Marketing through influencers has become more and more popular since the dawn of the internet. Consumers are trusting the celebrity endorsements so common in commercials less and less. They seek more credible, expert, and knowledgeable sources than those of paid actors. In this day and age, these qualities are found among social media influencers. Take a look below as we walk you through a few tips on how you can get started as an influencer.
Find Your Specialization
The first step in becoming a social media influencer is discovering where you fit in. Influencers who align their content with their passions and interests are far more successful than those who choose something that they aren’t passionate about, but think will be lucrative. Your target audience is far more likely to believe you when you review a product if you are enthusiastic when you do so.
Develop Your Format and Posting Strategy
Formatting and posting strategies make or break all forms of social media influencers. Think about the mediums that are most likely to be appealing to your target audience and appropriate for your personality and style. Proper combinations of pictorial, video, audio, and text formatting draw viewers and customers more effectively than single formats.
Balance personal and informative content carefully. The 5-3-2 principle creates a practical balance for most influencers. Of every 10 posts you publish, five need to be valuable content created by others, three ought to be informative and exciting content created by you, and two should be posts about you personally.
Select Your Social Media Platforms
Do some research on your chosen specialization to find out what platform people interested in it tend to use. If your specialization focuses heavily on images, Instagram is a reliable choice. If video is more your thing, consider YouTube as a platform for your influencing. If text is the best way to get your point across, Twitter will be helpful. Facebook combines aspects of all three, so it is wise to use it alongside other social media platforms to reach as many people as possible.
Distribute Your Content in a Timely Manner
The goal of every influencer is to extend their reach to as many people as possible. Your content can be the best on the internet, but if you aren’t putting it out there for people to view and interact with it, it’s useless. To this end, it is vitally important that you plan the timing of your content distribution carefully.
Research the best times to post on different social media platforms, according to their characteristic patterns of use. Posting when the largest number of people possible are online on each platform will maximize your effectiveness as a social media influencer.
Through the selection of a specialty that is meaningful to you, the development of format and posting strategy, the choosing of relevant social media platforms, and the timely distribution of content, you will be well on your way to becoming a successful social media influencer. Be patient and publish content frequently. Sticking to these steps will help you realize your influencer goals.
