With a global market size of $16.4 billion in 2022, influencer marketing is a lucrative field to be in.
Social media influencer marketing is booming! Brands love it because they can reach thousands or even millions of people at once. It’s become a go-to strategy for promoting products on social media.
And why not? A report by Statista shows a census progression of the number of social media users, which reached 4.89 billion people in 2023.
Image via Statista
Do you want to become a social media influencer? Keep reading to find out how to turn social media content creation into a successful career.
6 Tips to Become a Successful Social Media Influencer
Creating content as a social media influencer is just the start. You also need to share that content across various apps and adjust it to meet every platform’s style and tone.
Social media is dynamic. Staying up-to-date with the new social media trends and algorithm changes is quite the challenge.
Speaking from experience, you need a lot of patience, discipline, and determination to become a success in this space.
With so many influencers out there, the competition is fierce. So, to attract the attention of your target audience, you need your content to stand out.
In this section, I’ll tell you how to ensure that and become a successful influencer.
1. Find Your Niche
You might think, “Hey, I can talk about anything and everything, right?” Well, no. I’m sure you think you can do it all but you can’t have dessert with every topping available. It’ll be too messy to handle.
Let’s say you start your influencer journey without a clear direction of what you want to do. You post about fashion on Monday, pet care on Tuesday, and cooking on Wednesday.
Your audience would not know what to expect and get confused and unfollow you. That’s why you need to focus. Choose a niche that you’re passionate about and make sure it’s broad enough that you don’t run out of content ideas.
According to the 2023 Influencer Marketing Benchmark Report, the Fashion & Beauty niche continues to dominate as the most popular niche, accounting for 25% of all influencers. A fashion marketing agency can effectively leverage the popularity of the Fashion & Beauty niche to provide tailored influencer marketing strategies and maximize brand exposure within the industry.
This represents a significant increase from the previous year’s figure of 15%.
Image via Blogging Wizard
While there are benefits to choosing a popular niche, it’s also difficult to compete for attention in an already saturated niche. Choosing a specific niche and creating great content makes it easier for you to stand out
The Instagram influencer @thepioneerwoman, for example, shares food recipes and updates about her life on a ranch. Even with a specific niche she has amassed over 4.3 million followers.
Image via Instagram
To establish credibility and authority, you need to select a niche where you can demonstrate your expertise and knowledge.
It’s fine to pivot, and if you insist on putting up your other interests on your page, you could. But, don’t let it distract you from the main focus area.
2. Create Great Content
If you want to become a successful social media influencer, you have to keep the engagement up. While the question of the algorithm on your favorite platform working in your favor lingers, don’t be deterred.
The main deal with any platform’s algorithm is to keep users hooked for as long as possible.
So if your content can do that, you’re all set, regardless of any algorithm updates. The more interactive your content is, the more you stand out in a crowd.
Now, let’s discuss those algorithm ranking signals real quick. Algorithms consider some factors before deciding how, where, and to whom to show your content. The image below shows some of these factors.
Image via Pavilion
The data depicted in the image clearly highlights that timeliness plays a crucial role in getting more engagement. You’ve got to be consistent. Get yourself a content calendar and identify your target audience, content goals, and post frequency.
According to a survey by Hubspot, the ideal posting frequency varies for various social media platforms.
Image via HubSpot
Post at the right times to engage your audience and use Google Sheets or Microsoft Excel to build a calendar.
You could also make use of some social media tools like Typefully or Buffer to schedule posts in advance.
Whether it’s food, fashion, beauty, or travel, tailor your strategy to your niche. Some social media influencers like to keep it niche-focused. Others may choose to add personal experiences for that special connection with followers.
Here’s the deal: don’t just be another how-to machine. Sure, educational content is great but spice it up a bit with some fun and entertaining content.
According to Attrock, you need to use creative social media ideas to get better results for your small business. Alternatively, you can check out TikTok or Instagram reels for some inspiration.
Use transitions, filters, and groovy music that are in trend, and ride the wave when you can.
Also, if your content is complex or for a technical audience, using charts and graphs on your social media page would help make your content easy to digest and visually appealing.
3. Engage With Your Audience
Don’t be too out of reach from your followers. Engaging with your audience is a vital aspect of being a social media influencer. The keyword here’s “social.” Take time to answer questions, and respond to comments, and DMs.
Listening and responding to your followers makes them more connect with you more. Plus, you’ll know what content they crave, which is great for monetization and brand collaboration.
Keep it real and stay in touch because even if your content is A-grade, without interaction, it loses its charm.
Brands look for social media influencers with an impact, individuals who can encourage their audience to act— buy, follow, etc. To have this impact, you need to express gratitude and show appreciation for the support your followers give you.
Mr Beast is a classic example of a successful influencer. He engages with his audience and cares for their needs and opinions.
Image via Twitter
Go live, schedule AMA sessions, and address FAQs about you or your brand. When you can, give back to the community, in any way possible. Brands are also more likely to work with influencers who have a strong connection with their audience.
Get busy interacting and connecting with your audience. Consistent interaction is key to social media branding as an influencer.
4. Analyze Your Performance
Using social media analytics will help you keep tabs on how your content performs.
Track key metrics like likes, shares, etc. to understand what your followers love. Most social media platforms provide basic insights, but you can use third-party analytics tools as well.
This graph shows the most important metrics marketers used to measure the performance of their paid and organic social media campaigns.
Image via HubSpot
When it comes to paid content, the focus is on driving web traffic, sales, and lead generation. On the flip side, for organic content, the focus shifts slightly to prioritizing views and engagement.
Apart from tracking performance metrics, you should also keep tabs on trending hashtags and fellow social media influencers in your niche. Social media keyword research is great for finding what’s trending.
Stay on top of your game by tracking everything. It can be exhausting but remember, “patience, discipline, and determination” are important. To easily track your performance you can use social media analytics tools. Monitor your metrics closely, test different strategies, and keep improving your strategy.
5. Exceed Expectations With Brand Partnerships
When you go that extra mile, over-delivering on your brand partnerships, you show the brands that you’re all in. Think of brand partnerships as building bridges. When you exceed expectations you reinforce those bridges.
The strong connections built afterward can lead to more opportunities, and help you become a sought-after social media influencer.
And if you share your success stories, you can automate lead generation as other brands would see those and reach out to you.
Now, a word of wisdom: stay true to yourself.
Over-promising and under-delivering can hurt your reputation. However, even if some may perceive over-delivery as inauthentic, consistently dishing out valuable and exceptional content will prove its sincerity.
6. Collaborate With Others
If you want to boost your reach, then teaming up with other influencers is the way to go. This may sound counterintuitive as a result of the fear of getting stifled by the competition.
But, trust me, finding social media influencers with similar audiences as yours can be mutually beneficial.
Together, you can host live events, such as FAQ sessions and interviews, using the best live streaming platforms to engage your respective audiences.
You could team up with other influencers for ongoing collaborations. For example, Jay Acunzo and Melanie Deziel jointly started Creator Kitchen to create resources for other creators.
Image via Twitter
When you partner with an influencer, you get access to their audience, which is a chance for you to gain more followers.
Final Thoughts on Becoming a Successful Social Media Influencer
Becoming an influencer is no easy feat. It takes dedicated effort and patience, possibly for months before you see any substantial progress. But don’t be discouraged.
All you have to do is discover your unique voice and create a distinct persona that represents you as a social media influencer.
Select a niche and a platform that suits you best and aligns with your interests and strengths. And listen up, anyone with even a hint of influencer knowledge will tell you this: authentic content always wins.
So, take your phone and go create or edit your social media profile; polish it up and get started on your journey to becoming a social media influencer.