Here are some keys to becoming an influencer without dying in the attempt: one more way to make the most of your personal brand and earn some extra income along the way.
Who would have told me 10 years ago, when I started messing about on social media, that today I’d be a micro-influencer, earning a little extra each month by regularly using my social media profiles to promote big brands’ activities and campaigns?
Here’s a cheeky hit called #yosoyinfluencer (“I’m an influencer”) from Los 40 Principales that came out when Internet República launched Socialpubli, which I regularly work with.
That’s right, the story goes back to 2006 or maybe earlier, when I started discovering and using social networks to make myself known and to make professional contacts. At that point I started with Xing.com and Viadeo.com, and the next one was LinkedIn.
Then I got into Twitter and Facebook, and whatever social networks were popular after that.
I was already a professional networker, since I went to a number of events to network, which was how I landed key accounts for REGUS, the multinational I worked for.
My path to becoming a micro-influencer:
- My first step and piece of advice: networking works best going from offline (face to face) to online (connecting via LinkedIn, Twitter), or however you like, after making a professional contact at an event. The bond will be closer, it will be easier to follow up on that contact, and you’ll have had the chance to get to know each other personally and discover your common interests.
- My second step was to dive into Web 2.0 and write my own blog. It was pure chance. When I got back in touch with a training professional, he first offered me the chance to write a book, and as a result the publisher invited us authors to write on its blog.
The publisher is Netbiblo, with which I’ve now written 3 books and earned a little, until they went bust :-(. Through it I met some pretty powerful authors, among them the great Enrique Burgos and Juan Luis Polo, co-founder of Territorio Creativo, among others.
The blog has had its ups and downs, but in recent years it has helped me be consistent and write one or more posts a month, through which I’ve been building my digital identity.
3. Third step, your digital strategy. You’re now clear about who you are, what you want to communicate and what you want to achieve. Work out which networks you need to be on and have a standard profile, a standard description and your best photo, so that your image is consistent across all of them.
LinkedIn is your 24-hour business card, so spend time on it to show your best profile, your achievements, your skills, your experience and what people can gain by contacting you. Don’t forget there are hundreds of groups on LinkedIn where you can learn and contribute content.
Twitter is your loudspeaker, your 24-hour communication channel. It’s also your radar for discovering interesting people, companies and events. A good bio and consistency: daily tweets without overdoing it, always trying to add value, not just blowing your own trumpet.
From here you also have Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, Facebook… same philosophy: be true to your communication style, share interesting content, converse, learn…
By the way, if you want everything in one place, thanks to Elena Gómez del Pozuelo I discovered About.me
4. Fourth step, find your role models. If there’s someone you’d like to be like, they can be your source of inspiration. It’s not about copying and pasting or crude imitation, but about learning from people you admire and consider better than you, and from there defining your personal marketing strategy.
I’ve had several, and now practically all of them are my friends. People as diverse as Jaime Estévez, CEO of Agoranews, Octavio Rojas, CEO of Tutatu PR, Sebas Muriel, CEO of Tuenti, Javier Megías, CEO of StartupXplore, Angel Maria Herrera, co-founder of Iniciador, Enrique Burgos, CRM Marketing Manager at Coca Cola, Laura Montero, aka Trykita, and Elena Gómez del Pozuelo, president of Adigital, among others, were my inspiration.
5. Fifth step, success comes from hard work. From the start I’ve been consistent in my activity across the different social networks: writing quality posts on my blog, sharing images and interesting places on FourSquare, Instagram and Minube, and sharing updates and interesting events on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. The thing is, the thousands of followers I have are pure organic growth, no tricks 😉
6. Sixth step, influencers will make you an influencer. The years went by, and regularly attending professional events where there were influencers helped me get into their circles. That’s where the great María Gamero, Managing Director of Influenzia, came in; I met her at an event at IFEMA. She was the first person to invite me to influencer events, because I already had a good follower base and because I held a relevant position as CEO of AJE Madrid. In turn, I also brought her on board to launch the first Business Center in the 4 Torres, inviting some twenty influencers and making a huge splash on social media.
But where can I find more influencers? Easy: Alianzo.com was one of the first sites I signed up to once I had my blog and other social profiles.
7. Seventh step, time to monetise. As you can see, this didn’t happen overnight. Until no more than 2 years ago I wasn’t paid for publishing content on my blog or other blogs, or for tweeting or posting about a brand or product. Mind you, along the way I’ve had quite a few benefits in kind, such as attending exclusive events, blog trips, tickets to event premieres, etc. I’ve also been a speaker at loads of events (the best being Salón Mi Empresa) and a lecturer on a whole host of master’s programmes 😉
Now you can become an influencer without so many steps if you have a good follower base and credibility in one or more areas such as technology, culture, travel, business, etc. Without a doubt the ones that work best are SocialPubli, and, joining the dots, Ismael Elqudsi was the first person I met at my first networking event, organised by the great Ilde Mayorgas through Xing.com. I also met the CEO of Alianzo.com and Wilhelm Lappe, one of the most active people around on social media and at events.
I invite you to join SocialPubli so you can enjoy yourself and earn money tweeting.
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