How to Be an Influencer — The 3 C’s
By: Yang Zhou
Tags: Influencers, Future, Influencer Marketing, Social Media, Marketing

How to Be an Influencer — The 3 C’s

Image: Influencer Yang Zhou standing on the Tower Bridge

Nowadays, every individual can show him or herself to the whole world and becomes an influencer. On the one hand, our opinions are much more influenced by influencers on social media instead of professional journalists on traditional media. On the other hand, the market size of influencer marketing is growing rapidly. It has never been easier to become a millionaire in the Influencer Age.

Ryan Kaji, who is a 9-year-old boy, generated millions of dollars in revenue in a single year from his YouTube channel (reported from CNBC). This was impossible 10 years ago. But now, in the Influencer Age, it’s normal and reasonable.

So, would you like to become an influencer? If the answer is yes, then this article is worth reading. It summarises the essential factors for being an influencer into 3 C’s.

Content

Connections

Consistency

After understanding and applying these 3 C’s, it’s just a matter of time before you become an influencer.

Content

As an old saying goes, “content is king”. We are always willing to follow the influencers who can produce valuable contents.

In fact, there are two types of influencers, fake influencers and real influencers. The way to distinguish them is to check out their contents.

The fake influencers cannot produce valuable contents. They only focus on creating contents which can generate clicks, shares and traffic. Although they could use some tricks to attract followers and become popular in a short term, they will ultimately fail in the long term.

The real influencers focus on creating contents which are helpful, useful and valuable to followers. Although some contents are not trending topics, they have long-term value and will ultimately win the respect and love from followers.

Therefore, if you wanna be a real influencer, choosing your niche and posting valuable contents about it consistently. As the saying goes, “good wine needs no bush”, so being patient if you are not popular yet and focusing on creating great contents.

Connections

There are many similar words to connections, such as followers, subscribers or fans. My favourite is the word “connections”. If one person follows you on the Internet, a connection between you and him or her will be built. Not only contents but also connections are assets of an influencer.

From connections to a community

The connections of an influencer will unconsciously become a community. This community may have specific jargon. It contains some interesting words or expressions only related to the influencer and it will only make sense in the context of the influencer.

If one person has many connections and an unconsciously-built community is appearing, it means that he or she becomes a big influencer.

Keep improving based on the comments

Comments from connections are one of the most significant resources for an influencer to make improvements. For me, I learnt lots of things and really appreciate the comments of my Medium articles. Some comments are encouraging and some comments are very good suggestions.

Good connections and bad connections

There are two types of connections, good and bad.

The majority of connections will be good connections. They followed you because of your great contents and personality.

However, a few connections will be bad. They followed you to send you ads or unrelated comments. Some of them are not even real people, just bots.

A real influencer should respect good connections and try him or her best to reply to the comments. In the other hand, a real influencer will not waste time on bad connections, just blocks them.

Consistency

If someone pays attention to you, there must be some reasons. They like your contents or your personality and they expect to enjoy more after following you. Therefore, an influencer should produce something consistently for their connections.

The consistency of your profile photo

Your profile photo represents your personal brand. A good strategy is using the same profile on all social media, which will make it easier for people to remember you.

The consistency of contents

This is especially important for beginners. You should select a niche which you are familiar with and produce relative contents consistently. People like following experts. If you are an expert in a certain field and are willing to share high-quality contents consistently, it will be easier to become an influencer.

The consistency of design

From a branding perspective, an influencer should keep his or her style as consistent as possible. It means using the same colours, fonts, and design on your website, YouTube channel, social media or other places, so you can raise your personal brand recognition.

Conclusion

During any economic bonanza, there are only three kinds of people: those who make things happen, those who watch things happen, and those who say, “What happened?”. — Robert Kiyosaki

The Influencer Age gives us many new opportunities. If you have understood the 3 C’s, why not take action now and become a real influencer? Good luck!