Ahh! Everyone’s going crazy over “how to become an influencer!” It looks trendy and fancy to become an influencer when your peers barely have any social presence. But it’s not that simple. Most of them:
Hire.
Make content.
Post.
And wait for the result.
While most of the companies follow a similar digital marketing approach, all they end up is unboxing empty bottles of wine.
Imagine knocking down loads of green bills only to have empty screaming cups on the dining table.
That’s the case with traditional social media marketing because you have no clue where you’d land by the end of the month.
And if your budget doesn’t resonate with the kind of impact you’ve been looking to throw on your customers, social media, which seems a secure money-minting digital advertising platform, can be a daunting place.
Not that managing posts and marketing your brand on social platforms are the hardest nuts to crack, but we are almost getting close to the much fantasized year— 2022 — when social media is a cruel place to mark your existence.
A decade ago, marketing and games and quizzes on Facebook encapsulating your brand image definitely raised some curious brows— that’s what novelty effect does.
Users were cool with the way you projected your brand— everything was new for them, and you didn’t reek of ultra-capitalist libertarian.
But today the people who light up their brains with goodreads like “The Subtle Art Of Not Giving a F” aren’t waiting for your posts to hit the platform.
Instead, they want a seamless, joyous, and uninterrupted social media ride by clearly hating your habit of sticking the oar in their relaxation time.
They are more informed, and they know your hidden agenda behind every post is to convert them.
Take the example of a retail store.
We all hate when a sales guy hovers around.
There’s too much sales toxicity, and we feel repelled.
Similarly, an overdose of marketing posts can spread commercial toxicity on the platform; henceforth, nauseating the user experience.
So, what’s the way to endorse your business without having to spend a lot of time and money?
And also not to live with the fear of failed marketing?
How about using a portal that connects you to your targeted audience directly?
Didn’t get it?
“What if I tell you that there exists a portal which already has a potpourri of your audience.
And all you have to do is get into this portal and say hello to your customers.”
I am talking about influencer marketing.
While this may sound like one of the essential channels of digital marketing, we should place it in a separate marketing gimmick- in its umbrella- the trick which is very useful and has a proven track record for fantastic ROI.
And the best part about it is-you can start it right now-all you need is access to the influencer portal.
Table Of Content
1) What Is Influencer Marketing?
2) Is it a cakewalk?
3) How to become an influencer
- Explore Your Niche
- Choose The Right Platform
- Add a unique element.
- Treat Audience As A Growth Element
- Use Hashtags As Boosters
- Maintain The Content Standard
- Be A Part Of Mutual Influencing Collaborative Society
- Give Your Posts A Trendy Flair
- Build An Engaging Atmosphere
What is Influencer Marketing?
So, let’s get started.
Influencer marketing is a strategy where an influencing personality on social media introduces your brand to his audience.
Influencers are the portals who gather your brand data and relay your image in a way the users feel connected.
The distinct advantage of it is that your influencer already sets the stage— all you have to do is work on him rather than creating and catering content to the customers.
Make him perform on your behalf.
Moreover, influencers are mostly loved by their audience.
It ensures that the users feel more personalized and less commercialized while interacting with these famous mouthpieces. I would say influencer marketing is one good way to personalize your marketing efforts.
The bonus of influencer marketing is that you get away with spending the wad of greenbucks— rather, you get to feed your message to the already cultivated ideal audience.
What’s fascinating about influencer marketing is that you can also become an influencer.
Although it takes some serious dedication and hard work to be one, you can enjoy social media fame and promote your business at the same time.
Unlike high-profile and prolific celebrities— who like to live in the mystery rooms, you can influence your audience by being more showable on the platform.
That’s like adding your school of thoughts on every post, which gives your audience the reasons to ponder.
You should give it a thought because a non-celebrity influencer can have a more significant impact on the audience than the celebrities living in the private closets.
One of the studies suggests the same. [1]
It says:
62% of young people rely on YouTuber’s recommendation for completing their purchase decision, whereas 70% of millennials looked more influenced by bloggers than celebrities.
As celebrities carry monetary images, the niche audience couldn’t stop associating them as some selfish money-making machines.
This opens the door of opportunity for you to influence your audience as per your requirement.
Is it a cakewalk?
Today, even millennials and generation z want to become internet sensations and influencers.
While the career option seems remunerative and financially rewarding, the task at the back end can be detesting.
It involves a bunch of steps that you got to repeat again and again and again— until you give up the idea of being an influencer.
So, is it a cakewalk?
Yes, a few years ago.
No. As of today.
As more and more aspiring influencers are getting on different digital advertising channels for trying out their fortunes, it’s hard to convince people to value your work unless you have unique proposals for them.
Furthermore, if you have planned to become an influencer, you have already signed a virtual contract with your audience, which says that you’ll keep them posted with relevant content, and the contract ends only when you decide to hang your boots.
It means that you need to be on your toes while producing engaging content and carrying actions that build relationships with them.
Also, when you make a big subscribing-family on any channel, your sense of responsibility has to be right on the money.
When you collaborate with any other brand, you got to involve due diligence, which ensures that you aren’t bombarding your audience with brand toxicity.
That’s because your audience considers you as an honest entity “who’s not on the platform to sell, but to interact with them.”
These are the only roadblocks when it’s about generating an influencer’s identity, and the amiable part about these problems is that they are very solvable.
Considering that you are good to get over these roadblocks, let’s figure out how to become an influencer.
How to become an influencer
Patience is the foremost requirement when it comes to harboring an attitude while you’re trying to become an influencer.
As simple as it may seem from the front-end glams, it’s tough to acknowledge the condensed efforts which made the glam possible in the first place.
Different influencers have different approaches to this— but at the end of the day— they leave breadcrumbs which, when followed, can leave a lasting impact on your social presence.
Here’s a loud cheer on how to become an influencer on social media.
How to become an influencer #1: Explore Your Niche
To explore your niche is to learn about the subject which you’d post regularly.
It could be anything— your hobbies or something which you are good at— not necessarily the best— but which is also an opportune use of the situation to sharpen your skills.
Something which allows you to exhibit your talent and helps your audience relate to the posts.
Going by the recent trend, you can pick any niche that suits your personality among the following:
- Health and fitness.
- Beauty
- Travel
- Business
- Fashion
- Lifestyle
- Animals
- Relationships
- Gaming
- Tech
Now you may think that posting about multiple niches will garner you more audiences from different backgrounds; however, that’s not the best thing to do, especially when our primary motive is to create a segmented audience for the brands.
Adding multiple-niche can be an over-ambitious move, and there’s a chance that brands won’t approach you— because they’d feel that they’re investing in the wrong audience.
Despite all that, you can mix two similar niches and cater content to the broader audience group.
For example, gaming and tech gadget niches can be unified to have mingled audience share.
There’s no compulsion to choose among the given niches. You can make your niche, give your two cents, and become an influencing force.
Just like the EGG GANG, which established a new world record of likes and shares on Instagram as a powerful Instagram influencers team.
Whatever may be the objective of the egg post, the posts approve audience involvement, and they have hundreds of ways to monetize now.
How to become an influencer #2: Choose The Right Platform
Like other aspirants, you may run down to floor your content on all the online social platforms.
It’s a myth that running your content program on every platform will help you gather more audience.
When starting as an influencer, it’s imperative to figure out which platform suits more to your niche rather than bombarding the same content on all the platforms. That’s why you should also learn the art of repurposing content.
The behavioral pattern of Facebook users differs from that of the Quora users, and so on with other platforms. [2]
Some platforms outperform others when it comes down to specific niches.
So, it’s recommended to create platform-specific content rather than turning into an “official every-platform poster” who’s too touchy about the subject.
But picking up a correct platform can be really tricky as each platform has a particular sect of the audience.
So, you got to find how your niche will react to the given media.
Let’s say you want to showcase your photography skills to the world.
There’s a vast audience that relies on visual data on Instagram, and that’s where you can get cracking on for a start.
That’s what other Instagram influencers do, and that’s what you should do.
Similarly, you can enjoy tips from YouTube influencers as it’s one of the largest tips and reviews communities and post your reviews too.
Having said that, you should learn the underlying semantics of using other platforms so that you can put them in use for marketing your content or in the future if the need calls.
That’s exactly the way Jeff Bullas, Matthew Barby, Neil Patel, and their likes operate social media— they exactly know the soft chord to hit when it’s about persuading millennials.
They interact and promote their content on Snapchat, Instagram, and Twitter and assure heavy traffic on their personal blog spaces too. [3] Also they’re quite quick to use latest features like live streaming to connect well with the audience.
How to become an influencer #3: Add a unique element.
The Internet is a complicated place.
It’s hard to decode what users may find unique, especially when a dull post like the world_record_egg can congregate “herds of hoomans.”
But the fact is captivating because your post can be the next sensation too. And adding unique elements fancies more of your chances to become an influencer on social media.
Take a look at Catanacomics, which has given birth to the two interesting comic characters whose stories revolve around the couple founders.
Given that the founders could have uploaded their original pictures of daily tidbits, they chose an alternative way to voice their opinion and present their raw school of thoughts through these chubby and easy on heart characters. You can consider it a good social media marketing strategy to become influencer.
These elements make the posts funny, unrealistic yet realistic, and not dull, and the audience can comfortably accommodate these characters in their heads.
Once you are done with finding your unique selling point, try to far stretch that point on all of your content.
You have to make your account breathable if you want the audience to believe that the person behind the screens has honest intent.
How to become an influencer #4: Treat Audience As A Growth Element
Your audience is a vital element for your growth.
Unless you derive what your audience wants, you’d be shooting voids in space.
Reading them can give you a brief insight into content creation.
Analyzing their attributes like behavior, demography, age, gender, profession, etc. you can transpire your idea into their lives. You can understand your target audience and cater content accordingly.
Most of the social platforms have inbuilt analytics, which can put you two steps ahead of your users. For example, Facebook ads have Facebook ad metrics. Or any digital marketing efforts have digital marketing KPIs to stay ahead of competing influencers.
But reading them through analytics is half the story— the other half includes real interaction with them.
Communicating on social forums like Quora, Reddit, and your channel can really save some bacon for your channel. Also, feedback and comments on your channels are nothing less than the footprints of your potential customers.
Hearing them can give you an idea about the upcoming content, and you can fiddle it around their requirement.
How to become an influencer #5: Use Hashtags As Boosters
A hashtag is like a lighthouse— it serves as a navigational aid to the users who are searching for unique content.
And among the oceans of post on every platform, these lighthouses cum hashtags show the relevant direction to the overwhelmed audience.
And rightly so as hashtags are known to boost social media effectiveness by 40%.
So, if you are starting as an influencer, you’d like hashtags to set up the right circumstances for your audience to reach you.
Using trendy and relevant hashtags associated with your niche will help you discover the new audience altogether.
You can make a unique hashtag for your posts; however, as a beginner, you should resort to hashtag finding tools like HashAtIt, which empowers you to link useful hashtags with your content.
Again, you have to be finicky about choosing your hashtags because over-flooding your content can disgust the audience with online littering, which may hit your ranks.
Take a look at the smart use of hashtags by TennisTV on this post.
They aren’t either overbaking or underbaking hashtags.
Even without playing the video, you know who the two players are, and what was the event name.
6) Maintain The Content Standard
Quality has always superseded quantity— there’s no doubt about it.
The idea of posting content is to create a buzz which leaves an impact at least for a day and let them keep talking about your page.
Pelting all your ideas at once can be too much data for your users to handle. And you can be extraordinarily aspiring and annoying at the same time for your users if you post too much.
Also, the standard of your content is dictated by the amount of creativity and the time you put to detail it. But that also doesn’t mean your audience will have no post to feed on for months.
At the same time, acknowledge that no content created is equal.
Great content may have lesser views, and less worked content may have better shares; however, that shouldn’t deviate you from the idea of delivering the content which matters to your audience.
The best way to fix this problem is by setting up a schedule for your posts.
Let’s say you decide to have 15 posts in a month— the onus falls on you to generate not less than one content in coupla days.
If you seem to break your schedule due to any reason, don’t rush into delivering something which doesn’t match the quality.
You can keep the audience posted about your life like a snap or story of your pet or sharing personal whereabouts to keep them engaged. That’s live stream marketing comes.
This is how the influential business giant Ratan Tata allows his audience to touch the personal page of his life beautifully.
7) Be A Part Of Mutual Influencing Collaborative Society
Thousands of aspirants sign-up as influencers every day.
While some get a decent following base in a quick time, others start fatiguing out before they finally give up.
You can also score a decent fan base in a short time by collaborating with the already established influencers.
It’s a win-win scenario where the influencer with a larger audience share has something to gain from you, and you have his fans and identity in return.
You must have distinctive and quirky elements to tempt influencers to work with you.
There are platforms like HARO, which helps you to leverage a connection with journalists and editors of your industry.
You get to strengthen your contact and collaborate with them to take a sneak peek into their audience.
It’s difficult to convince big daddy influencers as you need to be right on the dart to please them; however, you can promote your page by partnering with medium to small-scaled influencers as it’s about taking baby-steps more than standing still.
8) Give Your Posts A Trendy Flair
Every day, hundreds of posts go viral.
And that’s another window of opportunity for you to reach your audience.
No matter what your niche is, you can try to paint your latest content with the viral post.
That creates a sense of belonging among the users.
Here’s how brands went berserk when they found a new viral meme to advertise what they do.
Here. [6]
More. [7]
And a few more. [8]
So, with the help of creative potency and close meme observation, you can draw exciting attention. Don’t forget to optimize your content for search engine.
9) Build An Engaging Atmosphere
Your fanbase wants to be heard.
They aren’t signing up to talk to a wall. They expect your presence as much as you expect theirs.
Building an engaging atmosphere and dropping your ears to them can turn the table around for your channel.
Going live and letting them get a catch of behind-the-scenes operation extract loyalty of your admirers— probably because your bon-vivant and luxurious life seems more accessible to them.
Similarly, responding to queries, comments, and personal messages can drop a great persona of you. It’s pretty similar like building a customer service for eCommerce.
Granted that it’s impossible to interact with all the users, you should try to respond to the maximum people.
That again enhances your credibility among users and validate your human existence among commoners.
For even better engagement, you can arrange contests and giveaways and request your audience to participate. Their participation is a token of interest, and that’s when you can kick the can.
Wrapping things up
Influencers are not just glam-heads who spend their entire life in the glitz of luxury.
The word influencer exists because it is derived from influence— and your every step can drive users to make decisions.
And this is why your sense of responsibility towards the online society increases other than living a sumptuous life.
The moment you realize that you have a certain responsibility towards your users— all positive— that’s the moment you can hold your status as an influencer for a very long time.
And here’s the cherry on the cake— there’s no breakeven point for becoming an influencer.
You are an influencer the very moment you start influencing just one person.
So. When are you starting?
You might also be interested in reading
- Facebook mistakes to avoid— when you run for an influencer title
- Google micro moments— know your customers
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