Do you think you have what it takes to stand out on social media and become the next influencer? When the influencer market was expected to reach $10 billion in 2020, that’s not surprising. There’s a lot of room to grow and build a brand on social media.
However, it takes much more than posting a few things on social media if you want to become an influencer. Follow the seven tips below for becoming an influencer to maximize your chance of success.
1. Create Accounts on Every Website
While it is possible to gain influencer status by focusing on only one social media website, you’re doing things the hard way. Some social media websites only use limited formats.
Instagram, for instance, will focus on images. Tiktok only allows you to post videos. Twitter will enable you to post actual messages and respond in public in many different formats.
If you want to expand your reach, make sure you’re on as many social media websites as possible. It may be more work, but it will help you grow your audience and establish your overall brand.
2. Figure Out a Niche
It’s hard to stand out as a general account on a social media website. Social media users follow people they don’t know because they value what they post. It’s hard for someone to learn about you if you post about everything.
Finding a niche for your social media accounts is a great way to help you stand out. If you present yourself as an expert in a particular industry, people are more willing to give your content a shot and follow your account.
Try to figure out your niche early on in your journey. Make sure it’s something you enjoy, too. You’re expressing your opinion online, and people can likely tell if you don’t enjoy creating content about your niche.
3. Don’t Focus on Quantity
Many people believe more is better when posting on social media. It is true that social media algorithms don’t show every post to your followers, but that doesn’t mean you should post garbage in an attempt to be seen.
All that will happen if you do this is the loss of followers. People already have enough noise on social media, so they’ll unfollow your accounts if you don’t provide value.
Instead, focus on high-quality social media posts. Give your followers a reason to engage with your content and share it with their friends. This is a much better way to remain relevant and expand your reach to new people.
4. Understand Your Target Audience
If you did your job in the niche selection phase, you should have a good idea about the type of people that will follow your social media accounts. Certain demographics tend to follow people in specific industries. You should know those demographics when you make social media posts.
This is important because you don’t want to create generalized content that appeals to everyone. You won’t please everyone with your social media posts.
Try to focus on content that appeals to the demographics of people looking for content in your industry. Doing this will help you tailor your messaging to appeal to those people and end up with more followers.
5. Respond to Your Fans
Many people follow social media influencers because they want to connect with people online. It may not be a personal relationship, but social media influencers create a feeling of belonging for people that engage with their content.
It’s harder to create that kind of loyalty when you have zero interaction with your fans. If all you do is post content and ignore your comments and messages, it’s harder for people to see you as a real person and worth following.
Try responding to as many people as you can when growing your social media presence. It may not be possible to respond to everyone when you grow, but it’s essential to try to engage as much as you can.
6. Learn How to Use Hashtags
Discoverability is one of the biggest challenges with becoming a social media influencer. Nobody knows who you are yet, so it’s hard to get your name and account out to the world.
One way people look for new accounts to follow is with hashtags. People search for topics they’re interested in and find posts that use those hashtags.
Find the popular hashtags in your niche and include them in your posts that are relevant to those hashtags. You’ll expand your reach doing this and gain more followers from people looking for the type of content you post.
7. Monitor Your Data
You get a lot of insights into your content when you post on social media. You can see how many likes you get, new followers, and much more. If you aren’t watching this data, you’re missing out on insights that can help you grow.
Use your data to figure out what content performs best. Once you know what content performs best, you can create similar content that your audience enjoys.
Of course, some of these insights are hard to view on smaller screens. Working with a desktop app for Instagram, Tiktok, and other social media accounts may be worth doing over mobile devices.
Becoming an Influencer Isn’t Easy
There’s a lot of noise on social media, so it’s hard to stand out if you’re new to the game. However, there are many things you can do if becoming an influencer is your goal. Use the tips above to get a leg up on everyone else and become a social media influencer.
Do you want to find more tips to help you launch your social media career? Check out the blog for more social media tips.