Steps to Becoming an Influencer

A social media influencer is a prominent media personality or celebrity who uses their popularity in the social media world to endorse brands or products. It’s a lucrative job for both the company and the influencer, as they mutually benefit from this promotion. There are plenty of reasons someone would want to become an influencer — money, ability to promote and connect people to a product that they believe in, and a way to spread their views, as people interested in the brand they’re promoting may become fans of the influencer as a result. If you’re considering becoming a social media influencer but aren’t sure how to get started, we’ll give you some steps to get you on the right track.

Step 1: Build Your Own Brand.

To become an influencer, you need to establish your influence. You’re starting from the ground up, so you’ll need to find your niche. People will connect with you if they can tell you’re truly passionate about a subject, so don’t be afraid to really talk about what you love. Your niche audience can be as specific as you want it to be, but have at least enough generality or the potential to cross over, to ensure that there are a sufficient amount of people in your fan base. In order to build up your social media, you need to be on top of the machinery behind the scenes — algorithmic changes, new features, and additional analytic techniques used by the website. Read popular blogs and news updates about your social media platform, even set up Google alerts for it, in order to ensure that you are aware of new changes and ready to capitalize on them.

Step 2: Make connections with your audience.

Once you’ve secured an audience, you need to reach out to them and grow your brand by linking with other influencers who have more viewers and followers than you. Promote products you know your audience will appreciate. Using SEO tactics is also a good way to boost your visibility. You also want to make sure you have a reputation as someone who pays attention, and responds, to your fans. There has to be some form of reciprocity there, otherwise companies won’t see the benefit in you promoting their products because your relationship to your viewers isn’t strong enough to convince them to take your word on the merits of a product. Work behind the scenes with other influencers to network and build your name recognition up, so you’re ready to get into the game.

Step 3: Connect with social media and influencer networks.

Just as Facebook and Twitter are a huge part of establishing yourself and reaching your audience, influencer marketing platforms like NeoReach connect social media influencers with businesses and brands. This kind of platform has become crucial to making that connection, with so many influencers and brands needing a way to find partnerships that can help support their goals. These platforms not only make the necessary introductions, they analyze the statistics relevant to the brand and the influencer, so they can each be sure they are networking with the right people.

If you love connecting with others and creating content for people to enjoy, becoming a social media influencer is definitely for you. It’s not just about the money, it’s also about thought leadership and the ability to connect with people and share the ideas and messages that mean something to you, and to your audience.