American businesses spent a staggering $26.09 billion on influencer marketing in 2023. Looking at the earning potential, it hardly comes as a surprise that thousands of hopefuls choose to become influencers each year, churning out content in a bid to attract an audience.
If you are an influencer, too, you can brace yourself for more competition in 2024. But how can you make the most of social media to increase your followers and boost your revenue? Here are our top tips to succeed as an influencer in an increasingly cluttered marketplace.
Refine Your Niche
Selecting a broad topic area is a common mistake many people make that prevents them from successfully carving out a place among the top influencers on social media.
Covering several topics might seem a good idea for targeting a wider audience. But this strategy will make it extra difficult to establish yourself as a subject-matter expert. It will also force you to compete with a larger number of influencers who have already built a name in their respective niches.
Imitating or following in other influencers’ footsteps is another mistake to avoid. Remember, what works for another person might not always work for you, especially when you don’t have a passion for that niche or have little knowledge or insights about the topic.
Therefore, take a moment to re-examine the topic area you have selected and ensure it reflects your interests, knowledge, and expertise. Narrow it down to a specific niche that could help you take a more focused approach.
Know Your Audience
Who exactly will consume your content? Finding the answer to this question is important so you can create material your audience can relate to and benefit from.
Each topic commands a certain type of followers or fans. Consider who will follow yours. What is their age, gender, and geographic location? What interests, lifestyles, and aspirations do they have?
Get to know your followers to find as much information as you can about their general demographic profile, habits, attitudes, and behaviors.
Prioritize the Right Social Media Sites
Building a presence on multiple platforms requires substantial time, effort, and resources. When you first start as an influencer, it is always best to focus on a single platform and branch out to others step-by-step once you build a sizeable audience.
Identify which platform your targeted followers spend their time on. Remember, each networking site commands a specific audience profile. For instance, the majority of Instagram users are females aged 18-24. Pinterest also attracts more female users, however, many of them fall under the 25-34 age group.
The platforms you must prioritize will depend on your niche, too. If you are covering business topics, LinkedIn is an excellent site to build an audience. However, if tech gadget reviews are your niche, video-based content on YouTube could be your best option for providing first-hand demonstrations.
Create a Content Strategy
Posting random content pieces will not give you results when you are aiming to become a social media influencer. You need a purposefully designed content strategy that could help you reach your goals.
Start by defining what you would like to achieve. Then, build a content plan around it with a detailed content calendar.
Creating high-quality material using different formats is vital for organically developing an audience. When your followers find your content useful, interesting, engaging, and creative, they will spread the word and help you attract more fans.
The posting frequency is another critical factor to consider. Your audience could easily forget you and turn to other influencers if you leave too much of a gap between posts. So, maintain a regular posting schedule to remain on top of their minds.
Nurture Relationships
Posting content alone is not enough to grow your audience. You must engage with your followers regularly and nurture authentic relationships.
Some of the essential steps you can take include:
- Liking and responding to comments left by your audience.
- Liking and resharing valuable content posted by your followers and leaving comments.
- Tagging fans or giving a shoutout in appropriate posts.
- Sending personal notes or sharing posts thanking your followers.
- Conducting competitions and giving away branded gifts.
- Helping out smaller influencers by tagging them or resharing their posts.
Engaging with your followers off-platform using regular emails could be helpful, too, especially when you want to build a presence on other channels. For instance, if you already have a database, you can use Leadar to find or update email addresses and start a weekly newsletter summing up your top posts.
Leverage Data
One of the biggest advantages of social media platforms is their ability to provide data insights.
For example,
- Opinion polls allow you to understand your followers’ needs, interests, and behaviors and develop more impactful content.
- Engagement data can help you identify the best times and days to schedule your posts.
- Competitor information is useful for refining your content strategy so you can compete more effectively.
- Content performance data can serve as important evidence of your influencing power when negotiating with clients.
Be Discoverable
How can new followers and clients find you on social media? Optimizing your content with relevant hashtags and keywords is a vital step for improving discoverability.
Once a client visits your social media page, giving them all the information they need is equally essential. Complete your profile description with a detailed bio. Don’t forget to add your contact information.
Build Partnerships
Social media platforms provide numerous opportunities to network and build partnerships with those who could add value to your journey.
Consider which influencers you could collaborate with to grow your audience through mutually beneficial arrangements. Reach out to them and explore creative ways to leverage each other’s strengths.
To Recap
The influencer landscape has undoubtedly become more competitive over the years as more and more people use the power of digital content to grow their audience.
However, succeeding as an influencer is easier when you know how to make the most of social media. Start by refining your niche, understanding who you should target, and identifying the right networking platforms for your content.
Creating a purposeful content strategy and nurturing authentic relationships are also critical for growing your audience. In addition, ensure you make use of the resources social media sites offer to capture data insights, become discoverable, and collaborate with others.
