An influencer is characteristically someone with access to a large audience, or fan base who is able to influence that audience and change the way they feel about something in order to be able to generate interest for a product or service.
We think of an influencer as an Instagram star with hundreds of thousands of followers, or as someone on YouTube with a large following. It could also be someone running a business brand and gaining a lot of customers for their beauty brand business. Hint: Big super reality stars and Hollywood celebrities are jumping on this too, Think Paris Hilton, Jenifer Lopez , Ronaldo and Kim Kardashian amongst others.
Do You Have to Become a Hollywood Celebrity To Be An Influencer?
So do you need to be a celebrity to be an influencer? The answer is NO!
It's definitely possible to build a large and engaged audience without having been to be an influential celebrity to begin with. However, even when you make it, being a big influencer doesn’t necessarily mean gaining 1M subscribers.
There is also such a thing as a “micro-influencer.” This is someone that has a significantly smaller audience, but that still has the power to influence and persuade, and that will still prove to be an appealing target for a potential marketing company.
If you have 2,000 followers on Instagram but those followers are highly engaged, then you still have the ability to generate buzz. What’s more, is that if you influence the right person, this can then influence other big influencers creating a spread.
Being a smaller influencer like this is actually ideal for some marketing agencies as they know that you will likely charge less, while still having a big positive impact on helping to increase their brand awareness and the desirability of their product. And of course creating a small amount of influence can help you drastically when it comes to increasing sales in your own business.
How to Become an Influential Influencer Strategy.
So now you know what being an influencer entails, the next logical question is how you get there!
How do you become an influencer and start making a big splash online?
The simple answer is to build your brand and create high quality content that has a consistent and honest “mission statement”, and then to promote that content online.
Often this will also mean creating a “personal brand.” That means that instead of using a logo or company name, you are going to make yourself the brand.
Creating Your Personal Brand
Personal branding is an immensely fascinating concept when it comes to marketing and one that will be naturally interesting to many people.
Essentially, personal branding means taking your name and your image and turning that into your brand.
This is a way for people to potentially achieve a minor form of celebrity online (hence the mass appeal!) while also presenting an opportunity for businesses to reach a much larger audience in a far more personal and impactful way.
At the same time, personal branding allows you to create more of a direct relationship with your audience – and to be more “human” and accessible. This in turn means you will be more likely to develop actual friends and fans, rather than just customers or clients. This is a FAR more powerful kind of relationship for any business.
Personal Brands Explained
The best way to explain a personal brand is to suggest a few examples you can learn from. Take Tim Ferriss for instance. Tim Ferriss is a prominent creator, an author, a podcaster and someone who has a massive online following. Part of Tim’s success comes down to his branding. Notice how you know his name rather than a company. The same goes for someone like Tony Robbins, or perhaps Pat Flynn. These are people whose names come first. Elliot Hulse or the Hodge Twins are similar examples, as are many more YouTube personalities.
If you choose to create a personal brand, then the name of your social media account is your name. The things you post are clips from your life. And the business name takes a back seat.
Why Personal Branding Works.
There are many reasons that personal branding works well and particularly when combined with social media.
For starters, a personal brand makes your website and business feel much more personal and it makes people feel as though they know you and can relate to you. That means they’ll feel as though they can trust you and in turn, that means they’ll be willing to buy from you.
The aim is to become a role model, and to become someone that others want to emulate. Most of us will base what we wear on what we see in magazines, and what we see celebrities and friends wearing. We are significantly less impressed by adverts telling us that we should wear a t-shirt.
This is the power of “social influence.” And it’s massive! Having a more personal relationship with a brand also makes you more emotionally invested. It means that you’re going to want to see what they do next and you’re going to feel involved in their success. This makes you far more likely to engage with their posts and to be persuaded by what they have to say.
Another reason it works is because people love living vicariously. People love getting an insight into the lives of others and this way, your social media will become much more interesting and addictive to follow.
Finally, though, using yourself as your brand allows you to sell the “value proposition.” A value proposition drives most successful products. This is the “promise” for what your product can do for people. It is the lifestyle you’re promoting and the emotional hook.
By having a personal social media account, you can show yourself living the lifestyle you’re selling. And when you do that, people will be inspired to buy your products.
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