Posted by In one of my previous articles, I wrote about how we’re currently in a Creators’ economy. Since 2013, more people have leaned toward social media for their marketing or entertainment purposes.
For some people, what may have started off as a hobby or an experiment, eventually got them a ton of followers. People realized that their followers liked their content and they could sway audience opinions, and that’s how influencers began to grow in the world of social media.
Once big brands realized that social media was going to be the new platform for marketing, they started looking for Influencers in their niche to promote and market their products and services. This motivated influencers to reach out to these brands and earn through influencer marketing.
Since the 1st generation of influencers, it has become easier to pinpoint how, why, and when a user becomes a content creator and then becomes an influencer.
I’ll list out a few checkpoints here to remember when you decide you want growth in your social media and pave the way to becoming an influencer yourself.
1. Choose your niche
Making this your first step on your way to becoming an influencer will create a firm foundation. Sticking to one niche will make it easier to create content and also make it less confusing for your audience.
You can either choose something based on a hobby or a skill. And once you’ve selected something, you can branch out and make content pillars. For example, if you’re a gym buff, you can post daily workouts, tips for weight loss or building muscle, explain how gym equipment can be used, etc.
The best option is to try and choose something you’re passionate about so it doesn’t always feel like work. 🙂
2. Post relevant content
Planning your content beforehand helps you look at the bigger picture and ensure that your content is relevant. If your content isn’t planned and has random posts it will confuse or even irritate your audience and it will cause you to lose followers.
When you choose your niche and start planning your content pillars, you need to make sure that it’s broad enough to be able to include anything and everything related to the niche.
You can also use tools like Crowdfire for curating content based on your niche. Adding keywords to their content curation feature gives you articles and images relevant to your niche and you can post them directly to your social platforms.
3. Post consistently
To maintain a good profile as well as audience expectations, it’s important to post consistently. Erratic posting is better left to people who are already world-famous.
It is said that the algorithms of social platforms give more importance to users who are consistent in their posting schedules.
You can decide if you post content every day, four times a week, twice a week, etc. Once you decide though, it’s best to stick to it. Unless of course, you feel your audience will respond better to a change.
The frequency also depends on the platform. YouTube or Facebook may not require you to post as regularly as Twitter and Instagram. Be sure to take this into consideration when creating your content calendar.
4. Optimize your profiles and bios
Optimizing your profile and bio also makes a huge difference to an outsider viewing your accounts. Keeping it updated, detailed, and clean is always good practice. If adding a relevant joke or pun doesn’t make it look too crowded then definitely add it.
Cross-linking your profiles from other platforms is also good practice. This way potential marketing partners will not have trouble looking for you over the internet. This also comes in handy when creating an influencer kit which I’ll talk about in a bit.
Having a clear and visible display picture and the cover image is also very important.
5. Engage with your audience
This is considered pretty important when it comes to growing as an influencer. When you engage with your audience, it helps to increase your follower base. Replying to the comments left by your followers will portray you as someone who cares about your audience. In case you don’t have the bandwidth to reply to every comment, you can still like the comment to show the user that you appreciate them engaging with your content.
Engagement with your audience also depends on the kind of posts you publish. You can have contests, trivia, polls, listings, etc.
6. Update content pillars
As we all know, change is important for growth. Sometimes the change can be good or it can be bad but it’s important nevertheless. As I mentioned earlier, based on your audience’s temperament, you might have to change your content pillars to ensure your audience stays interested in your content.
For example, I mentioned a couple of options in the first point about gym equipment or tips. You can maybe move on to the cost of personal trainers or setting up equipment at home. Maybe you can do a bit on gym equipment for the physically challenged if that’s what your audience has been asking for. This is another reason why engagement is important so that you can keep updating the quality of your content.
7. Collaborate openly
To become a beloved influencer, you must engage and collaborate openly. It’s important not to discriminate or be biased when it comes to engaging with your audience or even partnering with a brand.
This shows a professional side of you and will help you garner more and more partnerships.
8. Influencer Kit
The Influencer Media Kit is a very important tool to keep handy if you want to thrive as an influencer. It’s basically like a portfolio. Your bio will be at the very beginning. You then need to include links to all your profiles and mention a few stats like followers or engagement rate. Adding your audience demographics also helps brands understand if you’ll be a good fit for them.
After that, you can list out your past work and give a short summary of each partnership.
9. Network
Networking is so important when it comes to marketing. Building a community among your audience definitely helps with networking. Referrals given via word of mouth or via mutual often work out better than the cold calling method.
Once you have your content scheduled, and your media kit ready, you can spend some more time networking. If you go far enough and get famous you might even get invited to fancy influencer events which will further help your cause.
10. Upskill
If you’ve decided to create content on social media, it’s obvious that you’ve learned certain skills in video editing or photography. If you have the bandwidth and the passion for learning, you can always push yourself to learn more skills like digital marketing. This can help you come up with creative ideas to market yourself as an influencer.
Since the pandemic, a lot of sites and apps have been created offering online courses for just about anything. There’s even an online course for converting a van into a camper van, I’ve checked. A travel influencer can complete this course and then incorporate the knowledge into their content.
What other tips do you think are important to make it as an Influencer today?
Let me know in the comments below!