Becoming an influencer amongst your community or brand is probably the most millennial thing to do right now. There are bloggers, brands and organisations pushing to be the most popular presence online because that would mean they have influence over their audiences and community, the more influence you have, the more other brands may collaborate with you. According to a report by InstaBrand.com, 74% of retailers trust the word of someone they know online over the word or message sent and done by a company. This means those companies need you! We’ve compiled tips from all over the internet and from blogger, influencer and founder of New Age Explorer, James Pilkington to help you get started up as an influencer.
1. Find Your Niché / Pick your Tribe
According to the Oxford Dictionary a niche is: (1)“A comfortable or suitable position in life or employment.”, (2) “A role taken by a type of organism within its community” or (3) “A specialized segment of the market for a particular kind of product or service”. Do your research. You need to decide what niche expertise and story and personal experience you want to share with the world; make-up? Fashion? Fitness? Building paper aeroplanes? The trick is to not pick everything and be focused. People need to know your name and associate it with a specefic niche. Document every step of the journey and describe it in an Attenborough way. “You need to stay adapting and innovative. Create fresh and extra-ordinary ways of showing the world your niche”, Says Pilkington.
With over a billion monthly users, with 50% of these users engaging with the Instagram platform on a daily basis, it can be tough to get your message out to your preferred target audience. People are unique and we all like different things, have different passions and engage in different hobbies. The trick is to pick your niché - what type of audience is most likely to engage with your content? You need to pick ONE, one specific niché with one specific topic for you to build your online tribe. This will create a more highly engaged audience that trusts your opinion – these are the type of influencers that brands want to work with.
2. Pick your Platforms
Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube; the list goes on. With so many choices, it should be too hard to pick at least one; keep in mind the more the merrier. What social media platform are you on the most? Which platform is your audience on? Which one do you know the best and which one can you make time for? The most important thing to consider here is that of WHO your target audience is and HOW you plan to engage with them on your chosen paltforms.
If Instagram is your preffered platform; your first objective should be to Grow and Expand your audience, however, the Instagram algorithm can sometimes be a little tricky. To get ahead of this, read our blog How to Cut through the Instagram Algorithm & Grow your Following on Instagram. Once you have managed to build enough of an online following, you can start looking at ways to start making money through your online profile. For more information on this, read our blog How to Monetize your Presence & Make Money on Instagram.
3. Content is King
James asks “What kind of content do you like searching for on the web? Use those as inspiration to create your own authentic content”. You need to visualise content that people would be attracted to and be consistent with it; content people can binge on like their favorit TV shows. Build a brand identity around your influence and use a consistent font, theme or filter so people know that your content is unique.
Firstly, you need to consider the Overall Aesthetic & Design of your feed. One of the main things that sets successful influencer accounts apart from the rest is the fact that these accounts tend to have a consistent aesthetic - think of it as your own personal style of “branding”. A cohesive, clean and organised feed can help your audience know what to expect from your account at a glance. This is good for engagement as it also can help users more easily identify your posts in their feed, often making them feel compelled to go and like more of your posts. The trick is to keep your feed design clean and clear, something that you can easily and consistently adhere to.
Secondly, Quality over Quantity! It seems simple, but it can’t be stressed enough. Unless you’re a Kardashian, the quality of the content that you post WILL determine whether or not people engage with, comment and follow your account. A pixelated photo or frequent selfies with poor lighting doesn’t tend to attract the most engagement from users. The trick here is to create high-quality, aesthetically pleasing content that aims to either inspire, educate or entertain your user - provide them with VALUE. If it’s growth you’re after you will need to invest in a decent smartphone or, if you have the money, a DSLR camera. Spend some time educating yourself on things such as lighting and composition, there are endless free tutorials online.
4. Consistancy is Key
Part of keeping your audience engaged is providing them with consistent, quality content to engage with. Instagram rewards consistency - but why? Instagram wants people to consistently make use of their app and thus accounts that post consistently and help them achieve this goal are pushed higher up the news feed. Create a posting schedule for yourself and try to stick to it as religiously as possible, but don’t become too predictable - it’s all good and well posting on the same day/s, but change up your posting times every now and again too. According to studies, the current best times for posting to Instagram are on weekdays between 10am and 3pm - with 5PM-6PM being prime time for posts.
Create a 2-3 months content plan in advance before you start posting. Google the best days, time and hashtags to post on different social media platforms – download our cheatsheet template of the best times to post social media.[link] “Consistency is key, but always keep it fresh and stick to your truth” says the New Age Explorer founder. Stay at it every day; post and create stories at least once a day.
Instagram Stories have been and continue to grow exponentially over the last couple of years. So much so that according to statistics, Instagram stories are used by more than 500 million users every day (Instagram internal data, January 2019). One third (1/3) of the most viewed Instagram Stories are from businesses, with 50% of these businesses on Instagram worldwide posting at least one story within a typical month. For more information on how to get the most out of Instagram Stories for you and your brand, read our blog Instagram Stories Marketing for Businesses in 2020.
5. Build a Community
While content is king, it is your audience that decides if you are an influencer or not - not you! Part of being a successful influencer is engaging with your users. If you’re aiming to log in, make a post and log out all the time you’re not making your followers feel valued. As mentioned previously, when you pick your niché you’re creating a tribe - a tribe full of members (followers) that want to feel valued, like they are contributing to your brand story. Spend time liking and replying to comments on your posts, ask your audience polls and reply to DM’s. Instagram rewards users for creating content that builds good engagement - allowing you to reach more of your audience as well as reach new users through the “Explore” page. “STAY ACTIVELY ENGAGEGED”, Says Pilkington. Conversation needs to be a two way street. If there is criticism, accept it gracefully, don’t bark back. Take every converstion as an opportunity to learn.
6. Collaborate, Collaborate, Collaborate!
“Nope, you won’t be the one that gets contacted. You always need to make the first step”, says James. There are endless creatives, brands and individuals online for you to collaborate with. Be proactive in writing down all the other people or brands you want to connect with, write up a proposal and/or put a story board together and get collaborating. For more information on how to Contact Brands regarding potential collaborations, see our blog on how to Create The Perfect Brand Collaboration Proposal.
Finally, this process takes constant work every day - it’s a commitment. It doesn’t happen in a day or a month or three; it takes time and nurturing and being proactive and engaged. Keep believing in yourself and don’t give up. Keep exploring more dimensions that make you, well… you!