The Ultimate Guide on How to Become a Social Media Influencer

Social media influencers are individuals who sell products or services on social media for companies who pay them to do so. These are people who have some type of influence over an audience. Depending on what that influence is, a brand or company will ask an influencer to promote their products in return for compensation. 

Influencers make this job look easy, but becoming a social media influencer isn’t as easy as some might think. Companies won’t hire you to promote their products because you have an account with followers. There’s much more that goes into social media marketing and building a brand.

In this guide, you’ll learn several tips on how to become a social media influencer. Continue reading below to get started!

Discover Your Passion or Niche

The first step to becoming a social media influencer is discovering your passion or niche. What’s your hobby? What do you enjoy doing, or what are you good at? 

What are you passionate about? These are the things you want to display on your social media accounts. Your niche could be fitness, painting, animals, fashion, or something else. 

It doesn’t matter much what your niche is. What matters most is that you know what it is, you’re passionate about it, and you turn it into your brand. Your niche is going to be what you’ll want to post about mostly. Over time, you’ll begin to develop a target audience who’s also just as interested in your niche as you are. 

Know Who Your Target Audience Is

Knowing your target audience is essential if you want to continue to build a name for yourself on social media. If you haven’t already done so, then now is the best time to switch all social media accounts to a business account. Why?

When you have a business account, the platform will give you insight into certain things such as your followers. It’ll tell you the gender of your followers, where the majority of your followers live, what time of the day they’re most active, and more. This information allows you to then create and post content they’ll enjoy. 

You’ll also be able to see which content was interacted with the most, which can give you a good idea of what type of content to post more of. You want to know who your target audience is so you can keep them happy by posting content they want to see. 

Post High-Quality Photos and Videos

No matter what platform you’re using, you’ll want to post high-quality photos and videos. Professional photos and videos are great, but when you’re unable to have a photographer by your side at all times, it’s ideal to rely on good lighting and a decent camera. 

You want your followers to be able to clearly see you, your face, and whatever product you might be promoting. Any blurred images or videos won’t be as aesthetically pleasing and will most likely receive less interaction or engagement. Photos and videos with bad lighting are just the same. 

You can invest in a ring light for a fairly inexpensive price, although the exact price will depend on the type of ring light you purchase. They can range anywhere between $20- $100. You can also consider investing in a tripod to hold your phone for you when recording videos or snapping photos. 

Distribute Content on Multiple Platforms

There’s an option on most social media accounts where you can link other accounts to it. Doing so makes it easier for you to share your content across the board. Look in your settings and find the option to allow your social media account to automatically share your posts on other accounts. 

This saves you time by preventing you from having to manually post the same content on each account. Sharing on all accounts helps you gain more reach. If you have some followers on one account but not on the other, then they may end up following you on all your accounts. 

They might also share your content with their own followers on a specific platform, which in return gains more followers for you.

Share Valuable Content

Now it’s time to focus on the type of content you’ll be sharing. It’s important to share content that your target audience will find valuable. How can you ensure the content you’re posting holds value?

Think about what your target audience wants to know. What are some of the questions you see your followers asking in your comments or messages? If you’re having trouble finding questions from them then simply ask them to ask you any questions they might have. 

Once you see a majority of people all wanting to know the same thing, then that’s what you want to post about. For example, if you have several comments asking you what your skincare routine is like, then you can post a video of you showing your followers what you do, what products you use, and so on. 

Content that answers questions or provides information is all valuable. 

Post on a Regular Basis

Don’t forget to stay consistent with your posting as well. You should post on a regular basis. The exact amount of posts per week isn’t something to worry about as much as creating your own schedule and sticking to it. 

Having a posting routine helps your followers know what to expect. When they’re expecting a post, you don’t want to let them down. If you go several weeks without posting, then your followers and engagement might go down. 

Instead, consider posting at least 3 times a week. You can even post once a day if you’d like. Posting more than once a day is probably not necessary, though since you want your followers to have time to focus on one post at a time. 

Remember to use the analytics your account gives you to determine what days and times are the best for posting. 

Engage With Your Followers

If you don’t engage with your followers, then they might not feel heard by you. It’s important to engage with followers whether it be in your comments, on your stories, or in your messages. If someone asks a question, then answer them or let them know you’ll be posting about that question soon. 

Don’t forget to have fun with it too! You can post stories where you ask your followers some questions you might have. These questions can be fun questions unrelated to the products you’re promoting, or they can be about the products to give you some insight. For example, you can ask your followers what fun plans they have for the weekend or ask them what type of content they want to see more of.

It’s up to you and as long as you’re interacting with them, it’ll be a win for everyone. 

Work With Other Influencers

Working with other influencers is a great way to quickly build a following organically. When you tag other influencers in your posts and stories, they can then share the posts as well. When other influencers post videos and photos of you, then you can do the same.

In return, you’ll both gain followers from one another’s accounts. It’s a good idea to work with a variety of other influencers on a regular basis. Switch things up from time to time and keep it fun!

Grow a Strong Following

Let’s face it: companies want influencers who have a large following. The bigger your following is, the more likely you are to be approached by a reputable company that wants you to promote their products. For this reason, you should start considering how you want to get free followers on Instagram.

You want to organically gain followers, not pay for them. When you pay for followers, the followers are fake. They won’t interact with your posts and they won’t buy the products you’re promoting. 

When you grow followers organically, they will. Instagram also has a way of catching accounts with large amounts of fake followers and flagging them. If this happens to you, it can hurt your online presence, so be sure to always do things the right way even if it takes time. 

How Will You Become a Social Media Influencer?

Have you been interested in becoming a social media influencer? How can you be sure you’ll successfully influence people? Use all of these helpful tips listed above to get you started. 

Remember, growing an online presence takes time but if you stick with your niche and continue posting great content, you’ll get there soon enough!

For more technology topics and many other topics as well, keep visiting on a daily basis.