How To Become an Influencer in this Economy (2024 Guide)

Stepping into the digital spotlight as an influencer can be a rewarding journey. It all starts with identifying your niche, understanding your audience, and creating a unique brand. While the process may sound simple, there’s a lot to consider and implement. Through this guide, we will help you understand how to become an influencer. From optimizing your online presence to developing a successful content strategy. 

We’ll also explore the potential of programs like Amazon’s Influencer Program. Ready to start your influencer career?

In this article

Understanding the Influencer Phenomenon

The influencer phenomenon has taken the digital world by storm, redefining the concept of celebrity and reshaping the marketing landscape. This trend is not just a passing fad, but a significant shift in the way people consume content and make purchasing decisions.

But what exactly are influencers? They are individuals who have built a substantial following on social media platforms and use their online popularity to influence the behavior of their followers, particularly in relation to purchasing decisions. They come in many forms, from mega-celebrities with millions of followers (macro influencers) to micro-influencers with smaller but highly engaged audiences.

The rise of influencers is inextricably linked to the rise of social media. Platforms such as Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube provide a stage for these digital personalities to showcase their lifestyle, skills, or expertise, attracting followers who share similar interests or aspire to a similar lifestyle.

In 2024, the influencer landscape is more diverse and dynamic than ever before. The creator economy is booming, with individuals turning their passions into careers and monetizing their content in a variety of ways, including brand partnerships, affiliate links, and sponsored posts. 

At the same time, influencer marketing is on the rise. Essentially, brands work with internet influencers to reach their target audiences in an authentic and engaging way to promote their products or services. 

Understanding the influencer phenomenon is critical for aspiring influencers and businesses alike. It provides insights into the mechanics of influence, the evolving trends in the influencer space, and the potential opportunities and challenges in this digital frontier.

Becoming an Influencer: 12 Steps

That said, becoming an influencer takes a lot of passion, dedication, and grit. Let’s take a closer look at the steps that will help you position yourself, build a community, and influence others.

Identify your Niche in Social Media

Identifying your niche is paramount to carving out your unique space in the social media landscape. Your niche should reflect your passion and expertise and form the core of your content creation and personal brand. It will help you stand out from the crowd and attract a targeted audience with similar interests. 

To determine your niche, we highly recommend that you consider areas in which you have a strong knowledge base or unwavering interest. This can range from fashion, fitness, and travel to more specific niches like vegan cooking or sustainable living.

But before you choose one, it’s strategic to do a competitive analysis. Look at what potential competing influencers are doing in your niche. Take note of the content they create, the engagement they receive, and how they communicate with their audience. This will give you valuable insights and can help you understand what types of content resonate better with your audience. But remember, your niche should be a reflection of you, not a copy of someone else.

Get to Know Your Potential Audience

Taking the time to understand who your potential followers are will guide your content creation, communication style, and overall influencer strategy. Partnering with a social media agency can help streamline this process and provide in-depth audience insights. To get to know them, we recommend that you

1. Clearly define the demographics of your audience, such as age, gender, location, and economic status. You can use social media analytics tools to gather these insights.
2. Identify their interests, values, and lifestyle preferences.

Knowing these details will help you tailor your content to better resonate with them. Remember, your goal is to create authentic connections with your followers. Therefore, understanding their motivations, needs, and online habits is critical to fostering meaningful engagement.

• If you’re looking to break into the beauty influencer space, you might find that your audience is primarily female, between the ages of 18 and 34, with a strong interest in sustainable and cruelty-free products.
• Similarly, a gaming influencer might find that their audience is diverse in age and gender, but share a common passion for video games, especially within a niche market like retro gaming or e-sports.

Be sure to conduct regular audience analytics to keep up with any changes or trends within your follower base. Remember, as an influencer, you’re not just creating content for the sake of it; you want to build a community of engaged and loyal people who share your passions.

Choose Your Social Media Platforms

The ideal platform depends on your niche, content style, and audience. Because each platform has its own unique features and audience preferences, it makes sense to focus on a few channels where you can consistently deliver high-quality content and effectively engage with your audience. Remember, it’s better to be highly effective on a few platforms than to spread yourself too thin across many.

With that in mind, it’s worth knowing:

• Instagram is great for visually appealing content.
• YouTube is for in-depth videos.
• TikTok is great for short, engaging clips.
• Facebook is useful for reaching an older demographic.
• LinkedIn works well for professional and business-oriented content.
• Pinterest is great for sharing ideas and inspiration in areas like fashion, decorating or recipes.

Focus on understanding how users behave on different platforms. It’s important to recognize that each platform has its own unique user base and usage patterns. For example, Instagram users may prefer visual content, while Twitter users may lean toward quick, bite-sized updates. Understanding these differences can help you tailor your content and engagement tactics accordingly.

To do this, we highly recommend diving into the analytics offered by each platform to gain insights into your audience’s behavior. This includes data on when they’re most active, the types of content they engage with, and how they interact with you and other users.

For example, you might find that:

• Your Instagram followers are most active in the evening, engage more with video content, and frequently use the direct message feature to reach out to you.
• Your Twitter followers, on the other hand, may be most active during work breaks, prefer text-based updates, and often engage through retweets and replies.

Create Your Influencer Brand 

Creating your influencer brand follows a similar process to creating a personal brand. You need to clearly define your personality, your values, and what you’re passionate about. At the same time, you need to decide on:

• The topic on which you want to be considered a thought leader.
• The goals you want to achieve.
• The impact you want to have on the people who follow you.
• The aesthetic of your brand.

Take the time to really think about each point and decision. Everything from the colors you choose to your brand voice must work together to reinforce your message.

Defining Your Unique Value Proposition

Your Unique Value Proposition (UVP) is what sets you apart from other influencers. It’s the unique promise or benefit you offer your audience and potential brand partners. Creating a compelling UVP means understanding your strengths, your audience’s needs, and the unique value you bring to the table.

When defining your UVP, consider the following points

1. Identify your strengths: What are you best at? What unique skills or experiences do you bring to your niche?
2. Understand your audience: What are their needs, interests, and challenges? How can you add value to them?
3. Differentiate yourself: What makes you different from other influencers in your niche? Why should brands choose to work with you?
4. Make it clear and concise: Your UVP should be a concise message that clearly communicates your unique value and benefits.

Remember, your UVP is not set in stone. It can evolve as you grow and learn more about your audience and niche.

Define Your Content Strategy

Working with a content strategy increases your chances of success. In a nutshell, it helps you define the type of content and quality you aim for every time you share something on a social network. And it helps you achieve a blend of creativity, authenticity, and understanding of your audience’s preferences. This blend will help you reflect your unique voice, create a deep connection with your followers, and entice people to value your experiences and opinions.

This content strategy should also determine the types of posts you’ll work with, balancing personal and informative content pieces. Remember, just because you’re on your way to becoming an influencer doesn’t mean you can’t rely on third-party content. Just credit the source and add your personal thoughts or comments. 

Launch Your Website

In addition to having a presence on social networks, you should consider creating your own website. On the one hand, and thanks to SEO efforts, it will help you position yourself on Google. On the other hand, users can engage directly with your brand and buy the products you promote. Later in this article, we will explain how to make money through Amazon’s affiliate program.

Build a Consistent Online Persona

The key to building an online persona is consistency across all of your online platforms. This includes your communication style, the values you espouse, and how you interact with your followers.

You can achieve this by:

• Using similar visual themes across your platforms, such as color schemes, filters, or fonts, to create a recognizable aesthetic.
• Maintaining a consistent posting schedule. Your followers should be able to anticipate when they can expect new content from you.
• Maintain a similar tone and voice in all of your posts and responses to comments. This helps create a more authentic and relatable persona.

Your online persona is a reflection of your brand and shapes how your audience perceives you. It should be a balance between your authentic self and what resonates with your audience.

Distribute Your Content

To maintain the regularity and uniqueness of your posts, developing a content calendar is highly beneficial. This tool can help you plan your posts ahead of time, ensuring a consistent posting schedule that keeps your audience engaged.

Meanwhile, maintaining uniqueness in your posts requires constant innovation and experimentation. Try different content formats, mix trending topics with your core topics, and don’t be afraid to share your unique perspectives or experiences.

Remember that regularity builds familiarity and audience expectation, while uniqueness sparks interest and engagement. Balancing these two elements can greatly enhance your content strategy as an influencer.

Tips for Scheduling Posts on Instagram

When scheduling Instagram posts, strategic timing is key. Aim for times when your audience is most active to maximize reach and engagement. Study your platform’s analytics to identify times of peak activity. Use scheduling tools like Hootsuite, Later, or Sprinklr to automate your posts. These tools allow you to schedule posts in batches, freeing up time to create content and interact with followers. Additionally, consider factors such as

• Content type: Some types of content may perform better at certain times. For example, motivational posts may perform better early in the day.
• Time zones: If your audience is spread across multiple time zones, choose a time that works for the majority.
• Consistency: Maintaining a regular posting schedule helps condition your audience to anticipate your content.

Engage with Your Audience 

Becoming an influencer isn’t just about gaining followers; it’s about cultivating a community that interacts, shares, and advocates for your content. Truly engaged followers are more likely to trust your recommendations, resulting in higher conversion rates.

Engagement can be fostered in several ways:

• Authenticity: Authentic interactions and content resonate with your followers. Being true to yourself and your brand can build trust and loyalty.
• Consistent conversation: Regular dialogue with your audience can keep them engaged. Respond to comments, ask for opinions, and create content that encourages interaction.
• Varied content formats: Mix up your content styles to keep your audience interested. Use a combination of posts, stories, videos, and interactive features such as polls or quizzes.
• Value-added content: Provide content that is informative, entertaining, or inspirational. This will make your audience feel like they are getting something out of following you.

Remember, high audience engagement can have a significant impact on your success as an influencer. It can lead to stronger relationships with your audience, better partnerships with brands, and ultimately more sales.

Create a Media Kit

Your media kit should function as a version of your portfolio. It should be filled with information about your work, your accomplishments, your followers, and more. It should also be very specific about why brands should work with you.

Be sure to include:

• Your picture.
• A short bio.
• Your social media profiles and engagement levels.
• Demographics of your audience.
• Website URL.
• Details of past collaborations and experience.

Track Your Progress

A critical step to your success is to regularly monitor and track your progress. This will help you make informed decisions about content, format and frequency, as well as demonstrate metrics to any brand considering working with you.

Be sure to track demographics, reach and engagement.

The Role of Networking in the Influencer Career Path

In addition to working on your content and engagement, there are other strategies that can help you leverage your influence and make a living. Let’s take a look at the Amazon Influencer Program and the Amazon Affiliate Program.

A Look at the Amazon Influencer Program

The Amazon Influencer Program is a unique opportunity for you to monetize your online presence. This program allows you to earn commissions by endorsing products available on Amazon. You can sign up for this program using your existing social media accounts, such as YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, or TikTok.

Amazon will review your account based on follower count and engagement rate to determine eligibility. Once approved, you can create your own storefront on Amazon to provide a curated shopping experience for your followers. This will include your recommended products, making it easier for your followers to purchase the products you endorse as an influencer.

By sharing your personalized Amazon storefront or product recommendations, you can earn commissions for each purchase made through your links.

How to Create an Amazon Storefront as an Internet Influencer?

Creating an Amazon storefront as an influencer is a simple process. 

1. Log in to your Amazon Influencer account.
2. Navigate to the “Storefronts” section and select the “Edit Storefront” option. This will allow you to set up the basic framework of your store.
3. You’ll be prompted to give your store a unique name and add a profile picture. The name should ideally represent your personal brand, as it will be the first thing viewers see when they visit your storefront.
4. The profile picture can be a logo or a professional image that encapsulates your brand.
5. Start curating your storefront by adding Amazon products that align with your brand and resonate with your followers.
6. Consider creating different categories or lists to organize products and make the shopping experience more seamless for your followers.

Remember, the Amazon mobile app also provides a feature-rich interface for updating and managing your storefront. You can tap the person icon at the bottom of the app screen, scroll to the “Your Account” section, and tap “Your Storefront. Selecting ‘Edit My Storefront’ allows you to update your page anytime, anywhere.

Finally, remember to promote your Amazon Storefront on your social media platforms to increase traffic and potential earnings.

Earning Commissions through Amazon Affiliates Program

The Amazon Associates Program offers you the opportunity to earn commissions by referring your followers to Amazon’s wide variety of products. As an influencer, you must use the specific product links assigned to you when promoting items.

To create these product links, go to the Product Links tab in your Amazon Associates Central dashboard. Assign an ASID (Amazon Standard Identification Number) to each item and click the Go button to generate your unique affiliate link.

Your commission structure is based on the type of product and the volume of referrals you drive to Amazon. It’s worth noting that commission rates have fluctuated over the years, and it’s important to stay abreast of these changes to ensure you maximize your earning potential.

Remember to track your earnings and analyze your performance regularly using the reporting features in the Amazon Associates Central dashboard. This will help you understand which strategies are working and where you need to adjust your approach.

How Much Do Influencers Get Paid?

According to a study we conducted on the cost of influencer marketing, your earnings mainly depend on your popularity, the platform you’re working on, the number of posts a brand requests, and the value you bring to them. 

On average, Instagram influencers can earn around $10 per 1,000 followers. So a single post can generate anywhere from $500 to $5,000. However, there are those who prefer to charge per engagement:

Becoming an influencer can be a great opportunity for you to make a lot of money. But remember, to be successful, you need to find your niche, know your audience, create a sense of community, and be consistent.

Conclusion

Long gone are the days when kids wanted to be cops, engineers, or doctors. Today, a large portion of them have the goal of becoming an influencer. We all need to be part of this idea and help them become the best influencers out there.

This guide is a starting point. It will help you understand the important things that need to happen before you start this journey. For example, finding your niche, getting to know your target audience, choosing the social networks to work on, creating your unique value proposition, and making authenticity your number one rule.

Now it’s time to decide what kind of influencer you want to be and make the most of it. Done right, this can be a very lucrative career.