Suppose you feel like you are someone with a fresh point of view about a particular topic or industry. You want the world to get to know you more through your social media accounts and lifestyle posts. In that case, it’s not impossible to find your own niche and place in an increasingly saturated landscape.
You need to employ relevant strategies to get the word out about your platforms and channels. In addition, you need to be someone that audiences can connect to in a difficult time like the pandemic. If you feel like you have what it takes to be an influencer, here are some strategies for standing out in a saturated year like 2021.
What is an influencer?
But first, you need to identify the kind of influencer you want to be. An influencer is simply someone who wields power to influence people’s purchasing decisions and behavior. This means that you will become someone that a particular community will look to before making purchasing or financial decisions. If you want to find success in this potentially lucrative career, read on.
Create quality content
There’s no going around it: If you want to stand out in the digital sphere, you need to create quality content in various channels. While you may want to choose just one specific platform (YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, website, and others), it will do you a world of good to have a presence in all the platforms where your target demographic spends most of their online time on. Here are some tips for ensuring that you are creating engaging and eye-catching content:
- Invest in an excellently designed website. In a time like 2021, when most online users don’t have the longest attention span, your website needs to be simple and easy to navigate. It must contain all the necessary information about you. It should be a place that your audience would want to come back to over and over again.
- Look at how other influencers in your industry created content on their way to the top and find inspiration from them. Take note that it’s not about copying—it’s about the exact opposite of that, which is seeing what they did and trying to deviate from that. This way, you’re not just a carbon copy of everyone else who paved the way in your industry. Tap into your own creativity and imagination when coming up with posts and content.
- Be consistent with your posting schedule, and don’t give up too easily when you don’t reach your goals at a certain period. Just be ready to pivot if you find that something about your content strategy is not working.
Be authentic, sensitive, and compassionate
In a time like 2021, callous and insensitive influencers will no longer fly. When most Americans lost their loved ones, homes, or financial income due to the health crisis, you can’t keep flaunting your wealth and privilege without receiving backlash over it. This is especially true if you have already amassed a certain level of following.
To find success as an influencer, you must have something relatable to your target audience. While you need to be authentic and genuinely yourself throughout the journey, you must always take the sensitive route when showing off your lifestyle or doing product reviews. If you must post about a vacation, be sensitive through your framing, captioning, and narrative.
Champion an important cause
Closely related to being authentic, compassionate, and relatable is finding worthwhile advocacy and championing it. Look into your personal history. What have you gone through that shaped you as a person? Did you ever go through overwhelming grief at a young age? Do you have a history of mood disorders or mental health issues?
If it’s not a personal struggle, how about global matters that tug at your heartstrings? Do animals hold a special place in your heart, or do you want to elevate the plight of the members of low-income communities? Find advocacy that’s dear to your heart and incorporate it into your branding.
Take note, however, that audiences can tell when influencers are not sincere about it. So don’t look at it as a marketing tool; think of it as doing a small part in helping change the world for the better, no matter how small your following and engagement might be.
Because the world has changed drastically in the past year and a half, the rules of the marketing game have changed. If you want to stand out as an influencer, you need to ride the waves of this transition to stay relevant in an ever-evolving landscape.
