You wish you were one of these successful influencers.
Loads of followers. Paid partnerships. And most excitingly, that epic job title of “influencer”.
The social media universe spun so fast that it created its own economy.
And just like that, influencers are in high demand.
And then just as quickly, everyone’s scrambling for this first-of-its-kind job description. The position. The power. Social media dominance.
So, you’re here.
In search of how to achieve this influencer dream. However, your small slowly growing profile is nowhere near social media stardom.
But hang on, there’s good news. Everyone started small. And you can certainly start from exactly where you are.
You just need to put your influencer cap on. A good strategy plus some patience, and you’re well on your way to becoming a rising influencer.
So, let’s see how it’s done.
Your Influencer Content Is King
Influencers, hence the name, are influential. They talk and people listen. Why? They have the attention of people. How? Through their content.
You might think that influencers are people with a large number of followers. But in reality, influencers are actually content creators. They have become masters at creating pictures, videos, blogs, and podcasts around a specific niche.
Ok, let’s relax on the marketing jargon and lose the word niche. Let’s use interest, instead.
Influencers are interest-inspired content creators.
An Influencer’s Number One Goal
The number one goal of every influencer should certainly be to deliver content worth consuming. Unique quality content that serves your audience. So naturally, it helps to focus on your passions – your interests.
Doing what everyone else is doing isn’t going to cut it. Especially now, with the social media space already clouded. People are hyper-distracted online and they have simply become numb to the same old boring stuff.
So you must grab their attention with amazing content. Bring your best game to your feed. And let your unique personality shine.
Your Followers Are Your Kingdom
Before you even grow by one more follower, you need to realize something very important here.
Your followers choose to spend their time consuming your content. And if they’ve taken even more of their time and energy to drop a comment on your post or send you a DM, in all your humbleness and gratitude, it’s in your best interest to respond to them.
Why?
Your influence would be nothing without them. Ultimately, you are of service to your followers.
An Important Metric
Guess what? There’s a metric that’s becoming even more valuable than follower numbers. It’s your engagement rate. This is how many people of your total followers are actually interacting with your content.
A standard engagement rate is 1-3%. Anything higher than that makes you look fantastic.
If you’re a micro-influencer, then naturally your engagement rate should be high. Micro-influencers with low engagement rates do not look good in the eyes of brands.
Brands value high engagement rates. Your engagement rate can open or close a collaboration opportunity.
If you keep those connections with your followers buzzing in your comments, then they’ll continue to engage with you.
And on the flip-side – if you don’t show them love, then you risk having them withdraw interactions with you.
Please. Please. Do not be distracted by the chase of building millions of followers. Serve your followers to your maximum capacity, whether you have a few thousands or hundreds of thousands.
Never stop showing your followers their importance to you. From here, your connection with your followers can only grow. So will your influence. After all, that’s what you’re trying to achieve, right?
Pitch Your Best Influencer Media Kit
Here’s where many new influencers miss the business aspect of their online profile. While you’re creating all this content for your followers, you also have prospective brands that are popping onto your profile to check you out.
Here’s what they are looking for:
1. Your name
This might sound super basic, but you’d be surprised how many social accounts go by fictitious usernames without actually mentioning their real name anywhere. If you’re serious about the influencer business, please present your name clearly on your profile.
2. Where you are from
I understand that most influencers like to identify themselves as “global”, however, it is still important to mention your location as this may open collab opportunities with brands that are specifically looking for influencers in a particular country or region.
3. A summary of what you’re about
Who are you and what is your social media profile about? If you mention “fashion” as an interest, but your last six posts have nothing to do with fashion, drop it. Your bio should simply confirm what your main content is all about.
4. Your audience
What is your audience demographic? Male? Female? How old are they? Where are they from? And it would certainly be a plus to include a timeline of your follower growth, too. These are the audience details that prospective brands are interested in.
5. Your content creation capabilities
Can you write blogs? Do you also create videos? Are you a TikToker? Or are you only an image-only posting influencer? How good are your captions? Brands will scan your profile for evidence of all your potential capabilities. So, you really want to include links to any other space or platform that demonstrates your other content creation skills.
6. Past paid partnerships
Brands want to see what you’re capable of when it comes to campaign execution before they consider you a fit. On your Instagram profile, you can create a story highlight that features past collaborations you’ve done. This is an easy way for brands to find what they’re looking for.
7. How to contact you
No, don’t assume everyone should DM you for collabs. Instead, give them an option to also contact you through email for business collab communication.
Ideally, you should have all of this information highlighted in your media kit.
And if you don’t already have one, then a great way forward is to have an influencer profile setup on Afluencer. This is a credible influencer presentation of yourself that brands will take seriously.
Getting Your First Influencer Gigs
I know you’re already wondering. “What if I don’t have any past paid partnerships?”.
Then where and how do you get your first influencer gig?
As with all things, you’ve got to start from somewhere.
And thankfully, there are plenty of brands out there with influencer programs that you can automatically qualify for. Usually, these kinds of opportunities are commission-based, however, they do provide a way to build your collaboration portfolio.
So hop on into Afluencer’s program search and discover influencer opportunities that will get you started.
Once you’re signed up for a program, create campaign content to the best of your ability. But remember that your goal here is to build an impressive portfolio to win future bigger brand collab opportunities.
Now You Know the Basics to Become an Influencer
As you can see, becoming an influencer is only a few practical steps away – even with your small slowly growing profile.
Create outstanding content. Treasure your followers. Make your influencer image shine. And if you want a head start getting your first collaboration gigs then join the Afluencer game.
So are you ready to become an influencer and claim the epic title as your own?