If you use social media, you already know what an influencer is. To be an influencer, you need to have an influence on people and your followers. But don’t think that you need millions of followers as many people think. You can start earning money as an influencer with only a few thousand followers. Of course, if you plan to create a real business out of it, you’ll need to have more. But it all depends on what you want. If you only want to make some extra money, you don’t need that many followers.
Choose Your Niche
Your starting point when becoming an influencer is to choose your niche. And not only choosing it but finding a specific, more narrow version of it. This is how you stand out and make more money with a small following. If you choose a general niche like fashion, you won’t have a chance. But if you have a specific niche that no one does, you’re much more likely to succeed. And even if there is someone that already does it, if the competition is very small, you can still do it. You only need to be better than a few people. And that’s much easier than being better than hundreds of other influencers. Especially if you just started.
So, how do you choose a niche? We’ll give you an example here. Let’s say you’re interested in fashion. It’s a general niche, so we need to go narrow. If you’re into alternative culture, your competition is already much smaller. So now, we are going more narrow from alternative fashion. Let’s take a listen to the music you’re listening to. If you like futuristic cyberpunk music or the new retro wave, that’s the way to go. Especially if you already understand the culture. This is a great starting point. You can go even more narrow if you want to. Or you can do something completely different. But the main point here is to give you an idea of how to choose your niche.
Choose Your Platform
Now it’s time to choose your platform. It’s usually best if you start with one or two platforms and expand later on. If you make content for ten different platforms at the very beginning, you’ll most likely burn out. So it’s better to start with one or two that you’re most familiar with.
Let’s say you use Instagram the most. No more words. This is your platform. And if you’re making a few videos here and there, maybe add TikTok as your second one. But if you do pictures most of the time, perhaps Facebook would be a better option. The entire idea of having two platforms is to have a Plan B. You never know what can happen. Sometimes, you may get banned by accident, and you can’t get your profile back. Yes, that actually happened to a lot of people. So it’s better to have another platform where you also post regularly so you won’t lose your following. Many people won’t even know if anything happens, so they may not even search for your profile. We all follow hundreds of different accounts anyway.
Have a Strategy
You have your niche and you’ve chosen your platform. Now it’s time to make content. If you have an iPhone or any new smartphone, you can make decent content all by yourself. You don’t need to pay a professional photographer. Unless you want to, of course. But if you decide to do it, make sure to do a few sessions before you start posting. This way, you will always have material, and you won’t run out of content.
If you decide to make content yourself, do the same thing. Always have content at least two weeks ahead. Make sure to get high-quality photo editing software. And don’t overcomplicate it. You don’t need any fancy software like Photoshop if you don’t know how to use it. A simple mobile app can always do the work. But choose the one with high-quality filters and presets like VSCO or Lightroom.
Use Facebook’s Creative Studio app to schedule your posts a few days ahead. You can do this for both Facebook and Instagram. Even TikTok has its way of scheduling content ahead of when you upload it over the browser. This will help you a lot because you won’t have to think about it every day. Sometimes you may concentrate on your content and you forget to post. And it’s good to post at least once a day if you don’t have at least 5-10k followers. This way, the algorithm will push your post more often.
So, to get to 10k followers faster, here’s what you need to do:
- Have high-quality content.
- Post every day.
- Boost a few posts for $5-10 to speed up the process.
- Engage with your followers and answer every comment and message.
- Comment on other people’s posts.
- Be a good person.
How to Get Brand Deals and Endorsements?
Getting brand deals often feels so strange to many people. They feel like an impostor and they are afraid to go for it. And sometimes, it’s because they are afraid to get rejected. But in reality, they will most likely come to you. Especially if you’re in the same niche. That’s why the niche is so important. If you’re good, and there is no worthy competition, brand deals are coming to you before you even ask.
But if you decide to do it yourself before it happens, here’s what you need to do. First of all, never contact anyone before you reach at least 10k followers. This is when you get all the functions other users don’t have so you can give them value. Also, never ask for free stuff. Contact them in a friendly way because you’re both in the same niche. Ask them if they need any help. And if they say they need more sales or they need help with marketing their products, that’s your sign. Offer them to promote their products. But don’t tell them what you want. Give them value first. They will ask you what you want in return. Some of them will pay you, and others will give you free stuff. And some of them will do both. The more value you give them, the more free stuff they will send you.
What to Do Next?
So, now you have way over 10k followers. You have amazing content and you probably have a few brand deals. What to do next? First of all, celebrate. You reached your first goal. You’ve become an influencer and you’re making extra money on the side. This is what you wanted.
In the beginning, many people say that they don’t want a big following. They only want to have a few thousand followers and make some extra money. Until they do. Once you get there, you’ll see how many more opportunities you’ll have. Now you can quit your job, do this full-time, and make more money than you thought is possible. So what should you do next? The answer is simple. Build a brand!
Now, you’re already an influencer, so you already have a brand. But the point here is that you can build and develop a brand out of yourself. This is something that can make you much more money than only being an influencer. Start introducing your own products. Have your signature colors and a logo. Start selling your own merchandise. And you can do this using simple print-on-demand websites like Spring. Send them your designs, and they’ll print and send everything for you for a small percentage of what you earn. And you won’t have to deal with packaging and shipping yourself.
Start Making Music
The easiest way to become even more popular as an influencer is to make music. And you don’t have to be a trained musician. If you can sing, find a good producer and make a few songs. Record a music video and post it on YouTube. You’ll be earning even more money from royalties on YouTube and Spotify. And your music videos will build you following three times faster. It’s a very good way to invest your money.
If you can’t sing, consider learning an instrument. You can learn how to play guitar or drums and play it with another influencer. If you can find someone else who can sing for you, even better. And if none of these work for you, try making beats. Get a good midi keyboard and some pads and start making beats. Do a few videos and post them on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube. This way, you can make full songs and upload them on streaming services like Spotify. So now you have another source of income.
A Few Things to Remember
The first thing to remember is to be patient. You won’t do anything overnight. True organic growth takes time. Sometimes it will be easy and everything will go much faster. But other times you may be stuck in the same place for a while. So make sure to enjoy the process. Don’t make yourself more stressed because of it. You’re doing this because you love it.
And always be kind to people. If someone is being rude and disrespects you, block them. Don’t waste your time on haters. You can’t change them. They will drain your energy and it’s not worth it. And never compare yourself to others. That only leads to overthinking. So focus on yourself and how you can improve and give more value to people. And always try to do better than you did yesterday. That’s how you succeed.