First and foremost,
in the world of digital marketing and especially in our own country Uganda,
there is a large number of people who refer to themselves as “social media influencers" who only have a Twitter account with
unclear header image and a bio that describes their love for food, sports teams
like Manchester united, Barcelona, PSG and other things they interested in. Moreover,
when you scroll through their feed you have hard time getting a sense of their
direction or focus since their tweets are about their day to day activities,
food, sports, sex, alcohol and many others.
For starters, a Social
Media or online Influencer is a user on social media who has established credibility
in a specific industry or someone who generates content in order to shape an
opinion, change behaviour, and amplifies a message. A social media influencer has access to a
large audience and can persuade others by virtue of their authenticity and
reach.
According to (Glucksman,
2017), the success of social media influencers is vitally important to brands;
therefore, technology has been developed to identify and track influencers’
relevance to a brand or organization. This technology tracks the number of hits
on a blog, times a blog is shared, likes and comments, and followers. All of
these points are pivotal aspects of a social media influencer’s success
Now have you ever
wondered how you too can get into this space and get paid to enjoy the finer
things in life? Here are a few tips on how to become a credible and trustworthy
online influencer.
1. Understand your audience
Define your
target audience through the people who follow you. Invest a considerable amount
of time in finding who your audience is, what do they love and want. If you can
understand them, you will know what type of content you should be focused on
creating on a daily or weekly basis.
2.
Content generation.
After understanding
the kind of audience you have, determine what kind of content you will be
generating online and stick to it. If its Sports, lifestyle, technology, fashion,
politics, entertainment. It is important to be consistent and continuously put out
this content to position yourself as a thoughtful Influencer in the field you
chose to specialize in, thus build your audience that will trust your content.
3. Be
active on social media
After
knowing what content and specific field you want to venture in, then start
being active throughout by sharing information about the field chosen. You will notice social influencers get a
considerable number of comments and shares on whatever they post. That is
because they have already established themselves and have developed a community
of their own.
4. Identify the companies you
would like to work with, and find ways to grab their attention.
See that
restaurant that you always love to go to like KFC, Cafe Javas? Tag the
restaurant and talk good about it every time you post a selfie dinning from
there, highlight what made your experience so memorable. These authentic
endorsements will definitely catch their eye.
Continuously
document your experiences or interactions with a product or brand online, and
always tag them. Review their products on either your platforms or there’s, and
give them constructive feedback.
Companies value
customer's sentiments and where possible, even go as far as implementing them
where possible. They will notice you and may even consider working with you to
advocate for their products or campaigns whenever they have them.
5.
Build your portfolio
After all the
gigs you have worked on, develop your profile as an online influencer clearly
indicating your current audience (followers), sample content that you generated
that received a wide reach, and document any work you have previously done for
other brands, or content you have proactively generated about a company or
brand. Paint a picture showing why any company would benefit from working with
you as their influencer of their brand, product or service. This can be done
using the google analytics on the campaigns you run. Use a power point for a
good presentation.
6. Promote
your content and yourself
To be an
influencer, you need to have people to influence. You cannot expect people to
go to you when you don’t introduce yourself to them. In order to grow your
audience, you may need to promote some of your posts online in order to reach
more people. Social media marketing is very targeted and allows you to be
specific with regards to the people you would like to reach with specifications
of age, region, cities, countries or interests.
7.
Collaborate with other
influencers
Don’t
worry if you haven’t established yourself as an influencer yet. Because one way
of achieving that is to be friends with other established ones. Thanks to the event and hashtag of Ugandans on twitter #UOT that happens on Wednesday every week. Now this
is the best time for you to join these fellows and make a good collaboration
with other influencers. You can collaborate with those within your industry but
doesn’t sell something that you do. When you contribute on their blog, you are
also tapping the audience that they have. But also collaborate with those that
are not in the same filed with you to gain more confidence and experience.
Conclusion
Becoming
an online influencer doesn’t happen overnight. It will take you months, even
years to get to a point where people recognize your name without them having to
search for it. But with hard work and a right amount of luck, you will surely
get there. Remember to always put up good content and always tag the brands,
products or services that you would love to work with.
References
Benitez, C. (2018). 10
Ways to Become a Sought-After Online Influencer. [online] Available at:
https://www.business2community.com/online-marketing/10-ways-become-sought-online-influencer-02005869
[Accessed 6 Jan. 2020].
Ethangatta, V. (2018). 5
steps on how to become an online influencer. [online] Linkedin. Available
at:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/5-steps-how-become-online-influencer-vivienne-ethangatta/
[Accessed 6 Jan. 2020].
Glucksman, M. (2017). The
Rise of Social Media Influencer Marketing on Lifestyle Branding. [online]
Elon.edu. Available at:
https://www.elon.edu/u/academics/communications/journal/wp-content/uploads/sites/153/2017/12/08_Lifestyle_Branding_Glucksman.pdf
[Accessed 6 Jan. 2020].
