Really..what does it take?
What the heck is a social media influencer?
Is it really worth being one?
Does being a social media influencer come with an expensive price tag?
A Social Media Influencer is a user on social media who has established credibility in a specific industry. A social media influencer has access to a large audience and can persuade others by virtue of their authenticity and reach. resources. Discover Brand Influencers to Expand Social Reach. PIXLEE.COM
A social media influencer can be anyone, but the key thing is they must always have credibility and a niche.
The major reason people want to become a social media influencer is they do in fact make a boatload of money and for most of the people in the world, making a boatload of money is what they want to do. But, becoming a social media influencer is something NOT everyone can become…or we all would be one, Right?
What Does It Take To Become a Social Media Influencer?
Well, it takes a lot. Outside of taking a moderate amount of money for the start-up costs, it takes A LOT of time, patience, written words, late nights hanging out with geeks, attending boring conferences, talk to boring people and, most importantly, blogging like a machine!
Do all this for about 10 years and you MIGHT be considered a true social media influencers.
Now, knowing that, you probably say…Wait a minute, there are people on Facebook who have only been around a few months and they are considered social media influencers.
Right, now you are seeing the realities of social media influencers.
Some of the social media influencers you see out in La-La-Land are propped up by the social networks they are on because they had margaritas with one of the founders.
Others are sponsored by a big brand that is dropping a bundle in Ad Money on the social network as a way of them buying influence.
These are the social media influencers usually who you will see for a few months then get a notification from LinkedIn announcing they are now a recruiter for some IT group. Yeah, it happens…and happens a lot.
Most of the legit social media influencers I know worked hard becoming an expert in what they know and do….yeah, and went to a boatload of conferences just to meet the influencers in their field…but, hey, that is what it takes.
The Number Game Still Lives, But Not Enough
Sometimes it is not what you know it is Who you know. From what I have seen over the past 15 years is it appears it also is how you look and what parties you have attended that qualify a person to become a social media influencer.
That’s right! Look around. What does the average social media influencer look like…or appear to look like online? Yep, they look like someone you would like to know or hang around, right?
There is nothing wrong with that. It is human nature for consumers to gravitate to people who appear to be successful.
Consumers buy more from people who attract them, so it makes sense that social media influencers who attract people to have large numbers of Followers.
Making yourself look appealing is just part of what it takes to be a real Social Media Influencer. So maybe you’ll need to cut the beard..get your hair done…do what it takes to attract people.
But how did Social Media Influencer get such large numbers of Followers all at once?
The Number Game in Social Media has been around since Social Media started. The more Followers, Friends, Likes, Circles, Squares, Thumbs Up, Subscribers, Swipes to the Right or Winks a person gets the more value they have to someone who wants to pay them to influence their Following to buy something from them.
That is the Number Game. That is what started the “Fake User Accounts” on Facebook and Twitter that is today killing their platforms.
Buying Followers was just normal busy until recently when consumers started taking back control of their time online and pushed towards cutting through all of the glam shot social influencers to find the real people who have experience in something they have a current interest. Yes, consumers are pretty darn savvy and never take for granted they are NOT.
But, still, the number game is out there and probably will be out there until more control is put on the social networks to hire third-party auditors to validate their user base.
Until then there will still be the large advertising firms who have clients paying them extremely large amounts of money to get their product in front of trillions of people in hopes they sell a few to just break even. As long as there is Big Money involved there will be manipulations made to ensure big money is made.
Being pretty and having a lot of people Following you because you look Pretty to them seems to be how most Social Media Influencers get started. But NOW, staying a social influencer is what they are finding is getting harder to do.
All Hat and No Cattle
Here in Texas, we have a saying for nearly everything. The one that fits most Social Influencers is… “They’re all Hat and No Cattle”. There are a large number of social media influencers who have little experience in anything other than meeting the requirements of being a social media influencer. Fortunately, their days are numbered.
The businesses looking to hire Social Influencers today are looking for real people who really have some experience in what they say they know. In other words..they have the cattle to go with their hat.
What will sort these modern day social media influencers out from those still playing the numbers game? Answer: Video-Centric Digital Marketing.
Video Develops Influence
Here are a few valid points to remember if you want to become a true social media influencer:
- Videos are preferred by 90% of consumers.
- Today’s consumers want and require trustworthiness.
- Seeing something is believing.
- Video develops influence and is the core method a social media influencer uses to deliver their message.
Noticed I said ‘Videos’. Yes, it takes more than one video to influence consumers.
Episodic Videos Create Social Media Influencers
To get started it takes a series of videos to:
- showcase trust,
- demonstrate what problem you solve
- and explain why the consumer needs to choose you to solve their problem.
How many of today’s social media influencers are on YouTube?
Answer: All of them. Today, there is no way to influence consumers with being on video.
Why? Because Videos builds the needed trust need to get the viewer into the next step of the sales funnel.
Get Help
If you are really interested in becoming a social influencer here are the two things you need to do:
- Get Help – Don’t go out and attempt to do what you heard or read are the things you should do to become a social media influencer. Hire a video-centric digital marketing agency to consult and coach you through a digital marketing roadmap. Without a strategy you are wasting your time…and money. Yes, it is going to take money to become a social media influencer.
- Stay the Course – Don’t think becoming a social media influencer comes about by producing a selfie stick video on LinkedIn. It takes a minimum of 6 months to get traction and be established as an influencer. So, stay the course.
Think about it.
There is a lot that goes into becoming a social media influencer….those who I know have WORKED real hard and spent tons of time and money getting where they are to make the big bucks they make.
If you really feel you are ready to become a social media influencer then…let me know how I can help.
