 followers, but they are largely bots and dead accounts. The key is getting real engagement from those followers, which is the true metric of a successful public figure account.

Getting verified is one of the best ways to truly prove that your public figure account is legitimate. Getting verification on Instagram shows that you are either a recognized celebrity, politician, athlete, or any number of different types of public figures.

There are also a lot of features that most people don’t realize are accessible to public figures. One of them is being able to share links, which other accounts cannot do. If you are using your public figure status to make the public aware of a certain topic or to promote a marketing campaign, that ability to share links can be a huge one.

There is also the “influencer” label, which won’t be mistaken for any fake or spam accounts. It is another level of showing that the account is legitimate.

Conclusion

Social media can be a place where everyone from every facet of life comes together to interact. It can also be a great place to spread a message or market a product. Which is why becoming a public figure can be such a big deal.

Though there are relatively few public figures, at least legitimate ones, becoming one can make a huge difference. If you are looking to spread a message or promote a product in particular, social media has the potential to be a game-changer.