It might seem like becoming a social media influencer is impossible, but it’s actually easier than you think. Just follow these simple steps and before you know it, you could be the next big thing on the Internet! Not only will this guide help you become an influencer, but it will also help you decide if it’s something that’s worth your time and effort in the first place.
Ready to get started? Let’s go!
Before Becoming An Influencer:
Start by building your reputation. Build up your personal brand and online presence, making yourself known in key online communities (such as forums and blogs). This will help you establish yourself as an authority figure in your field. Your peers and potential followers will know that you’re someone who’s worth following and listening to. Don’t neglect your own website, either; build it into a hub of activity that offers helpful information and original content — and promote it so that people know it exists!
Start slowly and build up your network over time. Don’t expect overnight success — working hard and building relationships takes time. Start by setting small goals for yourself and working towards them as you go, taking things one step at a time. Remember that even though you want to build up your influence quickly, it will take some time — don’t lose heart if it doesn’t happen straight away!
As you start building your online presence, always remember that you’re promoting yourself and your brand — don’t forget to focus on quality over quantity. People should want to follow you because they value what you have to say, not just because you have many followers already. This may seem like an obvious point, but it’s easy for things to get out of hand once you begin feeling excited about your fast-growing audience. Use some restraint!
Before you start thinking about how you can make money from your following, always consider whether your content is high-quality. If it’s not, people won’t respect what you have to say and will likely lose interest quickly. If your content isn’t high-quality, think about what improvements you could make before continuing with your plans for monetization. The last thing you want is for people to click away just because they don’t like what they see!
Now that you’ve done all of your research and built up your brand, you can finally make money from your social media presence. There are plenty of ways for you to do so — depending on your business goals, you may wish to promote physical products through affiliate marketing or sell exclusive digital content through paid advertising. The sky’s really the limit here, but remember that it’s never worth sacrificing quality for quantity when it comes to promoting any kind of product.
Key Influencer Tips:
It takes time and hard work for an influencer to grow their following. Just because someone reaches a high number of followers doesn’t mean they were born with it. In fact, there are things every newbie can do to boost engagement on their posts (without cheating). Here are some helpful tips that will get you started on your way!
1. Find Your Niche:
First and foremost, find your niche. The easiest way to boost engagement is by staying true to your brand and avoiding spammy content that doesn’t interest your followers. Pick things you’re genuinely interested in and passionate about, rather than promoting something just for a paycheck or sponsorship. Most importantly, try not be discouraged if it takes time to build up your following. It won’t happen overnight!
2. Be Genuine:
It’s important that you interact with your followers and respond to comments, not just publish content and hope people will follow. Interacting with fans is an opportunity for them to get to know you better, but also for you to understand their interests and keep them informed about any behind-the-scenes action. Don’t be shy; engage!
3. Be Consistent:
Consistency is important for any online project, but for social media it is vital. Post at least once or twice a day, ideally in the morning and afternoon/evening when people are online, but also make sure to respond whenever someone comments on your post. This way you can grow your following and keep them interested! Maintaining a consistent posting schedule will keep fans engaged with you!
4. Promote Yourself:
Social media is all about promoting your brand, and that includes you! If you want people to follow your account, post pictures of yourself enjoying different aspects of your life that relate to your work or give fans exclusive access into your world. This will make them more engaged with you as an individual rather than just interested in following you for content.
5. Don’t Stop Learning:
It’s crucial that you continue growing and improving your skills in order to keep up with an increasingly competitive landscape. If you want your followers to trust you and stay interested, it’s essential that you never stop learning! This will help you grow in ways that may not directly relate to blogging but will have lasting effects on your success.
Have fun! Social media is about being authentic and staying in touch with your fans, so enjoy yourself! If you’re passionate about what you do, it will come through in your interactions and continue to engage your followers. Make sure you enjoy what you’re doing, because it really shows when you post!
Getting Advice From Key Players in The Industry:
There’s no better way to get a pulse on what it takes to be successful as an influencer than speaking with other folks who have made it their full-time career. Some key players in your market might include industry leaders, top advertisers, and other high-level executives within your niche. Reach out and see if they’d be willing to help you by providing insight on how they think about their success and whether there are any unique tips or tricks that you can use.
Reach out and see if they’d be willing to help you by providing insight on how they think about their success and whether there are any unique tips or tricks that you can use. This strategy is one that worked particularly well for Nick Lee, co-founder of List25. “I wrote to over 200 influencers in my niche”, he says. “I would reach out and tell them, Hey I like your videos”.
“I’m Nick Lee, creator of List25 and I was just curious if you had any advice on growing an audience.” If they gave me time, I would ask them questions like “What do you think my weaknesses are? Or where do you think I should focus more energy?”
1. Use Different Social Media Platforms As Your Bases:
To grow your following, it makes sense to start developing accounts on several different platforms. You should start with those that already have an audience, like YouTube and Instagram. After creating your profiles on these sites, don’t try to grow your following immediately — instead, focus on engaging with others by joining conversations and adding value.
After you’ve created a solid presence on one platform, you can begin branching out into others. These are some of my favorites to consider.
2. Keep Your Audience Engaged on Social Media:
A common mistake that many social media users make is posting too frequently. The amount of posts you share per day should be tied directly to how much your audience engages with those updates. If they don’t interact with or comment on your posts, then don’t post as often.
If they do engage with your posts, then you can ramp up how often you share updates. I personally try and post every 3 hours. This gives me time to make good content and also spend some time engaging with my audience.
You also should create separate content for different platforms. An example is creating longer pieces of content (over 1,000 words) that are optimized for long-form reading. This allows you to share more valuable information with your audience, and then engage with them over time through commenting and sharing related resources.
In addition, use caution with viral content. Not all viral videos or images are worth sharing — some are intentionally funny, but many of them aren’t. Before you share any piece of content from someone else, carefully consider whether it adds value to your followers.
A good rule of thumb is that if you wouldn’t share it with your best friend, then you shouldn’t be sharing it with your audience. Not only will using viral content harm your brand image, but it can lead you away from creating useful and valuable content.
If you’re not sure what to share, then consider creating a poll. In that way, you’ll have engagement from your audience and also find out which topics are most important to them. Finally, don’t forget about live-streaming video apps like Facebook Live or Instagram Stories. These can be great opportunities for providing more value to your audience and also connecting on a more personal level.
3. How You Should Engage with Your Audience:
Another mistake that many newbie social media users make is not engaging with their audience enough. While you don’t want to clutter your own posts, you also need to comment on other people’s content and engage in conversations with your followers. Don’t just post content and walk away — it won’t help your career at all!
Engaging with your audience also allows you to understand their needs and interests better. You can then use that knowledge in creating new pieces of content or marketing yourself better. You’ll also see that people will comment on your own posts, providing you valuable feedback on what they like and don’t like about your content. Use that information and create even more value for them!
I personally try and engage with my audience three times per day, and live-stream once per week. That way, I don’t clutter up my own posts too much, but also create enough value for my followers that they want to keep coming back for more!
4. Who Should You Engage With?:
It’s important that you only engage with your audience on Instagram. Don’t share posts from other platforms, such as Facebook or Twitter. Remember that each platform has its own culture and way of doing things, so you need to respect that when interacting with your followers. While they might be okay with you sharing posts across multiple networks, that doesn’t mean you should do it!
5. What Should You Share?:
Ultimately, it’s up to you what you decide to share on your own Instagram account. However, I would suggest sharing things that people can use in their own lives. This includes tips and tricks, advice, how-to guides, insider information or even quotes! By posting information that is actually useful for your followers, they’ll want to return over and over again.
6. How Often Should You Post?:
So, how often should you post on Instagram? Well, it depends on what your goals are. In my experience, posting too much can actually turn people off, especially if they don’t see anything new or interesting in your content. For that reason, I wouldn’t recommend posting more than two times per day. If you want to make sure your posts get noticed, then at least post something every other day.
7. Showing Off Your Personality is Key:
As you can see, there are lots of different ways that you can show off your personality on Instagram. It’s also important that you’re not afraid to share some behind-the-scenes content from time to time. That way, people can get an idea of who you really are and why they should care about what you have to say.
8. How Can You Get Others to Engage With You?:
While you’re interacting with your followers, how can you get them engaged in what you have to say? Well, as with any type of marketing strategy, it all comes down to who you target. When you’re choosing who to engage with on Instagram, it’s vital that they fit your niche and market.
Getting others to engage with you comes down to whether or not you’re targeting your audience correctly. For example, if you’re sharing tips and tricks for taking selfies on Instagram, it makes sense that beauty bloggers would be interested in following your account. On top of that, if they follow you and see that you engage with them personally (and they’re engaged with other users), they’ll want to return again and again!
9. Using Hashtags Effectively:
Should you use hashtags on Instagram? If so, how many should you include in each post? What are some tips for using them effectively? Let’s take a look at some of these questions. While there isn’t an exact rule that states how many hashtags you should include in your Instagram posts, it’s generally recommended that most users only include one or two.
10. Finding Your Niche on Instagram:
Finding your niche on Instagram is just as important as any other marketing strategy. After all, when you have an engaged following that is interested in what you have to say, it’s easier for them to convert into paying customers down the road.
11. What Kind of Hashtags Should You Use?:
The other thing you’ll want to think about when using hashtags on Instagram is what kind of hashtags you should use. Well, like I mentioned above, most users only include one or two in each post. It’s also important that you don’t make them too long, since it can be hard for users to find your content if they have trouble reading it!
12. The Best Time of Day to Post:
Have you ever wondered what time of day is best for posting on Instagram? If so, you’re not alone. In fact, there are many businesses that struggle with when and how often they should post on Instagram. That’s where tools like Hootsuite come in handy.
13. Using Social Media Analytic Tools:
Hootsuite allows you to see what time of day and what day of week your posts are performing best. They also allow you to compare posts that you’ve posted, so that you can see which ones have been most successful. By using a tool like Hootsuite, it’s easy for you to see where your followers are located and what types of content they seem to be engaging with most often.
14. Instagram Insights:
One of my favorite things about Instagram is their app for business, called Instagram Insights. This tool allows you to easily see how your followers are interacting with your posts, as well as which hashtags they seem to be using most often. It’s also a great way for you to get more accurate feedback from potential customers, so that you can better tailor your future content.
15. Using Instagram Stories:
Instagram has also recently added Instagram stories, which is basically like Snapchat. You can use Instagram stories for marketing purposes by posting links on them, sharing behind-the-scenes content with your followers and engaging more directly with them through live video.
16. Instagram Advertising:
If you’re looking for more detailed information about how Instagram advertising works, there are tons of articles out there that can help. Since I don’t work with clients who are looking for advertising services, I won’t be covering it in detail here, but if you want more information on it, there are plenty of resources available online.
17. Instagram Trends:
You’ll also want to pay attention to Instagram trends, since there are always new things that people are interested in. For example, you might decide that you’re going to start using certain hashtags more frequently during certain times of year.
18. Instagram Engagement:
One of my favorite things about Instagram is that you can engage with your followers directly. You can comment on their posts, follow them and send them private messages. This makes it so much easier for you to build connections with your target audience, which will ultimately lead to more sales and revenue for your business.
19. Instagram Ads:
If you’re interested in buying advertising on Instagram, there are several different ad types that you can use. According to one expert, Instagram ads let businesses showcase their products, services and events on Instagram — and drive sales from people who visit their websites or contact them directly. Depending on your business goals, you might consider using video ads or carousel ads.
20. Instagram Ad Platforms:
There are several different ad platforms that you can use with Instagram ads. The two most popular ones are Facebook and Google. Since I’m most familiar with Facebook ads, I’ll be focusing on them here. But if you want to learn more about other types of advertising platforms, you can find those resources online.
21. Instagram Ad Targeting:
One of my favorite things about Facebook advertising is that you can use custom audiences to target your ads. If you already have an email list or mailing list, you can upload it into Facebook and they’ll show your ads to people who have similar interests. You can also upload lists of phone numbers and see which ad copy resonates best with them.
22. Instagram Advertising Tools:
One of my favorite things about advertising on Instagram is that there are some really great third-party tools available. If you’re interested in creating and running ads, you can use a tool like AdEspresso which will let you schedule and run your own ads with little technical knowledge required.
23. Instagram Advertising Costs:
The good news is that advertising on Instagram is pretty affordable, especially if you’re just starting out. As your following grows, it will likely get more expensive. But for small businesses or startups, there are some great packages available for as little as $1 per day.
24. Instagram Account Setup:
If you want to get started with advertising on Instagram, you’ll need an Instagram account. Make sure that your profile is up-to-date, with a nice photo and bio. You can also consider including your website address in your profile or call to action section of your bio. This will help people find more information about you if they want it.
25. Instagram Tools for Businesses:
There are several different tools that you can use on Instagram. One of my favorites is Tailwind. It’s free and includes a lot of great analytics features. But there are others available, like Sprout Social which has an advanced scheduling system and can help you manage multiple accounts if you have them. Of course, there are lots of other tools out there — just make sure you pick one that fits your needs!