So, you want to become an influencer? That is great news! Today, I’m sharing my influencer survival guide to help you get started.
Before we jump into the influencer survival guide – let’s dispel some myths:
- The industry is NOT over saturated. There is room for everyone to grow! To do so, you’ll need to find what makes you YOU! Don’t worry, we’ll get into this a bit more later.
- You don’t need 10K or any magic number to start working with brands. I often hear creators worrying “Oh I don’t have enough followers to get brand collaborations” or “I’ll never get paid for my work.” Well, no. Not with that attitude! Many content creator pals I have who are just starting out have worked with international, well-known brands with less than 3k followers. So, don’t psych yourself out!
Want to know more about how I got my start as a content creator? You can read more about my journey here. For now, let’s jump back to 2017 when I first started – remember, the industry has changed a lot since then. In 2017, I had an income of $0. Flash forward to 2020 and I made 5 figures as a content creator! In the year of 2021, just January through April, I have contracted over $28,000 in brand deals! You can DO THIS TOO! And, I’m here to help you.
So, what’s stopping you? Let’s jump in! Here are my influencer survival guide and tips for getting started as a content creator:
Decide what social platforms you’d like to be active on
Easy first step! Figure out what platform you’d like to start with. For me, it was the blog as I was too embarrassed at the time to do the insta-blogger thing. Once I got more comfortable with blogging, I created my Instagram account in July of 2017. Keep in mind, I was MORTIFIED about setting up this account. I think that is something that is not talked about enough. Later on in my journey, I realized I was just embarrassed about the possibility of “failing” and my friends and family seeing it. Here’s the thing: if your friends and family love you, they will SUPPORT you. End of story. So, don’t let something as silly as fear of creating your account scare you. JUST DO IT!
Also, don’t worry too much about picking the perfect username at first. You can always change it later, but keep in mind you will have to update links associated with influencer platforms, your email signature, and do a bit of re-branding if you are a little further into your journey when you do make the update.
Clearly define who you are & what you do
Establish your niche and content style. After all, it will be difficult to pitch brands and gain a following if you’re not clear with your mission or goals as a content creator.
When I first started, I tried to mimic content I was seeing on Instagram from popular creators in the fashion and lifestyle industry. But, it just wasn’t me! And it certainly wasn’t unique. Why would someone choose to follow me over anyone else when our content was the same?
It wasn’t until I got clear with my niche and brand mission that I started gaining followers. I consider my niche to be Florida lifestyle and colorful content with educational resources for new bloggers and content creators. In this space, I still get to share fashion and my favorite outfits, just through a different lens!
Finding your niche can really help to drive content strategy and style. You can’t be all things for all people. And that is okay! Think about what makes you or your content unique. Maybe you’re a food blogger specializing in kid-friendly recipes. Maybe you’re a hairstylist focusing on extensions and balayage. Are you a travel blogger discussing luxurious trips on a budget? A friend of mine applying to PA school told me she follows a blogger who focuses primarily on tips for applying to PA field and success in the medical field. The point is, find what makes you unique and RUN WITH IT!
Find your target audience
When writing captions and sharing content, think about who are you speaking to. Consider your audience – sometimes, I even visualize a person in my head when writing. I know that my ideal audience is based in the United States (Florida, Georgia, major cities in California, New York, and Texas). Diving into analytics lets me know that most of my audience is between the ages of 18-29. And, of course, 88% of my audience is female, so consider that when creating content and accepting brand partnerships. BTW – Instagram Insights, Social Blade and Fohr.Co are great tools to help you find these analytics.
For example, for the sake of the exercise, let’s visualize an individual who could be in my audience. Let’s go with this – Hannah, age 25, interested in colorful content, style, beach lifestyle content, and tips for growing her own audience on Instagram. She is a zillenial – caught between millenial and Gen-Z so she can resonate with both generations on different topics (yes, the skinny jeans and side parts of it all 🙄). She is based in Florida, but loves to explore her own city and travel to new places, domestically and internationally. Hannah may or may not be a dog mom, but she loves animals.
Dang, I think Hannah and I would be friends (haha). But, that is truly the point. Your audience SHOULD in some way be a reflection of you if you are using your own personal brand. However, if you are a web designer trying to market your website design, your ideal target audience would likely be those who are inexperienced in web design who are seeking help. Explore how different target audiences can work for your brand and write your posts like you are speaking directly with your “Hannah.”
You can always refer back to this exercise and influencer survival guide no matter where you’re at in your journey!
Create a consistent posting schedule
Once you have your niche, decide when, where, and how often you should post. For the social media platforms you use, come up with a content strategy that works for you! In previous years, I had no specific content strategy. I wasn’t considering what time to post. I never thought about the fact that my audience might like to see consistent posts from me on my platform. This year, I really narrowed down my posting schedule and strategy.
Find something that works for you and stick with it! And no, you don’t have to post every day. That is a common misconception. Don’t put too much pressure on yourself. If you can share 3 awesome pieces of content Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, that is great! I find that people often get over-ambitious with posting goals and their content suffers as a result. Figure out a schedule that you can stick with!
Diversify your platforms
Ever heard the phrase “don’t put all your eggs in one basket?” Well, this mantra totally applies when it comes to content creation. Diversifying your content platforms shows brands that you are serious about content creation. If you are actively using Instagram, consider incorporating another social media platform into your strategy.
Pinterest can be an easy addition that can drive additional traffic to your pages. I have an entire blog post dedicated to how Pinterest can help you grow your audience – check it out here!
TikTok can be another good one as you can repurpose Reels content on there. Love filming vlog-style reels or IGTVs? YouTube might be a great addition for you! The point is, find another form of social media that you enjoy and try diversifying your strategy.
As of now, I use Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest, Clubhouse (@helloemilyerin), LikeToKnow.It, and my blog for content creation. I’m always keeping up with new platforms as they appear and considering what value they can bring to my business.
Engage With Your Community
One of my biggest tips of this influencer survival guide is to engage with your community! At the end of 2019, I likely couldn’t name 5 of my followers. Now, I’ve made a personal connection with SO MANY OF YOU! It is really important to me to make time to get to know my audience. Getting to know YOU also helped me to understand my niche and the type of content that performs well. Need help getting started on authentically engaging with your audience? Check out 4 of my strategies here!
Since I realized many of my followers were also in the content creation and blogging space, I developed my #TipThursday series just for them! In this series, I share tips and information I know will be relevant to those interested in content creation and blogging.
I prioritize getting to know my audience because many of you take time out of your day to engage with my posts. And, I know we were told “don’t talk to strangers” back when we were kids, but I’ve met SO MANY AMAZING PEOPLE through the online blogging and Instagram community. People I genuinely consider to be my friends, even though I haven’t met them in real life. How cool is that!?
Brands also love to see an engaged, authentic audience when looking for influencers to partner with for branded campaigns. Trust me, they can sniff out sneaky tactics like follow/unfollow, tons of ghost followers, or purchased followers. You will regret it if you take any of these routes as brands will be less inclined to work with you.
I talk more about how to build an authentic and engaged audience in this blog post – highly recommend checking this one out in addition to today’s influencer survival guide.
Create a Media Kit
Media kits can be a great tool for sharing more about your personal brand and your work with a brand. They can help you introduce yourself, your personal brand, demographics, audience, packages you offer, key insights, and past brands you’ve collaborated with. Your media kit should be an extension of your personal brand and what you’re already doing on social media or your blog. Putting together your media kit? I have a whole post with tips for what to include in your media kit!
Give pitching a try
Once you have all the above details figured out, give pitching to brands a try! I started out SUPER SMALL, pitching to small businesses and boutiques via Instagram DM that had a similar or less following to mine. Keep in mind, this was back in 2017, so many larger brands hadn’t realized the value of the micro or nano influencer at that time. Give some of these smaller guys a try on a product-trade basis first. Once you feel more comfortable with your pitch, try some of your favorite brands! Worst case, you won’t hear back or they’ll tell you they can’t partner as of now, but you can always pitch them again in the future. I share all my pitching secrets in this post, including how to find accurate email addresses to reach out to and templates you can use to pitch yourself.
Sign Up for Influencer Platforms
Influencer platforms can be a great way to get your feet wet when starting out as a content creator. Applying for these platforms gives you direct access to brands and the campaigns they have available. Once you’re in, you’ll be able to apply or pitch yourself to brand campaigns. I’ve rounded up my favorite influencer platforms in this post, but here are a few I’ve used in the past:
Two of the platforms I started out with were Statusphere and Obviously. With both of these platforms, you can apply for product-trade collaborations. I started with product-trade only collaborations at first while I was still building up my “branded resumé” if you will.
Another platform I didn’t hear about until later in my career is Octoly. I would highly recommend this one to any influencers just starting out as well, as it is mostly product-based. Nowadays, some of my favorite influencer collaboration platforms are ACTIVATE and AspireIQ. With both of these, I regularly apply for paid collaborations, where I can share my rates and brands can bid if they are interested.
Another platform I didn’t hear about until later in my career is Octoly. I would highly recommend this one to any influencers just starting out as well, as it is mostly product-based. Nowadays, some of my favorite influencer collaboration platforms are ACTIVATE and AspireIQ. With both of these, I regularly apply for paid collaborations, where I can share my rates and brands can bid if they are interested.
Get started!
Ok, so let’s do it! I hope this influencer survival guide will arm you with the info you need to get started as a content creator. Let me know if you have any tips for fellow creators in the comments below!
Are you a new blogger or content creator looking for more resources? Check out these recent posts:
- What Rates to Charge as a Content Creator in 2021
- How to Choose the Best Platform for Blogging
- How to Provide Quality Content to a Brand
- My 2021 Content Calendar
- 9 Blogging Essentials You Need
- How to Maintain Relationships with Brands
- Pitching to PR Contacts (+ How To Find Them)
- Boost Your Instagram Story Engagement
- How to Get Noticed By Brands for Collaborations
- Pitching to Brands as an Influencer (+ real email templates that I actually sent!)
- The Tea on Instagram Giveaways
- Influencer Marketing Platforms to Help You Make Money
