By Vinayak Kumar
With the ease of access to the internet, the number of social media users has also increased rapidly. A significant population of social media users comprises millennials and Gen Z. Becoming a social media influencer is now a new trend among millennials and the Gen Z population. Many people also pursue this as a full-time career opportunity. Some people want to pursue this because of their interest in influencing others and they have some good qualities and skills which they want to showcase.
But there are many, who want to do this not out of their passion, but for the attraction of limelight. These are the people, who are not able to gather many followers on their channel. Attraction towards limelight is not a bad thing but thinking that you can become a good social media influencer without having passion towards it, is not going to happen. You will quit if some of your content does not attract an audience to your channel. You can never have that “One more” attitude, that is, the hope that your next content may go viral.
So, what should be the right attitude, mindset or trait that a person must have if they want to become a social media influencer? But before getting there, I want to mention that, by saying this, I am not implicating, by any means, that if you do not possess any of the qualities that are mentioned below, then, you can not become a social media Influencer. Of course, you can, you just have to inculcate those qualities in you and then you will be ready to set off as a successful influencer. And after that, you can learn about influencer marketing and how to earn from it through hobo.video platform and articles.
Who this article is intended for?
This article is intended for anyone who aspires to be an influencer or who is already an influencer and wants to improve themselves and increase their followers. If you do not belong to any of these categories then also read this article till the end because this will help you to increase your power to influence the people around you. My writing will revolve around social media influencer but everyone can use it in their suitable context. Additionally, it would also help you hone your existent qualities.
Qualities that an influencer must possess to be successful
Before we start with the traits that an influencer must possess, let’s see what’s the view of Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, on influencers.
“People influence people. Nothing influences people more than a recommendation from a trusted friend. A trusted referral influences people more than the best broadcast message. A trusted referral is the Holy Grail of advertising”.
~Mark Zuckerberg
1. Passion
Passion is the most fundamental thing which is required to succeed in any field. If you don’t have passion towards it, then forget about the trophy. As I have mentioned earlier in this article, your passion helps you to have that “One more” attitude; which will help you to make you next content even if your previous many contents fail to attract your audience. In a social media Influencer job, you never know whether your content will be liked by the audience or not. You just give your best shot while making content and present it to your audience. Rest depends on the audience; and so, passion helps you to get going despite many failures.
Passion also helps you to try out different things with your content. After spending some time as a social media influencer, you start to understand your audience i.e. which type of content they like or dislike. So, you become comfortable with your content and refrain from trying new categories out of fear of rejection. But if you have a strong passion for your work, then you will never settle; and will always try out new and different ideas, which will also reap you greater rewards. If you want to know how passion reaps you rewards, visit Hobo.Video and see how passionate the influencers are, and how much they are earning from their collaboration with various brands on Hobo.Video platform.
2. Creativity
Another element in the way of becoming a successful social media Influencer is creativity. Creativity enables an influencer to present the simplest of ideas in an elegant way, which leaves the audience awestruck.
Your creativity attracts more audience to your channel, which in turn brings you the attention of businesses. Any brand, before collaborating with an influencer, looks for a high level of creativity. Hobo.Video has a large pool of creative influencers, you can watch their videos and take inspiration from there.
3. Authenticity
After passion and creativity, authenticity is another most desirable trait, which a brand and audience look for in an influencer. You may have passion for your work and you may be creative; but, if you are copying anyone’s idea and presenting it to the audience, it will never fetch you a brand’s attention or the audience. To get that, being authentic is the utmost required trait. That is, your idea of the content should be original and generated from your own creativity. Just being authentic in your content will fetch you all the attention that you deserve, sooner or later.
4. Consistency
Bruce Springsteen, an American singer and songwriter has quoted – “Getting an audience is hard. Sustaining an audience is hard. It demands a consistency of thought, of purpose and of action over a long period of time.”
You must have heard this phrase, “Consistency is the key to success”. It is very rightfully said, no matter what profession you are or in what areas of life you want to succeed, you must be consistent. The same applies to a social media influencer. If you are an Instagram influencer then you must post 3–4 posts daily including videos and photos, apart from that you must also prepare some content to put on your status. If you are a YouTuber then you may not upload videos daily but you must upload videos once or twice a week.
The point is to upload your content with some regularity and consistency, but also not to lose out on quality. This will help you in a great way. For example, if you are posting videos on your YouTube channel, let’s say, every Wednesday and Sunday at 5 p.m, then your audience will always check your channel at that time. They will watch and share your content as soon as you upload them, this increases your chance of going viral. On the contrary, if you are not consistent with your content then many times people will miss your content and it will not attract an audience, even if it was a viral content. Inconsistency in your posts also decreases your popularity. In this fast-growing social media age and with so many influencers around, your inconsistency will make you lost in the crowd.
Many Influencers often degrade the level of creativity and quality from their content while they focus on maintaining consistency. You must not make cliché content in a hurry to maintain the consistency of the post. Also, to show high creativity, you must not take too much time.
5. Persuasions
William Bernbach, an American advertising creative director has quoted – “Advertising is fundamentally persuasion and persuasion happens to be not a science, but an art.
The power of persuasion is the greatest superpower of all time. Most importantly, aligning the thought of other people with your thought process is not an easy task. To master this art, it takes years of practice. To persuade others, you have to first understand, How do they think? How do they act? What are their likes and dislikes? etc. After understanding this, you will get an exact idea as to, how to create your content. The most important thing to be kept in mind while creating content is to use vernacular language. It will give your content a personal touch.
6. Tech-Savvy
A person who is not much aware of technology has a hard time becoming a social media Influencer. The whole social media platform is based on technology itself. So, a person must be aware of the functions of a mobile, computers and various tools and software. An Instagram influencer needs to know how to edit photos, how to make short videos, etc. A YouTuber must have knowledge about various video shooting tools and video editing software. If an influencer is very much aware of various tools and technologies, it will allow them to do their work with very much ease.
To Sum Up
This article gives you insights about how to become a good influencer. If you are an aspiring influencer then you can try to inculcate the above qualities, as much as you can. And if you are already an influencer then you must have realised how important these qualities are, and if you are missing out any of these qualities then try to inculcate them. Along with these qualities try investing in a social media calendar to keep your content on track. You can always come to Hobo.Video and see how other influencers make viral contents and can learn from them.
