Becoming an Influencer: 5 Tips for Your Start

“Influencer profession” or “Becoming an influencer” – over 21 million Google search results, countless publications, and (TV) contributions illustrate the strong interest in being an influencer.Generation Z and Y are growing up with this, and the success stories of many influencers who have turned their initial hobby into a profession can be a motivator to want to try it yourself.

So what are influencers? Influencers are described as individuals who take on the role of a opinion leader and/or multiplier. For this, they regularly create content on public social networks and initiate social interaction (more on the terminology in Influencer Marketing can be found in the OMR Glossary).

How many followers does it take to be an influencer? Is a certain number of followers required? There is no precise definition here, depending on the niche and platform, but for example already people with over 1,000 followers on Instagram can be termed as influencers. The definition also varies depending on the platform. Especially on TikTok, where the number of followers plays a lesser role compared to the views, answering the question “when are you an influencer” is even more difficult. Generally: Anyone who addresses a specific target group with a public profile can certainly be referred to as an influencer – at the latest when money is earned with it.

How much money can you make as an influencer? Unfortunately, this question cannot be answered across the board, as the final earnings of an influencer depend on many factors: reach, assignments and much more. But the earnings can range from two- to five-digit amounts.

The questions that arise at the beginning are: How do you become an influencer? Are there tips for becoming an influencer? Where do you start? What tools help?

Becoming an influencer: 5 tips for your start

1. The (technical) prerequisites

To become an influencer, you first need profiles on the desired social media profiles, such as Instagram, YouTube and/or TikTok. Even if you will not be active on all platforms from the start, or even never will be, you have already secured the name or handle. This means that no one else can take it from you or publish content under your desired name on another platform. If you are thinking about running a blog, in addition to a domain, you need aContent Management System. Here, among others, WordPress and as a hosting partner, the place where you buy and host your domain, various providers include 1and1.

A few years ago, account names were given more frequently, such as theblondesalad, now content is published much more frequently under the own name (e.g. Chiara Ferragni). Some influencers also use a mix here – the blog name is given for the profile name, but the own name is highlighted in the profile. There is no right or wrong.

The technical basic set-up includes, in addition to the profiles, account names, domain, CRM system, also the camera. Today, a mobile phone with a high-resolution camera is often sufficient. What can be worthwhile from the beginning is the investment in good lighting. Especially those who want to record a lot of content indoors cannot do without good lighting, such as ring lights, especially in the German winter.

In addition to the technical set-up, it also makes sense to register a business from the start. Why? If you want to become an influencer, you will sooner or later accept (paid) collaborations – you would need this from this point at the latest. This is also relevant for your tax balance. A small business, which is enough at the beginning, can be registered in any city at the responsible authority.

2. Try yourself out 

The name has been chosen and the profiles have been created. What's next? Just get started or do you need a strategy?

Clear recommendation: Don't get too caught up in developing strategies and/or topic plans. It's more a work-in-progress. Over time, you will find your own style and also change it again and again. This is completely normal, because you also continue to develop yourself.

But what can help is if you consider in advance what you want to publish content about: do you like to cook, do you travel a lot, is dancing your passion, are you good at make-up or technology? Do you cover everything? Also good. Then your content will be a mix. It's very hard to reinvent the wheel today – there are already influencers for almost every topic.

How can you still stand out? Your content, your knowledge on a certain topic, your personality, your style. Maybe you have a certain image language or video style?

Consider for yourself, why do you follow certain accounts? What would motivate you to follow a profile? These questions can be easy to answer, or sometimes more difficult. A conversation with friends can help here, as can being inspired by experts.

Try out the different types of content: Story, feed, reels, TikTok video, or live streaming. Over time, you will find out where your strengths lie and you can further promote these.

3. Be active

You now know what you want to publish content about? Then it's on to content creation and thus one step further on your way to becoming an influencer.

Building reach can be the biggest challenge – especially on Instagram. TikTok with its algorithm can be easier here, but is by no means a guarantee of success. A look at the apps, whether Instagram, TikTok, Twitch or YouTube, shows how much content is being published – a lot – and on a daily basis. No wonder, German internet users spend 1 hour and 41 minutes on social networks. Standing out from this can be a huge challenge.

In the beginning, it can help to activate your friends and family. Regular interactions with your content will help bring it into the news feed of your followers. These interactions can be promoted by contacting other influencers to push each other.

To earn more visibility, you need to publish content regularly for your followers. This means, for example, posting content in stories and the feed on Instagram. This might be unfamiliar at first, but it helps greatly in building a loyal community. You don't always have to be seen yourself, depending on your topic and style you can vary here and express yourself. The same applies to other platforms: Publish content regularly and make use of various content formats available.

If you can't produce content every day, block certain days in the week for content production, so you can pre-produce content for later publication. This could, for example, be a day on the weekend. Also meet up with other creators, for example, who are also just starting, and produce content together. This is not only fun, but also leads directly to the next point:

4. Network

Not only the joint content production, but also the shared experiences, the exchange of knowledge or even the joint growth are great motivators to exchange and network with other creators.

You will get to know other creators over time through TikTok, Instagram and Co, at events, or in various (Facebook or Instagram) groups. A topic that is frequently hotly discussed are interaction groups, which usually take place on Instagram. In these groups, the latest contributions are shared, and every member of this group now has the task of writing a comment under these contributions. The advantage is certainly that this positively influences the interaction, but these are not organic comments and it distorts the interaction rate. Brands and agencies usually recognize this when selecting influencers for collaborations. Therefore, rather use groups in which you network, or also meet up and produce content together.

Over time, as your account grows, it can also be worth signing up on platforms, such as Influence.vision . There you can create a free profile from 5,000 Instagram followers and then apply for campaigns. In addition, events and workshops are held regularly, promoting knowledge exchange. For example, there are webinars, such as on the topic of taxes.

(Source: Community for influencers and brands influence.vision)

Another possibility to exchange with other influencers is at events. At events, you will either be directly invited by brands or agencies, or a fellow influencer will take you with them.

5. Have fun!

Despite all the theory and the many tips on the topic of becoming an influencer, the most important point should not be forgotten: to have fun and not to stress. Your feed post or video does not achieve the desired reach on one day? This is completely normal and something that every influencer knows – regardless of the number of followers or the number of views on TikTok.

What has always helped me was to always remember why I started sharing content: because I loved capturing beautiful moments on camera, discovering new travel destinations and sharing them with my community.

So, have fun and try yourself out!

Ready to start your adventure “Becoming an influencer” or “Dream job influencer”?