Social media influencing has become a lucrative thing to do as much as it’s risky. Recently, social media influencers have joined the league of celebrities in our conventional society in Nigeria and beyond as they embody attention, traffic and influence through their actions in writing or in speech. Many people have not been able to distinguish between social media influencing, content creating, blogging and vlogging. Social media influencing has everything to do with opinions. When you always have one or two things to say about issues of interest, doing that often with boldness prepares you to become an influencer. People will itch to read or listen toyour opinions on trending matters. Overtime you will have a community of people who profess you as their idols or mentor or both.
Anyone creating videos only on any platform of their choice is a vlogger. Such a person is also an influencer. Influencing can be communicated both in writing or video. It can be in form of teaching, entertaining, instructing or guiding. So, doing these falls under vlogging. When a person is operating a blogspot, updating news and pursuing monetization on their blog walls, such a person is called blogger. He’s not an influencer. This is so because most times bloggers don’t show their faces and real names, while an influencer is always known. It’s his or her ability to say things many dread to say that makes them an influencer. Once people can be influenced by your words and actions through media platforms, you are an influencer. Blogging has to do with updating news on websites. It’s nothing more than this. Blogging has to do with operating websites getting them monetized by Google.
To become an influencer, you shall be ready to be doing the following:
1. Create a platform on social media that only you operate. You must own your space and operate it at will. You can’t be a guest writer or speaker on a jointly owned platform and call yourself an influencer. People should always identify you with a dedicated platform operated by you all the time.
2. You’ll have to be consistent, updating as it’s happening and making strong opinions on the subject matter. Like bloggers, you must be up to date. You must be original and not a copycat. Your opinions should stand you out. You must a model of yourself and not wearing the identity of another person.
3. You must have a large community of audience to qualify you an influencer. There must be traffic on your wall. Anyone who calls self influencer without having commensurable attention or traffic is not an influencer. Such a person can best describe self an influencer in the making.
4. You must be controversial. It’s this sense of controversy that will drive traffic into your space and make your platform a resort for interesting opinions on issues of interest. Always keep people talking and arguing. Make your updates or opinions argumentative.
5. You must know how to write or speak in your adopted language. Not being able to communicate lucidly is antithetical to gathering audience. People must like what you create and how they are communicated. This keeps them on your wall and gets them thinking aloud, wanting to align or discard your points. Any action they take in the process of trying to evaluate your claim is evident of the fact that you are an influencer in the making or an influencer in full scale.
6. You must have good gadgets that can help in creating quality posts or videos. When you are using a decrepit gadget, it’ll show on your output and performance. Using good gadgets will accelerate your performance and make your contents enticing to members of your audience.
7. You have to prepare for the worst case scenario as passing your opinions on issues of private or public interest can be risky. The affected people could choose to fight you for unveiling what they have been keeping secret all along. When this happens, it doesn’t mean that you are wrong. It’s just that some people can be crude and detest truth. So, you can be arrested and detained or prosecuted in a civil suit. If you are not determined, it can cause your withdrawal from the vocation or tone down your speed and influence.
8. Be wary of indicting incidents on your public image. Stay away from bad news with you as the chief character. If any distasteful allegation is proven against you, it’ll affect your public image, thereby reducing your audience and how people have always viewed you. Maintaining steady character is key here. Influence has everything to do with character as a little proven case against you is enough to rusticate you and chase away the audience you took pains to build over the years. What this means is that how members of the public view your person can either sustain or demobilize you. Stay away from scandals that can be proven against you. It damages reputation.
9. Learn not to join issues with the people below your standard or level. They’ll always garner sympathy against you. Instead, engage with those that are bigger than you. Whatever the outcome is favours you. Engaging inferior people can diminish your worth and bring you low. You’ll now be rated alongside their level and that goes a long way in staining and dwarfing your towering influence.
10. And finally, don’t be always seen in the open and everywhere. This breeds contempt and it’ll affect your influence. It’s better you are heard more than you are seen. Be more unavailable. It’ll strengthen and soar your influence and value. Without untainted value, you have no influence. People will always see you as one who is not serious. The way you carry yourself is how far or below your influence can take you. There’s much money in this vocation. You make money from fans. Your page can be monetized by the owners of the platforms. You could be paid to cover events or promote businesses or defend a course. All these come with financial benefits. Social media influencers have become rich through influencing. They have multiple means of generating money on a daily basis.
::::: Sir Chika Nwoba, KSC writes. 
