Understanding Influencer Marketing
Some users on social media post about their experiences with a brand and earn money for doing this. Typically, the people who earn the most from these posts are popular influencers. Influencers usually have large social media platforms and are trusted by their fans and followers.
The exciting thing about being influencer is that you don’t need a special degree, ten million followers, or fancy software. You can become an influencer with just a few thousand followers.
You might look at some of the more popular influencers and think it’s tough to reach that status, but actually, it’s not. In fact, it’s a lot easier than you think.
Start by Choosing a Niche
Companies and brands want to work with influencers that have built up a following in a specific niche. This means you don’t want your Instagram or Pinterest profiles to be too varied. It might be tempting to split your focus between your passion for dog grooming, the fitness niche, and your obsession with knitting.
You need to choose one niche that you want to be known for. It’s always best if you enjoy the niche and you have a genuine desire to help people. Whether you want it to or not, your motive will shine through as you’re giving information to your audience. That means you want to focus on a niche that you absolutely love.
As soon as you know your niche, you want to check out who your competition is within the industry. For example, if you want to be known for makeup tutorials, look up the most popular beauty users on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest.
Look at what they’re doing right, what they’re doing wrong, and what topics they haven’t covered yet. Maybe you’ll find an area they’ve overlooked or you’ll discover fresh inspiration for your own page.
When you’re choosing a niche in which to become an influencer, make sure it’s profitable. You can do this by researching whether or not there’s a big enough demand for products within that niche.
Look up what the keywords are for your niche. When you use a keyword tool to check, pay attention to how many searches are being conducted by consumers using those keywords. A simple keyword tool you can use is Google Ads Keyword Planner.
That will tell you what the demand is within that niche. If you find that your keywords show a volume of at least a couple thousand searches a month, then it’s a safe bet that there’s a demand for that niche.
After you find your niche and check on it using keywords, make sure that your focus isn’t too broad.
For example, if your niche is fitness, you want to narrow that down to something specific like “women’s fitness.” That niche is still kind of broad, so you may want to take it a step further and break it down into something like “women’s fitness workouts.”
Usually if you can find influencers making money in your niche, then it’s a solid bet that you can, too. It might take some time as you build your platform but once you do, you’ll be able to profit from your social media profiles for years to come.
Bring Something Unique
Many niches are overrun with similar ideas. You’ll found countless influencers offering the same products and sharing the same ideas. When this happens then the followers can become bored and crave something new.
To stand out in the crowd, you have to stop following trends and focus on creating them. By being the first to try something new, you’re more likely to build a group of followers who are excited to hear from you.
When you’ve chosen your niche, you want your engagement with your audience to keep on topic. You can post off-topic one post out of every ten or so. However, the other nine should always be within your niche. For example, if you follow the keto diet and you want to be an influencer for keto-friendly companies, then most of your posts should be about keto foods. You can still post the occasional selfie with your dog, but make these posts rare.
Focus on being unique. It’s tempting when you’re starting out to imitate other influences in your niche. It makes sense—you want their success so why shouldn’t you copy them exactly?
If you pay attention, you’ll see that the reason most influencers stand out is because they are unique. These influencers succeeded because they had their own style and their own way of engaging with their audience.
You can’t bring someone else’s style to your audience. You need to give them what they can’t get anywhere else—your unique viewpoint. Do that and you’ll build a loyal following and be well on your way to becoming an influencer.
Another way to bring something unique is to be vulnerable. Tell your story, even the parts that are embarrassing or painful. Your followers will connect with your humanity. They want to know that your days are less than perfect, that they’re not the only ones who struggle sometimes. So, don’t be afraid to get real and stay that way.
Let your audience know that you “get it.” Share your story to let them see how much common ground you have. Explain your similar struggles. Empathize with them by connecting with them through your shared feelings. When you do that, your audience will flock to you because they recognize you as someone who’s been “there” and want to do everything possible to help them.
Keep in mind that while you want to be vulnerable, you do want to protect your brand. That means you need to act like a professional on social media. Don’t post about that “wild after party” unless you’re intentionally going for the “party person” vibe on social media.
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