With social media communities anyone or “thing” can draw a crowd. In 10 of the Weirdest Social Networks you see the diversity of what brings people together: hamsters, farmers, a lifeline to heaven, mustaches, and even microbes – this one you have to submit a personal specimen for their study to get in.
Influencers are the ones who draw in the big crowds. What is an Influencer? – Social Media Influencers Defined [Updated 2022] defines an influencer as having the following:
- the power to affect the purchasing decisions of others because of his or her authority, knowledge, position, or relationship with his or her audience.
- a following in a distinct niche, with whom he or she actively engages. The size of the following depends on the size of his/her topic of the niche.
The key in the above definition is “his or her” and “he or she”, it’s all about that person. There was a time when celebrities were the only influencers. Now anyone can do it as seen the below picture influencers for travel, skateboarding, parenting, video games and lifestyle.
What does it take to become an influencer? Below are steps explained in detail in the Indeed article, How To Become An Influencer in 10 Steps:
- Find your niche.
- Choose your social media platforms.
- Develop your content strategy.
- Build and maintain a website.
- Be consistent.
- Have an opinion.
- Engage with your audience.
- Grow your network.
- Evaluate and track your progress.
- Stay up to date on trends.
Mostly, we hear about the “mega” influencers but there are many tiers and each is defined by the number of followers they have, also explained in the article How to Become an Influencer in 10 Steps:
- “Nano-influencers: 1,000-10,000 followers
- Micro-influencers: 10,000-50,000 followers
- Mid-tier influencers: 50,000-500,000 followers
- Macro-influencers: 500,000-1,000,000 followers
- Mega influencers (often celebrities): Over 1,000,000 followers”
In case you’re curious as to what it takes to make the big bucks see the below chart on what it takes to make $100,000 found in the article, Here’s how many social media followers you need to make $100,000.
| Platform | Followers/Subscribers Needed | Views /Posts |
| YouTube | 1,000 | 24 million views annually |
| 5,000 | 308 sponsored posts | |
| TikTok | 10,000 | 270 million views annually |
Can anyone become an influencer? Definitely, but have you got what it takes? When I worked as a Personal Trainer I use to tell people if they had a goal of working out three to four times a week book in every day because life gets in the way and the extra booked in days will keep you on track. I see becoming an influencer the same way. Discipline, perseverance, follow the 10 steps and you may just make it.
Do you have a specialty that appeals to the masses? Are you driven enough to make it happen? Have you already done it? I’m looking forward to hearing from you. Please share your comments below.
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“Have YOU got what it takes to be an Influencer?” See that blog if you’re interested in finding out more about influencers, what an influencer is, steps to become one and how much money you can make.
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#influencerlife #entrepreneur #influencermarketing, “Have YOU got what it takes to be an Influencer?” What is an influencer anyway? Steps to become one and how much money you can make. See my blog for all this and more. @middleagedteen
Algonquin College Social Media Certificate Program 
It’s interesting to see the different tiers of influencers based on their followers! I’ve only heard of micro-influencers, and thought the only other tier was just “influencer.” It’s interesting to know there’s actually a tier below micro, and three more tiers above that!
My specialty is illustration, and while I do have a page where I post my work, I am not even categorized as a nano-influencer. I don’t exactly want to become a mega-influencer, as I feel that would cause me some anxiety having so many people follow me. However, it would be nice to eventually build up my account to be considered a nano or micro influencer. Despite the anxiety social media can cause, I can also see how important it is for the growth of my personal brand.
Yes, I found the tiers interesting too. What baffled me was the work that must take. You’d have to hire someone to be able to keep connected with all those people and for me that would ruin my brand since I imagine it is difficult replicating how someone would reply based on my branding and insight.
It is incredible that “anyone” can be an influencer not just the elitist. I do not follow influencers myself however my 23 year old daughter does and she has a few favorites including a lady whom is a history teacher in the U.S. She lives a simple life and prides herself on being frugal. I watched her for a bit and what I see is a genuine person and this is the appeal, they could be your next door neighbor, they are just like us!
Yes, anyone can be an influencer indeed. Thank you for sharing about that “frugal” woman. I definitely would be interested in learning about her -imagine how devastated her audience would be if she wasn’t genuine!
I love the idea that I could be an influencer, but I definitely don’t have what it takes. The time and effort that influencers put into their content and editing is incredible. Making money by just simply uploading videos is a dream, but there’s so much work going on in the background that I don’t think I could keep up. As you mentioned above, I would have to hire someone to keep up with brand deals and even monitoring social media more than likely. To be fair, I’m not “influencer” material either and I can’t see me loving my name and face plastered all over the internet haha Thanks for a great read!
Great that you recognize what you don’t want out of social media…knowing what you don’t want is a key to happiness. Even if you don’t want to be an influencer taking these courses could always help with becoming the support of an influencer rather than being one yourself depending on your long term goals.