You most probably have at least one social media account logged in your phone. These applications have been your, or even, OUR new world ever since the sudden growth over the last decade. Switching over the apps consecutively while watching the influencers doing their things is our habit now. You feel their lives are extraordinary you wish you were there, or even better, having the fame they are having right now.
People always love fame. The world is getting easier with the technologies, and people seek for easier fame, by being a social media star or in short, an influencer.
So, what are the criteria of an influencer? What are the qualifications you need to meet to make you worthy as an influencer?
1. Influence in a Niche
“Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life”.
Yeah, yeah, this quote is SO mainstream. But it has a point. To be an influencer equals to be in a permanent job. To be honest, it’s quite right to claim it as a way of living. You don’t want to spend your life doing tiring and boring things, right?
Try to find the best-fitting interest for you, the field you are passionate and willing to expertise in. The efforts should be worth it by the love and fans you will gain in the future.
2. Number of Followers
Another criterion is the number of the followers. There are several types of followers based on followers, but here are the top two examples:
- Macro Influencer: Influencer with over a million followers. Oftentimes, they are celebrities and well-known people.
- Micro Influencer: Smaller number of followers, may be only hundreds. Most of the micro influencers are people from zero to hero, gaining audiences by the niche they post.
Remember, NEVER buy fake followers. Paid followers harm your growth as an influencer as these ‘followers’ won’t make as much engagements as real fans. In fact, the number of followers is not the most important aspect. The term “less is more” applies here, as long as they are the real fans of yours (real fans means higher engagement metric and that’s a flex for your career).
3. Reach and Size of your Audience
The reach maybe an important criterion, but it’s not. Here’s the deal: influencers with smaller audience is possible to have bigger influence and that’s a real thing. A blogger with 2,000 followers may be more valuable than the one with 100,000, if the 2,000 people are more likely to engage and be influenced by the blogger. Whoop whoop!
4. Good Engagement Rate
As mentioned before, this is the real flex of being an influencer. Higher engagement rate with audiences means you are a real-loved influencer. Engagement rate means how the followers react to their postings−comments, like, share, or subscribes−and is measured in percentage over longer period.
5. Consistent Engagement with the Audience
Check the feedbacks! To maintain good engagement rate, one must have consistent engagement with the audience. A good influencer must be real, accessible, and approachable. Connect with the followers and maintain a good relationship with them. Put some effort! Reply to their messages, be it comments, or private messages. They will feel appreciated and in turn, more love for you! Another way to engage the audience is to actively ask questions or start a conversation. These will build a good, friendly image of you and may help you know what to do next. Sometimes, our brain can’t be squeezed for fresh juice, right?
6. Regular and Active Posting Schedule
A proper posting schedule and frequency is vital for an influencer. It’s to keep the audiences from leaving. Believe it or not, most social media platforms use algorithms who prefer active accounts to be shown on top. Studies revealed that increased posting frequency boosts engagement rates. But remember, always check for the feedback and post what people love so that you won’t lose them!
7. Quality of Content
This criterion is closely related with the previous criteria. An influencer must pay special attention to the quality of content, styles and values. Be authentic, honest, and the top-notch. As the contents are in form of audio and visual, use better equipment to execute your shooting to produce high quality presentation for your contents.
8. Discover and Connect with othe Influencers
Know, befriend, and collab with other influencers. It promotes you to their audience and vice versa, meaning a win-win solution. Might increase the chance for the brand the other influencer’s currently promoting to also reach to you to make a marketing collaboration. Besides, new friends won’t hurt! You might be referred to their other influencer friends and that’s cool.
9. Personality
Professionalism and attentiveness are equally the top prerequisites criteria to have as an influencer. One must be able to be cooperative and easy to work with for a collaborative partnership with brands or companies. The personality of an influencer also determines how they are perceived by their followers. Build a name for yourself and network with brands or company in your niche, this might also lead to future collaborations.
Becoming an influencer is not easy as it seemed, and it isn’t something that’s going to happen overnight. To reach the zen of becoming an influencer, one needs to do hard work, consistent effort, and be persistent. Remember, great things come to those who work hard!
