Today, working as a social media influencer is a dream for many young people. Besides being an excellent opportunity to collaborate with interesting brands, becoming an influencer can also help you gain a lot of contacts and build a community of dedicated followers who will keep coming back for your knowledge and expertise.
A successful influencer can impact their whole industry, but achieving that desired status requires hard work and dedication. It’s also important to note that there’s really no one-size-fits-all solution that will ensure immediate fame and popularity.
However, you should follow a few proven tips when trying to boost your efforts of establishing yourself as a known authority within your field.
In this article, you’ll find everything you need to know about the step-by-step process of becoming an influencer. The tips range from finding your niche to choosing the right social media platforms and learning more about online reputation management. Read on!
1. Find your niche
Before you start focusing on other key elements, first, you need to find your niche. It’s crucial that you choose something you’re really passionate about so you can feel more confident while among the people creating similar content and stay motivated to do it consistently.
If you want people to see you as a trustworthy authority, you also need to find a field in which you already have some expertise.
Working as an influencer will require you to do a lot of research and speak on various topics. People will be quick to find any inconsistencies or false bits of information and might end up unfollowing you if you post something that’s untrue.
It’s incredibly easy to lose followers and hard to gain their trust back, so set yourself up for success right away by picking the right niche that suits your interests and knowledge.
Whether you’re a fashion enthusiast or you’re a particularly talented DIYer with a passion for sustainability, you need to decide on something specific. You can also choose to combine 2-3 interests, for instance, painting and DIY, or fashion and make-up.
However, be wary not to choose several subjects that are quite far away from each other, as it could make you seem overly chaotic and all over the place.
2. Choose the right social media platforms
If you want to see your followers’ count growing, you’ll need to pick the social media platform that’s the best fit for both your niche and target audience. To do this, you’ll need to keep a close eye on your statistics, use adequate and popular hashtags, and poll your audience frequently to check what they want to see.
You’ll also have to research what platforms they tend to use the most. For instance, if your audience consists mostly of young adults, Instagram and TikTok might be your best bet, but if you want to target people over 40, you might need to focus on Facebook, YouTube, or Twitter.
Keep in mind that the kind of content you intend to post is also a big factor you should consider when choosing the right platform. For instance, if you focus on fashion and make-up, you might benefit from using Instagram or TikTok.
However, if you’re a passionate DIYer, YouTube might work the best as your primary platform, as it allows you to post longer videos than other platforms and is a place where people often look for tutorials.
3. Have a content strategy
In order to not get lost in the crowd of other influencers and establish your online presence, you’ll need to create high-quality, relevant content that proves you’re an expert in your niche.
Another crucial matter that will have an impact on your success (or lack thereof) is the form of your content. While making the decision, consider the type of platform, as each one works better with slightly different types of posts.
For instance, you might choose to use one platform, such as Instagram, to post videos, images, as well as your Instagram Stories that work great when it comes to engaging your audience and are priceless tools for effective influencer marketing.
If you want to write some content, it might be better to have a separate platform for this purpose, such as a WordPress or a Blogspot blog.
4. Stay consistent
Unless you’re already a well-known celebrity, there’s virtually no way to build a significant following and thrive as a social media influencer without consistency. If you want to keep gaining followers and retain your existing audience, you’ll need to provide high-quality content regularly.
That’s because, after some time, your audience will start relying on you to post regular updates or create more of the content they followed you for in the first place.
If you suddenly skip a few posts or uploads, especially without giving them any notice, they might think you’re inactive and decide to unfollow you or forget about you, which will result in a low to no engagement.
If you want to set a schedule for yourself, you can use social media scheduling tools to help you maintain consistency.
5. Stay consistent
Remember that establishing yourself as an influencer and maintaining your audience takes time and work. People online really appreciate it if they can rely on their favorite influencer’s posting schedule and will be much more likely to share, like, and comment on your posts if you’re adding them regularly.
This will also help you bond with your followers and build a strong relationship with them.
Final word
When you’re working as an influencer, your audience will have certain expectations. Once you build a following, people will come to you for information on the latest news, trends, and the industry that you’re in. In order to stay relevant and keep growing, you need to work hard and stay up to date with everything that’s important to your niche.
If you start your influencer journey by figuring out what your field of expertise is, it will make it easier for you to choose the right niche, prepare your content strategy, and be consistent with everything you create and decide to put online. Good luck and don’t forget to have fun!
