Influencers can use their social media pages to earn extra income, partner with brands, and gain valuable marketing experience. Top influencers know how to build a brand, and are experts at creating engagement across multiple platforms. This lands them lucrative sponsorships and helps them grow their following.
But what can aspiring influencers do to build their following and improve their profile?
Here are a few tips from successful influencers that can help
Define Success for Yourself / Modern Millie
Some influencers have been developing their social media presence for over a decade. That means aspiring influencers shouldn’t compare their following and engagement to well-established pages and channels. Of course, you can still draw inspiration from high-profile influencers, but you should consciously find ways to define success for yourself.
As an influencer, you must use analytics to track success. Analytics gives you insights into your engagement and reach, and helps you create effective campaigns while showing prospective sponsors that you have a professional approach to your work.
Modern Millie recommends using analytics to gauge the quality of your content. She recommends filtering by reach and engagement, as this will show you which posts resonated the most with your audience. You can then create future content based on this information, and will likely see your following grow.
First Impressions / Sorelle Amore
First impressions matter as much online as they do in real life. Everybody makes snap judgments based on people’s confidence, authenticity, fashion choices, and style — a poor first impression online will negatively impact your growth and turn potential followers away. This means that you need to put forward a consistent image that clearly communicates what you’re about to viewers.
Sorelle Amore is an influencer with a large following across multiple platforms. She creates content related to travel, fashion, and photography and understands the importance of making a great first impression. Amore recommends staying away from Instagram handles like “Noraxy61”, and instead opt for easily remembered, consistent handles that make a strong first impression.
Ethical Consumerism / Aja Barber
Ethical consumerism is a form of activism that uses consumers’ purchasing power to make its point. It’s not a new trend, but the influence of ethical consumerism is on the rise. People can communicate faster than ever before, which makes it easier for consumers to learn about a business’ mission and beliefs, and social media often highlights our responsibilities as global citizens. As an influencer, you should align your content with ethical consumerism to gain followers and to make a positive difference in the world.
Aja Barber is a writer, fashion influencer, and activist whose work promotes sustainability and ethical consumerism. She’s the author of Consumed and believes that influencers play an integral role in promoting ethical consumerism.
In a recent panel, Barber stated that influencers “have to make [sustainable fashion] cool”, and that audiences want to know “that you’re doing the right thing socially”. Barber’s work highlights the social value of influencers, and she regularly posts content that champions sustainability and ethical consumerism.
As a growing influencer, you can tap into the sustainability trend to gain followers and increase the positive impact your profiles have on the world. You simply need to highlight the sustainable choices you already make in your life and encourage others to do the same.
Fashion Trends / Lindsiann
Fashion is always evolving. Influencers who have made it in the industry are usually sent clothes to wear, but aspiring influencers have to prove that they’re up to date with the latest fashion trends. Currently, that means you should look for inspiration in the styles that defined the late 80s, 90s, and early 2000s: baggy jeans, crop tops, oversized tees, and intense color.
The emerging fashion trend currently is Y2K. Gen-Z influencers like Lindsiann are drawing inspiration from Mean Girls, Alicia Keys, and Euphoria. Lindsiann also recommends keeping up to date with current trends by checking out the pages that other influencers follow, and by watching the music videos and movies that made a big impression in the 2000s.
Multiple Channels / Flying the Nest
Almost all major influencers post content across multiple channels. By maintaining multiple channels, influencers can find new audiences, increase their ad revenue, and post more sponsored content. This increases the amount you can earn from your profiles, and allows you to experiment with different mediums.
Flying the Nest is an Australian couple who travel together around the world. They make great use of Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, and their own blog to provide audiences with varied content. They also vary their sponsorships across multiple platforms — they use YouTube channels to promote educational content for more engaged audiences and strategically utilize Instagram for advertisements that are tailored to shorter engagements.
You should try out different approaches across different channels and can experiment with styles that usually wouldn’t suit your main page. Blogs and Twitter will give you a chance to promote your services and products, while YouTube and Instagram will help you build a strong brand identity.
Ultimately, success in the influencer world is all about consistency and relevancy. If you are using analytics to guide your content, keeping up to date with trends, and are posting to multiple platforms, you will see your audience grow and will find sponsors knocking on the DM door.
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