So you want to learn how to become an influencer? Let’s start.
What is an influencer?
An influencer is someone who uses their social media power to inspire and ‘influence’ their audience. They are savvy marketers that promote brands with word of mouth recommendations with the ability to craft relevant messaging, inspiring content, and engage their audience.
Learn more about Influencer Marketing, getting paid on social media, and the future predictions.
To become an Influencer you have to ask yourself what do brands look for? Brands look at a variety of things from your profile, your feed, your personality to how big your audience is, your engagement rate, your pitch, and your content quality.
Bio
Defining yourself in your profile is essential. No one knows you, so this is a way to tell people who you are and what you are about. TRY NOT TO LEAVE THIS BLANK! Just a little about you is fine. What makes you interesting? What do you like to do? It doesn’t have to be super detailed, but just include little things about you. Are you a foodie, traveler, shopaholic, fashion enthusiast, vlogger, fitness/yoga junkie, photographer, the list goes on. Be authentic and creative. If you are trying to become an influencer, then you also want to include an email address where brands can reach you at.
Profile Picture
I cannot stress how important having a stunning profile picture is! Just as it is very important for an actor to have that winning headshot to get seen by casting directors, it is just as important to have a winning profile picture on your social media accounts to get seen by strangers! First impressions are everything! If people like your picture, they are more likely going to check out your profile. So be very particular what you post as your profile pic.
Branding
BRANDING is all about how you present yourself. Have you been building your personal brand? Remember, you have to make yourself marketable. What niche do you want to focus on? How professional are your photos? What’s your profile aesthetics? Are you consistently keeping and maintaining your brand? That means once you decide what niche and aspects of your life to focus on, stick to it! Do not add a random photo when you get mad at someone or post some crazy picture that goes against your personal brand that you are growing. Sometimes branding yourself means starting over and deleting unnecessary pictures that don’t fit within your brand.
Brands will be knocking at your door once you brand yourself!
I also have a blog, which is what you are reading. Blogs are also a great way to share information. If you are interested in starting a blog of your own, I created a tutorial that will help you start a blog of your own for cheap, starting at only $3.95 per month. This is a special price Negotiated with Bluehost for my readers. You will get a FREE domain and great customer service! Check out the step-by-step tutorial here.
Social Media Kits
If you are trying to become an influencer, having a social media kit is a good idea. When brands reach out to you by email, you can respond with a kit. Or if you want to directly reach out to a brand, you can send your kit with your statistics. Learn more about getting brand sponsorships.
Followers
Of course having followers is important, however it is not as important as many imagine. Yes you need them but you don’t need a ton in order to get brand sponsorships. Once you have branded yourself and have a great engagement rate, you can lands brand sponsorships with relative low number of followers. Check out some tips to growing our social media as well as some growth hacks for Instagram.
Engagement Rate
Like I stated earlier, you don’t need a million followers to become an influencer but you do need a good engagement rate. A good engagement rate is anything over at least 1%. Meaning at least 1% of your followers are engaging on average on your pictures with likes or comments. So if you have 1000 followers, you want at least an engagement rate of 10 people liking & commenting on your photos. The higher your engagement rate, the better. Having a good engagement rate means you have an active audience that is interested in what you are posting. So if you have photos with low engagement rates, consider deleting them. This is an important factor that brands look for.
How much can you make?
It varies. While some brands pay between $5 to $10 per thousand followers, others offer $100 per 100 followers. Some only pay in free product.
After implementing these important elements, your journey to becoming an influencer should be clearer. Following these steps, I’ve been able to land numerous brand sponsorships. I’ve made more than a $1000 in a month. Read to find out exactly how.
Are you unsure how to brand and grow your social media? Are you unsure about the direction you want to take? Do you want feedback on your social media content, photography use, how to grow? If you want an HONEST review, I am auditing social media pages and giving informative recommendations. Check it out here.
