What is an influencer?
An influencer, also known as a social media influencer or sometimes a content creator, is someone who leverages social media in order to influence their audiences buying decisions through the use of their social media content.
The definition of what influencers are is constantly evolving and changing. Influencers today can range from a TikTok dancer to someone who creates regular cooking content.
Here are the key steps to becoming an influencer in 2023
Finding your niche:
A niche is a highly specific market segment of consumers that influencers can market to online. You can define your niche based on the category that your content fits into, (i.e health and wellness, gaming, fitness, pets etc.) or by using your demographics (gender, age, income level, education level) and even Psychographics (values, interests, attitudes).
To gain a better understanding of your niche, take a minute to reflect on your current passions and what you most enjoy making content about, but also think about what content has performed best on your socials. Once you’ve identified your niche, focus on it and ensure that all of your content is relevant to your chosen audience.
Getting to know and understand your audience
Before posting regular content on your channels, first you need to understand your audience. Influencers have deep connections with their audience because they don’t cater to everyone, only to those who are interested in their specific niche and style of content.
If you want to become a successful influencer, you need to truly understand your audience and how to better target your content to them, and build a better relationship with them.
To gain a better understanding of your current audience, you can use a number of different analytics tools such as Instagram’s built-in analytics tool which gives you data on their location, age, gender etc. Find out how to access this here.
Optimise your online profiles
Your social media profiles are basically a cover letter, portfolio, and website all wrapped up in one.
This is where you show brands and your visitors who you are, what you offer, and the type of content you create. Here’s what you need to include across all your social profiles:
Choose a relevant profile picture
Share your story
Include targeted keywords in the name field
Add a call-to-action and action buttons
Share your contact information
Tag related accounts and add your branded hashtag
Use a link in bio tool
Being consistent with your content
Now that you’ve identified your niche and got a better understanding of your audience, you’re ready to start creating your content plan.
If you want to generate growth and engagement, you need to be active, engaged and post every day (if you can), but creating lots of high-quality content can be hugely time-consuming.
One of the best solutions?
Start creating content in batches, and capture all the video, images and graphics you need for the whole month in a couple of sessions and then schedule this content out for the month. This can save you days of time so it’s a great thing to practise and learn.
Using a social media tool can make this much easier and quicker. Here are 5 of our favourite scheduling tools you could choose from to help with this.
Experiment with TikToks and Reels
The popularity for short-form video has sky-rocketed over the past couple of years and it’s showing no signs of stopping, so learning to use platforms such as TikTok and Instagram Reels is vital.
Influencers who utilise short-form video features can see incredible amounts of growth and engagement compared to people who only post static images on their feeds.
Here's why you should be using short-form content:
Consumers find short-form video to be 2.5x more engaging than long-form video (The Sprout Social Index™).
TikTok, a short-form video platform, is the most engaging social platform by engagement rate (Socialinsider).
55% of TikTok users bought something after seeing the brand on the app.
Reels account for almost 20% of the time people spend on Instagram.
In fact, on Instagram Reels have the highest reach of all media types on the platform.
In 2022, Instagram Reels had an average engagement rate that was at least double that of other post types (Socialinsider).
As of June 2022, YouTube Shorts topped 5 billion monthly active users.
Looking to master your skills in short-form video? Try this Top 5 Ways To Boost Your TikTok Engagement In 2023
Outreach to brands that work with influencers
Once your audience starts to engage more with your socials and your content, it’s time to shout about yourself to try and start working with brands and monetise your channels.
You can do this by writing in your bio that you’re an influencer and are interested in collaborations. You can also provide contact details for potential clients, giving them an easy way to connect with you.
Another great way to get noticed by a brand you’d like to work with is with direct outreach. If you design an outreach template that you can use to reach out to different brands, that can save you a lot of time.
Make sure to include these five key components in your pitch:
Craft the perfect subject line
Introduce yourself
Highlight what you love about the brand/product and why you want to work with them/what you can offer that makes you stand out
Create and attach a media kit
Share your rates and a call-to-action (CTA)
Once your pitch is ready, create a list of all the brands you’d like to work with that are within your niche and their contact information and get outreaching!
Join a free influencer programme
Additionally, joining a free influencer programme will offer exposure to brands looking for influencers. For example, The Blogger Programme is a free influencer marketplace with over 50,000 self-registered influencers. The platform provides free influencer discovery, introductions, end-to-end influencer campaign management and detailed campaign reporting.
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