Who wouldn’t want to become an influencer? Post a few pictures and have people hang onto your every word. On top of that, you can potentially earn a lot of money, all from the comfort of your home or your favorite vacation destination. It sounds like heaven.
While you’ll see all kinds of different advice about how to get social media famous, the truth is that making it in 2024 is tougher than ever before. The fake it until you make it philosophy is no longer sufficient.
Sure, you can use influencer apps to connect with brands. But to stand out from the influencers already doing so, you must build a solid personal brand and engage effectively with your audience.
If you’re determined to make it, here are some tips for getting started.
Note: All brands and influencers discussed in this article were found during our online research for this article.
Defining a social media influencer
What comes to mind when you hear the word “influencer?” A massive number of followers and a bunch of hashtags? While these are the qualities many people associate with influencers, they’re not standard for all of them.
A social media influencer is someone with enough popularity or authority in a specific niche to influence others to purchase products they promote on their social media channels. Many have sizable follower bases, with numbers ranging from thousands to millions. Common types of influencers by follower count include:
- Nano-influencers: They have between 1,000 and 10,000 followers.
- Micro-influencers: They typically have between 10,000 and 100,000 followers.
- Macro-influencers: They fall in the hundreds of thousands category, with roughly 100,000 to 1 million followers.
- Mega-influencers: Think the Kardashians, Selena Gomez, and Dwayne Johnson. Their numbers are in the millions.
However, it’s worth noting that, though a large number of followers doesn’t hurt, many brands don’t just look at the numbers when deciding who to work with. Influencer marketing is primarily about influencers’ relationships with their audiences.
Successful influencers don’t just pump out content—they engage with their followers to build relationships. The stronger the relationships, the more they can sell to their audiences.
Skeptical? Micro-influencers have a 20% higher conversion rate than macro and mega-influencers. Why? Engagement and relationship building!
Examples of successful social media influencers
What’s a post about social media influencers without examples of people to look up to, right? Here are some influencers who’ve amassed significant success in their niches:
- Lewis Hamilton: With over 36 million Instagram followers, 132,000 YouTube subscribers, and 6.1 million Facebook followers, this automotive influencer needs no introduction. He’s not only popular in this niche but is also an authority figure, having built his name in Formula One (F1) racing.
- Jennifer Messina: This macro-influencer has a significant follower count of roughly 644,000 TikTok followers and 864,000 Instagram followers. Jennifer has built a platform around music and mental health advocacy, often engaging with followers by sharing snippets of her life.
- Madeline Fricke: Madeline is a micro-influencer with roughly 34,000 followers on TikTok. She focuses on lifestyle content, sharing snippets of life as a college student and regular day-in-the-life videos to build connections with followers.
Brand vs. social media: Which type of influencer is best?
Many people assume that social media influencers are the only type of influencers—understandably so, as they’re the most common and popular. Social media influencers build their presence through content creation and community engagement online.
But there’s another group known as brand influencers. This class of influencers often represents brands—their own or others. Think Kylie Jenner for Kylie Cosmetics or even Elon Musk for Tesla and SpaceX.
Each type of influencer has unique advantages and disadvantages, which brands consider when choosing who to collaborate with.
Pros of brand influencers:
- They’re often aligned with specific niches, making them authority figures.
- They can boost credibility, as they’re usually experts in their chosen niches.
- Because of their expertise, they’re more likely to understand brands’ unique products, services, values, and visions.
Cons of brand influencers:
- They often charge high fees.
- They may have a more limited reach than social media influencers.
Pros of social media influencers:
- They often have a wider reach than brand influencers, making them ideal for generating buzz around products and services.
- They’re skilled at content marketing and can create pretty much any type of content you want.
- Depending on their follower numbers and level of influence, they may be cheaper than brand influencers.
Cons of social media influencers:
- They may not always lend credibility to products and services, especially if they promote several different brands.
- They may not understand your offerings as well as brand influencers, limiting how well they can promote or sell them.
Steps to build a brand and become an influencer
Now that you understand the different types of influencers, how do you become one? Read on for a detailed step-by-step guide for beginners.
Identify your unique niche
Don’t just aim for what’s popular now, as that changes all the time. Figuring out how to become an influencer is about finding your people. Decide what you’re passionate about posting, and then find your crowd. Social networks have something to suit everyone, so scope out your piece of real estate and compete on that battlefield.
Try to please everyone, and you’ll end up pleasing nobody. Find something that aligns with your passion and market demand, and you’ll be happier and more consistent in your efforts to get partnerships for influencer marketing campaigns.
Develop a strong personal brand
The influencer space is highly competitive, with thousands of influencers fighting for brands’ attention. To stand out from other influencers, be it podcasters, bloggers, vloggers, etc., you need to create your personal brand.
Don’t be afraid to be different, not only in your visual identity but also in messaging. Share content and opinions openly, even if they differ from other influencers in your niche—just remember to be respectful. Brands and followers respect and admire authentic voices, so this will definitely get their attention.
Maintain authenticity and transparency
People are not attached to what influencers post as much as they are to the influencers themselves. You are your brand. That means being authentic, using a personal photo as your profile picture, and making it all about you. As vain as it sounds, people buy into influencers because of who they are as people.
Don’t try to get famous by pretending to be someone you’re not. Any respectable guide on how to become an influencer will tell you this is the number one piece of advice. Followers expect you to give true insight into your life, both the good and bad. Remember, your audience is here to follow your story.
Maintaining genuine interactions and transparency with your audience can help you build strong relationships and improve conversion rates. With brands being so big on influencer tracking these days, bringing in high conversion rates is the only way to maintain long-term success in social media marketing.
Engage and grow your community
The first step is to identify your audience. Go beyond the demographics and where they live and ask questions like:
- How do they spend their free time?
- What do they like to do on social media?
- What are their average incomes?
Answering key questions like these enables you to know your audience more intimately. Don’t worry if you don’t have all the answers now. Your ideal audience member will constantly evolve over time.
When you understand your audience, invite engagement by asking followers to contact and interact with you. A direct call to action may seem over the top, but it works. In fact, having a clear call to action is the hallmark of any good digital marketing campaign.
When your audience reaches out, engage back. Natural engagement is a two-way street. If someone has left a nice comment, reply quickly to build relationships and loyal followers. This is better than inflating your numbers with fake followers, as it can lead to long-term success.
Create content for the right social media platforms
There are numerous types of content you can choose from: visual content like videos and photos, audio content like podcasts, and written content like blog posts. Consider your target audience when selecting a type of content to focus on.
To find the best fit, try out different varieties and post them on the social media platforms where your audience is the most active. Then, assess engagement metrics to identify what resonates most with them and run with it.
Optimize your entire social media presence
Maximize the potential of your social media profiles to attract and retain followers by creating valuable and relevant content. Ensure your content is entertaining, informative, or educational to constantly get people to your social media accounts.
You can also optimize your presence by using appealing visuals. Like it or not, your pictures must be of professional quality to get your audience’s attention and keep them on your page. Sub-par photos will keep people scrolling right past your post.
This is especially true for visual platforms like Instagram—your Instagram posts must be high quality to build a name for yourself. So learn how to take attention-grabbing shots for your social media posts before you get started.
Collaborate with brands and other influencers
Brand and influencer partnerships can contribute to your growth by exposing you to broader audiences. So explore collaborations whenever possible. When you do, ensure your chosen partners have the same values as you to maintain a consistent image and avoid controversy.
Many influencers have realized significant success from collaborations. For example, content creator Jackie Aina has become synonymous with everything beauty and fashion, thanks to her partnerships with brands like L’Oréal Paris and Fashion Nova. She’s also done collaborations with other beauty influencers like Patrick Starr.
Use analytics to refine your strategy
Some influencers leverage influencer marketing tools for social media management but completely forget about analytics. Don’t let this be you. Utilize social media and website analytics tools like Bitly to see how your audience interacts with your content. This way, you can improve future content and engagement rates.
With Bitly Analytics, you can seamlessly track the performance of shared links to understand audience engagement and content reach.
Bitly provides detailed analytics for each short link, including the number of clicks and the devices used to access the link. This data is invaluable for influencers looking to understand their audience better and refine their content strategy.
Stay updated with the latest industry trends
Keeping up with the trends and posting original content gets tough, but ongoing learning and adaptation are vital to remaining relevant in the influencer space. Just look at Bryce Hall—the content creator remains relevant to date because of his quick adaptation.
While originally famous for participating in viral TikTok trends, he has adapted to the constant changes in the game by trying virtually everything from boxing to acting, and now, posting funny clips.
Up your influencer game with Bitly
Figuring out how to become an influencer isn’t rocket science—but there are no shortcuts you can take and no ways to make it happen fast. As you’ve seen from these tips, it’s about consistency, building authentic relationships early, and continuous adaptation.
With Bitly, you can make the journey to becoming an influencer easier through short, branded, trackable links. With Bitly’s platform, you can create easy-to-share social media links and receive insights into your content’s performance so you can keep refining your strategy.
Sign up for Bitly today and get trackable, branded links to elevate your influencer engagements!