In the last article, we have listed the top 25 Influencers in Singapore, Today we will teach you how to be a Successful Influencer in Singapore.
Influencer Marketing is a different form of marketing compared to Content Marketing or Social Marketing. It cannot replace content marketing or social marketing but cannot exist without them. Many people regard influencer marketing as having a celebrity or a famous person market or support a particular brand or product. While this is one way of engaging in influencer marketing, “influencers” do not necessarily have to be celebrities or famous figures.
Anyone and everyone can be an influencer, including you and I, and they can be anywhere at any time. There are two crucial factors to note about an influencer: the level or depth of their social media or web presence and the number of their followers.
Every market and niche needs successful influencers. Every day, there are thousands of new products, services, and concepts that need influencer marketers. And you too can become an influencer.
So how do you get to become an influencer marketer in Singapore? Here are ten tips that will guide you on the part to becoming a notable and successful influencer.
Define Your Niche
The first thing about being an influencer is to decide on what topic or subject you wish to exert influence. Successful influencers stand for a cause or purpose and are not just about making money. You might base your channel on who and what you are, or what you like and dislike. It could be about your experiences in life, your education, beliefs, or career. Keep in mind that you cannot be a “jack of all trades,” expecting yourself to be a master of all at the same time.
Once you have defined your niche, you must keep yourself informed and up to date on the subject. You cannot influence people on what you are not knowledgeable or experienced. Your goal should be to become an “authority” on the subject – one that can be relied on and trusted.
Choose the Right Platform
Platforms are the medium through which you display or advertise yourself. If you are aiming for a particular type of audience, then you should find out which platforms they are mostly on. It may be necessary to try out more than one platform and find out which gets you the most likes, responses, and shares. You must decide on the appropriate platform you would use at a very early stage. Changing platforms when you have built a considerable audience can have a devastating effect on your campaign if your audience is not on your proposed new platform.
Allow Comments and Feedbacks
Do not allow your ego to get in the way of allowing comments and feedback from your followers. Some influencers are known to block or remove followers from their blog or website if such followers make or persist in making negative or unfavorable comments about them or their posts. Such an action will only ostracize your followers and probably drive them from your site. It is not a weakness to show your followers that you are human and can, at times, make mistakes. Many will love and respect you for being real and down-to-earth. Handle criticism with maturity and professionalism.
Allowing your followers to give comments and feedback on your blog or website also show that you value them as a person, and you appreciate their feedback. Always refer to your contributors by their name. Acknowledge and appreciate every comment or feedback made whether they are positive or negative. When you receive feedback that contributes positively to your cause, say so and thank the person concerned.
Communication is Crucial
Successful influencers share information to their audience about their businesses, brands, products, and ideas. When sharing any information, you have a responsibility not only to ensure that your audience understands you clearly but that they cannot misunderstand you.
One of the significant keys to profiting and increasing your market presence lies in the quality and relevance of your content. As an influencer, you must understand the wants and needs of your brand, business, or focus, and that must be communicated clearly, on time, and regularly to your audience.
Learn to Say “No”
As a successful influencer, you will receive a lot of requests and invitations to support or market a product, brand, cause, or business. If such is outside your defined channel, you should immediately reject such or take a very close look at the request. Having defined your channel, what you endorse directly builds the trust your followers have in you. Do not toy with or take your audience for granted. They are your biggest investment. As you grow your audience, so will your credulity and level of reliability increase.
If an invitation or a proposal sounds crazy or too good to be true, it probably is. Even when a product or brand is in line with your defined channel, take your time to evaluate it thoroughly. If you do not personally use that brand or product, then you should probably say no. When you do not use a product but wish to support it, do a thorough investigation of its claims. When you support or promote any brand, your followers believe and trust you. Do not jeopardize that trust for anything, not even for money. If lost, you may never regain the confidence of your audience.
Partner & Collaborate
Even if you are a successful influencer and you have a large number of followers, you cannot fully make it on your own. There is great wisdom and business-sense in partnering and collaborating with other successful influencers. However, regardless of which influencers you are working with, make sure you verify and confirm the claims of their brand or product before you agree to any collaboration or partnership.
Audiences love new, trusted, and reliable faces. Cross-promotion gives them confidence in your brand and you as a person. When two or more successful influencers collaborate, it is a win-win situation for all concerned – collaborators and their respective audiences alike. It introduces you to your partner’s audience and increases the possibility of them also becoming your follower.
When choosing a partner or collaborator, you should take into consideration the person’s engagement rate. The engagement rate shows how influential the person is with their followers, and is calculated by dividing the number of interactions that a post generates by the number of followers.
Use Metrics Wisely
Most influencers wrongly focus on the wrong statistics: the number of their audience. However, it is not the quantity of your audience that is important, but the quality. Two key statistics determine the quality of your audience – Return on Investment (ROI) and Engagement. The returns expected from influencer marketing include revenue, better brand awareness, and perception, credible media value, sentiment, user-generated and diversified content material, increased traffic, and engagement. These should be compared to what you have invested in your campaign such as product, cash, commission, time, agency/platform/software.
Produce a Regular Flow of Quality Content
Too much of content – too long or too frequent – can be disastrous. Too little and too shallow can be frustrating. It may take you some time to find the right balance in the length or frequency of your content. Seeking feedback from your audience can significantly assist you in this regard. However, you cannot please, nor should you try to satisfy all your audience. While some may be satisfied with the frequency and length of your content, some would not. Seek to accommodate concerns and reservations they might have to the best of your ability without jeopardizing the primary goal of your campaign. You may want to read: 7 Tips in Writing the Quality Content Your Audience Will Love.
Don’t Cut Corners
Do not be lured into taking short-cuts to feign large followership. Such short-cuts include joining engagement pods, using bots, or buying followers. With the power of Artificial Intelligence (AI), through modern and state-of-the-art social algorithms, such deceitful tactics can be easily detected. The road to the top may be long and hard, but if built on honesty, trust, and sincerity, your audience would remain and gain you more followers.
Understand the Demographics of Your Followers
Whatever your product or brand might be, it is targeted toward a particular demographic. You should try seeking followers by demographics (Audience Targeting) and understand the demographics of your current audience (Audience Analysis). Three critical factors to note when considering demographics are age, gender, and location. Your product or brand is better suited to some specific audience by these three factors. Successful influencers seek to understand their audience demographics, which enables them to more efficiently produce quality content that is suited and relevant to the interests and the needs of their followers.
Conclusion
Even if you are already doing great and a successful influencer, trust me, there is always room for improvement. Set up regularly checks and analysis that help you identify areas of improvement. One resource that helps in doing that is the feedback and comments from your audience. If you make your audience feel part of your team, they will gladly contribute and share with you areas that need changing or refining. Remember, that even if you are right at the top, there is still room from improvement. Getting to the top position may not necessarily be an issue. It is maintaining that top position that is.
