How to Become an Influencer and Grow Your Audience With Media Placements

Being an influencer is something that anyone can actually do. Now, how to become an influencer is what we are going to talk about today.

Whether it is on Instagram, Facebook, Youtube, or even Live TV, the steps are basically the same.

By focusing your efforts on how to become an influencer, you will get people to know, like, and trust you and want to follow you in everything you do. In addition, people will look to you for help in the things you are an expert in.

Influencer is the hottest and trendiest buzzword these days, and this doesn’t come as a surprise. They are in demand and sought after by different brands that want to work with them to drive conversions and broaden their scope and reach.

On the other hand, the influencers’ followers look forward to their recommendations and expert advice.

As the rise of influencers increases, it is natural for other people to be interested to know how to become influencers themselves.

But before you learn some helpful tips on becoming an influencer, there are a few basic things you should know about the different types of influencers.

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8 steps for you to learn how to become an influencer in anything:

Identify your niche.

A niche is something that you can focus on that is very specific.

For example, a youtube channel about all real estate is not a niche, it is a topic. But, a youtube channel about rental properties is definitely a niche. Just like my company Master Passive Income where I talk about rental properties.

So, you are trying to get very specific in what you are an expert in.

Basically the saying applies here. Be 1 mile deep and an inch wide.

This means you should know LOTS about a very small niche and be the expert in that.

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Create your own brand.

Start by making your niche be well thought out and give it a name.

A name that you will say over and over again and that people will learn is associated with you. When they hear that name, they will think of you. Just like with Successfully Unemployed, that is my brand.

Same with Nike, that is a brand that tells you they are in the shoe and sports clothing business.

Make sure you pick a brand name that is specific to you and is not already under a copyright.

Publish content.

This is very important. Even more important than creating a brand. The content you put out is what people will know you and identify with you.

If your content is no good or people don’t like it, they will not follow you. What you need to do is find out what your audience wants to learn or know about and then give them that.

Make sure the content is well written, produced well, and thought through.

By doing that, people will not focus on how the content is delivered but on the content. This is what will make you an influencer which is what you want.

Showcase your unique personality.

Totally be yourself. You can only be one person for a sustained amount of time. By being yourself, the people that like you will stay with you.

The people that don’t will leave, and that is a good thing. You don’t want to waste your time nor do you want to waste theirs.

Engage with your followers.

By being genuine and actually there for your followers, they will love you even more.

I have personally been much more successful as I have been available to my fans. Plus, it is great to really help people where they are. How can you know where they are unless you engage with them.

Network all the time.

The more people you work with the better your business will become. Trust me.

It is not all a competition where we don’t work with the other team. No, rather it is that the world is a huge place and there is plenty to go around for everyone.

By working with others, you will:

find out what is working for them and apply it to your business
promote each other to your fans to cross over your followers (people follow more than one person at a time)
collaborate on projects
meet other terrific people to network with
help each other through tough times

Be consistent.

By consistently producing content for your followers, you will make yourself better known. Actually, this goes along with a point above “Publish Content”.

By consistently producing content, you are giving Google and other search engines the ability share what you have with the world. The more content you have out there, the more ways people will find you.

Practice patience.

This will not happen over night. BUT, it can only take a few years.

Imagine quitting your job because you have enough money from your blog in just 2 years. Many people have done that and that is what you can do if you are patient and keep pushing forward.

How to Become an Influencer on Social Media

Social media influencers are people who use various social media platforms to express their views and opinions on certain products or brands that influence their captive audience as a result.

The concept of influencers is simple. They are ordinary people who are representatives of the general public. They give honest reviews, discuss products, and build a trusting relationship with their target audience.

Social media influencers have the power of affecting the purchase of particular products through reviewing them across different platforms.

Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pintrest, Snapchat, and many others. As they do so, they effectively use their knowledge, authority, leverage, authenticity, or power position in the industry to engage with their respective followers.

How to Become an Influencer on Instagram

When you purchase a new product, shirt, or smartphone, did you decide to buy it after seeing it on Amazon, or was your decision based on the good reviews made by influencers?

Most consumers today will likely buy if a real individual endorses a product.

Similarly, consumers ranked Instagram influencers to be the sixth most effective when it comes to influencing the purchases they make.

The lives and success of most Instagram influencers today may have been your inspiration to give it a try yourself.

Instagram influencers create content on Instagram and build communities across a specific topic or niche.

Since the platform is rich in visuals, you will also need dynamic content that is equally visual to have a better performance.

Here are the things you can do to become an Instagram influencer:

Choose a niche.
Get a business account on Instagram.
Write an effective bio.
Pay attention to your aesthetic.
Write captions that will reflect the personality and voice of your brand.
Add the appropriate hashtags.
Post and upload new content on a frequent basis.
Interact with your followers.
Reach out to brands.
Be an expert in Instagram marketing.

Instagram influencers and content creators often focus on photography, fashion, beauty, travel, lifestyle, fitness, food, or celebrities who share their personal lives on the platform.

Their followers can range from thousands to millions. Instagram content creators with over 100,000 followers are called micro-influencers.

Instagram influencers with attractive videos and photos gain a large number of followers, but those who have honest information and genuine photos are more appreciated and loved by their followers.

How to Become an Influencer on YouTube

YouTube influencers are people who build a significant following on YouTube, which is currently the world’s most popular video platform.

A YouTube influencer helps set trends and offers information for other people who want to use a specific service or buy a particular product.

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Use these steps to become a YouTube influencer:

Think of your goals and the things you wish to achieve.
Develop the content and goals of your channel.
Be consistent at all times.
Offer something new to your viewers every time.
Establish a strong social presence for your YouTube channel.

Some of the most famous influencers on YouTube are visual artists, including makeup artists, performing artists, or athletes. By coming up with YouTube videos, influencers can share their personal skills and knowledge in a way that is easily accessible.

10 Tips How To Become An Influencer

Find Your Niche and Beat That Drum Over and Over Again
Be Yourself and Always Be Genuine
Seek to Be the Guide NOT the Hero
Be Everywhere: Website, Books, Courses, Podcasts, Etc.
Utilize Social Media: Youtube, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn
Provide Helpful Content
Be Consistent
Collaborate with Other Influencers In and Out of Your Niche
Promote Yourself
Be Available to Your Fans

Let us dive deeper into the following useful tips on how to become a good influencer:

Find Your Niche and Beat That Drum Over and Over Again

If you want to become an effective influencer, the first thing you should do is find your niche where you’d like to be known.

Even though many influencers start with posting content related to their personal passion, what makes them stand out is that they often focus on a specific niche in the industry they are passionate about.

You cannot expect to be a jack-of-all-trades but a master-of-none if you want to become an effective influencer. You have to choose a niche that suits your image.

The simplest way to find your niche is to assess your weaknesses and strengths. Pick a niche that lets you showcase your innate skills and further shape those skills.

Identifying your niche helps you streamline your target audience and have your content tailored to suit their unique preferences.

Be Yourself and Always Be Genuine

Credible and effective influencers are those who speak with utmost authenticity.

When you use an authentic voice that speaks with a level of authority and sounds reliable, it can give you the assurance that your fans will look at you in a trustworthy and credible light.

This will ultimately help you expand your following, and at the same time, this can also help you gain sponsors.

Showing your true self and being genuine in everything you do and say can go a long way in maintaining a good following.

Seek to Be the Guide, NOT the Hero

If you don’t have something valuable to add to the conversation, there is no way for you to attract the attention of potential followers or reach the ears of influential people.

To become a good influencer, you have to be a guide that people will look for when they need help. You don’t have to be a hero who will save them from their predicaments or fight their battles for them.

Once people start seeing you as a guide, they will tell their own circles about you, and from there, everyone will soon be talking about you and what you bring to the table.

Be Everywhere: Website, Books, Courses, Podcasts, Etc.

This is probably one of the most important tips you could ever get from an influencer.

Try to be everywhere:

Post content on your website
Get into podcasts
Write books
Offer courses
Attend meet-ups
Go to where your audience is
Do anything you can to meet with the people you are trying to reach
Be everywhere.

There is a rather simple psychology behind this. When people see a brand everywhere, they will conceive that as a brand. This also applies to influencers. When an influencer is everywhere, people consider them as a brand.

Utilize Social Media: YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn

Once you have identified your niche, another important thing you should do is use social media to your advantage. You might want to choose the social media platforms you like and optimize or create your profiles there.

Many of today’s influencers are popular on just one or two social media platforms. So, it is recommended that you try focusing your efforts on just one or two channels.

After you have chosen your channels, the next step is to create a new profile on them or optimize the ones you already have.

One thing you can do to optimize your profile is use a business account because that will open up more options for you. Many platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram offer its users an option to switch to a business account in the profile settings.

You also have to make sure that your bio is engaging enough to form a good first impression. Also, don’t forget to add a cover photo and profile picture that is high-quality and clearly shows your face.

Provide Helpful Content

Content is still king, and it serves as the driving force behind social media activities of all sorts. Make sure that your content is compelling and crisp to generate more interactions. Ensure that your content is real and authentic and reflects the unique voice of your brand.

All videos and photos must be high-quality as well and properly fine-tuned before you upload them on your social media platforms.

For example, if you look at the photos of Instagram influencers, you will notice that they are of high standards. Your content should match up to levels set by the rest of the platform’s content creators.

The content you create should encourage engagement. Offer your audience something valuable in the form of unique knowledge or information.

Be Consistent

Publishing helpful and high-quality content consistently is among the easiest and most effective ways for you to retain the attention of your audience.

By being consistent with the content you deliver, you can invoke a sense of anticipation and eagerness among your followers.

In turn, this will boost audience engagement and increase your reach. It is highly recommended that you come up with a timeline for all of the content you want to publish in the coming months.

Also, you can create a monthly or weekly series for your audience to stay hooked at all times.

Collaborate with Other Influencers In and Out of Your Niche

After jumping into the influencer world, you will soon realize the importance of building a strong and solid relationship with fellow influencers in and out of your niche.

Collaborations among influencers can be rewarding once done right. There are three ways these collaborations can help you.

First, it will create a win-win situation for the parties involved. When you collaborate and create content together, you can then reach out to the other influencer’s audience, and in return, they can also reach out to yours. This will ensure improved levels of engagement.

Second, collaborations with other influencers can also help you establish your support network, letting you help in each other’s growth on social media.

Third, these partnerships are a great treat that audiences love. If the audience appreciates the two influencers’ skills separately, influencer collaborations will result in an excellent content piece.

Promote Yourself

You don’t need to brag here. Good quality content can easily defend itself.

What you need to do is guide your audience to it. Try sharing your content everywhere and anywhere it seems interesting.

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Share your content in places where it will look impressive to effectively promote yourself. For instance, you can use hashtags related to your industry and niche. This lets your audience find you and feel a connection to whatever it is you share and say.

Be Available to Your Fans

Once you have started to post content on your social media profiles, your posts will likely get comments and likes. To become a good influencer, you have to connect with and reach out to your followers.

You cannot just ignore their likes and comments.

It is always a good practice that you make yourself available to your fans by replying to their comments and answering any questions they ask you. A simple like on their comments is also enough to show that you appreciate them.

Let’s learn how, like Josh, you can be successfully unemployed and build a huge influence for yourself and your business.

Josh Elledge with Up My Influence and Savings Angel

Josh has been able to make over $6 million with his company, Savings Angel, and he spent less than $500 in paid advertising. He only spends about five percent of his time on that company.

When he launched the Savings Angel website, he had no money. He had filed for bankruptcy and lost two houses, one through a short sale and one through foreclosure. It happened, because he wasn’t making good financial decisions and he wasn’t successful in business.

Josh had failed in business six times, before his seventh business, Savings Angel, took off. He went from not being able to pay his heat bill to making six figures a month.

Necessity is the mother of invention.

He started reaching out to local radio stations, TV stations, newspapers, blogs, etc. He didn’t have money, so he asked if he could work for free to serve their audiences.

The more value he could bring, the more he could build up with that audience.

Audiences know exactly what you are doing. Josh spent 12 years studying consumer behavior. We have never had a time where they are as exhausted and cynical as they are now. You need to respect and understand the market. Hard sales don’t work like they used to.

Josh created Up My Influence about five years ago.

Josh started Savings Angel from scratch and grew it to a 7 Figure business

For a long time, Savings Angel was a membership-based website, which cost $4.00 or $5.00 a week. For that price, they would give the members all of the data and members would save half on their grocery bill.

All they needed to do was print coupons and bring it to the store for tremendous savings.

They launched this website prior to the market crash and prior to extreme couponing becoming a thing, so they were positioned pretty well.

There was an over fixation of extreme couponing and then there was a crash in 2008. That was when people lost interest. People don’t want to clip coupons anymore.

They had to make a difficult decision to stop the website membership. They went from $30,000 a month to $1,000 a month.

The reason a business fails has 99 percent to do with the psychology of the business owner.

There are four different ways we learn: learn knowledge, modeling knowledge, activity knowledge, and teaching knowledge.

How are you using your business, Up My Influence, to help other brands to get better?

Robert Stephens, founder of Geek Squad, said, “Advertising is the tax you pay for being unremarkable”. You can either buy attention or earn it.

You get people by your content, but you want to bring it to where your audience is. It isn’t selling — people will smell that a mile away.

The first thing is mindset. To go from being invisible to being seen and celebrated. The first big domino is belief.

The only way for you to truly grow your business in 2020 and beyond is by investing in your personal brand and yourself.

You need to be a leader and teacher and get out on stages. It is harder than ever before to throw a sales page in front of an audience.

Write for a fourth-grade education. Keep it simple. Most people get lost when you get too complicated.

Marketing Rebellion, by Mark Schaefer, is a good book about what Fortune 500 companies know about consumers today. Be authentic and give away what other people sell.

What are the steps to up my influence as a brand and business?

Manage your first impression. People will only give you about three to eight seconds of their time, and you need to earn it.

How are you meeting the people you do business with? If it is social media, your content is important, but your profile is where they make the judgement.

People are skilled at looking for cues.

It isn’t about being an influencer, it is about being a teacher who wants the best outcome for people.

Work with a great photographer. Spend a few hundred dollars to get a good picture. Put the images on every social media profile, especially LinkedIn. If you are B2B, you need to maximize LinkedIn.

Go to photofeeler.com, upload a photo, and it will be voted on by others. By the end of a few days, you will get a lot feedback.

Get your photos done every few years, and max out every, single social media profile.

Tell us anything else we should know to up our influence.

Once you get your profile and treat your authority seriously, and take ownership of your brand, serve on as many stages as you can.

When you are reaching out to journalists and influencers, serve them first. What’s in it for them?

Click here to find Josh’s YouTube video about newsjacking. This is exactly what works today when pitching the media.

Slow down to speed up.

Invest time in individual relationships and ask yourself what you can do for them. Keep giving value.

Serve people and network with other people.

The Advice Josh Would Give to His 13 Year Old Self

You will have some really bad moments where you are are on your knees, crying and feeling like a failure. That is all part of the journey. Have those emotions and know this is part of the becoming.

You will experience highs too.

Josh Gives Back By Helping and Employing Others

Right now, it is about building systems, hiring people, and getting it done.

He has over 20 employees now at Up My Influence, and he is doubling down every chance he gets.

Josh invests in coaches, talent, technology, etc., because he knows that is how to build a recession-proof business.

Five years into Up My Influence, he is now getting to the point where he has some weight off his shoulders.

The Tools Josh Recommends Us To Use?

Josh records himself as much as he can. He wants to share as much as he can with others. He spends 30 plus hours on Zoom.

How to Become an Influencer and Grow Your Audience With Media Placements