Becoming a famous and successful influencer sounds cool and fun. The one thing it isn’t is easy! Today, influencers have gone from a rare phenomenon to a competitive market space worth billions of dollars! All thanks to the influencer tools, this evolution of influencers took place in less than a decade.
While creativity and entertainment make influencers stand apart, a successful career builds upon the foundation of execution excellence. With dwindling attention spans and crowded niches, there is no room to slip up.
Any influencer worth their salt possesses a well-stocked content toolkit with the resources needed to create exciting content. The number of apps, gadgets, tools, software and plug-ins generally in use can be a tad overwhelming for budding influencers. In this blog, we lay down the basics of what all influencer tools you need to create unique content, save time, generate engagement, and grow your audience.
1. Competent Technology: Camera, Tripod, Smartphone
Influencer marketing is a content generation business aimed at impacting the buying decisions of the audience. For this, influencers roll out relevant content that appeals to the sensibilities of their audiences, thereby building a loyal audience.
As a content creator, there are minimal requirements when it comes to quality to get the basic views. Influencers should invest in the appropriate technology for two reasons – better quality content and ease of content generation. In an influencer’s toolkit a good camera is a must. A one-time investment, but it will stand you in good stead for a long time to come.
Today, most mid to high-end smartphones have the image quality of a 4k DSLR camera and can take care of your video quality standards for the foreseeable future. A good tripod and a remote clicker allow you to work alone without a photographer/videographer while experimenting with different layouts. You can try out different camera angles for videos. This will help you analyze the engagement data to figure out which resonates best with the audience, optimizing your videos for success.
Pro-tip
Like recipes, DIY videos and tutorials work best with a top-down angle, and this is much easier to achieve when you have a tripod holding the camera steady. This allows influencers to churn out material without a massive production team consistently. As technology constantly evolves, why not take advantage of it and ensure you give your content the best shot at succeeding?
There are superstar influencers like Marques Brownlee and Casey Neistat who have built careers as influencers reviewing and recommending tech products and gadgets, thereby helping other influencers with their tech needs. Check them out to get any of your tech-related questions answered.
2. Content Optimization: Google Ads Account
Remember, content creators might write for humans, but they need to write for the machine too! Without proper SEO, you might as well not release the content on the Internet. That’s where Google Adwords comes in. This influencer tool is massively helpful in optimizing your thoughts into relevant words before sitting down to type.
Most creators highly recommend it as it tells you the average monthly searches for keywords and the amount of competition the said keyword faces. Combine this with its relevance to your content, and voila! Your posts are now exponentially more visible online. The additional benefit of this is the Google Keywords Planner also goes ahead and suggests keywords for when you hit a creative roadblock and can’t think of unique and engaging keywords.
Pro-tip
You can leverage the keyword in the title, URL, and description of the post. It also serves as a subconscious mental cue while writing the crux of the content, constantly monitoring if it is actually SEO-friendly. Google Adwords not only help resonate with your fan base, but these significantly improve your chances of being found by new audiences. This impresses brands and advertisers who think you are on top of the SEO game and will help them rank better.
3. Content Distribution: Social Media Management Platform
Distribution of content includes scheduling, posting, monitoring content in the campaign, and engaging with followers. You can easily manage all these from one single source, a social media management platform, taking a lot of your plate. And it also reduces your cognitive load. Platform names like Hootsuite and Buffer are constantly floating around online chat rooms and avenues where content creators seek the community’s help.
Transcending geography is easy now with these influencer tools. You don’t need to stay awake through the night to post an image when your fans in a particular time zone see it. Some of these platforms have a direct web browser plug-in, while others have a free trial and full downloadable version. Take your time experimenting with a few before settling on the one that gets the job done.
Pro-tip
Instead of creating a post in real-time and clicking the post button, all you need to do is choose a date and the platform publishes it for you. This goes a long way in helping with cognitive load, allowing you to focus on the creative side of things. The best part of these platforms is that they let you monitor and schedule multiple feeds simultaneously from one single interface.
4. Growth Tools: Email Marketing, Newsletter
Sure, social media is one of the great ways to reach audiences with your content. Is that enough, though? To stand out from the crowd, and grow a following bigger than the direct competition, influencers need to adopt some out-of-the-box tactics to grow their influence.
For example, a mailing list is something most creators need to build to have a captive set of audiences who receive periodic content. A newsletter is a great way to keep patrons updated on personal and professional news. Personalization is what makes these connections stand out. The chances of a user clicking a link are exponentially higher in a newsletter than they are on a Tweet or Instagram post.
Pro-tip
Sponsored Tweets work even better when they are in a newsletter. These newsletters are tailored to the audience and designed to work on a variety of devices, including smartphones, laptops, and tablets. As audiences are always on the move, content needs to be mobile-friendly today. Using this tool is a win-win for an influencer. As people open the email or click on a backlink, all of this data goes back to the creator, allowing them to optimize content further and create newsletters that appeal to the audience. Find the right platform that lets you build mailing lists, craft layouts, schedule posts, and analyze the audience, all from the convenience of a single interface.
5. Visual Tools: Font & Design Resources
This is an aspect of influence for those who truly believe in the power of design. Given that design cannot survive without analytics, research, and data, it is sometimes considered a secondary aspect of content creation. This is a sad departure from why creators choose to do what they do in the first place.
Believe it or not, there are still audiences who believe in the power of aesthetics. When an audience is finally exposed to an influencer, they aren’t aware of all the work happening behind the scenes, and quite frankly, they don’t care! It’s the content that speaks for itself.
Pro-tip
Like analytics and management platforms, design and fonts also need to be periodically varied to assimilate data on what works and what doesn’t. Also, just like fashion, design is constantly evolving. Updating the style and design of a blog periodically helps maintain a clean look that is contemporary and relevant to the times. This helps stay attractive in the eyes of audiences and potential advertisers.
These five influencer tools contribute immensely to the quality, quantity, and aesthetic of your content. Their biggest benefits are the time they will save you, the new audiences they attract, and the potential new business collaboration opportunities they garner. Imbibe these qualities into the day-to-day aspects of your content generation process and give yourself the best chance at succeeding.
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