HOW TO BECOME INFLUENCER AND MAKE MONEY

First and most important we need to understand who is an influencer.

“Influencer is an individual who has access to a large group of audience and connects with them through their content. Also, able to influence audience purchasing decisions through promoting and recommending products and services on their social media platforms.”

Social media influencer is one of the marketing strategies and it has been existence since ages long before the term “influencer” was coined, wherein brands used to promote their product and services through celebrities and fictional characters.

But in recent times with the booming social media platforms, there has been a drastic change in the influencer market. Now, the influencer market is categorized by the number of followers/subscribers you have on your social media platform such as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, TikTok, etc and these followers/subscribers may range from 1,000 to infinity.

Generally, brands lookout for influencers based on their ideal customer and niche-based content.

So, if your social media platform consists of great niche-based content and also keeps the audience engaged and connected, then you can be a potential influencer for brands to promote and recommend their products and services.

Thus, think yourself as an advertising agency and build your social media platform accordingly.

So now the question is how can I become an influencer.

Becoming an influencer is a creative, thinking out of the box and time-consuming process. Thus, if you’re one of those who want to become an influencer and build their brand then your need to follow these steps:

Finding the right niche:

The first step towards becoming an influencer is to selecting your niche which interests you because you should be able to generate content around it, grow audience/followers, and keep them engaged and connected through it.

A niche can be anything related to a specific area of interest, something you want to be known and want to build your brand and content around it. For example, if you’re a fashion enthusiast then you can create your content on fashion and styling related photos, videos and blogs, etc. Similarly, it can be fitness, business, cooking, technology, travel, etc.

The best way to select your niche is by self-assessment about our interests, passion, and knowledge about which you want to share your knowledge and experiences.

Select any one niche based on your assessment, it should be something that interests you and you’re passionate to share your experiences and knowledge to the audience through your creative content.

Select your social media platform:

After selecting your niche, choose the right social media platform based on your niche and which best suit your content strategy. For example, if your fashion enthusiast then you can go with Instagram as you are going to share fashion and styling related pictures. Similarly, if you’re planning for vlogging then YouTube will be the right choice.

Again, selecting the social media platform completely depends on your creative ideas and content strategy as every social media platform serves different purposes. Also, understand where your majority target audience lies.

For example, if your target audience is business professionals then LinkedIn would be the right choice. Similarly, if your target audience is millennials then Instagram is the right choice.

So before selecting a social media platform to explore different platforms and their main purpose, usage benefits, content formats, and analysis target audience.

Select only one or two platforms, as it becomes easier to work and focus instead of working on multiple platforms.

After selecting your social media platform, optimize your profile to make it more engaging.

1. Upload profile picture.
2. Turn your account to a business profile.
3. Write an eye-catching bio.
4. Explore all the features and use them.

Content Development

In 1996, Microsoft founder Bill Gates wrote in one of the essays using the phrase “content is king” describing content as the future of the internet. Here we are today, content is the key marketing strategy for any business to promote their products and services in the internet world.

So, for a beginner influencer to gain success, content strategy is the strongest weapon that can make or break their relationship with the audience. For which, they need to develop content by following these essential criteria to rank in their chosen niche and search engine:

1. Content must reflect their personality and voice
2. Provide value to the audience
3. Be unique and entertaining
4. Be Reader-friendly and informative
5. Be target specific
6. Optimize content for search engine

Why follow these essential criteria, because these things will add character to your content and increase your reach on social media, which eventually leads to developing relatability and trust among the audience.

If you can develop relatability and trust among the audience then you can influence their buying decision by promoting and recommending products and services.

There are many types of social media content through which you can engage with your audience such as videos, images, blogs, posts, articles, infographics, live videos, video stories, reviews, contests, etc.

So, brainstorm ideas and explore different types of content and develop content that best suits your content strategy and chosen social media format.

For example, if you want to be a food influencer then click food images and record food videos, write restaurant reviews, blogs, articles, share recipes, etc. to engage with the audience.

Publishing Timings

Developing engaging and great content is not enough, you should also know when to publish your content. Publishing your content at the right time will increase the engagement rate and which completely depends on the social media platform you have chosen.

Every social media platform has a different engagement rate at different timings. For example, in the case of the Instagram best time to post is as below:

Sunday: 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.

Monday: 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Tuesday: 5:00 a.m., 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.

Wednesday: 5:00 a.m.,11:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m.

Thursday: 5:00 a.m., 11:00 a.m. and 3:00 to 4:00 p.m.

Friday: 5:00 a.m., 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Saturday: 11:00 a.m.

So similarly, based on your selected social media platform, research and brainstorm content publishing timings for high engagement.

Maintain Consistency and regularity

Maintain consistency and regularity in publishing your content.

Because if your publishing content on regular bases then your content visibility increases as algorithms give preference to those accounts which publish content on regular bases. Also, it will help in a higher engagement rate depending on the content quality.

If you’re not consistent, then eventually you will lose your followers because they are not getting what they expect from you which is quality content.

Engage with followers 

Now that you have established your social media platform and publishing quality content regularly. Also, you have gained pretty decent followers.

Next step, engage with your followers whenever they comment or DM or leave any question, ensure that you responding to them as it builds a direct relationship, and makes them feel valued. Also, create content such as a contest, ask me anything, giveaways, etc. which engages followers and you for building relationships.

Grow your network and stay updated

In the current world, networking is crucial for any business, brand or influencer to grow. So, for an influencer to grow, they have to increase their follower base. To increase their follower, they must network through different methods:

1. Following other accounts and influencers in their niche.
2. Using relevant hashtags.
3. Commenting and sharing a popular post of other accounts.
4. Share your content on the different social media platforms.
5. Respond to your follower’s comments and questions.
6. Write guest blogs and articles on popular niche sites.

Apart from networking, you need to stay updated with the latest trends, algorithms updates, guidelines and policies to ensure that your publishing your content as per social media guidelines.

Brand Collaborations

Generally, brands look for influencers to increase brand awareness and sales, develop trust within the audience, increase social followers, spreading social awareness, education, User-Generated Content, etc.

So, based on their requirement and objective, brands will opt for your profile and if your profile has the ideal audience and relevant content that suits their requirement and objective, they will reach approach you or you can approach them.

There are two ways of collaborations, either you approach brands or brands approaching you for collaborations.

How you can approach brands?

1. Research on brands with which you want to work and look for their specific contacts.
2. Introduce yourself to them as influencer via email with detailed information about your social media stats, your collaboration idea, and explain how it will benefit them.
3. Be open and prepared for negotiation based on their response.

How brands approach you?

1. They research and identify different social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, TikTok, and others, looking for influencers who have relevant content and a strong audience base.
2. By searching relevant hashtags, posts, keywords, blogs, etc. with high engagement rates.
3. By working with an influencer marketing company, who collect influencer profile database and provide collaboration opportunities to brands and influencers. They act as a bridge between influencers and brands. So, register with influencer marketing companies.

Apart from brand collaborations, influencers can also make money through affiliate marketing and google ads.

Conclusion

Becoming an influencer is a time consuming and creative based process. So, everything you do will be a Trial-and-Test method. Thus, some of your content ideas may work or may not work.

Have patience, work hard, stay updated with the latest trends, come up with new ideas, stay consistent, and follow these steps.

Sooner or later, you will become an influencer.