Making strides in technological advancement such as unlimited streaming plans, DVR’s, and the use of ad blockers has reduced the number of advertisements we are regularly exposed to. This has given rise to a more effective form of advertising – influencer marketing. People trust influencers and are often loyal to ones they feel they have built an authentic relationship with, allowing them to easily persuade consumers towards purchases.
Everyone knows about many of the famous influencers. Most people have a few on their social media pages, enjoy looking through their photos chronicling their travel, days, and even the clothing. It looks like a pretty sweet life, working from home, making lots of money, and being given products for free.
So how did they get famous and how can you become an influencer as well?
Step 1. Find a Niche: Figure out things that you are passionate about and write them done. You don’t have to limit yourself to basic categories like makeup, product reviews, or even travel. Karina Garcia is a great example of finding your own niche. Karina like slime, the children’s toy that is goopy, strangely colored, and cheap. She’s managed to amass a large following on Youtube, with followers in the millions, and teaches people to produce their own slime from recipes she has tested and refined. She’s even managed to expand out to selling her slime at Target. No passion is too small for you turn into your niche.
Step 2. Be Unique: Don’t be another failed “lifestyle” blogger or a food reviewer who only gets 10 views. It’s likely you know someone who has tried to be an influencer and failed. You might even admire the passion that they have for travel, food, fashion, etc, and be wondering why they couldn’t get a following. The answer is that they are similar to everyone else, differences are what bring in views and what put you above the competition.
Step 3. Pick Your Platforms: You can’t expect to succeed on every single platform. Choose one main platform and then a few on the side to be active on and drive traffic to your main channel. The members of F**k Jerry kept themselves off of Twitter and Facebook for years while they grew their Instagram following, then diversified once they had a strong following. Keep your focus small and your growth targeted.
Step 4. Make A Plan: Don’t just throw stuff up on social media. Know what content you want to create. You should be planning at least three months in advance. Know how often you will post, what time of the day or week you will post, and make sure to stay consistent with your posts.
Step 5. Make Sure Your Content Is Amazing: This is the most time consuming part of being an influencer. You should always push yourself to put out the best product that you can. This is your brand, your name, your legacy. You may need to invest some money in the beginning for equipment and upgrades that enable you to produce the best possible content. It’s just like starting any other business, you get out what you put in.
Step 6. Always Stay Consistent: All of my favorite podcasts publish at the same day and time every single week. This should be your goal as well. I personally update my blog at 5PM on Tuesday every single week. This consistency gives your audience a reason to subscribe and check back. If you aren’t putting out consistent content, why would they bother coming back? They can’t miss content that isn’t produced.
Step 7. Promote Yourself: Creating content takes a while, but it is useless if no-one consumes said content. Getting seen is 20% about having great content and 80% about having great promotion. Buy Instagram likes, the more popular you appear the more popular you will become.
Step 8. Collaborate: Working together with well known creators inside your niche or adjacent to you is one of the fastest ways to grow your following. Keep in mind that bigger influencers don’t get much from you, so you need to help them out as much as you can and be mindful of their followers and needs.
