Influencers. They earn the bucks. They have knowledge. They have fame. Everyone wants to be one. Yet so many people regard it as a “bit of fun.” Most influencers yes won’t earn big bucks or have big fame but the difference between the ones who do earn the big bucks and big fame and the smaller ones is, the bigger guys wanted influencing, etc to become their day job. They are their brand.
Over the past few years, the number of “personal brands” have increased. These are people who leverage themselves to become a brand and they sell themselves (not prostitution) to others. This may be to promote an event or product, speak at an event, etc. The fact is anybody can become an influencer. You don’t need to look like a model as such you just need to have passion or knowledge in a certain area. The key trick to becoming an influencer is providing people will value. Showing them say the latest tech trends. Or a new makeup technique. Or showing them new yoga positions etc.
Becoming an influencer is actually very hard indeed. There are so many out there, why would anyone listen to you? That is why you need to be different and smart. You need to find a gap in the market whereby you can be unique. It all depends on you as a person. If you have a unique personality, let it all out. If you love to dance but you also love maths and you want to promote maths etc, then dance and teach maths. It sounds simple but it is hard.
Making a personal brand starts with zero followers. It takes a lot of persistence and a lot of getting out of the comfort zone. Take Charli D’Amelio. The 16-year-old started Tiktok with zero followers. She is a competitive dancer who uploaded videos of her dancing to trendy songs etc. She now has over 100 million Tik Tok followers and earns over $4 million each year. She also has her own YouTube channel and she makes videos with the likes of James Charles, who has 14.7 million subscribers. If she can do it, so can you.
Admittedly she hit the Tik-Tok trend early. But she still had setbacks. The fact that Tik Tok was growing so fast and pre-existing influencers from Instagram were joining at a rapid rate was a problem. She also had issues with the fact that Tik-Tok her main platform could have been banned in her home country, the USA. She overcame all of these and now she’s a star on Instagram, Snapchat, Tik-Tok, YouTube, etc.
Influencers nowadays have the potential to earn crazy amounts of money from small things. Kylie Jenner makes one million dollars off every single sponsored Instagram post. That is insane right? On average most influencers earn between maybe 100 dollars to over 1000 per sponsored post. A sponsored post is basically a photo of the influencer trying a product etc and yes they do get to keep the product.
How Do I Even Start My Influencer Journey?
The way to start your influencer journey is quite simple. You start by simply thinking of your interests and after that, you think of how you can make content around it.
For example, if you love male fashion you could yourself become a model and pose in your fashion accessories or whatever you wear. Or if you love cooking, you could cook your favorite dishes and take photos of them. If you feel like your a comedian you can also make funny videos etc. If you’re a sportsperson again you can make content around your particular sport i.e. of its soccer you can make soccer videos etc.
There are so many platforms you can use to make and post your content. Instagram, YouTube, Tik-Tok, Snapchat, Twitter, and Facebook. It is so overwhelming trying to figure out what the best platform is. Ultimately all of them are good and you should utilize all of them. Instagram is the easiest platform to start on as well as Tik-Tok as in all honesty they are quite basic but effective social media platforms.
Pictures and videos are a big thing in becoming an influencer. You need something unique. In terms of pictures. You can utilize Lightroom to make your pictures look sharper and more stand out. You don’t need a DSLR. An iPhone 12 or a Galaxy S20 etc, modern phone cameras are more than enough. You do need to make content though that stands out n an explore page or in people’s feeds. It has to be show-stopping and this applies to all platforms.
Obviously, Tik-Tok and Snapchat are more natural but on both platforms, you still need to be unique. On Tik-Tok you need to be quite vocal and stand out. Why? Because nine times out of ten there is someone big on there doing what you are doing. Therefore, you need to be more unique. A key example is a trend “what do you do for a living.” This is where people ask exotic car owners what they do for a living and these videos get a lot of views. However, in order to stand out in that sector, a lot of people have been doing it differently. Different locations and questions or maybe even making a meme out of it.
You will start with zero followers. You don’t need anything really but yourself and actually a good camera too. Most people have good enough phones for that anyway. In this influencer world, you are the main ingredient. Without you, there would be no business. Hence the idea of a self-brand. Like any business though, a self-brand requires a lot of time, attention, and dedication. It is hard and it will be tough.
You need a strong mindset as some days your posts will get hardly any likes. You have to post even when nobody is watching. Be ready to try out new things etc. Don’t just post what everyone else is posting too. However, be ready to follow new trends because anything trendy usually comes with a bursting hashtag, etc, which you can easily ride on only if you’re slightly more creative than everyone else.
On YouTube which again is a brilliant platform, things can take even longer. If you are doing YouTube then it is best to get a camera and a tripod. However, even then it can take years to actually get a know show therefore, if you want to accelerate yourself make sure you utilize YouTube SEO and that your videos are intresting. Upload as much as possible and if you are a YouTuber make sure you are on all the top social media platforms.