The ‘Influencer’ and ‘Influencer Marketing’, have become today’s buzzwords. These are mainstream marketing tactics that everyone has jumped on. No longer restricted to selective brands or agencies, almost every major industry has seen a rise in influencers. Brands are leveraging them now more than ever. Back in the day, the Kardashians were responsible for the success of this raging phenomenon. It is no wonder then that this business has become extremely lucrative and recognised amongst celebrities and people who seek celebrity status and create awareness.

To become an influencer of credit, you need to first choose your niche – recognise and select your area of interest and expertise as your passion, talent, skills and abilities go a long way in paving the path. And there’s constant content creation, which isn’t as easy as it seems. As an influencer, you need to constantly research and post content in your chosen field. This is where the passion and enjoying what you do really steps in. Pizzazz, style and an approachable image helps in establishing real connections.

Optimizing Your Social Media Profile too works in broadening your reach. Once you have selected your relevant social media platforms, you need to create new profiles or optimize your existing ones.

Your Bio is responsible in forming your first impression, hence, creating an engaging Bio is vital. It should tell your story in a manner that is alluring, it should be able to engage your audience whilst providing pertinent information about you, especially your areas of expertise. Your profile pic and a cover photo added to your story are fundamental components to establishing your brand identity. People often recognize a social media profile by just the picture. So, choose wisely.

Understanding your audience before creating content and posting on social media is crucial. Influencers these days have a lot more sway over their audiences and stronger connections than even celebrities and A-Listers! To truly become an influencer, it is important to know who you’re targeting and then do it in a fashion easy enough to attract and build a loyal follower base. To understand your audience, you can first start by analysing your current followers to get a clearer insight into their interests and demographics. Nowadays social media platforms have a built-in analytics tool that provides interests, gender, locations of your followers. Knowing what your followers want, makes it easier to deliver.

Posting useful and relevant content is key. The more you are able to engage, the more people will be influenced by your opinions and recommendations. Creating and formulating a content strategy with a mix of interesting content types is the key. Most influencers keep their feeds all about their chosen field of interest like food, travel, fashion and beauty etc. Such influencers usually don’t mix posts about their personal lives and keep their content focused only on their interests. But mixing a bit of your personal life adds the right spice to the mix – making it more authentic and relatable. This strengthens their connections with their audience.

No matter what content strategy you choose, ensure you make it broad enough to accommodate future brand collaboration. Sponsored posts should seamlessly fit with the rest of your content matter. One can add reviews as a regular feature in your feed. This not only engages your audience, but goes a long way in creating opportunities for paid reviews later. Content strategy should be focused, but not too limiting in scope. Think long- term and prepare from the start.

After deciding on your content, you need to be mindful to finalize a posting schedule and frequency. Having a regular posting frequency adds to increased visibility. You can choose to post daily, weekly or at a frequency you’re comfortable with. The platform on which you post also decides your success rate. Some platforms, like X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, Facebook and YouTube need you to be consistent to engage your followers.

Once you decide to post content on social media, you will often get likes and comments on your posts. For an influencer, it is crucial to connect with their followers, therefore, one cannot ignore these comments. It is also a good practice to reply to comments that ask questions. You can certainly get into the habit of liking comments to show your appreciation for their interest and time. You can start conversations with them as well or ask questions about a mutual topic or interest. These interactions help build personal connections with your audience and solidify your position as an influencer.

The final step in your quest to be an influencer of note is to announce it to the world. Ask brands for collaborations and paid services. You can do your own outreach and message relevant brands with a pitch on what you can offer. As an influencer, it is important to build a name for yourself and network with brands in your chosen niche. It is a time-consuming process and hardly ever yields results immediately but if you are serious and patient, it can prove to be a fun and lucrative business plan.