When is the last time you went to a nice restaurant and you saw no one taking pictures of their food?
The last time you traveled did you notice everyone carrying around selfie sticks?
With the rise of social media, everyone is trying to get noticed. Instagram, in particular, has people going wild to get the next featured pic.
The most popular profiles on Instagram get the recognition of becoming influencers.
But, how to become an influencer is the question.
How to Become an Influencer in 10 Easy Steps
Becoming an influencer isn't just about more hearts for your photos. Being deemed an influencer means you can produce an entirely new income stream for yourself and your family.
Influencers are in demand to showcase products from companies in a natural way and visit places who want more tourism dollars.
These companies, hotels, restaurants, etc. are willing to pay to get their stuff shown on your profile.
All those views and likes on your profile get their brand in front of more eyeballs. Since your audience trusts you already they are more likely to make purchases from the brands you represent.
In these next 10 steps, we will show you how to become a social media influencer.
Figure Out Your Niche
When you set out to become an influencer the first step is finding out what you have to say in the space.
Another way to say that is you need to find your niche. Your little part of the internet landscape that you can be an expert in.
The corner where you can be the trusted authority.
Your niche can be broad like, say, travel. Your niche can also be micro like handmade polymer clay jewelry. Whatever you pick, do your research. Make sure your niche is getting some attention through search.
Go online and find the tools you need to research your ideas for your niche. You may be obsessed with flying geckos but does anyone else even look for gecko content?
The best advice is to have 3-4 different niches in mind before you begin. At least one of your ideas should have some search traction.
Not to say you can't go over niches with less traffic but why put all that work in for a little reward.
Wouldn't you rather pick the big fish with very little competition than the topic that only has 100 searches a month?
Use your common sense and pick the best niche. Now you're ready to move on to step number two.
Pick Your Social Networks
The second step in how to be an influencer is picking the right social networks for your niche.
If you are a visual artist you will want to be on Instagram, Tumblr, and other image motivated sites.
If you are a financial analyst you may want to stick to Facebook and LinkedIn to find your audience.
Really do your research into the different social platforms out there. Figure out the "voice" you will have to use to be relevant in the space.
Find out what kind of marketing options each network provides. Do you want networks that are related under one company umbrella or do you not want to be in a group?
All of these are questions before deciding which social media networks will best represent your niche and what your brand could become.
Whatever you decide is best remember not to spread yourself too thin. Limit yourself to 2-3 primary social media accounts.
Any more than that and your content will be spread too thin or start looking outsourced and that's no good.
Develop A Legitimate Content Strategy
What the heck is a content strategy? Glad you asked. It's what tons of people are missing in their social media profiles.
If you want to start making money on social (and this would be why you want to be an influencer) you need to treat this like a business.
You need to sit down and plan out your content strategy to keep your networks chocked full of fresh content on a daily basis. You need to think about and develop the look, feel, voice, and schedule of your brand.
Once you have come up with a concrete strategy you can move on to the next step.
Follow Your Strategy
The next step in how to be an influencer is to look at the strategy you have created and create the content.
You want to get to work and build out your content for the next 2-3 months. If this isn't possible right now you should at least work the full next month.
Then you can start scheduling posts through a social media automation platform or, find a virtual assistant who will do the posts for you.
Being ahead of the game means you won't lose track of your strategy when life inevitably happens and throws you off course for a bit.
Keep Doing It Consistently
This should come as no surprise but in order to become a successful influencer, you have to keep working your plan, all the time.
Steady consistent work is the name of the game in this arena.
Brands want to see that you're dependently representing yourself on a regular schedule before they will trust you'll rep them that way too.
The social media space can be super fickle. If you are not showing up in people's feeds every single day you're going to be forgotten.
While they may not seem fair it's the hard truth. The less you post the fewer people interact with you and your brand. Less interaction means people lose interest and your entire job as an influencer is to maintain an active interest from your audience.
The more people see you consistently posting the more they will trust your brand.
Reach Out To Other Influencers and Brands You Like
When you first began finding out how to be a social media influencer what did you do to get info?
You followed some influencers. By now, you certainly have your favorites. On top of that, I'm certain you can think of 2-3 brands that you love.
Reach out to these people. Reach out to your favorite influencers and explain what you're doing. Ask if they have any advice.
Tell the brands you love that you're beginning to gain a following and you enjoy their brand. That you would be perfect to represent them for reasons x, y, and z.
People and companies like people who are go-getters. If you go out on a limb and reach out to them first, it garners great results.
Build Your Own Community
You may have heard a millionaire or two say it before but, building your tribe is the best way to build your business.
In this social networking space, building a community of like-minded people is key to your success.
These followers will be the first to buy the new product you rep. They are the people who will share you with others. They are the ones that adore every #OOTD that you post.
These are your ride or die, folks. Even if you make a pivot and try out a different niche these are the ones who will trust and follow you.
Find a unique way to build a community around your brand and you are going to be successful.
Market Yourself
Some may say that organic reach is just as powerful as paid so, why should you pay for marketing?
Marketing is a critical tool for building an audience. Maybe even more important than a super popular profile.
If you want your posts to be seen by more people than your Mom and Aunt Frida in Colorado you're gonna want to be running ads.
What's great about the journey to becoming an influencer is you don't have to write a corny ad copy. You don't have to pay thousands for food stylists to come and shoot your food before the restaurant opens.
You are marketing the thing closest to your heart, yourself. You can boost the posts of you having an amazing time in Venice.
Boost and spread ads of your latest gastronomic adventure.
The skies the limit but, by paying a little for some social advertising and marketing those posts are being seen three times as much than they would have been on your own.
Put your money where your mouth is and gain followers. No one wants to hire an "influencer" if their only audience is their family out west.
Always Provide Value To Your Followers
Don't let all of this business talk get you to lose sight of what is important here. At the end of the day, you need to be providing constant value to your follower base.
You need to connect with them daily, cut the BS, give them good stuff, and appreciate the heck out of them.
If you lose sight of that then followers will begin to dwindle and you'll get stuck in the "that guy" category. Not a good look.
Part of what makes quality and valuable content is always listening to your audience.
Read the comments you're receiving. Take the feedback with a grain of salt, sure, but this is also how you give the people more of what they want.
Push yourself to be better within the space you focus on. Get your followers in where no one else can.
Get them into the hottest clubs, the most elite fashion houses, obscure travel locations around the world.
It's your job to let these people live vicariously through you. This is what draws people in to follow you. This is also what will encourage brands and bloggers to pay you to rep them.
By constantly promoting value, you are building a secure trust with your audience. They are more likely to buy the two or three times a year you ask them to buy something because of this trust.
If you offer little value and every post is a sales post why should they trust you? It makes you feel like a number and that's no good at all.
Push Continued Growth and Put The Spotlight on You
Look, don't settle for mediocrity. Push yourself beyond your limits.
Think of the farthest you could possibly go in your niche and then push just past that.
No one gets something great if they never took a risk.
Yoga your thing? Find the most precarious places in the world where you can get a picture of you doing a perfect flying crow.
Do you have a foodie niche? Claw and bite your way onto the chef's tables of the next upcoming three Michelin star spot. Be the first on the scene.
Get in people's faces about where you are going and get them excited to jump on the ride with you.
Don't be pushy. Be excited. Be gracious. Be enthusiastic. Let them catch your fire and drive and want to be part of it with you.
Remember, these brands you want to work with want the publicity as much as you.
Make it a mutual relationship and make such a great impression that they are driven to introduce you to all their industry friends.
That's how you get the pictures that no one is taking. Don't get lost in the crowd. Breakthrough walls and define your niche.
Become synonymous with your niche. This is the true way of becoming an influencer, you gotta live it.
Get Ready, Get Set, Blast Off
We hope we have shown you how to become an influencer in an easy, approachable way.
We wish we could give you better news but, the fact is, really hard work and research are how to make it happen in this industry.
There really is no magic serum to take or secret door to unlock. The key to becoming an amazing influencer is passion. You need a passion for your niche. You need the drive to get to the next level.
Want to learn more about who we are and how we got started in the influencer game? Check out more about us and our team here.
Interested in where we have been and the work we have done? You can see our great work here.
You can always follow us on Instagram as well. Daisy hangs out here @fashionistavida and Justin can be found @travelenforced.