ave you ever wondered how to become an influencer? Here’s a couple of genuine tips that might help you out if you are thinking about following a path of relative fame.
Becoming an influencer is difficult. Just straight up, it’s a profession that is massively hard to get into and incredibly taxing to stay in if you make it there. It is a rare and coveted position to be in, seeing as you can seemingly just make money by posting on social media! It’s attention and audience and influence, literally. Things anyone would want but not many people seem to have. But, anyone could be an influencer if they are disciplined and willing to put in the work to make it happen.
There are a series of tips and good info to get you started, but before that, there is a point to keep in mind if you really want to be an influencer.
How to be an influencer: Getting started
Simply, you have to want it. If you are only vaguely interested in being an influencer or just think that it’s cool, you have some serious internal reflection to do if you really want to be an influencer. There are gonna be hundreds if not thousands (if not hundreds of thousands) of people who want the same job as you do, and while there’s not an application process, not everyone can be an influencer. Just by pure metrics, if there are too many people who are “influencers,” then there’s no audience. So if you want to pursue this path, you really need to want it.
That’s absolutely the most you can do for yourself because, like any job that requires you to put yourself out there, you are right in the crosshairs of rejection and rude people online all the time! So keep your head up. If you pursue the path, you’re gonna want to quit, but that’s the trap. Wanting to give up is the mind killer, you must allow it to pass over you and through you and all that good Dune stuff.
So, now that that’s out of the way and you’re still here, let’s define: What exactly is an influencer? Well, an influencer is an online content creator who leverages their position to affect purchasing decisions of consumers who follow them. Influencers all have a niche, some specific brand which allows you to express your creativity and work mostly by your own schedule about whatever you want.
Okay, so, you have the idea and the passion: here are your tips on how to get the ball rolling on a potential career as an influencer, listed in roughly chronological order:
First, identify your niche.
All influencers have one, and you need one. Be it beauty, tech, travel, gaming, fashion, or many others, find what interests you and own it. Make sure that your niche is something that you know well and/or are confident talking about.
Then, you need to choose a platform.
Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, Youtube, even live action websites like Twitch are all excellent platforms to reach people, and each one is keyed towards a particular medium. Instagram is great for pictures, and TikTok is good for short form videos, for example. At this point you should probably figure out what kind of content you actually want to make. Are you posting videos of yourself talking? Are you showing off some piece of material related to your niche? Essentially, figure out what is actually going on your social media page (or pages! Don’t be afraid to split between platforms if you can) to show to your audience.
Creating content and getting followers
At this point, you can start actually creating content! As you do, start thinking about developing a brand. Anything can be a brand; your face, your voice, a particular symbol, and editing style, actually anything. Whatever you decide on, make it consistent and make it clear so that your followers know who you are.
Speaking of followers, let’s talk for a second on how to attract them. You need to create high-quality content so that people will stick around to watch your videos. And keep in mind, ‘high quality’ does not mean thousand dollar cameras and boom mics and a production team. You can make sufficiently high quality content with basically any modern phone camera and some practiced editing skills. You can make content high quality essentially for free today! Just remember that even though it’s free, it may not be easy, especially if you are not a practiced editor. It might take time, and that’s okay. Patience is key.
And when people are watching your videos, make sure to engage with them. Respond in the comments, give shoutouts to paid supporters if you are using platforms like Patreon or Ko-Fi. Especially when you have a small audience, it is paramount to engage with your audience to keep them around while you are growing your brand and amassing more followers. This applies to all relationships, but it is vital to fostering a positive and increasing audience.
How do influencers make money?
Now, here you are, you’ve gotten lucky, and are creating content towards a present and ever-growing audience. Now is where the money begins. There are three main ways influencers make money– free products, brand sponsorships, or affiliate marketing.
Free products are just that- free things that companies want you to advertise for them, and in return you get things for free. It’s always nice to get something without having to pay for it, but it is not wise to just accept everything– stay close to your niche.
Brand sponsorships are the method that most people are familiar with, and it’s acting as a brand ambassador for a company. You get paid in exchange for advertising a particular brand or product and extolling its virtues to convince your audience to buy them. If you’ve ever heard a youtuber go, “this video is sponsored by…” then they’re participating in brand sponsorship.
And lastly, there is affiliate marketing. A company will share with you a special code that anyone can enter into their website when they make a purchase– and you make a small commission off of that. So encouraging people to purchase the company’s products will make you some money if they also enter your affiliate code. It’s very passive, but if people actually use your affiliate code often then it can add up to a lot of money.
And there you have it! If you stick with these tips and you are lucky, you could potentially become an influencer yourself. There are a lot of factors that go into the level of your success, but the best thing you can do is follow these tips, do more research, and try your best. If you succeed, then you don’t have to work at 9-5, and that’s basically all anyone can ask for.
If you need some help when it comes to burnout, here is a list of self care tips to help you with burnout! And in terms of more professional skills you may need, here is a quick primer on skills you'll probably want going into this profession, or any.
