Becoming an Influencer is a great idea among millenniums. Not only it became almost a job but it is also actually on the top list of marketing strategy. Influencers by definition are someone who get paid for promoting brands or products. No matter if this influencer is a micro or macro influencer.
Influencers have their own loyal followers, creative crafts and ideas that massively attract their target audience, this is why marketers and brands are very interested in investing in an influencer marketing campaigns. The genuine character and the trustworthiness of the influencers and its capacity to convert their viewers into customers and consumers provide the brands the satisfaction they are looking for.
Why do we think that hiring influencers are one of the effective ways to reach out to potential customers? Simple, because Brands are somewhat too big and too outlying to create the same characteristics, qualities and the connection that the influencer builds with the potential customers, or let’s say the “Target Market”.
Are you an individual wanting to become an influencer? Below are some tips to start your own influencer empire, but first off, let us answer some important questions to have a clear background about what is an influencer.
Influencers are people with loyal communities on their social media accounts or blogs. But why are they called influencers? Or why they were qualified to become influencers? It is because they are on trend and relatable to their followers, and they spend times to engage with followers.
Brands love influencers because they have access to a captive influence. People definitely trust influencers because of their honest opinion, powerful voice and the ability to sell both directly and indirectly. Brands partnering with influencers are mutually beneficial as influencers offer brands their target markets while influencers have the opportunity to earn an income from their own opinion or promotion.
So how to become an influencer? Here are 6 essential tips that you should follow:
1. Know What You are Passionate about and Enjoy Your Content
You know what you are passionate about. You are given this social media stage to be YOU, and tell people about your passion. A Career Without Passion Is Like Driving a Car With No Fuel: You Won’t Go Far!
Treat your influencer work as a career work. Do what you are best at. Make sure you will be able to enjoy the content you will be creating. Finding a niche that you are passionate about will ease your difficulties a bit as a beginner.
2. Be Yourself, Don't Brag.
Being yourself, and being a personality will always allow you to build a connection with your followers. You don’t have to portray your whole life but just let your readers see how relatable you are to your followers.
Promote yourself, but don’t brag, remember that a good content defends itself. If you are able to connect with your followers they will surely invest their time and effort in you. They will surely listen to you and will look out for you for any advice, opinion, and inspiration. Remember, you are the key opinion leader in the area you are posting. You have a voice that is going to be heard. Be authentic, do not promote anything that you do not like.
3. Engage with Your Follower Community
Either you have a minimal amount of followers on your social media pages or thousands of followers, the most important thing is the number of users who actually interact with you, which is also called the engagement rate.
Today, most of the brands when finding influencers will not look solely on their follower counts, but also engagement rate, and relevant scores. Building relationship with your followers will help you gain more numbers of “active” followers, ask questions, respond to their comments and show your followers an interest in them. In that way, they will feel that they are being valued by you and they will be more likely to contribute, engage and improve your community.
You can use tools like SocialBook to find the most engaged commenters of your YouTube or Instagram channel. After you connecting your channel, brand will send sponsorship opportunities to you as well.
Here is a detailed instruction for you to take a look.
4. Create Good Content
To become an influencer you need to create a good content in order to rank up your appearance, being active on your blog or social media platforms is a great method for improving your appearance. Joining a conversation and sharing your own opinions will help you build your visibility and possibly authority.
Your content is what keeps people coming back to you, so you should create content that is relatable and valuable. Then once you have planned and created the contents you have been passionate about, start publishing them constantly, make sure it would leave a mark on the audience mind so they will come back for more.
5. Choose the Main Social Media Channel
There are lots of social media channels to choose from. Figuring out your main social media channel is also very important as these are the platforms you are about to showcase your talents.
If you are good at making videos, YouTube might be the best place to publish your content, but if you are good at taking pictures, go with Instagram. Think about the properties of the platforms and tailor your strategy toward the platform.
6. Network with Other Influencers in Your Genre
Network with other similar influencers. Usually influencer marketing managers are reaching out to groups of similar influencers for any campaigns. They will definitely appreciate your referral when they need extra influencers to push out their influencer marketing campaigns! Usually, people will follow similar influencers, so this will help you grow your follower base as well.
Influencers are just regular people. They work very hard to create relatable and valuable contents, they engage with their followers and they build a strong community with their followers.
If you are an influencer who want to
- Get brand sponsorships
- Grow your YouTube with a handy free tool
- View detailed analytics of your channel