Many lives of the young people have now changed due the presence of the internet and the digital platforms that keep us connected, informed, educated and entertained.

While a good number of online users use the digital platforms for social reasons, they also act as a ready market for the business who are looking to grow their brands. This is where brand influencers come in handy to amplify the brands’ messages to help create awareness, brand engagements, conversions and make sales. In return, they also can earn from the services they provide to the brand business owners.

In this article, you will be able to know some tips you can use to build your yourself as a brand influencer and earn a monetary value from it.

A. DEFINITIONS

Influencer Marketer: Someone who has an impact either online or offline. In most cases divided into three main categories namely: macro influencers, micro influencers and nano influencers.

Brand: Brand is a mark, symbol, logo, name that distinguishes companies, people, products and services from one another.

Brand Influencer:  This is either a short term or long term influencer who represents a company’s product or services for example; Diamond Platinumz who represents PEPSI.  He has a contract to a specific brand. In most cases brand influencers tend to have a specific line of branding. For instance, some will be known for purely entertainment only, some for handling cooperate public relations while some content developers and marketers

When an influencer marketer focuses on certain products and services, we call it Niche Marketing.

Influencer Marketing can be in 4 categories:

• Advocacy influencers: These are influencers who build do marketing as a passion and willingly.
• Thought leaders: In most cases they are Pro-bloggers. They have massive influence to people on a large scale for example Chris Kirubi who people see as one of the ever correct people in business any time they comment on something online.
• Celebrity influencers: I will point out Size 8’s kid. She is a celeb advertising pampers which most mothers might end up buying the specific type due to the “Celeb ideology”.  
• Organic influencers: These are influencers who aren’t necessarily reached out by brands but they can talk about products and services of a brand in form of their experiences. Such influencers are believed more and taken as authentic by customers to be to the brand in the conversations.                   

B. HOW ONE CAN BECOME AN ONLINE INFLUENCER /BRAND INFLUENCER

1. Learn to work with other brands and influencers.  You don’t wake up one day and all just goes boom, you become the best! No! You need to interact with influencers in the line of what you want to do. Learning from fellow influencers with similar interests will expand your knowledge and experience.

Find out who are the influencers, keep them close, learn their tricks to make money and help them to do some jobs online. You never know; maybe one day they will refer you to one of their clients. Additionally, this can build your network.

2. Focus on your presence in most social media platforms and tips to grow on the platforms of your choice. You cannot be a social media influencer if you don’t have an account. That simply means you don’t even exist.

If most people in your country are on twitter and LinkedIn than other platforms, start from there.

Focus on niche marketing: Find out what you want to major on. Be unique. If you are new and haven’t realized what to focus on, can start with doing most to trimming down to be branded to few that most people will identity you with.

3. Consistency: Be a regular online user in the platforms you are.  Post regularly so that people can get used to your routine of sharing and keep coming back. Social media algorithms favor users who post often.

4. Engage: Without engagement, you can never build influence. Influence is built when you engage with your audience. To achieve this you have to create content that is engaging and sharing your audience’s content too.  It’s a two-way-traffic.  Help others so that you can be helped too. That way you can grow easily. Remember, followers are important but engagement is better.

Engaging with your audience will help you know who your audience is. Once you understand your audience you will be able to come up with a good content marketing strategy that will suit them.

5. Share quality satisfactory content: As an influencer you should invest your time in reading more of other’s content to outsmart them.  Develop and distribute quality and quantitative content daily both in audio and visual. By surrounding yourself with content creators of your line of interest will enable you become a pro in content developers at the same time you might learn on how to engage the right audience.

6. Buy your domain: Invest in getting a domain for your brand, for example, janetmachuka.com. A domain will help your audience to be able to link back to your blog so know more about you as a brand.

Additionally, having a similar name across all the platforms can ease your brand identification to your audience. Nevertheless, it is not a must to have a domain if you may not need your own business email, customized profile in it or a blog.

7. Monetize your influence or brand: This is where money comes in. In order to withstand as a brand and have a long life, use your influence on the brand to earn. You can use money to make money.

For instance, you can promote your Facebook page to earn more fans that you can translate to customers on the products and services you promote on it. You can also reach out to brands. Do brand proposals and share with them. Nobody will recognize you if you don’t show up and fight for your place.

C. HOW TO MONETIZE YOUR INFLUENCE AS A BRAND ONLINE

Most people are online wondering how some influencers make it to bag some money out of their presence on the digital platforms, well worry not! Get it right that not all large following equals to huge influence of your presence online though some have the large following equally to the influence. Above all, engagement has been marked as key. If your content is not engaging then you need to learn new content marketing tricks.

It is important to understand that you will earn according to your influence and who you network with. Your influence must have an impact to your clients, customers and your audience at large. In order to realize the monetary value of it, you have to:

1. Work with other brands: There’s nothing like working alone when it comes to earning online. The likes of Droid, Shikoh Kihika, Janet Mbugua among others can attest to that. You start from knowing people day in day out from few to massive. Sometimes you have to learn the power and courage behind your keyboard to message some influential individuals to help you in areas you need guidance.

2. Affiliate Marketing: In most cases for instance Jumia JForce one can register as a sales consultant and earn through selling. Most cases such marketing is recurring where you realize given a chance to recruit new sales agents force; you earn from your work and your agents too.

3. Display Ads: This works well in blogs, websites and You Tube channels where you get ads due to the great traffic you have the sites. In Kenya, 1000 views on You Tube equals to 1Dollar.

4. Selling individual product or service: A number of brands build their online audience so as to showcase and sell their products. Most fashion and beauty brands have been built by brand influencers which have seen possible on Instagram, YouTube and Facebook.

Additionally influential bloggers can sell their content in the form of eBooks and articles using your digital network influence. Tech bloggers such as Techish earn from brands by doing articles and unboxing of their gadgets such as mobiles and televisions.

5. Education to fellow followers and those who want to be influencers: We have so many people who want to be trained. Some brands are using their influence to train others on the usage of digital platform for various reasons.

I currently run a Twitter chat, #AfricaTweetChat where we offer digital marketing related sessions every Wednesday at 9pm East African Time. This platform has helped me and many others build our brands as digital trainers. I have managed to partner with corporate brands for training services that earn me monetary value.

6. As a content creator, vlogger and marketer: As earlier mentioned, brand influencers should be good content creators. Some companies can hire you as a content developer, manager, marketer, strategist among other content related jobs. The fact that most brand influencers have blogs, one can review a company’s products and services to earn more from it.

CONCLUSION

To be among the best brand influencers, focus on simplicity and reputation. It is never easy to build a brand from scratch but it can grow very fast if you have the purpose to why you are building it. Your why is everything that matters in building a monetary value from your online influence. Find the purpose, use it and create an impact to others too. You can be a digital trainer, motivational speaker, public relations specialist, content experts among others just by your online influence.