Influencer marketing is a mainstream marketing tactic today and brands leverage influencers today more than ever. Social media influencers don’t just achieve success by chance. It takes patience, dedication and a strong commitment to their brand. Here are some of the steps you need to take if you want to become a social media influencer today. 

Find your voice

It’s important to choose a niche you’re passionate about and will enjoy spending time on; otherwise, you won’t be able to stick with it. There is no one quite like you and you need to find your voice and stay true to your brand. The most important thing is to be authentic if you want to find an audience to connect specifically to you. 

Jessie Sims is a social media influencer who has made her mark by showcasing her fun personality. It helps that she used to be a gymnast and a model who knows how to use her body. 

She currently has 562.5k followers on Instagram and almost two million followers across all platforms. Follow Jessie Sims on social media and you will see videos of her out drinking, taking dares from her friends and pulling pranks on the unsuspecting public. Her antics have resonated with thousands of followers. 

Optimize your social media profiles

If you want to become a social media influencer, you need to create business accounts as this opens up more options. Your bio creates an important impression and should tell your story in an engaging way. It should also include your name, contact details, location and areas of expertise. Having a good quality profile pic is an important way to express your brand identity. 

Know your audience

You must know exactly who you’re targeting and do it well if you want to build up a loyal fan base. Most social platforms have built-in analytics tools to give you insights into demographics like age, gender, location etc. Twitter Analytics, for example, gives you these insights as well as a follower’s top interests. 

When you know your audience, you can ask the right questions and start conversations about mutual topics of interest. You can answer their questions and reply to their comments or “like” them to show your appreciation. These interactions all help to build those personal connections you need to be an influencer. 

Create and post relevant content

The most important requirement for being an influencer is that your followers listen to you and they are more likely to do so if you engage with them. 

Influencers usually keep their feed all about their topic of interest, whether this is music, food, travel, fashion or beauty. A food influencer might post photos of restaurant visits, recipes, and reviews of food brands. Some influencers will mix in content from their personal lives to become more relatable and strengthen the connection with followers. 

Whichever content strategy you use, you will need to make future incorporation of sponsored products seamless. This happens organically if you work with brands that suit your feed. 

Be regular and consistent

The algorithms of most social media platforms give precedence to accounts that post regularly. Instagram is the largest influencer marketing platform and it requires regular posting frequency for best visibility. On most platforms, you can post once or twice a week. Select days and times to post and post consistently. 

Once you have been posting consistently for a while and have a good following, you can approach brands interested in collaborations or they might even approach you. Remember that it will take some time and effort before you can expect to see results.