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In today’s digital age, with more than half of the world’s population having a significant digital footprint, brands are tapping into the wide customer base provided by social media and shelling out tons of money on it. After all, we are more likely to buy a product that has been endorsed by someone we know/ follow, right?
As a result, “social media influencer” has become one of the most coveted jobs. I mean, who doesn’t want to make money doing something they love and helping people find what they need in the process?
If you have ever thought about how to become a paid influencer, but you think that it was way out of your reach, I have some excellent news for you! Not only can you now achieve your dreams, you will even get paid to do it! Ready to learn how?
What Is a Paid Influencer?
How many times have you purchased a product because your best friend or a family member swore their life changed after using it? Paid influencers do the exact same thing, except they are paid to do so. A paid influencer is someone who is paid by brands or companies to influence the purchasing habits of people. Simply put, a brand will pay you to promote their product and turn your audience into their customers.
You must have come across people on social media talking about a product they used and loved, say a scented candle, or a cute notebook. The review will usually be followed by a link where you can purchase the item. Sometimes, these posts also contain a coupon code that you can use to get X% off.
All of these people are paid influencers whose job is to convince you that you absolutely need to have this product in your life. Most of the time, the influencers promote products that are within their niche. For example, a sports blogger might promote sports gear. They get to endorse a product they love, you get to buy a product that you will love. So it’s a win-win situation for all!
Being paid to talk about a product that I love? That sounds awesome! Sign me up. Great! Let’s learn exactly how to go about becoming a paid influencer.
How To Become a Paid Influencer: A Step-by-Step Guide
Choose a Niche
Apart from having multiple social media accounts (duh!), the first step is to choose a niche. The niche should be something that you are actually passionate about, because it isn’t going to work unless you believe in what you are selling, I am afraid.
For example, if you love dogs and have one of your own, create a social media account and post cute pictures and videos of your dog. You can then use this page to sponsor products that will be of interest to other dog owners. Such as dog toothbrushes, dog beds, etc.
Optimize Your Account
Let people know what your account is all about by creating an eye-catchy bio. The next step is to create a content strategy and post regularly. But before that, don’t forget to convert your account into a business account because this will give you access to insights and analytics. You will need this to analyze how well your strategies are working, and the areas in which you need to improve.
Build a Community
Experts recommend posting at least 3x a week. The best way to ensure this is to plan your content a week in advance. Make sure your posts are directly related to your niche, and provide some value to your audience.
Your captions are an incredibly important part of your content, so make them unique. Use them to tell stories and connect with your followers. Above all, don’t forget to be yourself and use your own voice. You are not a brand. You are an actual person, so don’t be scared to let your personality shine.
Bonus tip: Create a visually appealing theme for your page. It could be a color theme, where you post 3 photos having similar hues, or it could be a grid theme. The important thing here is to make people see your feed and go, “woah! That is some eye candy! I definitely want to follow this page.” I know we all talk about not judging a book by its cover, but hey, humans are very visual creatures.
Next comes networking. Follow other people from your niche, engage authentically with their content, and use relevant hashtags to boost your posts. When choosing hashtags, make sure to choose ones that have decent search volumes and posts. This is because the more popular a hashtag is, the more difficult for your post to reach the top. But, at the same time, choosing a hashtag with very low volume would mean that your post will not be seen by many people. So the trick is to find the balance.
Reach Out To Brands
After building a solid follower base and an established social media presence in your niche, the next step is to actively reach out to brands in your niche with an offer for collaboration.
There are two main ways in which you can become a paid influencer:
Figure out whichever works for you best, do some research about the brand, find out who the best person to contact is, and pitch yourself to them. Tell them why you want to work with them (maybe you love their products?), and give them reasons to want to work with you (good engagement rates, solid follower base).
You can also tag relevant brands in your photos to put yourself on their radar. Some brands even repost such photos, giving you a wider audience.
Some brands might pay you money, while some might send you a free product to review and keep. Accept only the sponsorships that align well with your page. The most important thing to remember is that nobody has a 100% success rate and rejections are common! So don’t be disheartened by them. Keep trying and keep building your page. Eventually, when your social media presence becomes big enough, brands will start contacting you themselves!
How To Find Brand Influencer Jobs?
Reaching out to brands manually is a bit exhausting for me. Are there any other ways to find brand influencer jobs?
Yes, there are!
One of the best ways of finding social media influencer jobs is through influencer apps like Tribe, Grin, and Brandsnob. These apps connect influencers to brands, making it easy for you to pick and choose sponsorships with brands you love.
Another way is to join influencer marketing agencies. These agencies create and manage influencer campaigns for brands. Think of them as the middlemen between brands and influencers. One benefit of working with such agencies is that they will take care of most of the nitty-gritty, so you can just focus on doing what you do best: influencing people.
Finally, the surefire way to find almost anything on the internet- a google search! A simple search will give you tons of results. Congrats! Now you are ready to become a paid influencer.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much do IG influencers make?
There is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to making money through paid sponsorships. It depends on your rate of engagement and number of followers. You can make anywhere from $100 to thousands of dollars per post. But brands generally tend to follow the rule of “$100 per 10k followers” for one post.
How many followers do I need to become an influencer?
There is no magic number of followers. The most important thing is that you need to have some influence over your followers. So whether you have 5000 followers or 50000, you can become an influencer as long as you can influence your followers.
How does an influencer get paid?
An influencer gets paid by brands in exchange for authentically promoting the brand’s products to their followers.
Who is currently the highest earning influencer on Instagram?
Christiano Ronaldo, the football player, is the highest earning influencer on Instagram as of December 2021. He earns approximately $1,604,000 USD per post!
Are you ready to begin your journey towards becoming a paid influencer? Doesn’t your dream seem closer now? Let us know your thoughts or success stories in the comments below. And don’t forget to share this article with others who might find it useful!
Karina Gandola was born and raised outside the city of Charleston, in the beautiful mountain state of West Virginia. Karina loves writing about the influencer marketing space and an area she is passionate about. She considers her faith and family to be most important to her. If she isn’t spending time with her friends and family, you can almost always find her around her sweet yellow Labrador retriever, Poshna.
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