How to Become an Influencer in 11 Steps: Your 2024 Guide

What is an influencer? 

An influencer, also referred to as a social media influencer, is someone who leverages social media channels to influence followers’ buying decisions. Successful influencers typically offer value on social media with quality content in the form of:

• Specialized knowledge

• “Edu-tainment”

• Insight into a niche topic

Influencers are also known for their ability to foster relationships with an audience to build an engaged and loyal follower base.

The definition of influencer, and what it means to be one, constantly evolves in terms of what types of content influencers share on social networks and how they share it. Influencers can range from TikTok dancers to people who post detailed how-to videos. Even with this variety, there are some consistencies:

• Influencers don’t have to be celebrities in order to succeed. Launching a career as an influencer is possible without already being a public figure. And even though influencers can attract online audiences into the hundreds of thousands and even millions, they may not consider themselves “celebrities” in offline settings. 

• Distinctions like macro, micro, and nano influencer have worked their way into this industry’s terminology to indicate the size of an influencer’s audience. Macro influencers have 500K to 1 million followers, micro-influencers have 10K to 50K followers, and nano influencers have up to 10K followers. 

• Influencers have the potential to drive business growth. The power of being an influencer lies in the kind of marketing that’s possible. You can garner the attention from social media users and brands that will pay you to promote their products in influencer marketing campaigns thanks to connections you've built with their target audiences.

Content creator vs. influencer

In your research into becoming an influencer, you may wonder how influencers differ from content creators. In the table below, we’ve outlined a few similarities and differences so that you can pursue your marketing career path from a state of clarity. 

Influencer marketing: What to know in 2024

As you consider a future as an influencer, it’s important to investigate the industry in which you’ll operate. Hubspot’s 2024 State of Inbound Marketing Trends report reveals that influencer marketing is among the trends that deliver ROI. Fifty percent of surveyed marketers who leverage influencer marketing say they'll increase their investment in this strategy [1]. In terms of the influencer marketing industry’s future, Influencer Marketing Hub’s 202 State of Influencer Marketing report projects that by the end of 2024, influencers and the brands they work with will have generated $24 billion [2].  

The Influencer Marketing Hub report also reveals that: 

• TikTok is the most popular influencer marketing channel among survey respondents, ahead of Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook.

• It's becoming the norm for brands to compensate influencers with monetary payments, not just free products. 

• Brands plan to use AI to execute influencer campaigns and source influencers they want to work with.

So what do these trends mean for you?

• Influencer marketing is becoming mainstream across industries so that you can garner a follower base for almost any topic.

• Your influencer income may depend on the size of your audience, how much engagement you get, and your brand collaboration rates. In 2021, Business Insider reached out to 25 Instagram influencers and found that they can make anywhere from $100 to $1,000 per sponsored Instagram Story, with some influencers generating six-figure salaries from their content [3]. 

• As more influencers enter the social media landscape, the industry may become more competitive. Some of the foundational skills you’ll need as an influencer include: mastering the latest features of different social media platforms; cultivating authentic relationships with an audience; developing content people love; editing audio and video content; live streaming; conveying your expertise or authority on a particular topic. 

For more ideas on how social influence can lead to success, watch this video from the Viral Marketing and How to Craft Contagious Content course:

How to become an influencer in 11 steps

Becoming an influencer can be an exciting endeavor. You can inspire your audience, share your passions, and generate income. Follow these steps to make your influencer journey a rewarding and successful one: 

1. Complete basic business tasks.

An important first step in starting your influencer brand is to approach it like you would a business. By adopting business approaches, you can systematically attract your target audience and generate income. 

Here are some basic tasks to complete: 

• Articulate your influencer goals, such as building a following around your passions,

  working with specific brands you admire, and generating income. 

• Write a summary of the kind of influencer brand you want to create, including the topics you want to post about, the aspects of yourself you want to share, and your methods for generating income (affiliate links, sponsored social media posts, etc).  

• Determine the prices you want to charge brands for promoting their products. 

Tip: Refer to IZEA’s 2022 State of Influencer Earnings report to discover the average cost per sponsored post on different platforms and how these rates change according to follower counts. 

• Find a payment solution that makes it easy to send invoices and receive payments from brands. 

• Draft an outline of a business plan that articulates your goals, summarizes what you offer, and analyzes competitor influencers in your category. 

• Gather influencer tools, such as Canva for designing simple graphics or Linktree for aggregating links to the URLs you want your audience to click. 

2. Identify your niche.

A niche is a highly specific market segment of consumers that an influencer can market to online. Your niche can be based on a category of content that you’d share on social media as well as the demographics (age, location, income, etc.) and psychographics (values, beliefs, interests, etc.) of your target audience.  

To gain clarity on your niche, reflect on your passions, the content you most enjoy consuming and that you’d like to create yourself, the successful influencers you already follow, the kinds of social media users that follow these influencers, the social media channels they use, and the kinds of products you love to use and would like to promote to others.

You may find it useful to research industries, content categories, and hashtags on different social media platforms for inspiration. For example, Instagram’s Explore page may suggest content categories to you, like “indoor gardening,” “animal photography,” and “college sports” that you could narrow down or tweak to reflect your unique angle. 

Read more: What Is a Niche Market? And How To Reach One

3. Get to know your audience.

Once you’ve identified your niche, conduct market research to understand your audience. That way, you can develop a lasting connection with your audience and post valuable content that satisfies their interests and goals. Click around on social media to find out: 

• The content your audience responds to the most

• The type of comments your audience makes on other social media influencers’ content

• The questions they have and challenges they face

4. Create your influencer brand.

Think of your influencer brand like you would a personal brand, a coherent presentation of your personality, values and passions, and authority on a specific topic that you can use to explore your business potential. Take some time to get clear on the impression you want to leave on an online audience and what you want to become known for. You may choose to create an aesthetic for your influencer brand, complete with colors, fonts, and even a brand voice. 

Read more: What Is a Brand Strategy? And How to Create One

5. Explore your content strategy. 

A large part of an influencer brand is the content you share on social media channels. To start building a content strategy, make a list of individual pieces of content that explore different facets of your category.  

Tip: Set up a content creation calendar that determines the frequency and structure of your posts. For example, Monday posts could offer a glimpse at your morning routine, Wednesdays could be reserved for “Ask me anything” live-streaming, and Friday posts could offer educational tutorials. 

Read more: What Is Content Strategy? + How to Create Yours

6. Optimize your online presence.

Before officially launching your influencer brand and posting content in earnest, take time to optimize your online presence as a whole, so that you can build brand equity. Your online presence can include:

• Creating new social media accounts for your influencer brand or converting your existing accounts into influencer accounts. (See Step 7 below for selecting your channels.)

• Building a website that social media followers and brands can visit to learn more about you, subscribe to your email content, and read blog articles or other longer-form content 

• Setting up an email marketing system specifically for your influencer brand  

Did you know? Some social media platforms allow you to switch your account type and enable different capabilities such as running paid ads or monetizing content. Instagram, for example, offers three settings: personal, business, and creator. 

7. Select your channels.

Along with optimizing your online presence, you need to select the social media platforms and marketing channels through which you’ll influence and inspire an audience. Being selective about your channels offers two main advantages. One, you can focus on mastering the features of one or two channels. And two, you can choose the platform or channel that works best for the type of content you share. 

Here are some general differences between platforms: 

• YouTube influencers tend to perform well when promoting products requiring an explanation or video tutorial. 

• TikTok influencers perform well in categories like entertainment, dance, pranks, fitness, and home improvement, and typically cater to Gen-Z audiences. 

• Instagram influencers perform well when their content leverages imagery. Popular categories on Instagram include fashion, beauty, food, travel, and fitness. 

Read more: What Is a Marketing Channel? 8 Types to Prioritize

8. Post unique content regularly. 

Once you’ve set up your online presence and selected the channels and platforms you’ll appear on, it’s time to start posting content. Remember that it can take time to see tangible results from your content efforts; consistency is key. 

9. Engage your audience.

At the same time that you post regular content on social media, engage with your audience members to increase your “know, like, and trust” factor. Here are some engagement methods: 

• Like, comment on, and repost content by your followers and fellow influencers in your niche. 

• Respond to comments on your posts in a timely fashion. 

• Start conversations on social media by asking your audience questions about their interests and opinions. 

• Message your most engaged followers to ask them what kind of content they’d like to see you create. 

10. Collaborate with other brands.

As social media users start to take notice of your content, follow your accounts, and look to you for entertainment or information, brands may reach out to you to collaborate. You can also pitch brands directly. 

It's a good idea to prepare for these opportunities in advance, so that you can earn income and work with brands in a way that aligns with your goals. Start by completing the following tasks.  

• Make a list of the brands you’d like to collaborate with. 

• Decide how you want to collaborate with them, including sponsored posts and affiliate marketing, as well as how you want to monetize your efforts. 

• Draft a description of content that you can create to promote various products that you can use for your website or for contacting brands via email or messenger. 

• Draft a template for pitching these brands directly. 

• Create an Influencer profile on sites like Influence.co and Intellifluence to increase your visibility and connect with brands. 

11. Refine your influencer skills and strategy. 

As your list of followers and brand collaborators grows, commit to the regular upkeep of your influencer business: 

• Set aside time periodically to research new influencer tools and techniques, the latest features of social media platforms, and how your audience behaves online. 

• Note which content gets the most engagement from your audience and adjust your content strategy accordingly. 

Read more: Influencer Marketing: A Guide to Developing Your Strategy

• Stay connected to your audience and seek to understand their interests, goals, and challenges more intimately. 

• Practice different ways to connect with your audience on video or audio content, using body language, vocal intonation, and word choice.

One way to hone your presentation skills is to take a course. Consider the University of London's course on Finding Your Professional Voice: Confidence & Impact. This nine-hour course covers mindfulness, breathing, speaking with intention, and using emphasis, so that you can smoothly share ideas with your audience and build authentic connections.

Market your brand with Coursera

Remember: When you become an influencer, you can experience the rewards of generating income while sharing your passions with an engaged audience. To market yourself online successfully, you’ll need to build a broad set of skills and treat your influencer brand as a business.  

To delve deeper into the world of online marketing and earn a credential, explore these Professional Certificates from industry leaders, Google and Meta: