Who does not want to be an influencer? Especially an influencer who gets paid! Influencers earn by promoting various brands and their respective products. ‘Influencer’ as the term says, influences the viewers.
The current world is a huge market where various brands keep coming up day by day while the buyer or service availer might be unaware of the right decision of purchase; here comes the role of an influencer. The Influencer influences his/her audience to make the right choice of brand and product with the help of his/her personal review. The influencer here acts as a form of marketing agent for the brand which in-turn generates revenue to that particular brand hence the brand pays the influencer making him/her a ‘Paid Influencer’.
Influencer being the buzz term of the current days, why is it hyped? Day by day new brands arise in the market and hence increases the competition amongst other brands. To stand tall in this league a brand has to maximize it’s reach towards people in the most economical and fastest way which is through the help of paid influencers.
Influencers obtain wealth by promoting their chosen brands and products on various social media platforms. Broadly speaking, these influencers are more often than not paid in either of the three ways i.e:
1- Free sample products for review & giveaway.
2- Paid Sponsorship for brands.
3- Affiliate Marketing.
Social media! who is not on social media these days? In this fast moving pace of the world, we can see almost anyone from young gen-z kids to our grandparents being present on social media platforms. We’ve heard many people saying “social media addiction is just a waste of time” and admit it, all of us at some point of time wished we earned through our social media addiction, fortunately one can generate a good amount of income by becoming a paid influencer on social media. This is also known as Influencer Marketing.
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How does this work? Here’s How…
Influencers use a major strategy i.e Word-of-Mouth marketing on various media platforms. Word of mouth is a critical aspect of any successful marketing/ advertising tactic. The influencer reviews the products he/she uses and promotes for the same by the value it delivers.
Generally, the end consumer or service user trusts the experience of their family, friends, and people they admire more than any advertisements promoted by the brand itself.
But there’s a catch, it’s not that simple as it seems to be an influencer. One needs to have a humongous following, be socially active, have the customer base hold upon your reviews which generally takes a lot of time! Contradicting that, it does not mean it is impossible to become one in a short span of time.
How to make money on Social Media?
As we know, the primary aspect to become an influencer on social media is by having an enormous number of followers on the social media platform to reach out to the masses.
To start with, one needs to pick the right media platform to start influencing as the brand we endorse might largely affect it’s promotion by the platform we chose. For example, if one wants to review a product through a video then definitely YouTube would be a better platform than Facebook. If one wants to promote a brand/ product through a picture or any keyword then Instagram would be a better option than YouTube (as hashtags help in gaining attention to a niche).
Hence the campaign ran on one particular social media platform might communicate better than the other.
Moving forward, another vital thing to be kept in mind is that irrespective of the platform one choses, we must abide by it’s terms & conditions and it’s posting rules, especially if the review is a sponsored campaign.
The worst thing any influencer could face is to lose it’s future brand sponsorships, upcoming business contracts and eventually the social fame due to failure in complying with the policies & regulations.
Though picking the right platform is necessary, it is also a smart move to step into social media platforms which are just into media sharing and are currently in the budding stages of paid influencers, such as Tik-Tok, Quora and Twitter to name a few.
How to become a Paid influencer and make money?
Pick a Platform
Start by choosing a platform and creating an account in it where you can gain a good number of followers and the type of campaign you are undertaking is apt for that platform of social media.
Niche
Select a niche you would want to promote such as Home & Decor, Automotive, Baby Care, Electronics, Finance, Beauty, Health & Fitness, Fashion & Accessories, Sports, Toys & Games and so on.
The niche you are promoting is a major contributor to the fact that if it works out well there are high chances you would get other sponsors from the similar niche.
Target Audience
The niche we pick to promote also matters to the direct fact the target audience would also be niche specific. Every type of audience needs to be addressed in its own unique way.
For example if your target audience is of finance stream it would be beneficial if one would promote financial applications as they would be interested in investments and bonds rather than anyone promoting over priced luxury goods whose primary focus is on the social status and “feel good factor” rather than investments.
It is henceforth better to know about the dynamics of the target audience such as their Age, sex, ethnicity, nationality and other demographics.
Audience & Their Interest
Demographics being the Macro factor about the target audience, micro factor is an equally important aspect i.e Interests. Time and again based upon social, political, economical and technological reasons the interest of a people might change.
It is always a healthy habit to interact with the audience and know their taste, direction of interest and what next they expect from the influencer. This would lead to a consistent growth from both audience and sponsors.
Affiliate Partnerships
A stage where one’s social media influence has grown to a decently good level and he/she is eligible based upon the criteria’s, they can apply for various affiliate partnerships and reach out to brands for sponsors.
Once the influencer is extremely famous, brands themselves reach out to collaborate but one must read the agreement, terms & conditions cautiously.
Conclusion
Furthermore, we can promote our media account through social media advertisements for faster growth.
Initially it is alright to work with brands for low gains until we reach a saturation point where we gain popularity amongst brands to upfront us.
To know how Youtubers make money online, refer to Zeen blog.
