Are ready to jump in with both feet and become a full-time influencer marketer? Are you prepared to set your own income goals and work your own hours?

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Whatever the reason for your migration from a part-time influencer, or whatever starting point you’re at, to a full-time influencer, it must be known that this is doable. Full-time influencing means having a minimum of 3000 followers on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram. It also involves creating engaging content for brands that you are affiliated with. The final part is getting paid! Getting incentivized is awesome. But how does someone follow their influencer dreams and what does that entail? 

Here is a concise and useful guide to getting you on your way:

1. Grow and activate your following

With the previously mentioned minimum of 3000+ followers, you are sure to land brands that will pay you to promote them. But to grow into a full-time influencer, you must expand your following and viewership. Most importantly, you must be able to influence your flock, harnessing their buying power. 

You can achieve this without breaking a sweat by:

·    Creating or enhancing your influencer profile. It must be captivating.

·    Making yourself searchable by including commonly searched keywords and   buzzwords. 

·    Using a variety of social media platforms. Each has its strengths and you can play on those strengths to reach more followers. For instance, use YouTube to create and submit pitches to hirers and brands.

·    Changing your profile to ‘entrepreneur’ or ‘business’ or the relevant option available on your

     chosen social media networks. 

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·    Signing up on Influencer Marketing platforms and with Influencer Marketing  agencies for greater representation and discoverability. These options also assist with the relationship management aspect.

Your profile and content must also display:

·       Authenticity

·       Professional Content Creation

·       Community Management

·       Trust

·       Passion

You must truly understand and imbibe the power of influence. Use this understanding to create content that helps achieve the listed requirements above and get into the psyche of your followers. 

This will require more customer engagement and more interactive content and campaigns that boost reachability, maximizes relevance, and creates a long-lasting resonance. 

2.  Determine your niche

You probably have this figured out and are possibly very successful at creating content and promoting brands within your chosen niche. But for the purposes of your growth and longevity, you should still consider this step and not skip it altogether. Confirming your niche strengthens your profile, content creation, and engagement with followers.

To determine your niche, you need to identify what you’re passionate about and which niche is marketable and profitable. All niches do not perform the same and some are good fillers, to ensure you diversify your audience and provide something for everyone. But that is not necessary at all. If you select a robust niche and focus your energy and time on that only, you could achieve much more. This is left, entirely, up to you to determine, test, and refine.

Consider these niches that are currently listed as the most profitable:

· Digital marketing

· Blogging and making money online

· Health and fitness

· Personal finance and investing

· Recipes and food

· Personal development and self-care

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Remember, you must be passionate about the niche you choose. This fosters the creation of content and campaigns that are engaging, trustworthy, and reliable. It promotes interaction with your followers, providing solutions for their brand and niche-related problems. Your content must be the answer to their problem or question. If enough people have the same questions that you are able to resolve, you would have tapped into a market that will be willing to follow you.

 It is also important to note that the brand you choose to work with must be selected with as much consideration and research. The goal is to build deeper connections with your brands. This allows for trust with your brand and your followers, alike. It’s a win-win situation.

3.  Set your income goals

This step can be completed concurrently with step 1, expanding your followership. Your influencer marketing business needs to be lucrative enough to go full-time. The goal is to put all your eggs into your influencer marketing basket and it pays off. You may have to stagger this process. As your followership and audience grow, so will your rates. Bigger paydays will become more frequent. Knowing your income goals will give you a gauge for how far to reach before taking that leap into full-time influencer marketing.

To assist you in calculating these numbers, you must make a good old-fashioned ‘needs and wants’ list. The list will consist of 2 columns. Each column will contain a list.

Column 1 is your ‘needs’ column and must contain items and expenses that are a must, such as your rent, electric bill, essential food items, gas, etc.

In the other column list your ‘wants’, the luxury items that you could live without such as wine, vacations, and Netflix.

Each entry should have its estimated cost near it. Calculate the expenses of both columns. The total at the end of the ‘needs’ column is what you must earn to survive. And the total at the end of the ‘wants’ column is the leeway you require to lead a life with a few more perks and luxuries. The minimum earning is the total at the end of the ‘needs’ column and the combined total of both columns should be your maximum target. If you exceed your maximum, it would be wise to put some money into savings for the months that aren’t as good as others.

Doing this makes your venture more tangible and your planning more directed. Once you have the numbers, realistic goals can be set to achieve a more sustainable, long-term, business.

4.  What to charge?

 The going rate to charge has been pre-calculated, which makes this step pretty straightforward. 

Have a look at what you could be charging:

· YouTube: Roughly $2,000 per 100,000 followers

· Instagram: $1,000 per 100,000 followers

· Snapchat: Starts at $500 per campaign in 24 hours

SocialBluebook.com is something of an authority on rates social media influencers should charge. Sign up for a more updated breakdown of rates. It is important to note that these rates are simply benchmarks and guides. Be confident enough to quote amounts that are representative of your good work. The better the quality of your content, the higher your rates. That is the golden rule!

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5.   Drive it home

The rest is up to you. Remain focused, disciplined, and determined. Do the research and work required to remain relevant. Stay afloat by refining your process. Find your passion and voice and use that to create relevant and riveting content.

A few tips to help you stay the course:

1.      From this point onwards, you must see yourself as the CEO of your own brand and business.

2.      Deadlines are sacred. If you cannot beat them, make sure you meet them but NEVER miss them. Your reputation and professionalism count on it. So, make time management your best friend.

3.  Be patient! This process takes time and income trickles in accordingly. Allow yourself 6 months to a year before you quit your day job and start reaping the expected rewards. It is very possible but cannot be accomplished overnight.

4.  Be confident! You are the face and voice of your brand. Your confidence will inspire confidence in you, your brand, and the content you create.