Social media influencers are the most in thing right now. Brands want to collaborate with these influencers to expand their reach in the market and drive sales. Almost every major industry has seen a rise in influencers. These influencers have millions of followers who look forward to expert advice and recommendations from them.
As influencer marketing is becoming more popular, many people are becoming curious about how to become an influencer. So here we bring to you a few tips and strategies on how you can become an influencer successfully.
But before we talk about these tips and strategies, let us first know who exactly is a social media influencer. A social media influencer is an individual who through various social media platforms, expresses their opinions on certain brands, products or certain trending issues, consequently influencing their captive audience.
They have the power to affect the purchase of specific products by reviewing them across platforms like YouTube, Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, etc.
We’ve outlined some tips for you to start becoming an influencer.
- Find your niche: The most important and foremost step is to select the nice that you are interested in and can constantly create content about. You will have to research and post content in your interest area. Hence, it is important to choose something you are passionate about. It will be a bonus if you have some expertise in the field you are about to establish yourself as an influencer in.
- Pick your platform: As an influencer, you need to have a powerful presence on the internet. However, not every niche is suitable for every social media platform. Certain niche requires only 1-2 platforms that are best suited. For example, for a fashion influencer, Instagram would work better for visual content than Twitter. Similarly for video content, YouTube and Instagram work best. Hence, its best to focus all your work towards the most suitable and most preferred platform by your users. If you are on different platforms, remember to tailor your content for each channel.
- Know what your audience wants: An effective way to ensure that your content garners traction is to create content that your audience wants. Thus, before you start creating content and posting on social media, you need to understand your target audience. It is important to know who you’re targeting and build a loyal follower base. If you want your content to strike a chord with your audience, you must have a deep understanding of your follower community. To understand your audience, you can first start by analyzing your current follower base to get insights into their demographics and interests. Most social media platforms have built-in analytics tool that provides such insights about your current audience. It is also important to pay attention to the comments section. It can be a goldmine of fresh content ideas that your audience wants to read/watch.
- Make relevant content: It is extremely important to publish unique and authentic content that resonates with your audience. The more you can engage with your audience, the more people will be influenced by your opinions and recommendations. You need to formulate a content strategy and use a mix of content types, preferably the ones that your audience will most like. Depending on your niche and distribution channels, you can choose different types of content such as blog posts, photos, videos, podcasts, etc. You must find the unique quirk or trait that distinguishes you from other influencers in your niche. Once you have identified this unique selling proposition (USP), incorporate it into your content as much as possible.
- Up your Hashtag game: Your content only becomes valuable and meaningful when it reaches the right audience. An effective way of giving increased visibility to your content is by adding appropriate hashtags to your social media posts. This is especially useful for people who are just starting as influencers and need to grow their audience. Identify the most relevant and trending hashtags in your niche. Then use them in your posts to get your content seen by an entirely new audience that may have been unaware of your existence.
- Be regular and consistent: Most social media platforms’ algorithms give preference to accounts that post regularly. This is especially true for Instagram, which requires a regular posting frequency for increased visibility. It is also the biggest influencer marketing platform. When you deliver good content regularly, it creates a sense of anticipation among your audience. That, in turn, boosts audience engagement and increases your reach. You should create a timeline for all of the content you plan on publishing in the next few months. You can also create a weekly or monthly series to keep your audience hooked.
- Engage with your audience: Once you start posting content on social media, you will often get likes and comments on your posts. For an influencer, it is important to connect with their followers, therefore, you cannot ignore these comments. It is a good practice to reply to comments and answer any questions that your followers ask you. You can also just “like” their comments to show your appreciation. Another way to engage with your audience is to ask them a question and start a conversation about a topic of mutual interest. Interactions like these help build personal connections with your audience and solidify your position as an influencer.
- Collaborate with other influencers: When you are starting, and still wondering how to become an influencer, partnering with someone famous in your niche can be of great help. It gives you access to their fan base and allows you to attract them to your social media profiles. You must be able to offer something of use to the other influencer to tempt them to collaborate with you. If the bigger influencers seem out of reach, you can even partner with micro-influencers who have small yet highly engaged fan bases.
Conclusion: These are tried and tested expert tips that you can use to become an influencer in your domain. Follow these steps and give it time and you will see the desired results. Remember that it is a process that takes time and effort to yield results. So, you can’t expect to become an influencer overnight. However, if you keep following these tips, you can become an influencer and start making money online.