Social Media Millionaire. Sounds familiar Right? Do You ever want to earn with Social Media Influencing?
In today’s world, social media influencers are the new celebrities who can bring value to the brand. Not convinced, influencer marketing can lead to real business results?
A survey found that 34% of daily U.S. Instagram users bought something because a blogger or influencer recommended it.
The Internet is the middle man allowing every company to go to their customers. They can do it directly or through an influencer like you which is more profitable to them.
Your audience is waiting for you. With the right guidance, you can start making money and build your empire.
So let’s look at some steps and strategies that would help you to learn and earn with social media influencing.
Strategies/steps
1. Pick a niche
Remember in business “why” matters more than “what”.
To become a social media influencer you need to have either or all of the three
- A commitment to service
- A desire to provide value
- A love of teaching
A huge follower count is meaningless if those followers aren’t interested in your offer.
And a smaller follower count can be very powerful if it’s in a specific niche area. The latest development is the emergence of nano-influencers who have as few as 1,000 followers, but their word is gold to their dedicated fans.
These influencers can have very dedicated and engaged followers. Once you have narrowed down and selected your niche you can start your business.
As Gary Vaynerchuk says “No matter what kind of influencer you want to become, start by creating a Facebook Business page”.
2. Content strategy
Any success that you want to achieve will be predicated on the quality of content.Mediocre work and half work will bring you half results.
You need to create relevant content about your business and industry and promote only the products which align with the interest of your audience.
Do something that the world enjoys rather than something that will bring you likes and followers. You follow the advice of Warren Buffett to invest in stocks and not his advice to buy new shoes.
Similarly, find a reason for people to follow you and to buy your products.
3. Choose a channel
Today there are plenty of social media channels you can choose from.
Facebook, Instagram, Tiktok, Twitter, YouTube, Snapchat, and LinkedIn are a few of the famous ones.
You can start with one platform and slowly shift to others.
Instagram is for photos and short videos (reels), youtube is for long-form videos and LinkedIn is for professional-level content. Depending on the type of content, you can choose a platform.
4. Make strong connections
Your steps to achieve the goal should be as rewarding, productive, and enjoyable as possible.
Documenting to build a personal brand is a good tactic if you’re working at a job that you hate/planning to leave.
Build your brand and gain traction in your niche even before you need to make any money. Your brand will carry to your next opportunity when you leave the job.
Don’t neglect the power of connections. It can help you get a job or make a new company. Be around inspiring people that you can learn from.
5. Have a website/blog (optional)
The reason why you need to have a website is you’ll be the sole owner of your website. Your social media handles can be banned at any time and you’ll lose all your followers and content produced in an instant.
But the content on the website will always be there and people coming there will continue to come.
6. Stay authentic – endorse what you Believe can help your audience.
The key is trust.Your audience must trust and respect the product of the companies you partner with. Without the trust component, any results will be superficial. You’ll struggle to see a tangible business impact from your efforts.
Follow the basic principle – “Don’t sell something that you don’t wish to buy.”.
7. Engage with the audience
A good engagement rate means a loyal following, rather than an inflated follower count initiated by bots and fraud accounts.
Don’t stuff all your content with promotions. The audience won’t like it.
YouTube influencer Laura Reid recommends having one in every five or 10 posts sponsored.
Follow the 80-20 principle, where 80% is value and 20% is promotional. Tell stories and go as deep as you can before you widen them.
Create content every day. Meet 2-3 people every day who can get you awareness, distribution, and sales and somehow reach closer to your goals.
DM people on Instagram and Facebook for collaboration.
Don’t get comfortable just at one platform that you miss out on to develop skills on the others. Keep experimenting and have the willingness to risk discomfort.
Care about the impact more than the monetary things.
8. Reach out to people
DM and reach out to people directly offering something of value in return for their attention.
Reach out and make an offer then they can’t refuse and work on things that don’t make them regret their decision.
People should be willing to buy what you are selling. To gain initial traction, you have to reach out.
9. Collect mails
This is a similar concept of making a website.
But the email list will always be with you.
You can have a daily or weekly conversation with your followers through emails and stay connected.
Don’t forget to run polls and ask for feedback.
10. Automate posts and mails
You don’t have to go to all your social media handles and post your content.
There are tools and software which you can use to automate with just one click, it gets posted to all platforms.
You can also schedule your content weekly or monthly.
Your emails also can be automated.
However, staying connected to your followers is important. Don’t automate everything and treat your followers just like a number/bots.
11. Go deep and start widening
Gary Vee started making videos on Youtube called Wine Library and he increased his dad’s wine business from $2 million to $60 million.
He grew his influence and personal brand by creating valuable content and helping people.
Today he is being paid to write books and speak on national and international stages.He even built a $150 million media company because of his brand.
Don’t be limited to one platform or one topic. Think beyond your current success and constantly look for new ones.
Oprah wasn’t just a show host. Virat Kohli is not just a cricketer. A strong personal brand is your ticket to financial success and freedom.
Today, Gary Vee does more than just selling wine.
5 Social Media influencers who are earning millions today
- Brittany Xavier
Brittany started Thrifts and Threads, a fashion blog as a hobby in December 2013. She used to go out with her husband and kids, take pictures of themselves, and document it in the blog.
She started an Instagram account to drive traffic to her website and earn through affiliate links on her blogs. Once she gained 10k followers, brands started calling her asking if she could wear that outfit and tag them.
She started charging $100 per post, then $200 and started earning as much or more per day than she was at her 9-5 job. She quit her job and started posting weekly blogging tips.
Today she has more than 1.5 million followers, a manager who negotiates her fees and makes her work much easier. She travels a lot and uses the opportunity to produce travel content through which she has developed good relationships with hotel brands. (Once you go deep, you can start widening it)
Xavier says this for newcomers – “Even though social media is saturated, you can do it uniquely and have your style.
Brands are pouring money into influencer marketing because they are seeing more conversions compared to radio or TV ads. If you love what you do, making money becomes easy.”
- Kylie Jenner
The world’s best-known influencer is Kylie Jenner, who has 200 million followers on Instagram and regularly gets millions of likes on her branded posts.
At just 20 years old, she became the world’s self-made billionaire thanks to her makeup brand: Kylie Cosmetics.
Kylie Jenner found her target by amassing a faithful following and then gave them a product they were wanting to buy. She tapped into a market she understood intimately and continues to captivate their attention.
Kylie Jenner knew right from the start how to make her cosmetic line interesting:
She made it exclusive and generated a lot of buzz around it by using it on herself, explaining to her audience that her looks were due to her makeup secrets that she was about to share with the world. And the world bought it in less than a minute.
- Ranveer Allahabadia
Right after engineering, Ranveer started documenting his fitness journey through a youtube channel called “BeerBiceps”. He gained followers, started making money, and then started making videos on men’s style and fashion.
He started getting brand deals and promoted products that he liked through his channel.
Meanwhile, since he knew the process of making videos, he co-founded a media channel called “Monk Entertainment” to help other content creators.
He started making inspirational and motivational videos to discuss his journey amongst his followers and today in just 5 years, he runs a podcast where he has hosted India’s top celebrities like Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Shilpa Shetty Kundra, etc.
It all started with one thing and has reached to different things. The learning here is to just “start” and believe in yourself.
You can read here on why he says “One year on social media equals three-four years anywhere else”
- Lewis Howes
Lewis used to play Arena Football, but a career-ending injury shattered his identity.
He had no identity without sports, no means to make money and he was very uncertain about his future.
So he decided to reach out to highly accomplished people on LinkedIn and ask for professional help which gave him a new direction in life.
At 29, he found his passion and launched his show “The school of greatness” to share the inspiration that others gave to him. What started as one interview recorded on iPhone, now has over 1000 episodes and 100 million downloads.
Today he is regarded as an accomplished lifestyle entrepreneur, high-performance business coach, and keynote speaker.
- Pat Flynn
Pat Flynn after graduating from UC Berkeley got a job in a renowned architectural firm in the Bay area becoming the youngest captain there.
He had qualified LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) in which the passing percentage is only 30%. During this preparation, he prepared all the notes on a website so that it becomes easy for him to learn.
But after 3 months of joining the job, he was fired due to the financial depression of 2008. Unable to understand what to do, he organized all the notes with charts and figures and made it into an e-book for $19 on his website and within a month he made two and a half times more than his architectural income.
Soon, people started asking about how he has built his site and business. So he launched SmartPassiveIncome.com, a site and a youtube channel where he could document everything he has learned about starting an online business.
Today he earns millions with his smart passive income blog and podcast. You can watch his story here.
What’s stopping you?
- I have a full-time job
To create content, you can dedicate 1-2 hours per day. If that’s not possible you can work on weekends.
- I don’t have money
You need very less or no money to start an online business. All you have to do is have a camera if you have to click pictures and have a mic if you want to record videos.
That’s all you need to get started.
- I have Family & kids
Sometimes you need to make sacrifices. If you look at the above example of Brittany Xavier, she used to put her child to sleep and then prepare content.
So you have to be willing to take up hardships to achieve.
- I don’t have time
This is a very big excuse that most people give. But the reality is everyone has 24 hours.
You have the same time as that of Elon Musk or Barack Obama. How you prioritize is important.
You can dedicate a few hours of 168 hours that you have in a week by sacrificing a few TV and Netflix hours.
- My family is holding me back
There’s no other way than to convince your family of the scope of what you’re trying to achieve. If they don’t agree, you can still ask for time and then show them the results.
Well, it’s very obvious for any parents to not accept something that they are not sure of. But if you are showing them results and able to earn with social media influencing, They will hardly resist you. Just try it.
- Why would anyone follow me?
Most of them started with zero followers.
Well if you are someone who has just come to earn with social media influencing and not give values to the people. It’s better not to choose this.
The reason being You will quit very soon as you will have money in your head which is the byproduct of the values you provide.
- I don’t know where to start
You can either follow people from your industry or take up courses to learn from them. There’s no other way to start other than learning.
- Fear of failure
Fear of failing is good. That will motivate you to do better and better, Just think about how most people are able to make millions and earn with social media influencing.
But if you don’t start fearing failure, you have already failed.
Conclusion
Social Media influencing is the latest trend in digital marketing because they are now able to bring better results than paid advertisements.
What started as a hobby for many has become a big business, for influencers like PewDiePie, Ranveer Allahbadia often outran celebrities, politicians, and other prominent professions.
Everyone starts with no followers and nobody knowing who they are.
It’s the steps you take to build a following that ultimately determines how influential you are.
To earn with social media influencing is easy. Be optimistic, have patience, be persistent, and execute.
Let us know who are the most influential people who You think should be on these lists. Please comment it down.
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