Be a Better Influencer: Expand Your Specialties

Social media today is saturated with beauty, fashion, health, and wellness influencers. It is difficult to stand out in these niches.

The upside, however, is that more people are on social media than ever. They are struggling to find trustworthy resources. This is where a smaller influencer can shine. Influencers can spread their reach by expanding their specialties, even if they are small.

As an influencer, your primary goal should always be to help your audience solve their problems. Nothing drives loyalty - and traffic - like helping others. However, it's also wise to consider the idea of working with brands. 

Influencer marketing helps brands build trust quickly. It's also a great way for them to generate quick revenue but famous influencers are costly. Brands turn to smaller influencers as an affordable way to get their content shared. 

That means that you can stake out a niche for yourself as a nano-influencer. These are influencers with between 1,000 and 10,000 followers on social media. An Influencer Intelligence survey states that "76% of the brands report having used nano-influencers." 

That's not just because it's more affordable. Nano-influencers can benefit brands in an era rife with fake news and untrustworthy sources. These influencers have a much higher trust rate with their followers. Word-of-mouth marketing has taken on new life as nano-influencers share their experiences with their smaller communities. 

Even if you're fairly new to influencer marketing, reaching a nano-sized audience is doable. The key is to focus on something outside of the everyday. Let's learn how you can do this.

Influencers can expand their reach by specializing in a narrow topic. Instead of being a food influencer, you can be a Keto diet influencer. Or, perhaps instead of focusing on health, you can be more targeted by focusing on nutrition and its impact on psychology. 

You don't need to redesign your entire social media strategy to accomplish this. You can simply expand your specialties in ways that adapt to the changes happening in your life. 

For example, you may be an influencer who recently graduated college. If you discuss dorm living, the undergrad experience, and days filled with exams and papers, you will need to transition your topics.

Instead, you can post about the changes you'll be experiencing:

This is a great way to "shift" your specialization at any time of life: marriage, parenthood, menopause. 

But life transitions are not the only ways you can shift your specialty. Take a good look at things you are doing right now and look at how they can be adapted as content. Include some of the everyday changes that happen in your life such as:

While figuring out your specialty, consider how a favorite brand can fit in with these changes in your social media. Don't overthink this aspect - it should come to mind fairly easily. For example, if you have decided to work through a self-help book, you can promote the book, the author's website, and any resources they offer. 

The next step is understanding how your new specialty will fit into your existing social media.

If you've been on social media a while and don't feel like you're gaining any traction, or you feel like your content is dull or repetitive, adding new content is a wise move. The ideal thing about expanding specialties is that it allows you to reintroduce yourself to your audience. 

Even if it's something you have mentioned in the past, focusing on this topic can be regularly woven in as a new journey you can share with your followers. Social media, which is still growing in use, provides you with a ready-made audience. Discover how brands are using different social media platforms for influencer marketing campaigns. Then choose the right platform for you. You have many options today. They include:

Each has a different audience and requires a unique strategy.

Analyze social media influencers in minutes with powerful Account Analytics reports. 

There are many strategies you can use to build a following on Instagram. Engage with complementary influencers who share your specialty and follow their audience members. Seek out relevant hashtags so you can find these influencers and use them in all your posts.

Instagram has several tools that can boost your profile, such as Highlights to organize your Stories. Video is key for this platform so use Instagram Live and Reels. Another great tool to stand out is by creating a signature filter for posts.

This platform has been essential for boosting smaller influencers over the last two years. To get more followers on TikTok, use this tool to educate followers. Pick one of your new specialties and show how you uniquely handle it.

TikTok can get a lot of mileage when users share their videos across other platforms. Again, strategically use those hashtags!

There are lots of ways to grow your Twitter following today. Start with following and engaging with other Twitter influencers in a similar space. This social media platform promotes active conversations, so start sharing your opinions and ideas in Twitter chats. 

Look up which hashtags are trending that involve your specialties and join the discussion. You can sidestep controversial topics and enter discussions. Look for fun topics such as challenges that involve writing creative or funny tweets.

While images are not necessary, Tweets with images stand out above the rest. So do famous quotes - but be sure to credit them properly!

Once considered only for job seekers, today, LinkedIn is a full-fledged social media platform. It is a more professional platform but can build your presence as a thought leader within your specialty. To boost your LinkedIn profile in 2021, post only a few times a week. Don't automate posts too much in this medium.

You should also create content that is just for LinkedIn. If you use similar content on other channels, you can tweak it to be more thoughtful and serious on this platform. Once again, hashtags, video, and images stand out here.

However, no matter which platform you choose, it's wise to master one before moving on to others. It's also critical to consistently post. Creating a calendar and using scheduling tools can help keep you on target with regular sharing.

To grow on any platform, it's critical to share other influencers' content. It won't take long to build rapport with other nano-influencers and boost your visibility when you do this regularly.

As you can, it's also critical in this day and age to use video tools, especially live video, to keep an audience interested and engaged.

Live streaming has become a must for anyone looking to grow a following on social media. What is social media live streaming? This is when you create videos in front of a live audience, allowing you to directly engage with your followers. Grab a friend to help you with any technical difficulties and then dive into live streaming.

While a polished and edited video might seem smart, your audience gets to know you a lot better on a live stream. They can see how you handle the unexpected, answer questions, and engage like a real person. This is the quickest way to build rapport with your community.

One of the best practices to build an audience for your live streams is to set up a regular day and time and invite your followers, for example, once a week. Give them a few days' notice to make sure they come to your event. At the live stream time, be sure to invite them to return with friends for the next one.

These tips will help you grow your following. Once you have about 1,000 followers who are actively engaging with you and your content, it's time to think about working with brands.

Companies want to find smaller influencers who can become brand advocates who have the right fit for their products and services. That means that you need to know what brands are looking for in an influencer. 

This includes:

Take your time building relationships with different brands. If you already enjoy a product or service, share how you are using it and tag the brand. Laying the groundwork by sharing your current experience is good for both the brand and your followers.

Becoming a better influencer means helping others who are looking for your experiences. Expanding your specialties allows you to share your life and grow both your reach and influence while building trust. Engaging with your community in authentic ways through social media, live streaming, and brand advocacy is a win-win for everyone who follows you.