How to Become a Social Media Influencer in 6 Not-So-Easy Steps

Everyone wants to be a social media influencer these days. Internet fame, freebies, easy money – what’s not to like, right?

Wrong. Building a successful personal brand from scratch is no walk in the park. It takes dedication, hard work, and of course, a lot of luck to be able to make it big on the internet.

That being said, it is not impossible either. If you put in the work and employ a winning strategy, you can certainly become a popular social media influencer and make money through it. Here is a guide on how to get started.

1. Find the Right Niche

A common mistake most wannabe social media influencers make is to copy the most popular influencers out there. Sure, playing video games for a living sounds fun, but unless you introduce a new twist on the theme, you aren’t going to make it big.

Influencers, whether you realize it or not, are ultimately content creators. To build a sizable social media following, you first need to produce high-quality content. The type of content should be something you are passionate about, as you will need to produce a lot of it.

Instead of competing with successful social media influencers, find a different niche that is relatively untapped. Your content strategy must revolve around establishing trust in a specific niche, and posting content frequently.

2. Find the Right Platform

Once you have zeroed in on your niche, it is time to decide upon a social media platform. What, don’t you just try to get your content out to as many social media channels as possible?

No. The key to successful social media marketing is to understand your target audience. You need to focus your outreach to the demographic most likely to appreciate your type of content, and this means finding the correct social network to post in.

For example, if you aim to produce long-form video content, then Youtube or Twitch should be the platforms of your choice. On the other hand, food or fashion bloggers will find TikTok and Instagram posts more to their liking.

3. Stay Relevant

Influencer marketing is all about giving your audience what they want. When you begin putting out content, it is hard to gauge what will do well. This is where using analytics tools and SEO research becomes important.

Find topics that resonate with your audience, and build your marketing strategy around them. Every piece of content that you release should use only the relevant hashtags to improve engagement rate and catch the eyes of the algorithm.

Social media apps like recommending valuable content that see more use engagement, rather than scattershot posts that aim at everything. Be it videos or podcasts, creating engaging content like tutorials or useful recommendations is a sure-fire method of staying relevant to your audience.

4. Consistency Is Important

Many budding influencers never go past the initial few posts. It is natural for the response to be lukewarm in the beginning; you need to be patient and stay in the game for the eventual payoff.

Simply having a bunch of social media profiles that post sporadically is not enough. You need to keep producing quality content regularly, to keep the interest alive and increase the follower count. This is the basic tenet of any form of digital marketing.

The idea is to establish a personal connection with your fans and make your channel an indispensable part of their internet life. Whether you want to become a Linkedin or an Instagram influencer, consistency is the only way to break into the big leagues.

5. Reach Out

Like most tasks in life, building a strong influencer marketing platform will not happen without the support of others. While following a step-by-step approach toward growing your following is certainly necessary, it is also important to reach out to others.

First of all, engage with your audience. A large part of influencer culture is driven by people looking for more personal connections, rather than cold-hearted corporate brands. Be approachable, by responding to fan comments and questions.

The other aspect of this is collaboration. Partnering with other influencers is a great way to grow your audience, as it gives your channel much-needed exposure. Try reaching out to social media accounts with similar standing to your own, as these influencers will be the most amenable to working together.

6. Build Brand Partnerships

If you have been growing your network diligently, you have hopefully reached a point where you can start considering brand sponsorships.

Leading brands will often run influencer marketing campaigns in which they rope in popular social media influencers to promote their products and services. If you’ve been wondering how to make money through your social network then this is it.

Sponsored posts will probably be the biggest chunk of your revenue, apart from things like Patreon donations or merchandise sales. To attract good brand partnerships, improve the statistics of your channel, as most brands will seek out influencers based on their channel performance. If you can add value to their brand, you will easily attract sponsorships.

Is It Easy to Become a Social Media Influencer?

There are many perks of being a successful social media influencer with a large fan following and valuable brand partnerships. But reaching that point is harder than you think.

A powerful online presence is not built in a day. It takes consistent effort over a long period of time to get to a point where you can make money or attract sponsorships as an influencer.

The best path is to find a niche without much competition and establish yourself as the leading influencer in that field. If you can stay relevant and be consistent, there is no reason why you cannot become a successful social media influencer.