Todd Nesnick
Pick something you love and know
If you’re wanting to exceed in being an influencer, it helps if you know and love your content.
Your passion and interest will shine through and it will be easier to work with a subject you adore and are an expert in, rather than one you need to conduct cumbersome research with.
This may result in you resenting the material and growing fatigued with the content.
Naturally, you’ll still need to research to ensure your data is up to date and relevant, so you can stay updated with fresh information to keep your audience engaged.
Pick your target audience
It’s important to understand who your target audience is.
This may be a certain age group, a particular socio-economic category or a very intimate bracket of people based on interests or beliefs.
When you’ve done this, ensure your content and style matches and sparks an interest with the target group. Audiences stay longer if they feel connected to an influencer.
Whilst your channel and posts might not be for everyone, those that share the appeal in what you’re promoting are likely to stay and share your posts.
To gain a deeper knowledge of your target group, you might decide to analyze your followers to gain awareness of their demographics.
A lot of social media platforms have their own analytics tools, which can give you insights into your audience, such as location and age range.
Speaking of audience, be nice to them
People love recognition.
Respond to comments, even if it’s just a like.
Use material which encourages your followers to engage with your page and each other.
Ask questions that encourage discussion and stay updated with responses.
Keep track of which posts your members respond well to and use more of them without becoming too repetitive and predictive.
Be sure to block and spammers or hate material.
It might be tempting to get into a debate or slanging match with trolls who attempt to get a rise out of you, but if you want to keep a calm vibe on platforms, a simple blocking is usually suffice.
Pick your social media platforms.
The majority of social media influencers utilize one or two platforms.
This also makes it easier and more sustainable to create and manage your profiles and content.
There are several options to profiles on social media.
Facebook, Twitter and Instagram have the option to change over to a business account in their settings, which opens up more options for you.
Choose pour profile picture and cover photo with care. This is what your audience and potential followers will seek out and it is your calling card and first line of contact with your audience.
Be sure to pick a profile picture that is clear and of good quality.
Besides your cover and profile pictures, the other initial point of contact is your bio.
This should contain relevant information such as name and contact details and what your story is.
Ensure this part is engaging without having to much content as to over whelm or bore your potential audience and followers.
Have a plan for what material you’re going to post
Be regular and consistent with your posts.
Have a mixture of videos, pictures and blogs.
There are scheduling options on some social media platforms. This means you can create and plan your posts ahead of time without having to panic each day to ensure there’s new material available for your followers.
The more you liaise with your followers, the more influenced they become by you and the faster your reputation grows and with that, more potential followers.
Be cautious about sharing your personal life.
It’s important to remember that the majority of people on your page are strangers and you are unlikely to recognize them if you pass them on the street, but they may be able to easily recognize you.
Not every follower may have the most stable of minds and it can be easy for them to develop a sense of companionship and over familiarity with you.
It’s vital to keep yourself and your family safe, especially if you have children.
If you feel drawn to use a more personal approach with your audience and share more sacred details of your private life, use your discernment and be safe.
Use up to date tools, such as hashtags
A hashtag (#) is a phrase or word which starts with the # symbol and is used on social media platforms in order to distinguish certain topics.
It can be added at the end, middle or start of your post and lets your content be recorded and listed by which ever social media outlet you are using.
When people click on a hashtag, all phrases and words link to that hashtag come up.
This means that people who are not your followers have the ability to locate you and your pages through the hashtags.
Utilize outside services to help boost your social media presence
It can be a full-time job in itself building and maintaining a social media presence.
There are company’s out there who can assist you with developing a stronger presence on these platforms and directing more traffic to your site.
Think PR Sydney and beyond!
Trained professionals can utilize SEO content and power words to propel clients to your pages.
SEO is using words which are likely to come up on search engines and link those words to your page. Meaning your pages and content come up on search engines.
Everyone uses Google or other methods to search for their queries and to come up on searches is potentially phenomenal.
Be respectful to the general public
There are influencers who will promote the services they use and the venues they attend.
Be polite and always pay for a service or product.
Support all businesses as you would like to be supported.
Lifting each other up and being respectful to others is how you will gain a good reputation and have others promote you as well.
Author: Therese Vickers.