Social media influencers have taken the world by a storm within the last 5 years or so. They’re the personification of the information age celebrities.
As people are spending more time on social media, the marketing of products and services have changed from traditional methods to the more contemporary one.
This includes social media. A place where businesses can find people spending the most time on the internet.
While products endorsements by celebrities worked in the past, the tide is slowly shifting towards social media influencers who are more relatable to the masses.
As more businesses are getting on the social media bandwagon, it suffices to say that social media influencers are likely to grow in numbers in the coming years.
So, who is a social media influencer?
A social media influencer in simple terms is a person who has created credibility in a specific industry and through that credibility has created an impressive following.
Marketers also define an influencer as someone who can affect the purchasing decisions of people, hence, influencer.
Today, we’re going to give you a 10 step guide on how you can start your journey to become a social media influencer today!
These 10 simple steps can help you get started but all the steps are worthless if you don’t follow the 10th step religiously.
So keep on reading!
Find your niche
The first step in becoming a social media influencer is to find your niche. Every social media influencer specializes in a very specific industry or niche.
From PewDiePie, Shroud, AIB to models on Instagram, they all have some sort of niche that they fall under.
Staying in your niche will help you simplify your target audience and will bring in like-minded people, who are interested in the same niche as you.
Even though there are a lot of influencers who are into multiple industries, that only happens after they’ve exploded onto the scene with a specific niche first.
So, think about what you are passionate about or what industry you want to be known for.
Make sure whichever industry you choose, you know a lot about it or want to learn a lot about.
Once you have your niche, you can then see similar influencers in your niche to figure out the scope of an audience.
How popular the niche you’ve chosen is, this will help you create goals for yourself.
Pick your platform
Now that you’ve decided your niche, it’s time to pick your social media platform.
It can be anything from YouTube, Facebook, Instagram to Twitter, LinkedIn etc.
Your choice of platform will largely depend on the niche you have chosen for yourself.
For example, if you plan to be a photographer and start your page then a photo-based social media such as Instagram would be a better platform than LinkedIn.
Similarly, if you plan to make more video-based content then YouTube is more likely the platform you would want to choose.
Anyhow, the platform you pick is highly dependent on the niche you have chosen and where your target audience is… so make sure to do a little bit of research on your niche.
Make a content plan
Once you’ve picked your niche and platform, it’s time to develop your content strategy.
You can only become a social media influencer if you have fresh, authentic and relevant content to put out for the audience on the platform.
Inbound marketing is a method used by marketers to offer value to an audience.
By providing genuine information and value, you can create a loyal fan base who will help spread the word about your page/channel.
So, your content must be really good!
Decide on the format of your content, whether it’ll be videos, image posts or long form of blogs (depending on your niche).
Make sure that you balance your content with information and personalization.
People tend to follow influencers as they’re more transparent than celebrities and can relate to them.
So, do add some personal content related to your life and the role of your niche in your life.
Publish content
The next important step is to post your content.
If you’re aiming to be a social media influencer, you cannot publish whenever you want or skip the days you’re not feeling like.
It’s a type of career and you need to be punctual about your posts. The biggest influencers have set days and times when they publish their content on their respective channels.
Make sure you have a consistent time of publishing on your page.
This infographic on Hubspot can give you a great idea when is the right time to publish on different platforms.
When posting your content you should keep these three things in mind:
- Stick to your theme or niche
- Add a custom caption or message
- Optimize posts for mobile
Help your community
One of the major reasons why people follow big influencers is because they help their audience in the particular industry they’re good at.
For example, Shroud got popular because of how good he is at the game “Player’s Unknown Battle Grounds (PUBG)”, but every now or then he would give tips on how to be better at shooting games.
So, whatever your industry is, make sure to create tutorials or tip videos to help your community grow in the industry you wish to be known for.
These helping or tutorial videos will also help you in the future when you have to plug in a sponsored product in your videos.
You can make such videos to help generate revenue from your sponsors.
Grow your network
As an upcoming social media influencer, you will be needing followers to consume your content and help you grow your page/channel.
One of the best ways to do so is by growing your network in the same industry.
Now, if you have a gaming channel on YouTube with only 1K subscribers, I am pretty sure, it’ll be pretty hard to convince Shroud or PewDiePie to give you a shout out.
But someone who is in the same boat as you might do it. Find out channels similar to yours with the same or greater following and reach out to them.
Email them some collaboration ideas, this will help you get the eyes of their fan base which can be beneficial for both of you. Mention this in your outreach process.
This will not only help you make friends doing what you’re doing but it will also help you feed off of each other’s following.
Engage with followers
This one seems like a no brainer but people still tend to forget it.
One of the most affecting ways to have a loyal fanbase is to engage with your followers.
Everyone likes to feel special or at the least not ignored. This is essential in forming a good social media image and at the same time a trick to increase your following.
Engage with your audience! Reply to their comments even if it’s criticism.
Go live on your platforms at least a month to answer their questions and have a dialogue with your followers.
Engaging with your followers will create a healthy community between you and your followers.
This will also retain your followers and make them feel a part of the community you’re trying to create!
Analyse your progress
In marketing, numbers talk!
You must utilise the analytical tools of the platform you’re on and keep a regular check on your channel/page’s progress.
Analytics will give you a clear idea of how your channel is doing and how people are interacting with your content.
If you see some things are not working, try to change those and see if the numbers are growing.
Analytical tools on social media platforms can help you a lot in understanding your audience behaviour and how they interact with your content.
These interactions can help you improve your content and get more engagements or followers.
Also, make sure you watch some tutorials or do a small course on the analytical tools of the platform you’re using.
This will give you a perspective in using these tools for the benefit of your channel.
Stay updated
The social media world is ever-changing and fast-paced!
To stay on top of your game, you must stay up to date with the latest trends and changes within your niche and also on the platform you’re on!
If you stay oblivious to the changes in trends and functionalities of your niche or platform, then you may start losing followers.
So, it’s important to know the current affairs within your niche and make sure to address these changes by creating content around it.
Also, if you see algorithm or product updates on the platform you’re using, make sure to optimize your channel, so that you remain on an upward graph.
Be consistent
As I mentioned in the introduction, this is the most important step in becoming a social media influencer… Be consistent!
Everything that we’ve discussed so far is pointless if you don’t stay consistent.
A lot of people do all the above steps and see slow or no progress and lose motivation. This makes them either lazy or inconsistent in posting content.
This in turn slows their progress down even further until they give up altogether.
So, it’s important to stay consistent and keep putting in the work.
Eventually, you will see progress. It may be slow at the beginning but as long as you’re progressing… don’t give up! And keep going!
In conclusion, if you stick by to the above steps and especially the last one, you will eventually build a decent base of followers.
Once you’ve reached a certain number of followers, you will start getting businesses sponsoring your content and you will also start making revenue via ads.
But before you get to monetary parts, you will have to put in a lot of work to get that initial fan base.
So, keep working!
All the best!
