Career as a Social Media Influencer – How to start a career as a Social Media Influencer
The pandemic and recent technological advancements have positively contributed to the growth of social media influencers in India. This situation has resulted in the immense popularity of social media influencers among today’s youth. Social media has become one of the profitable mediums to earn a hefty amount each month. Becoming a social media influencer has become a trending career choice among today’s generation. An individual needs access to a large audience to become a successful influencer on social media. This access plays the active role of mass influence and has eventually led many people to appreciate what a social media influencer does. This mass influence has even inspired the majority of youth to pursue social media influencer marketing as their full-time career.
Social media influencers have emerged as the favored medium among renowned brands to promote their services and products online. This career choice not only helps the influencers gain immense popularity but also provides an attractive opportunity to showcase their talent to a worldwide audience. The most attractive part of this career choice is that being a celebrity is not mandatory for becoming a social media influencer. A career as an influencer is completely skill-based, and anyone who is camera-friendly, outgoing, and passionate can start their career in this field. If you’re also ambitious about starting your career as a social media influencer, then you’re in the right place. Here in this article, we will discuss how you can become a successful social media influencer, what will be your roles and responsibilities, how much you can earn in this field, and more.
Who Are Social Media Influencers?
Social media influencers are individuals who have established a significant number of online followers by consistently sharing good quality content on social media platforms, such as Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, Snapchat, and the like. High-profile celebrities can also be social media influencers as they already have millions of online followers who admire them because of their professional work. Social media influencers can be anyone from a blogger or an online entrepreneur to a renowned international celebrity. Social media influencers are called influencers as their shared content influences a large audience to pursue this career.
Influencers are usually credible within a particular niche, including fashion, beauty, fitness, dance, art, crafts, health, cooking, product reviews, travel, gaming, technology, and more. Most influencers share online content based on their respective genres. Social media platforms have provided influencers an excellent opportunity to showcase their talent and skills. Influencer marketing has become a profitable medium even for renowned brands and organizations. Social media influencers have the authenticity to consistently attract audiences and inspire them to expand their social media reach. It is the primary reason many big brands and companies are now hiring social media influencers to attract the target audience across the globe. Social media influencers must be good at storytelling, and their shared content must be easily understandable to the audience and encourage more peer-to-peer sharing. Big brands are now utilizing this advantage to promote their services and products through storytelling and improve their target audience reach.
Roles and Responsibilities of Social Media Influencers
The role of social media influencers comes with great responsibility. Their shared content influences a large audience that consists of every age group, especially the youth. That’s why they must be more conscious while posting any kind of content on social media. Similarly, they have the responsibility of maintaining a brand’s reputation while working for brand promotion. However, a social media influencer’s audience is not limited to their online followers only. They can even connect with the followers of their followers who share their posts on different social media platforms and promote their favorite influencer’s social media account. Many followers even request and encourage other social media users to follow their favorite influencer’s account. It results in social media influencers sharing more sponsored posts that allow them to earn a good amount for what they share through their social media accounts.
A social media influencer works across different genres of interest by creating new posts, video stories, and reels to become a known personality. They can represent a solid influencer marketing tool if their shared content attracts their target audience. A career as a social media influencer is extremely rewarding if the individual has the required skills and passion. The following are some significant roles and responsibilities of a social media influencer.
- Sharing engaging content
One of the primary responsibilities of social media influencers is to share quality content with their followers. The content can be based on the influencer’s respective niche. Additionally, they must be consistent enough to share engaging content regularly. Influencers usually use different video and image editing applications and software to create creative and attractive content for their social media followers.
- Planning the content
Planning is essential for creating engaging content. Social media influencers must come up with innovative ideas every day as it helps them to stand out from the never-ending competition in the social media world. Influencers plan what they want to post on their social media accounts. Similarly, they also schedule content publications across different platforms.
- Editing and crafting content
Sharing creative content is not an easy job as it requires a long process to complete. In this process, influencers create engaging content that can easily attract the viewers’ attention, craft and edit that pertinent content, find suitable captions, use appropriate hashtags to increase their posts’ reach, and share the content on various social media platforms.
- Communicating with followers
Influencers must build healthy interpersonal relationships with their followers to become successful in this field. They need to identify their target audience as it helps them to keep their followers intact. The number of social media following decides influencers’ popularity, earnings, and if they will get paid collaboration opportunities from brands. That’s why they must keep in touch with their followers, reply to their comments and messages, and take feedback from the audience to ascertain their insights.
- Collaborating with brands
Paid collaborations play a crucial role in social media influencers’ careers. These collaborations provide them profitable opportunities to work with renowned brands and earn extra. Many influencers promote various brands’ services and products to their followers on social media platforms. They often review these services and products after using them personally. Additionally, they encourage their followers to consider these brands.
Other roles and responsibilities include:
- Adhering to every sponsorship guidelines
- Planning and executing influencer campaigns
- Using different social media management tools
- Contacting various brands for paid collaborations
- Implementing social media strategies
- Sharing important information and links
- Keeping track of their social media account insight reports
- Staying up-to-date with the latest trends
Required Skills for Becoming A Social Media Influencer
Individuals of any gender can start their careers as social media influencers. Male and female influencers receive equal benefits in India. But a person must have a few essential skills to become successful in this field. Below are some exceptional skills required for a career as a social media influencer.
- Likeability is extremely important for a career as a social media influencer. An influencer must be likable enough to build a positive personal reputation. They must be able to get along with their followers. Additionally, they must be able to respond positively to every feedback from their followers, even the negative ones.
- A social media influencer must be creative enough to discover unique concepts for content creation. An influencer should be able to think out of the box.
- An influencer must be passionate about their niche. Social media influencers must care about their background and the growth of their genres. Additionally, they should know everything about the latest trends.
- They must be able to engage with their followers. They must have excellent communication skills as it helps an influencer build interpersonal relationships with their followers. They must respond to their followers’ messages and comments, answer their questions, and initiate conversations with them.
- Social media influencers must be camera-friendly. They should have outstanding video-making and video-editing skills to make their content more engaging. They must know to use different video-editing applications to make their content more eye-catching.
Other required skills are:
- Authenticity
- Consistency
- Outgoing nature
- Decision-making skills
- A mind for marketing
- Familiarity with handling different social media platforms
- Ability to identify the target audience
- A strong and attractive personality to promote brands
- In-depth knowledge of technology
- Platform presence
How To Become A Social Media Influencer?
Individuals need no significant educational qualifications or work experience to become social media influencers. One can begin their journey as an influencer at any time according to their preferences. However, an online influencer marketing course can help individuals learn the tips and tricks to become successful social media influencers. Though an educational degree is not mandatory, journalism, mass communication, video editing, social media marketing, and social media management are some courses considered helpful for this field.
Below is a step-by-step guide to starting your journey as a social media influencer.
- Select your niche
Selecting the appropriate niche is crucial to running a successful account or page on social media. It will also help you to influence your followers in a specific field. Ensure that your content aligns with one another in some way. Try to always stick to your niche.
- Add your uniqueness
Social media is a platform where competition is increasing over time. You need to add your unique thoughts and perspectives to every content you create to stand out from the competition. Be authentic while creating innovative content and maintain consistency while delivering it. It will eventually help you to showcase your passion and strengths to your followers.
- Identify your target audience
Identifying your target audience allows your social media account to reach your ultimate goal. It will help you to gain a good engagement rate on your posts and a genuine following. Similarly, it will help you to figure out what type of content can bring more popularity and viewership for you.
- Develop content strategy
You need to plan and strategize what type of content you will share and when. Scheduling a content calendar can help you immensely regarding this. Try to engage your followers with the help of your content. The more you engage your audience, the more they will be influenced by your recommendations.
- Collaborate with other influencers
Collaborating with established influencers can be proved extremely profitable for your social media account. It can be a great way to increase your followers and bring more traffic to your account.
Social Media Influencer Courses and Fees
People willing to pursue their careers as social media influencers can join online social media influencer marketing courses to learn more about this field. Nowadays, many online educational platforms provide paid and free certification courses for those who want to start their careers through social media. However, it is hard to find any educational institution in India that provides offline courses in this field.
Best Online Social Media Influencer Courses
The following are the top 5 best online social media influencer courses.
P.S- Candidates can join these online courses anytime, according to their preference.
| Sl No. | Courses Name | Course Provider | Duration | Average Fees |
| 1. | Social Media Success: How to Become an Influencer | Udemy | 3 hours | INR 449 |
| 2. | Influencer Marketing Strategy | Coursera | 23 hours | Free |
| 3. | The Complete Influencer Marketing Course | SkillShare | 2 hours 46 minutes | Free |
| 4. | How To Become an Influencer | SkillShare | 23 minutes | Free |
| 5. | Influencer Marketing | Udemy | 1 hour 30 minutes | INR 449 |
Best Offline UG and PG Diploma Social Media Influencer Courses in India
In India, no private or government educational institutes provide offline social media influencer courses. Similarly, it is hard to find educational institutions in India that offer PG diploma programs in social media influencer marketing. However, one can pursue the following courses as these courses are considered helpful for becoming a successful social media influencer.
- Social Media Marketing
- Journalism
- Mass communication
- Anchoring
- Social Media Management
- Video Making and Video Editing
P.S- For joining an offline UG or PG diploma course, the candidate must complete their 12th with a minimum of 50% marks from a recognized board.
Salary of A Social Media Influencer in India
Several studies have claimed that the post COVID world witnessed a huge increase in social media usage, followed by an immense growth of social media influencers. However, money-making in this field largely depends on the quality and niche of the content an influencer shares on social media. But we can’t deny that many successful social media influencers earn better than many corporate job profiles. Other than the content, the salary of social media influencers also varies based on some other significant factors, such as the number of followers they have on their social media accounts, the number of interactions (Likes, Shares, Comments) on their social media posts, number of views on their content, and more. Social media influencers usually earn based on the number of their social media posts. They can earn from several social media sources, including paid collaborations, fan memberships, advertisements, and brand promotions.
In India, a social media influencer with 5000-10,000 followers on their social media accounts can earn an average of 6530 INR/post. Influencers with 50,000-80,000 followers can make 14,000-15,000 per post, while influencers with 2-5 million followers usually charge around 40,000-50,000 INR/post.
Top Online Platforms for Social Media Influencer Certification Courses
Many online platforms offer numerous professional courses to candidates. Nowadays, many online platforms provide free and paid certification courses in social media influencer marketing. Udemy, SkillShare, and Coursera are the three best online educational platforms that offer several helpful short-term Social Media Influencer certification courses.
Social Media Influencer Course Duration and Fees (UG/PG Level)
A certification course in social media influencer marketing is primarily a short-term course offered by various online educational platforms. But no such private or government university in India provides offline UG or PG diploma programs in this field. However, individuals willing to start their career as influencers on social media can join some offline social media marketing, anchoring, social media management, video editing, or mass communication courses.
While many online platforms offer free and paid influencer marketing courses, candidates must pay to join various offline courses. The course fee widely varies depending on the course topics and duration. The duration of an online social media influencer course can range from a few minutes to a few hours. In India, an online YouTube vlogging course can cost up to 400-1000 INR. Additionally, the fees of the above-mentioned offline courses can be between 30,000-5,00,00 INR.