Here are 9 steps to become a social media influencer:
1. Choose a niche
Every marketing influencer that you see on YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, etc. has a niche. Without a defined niche, it won’t matter what other advantages you have because you’ll have to compete with everyone for your audience’s attention. Also, you will be speaking and marketing to everyone, which will ultimately result in you actually reaching no one.
2. Choose your main platform
Before you begin your campaign to become a social media influencer, you need to get your presence on the profiles you choose. You can use a variety of social networks, but you must choose one main platform where you are going to focus most of your content.
You can still be active and engage on other networks, but most of your efforts will go into this one social media channel.
3. Define your audience
Without followers, fans, or subscribers, your brand will be worthless on social media. So, before you start posting on your chosen social media platform, you need to define your target audience. You want to focus on those people and communities who will be the fuel that powers your brand on social media.
Your ideal audience will depend on the type of market you are in. For instance, if you are a business influencer and your goal is to educate others with course licensing programs, your audience is likely to be on sites like LinkedIn and Twitter. If there are business-related videos, you may find them on YouTube, as well.
4. Develop a content calendar
As a social media influencer, you have to consistently create valuable content that your audience (and search engines/social media algorithms) will love. People value commitment and consistency in social influencers.
You need to show up every single day with a consistent message and produce useful content that is relevant to your audience.
5. Strategically generate traffic
The more traffic you can generate on social media, the bigger an influencer you will become. As your following grows, other people will follow you, too, and you will be able to leverage the power of social proof to reach an even bigger audience of fans and followers. However, in the beginning, you need to find ways to strategically generate traffic so you can get the momentum going.
6. Collaborate with other influencers
Collaborating with other influencers in your niche allows you to gain fans from their communities. Influencers on social media have a huge reach that often extends to the millions, and working with them can help expose your content to a massive brand-new audience and drive even more traffic to your profiles.
7. Engage your audience
This is a big one because if you don’t consistently engage with your audience on social media, they’re likely to lose interest in your business and brand. Your content is an important part of your influencer marketing strategy, but without engagement, it won’t matter how good or insightful the content is.
Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube want to see people engaging with your content. It sends them a strong signal that you are posting things that your audience actually wants to see, which gives your content and your activities on social media (such as promotion and advertising) the necessary social proof.
8. Make it easy for brands to contact you
Another important tip to help you grow as a social media influencer is to make it super easy for brands to find and contact you. Different brands find influencers on social media using different methods.
To find influencers on YouTube, brands might conduct Google searches for relevant influencers in the niche.
To find influencers on Instagram, brands might use a tool like Iconosquare, an analytics tracker that helps them see how relevant and engaged a particular influencer’s audience is.
To find influencers on LinkedIn, they might search for relevant keywords, posts, and locations.
9. Over-deliver on brand partnerships
When working with brands, always go above and beyond expectations in order to encourage more bookings from that brand. Brands love to work with social media influencers who deliver immense value, and anytime you over-deliver on your brand partnerships, you make it more likely that they will want to work with you again.
This is a powerful tactic that also puts the powerful law of reciprocation in your favor. When you provide value for a brand, they are compelled to want to do something for you in return.
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