Social media has offered various job opportunities, and students have not been left behind. Influencing is a form of digital marketing that students can enjoy and get a stipend for their upkeep. Prominent brands like Shopify and Starbucks are hiring students for social media influencing gigs. You can take advantage of such opportunities and use various social platforms for influence, from TikTok to Instagram. Social media influencing aims to create brand awareness; thus, to become a sort-after influencer, you must create unique and captivating content that appeals to the audience. Here are top tips to become a leading student online influencer.
Pick a Niche
When you have a chemistry paper and think, “I need someone to write my paper,” you could pay a writer specializing in chemistry to get quality work. The same concept applies to influencing; specializing in a specific area will help you become good at your craft, boosting your chances of becoming an unstoppable force. Choose an area that you are comfortable making content around. For instance, you can influence various clothing, shoes, or accessories brands if you love fashion. If you enjoy cooking, sports, or traveling then you can make content around the same.
Selecting an area you are passionate about will boost your creativity, reflecting on your content’s authenticity. After identifying a niche, you can proceed to conduct extensive research on the types of content made around that field and if there are any gaps or an area that users tend to engage with more. Additionally, you can look at other influencers’ content for inspiration and learn more about influencing. Once you curve a niche, align your content with what your followers want. Ultimately, the place you choose should reflect your ideas and unique voice.
Learn the Social Media Dynamics
Social platforms have distinct features, viewers, and content types. Therefore, it is best to understand the platform’s dynamics before choosing which forum to post content on. For instance, the engagement rate on Instagram differs from TikTok due to the variation in the number of users on each platform. Getting more engagement and views on TikTok is much easier than on Instagram. Therefore, you should create appropriate content for each platform. Understanding how the different platforms work will help you make better choices when posting content and help your page grow.
Make High-Quality Content
Connect with your creative side to make entertaining, educative, and unique content. The first step to making high-quality content is investing in quality equipment. However, you don’t have to break the bank. You can start your influencing journey with a good phone, tripod, and ring light. After preparing your equipment, you can brainstorm ideas that you think will be exciting to you. Captivating content attracts more followers, translating to more page traffic. Take time to understand the type of content that appeals to your audience. A good approach is posting different types of content and checking your page’s engagement. Here are tips to come up with quality content:
- Share educative tips or DIY videos that your audience might enjoy.
- Create authentic content that your audience can relate to.
- Be more versatile with your range to ensure the content explores different visual designs. Hiring a videographer can be more effective.
- Have a consistent content creation style with unique tag lines and themes. Having a consistent theme helps your audience remember your content, and they can keep coming back to your page.
- Use various analytic tools like Google Analytics to monitor your engagements and traffic. Monitoring your account’s performance helps you develop direct strategies to build the account.
- Keep up with the social media trends.
- Use relevant hashtags on your posts to boost their visibility.
Be More Consistent
As an upcoming social media influencer, consistency should be your secret weapon. It helps you build the number of your followers and makes you a trusted brand in your niche. Brands are also more likely to approach a page that is buzzing with informative and entertaining content.
Upcoming student influencers may not know how to keep up with posting ad engagement on social media. If you are struggling with the same, do not fret; all you have to do is create a content schedule highlighting the number of times you will post weekly or monthly. You can also use scheduling tools to automate the process so that you do not forget. Maintaining a posting schedule helps you get into a pattern.
Additionally, ensure you enjoy the content-creating process so that you look forward to the content shooting and posting days. Once you choose a niche you are passionate about, maintaining a regular pattern will be much easier, even on busy days.
Interact with Your Followers
Replying, reposting, and liking the comments on your page motivates your followers to keep coming back to your page since they will feel appreciated. Some of the ways you can promote interaction on your page include:
- Posting content that can spark a conversation. The best way to do this is by conducting polls or discussing trending issues.
- Prompt response to comments left in your comment section or inbox.
- Share trending videos or picture challenges your followers can participate in and tag you.
- Share personal stories that are relevant to your audience.
- Host Q&A sessions.
- Work with other influencers.
Wrapping Up
Venturing into social media influencing can be challenging. However, it can be an exciting and rewarding journey with lessons to learn and opportunities to explore. Some of the skills you will gain from your social media influencing gigs can be more helpful in your career growth, especially creativity, interpersonal skills, and critical thinking.
The college environment provides the best content creation backdrop, with many experiences to draw inspiration from. As an influencer, you will engage in fun activities such as making videos for brands, amplifying social media campaigns, providing product reviews, and much more. So, if you are looking forward to wearing the hat of an influencer, you can use the tips provided above.
Featured image provided by Liza Summer; Pexels; Thanks!
