Become A Social Media Influencer in 5 Steps

Written by Adi Young @ Eight Zero

Being a social media influencer doesn’t just make you popular on networking channels, it can ensure your business is successful. If you want to drive more traffic to your website and embrace growth, being a social media influencer can help you achieve your goals. It will connect you with the people who can make good things happen. 

As well as being a ‘go-to’ person for others in your industry, by being an influencer you will attract a loyal following – pushing up engagement and conversion rates. Experts, who really know their topic, are sought-after resources for literally hundreds of thousands of social media users.

So how do you become a social media influencer? It is not as simple as posting regularly to networking platforms. Follow these 5 steps to achieve influencer status:

1. Know your audience and channels

What is it that you are going to be posting about? Consider where people interested in your niche are likely to hang out? What sort of content are they most likely to engage with? What content can you easily create? For example, a B2B organisation may consider Twitter a great place to build a following. If your business or interests are visual, consider Instagram and Pinterest. Limit the number of channels you use to those favoured by your target market. Aim for two to start with. 

2. Devise a content strategy

While it is true that people need to see the same thing multiple times to remember it, you don’t want to bore your audience with repeated messages and graphics. That means planning a content strategy that will drip-feed your followers with nuggets of useful information. Consider what types of media you can use to make your content stand out. Plan how you are going to rotate your content so that it remains fresh. Find out what hashtags are most relevant to your topic and use them. However, remember, less is more. Try not to use more than two in each post.

3. Make your content engaging

Offer content that is valuable and relevant to your niche. Use links to your website in your social media posts to offer your followers more information – and drive them to your website. Send them to your blog or other valuable landing pages. Illustrate your posts with meaningful and eye-catching graphics. If you are using images, don’t spoil them with too much text. Keep YouTube videos reasonably short and the information concise. Feel free to promote yourself but be careful not to come across as ‘spammy’.

4. Grow your audience

To become an influencer, you must have a following. Start off by following others with similar interests. Follow back other influencers when they follow you. Regularly review who you are following and unfollow if necessary. Take part in industry/interest specific hashtag hours and join relevant groups. ‘Like’ other people’s comments and share relevant information from other influencers. You can add your own ‘take’ on popular posts by including some valuable comments of your own.

5. Don’t forget to be… social

Social media is all about being…social. That means engaging with your followers. It is a two-way relationship. If you ignore comments or don’t thank people for following you, they will feel unvalued. Avoid coming across as just a know-it-all by being considerate and thoughtful.

By following these five steps you can build a community around your expert knowledge. If you can keep on producing content that your followers want to engage with, you will become a social media influencer.

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