Once you figure out the platform you want to explore, you are just a step away from reaching your target audience. Have a catchy name for your channel. Make it appealing enough that it sticks with people.
Now, you need to focus on your content. High-quality, unique content is imperative to succeed as an influencer.
To post high-quality content regularly for a long time, it is necessary to have a strategy. You need to leverage all types of options that the platform offers, such as stories, photos and videos.
Some influencers follow the rule of thirds. It requires you to split your social media posts into three parts:
One-third of your posts are your content.
One-third of your posts are for sharing content from others.
One-third of your posts are personal interactions which build your brand.
The best way to capture someone’s attention is to create content on stuff they care about. You need to focus your content on the problems faced by your audience. To find your target audience’s pain points effectively, here are a few tricks that will help you.
Websites like AnswerThePublic provide you with all the trending questions around the keyword entered.
The comment section of your videos/posts is where your audience will interact with you directly. You will find many new ideas for your content.
Quora and Reddit are great places to hunt for new ideas for your content. Keep your search around keywords strongly connected with your niche.
Notice the content your competition, especially the experienced players in your niche, is focusing on.
Also, you need to keep up with your niche’s latest information. Reading research papers, blog posts, watching YouTube videos, etc., can take up a lot of time. Tools like Feedly and Nuzzel can be quite helpful.
Your asset as an influencer is your connection with your audience. So to develop a bond, nudge your viewers to drop a comment, or about the problems they are facing. When they comment, respectfully respond to them. Thank them for taking the time to leave feedback on your work.
Whenever you post something on any social media platform, rather than showing your post to all your followers, the post goes through a micro-test. It is shown to a smaller audience (some of your followers), and if the ratio of the number of likes to the number of views is healthy, it presents the post to a broader audience. If a video is well received by a smaller audience, it is expected to deliver the same result when shown to a bigger audience.
When given an option to choose between two videos, one has 5k likes, and the other has 200 likes. Most people go with the one with maximum likes. If users like your content, they will check your profile. You need to post the content according to your profile and choose the right hashtags so that users visit your profile and then follow you.
(Excerpted with permission from SAGE Publications India from the book ‘How to Rule the Internet and Make Money on Every Click’ by Seema Gupta)