How to Become a Micro Influencer on Instagram
If you clicked on this blog, chances are you’re wondering how getting started as an influencer actually works.
When considering how to become a micro influencer on Instagram, yes, there are only a few real “steps”, but please know that the process is challenging, takes lots of energy and diligence, and may take longer than you’d expect.
We see all of the glamorous things that our favorite creators are doing like getting free product in the mail, going to fancy events, and getting paid full-time salaries by working with brands, but keep in mind, there’s a lot of strategy and work that goes on behind the scenes.
Today, we’re giving you the step-by-step process you need to know to get started as a micro influencer.
Don’t forget that we interviewed Tom Boyd, a successful creator and content strategist, on our podcast, Soulcial Scoop, and it’s available now for you to binge everywhere you listen to your podcasts. You’ll learn everything about how to get a brand’s attention.
Do a creator sprint.
In our episode of Soulcial Scoop podcast with Tom Boyd, he introduced a concept that I’ve absolutely loved sharing with my students called the “creator sprint”
What’s a creator sprint, you ask?
You can do a creator sprint anytime in your journey, but I think it’s mandatory to do when you’re first getting started.
What to do: Pick a duration of 30, 60 or 90 days to consistently create content. Let’s say you choose 60 days. For those 60 days, you are going to do nothing but create content and post it. You’re going to try every duration, every format, every topic, every hook, etc. Try literally everything you can think of.
During this time, I don’t want you to think about or even look at your stats. Don’t worry about growing or not growing. Don’t worry about views. Your only concern should be pumping out as much of a variety of content as possible.
Dissect your findings.
At the end of your creator sprint, now it’s time to look deep into those findings. The whole point of the creator sprint is to:
Find what you like creating the best
Find what topic you’re most comfortable in.
Find what topic + content your audience responds to best.
Spend some time looking through your analytics and write down:
What got the most views
What got the most engagement (likes/comments/saves/shares)
What garnered the most new followers
Aside from your analytics, you’ll also want to write down:
What content was the easiest for you to make
What formats you enjoyed creating the most
What topics you enjoyed talking about most
What you feel the most comfortable being an “expert” on
I always love when creators share the findings of their creator sprints in the forum of the Soulcialmate Monthly Membership.
Choose your niche & make a content strategy.
First, take what you gathered about the content and how you felt about it during the 60 day sprint, and choose a topic or a mission statement that really speaks to you and you feel will be sustainable for you to consistently create content on.
Now, I know you’re probably asking: Do I actually need a niche? In short, the answer is “no”, but you will very likely see quicker success with one. The more honed in to one topic you can be, the better because then you’re able to a) serve a specific audience and b) serve them more purposefully.
Of course there are creators who do not have a niche, but in those situations, there’s almost always something about their personalities that stands out drastically. Having a niche is a much more “sure” way to see quicker success.
Your niche doesn’t need to be one word that completely describes what you post. Don’t get too hung up on the idea that your niche doesn’t fit into one pretty category. Your niche can even be a mission statement. For example, if someone’s mission is to “share fitness content with moms so that they can be more confident”, are they a fitness blogger or a mommy blogger or a confidence blogger? All three can work, but if this creator felt like they had to fit this into just one word, they may have a hard time.
If all the topics that you want to talk about can all have a common mission, that’s the goal. For example, fitness, motherhood, and confidence can absolutely all be brought together.
As long as you have consistency with the topic/s that you’re posting in, then you’re likely “niched down” as much as you need to be.
Once you’ve nailed down your “niche” and/or “mission statement”, now is the time to nail down a content strategy.
Take the findings from the analytics that you garnered in your creator sprint. You’ll want to find the video formats, durations, hooks, and styles that got the most views, interactions and new followers and put a plan in place to create that type of content consistently.
Are you someone who prefers to sit down and record all of your content for the week in one day so that you’re prepared for the week? Batch creating is a great option.
Or are you someone who likes to get up every morning and spend 15-20 minutes recording their content for the day instead? Being more on-the-fly works too.
Find a number of posts per week that seems doable for you and set that as your goal.
Do consistent trial & error.
Doing one creator sprint is likely not going to be the end all be all. It’s important to consistently be doing trial and error with your content. As the algorithms frequently change and the topics or styles of content that people respond well to also change quite a bit, it’s important that you’re always ready and open to pivoting your strategy and tweaking it as you find more things that work (or don’t work).
I personally really enjoy tracking my statistics weekly so that I can see a more in-depth view of what’s working and what’s not so that I’m able to make more educated decisions the following week.
Build and show up for your audience.
The more you’re speaking to one specific type of person, the quicker you’re going to be able to build your audience. It’s really easy to want to speak to absolutely everyone because if you’re not, then aren’t you missing out on a ton of people that could become new followers?
Yes, but are those people truly interested in what you’re speaking about?
Imagine you’re listening to someone talk about skincare. How do you know that what they’re saying even applies to you since there are so many different skin types and skin issues? You don’t.
Now imagine you’re listening to someone talk about acne prone skin for adult females. If that’s you, now you’re reallylistening intently to what they’re saying. Since it feels like they’re speaking directly to you, it’s an easy follow. And you’re likely going to comeback to their page time and time again to learn/hear more.
If you consistently put out content that is speaking directly to the person that you want to hear it, it’ll get in the right hands and growing will be simple. When you’re speaking to everyone and no one can relate, they’re likely not going to watch the content through or engage with it, and the algorithm will not continue to push it out since it won’t think that it’s relevant.
Start reaching out to brands.
Obviously the goal for many micro influencers is to build relationships with their favorite brands and be able to monetize through partnerships or content creation. It takes a long time to get here, and it’s important to remember that the first few steps are going to take months if not longer. You need to be patient.
Before you start to reach out to brands, you’ll want to ensure that you can check off all the items on this list:
✅ A brand could come to your page and instantly understand your niche/mission.
✅ You’re consistently posting high-quality content.
✅ Your audience is showing that they care about what you say (they’re engaging with your posts).
✅ You have a clear style of content that could match with a potential brand partners.
✅ You feel comfortable that you’d be able to make sales when you share a product with your audience.
✅ You understand your content and your audience enough to know what they respond best to and what will actually “work”.
✅ You understand influencer marketing enough to know what a brand wants and needs from you.
Don’t forget that we interviewed Tom Boyd, a successful creator and content strategist, on our podcast Soulcial Scoop, and it’s available now for you to binge everywhere you listen to your podcasts. You’ll learn everything about how to get a brand’s attention.
