So what’s the fuss with social media influencers these days?

Everywhere you turn, there’s someone trying to convince you that their life story is a good enough reason to buy this random product.

You shake your head, thinking that there’s no way people make money like this.

Well, it’s true. Anyone can become an influencer.

You can spend the whole day posting videos for your audience and get paid for it.

If you’re smart about it, you can live purely off of the income you make online.

People used to stop their children from sitting inside in front of their computers the entire day. Now, people are raising their kids to be as computer-literate as possible. The biggest movement of money is happening online. It’s time to jump on board before the train speeds past you.

Keep reading to see if you’ve got what it takes to become a social media influencer.

What Really Is A Social Media Influencer?

A social media influencer boils down to a person’s ability to convince an audience to buy a certain product.

An influencer uses their opinion or their relationship with their followers to financially benefit themselves.

To some, this may sound harsh, but many influencers are quite genuine.

Building a loyal and recurring audience takes dedication and consistency. Plus a ton of marketing in-between.

Many influencers rely on their expertise in a field or unique point of view that people want to hear. The audience will then buy products or click affiliate links in return.

There’s no one-size-fits-all solution for becoming a social media influencer.

But there are steps you can take to figure out where you can shine the brightest.

Once you find your unique selling point, you’ll know who your audience is. Then your only duty is to keep them happy.

Some of the top influencers this year are:

  • Cole Sprouse;
  • Eleonora Pons;
  • Justin Bieber;
  • Charli d’Amelio;
  • Huda Kattan;
  • Zach King;
  • Dwayne Johnson;
  • Whindersson Nunes.

 

Why Should You Become a Social Media Influencer?

If you’re not ready to become an influencer, don’t jump straight into it.

Being an influencer can take up a lot of time. Especially if you’ve got a clingy audience that needs regular content.

Many influencers can take half the day to create and post content.

Then the other half to respond to all the feedback they receive.

Followers love influencers who interact with them and show that they care.

Many viewers see through fake influencers who only care about money.

The Internet is full of people spilling their emotions everywhere.

Be ready to deal with overwhelming responses and heart-wrenching insults.

If you’re not the social type, reconsider becoming an influencer.

If you’ve got the time and personality to keep an audience happy, congratulations. You’re officially a social media influencer!

Social Media Influencer 101: Find The Right Social Media Platform

Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok… So many choices, but you have no idea which one to choose.

A better question to ask yourself is: should you focus on a single platform or use multiple platforms? Is there any difference?

If you look online, many will tell you to choose one platform to post the bulk of your content on.

The benefit of this method is that all your content will be together for your audience to find.

You can respond and interact with your audience in one place. You can also build a large profile over time.

The other option is to expand your horizons. If you’re the kind of person who can’t commit to just one social platform, there’s a bouquet to choose from.

There’s more repetition in this as you’ll have to post the same content to all your platforms.

Yet your audience’s diversity will increase.

Certain niche audiences prefer the safety of a specific social media platform.

If you want to get started on more popular social media platforms, look at platforms such as:

 

Find Your Niche

If you haven’t already decided on a niche or a specific business, consider these factors.

Firstly, look at your own interests or hobbies.

Try to find something that doesn’t already have a saturated market, but still has enough of an audience.

You only need an audience big enough to fulfill your desired income goals.

For example, you have a love for horses but have an interest in affiliate marketing.

Rather, go for the affiliate marketing.

The equestrian niche has too many influencers as it is. You’ll find better opportunities within affiliate marketing.

If you already have a big enough following, you could introduce an Equestrian theme.

This way, you’ll attract more viewers while entertaining your current ones.

You can go even further by introducing more than one of your interests. With any niche you pick, affiliate marketing will be your best friend.

Using interests that compliment your niche will diversify your content.

Find Your Target Audience

Great! You’ve chosen a niche, and you finally know who your target audience is.

If you’re a hairdresser, watch out for young girls and teens with messy hair.

If you’re in IT, the affiliate market is waiting. But is that all?

Why should you stop at the obvious audience when there are so many people that might take an interest?

This is a common mistake that many brands and influencers make.

Don’t limit your target audience.

Be open to everyone and anyone. Let your followers choose if they want to take part in your niche or not.

Even if your specific niche is against another, viewers from that niche might want to educate themselves on both sides.

Secluding your niche, or excluding viewers, is limiting.

With whatever audience you choose to focus on, take care of them. Listen to their complaints and requests. The best way to make money as a social media influencer is to keep as many viewers interested as possible.

If the majority wants you to cut out the weird Halloween theme, then it’s best to cut it out.

If you want to start over and try to find a new audience, keep the Halloween theme up. You’ll find your loyal people eventually.

Lastly, be consistent with your audience.

This doesn’t mean you have to stick to the same old routine every time.

It means you should communicate with your audience in the same way. Live up to your promises to them.

Collaboration is Key

Whether it’s an Eminem song featuring Rihanna or an Arianna Grande song with Miley Cyrus.

You can’t go wrong with two international favorites.

When it comes to influencers, the same applies.

Your biggest goal should be finding as many relevant brands and people as possible to collaborate with.

Even if it’s something small, like you and another popular YouTuber baking cookies together.

Little videos like this steal the hearts of your viewers and keep them coming back for more.

Your quickest collaboration “in” is with companies that want to promote their products or services.

This is what we call affiliate marketing.

You can collaborate with tons of worldwide brands if you know where to look for them.

All you have to do is speak to your viewers and see which ones want to buy the affiliate products.

They have to use your unique referral links if you want to get paid for it, though.

Collaborating with others who promote the same niche as you is most beneficial.

Both parties will be able to grow their audience through the other’s. It’s a win-win situation. Especially for your viewers. They now have multiple streams of content for that particular niche.

How Can A Social Media Influencer Make Money?

So you’ve set up your profiles, you’ve decided on your content niche, and you’re starting to develop a following.

How do you turn this silver traffic into a golden income?

Monetization is here to help you.

If you’re building up your influencer profile through social media platforms, make sure to link back to your website or blog.

The best way to earn passive income is through ad revenue.

Your blog should have at least 5 ads on each page. This won’t annoy your customers.

Nowadays, it’s considered good business to promote other brands and products. Most people expect it when they go online.

For instance, when was the last time you saw a website that had less than two ads on every page?

There aren’t any websites left without ads. At least, none of the great ones.

To start building up your ad revenue, these advertising networks will provide you with display ads for your blog:

  • Google AdSense and Google Marketing Network;
  • Bing for Partners;
  • Amazon Publisher Services;
  • PopAds;
  • Yahoo! Publisher.

 
There are two easy monetization methods.

These include finding an affiliate network to work with and monetizing your social media accounts.

Below are two monetization platforms that can help you do this.

Admitad Partner Network

There are 3000+ brands out there that need marketing done for them. So much so that they will pay you for every ad of theirs clicked on through your website.

You just need to find the right advertiser that compliments your niche.

This is where Admitad Partner Network comes into play.

The platform helps connect advertisers and social media influencers to the perfect affiliate website.

When you’re looking for advertisers to market, you don’t want to end up advertising products that scare your followers away.

If you’re a simple beauty blogger, you should find ads that sell cosmetics or beauty services.

Fitness and lifestyle ads compliment this type of website too.

Admitad Partner Network keeps your mind at ease by recommending advertisers that suit your niche.

This way, the affiliate can market to their target audience. Viewers are more likely to click on an ad if it matches the content they come to that website for.

ConvertSocial

You can happily send your followers to your social media blog once you’ve created it.

Though you don’t have to limit your income to your website.

You can monetize any social media account you have through product advertisements.

By doing this, you can receive an income when enough people click your links and purchase products through your unique link.

Then your referral links will generate revenue when followers click through to brand’s website.

ConvertSocial is a platform that helps you activate this side of your accounts.

This way, your popular content can actually create an income.

If you’ve got one of the following social media accounts, you can monetize it through ConvertSocial:

 
Creating different streams of passive income is the best way to benefit as a social media influencer.

It takes time to put together any type of content. Especially if you have to insert product advertisements somewhere in the middle of your latest video.

Reward your hard work by monetizing everything you can in the background.

This way, you can focus on the actual content and keeping your viewers happy.

The Secret to Popular Content

Creating content, even if you’ve decided on your niche, can be a mission and a half.

You’ve got to narrow down what grabs people’s attention.

Online articles will tell you to use “smart structuring” or “define marketing goals.” But this can be quite ambiguous.

Videos like these receive the most views on the modern Internet:

  • People getting slightly hurt, in a funny way;
  • Sad or cute videos of household pets and wild animals;
  • Any sort of baby video;
  • A video that’s themed to the current holiday (Christmas, Valentine’s Day, Black Friday or Halloween);
  • Anything that makes them laugh, especially puns;
  • A relatable topic that people often brush over;
  • Unknown information about ordinary, everyday objects.

 
While some of these seem unorthodox, videos like this skyrocket to a million views in a few hours.

Popular content depends on how much someone wants to share that video.

People want to share videos that they know their friends, family, and co-workers will like.

Another current trend that seems to be going around is “sounds”.

This refers to the audio files attached to a video.

If a sound is unique or catchy enough, people will reuse it.

The more people reuse it, the more popular this sound becomes.

Thus, the creators or origins of the sound will passively reach a larger audience.

Regardless of what your niche is, popular content also depends on the person providing it.

Some of your viewers may have no interest at all in the niche you’re providing.

But something about you fascinates them.

If you want to be a social media influencer, show all the crazy, unique parts of yourself.

The most famous people we know stand out because they’re different.

Arnold Schwarzenegger had a funny accent and abnormally large muscles.

Einstein had hair that stood up in every direction.

Jackie Chan loved martial arts.

Your audience needs to remember that you’re a person.

You’re not an entire company shoved into one body, even if it feels like that some days!

Be relatable and consistent. But most of all, keep trying.

There are new viewers every day, and social media platforms you haven’t tried before.

If you don’t succeed on one platform or in one niche, try another one.

Wrapping Up.

At the end of the day, being a social media influencer and making money should be fun.

You’re interacting with viewers across the nation, if not the globe.

You’re spreading information and giving opinions that people are looking for.

If your niche is more serious, there are still interesting aspects within it.

Every influencer benefits the lives of those looking up to them. Being an influencer is a mutual give-and-take.

The Web is welcoming and creates a community for growth. As long as you don’t take your viewers for granted.

A few centuries ago, our ancestors would have had to travel to another city to find a proper book.

They had to hope the information was correct.

Now we have access to endless information at the tap of a finger.

Being a social media influencer can mean helping humanity grow as a whole.

It’s a privilege that we can make money from it.

If you follow these steps to becoming a trustworthy influencer, you’ll benefit greatly.