Follow These Four Steps To Be a Successful Influencer

In today’s world of social media culture, it’s hard to scroll too far in your feed without seeing an influencer post. In the past few years, influencers have seemingly taken over social media networks, and ten years ago it wouldn’t be likely that you could make a living off posting on your Instagram. And I have to give influencers some credit here. They’re not always trying to sell you something, sometimes they’re simply sharing a story, but it can be difficult to determine what’s genuine and what’s not. It’s also not hard to find countless resources on “influencer tips” like this video here by Georgie Stevenson. So if you want it, you have to learn how to go after it. If you’re thinking of trying your hand at “influencing” let’s talk about what it takes to be a good influencer.

Who The Heck Am I to Give Social Media Advice?

Listen. I'm not saying I am a super successful Influencer and I make all my money from sponsored ads, but I have been on social media actively creating content and reviewing products (much like an influencer) for the past three years. I've done the ad posts that feel awkward and forced like this sponsored content for Bagel Bites of all companies:

But I've also done the really genuine posts and videos where I share about my life and what I'm experiencing, like this vlog where I talk about how fricken hard this semester has been. You would not believe the number of DMs I received about people who felt my pain! People love to connect about shared experiences. So, I've been in both places and I've felt the pressure to cut corners in order to be a more "successful" influencer in terms of numbers, but really, the success comes from building an engaging community and making content that you're really passionate about and proud of.

1. The Cardinal Rule: Create Authentic Content

This should kind of go without saying, but if you want to make social media your career, you should be there to share your perspective, experiences, and who you are genuinely. Actually, I find that it’s easier to post genuinely about your life rather than fabricating aspects of your life. It takes way more effort to create content that puts up a façade, rather than just simply post who you are and what you’re doing. It also is very obvious to your audience when you’re not being genuine, it just creates an inconsistent look on your page, and it will make it really hard for your audience to connect with you. When audiences can connect with you, they’re more likely to come back.

2. Don’t Post and Ghost

Consistency is sooo important in a career on social media. Audiences will not follow someone that doesn’t post ever on their social media- there’s nothing to follow! They also want to know that they can consistently check their feeds and see your content that they like. When you’re starting out it’s important to set a regular schedule, so you become reliable in your audience’s minds. I also know it can be really hard to keep it consistent on social media- life gets busy and quite honestly social media can get mentally tiring and someone needs a break. But if you need to take a break and step back from social media and from being an influencer, be upfront with your audience about it! Let them know how you’re feeling and why you’re taking a break, because it’s a.) a genuine look at what you’re going through and b.) it lets them know that they can keep checking out your profile because you’ll be coming back at some point.

3. Do Not, I Repeat, Do Not Buy Your Followers

Guys. This goes along with Rule #1. Being authentic is the biggest part of making a career on social media. Social media is meant to be social. Genuine connections are the best way to be successful in a space that often attracts really false facades. Do not buy your follows. Every social media agency will say the same, like these from Hubspot and Hootsuite. Allow your audience to grow naturally because they genuinely like who you are and the content you produce. Buying your followers, is again so obvious to your audience, will create a sense of inconsistency, and will just call all of your other content into question. Also, buying followers can get so expensive! Use that money to try new products and share what you liked with your followers or create content and reviews, rather than buying fake followers. Buying followers is the fastest way to lose credibility in your audience’s eyes. Also, don’t try the follow or unfollow thing- it’s so easy to spot and it looks so false to viewers!

4. Look at Your Analytics, Seriously Go Look

Your social media analytics will give you such an insight into your content, how far you’ve come, and where you still have to grow. It can show you the kinds of content that are really popular and resonate with your audience. Analytics can show you the rate at which you’re growing with the particular posting schedule you’ve created and what times and days are best for your content to be successful. You can purchase subscriptions to services that show you how to improve your title, description, and tags to make your video easier to find. Social media analytics can also show you the demographics of your audiences so you can tailor your content to appeal to them better. If you don’t want to manually do it yourself, there are tons of services like Hubspot and Sprout social that provide handy dandy spreadsheets and reports to easily explain your analytics to you.

There are so many things you can do to be successful as an influencer on social media, but these are the most essential things that you should implement into your social media strategy from the beginning! They’ll help you build a solid foundation and a great starting point for your audience to build. By creating authentic and genuine content, planning consistent posts will be so easy by just being who you are, and that honesty and reliability will make your audience want to engage with you. Remember why you want to make this such a large part of your life and your potential career. Social media is meant to be social, and the best way to be social is to just be yourself. Keep these steps in mind and you’ll be sure to find social media success.