One of the most coveted job titles in the modern world is that of a social media influencer. Almost every millennial and Gen Z desires to be loved by thousands or millions of people but doesn't know how to be an influencer.
The reason behind the popularity of influencers is the fame and the ease of making money. Influencers don’t need to go to an office for a 9 to 5 job. Instead, they do what they love and make money out of it.
In this article, we’ll take you through the journey of how to be an influencer. Therefore, stick with us till the end.
Table of Contents
What is an Influencer?
Influencers are social media personalities with huge followings and high engagement rates. Generally, influencers share a casual and friendly connection with their followers to generate more engagement and love.
Typically, people whose social media accounts have more than 1000 followers can be considered influencers.
But figuring out how to be an influencer isn’t just about numbers. Influencers possess excellent knowledge and expertise in their field. They start by building an audience on social media platforms, and with the help of exciting content, they continue to gain and retain followers.
The followers of social media influencers often consider the latter as their role models and are more likely to follow their recommendations. So, if you’re itching to know how to be an influencer, focus on creating valuable content, algorithm mastery, networking, and attention-grabbing tactics.
Recent data shows that influencer marketing is so lucrative to the point the global influencer market has tripled from $9.7 billion in 2020 to about $32 billion in 2025.
Image via Statista
What differentiates social media influencers from other celebrities is their connection with the audience. Unlike traditional celebrities, influencers' lives aren’t enveloped in the mystery air.
Instead, influencers regularly share a glimpse of their personal lives with their audience. And this is what exactly helps them build an emotional connection with their followers.
Based on the number of followers, influencers are categorized into four segments. Let’s know them all.
4 Types of Influencers on Social Media Platforms by Follower Count
Previously, in this article, you might have been surprised when we stated that influencers can have as few as 1,000 followers. But if you're wondering how to be an influencer, follower count isn’t the only factor that matters.
Let’s shine some more light on that claim here.
The general perception is that influencers have more than a hundred thousand followers. But, it's partially true.
The real key to mastering how to be an influencer is engagement, strategy, current trends, trust, and delivering value to an audience.
While partnering with an influencer, brands prefer higher ROI, and this is why they pick the most suitable influencer as per their influencer marketing campaigns approach.
Paying attention to this is important considering how consumers perceive influencers. According to a Sprout Social report, consumers trust influencers who align with their values. This is followed by authenticity as demonstrated below.
Image via Sprout Social
With that in mind, there are four types of influencers popular with brands and audiences. They include the following.
Nano Influencers (1K-10K Followers)
If you’re wondering how to be an influencer, starting as a nano influencer is a great first step. Nano influencers have between 1K to 10K followers on their social profiles, which allows them to establish a very close relationship with their followers and achieve great engagement rates.
Typically, nano influencers tend to be very vocal about the products and brands they love. Their followers appreciate the nano influencers’ authentic commentary and recommendations.
Nano influencers spend a lot of time responding to comments on their posts and DMs.
Micro Influencers (10K-100K Followers)
Among all the influencer categories, micro-influencers are the most popular among brands. With a follower count between 10K-100K, micro-influencers enjoy a mixture of engaged and a large audience.
At this level, micro-influencers tend to specialize in a particular area, making it worthwhile for brands in the niche to collaborate with them. A major tip on how to be an influencer in this category is to stay consistent.
Macro Influencers (100K-1M Followers)
Macro-influencers enjoy a broad audience of 100K-1M followers. At this stage, the process of how to be an influencer involves more than just engagement
Typically, macro-influencers include bloggers, podcasters, and social media stars.
In most cases, macro-influencers not only have a large audience but also have established trust among their followers, which acts as the foundation of their brand identity. If you want to know how to be an influencer at this scale, focus on brand consistency, storytelling, and high-quality content.
Although their trust level among followers is decent, their engagement rate is lower than nano and micro-influencers.
Mega Influencers (1M+ Followers)
Mega influencers are celebrities who have more than 1 million followers. If you're aiming to reach this level while learning how to be an influencer, you’ll need massive reach, celebrity status, or viral success.
The trust factor among mega influencers’ audiences is relatively low, and so is the engagement rate. This is because they have such a large following so they’re unable to directly address individual questions.
Alright. Now that you are familiar with all the types of influencers, let's get to the most exciting discussion: how to be an influencer and how to make money while at it.
How to Be an Influencer
Life of an influencer seems very attractive from the outside, but a lot is going on inside. Just to give you a hint, creating relevant content isn't enough to become a successful social media influencer.
From the start, a social media influencer has to put in a lot of effort to build trust.
However, there isn't a clear answer to how to be an influencer. The reason is that it isn’t a mature job profile like finance or marketing professionals, where people are trained in universities.
“Social media influencer” is a relatively new term, and there are different approaches to tapping the fame and glamor.
Hence, we’ve created a listicle to help you be an influencer. So without further ado, let’s take you through your influencer journey.
1. Identify Your Niche
The first step in learning how to be an influencer is identifying your niche. In the world of specialists, you shouldn’t try to be a “jack (or jane) of all trades.” If you tap a broad audience, it will lead you to confusion in terms of content creation, a lower engagement rate, and a higher unfollower count.
You need to pick a specific niche and try to cater high-quality content to an audience within that particular field. Moreover, you shouldn’t pick a niche in which you don’t have enough knowledge.
If you wonder in which areas you can be an influencer, here is the answer:
Look at the following categories and try to identify which one relates more to what you have to say.
- Sports and Fitness
- Health and Nutrition
- Gaming
- Food v/blogging
- Travel v/blogging
- Photography
- Beauty and Fashion
- Lifestyle
- Parenting
- Technology
- Comedy and Entertainment
- Dancing and other hobbies
- Yoga and Spirituality
One of the best things about learning how to be an influencer is that you don’t have to stick to just one category. You can go with a few of them if they relate to one another. For example, you can combine food and travel or food and nutrition.
Every social media influencer has a unique voice and positioning, and so do you. If you're figuring out how to be an influencer, don’t be afraid to experiment with new content formats. Therefore, try a new cover photo or video content types and niches that can help you gain more follower count and trust. The catch here is to post content that most of your followers like.
So, which niche would you choose while learning how to be an influencer? And how would you showcase it on your profile?
Let’s understand this with an example.
Example
Take a look at this Instagram micro-influencer, Elizabeth Moye’s profile. She has explicitly identified herself as a nutritionist for approachable, affordable, and healthy eats.
Image via Instagram
As per what she conveys on her Instagram profile, she battled an eating disorder during college, which inspired her to help others establish a healthy relationship with food. She frequently posts delicious dishes on her Instagram profile to promote a healthy lifestyle.
2. Pick the Platforms that Suit You
Choosing a platform that suits you is crucial when figuring out how to be an influencer. If you aren’t good with short-form videos, there is no point in being an influencer on TikTok; Instagram and YouTube should be your pick instead.
One of the biggest lessons in how to be an influencer is that you don’t need to be on every platform. Even if you can find an audience of interest on a platform, you don’t necessarily need to be there if the content type doesn’t suit you.
Although YouTube is the best platform for brands to promote products, this doesn’t mean you need to focus only on YouTube influencer marketing. Many successful influencers with low YouTube subscribers are doing fabulously on Instagram and TikTok.
Playing to your strengths and focusing on platforms where you shine is key when navigating how to be an influencer.
Example
The micro-influencer Kiana Jordan has a decent following on TikTok. She is a fashion, beauty, and lifestyle influencer.
With a follower count of over 26,000, Kiana Jordan mostly pushes products for big brands using giveaways and discounts.
Image via TikTok
Some influencers can benefit from being present on several platforms.
For example, take a look at Louis Cole’s Instagram and YouTube profiles. He is a travel vlogger with over 1 million Instagram followers and just short of 2 million YouTube subscribers.
Image via Instagram
He is active on both platforms. And the reasons are – one, his content style, and two, bandwidth.
On Instagram, he is more focused on posting pictures and
reels of his travel, whereas on YouTube, he posts short as well as long-form videos like the following.
Image via YouTube
Now, you might have understood that you can be active on all the social media platforms if you have the content and bandwidth.
3. Create or Update Your Profile and Build Your Audience
We can’t discuss how to be an influencer without mentioning the need to build a strong follower base. If you don't have a social media account on the platform you want to go with, create one to be an influencer. Write an excellent bio and pick a profile picture that aligns with your niche. And off you go.
If you already have a few hundred followers or subscribers, you’re good to start, but work on increasing your follower count if you don't have them.
The strategies for creating a profile and building a follower base are similar to those of Instagram and TikTok. However, the approach is a bit different if you’re exploring how to be an influencer on YouTube.
Hence, let’s discuss the best practices to increase followers or subscribers on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube while mastering how to be an influencer.
Growing Followers on Instagram and TikTok
Similar to any other social network, there are several ways to increase followers on Instagram. Here are the best practices to build a massive loyal audience for your Instagram profile when navigating how to be an influencer.
A. Include Reels into Your Social Content Mix
Reels are short-form videos (up to 30 seconds) you can share with the Instagram audience. The best part about Reels is that they help you get a broader audience even when you have a low follower count.
Image via Instagram
The most effective way of creating Reels as an influencer is to identify the trending Reels on Instagram and put your spin on them. This increases the probability of your Reels getting viral.
B. Create Your Profile Grid
If you’re learning how to be an influencer, remember — your followers are generally interested in what you’ll post in the future.
Hence, your Instagram feed should reflect a consistent theme that helps your audience understand what the profile is about and what updates they’ll receive in the coming time.
This will help you engage your audience and increase your follower count.
Hhow to be an influencer is knowing how to make a great first impression. Consider the first nine posts of your Instagram feed as the first impression you create on your potential followers.
For example, check the following profile and see how elegantly the first six posts align with the purpose of the page, “travel and fashion.”
Image via Instagram
C. Spice Up Your Highlight Section
Instagram profile highlights are the section right next to your bio. Hence, it’s the second most attention-grabbing thing for your audience.
Image via Instagram
You should save the best bit from your stories for the highlights section. The stories section should give your audience a sense of what your Instagram profile is all about.
D. Create a Solid Content Strategy
The most important thing when navigating how to be an influencer is “content.” The more quality content you share, the better your chances of getting shares, likes, and comments.
The following are some tips you should incorporate into your Instagram content strategy:
- Be consistent: Instagram has this snowball effect, which means the more you post, the faster you grow. Not just every day, you should even post various content several times a day.
- Automate content posting: Automate your content. Learning how to be an influencer means working smarter, not harder. Scheduling posts in advance keeps your feed active without the daily stress of manual uploads.
- Include a variety of content types: From photos to Reels, don't miss anything in terms of content posting. You can prioritize Reels over other types of content because they get maximum engagement and exposure. Don’t forget to use relevant hashtags in your posts, especially in your Reels. You can use hashtag generator tools if you don’t have a list.
E. Use Catchy Captions
Nice photos or videos catch people's attention, but great Instagram captions retain it. Captions allow you to share the context behind the content you are sharing. While it’s not necessary to write lengthy captions every time, doing so based on the content type and underlying emotion is part of mastering how to be an influencer.
F. Collaborate with Others
Instagram's new collaboration feature makes it easy to create content for social media. You can get more exposure by collaborating with other people in your area of expertise to create content.
G. Engage with Your Audience
One common mistake many Instagrammers learning how to be an influencer make is that they don’t engage with their audience. The recommendation is to follow back all your followers and engage with their content. This will help you build a stronger relationship with your followers.
You’ll start seeing more engagement and thus more loyal followers.
Strategies for improving TikTok followers are pretty similar. However, YouTube has a different approach to increasing subscribers. Let’s discuss them to help you be an influencer on YouTube.
Increasing YouTube Subscribers
When it comes to YouTube, the most challenging thing is getting the first 1,000 subscribers. Hence, you need to create a strategy to get them as quickly as possible. This is because your channel’s monetization depends on the subscriber count.
Here is how you can increase your YouTube subscribers.
A. Post High-Quality Content
Create more than a dozen videos and post them to your YouTube channel. Your potential subscribers need to understand what type of content you will be posting in the future, and if that aligns with their interests.
If you aren’t sure of what types of content to post, have a look at our guide on YouTube video content creation — 5 Types of Video Content You Should Be Using in 2025.
Now, we'll talk about the optimization part of the videos in the forthcoming pointers.
B. Add a Subscribe Button to Your YouTube Videos
Here is a quick hack to increase your YouTube subscribers through every video you upload. You can either download or create a 150 x 150 image that says “subscribe” and use it as the video watermark, which will appear in the bottom-right corner of your video screen.
Image via YouTube Studio
Here is how you can do it:
- Open YouTube Studio
- Navigate to the “Customization” screen via the left-handed menu
- Click on the Branding tab
- Scroll down to the bottom to find Video Watermark
- Upload picture
- Choose when you want to display the graphic
- Hit Publish when done
C. Optimize Your Videos for Organic Traffic
YouTube SEO is the most effective strategy to get more views on your videos when navigating how to be an influencer. When you start getting organic traffic, you can use the engagement insights to attract more subscribers.
You need to take care of several things to rank your videos on YouTube SERP for several keywords. The following are the pro tips:
- Research your primary keywords
- Use the exact match keyword in the video title
- Use the exact match keyword in the video file name
- Create a solid video description with all the keywords optimized in the content
- Use several relevant hashtags
- Select the correct video category
- Upload a customized thumbnail (take inspiration from your competitors)
- Add SRT file in closed captions
D. Do a YouTube Collab to Get More Exposure
Once you have things in place and adequate content on your YouTube channel, you should collaborate with like-minded people on YouTube and create videos together. This will help you and your partner leverage each other’s subscribers.
E. Lastly, Be Regular
How frequently should you post videos on YouTube? That’s the question to ask yourself as you figure out how to be an influencer. The rule of thumb for new YouTube channels is to post anywhere between 2 to 5 videos a week.
The point is that when someone subscribes to your channel or shows interest in your videos, they should receive video suggestions very frequently. And, you can improve the suggestions by posting new videos regularly.
Once someone views a couple of your videos, the YouTube algorithm suggests more videos from your channel, improving your chances of converting them into a subscriber and growing your subscriber base.
Let’s get to the next step to how to be an influencer.
4. Use Analytics and Listen to Your Audience
Okay. So you have created your profile and gained the first few hundred or thousand subscribers/followers.
But is that enough to truly master how to be an influencer?
An excellent technique for influencers is to go through their social media analytics and find out which posts got the most engagement. Engagement rate is the best indicator of the effectiveness of content.
Leveraging social media analytics is one of the smartest ways to level up when navigating how to be an influencer. They give you insight into your audience demographics and SEO rankings (especially for YouTube).
Moreover, if you’re looking for new content suggestions, the comment section is a game-changer in how to be an influencer.
Your audience is the best source of new content ideas.
Image via YouTube
Find some time to read and respond to all the comments you receive on your posts. This will help you identify new topic ideas and establish a deeper connection with your audience.
Here is an example of an Ohio-based juicery owner, Lauren Mattice, utilizing the comment section to establish a personal connection with her audience, funneling the audience to her Instagram—such a neat funnel.
Example
Image via YouTube
The way Lauren interacts with her audience has gained her a lot of YouTube subscribers organically.
Being an influencer, you can help your audience by addressing their questions and queries from the comment box and through direct messages.
5. Upgrade Your Hashtag Game
If you want to know how to be an influencer without spending on advertisements and promotions, hashtags are the key.
Your content is only effective when it is distributed to the right audience. Although most of your followers will see your social media posts in their feed, you can get more exposure by using relevant hashtags.
Many social media users look for new topic ideas and people through hashtags, and if you intelligently use hashtags related to your niche, you will see a jump in organic follower count as well as likes.
Image via Instagram
Example
If you are an influencer in the yoga and spirituality niche, there are several trending hashtags you can use to upscale your social media game. Some of these hashtags are:
- #yogainspiration
- #yogapractice
- #yogateacher
- #yogapants
- #yogaeverywhere
- #yogachallenge
If you’re new to the social media influencing business, you’ll have to dig for new hashtags that are trending in your niche. You can use SEO tools like Semrush and Keyword Tool to find new hashtags.
The next step when navigating how to be an influencer is consistency.
6. Be Consistent
Maintaining consistency in terms of posting content is vital as you master how to be an influencer. It’s the most effective way to retain your audience’s attention. When your followers see your post regularly in their social media feed, they are more likely to engage.
One key tip when mastering how to be an influencer is planning. Having a few days’ worth of social posts ready makes it easier to stay active without feeling overwhelmed.
You can even create content series that keep your audience hooked to your social handle.
However, you cannot compromise the quality of your content in any case. Becoming an influencer comes with the responsibility of crafting excellent content for your audience.
7. Collaborate with Other Influencers
Your path to learning how to be an influencer will go through collaboration with other influencers. Even if you have a decent following on your social media handle, collaborating with other influencers will give you a new audience and the possibility of attracting them to your profile.
Make sure you create your best content when collaborating with fellow influencers on social media channels with a huge following. However, initially, you might not be able to collaborate with mega influencers. It’s better to look for people who have a follower count similar to yours.
Image via YouTube
8. Host Contests and Giveaways
If you are wondering how to be an influencer that people trust and love interacting with, the answer lies in keeping your followers engaged.
Some remarkable techniques influencers use to boost audience engagement are hosting contests and giveaways. They are proven to entice your audience to comment, like, and share your posts.
If you don't have enough resources to fulfill contests and giveaway rewards, you can host an “ask me anything” session to engage with your audience.
9. Respond to Your Audiences
When you post valuable and catchy content, more and more people start appreciating your efforts and provide you with feedback via comments or direct messages. Keep that in mind as you navigate how to be an influencer.
Responding to your audience's responses is comparatively more straightforward initially, but as you begin to grow, it can become a challenging task to reply to all of them. This doesn't mean that you leave the questions and appreciation unattended.
Now you know how to be an influencer.
10. Network and Attend Events
To fully master how to be an influencer, network and attend influencer marketing industry events.
You need connections to grow. Meeting the right people can open doors, bring new opportunities, and help you stand out.
Events give you direct access to brands, other influencers, and industry insiders. You get to meet people who can support your journey. You also learn what’s trending and what works in your niche.
A good example of an influencer event is the Influencer Marketing Show held in different places every year. This year’s event held in Florida from April 22nd to April 25th.
Image via Influencer Marketing Show
Here’s why networking and events matter if you want to know how to be an influencer:
- Meet brands – Many brands look for influencers at events. A real connection beats a cold email.
- Connect with other influencers – Collaboration can grow your audience faster than working alone.
- Stay updated – You hear about trends before they hit social media.
- Build trust – People who see you in real life remember you more.
Knowing how to be an Influencer is a journey, and attending these events is a good start. The more you put yourself out there, the more opportunities you’ll get.
11. Take Influencer Courses and Training
Surprisingly , there are training courses on how to be an influencer. Taking influencer training and courses can help. These programs teach you the social media skills you need.
You learn content creation, branding, social media growth, and working with brands. Many courses also cover video editing, engagement tactics, and monetization. Instead of navigating how to be an influencer alone, you get step-by-step guidance from people who’ve done it.
Platforms like Udemy have hundreds of influencer courses at affordable prices. For example, here’s an online course by Dekker.
Image via Udemy
Here’s why influencer training makes a difference when learning know how to be an influencer:
- Learn faster – You skip the trial-and-error phase and get straight to what works.
- Grow your audience – Courses teach you proven ways to attract followers.
- Make money sooner – You learn how to pitch brands and get paid.
- Boost confidence – Knowing what you’re doing makes you more consistent.
How Do Influencers Make Money?
Influencers on most social media platforms can earn money in a multitude of ways. As more brands start collaborating with smaller content creators like nano and micro-influencers, building a career as an influencer is no longer a pipe dream.
However, all the top three social media platforms, including Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube, have different functionalities for creators to make money.
Hence, let’s understand the top ways a social media influencer can make money before we talk about how to be an influencer.
Disclaimer: Every method of earning money as an influencer might not apply to all the platforms. Hence, read the description for further clarifications.
Posting Sponsored Content
To learn how to become a successful influencer who earns good money, you need to focus on targeting sponsored content. Many influencers rely on posting brand-sponsored content to earn money. Sponsored content is when an influencer promotes a particular brand. All the social media platform influencers utilize this method of making money as an influencer.
The sponsored content can appear as a post, story, or short or long-form video based on the influencer's engagement metrics and the brand's preference.
Influencers charge differently for sponsored posts on various platforms.
For example, Khaby Lame allegedly made about $20 million in 2024 alone, with a single post netting him an average of $750,000.
Image via Instagram
To decide the rate for a story or a post on Instagram, influencers mostly rely on formulas such as $100 for every 10,000 followers. But the values differ as per the engagement rates and trust factor.
On the other hand, YouTube content creators generally earn between $2.22 and up to $36 per 1K views for sponsored posts.
Similar to Instagram and YouTube, TikTok influencers also charge money for sponsored posts. But their major chunk of income is usually from song promotion. Let’s talk about this in the next pointer.
Song Promotion
Learning how to be an influencer means exploring different income streams, and song promotion is one of them. Song promotion isn’t what influencers on every platform choose as their primary source of income. Promoting songs via influencers is a great technique musicians and bands utilize.
Mega influencers on TikTok, Nicole, Natalie, and Nika Taylor, told Business Insider in an interview that they charge $750 to promote a song in a single video, $1,400 in two videos, and $2,000 in three videos.
The song promotion rate for micro-influencers on TikTok can fall anywhere between $20 and $150.
Brand Advocacy
Although brand advocacy appears quite similar to sponsored content posting, it differs in terms of time frame. Learning how to be an influencer isn’t just about posting sponsored content. It’s also about building long-term partnerships.
This method of earning money is very effective for an influencer as well as the brand. The brand will enjoy a high level of engagement, customer trust, and lower cost, whereas the influencer will benefit from a steady stream of income and their audience’s reliance.
An influencer can generate greater results by collaborating with brands for a longer period. For instance, the influencer can regularly post about the brand and its products for 6-12 months.
Selling Products
Learning how to be an influencer involves understanding the different ways to make money.
For instance, selling products on social platforms as an influencer does seem quite similar to sponsored content and brand advocacy.
But products are sold through a referral program, discounts and a shopping features within a social platform. Meanwhile, sponsored content can be limited to branding and advertising.
Knowing how to be an influencer also means tapping into commissions. Influencers make money via commissions on selling merchandise, DTC products and affiliate marketing links.
Instagram influencers use platforms like ShopStyle and the Amazon Affiliate Program to generate affiliate links. Adding these links to stories on Instagram became easier when Instagram released link stickers in 2021.
Virtual Gifts
When navigating how to be an influencer, leverage live gifting. This feature on Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok lets creators earn money during live sessions. Fans send virtual gifts in real time, and influencers can redeem them for cash.
In 2021, a micro-influencer on TikTok, Lucy Davis, told Business Insider that her earnings via Live Gifting range between $20 to $300 each session.
TikTok Creator Fund
TikTok offers a variety of monetization options. For example, the influencers can join the TikTok Creator Fund to make money based on their audience size and engagement rates.
However, you have to meet the following criteria if you want to join the Creators Fund to be an influencer:
- The creator must be of at least 18 years of age.
- Must have 10K+ followers.
- Must be based in the US, UK, Germany, France, Italy, or Spain.
- Must have 100,000+ video views in the last 30 days.
- The account must adhere to TikTok Community Guidelines.
YouTube Partner Program
YouTube isn’t just a video platform—it’s a goldmine for anyone learning how to be an influencer. With over 2 billion monthly active users, YouTube is a popular channel home to top-paid social media influencers. YouTube is known for product recommendations and a wide variety of content.
You probably are one of those who watch product reviews, comparisons, and recommendations before buying a product. At least most rational buyers do that.
What’s in it for creators?
YouTube is a mature platform for authentic content creators and social media influencers. If you're figuring out how to be an influencer, this platform gives you endless ways to earn.
For instance, you can join the YouTube Partner Program to make money by monetizing your videos via Google AdSense. However, similar to the TikTok Creators Fund, you need to qualify for the YouTube Partner program.
Only influencers with 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 hours of total video watch time over the previous year can join the program.
Why do Brands Collaborate with Influencers?
Before we get to the crux of this article and talk about how to be an influencer, you need to understand why brands reach out to influencers for promotions.
When learning how to be an influencer, you have to understand that today’s celebrities aren’t just actors or musicians. They’re also content creators who connect with specific audiences. These audiences share certain characteristics, tastes, preferences, and lifestyles.
Given the specific audiences and a higher engagement rate, the cost of promotion for brands via influencer marketing is comparatively lower than traditional advertising. And, the results are better.
Influencer marketing can help brands achieve specific objectives like the following:
- Credibility: Businesses are looking for authorized voices with a huge number of targeted audiences to improve their content strategy. Knowing how to be an influencer means building authority that brands value.
- Awareness: Most social media platforms are transparent in terms of audience metrics. Brands can use these analytics to create awareness about their products and services.
- Positioning: Authentic influencers shape brand identity. Mastering how to be an influencer can make you a key player in this.
- Image: Businesses can leverage the loyalty of the influencers’ followers to create a positive brand image.
On top of everything, since influencers' posts are personalized recommendations, they are more likely to be exempted from algorithm change. Influencer marketing also helps brands leverage social listening for content marketing.
While we could’ve discussed this pointer more, we need to jump to the heart of this article – how to be an influencer.
FAQ
Q1. How can I be an influencer?
A.Here is how you can be an influencer:
- Identify your niche
- Pick the social media platforms that suit your content type
- Create or update your social media profile
- Use analytics and listen to your audience
- Upgrade your hashtag game
- Be consistent in terms of posting content
- Collaborate with other influencers on your social media platform or even cross-platform
- Host contests and giveaways
- Respond to your audience
- Network and attend events
- Take influencer training and courses
Q2. How many followers do I need to be an influencer?
A. If you have more than 1,000 followers, congratulations, you are an influencer. However, based on the number of followers, influencers are categorized into four types:
- Nano Influencers – Having 1K to 10K followers on their social media profiles.
- Micro Influencers – Having a follower count between 10K-100K, micro-influencers are the most popular among brands.
- Macro Influencers – These are internet-made celebrities having a broad audience of 100K-1M followers.
- Mega Influencers – Mega influencers are celebrities who have more than 1 million followers. This category of influencers can include social celebrities as well as typical celebrities.
Q3. How to be an influencer on Instagram?
A. The steps to becoming an influencer on Instagram are quite similar to other platforms like TikTok and Facebook. These are the steps to becoming an Instagram influencer:
- Identify your niche
- Create or update your Instagram profile
- Include reels into your social content mix to get more engagement
- Create your Instagram profile grid
- Spice up your Instagram highlight section
- Create a solid content and social media strategy
- Use catchy captions for Instagram posts
- Collaborate with other influencers on Instagram
- Engage with your audiences
- Host contests and giveaways
- Respond to your fans
Q4. How to become an Amazon Influencer?
A. Amazon influencer is coined for social media influencers who affiliate products on Amazon. Here is how to be an influencer to affiliate with Amazon products:
- Identify your product niche and category
- Pick the social media platforms that suit your content type (focus more on YouTube)
- Create dozens of product reviews and recommendation videos
- Use analytics and listen to your audience
- Upgrade your hashtag game
- Be consistent in terms of posting product reviews (don’t miss any new product in your niche)
- Collaborate with other influencers on your social media platform or even cross-platform
- Host contests and giveaways for the products you affiliate with
- Listen and respond to your audience
Q5. How much do influencers earn?
A. All the top three social media platforms, including Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube, have different functionalities for creators to make money.
- On Instagram, influencers charge anywhere between $20 per post for nano influencers to over $10,000 per post for mega influencers.
- YouTube influencers charge from $20 per post for nano influencers to over $20,000 for mega influencers.
- TikTok influencers usually charge from $5 per post for nano influencers to over $2,500 per post for mega influencers.
Q6. What qualifications should an influencer have?
A. An influencer needs to have a decent following (more than 1K) and a higher engagement rate. That’s it.
Q7. Is it too late to be an influencer?
A. It’s never too late to be an influencer. There are influencers like Helen who started at the age of 85.
Q8. How to be an influencer for a brand?
A. Either the brand reaches out to you, or you approach them; in both ways, you have to promote their products via your social media profile.
Q9. Why do brands collaborate with influencers?
A. Influencer marketing can help brands achieve specific objectives like:
- Humanizing their brand
- Creating awareness about their products and services
- Creating or improving brand positioning
- Strengthening brand image
Q10. How to increase YouTube subscribers?
A. Following are the tips for increasing subscribers count on YouTube:
- Post a lot of content on your YouTube channel
- Add a YouTube subscribe button to your videos
- Optimize your videos for organic traffic
- Collaborate with other YouTubers
- Be consistent with your content posting, and maybe create a schedule to stay on top of it
Ready to Be an Influencer?
By following all the tips and techniques on how to be an influencer, it shouldn’t be impossible for you to kickstart your career.
Although the path to being famous among the target audience isn’t easy, the outcomes are lucrative enough to make you push hard to reach your goals.
If you have a decent following but still can’t make money, check out our influencer marketing services to help you get started.
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