A social media influencer smiles to her cellphone. An influencer is a social media personality with a large number of loyal and engaged followers. Photo by Ron Lach from Pexels.
Durban – Globally, social media influencers are in-demand with local and international brands looking to collaborate to expand its reach and drive conversions.
Almost every industry has seen a rise in influencers, and many career professionals are either quitting their 9-to-5 jobs or taking up influencing as a side-hustle.
An influencer is a social media personality with a large number of loyal and engaged followers, and as a follower of a social media influencer, you would look forward to expert advice and product or service recommendations – this is what fuels the demand for influencers.
If you want to become an influencer, here are five easy steps to take.
1. Select your niche
The first step to becoming an influencer is selecting your niche. Choose a niche that you are interested in, that you can consistently create content about and relate to with an audience.
Having some level of expertise in the field can help you establish yourself as a credible influencer.
It is important to choose something you are passionate about and will enjoy spending your time and energy on – it could be your love for cooking and new recipes or DIY crafts or even make-up and fashion.
Moreover, select two or three niche interests but just don’t make it too broad.
2. Create or update your social media profiles
So you have chosen your niche, now you have to select your preferred social media platforms. Update your profile picture and bio – people recognise a social media profile by the profile picture and your bio is the first thing someone sees when they visit your profile.
Also, for your profile picture, ensure that the picture quality is good and that your face is clearly visible.
Most influencers have more than one social media platform, choose two or three to focus your efforts on these platforms.
Once you have selected your platforms, you need to either create new profiles or optimise your existing ones to a business account.
3. Understand your audience and target market
Just before you start posting content on your social media platforms, take some time to understand who your target audience is and your aim.
As an influencer, you will have an impact on your audience and will form a strong connection with them. It is important that you know who you are targeting, so you can retain interest and then do it well to build a loyal following.
The first step to understanding your audience is analysing your current following to get insights into their demographics and interests.
There are several social media platforms that have built-in analytic tools that provide audience insights and activity. For example, there’s Twitter Analytics, which provides insights into your current followers’ interests, genders, locations, and activity on your page.
4. Create relevant content and post regularly
As an influencer, your posts must be useful and relevant to your followers. The more you engage with your audience, the more people will be influenced by your opinions and recommendations.
Followers will not only like your posts but will also share them on their personal pages. Formulating a content strategy is important and make use of a combination of different content, preferably the ones that your audience will like.
After you have decided on the types of content, you need to plan the posting frequency and schedule.
Social media platforms have an algorithm that gives preference to accounts that post regularly.
5. Audience engagement and brand collaboration
When you start posting content, you will often get likes, comments or shares on your posts. As an influencer, it is important to connect with your followers to keep that cordial relationship.
Remember, it is a good practice to reply to comments, answer any questions that your followers ask you, and also “like” their comments to show your appreciation.
And thereafter, declare yourself as an influencer who is interested in brand collaborations. Add this to your bio that you’re an influencer and is interested in collaborations.
Don’t forget to include your contact details for potential clients.
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