Want to be self-made and overpaid? Becoming an Influencer on Social Media has never been easier. Do you have to make a fool of yourself on national TV? No. Do you have to show up as an Ex on the beach? No. Let us guide you in how to succeed in the hottest profession right now – Social Media Influencer!
People get influenced by people – not brands
Social media is like a moth to moth-reputation on steroids. People will never stop trusting in other people's recommendations, and reputations will travel at ultra-speed. On the other hand, marketing communication and sales will always be having to fight to gain trust with the customers. So, marketing invented Influencer Marketing – Influencers, the Kings and Queens on Social Media that gets the word out!
Influencers are trusted promoters by their followers. And this is why it is such a good marketing strategy for brands. Because the potential customers want to feel affiliation and recognition, and that's precisely what an Influencer doe's for you. It's just a human being, like yourself. With the same problems and needs, as you!
How to become an Influencer
If you want to become an Influencer, you must be prepared to work hard, have patience, and be determined to invest all lof time in your content and Social media channels. To give you some time perspective, you should create a content plan for about a year.
Did this scare you off to aim for the Influencer career? No? Brilliant! Start with these eight steps to grow your business as a Social Media Influencer.
1. Discover your niche and USP
If you want to succeed as an Influencer, you need to find your niche that fits your profile. To find this specific niche, you can start by evaluating your strengths and weaknesses.
To find your Influencer-niche answers these questions:
- What are you good at?
- What's your passion?
- What do you love?
- What are your hobbies or interests?
- Are you freaky?
And then discover your categories:
- Is it a passion for fashion?
- Lifestyle
- A globetrotter who loves to travel?
- Foodie?
- Beauty?
- Health and fitness?
- Tech?
- Gamer?
- Or just always the life of the party?
The best tip is to combine two or several of these categories when you pick your influencer niche. A great piece of advice is to find two niches that are pretty close to each otherother, such as travel and lifestyle or fashion and beauty. This will make it much easier for you to create high quality content for your social media channels that are appealing to your followers.
You don't have to go with the larger influencer niches that are already established; the best thing, if it's possible, is to find a unique niche that not many influencers have found.
Heck, if a kid from the U.S can review toys on YouTube and become one of the largest influencers in the world, then there must be a crazy, unique influencer niche for you.
So, don't be afraid to try something unestablished on social media. As long as someone can relate, you're good to go.
2. How to know which social media platform to use
You don't have to be everywhere to get somewhere as an influencer. Rookie-mistake is to go too hard and then go home when picking social media platforms to start establishing on. Start strong on one platform and grow your influencer reputation there.
To know which social media platform to go for, you have to choose the one that would work best with your content. Say you're a foodie, then a platform like Instagram or YouTube is a much better platform than Twitter or LinkedIn.
You can also use demographic data and statistics from all different social media platforms to understand which channel to go witch. Take Tik-Tok as an example; 62% of American users are between the age of 10-30 years. So if your content is for an audience under 30, Tik-Tok would be your place to be.
As an influencer, you have to be very dedicated to your online presence and up to date with trends on the internet and on social media. Even though we said that you should only focus on one social media channel, you do best in using multiple channels on social media to show your presence. You don't have to be super percent on every channel; make sure to post at least once in a while on the other channels. But like we said, focus strongly on the platform that works for your content.
If you're in the category of beauty or fashion, you need a platform to visually show your content to your audience, such as Instagram. A platform like Twitter is not recommended for an MUA Influencer or fashion blogger, for example.
93% of Influencers within the niche fashion use Instagram as a social media platform to grow their business. Even though this is the case, it doesn't mean that your niche works the best with the platform,
3. Find followers that will follow you
To reach success as a Social media Influencer, you need to find your audience and the community that will support you. Without fans, followers, and subscribers, your personal brand will be weak on social media. Before you start posting on the social media platform of your choice, it's essential to define your targeted audience.
Focus on the people and community's that will engage in your type of content. They will help you grow your personal brand on social media.
Depending on your niche, you will find your target group on different platforms. Want to be the next Influencer in business and finance? Your target group is most certainly on Twitter and LinkedIn, and maybe even some on YouTube. But if you want to be a health and fitness influencer, your audience is for sure on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.
4. Influence your target group in the right way
To find your ideal target group, ask yourself questions like:
- What is the age and gender of my audience?
- Where do they live?
- How are they using the internet and social media?
- What are their interests?
5. Interact with your followers
When you start to grow your fan base and gaining more followers, it's a convenient time for you to get to know your audience better. It makes it easier for you to customize your content for your followers.
Make sure to follow up on comments and interactions. You will quickly understand what your followers on social media like and dislikes. Keep track of this, and you will know what kind of content engages your followers.
Also, take a look at your audience demographics. If you use a social media platform such as Instagram, you can upgrade your account to Professional Account and get insights about who is interacting with your content. Find out where your followers live and post content that suits their location.
And of course, always see to what kind of content flies and what dies. You will notice how some posts got a lot of interactions and how other posts didn't.
You can discover in the statistics on several social media platforms how and when your followers are the most active. On Instagram, you can find what time and day that your followers are the most active. And you can see a summary of your posts that got the most engagement and build a hypothesis on what kind of content your followers appreciate. Also, never be afraid to tweak your content and try something new.
6. Optimize your Social Media profiles
Your" bio" on social media is the face of your personal brand. Ensure that your personal information and bio are interesting and appealing to your target group. It should tell the visitor who you are, what you post about, and why they should follow you. Make sure that it is well-written, engaging, and sexy. And never forget to remind them to follow you.
7. Influencers should always publish high-quality and relevant content
As an influencer, you should always strive to post often and relevant content for your target group. Now, when you've done your homework on who you want to attract, you have to make sure to post relevant content for them. And post regularly – with quality. Content is king, and frequently-posting-influencer wear the crown!
Do not focus too much on frequency; it's the quality that matters. And that goes for both pictures and captions. Your posts, Stories, and videos should be of high quality and eye-catching. Your captions and copy should be professional, with correct grammar and spelling. And, of course, all content should be relevant to your niche.
8. Build your follower base!
Find Influencers in your niche and make sure to connect with the audience that has engaged with this Influencer on Social Media. You can go to an Influencers profile on Instagram and follow the people following this specific Influencer.
The easiest way to build your following base is to keep publishing content. Use hashtags, location geotagging, and tag any products that appear in your posts – even if you don't have a paid collaboration. Don't get caught up on the likes—those will come. As you start, remember to network. Follow other accounts that you admire and engage with them and their followers in the comments section. Direct message people who inspire you. Treat your account as an extension of yourself when you're out mingling—introduce yourself, say hi, compliment other people's content. The more you get yourself out there, the more followers you'll attract.
9. Publish according to your follower's schedule, platform, and time-zone
Timing is crucial for social media influencers. Because if you post during a slow period, it can punish your engagement. Depending on platform, location, and time you can earn a lot of engagement and lose a lot.
When becoming an influencer on Twitter, you have to be prepared to post often, maybe multiple times a day, to become successful.
But on Instagram, it's a great idea to post content in a variety of media. Like Reels, Stories, and images. Depending on which countries you're aiming for, a good idea could be to post after work hours and before school in their specific time zone.
Like, Spanish people don't work the same hours as Swedish people – they're probably having a siesta while Swede's are having an office "fika."
10. Make damn sure to get discovered by brands
When you've got your stuff together, it's time to get discovered. You found your niche and USP, you have defined your target group. You've established your accounts on those Social Media platforms that your target group likes. You've started to post cool, exciting content and earned engagement. You've built a large following base - Apr. over 1000 followers (this will qualify you into what we call a nano or micro influencers), and you're frequently posting quality content. So let's start getting paid?!
Register a profile on an Influencer Marketing Platform (Beatly) to get yourself out there. Make sure to be visible for brands to find you when looking for Influencer in your niche. Register your different social media accounts and add compensation information; this will make it super easy for brands to approach you and propose a collaboration! It is even possible on some influencer marketing platforms to approach brands yourself and ask if they want to collaborate with you.
And that's how to become an influencer that is successful! All you need is the right influencer strategy, the right social media platform, and loyal followers to build your Influencer career. And maybe a really good party trick!