On the road to becoming an influencer, there are several steps you must take to scale up your social media presence.
First and foremost, it’s important to select your niche.
Image from @maddibazzocco on unsplash
HOW TO FIND YOUR NICHE
To find your niche, it may be helpful to research other accounts that are already successful on apps like Instagram and Tik Tok.
This is a little easier on Instagram because you have the ability to bookmark posts and create collections. One of the best and easiest ways to research other accounts is by creating a collection of posts that you feel might be your “vibe”. Whenever you find a post that resonates or speaks to you in some way, save it! Keep building this collection over time and look back on it every once in a while and try to see any themes or general trends.
Discover each account’s aesthetic, the style of their voice, and what kind of content they are producing. Put some thought into what you like and dislike about their account.
Once you know what a successful account looks like, it will be easier to set yours apart and make it unique.
DON’T BE A COPYCAT
Resist the urge to replicate what other brands are doing and see how your voice can be different.
If you find most fitness influencers are creating workouts for their followers, do something different in the fitness world – maybe you REVIEW fitness workouts instead of creating them! It can be really easy to compare yourself to other people on social media. And sometimes your unique way of doing things can feel a little out of place. But that unique way of doing things is exactly what will make your account special!
Remember, part of establishing your niche is trying unique things that other creators aren’t doing!
Once you’ve established your unique voice, it’s important to remain authentic. In fact, Forbes Magazine cites that the most common thing followers look for in an influencer is authenticity.
People want to trust the influencers they’re following; if an influencer is selling skincare, they want to trust and know for certain that those recommended products are high quality and are not going to lead to a raging breakout.
Since you’ve used your passion as motivation to create your content, it should be easy to be your genuine, true, authentic self!
SO HOW DO YOU STAY AUTHENTIC?
Continually ask yourself: would I buy this product? Is this content I would want to see?
And let your audience be your guide. Here’s a great exercise:
A lot of times, those are the posts where your personality shined through the most! Go back and look at some of your top-performing posts. Examine them and try to figure out what it was about that post that people were drawn to. Was there anything you did differently when you created those posts? Is there a common subject between all your top-performing posts?
You could probably pick apart posts with questions forever, but don’t go overboard and stress yourself out! Always remember that finding your niche is a process. Not a one-and-done thing.
Constant self-reflection will help you be strategic down the road and will help you stay up with the ever-changing world of social media. By fine-tuning your niche and being authentic, you can easily create your own personal brand!
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