AT THE SOCIAL CLUB, WE’RE SUPER EXCITED FOR THE NEW INSTAGRAM SHOPPING FEATURE AND WE KNOW MANY OF THE BRANDS WE WORK WITH ARE TOO.
1. Find your focus
Becoming a social media influencer is about finding your niche, and finding users who share the same passion. Your job is to master a specific topic within your niche with valuable and relevant content which will interest, excite and engage your followers.
If you cast your net too wide, it will be more difficult for you to gain high status and influence your audience on specific topics.
2. Choose the right platform
It’s important to note that each platform (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube) is unique and has its own strengths and audiences of with different demographics. For example, if your area of influence is in girls fashion, your best bet is to focus on visual platforms within an audience of young girls such as Instagram. However if you are giving skating tutorials, YouTube or Vine may be better suited.
There is often more than one platform relevant for your niche. In this case you can employ an integrated strategy and schedule allowing you to capitalize on the specialties of each platform.
When you’re starting out it’s generally best to focus on one or two platforms, nail your content and work on growing your audience. Once you have established yourself, you can look at expanding to other networks and taking your existing audience with you. This will allow you to reach a whole new audience and continue to grow your unique impressions*!
*Unique impressions = the number of individual people who saw your content at least once. A term advertisers will refer to when recruiting influencers.
3. Engage your audience
Engage with your audience at every opportunity. If they comment on your photo, reply to them. If you like their account, follow them. If they post something that interests you, give it a like/favourite/share. Show them that they are valued and this isn’t a one way party: you are interested in their account, too.
Engage with people outside your audience whenever you can. This could involve searching hashtags relevant to your niche, and engaging with content that inspires you, or adding relevant snapchat accounts and including them on your day to day snapchats. This will give your account exposure and lead people back to your account where they will hopefully stay!
Collaborate with other influencers to reach a new audience. You’ll find that each of you will gain followers by tagging each other in your posts, especially if the content is similar. If you’re interested in these collaborations, make sure you let The Social Club team know.
4. Post often
Share valuable content often, but don’t spam your audience.
Work out what time works best for your engagement levels. This will vary by platform and audience but worth experimenting with are: commuting hours, meal time and first thing in the morning & last thing at night. Think about when you are online most, and test that too! Chances are you are pretty similar to your audience.
5. Keep your content consistent
Especially on visual platforms such as Instagram and Pinterest, make sure your content format, timings, and topic are consistent.
You want your Instagram “grid” to look aesthetically appealing, so if you uploaded a photo with a white frame, keep using that white frame. If you created 5x baking tutorials, try not to start posting videos of your cats fights. (We all know cats = engagement, and we aren’t saying not to post them on your baking blog, but it is worth considering your audience before straying from your main theme.)
6. Stay in the know
Subscribe to the platform blogs which you are active on (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, etc.) so that whenever an update to the platform is released, you are the first to be notified and can react accordingly. Platforms often update their algorithm’s which may affect your reach/impressions, you may be able to capitalize on this or need to update your strategy to allow for the changes.
Read relevant blogs daily to keep up to date with the latest industry trends. You can also set up alerts which will send you notifications when new posts/articles on specific topics are released. This will keep you in the loop with how brands are using social platforms and influencers, and may spark an inspirational campaign idea for you to reach out to one of your favourite brands with!
Follow other influencers and content creators. You can always get inspiration from what other leaders are doing, and there may be an opportunity to collaborate with them. Who knows, you may even make some friends along the way.
7. Be yourself
It is important to be original. Post mostly your own content (nothing wrong with the occasional share/retweet/regram!), and have your own opinions. This will separate you from the rest of the sheep and make you stand out enough to be noticed by the masses. Instagram stories are a great way to reach your audience and show off what makes you different, your personality!
Remember that social media is a fun way to express your passions and showcase your skills/talents. It’s not a job or a chore (no matter what Essena says…), there are no rules, so choose something you care about and it’ll be hard not to enjoy it.
Summary
It may seem like tough work and at times, traction may be slow but remember what an awesome opportunity it is: to not only make a living through spreading the word for well-aligned businesses, but also having the ability to share positive messages and improve the lives of your followers.
Keep at it and if you ever want any further tips on growing or engaging your audience, get in touch with us at enquiries@thesocialclub.co.
