The industry of blogging has changed so much over the last 10 years, and now, more than ever, people want to get into it. There is a certain level of freedom that comes with having your own creative outlet, and while monetization is a huge part of being an influencer now, it must be said that you shouldn’t go into this industry specifically for that. Being a blogger/content creator/influencer (whatever you want to call yourself at the moment) is real, hard work, and at the base of it all should be a natural love of sharing and self expression. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to be paid for the content that you create, but if that is your sole reason for becoming an influencer, the odds of you burning out and failing are VERY high. No one’s trajectory with blogging is the same (some people blow up in a year, some people never make a dime from it), but there are 3 core things that must be in place if you want to use your space to share, build community, and ultimately influence your audience to act.
Tell authentic stories
Be authentic is the new “be yourself” when it comes to being an influencer, but there really is validity behind it. One of the reasons that influencer marketing has become so popular lately is because people listen to other people when it comes to recommendations vs. automatically trusting a generic ad. Think about it; you can see an ad for a new lipstick day after day and glaze over it, but if someone you like recommends it and it feels genuine, you’re more likely to actually go out and purchase it. With that being said, people that shill any and everything or constantly change up their voice to recommend random things are hard to trust, so that’s why it makes sense to only recommend products and services that you actually love and can stand behind. You don’t have to create a whole new persona to do this; if you just show how you incorporate every day products into your day and actually live life as a normal person vs as an “influencer”, you can be much more impactful. It’s cliché to say but real recognizes real, so forget about becoming a character and just be authentic and show up as yourself. Your self-esteem will thank you.
Level up your photos (and this doesn’t mean with professional photos)
While you don’t have to use professional equipment for all of your content, you DO need to level up the imagery that you create and share with your audience. At the end of the day, this is just another form of marketing and advertising, and if you share dark, blurry or just plain weird looking videos and photos, nobody is going to really want to engage with you beyond your close family and friends. Gone are the days that you could take a shitty photo and slap a filter on it and get a pass. This is real work, and your audience deserves for you to put some effort into what you share with them. Does it have to be perfect? Heck no, but constantly saying “I’m not a professional photographer” is a cop out, and it’s time to either invest in working with a photographer to help you with creating content, or doing research and practicing to make the content you put out better. If you’re sharing just for fun, this doesn’t apply, but if you have the expectation of wanting to work with brands and make money from your content, you HAVE to level up what you’re putting out. Your community deserves that.
Develop your own consistent story
We all look to others for inspiration, but at the end of the day, we have to know what OUR story is, and how to tell it consistently. Just because something works for one person, it doesn’t mean that it will work for you, so before you morph into your favorite influencer and pick up some of their content habits, make sure that it’s 1) actually true to who you are 2) something you can do consistently, even in your sleep. Your uniqueness is already a given, so don’t rob your community of the things that make you YOU. That’s why they follow you, read your content, and support your endeavors.
You don’t have to be like everyone else to have success at influencing, but you do have to be authentic, consistent, and put out quality content if you want to be both successful and in it for the long run.
