Do you know how to become a social media influencer? Do you know you can do a lot with social media? So you want to make money by posting cool content on social media? Well, you’re not alone! There are literally millions of influencers on the most popular platforms today, and the field is becoming more and more competitive.
This means that if you want a spot, it’s time to jump in before it’s too late. Luckily, if you follow the right steps, this doesn’t have to be too difficult.
Let’s talk about how to become a social media influencer in 2024!
What is a Social Media Influencer?
A social media influencer plays an important role in today’s advertising world. If you make it in this field, your place is simple. You have the audience and the brand will have a product to promote.
Any brand needs to advertise in order to make money, and if you have influence over a large number of people, you can offer them that service for a price.
However, there are ethical concerns with this, which is why there are now laws in place over these types of brand transactions, but we’ll go over that. If this seems like a career you’re interested in, here’s how you can get there!
Micro-Influencers
Micro-influencers are influencers with followings between 1,000 and 100,000. If you think that’s not enough, think again. People with smaller followings can still make very profitable transactions if they are effective at selling.
The good news is that this status is a lot more attainable, and can still make you money. It’s better to have 50,000 followers who trust you than 500,000 who don’t.
People don’t always trust celebrity endorsements, because they know they’re being paid to say what they are saying about the product. Many prefer to take the advice of people they see as peers, which is the role of a micro-influencer, especially if their following is mostly local! This way, you can advertise for local businesses that need to reach a specific audience in the area.
All in all, follower count isn’t as important as conversion rates, salesmanship, and your niche audience. You can still turn lemons into lemonade.
How to Become a Social Media Influencer?
Post Creative Content
There’s no way around it. Posting quality content is the best way to gain quality followers.
If you’re just trying to upload as much content as possible, people will get annoyed and unfollow you. If you pay for followers, your conversion rates will be low. Posting creative content that people like, and taking feedback from them, is the time-tested best way to build a quality audience.
Be Consistent
Post consistently without sacrificing quality. Try to have a consistent schedule, and base it around the times when activity is the highest among your audience. You can create content in advance and set timers to post at the right times. Be sure to utilize hashtags and trends as much as possible to help stay relevant and make your content easier to find.
Be Authentic
If you start out sounding like a “bot” account, then you’re not going to make people enthusiastic about following you. Be genuine in your posts, be yourself, and be real with your audience. Talk about relatable issues in life, tell funny stories, and be genuine in your online interactions with people. It goes a long way toward establishing trust.
Choose the Right Niche Platform
The platform where you spend most of your energy is an important one to pick early on in your aspiring career. TikTok is the fastest-growing, and YouTube is steady and promising. However, they might not fit your style. If you’re writing short blurbs, Twitter is your natural home. If your content is mostly images and short videos, Instagram might be the place for you.
Instagram marketing is where the money is when it comes to finding brand deals. In fact, $8 billion of the influencer marketing industry is just on Instagram, making it the most profitable platform ahead of YouTube and TikTok.
Maybe you already have a few thousand followers on Twitter and you want to pivot toward Instagram. Try posting interesting content on there and linking it to your Twitter page!
Know the Laws
You don’t want to violate the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) guidelines. Even if you have 10 followers right now and you’re still developing your strategy, the more you know about the FTC regulations, the better off you’ll be down the road.
Most of these laws involve transparency over brand deals, and fines can be hefty for violations.
Diversify
Don’t stick to one social media platform. This puts all your eggs into one basket, which can be devastating if something goes wrong. If the worst-case scenario comes and you’re
kicked off your platform, where do you go from there?
The good news is that once you have a following on one platform, it’s a lot easier to build on others. If you’re climbing the ladder a lot faster on TikTok, give your Instagram a shoutout and drop a link to it in your bio.
Do you know advantages of instagram? If yes, then okay. But if you don’t know which one is not an advantage of instagram then you must read this.
Learn From the Best
If you’re trying to become a social media influencer, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel. You want your content to be creative, so you don’t want to rip anybody off, but you can still pick up plenty of tricks from people who have already made it in the industry.
There are already thousands of success stories from the field you’re aspiring to make it in, so why not learn from some of the best on Instagram?
Develop a Strategy to Build Followers
If you have 50 or 50,000 followers, you can always use more. The more you get, the more money you’ll make. If you’ve already made a few brand deals, don’t alienate your followers by only posting advertisements.
Communicate With Followers
Join in on the comments sections. Give shoutouts to your followers who comment on your posts with something funny or interesting. Show them that you care and they’ll give you the same respect.
Read Your Contracts
This may sound super obvious, but you might need to hear it. Make sure contracts match with all verbal agreements made, and that you don’t find anything you don’t want to agree to. Knowing what types of contracts to expect is important.
Brand Agreement
This is the contract that will form the basis of your brand agreement with your clients and should be extensively scrutinized. Inside, you’ll find information about pay rates, commercial terms of the deal, campaign period, usage rights, expenses, and more.
This covers the legal terms for which party is responsible for what, the compensation that will take place, and who is liable in the event that something goes wrong.
This is the contract you probably think of right away, and it’s an important one to get right, so read it thoroughly.
Non-Disclosure Agreements
Sometimes brands will have new products or information that will be shared with you that they don’t want to be released to the public, and it is your responsibility to uphold this agreement. Failure to do so could result in forfeiture of payment.
Data Protection Agreements
When you make an influencer marketing deal, there is a lot of data that gets transferred between parties. This includes information about your followers, your account, your previous brand deals, and more on your end. On the brand’s end, there will be information about the company, its products, its payment methods, and more that needs to be protected. This is a mutual agreement that needs to be respected by all parties.
Optimize Your Profile
Getting a blue checkmark is the number one status symbol on social media, and you should try to get one. The verification process is different for every platform, but it really looks good to have one.
Before you do that, there are some easier ways to go about optimizing your account. Make sure your photo looks professional, add links to your bio with a short and concise description, and change to a business account. These steps alone will go a long way to increasing traffic. Of course, your profile should be public, as well! (Duh!)
Get Started Today!
Now that you know the steps to follow to become a social media influencer, why wait? Get started today and enjoy some of our latest news on the industry!
