Starting Out: Starting out as influencer was incredibly daunting for several reasons. First of all, sometimes I found myself thinking, "Where do I even start?" In all honesty, this is a pretty normal question when starting any business of your own because it can all seem very overwhelming. For this reason, I created a step by step process for myself to follow, which I shared in "How to Become an Influencer." These initial steps include starting from a clean slate, narrowing my focus, differentiating myself, creating cohesive content, planning ahead, and being an active Instagram user myself. This process really helped me hit the ground running! In addition, with such a large pool of competition, it was easy to get discouraged before I even started. The reality is that there will always be other competition in any industry, as well as a handful of other reasons why I could potentially fail, so this was ultimately a test of how passionate I was and how hard I was willing to work to succeed!
Immersing Myself in Influencer Culture: As I've mentioned before, I work for an influencer myself and have for about nine months now. That being said, it has been significantly easier for my to immerse myself in influencer culture and learn about the do's and don'ts of the industry. I've shared a lot of my experiences while at my current job with you for the simple reason that I realize a lot of others do not get this same opportunity that I have been given! However, reading my blog or other similar pages is not the only way to learn more about influencers. Long before I worked in my current position or decided to pursue influencing myself, I followed a ton of other influencers. This helped me identify what I do and don't like from an outsider's perspective, so that I could incorporate what I do like into my own brand. This does not mean that I ever have or ever would copy another influencer, but it helps me remain more self-aware of the content that I am producing and how it is perceived by others. There is no harm is being inspired by other influencers around you!
Visuals: The first visual change I made was cleaning up my feed, which I've discussed the importance of in prior posts, especially "Five Steps to a Better Feed." This gave me an almost blank canvas to work with, without losing any of my original followers. It also allowed me to identify the style I was trying to convey and how to best achieve that through the content that I was posting. I try to maintain a fairly simple color scheme, with a lot of whites, darks, and other neutrals, but I still allow myself to use pastel shades when I want to incorporate color! In addition, I follow a content cycle to ensure that my posts looks the most cohesive when they're next to each other. I also learned that this gives sufficient variety so that your followers don't get bored. Here's a snapshot of my current Instagram feed to give you an even better idea:
Staying Organized: In addition to following the content cycle that I have created for myself, I also realized how important it was to keep tabs on all of my posts. I recorded everything from the day of the week that I posted, to the time of day I posted, to the likes and comments I received, to the reach each post hit, etc. By switching to a Business Profile on Instagram, a lot of these analytics became accessible to me and they've helped me identify what my followers want to see less or more of!
Gaining Traction: This can be a major obstacle when starting out in almost any industry, but especially when it comes to influencing. For me specifically, once I revamped my Instagram and started building my own influencer brand, people seemed to pick up on that and I started to gain more traction rather naturally. The progress in this department can be rather slow at first, so it's important that I've stayed patient. That being said, in just the last few months, I have been on a steady incline when it comes to my following and the goal is to continue up that incline. If you're having trouble in this area, feel free to look back on my post, "How To Gain Traction as an Influencer" for more suggestions!
Making Partnerships: This could very well be considered a part of gaining traction as an influencer, but given how big of a role that it plays in my success, I wanted to address it separately. Before I started my influencer brand, I was under the impression that external brands were supposed to reach out to the influencer. It didn't take me long to learn that this was a huge misconception. Making introductions with brands that I wanted to work with has been essential to my growth as an influencer thus far. First of all, let me explain some of the questions that I asked myself before reaching out to other brands:
- How can I expect other brands to identify me as an influencer as of right now?
- How do I know that these other brands have simply never come across my profile before?
- How can they recognize the value in me promoting their brand without me introducing (or rather selling) myself first?
My list of questions goes on, but these serve as the most prominent ones in my mind when I was deciding whether or not to reach out to brands first. Needless to say, the answers to all of these questions screamed, "reach out to the brands first!" So I did just that and, in the last month alone, I have signed two new partnerships, one with a swimwear brand and another with a jewelry company. While the fear of rejection is normal, reaching out to brands first has showed initiative on my end, as well as confidence in the value that I bring to the table as an influencer!
Progress: I have made great strides since I have entered the influencer industry in May. You can see big changes in my aesthetic by visiting my Instagram profile directly (@lesliedwight), but the most prominent change is the content cycle and color scheme that I follow now to ensure cohesion. As I mentioned before, my following has been on a steady incline and is growing at a faster rate each week. The majority of my posts also have been reaching a larger audience than before, and in turn, have received more likes and comments. In just the last few months, my content has gone from about 200 likes and 4 comments on average per post, to about 400 likes and 30 comments on average per post. Also as I mentioned before, I have two pending deals with separate brands on the table now and I couldn't be more excited! My content has also been reposted by brands lately, as I have been adamant about tagging the companies that I am wearing. Although I am not being paid to promote companies yet, this has drastically helped with exposure. I continue to follow the strategies that I have discussed throughout my blog thus far and will be sure to share any changes, tips, insight, etc. that I apply to my own influencer brand with you as well!
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