Become an Influencer with Your SM Accounts

With today’s prevalence of social media, traditional marketing is being overcome by influencers who use their social media accounts to make money or get free items from advertisers. Although it requires a great deal of work to become a successful influencer with your SM accounts, it is possible to do so, and the number of influencers is constantly growing.

Start by Choosing Something You Are Passionate About

If you want to become a successful influencer on social media, you will find it will go much more smoothly if you focus on a niche you have a passion about. You must have a base knowledge in the area; otherwise, advertisers will not want to work with you. At the same time, you must be highly interested in the topic or niche since you will be spending a great deal of time researching, engaging in, and promoting it. You don’t want to try to become an influencer for fitness products if you hate exercising. At the same time, you should not try to be an influencer for unique food products if you cannot cook or a style influencer if you have no fashion sense.

Many influencers actually find several niches that they are passionate and knowledgeable about and find a way to combine them. An example would be a travel account that focuses on photography spots at each destination.

Work on Your Bios

As a social media influencer, you cannot have a neglected bio on any of your SM accounts. Your bio should attract attention and make people want to know more about you, which leads to them browsing through your content. Anyone who looks at your account, whether they are a potential follower or brand, will see your bio and profile picture first. Make sure your bio is short enough to fit within a line or two, so people don’t get bored reading it, but still tells your story. Use your bio to let brands and followers know how your passion for cooking, fashion, travel, or your chosen niche began. You can even consider using a key search term if you can work it in naturally.

Focus on One Channel

Eventually, you will want to have multiple social media accounts as a successful influencer, but even then, one should be your main channel. Many influencers find that they see the best results if they focus their efforts on their Instagram and simply remain active on Twitter, Facebook, or a handful of other social media platforms. Evaluate what will work best for your niche then put most of your energy into growing your presence on that particular social media platform. At first, limit yourself to just two or three platforms total, so you do not get overwhelmed and have to sacrifice quality.

Collaborate with Others

One of the best ways for influencers to increase their prominence is to work with other up-and-coming influencers. If you can find an already successful one who is willing to collaborate with you, even better. Collaborative videos, challenges, hashtags, and more let you share each other’s audiences, gaining more followers in the process.

However, to make the most of these collaborations, be sure to also include brands. This lets you build a relationship with influencers as well as companies seeking your influence, making it a type of digital networking that delivers almost instant results. During all your collaborations, work hard to make sure the others you work with have a positive experience. They will remember it and come back to you in the future.

Know When Not to Collaborate

When starting out, an influencer may feel tempted to agree to work with any brand since there are still few options available. While this can work to your advantage, there is also plenty of room for harm. If you choose to work with a brand that is disreputable, that could tarnish your reputation, as well. For upcoming influencers, this can make it harder to reach success. If you are already established as an influencer, you may lose followers and other brands if your reputation falls.

As a rule, you should welcome collaborations with other influencers and brands, but know when to say no. If you simply do not have trust in the brand or their practices, politely decline their request. You may also want to say no if the brand is not at all related to your niche since posts followers are not interested in might turn them away. Accepting offers from brands outside your niche could even lead to confusion as to what your niche is, hurting your own marketing.

Stay Engaged

To help your audience grow and keep your followers interested, try to stay engaged. When your numbers are still small, try to respond to as many comments as possible, do live videos, and find other ways to directly engage with followers. Continue this strategy as your presence grows but move your focus onto engagement methods that require less effort and connect you with a large number of users, such as a live video instead of individual comment responses.