Girl Boss Tips

Tips On Being Impactful As A Growing Influencer

Blogging is not easy! When I first started I had this idea of let me go out and just take pictures for my audience. I recently shared my blogging journey, click here to read more about this journey.

As my platform grew and I realized each aspect of my brand.  My foundation is Family, Style, Home, and Organizational tips. With each I strive to be as transparent as possible, because I never want to give a false picture that I have it all together.  Trust and believe I am figuring it out as I go and letting faith guide my steps!

It was honestly like I figured out my lane this year and knew how I wanted to build my community. I know the blogging industry is pretty oversaturated, and getting harder every minute to stand out! I’m not going to lie it can get discouraging at times.  I give myself a pep talk and keep pushing. What helps keep me motivated to keep going is I know if I am helping even 1 woman then my mission is accomplished.

Many bloggers think the only way to be impactful is through having a high follower count and feel that they can’t work with brands.  That’s not fully true. Yes, having a large following is important, but having true engagement and community is so much more impactful.

While building my platform I don’t short change myself or get myself in the mindset that I can’t work with brands based on my following.  If I feel a brand is a great match I go after working with them. It’s a mindset y’all. We have to stop short changing ourselves.

I wanted to share a few ways to be an impactful as a micro-influencer.

If you want to be the part, look the part – Ok, I am not talking about physical appearance here.  This is solely speaking of your branding. I had a thought to myself one day. If I want a brand to take me serious, I have to look like I am a true business.  After taking a blogging break early this year I did a full analysis of my blog and brand. I highly recommend this, if you are ever in a rut or don’t know what direction to grow. Take a step back and figure out the next move. Once I knew where I wanted my blog to go, I knew that I had work to do on branding.

Invested in redoing the following:

• My branding: Logo, Email signature, EVERYTHING
• Website: This for me I feel was my biggest area that needed work in my brand.  I was using Blogger and had a premade template that I got from Etsy, which was all awesome for a period of time.  However, My site needed work.  I had broken links, outdated material, overall the site just didn’t look up to par in my book.  The problem with that is this is how brands identify with who you are.  Yes, they will look at your social channels, but also your website.  So if that is not up to par then why should they do a partnership?  With that thought I made the investment to redo my website, and I am glad that I have! I even have brands that have noticed and commented about liking the upgrade. 
• Media Kit: This is basically information sheet you provide brands to get a glimpse into who you are, who you’ve worked with, and a summary of your analytics. If you don’t have a media kit I recommend getting one. You can create one yourself, Etsy, or have a custom one created. I’ve always used my Etsy media kit, but it was time to upgrade to match my new branding.  Also to help brands get a true picture into who I am.

Upgrading the previous has been so impactful in my brand and growth. I feel when I did that I felt I was giving my best foot forward.

Create your community:

While being a micro-influencer it’s important for me to not stress about my numbers. For me it is more important that I build a true community that engages with me.  Helps me when I need advice, and to give me honest feedback.  It makes me happier when I have engaged comments from my followers.  I want my platform to be that I helped women by giving them tips and inspiration through my own personal experience.  Even if that is small community I want a following that truly knows who I am, and can relate to what I go through.  That is why it is important for my content to be honest and NOT PERFECT.  I challenge you to think less about the follower count and more about growing your community. A few ways that has helped me grow my community is through creating posts that truly engages with my audience.  Such as a question or a poll.  Engaged with the people that do follow you.  Your community is following you for a reason, so why not build a community where they you both can help each other.

Another way is I share a lot.  Now this may not be for you, but I share on my Instagram stories quite a bit.  I share a little bit of everything.  From cooking together as a family to dance parties.  All of which has grown my engagement and community.

I am not saying do this, but find a way to connect with your audience. What works for each person will vary, but for me I enjoy connecting with my community this way.  I get so many messages from people that can relate or how my transparency has helped them.  It may not happen immediately, but this will help in the long term build your following.

Go after the brands you wish to work with:

In the Spring I took a course call Pitch it Perfect by Julie Solomon, that helped open my eyes to everything I should be doing to work with brands.  As mentioned before I had gotten myself in this mindset that I couldn’t work with brands due to my size.  I also didn’t really know if the way I was approaching brands was the right way.  I improved how I came to brands, and I only started approaching brands that I could authentically represent.  I didn’t give them a cookie cutter message, I gave real pitches on how I can support the brand and what partnering together would mean. I believe when I came to the brands with an approach of how I will help them, and when I started working with brands that match mine deals started happening.

One of the takeaways I got from Pitch it Perfect was don’t let your numbers discourage you.  Deals and working with big brands can still happen even if you aren’t at 100k.  I get many No’s from companies and I keep pushing until I get that Yes. In the past 6 months I’ve had the opportunity to work with larger brands.  And part of that is due to me not being afraid to go after that due to my size.  I show them what I can bring to the table and my engaged audience.  Remember you can be impactful as a micro-influencer! There are some brands I reached out to multiple times before I got a yes.  So keep pushing, and go after those brands you feel are aligned with your brand!

Side note: Don’t be afraid to take a webinar or other resources to educate and give you the tools you need to make a bigger impact.  The money I invested in that course I have made back and then some.

Be true to your brand:

You can learn a little bit about how I started my blog journey here, but I didn’t start out really knowing what content I should share.  Once I figured out it became clear.  My brand is Lifestyle, Home, Family, and Style. I show each equally.  If you want to be impactful learn what your platform is and target your content around that.  I picked those areas because those are major aspects of my life.  I would highly recommend picking aspects that truly represent who you are.  You don’t want to put out content that is not real.  Find your voice and stay true to that.  It will give brands and your community a clear picture of who are you.  Brands will also know exactly why they should work with you.

One other quick tip I have to share: Picture quality does matter! You have to make sure your picture quality is where it needs to be.  I felt since we upgraded to a better camera it has improved my engagement and help growth.  Now I am not saying break the budget and go buy a camera. Whatever camera you have work at doing your best with that one.  When I was putting our blurry pictures (which I still am working on), that effected the brand deals I was getting.  Brands want to see that you can clearly promote their products.  And I wasn’t doing that when I was putting out blurry pictures.  So that may mean getting a photographer at times or saving to get a new camera.  Just remember take your time and lighting is your friend.

These aspects have been business changing for me. I have been able to make such a bigger impact.  Remember you can be impactful at any size.  Work on building your community and the numbers WILL follow.

You are impactful! So now it’s time to start believing it! Share with me what has helped you make impact!