Social media influencers are all the rage right now. Brands want to collaborate with them in order to expand their reach and drive conversions. The followers of influencers, on the other hand, look forward to expert advice and recommendation from them.
The Enigma of Influencers
influencers are social media personalities with a large number of loyal and engaged followers. Most influencers share a friendly rapport with their fans.
The fans, in turn, often regard these influencers as role models and follow their recommendations. In fact, influencers are often perceived as authority figures or experts in their respective niches. Instead, influencers often reveal a glimpse of their personal lives to their followers. This is precisely what helps them establish friendly bonds with their fan base.
Influencers are the social media celebrities who have a certain amount of leverage with their fan communities.
What are the Perks of Being an Influencer?
Digital marketers and brands have realized the importance of collaborating with influencers. The biggest advantage of influencer marketing is that it gives marketers direct access to an influencer’s loyal fan base.
It also saves marketers the trouble of identifying and targeting the right audiences. That painstaking task has already been done by the influencer. That is why 86% of marketers used influencer marketing in 2017. The most effective and trusted source of driving conversions are social media influencers. This clearly indicates that influencers have the power to persuade their followers.
What are the Challenges Faced by Influencers?
Many people aspire to become influencers. It does seem like a lucrative career option and life choice for many people. However, behind all of the glitz and glamour of an influencer’s social media profile, there lies a truckload of hard work and patience.
Building and retaining a loyal fan following on social media isn’t a cakewalk. This is becoming increasingly difficult as more people are trying to become influencers.
Thus, earning the trust of your followers is a painstaking task. It takes persistent effort on your part to make your content authentic and grab the attention of your audience.
But, How Do You Become an Influencer?
The life of an influencer is envied by many. What we often fail to recognize is the persistent effort they have to put in order to live a life of luxury and glamour.
The truth is that there is no easy answer to the question of how to become an influencer. However, there are certain steps that you can take in order to steer your efforts in the right direction.
Identify Your Niche
If you want to become an influencer, you can’t expect to be a “jack (or jane) of all trades, master of none.” It is crucial that you pick a niche that aligns with your image.
An easy way to select your niche is to evaluate your strengths and weaknesses. Choose a niche that allows you to showcase your strengths and hone your skills further.
Deciding on a particular niche will help you streamline your audience and tailor your content to suit their preferences.
Typically, when deciding on how to become an influencer, you can choose one of the following categories:
Travel
Lifestyle
Fashion
Food
Beauty
Sports
Gaming
Entertainment
Tech
Health and Fitness
You don’t have to limit yourself to just one of these categories. You can combine two or more of these niches. Make sure the individual niches align with one another. For instance, you can combine travel and lifestyle or beauty and fashion when you decide on your niche.
It is not mandatory for you to stick to these established and well-known niches. The key to becoming an influencer is adding your unique voice to everything you do. So, don’t hesitate to experiment and carve your own niche that allows you to exhibit your strengths as well as your quirks.
For instance, 24-year-old, Karina Garcia, became an overnight YouTube sensation just by uploading wacky videos of slime. She has more than 8 million subscribers on YouTube who aptly refer to her as the, “Queen of Slime.”
Pick Your Platform
As an influencer, you need to have a powerful presence on the internet. However, that doesn’t mean that you should use every social media platform and distribution channel out there. Depending on your niche, certain platforms might be better suited for your content than others.
For instance, if you are a fashion blogger, Instagram would work better for your visual content than other platforms such as Twitter and LinkedIn. In fact, 93% of social media influencersprefer Instagram as it delivers the best results. However, that doesn’t mean that you should focus all of your effort on Instagram if your niche doesn’t align with the platform
Prioritise Your Content
High-quality content is perhaps the most potent answer to the question of how to become an influencer. It is extremely important to publish unique and authentic content that resonates with your audience.
In fact, this is the only way to keep your audience hooked to your content. Regardless of the type of content you create, it should be meaningful and valuable.
Listen to Your Audience
In order to get relevant content ideas, you can run a quick Google search for your niche. Scroll down to the bottom of search results to find the long-tail keywords that are being used by your target audience. You can also search platforms such as Quora and Reddit to get an idea of what your target audience is talking about.
If you want your content to strike a chord with your audience, you must have a deep understanding of your follower community.
Most social media platforms have an analytics section that can give you meaningful insights about your target audience. You get access to audience demographics data such as gender, geographic location, occupation, online behavior, etc.
In addition, you should pay close attention to the comments section of your social media and blog posts. It can be a goldmine of fresh content ideas that your audience wants to read/watch. You can also conduct social media polls and ask your followers to tell you all about their preferences and pain points.
Up Your Hashtag Game
Wondering what else you can do? In addition to using popular hashtags, you can also create your own unique hashtag to widen your reach even further. Encourage your followers to upload content on their own profiles using your branded hashtags. This popularizes your hashtag and builds awareness about you in your followers’ social networks.
Maintain Consistency
Publishing high-quality content on a regular basis is one of the most effective ways to retain your audience’s attention. When you deliver good content on a regular basis, it creates a sense of anticipation among your audience.
That, in turn, boosts audience engagement and increases your reach. It is advisable that you 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.
For instance, Nusair Yassin, aka Nas Daily, made a promise of uploading one 1-minute video on Facebook every day, for a thousand days. People started keeping track of his Facebook page to find out if he was keeping his promise.
Collaborate with Other Influencers
When you are starting out, 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 in order to tempt them to collaborate with you. If the bigger influencers seems out of reach, you can even partner with micro-influencers who have small yet highly engaged fan bases.
Go Live
Most platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube allow users to go live and share real-time updates with their followers. You can use this to your advantage and give your audience a glimpse of behind-the-scenes action at an event or a party. It makes your followers feel closer to you and reinforces their loyalty.
Respond to Your Fans
Responding to each and every comment might be a herculean task. However, it is advisable that you reply to as many as possible. A response from your side validates the trust that your fans put in you and makes them feel more connected to you.
Comments