Step 2 to Being an Influencer: Knowing Your Niche

Recently I shared the first of 3 steps to becoming an influencer in a blog post (read the full post here!) As I previously mentioned, becoming an influencer entails a lot more than you might realize, but my hope in creating this series is to provide you with a great foundation if you’re interested in pursuing this world. So before we move on to step two, let’s do a quick refresher:

STEP 1: IN SUMMARY

My first post focused on how to house your content.

• Influencers need to choose which is the right primary platform(YouTube, Instagram, etc.) to post your content regularly.
• Influencers who want to establish themselves as a brand should have a central site or portfolio/ micro-site for their brand.
• Influencers will need to select a domain and should consider a more unique identifier like, .ONLINE.  It’s easily understood in most languages which is great for building a global brand, especially for those looking to build and grow their influence “online. It’s also easy to remember, unique and trend-setting. Furthermore, .ONLINE is not only popular, it’s also treated equal to .com, .org, etc in its organic search ranking by Google.

To help you get started, I recently found an amazing company that lets you get a domain for .online instead of .com. As a business owner, I know how it feels to be overwhelmed by startup costs, so I even have a discount code to save you some money. Head to www.get.online and use the code “CHELSEA” at checkout to get 90% off (yes, 90!) for your first year!

So now that we’ve refreshed those starting points, let’s move into step 2: knowing your niche.

REMEMBER: YOU CAN’T DO EVERYTHING

Similarly to our rationale for choosing a platform, we must remember it’s unrealistic to try to do it all. The goal here is to train your audience to know what to expect from you and to position yourself as an expert. If you try to claim you’re an expert at fitness AND travel AND fashion AND cooking AND everything in between, not only are you making it difficult to position yourself as an expert on one particular topic, you’ll also lack credibility (no one is a master of everything!) Instead of trying to do it all, you’ll want to establish a niche, or specific area of expertise. How do you decide what that is for you?

FOCUS ON WHAT YOU ENJOY MOST

This may sound like a no-brainer, but you should make your focus content relevant to something you already love. Perhaps you’re a culinary genius and want to use your platform to share what you cook on a daily basis. Or maybe you’re a make-up mastermind and you love trying out various looks for any occasion. If it’s something you’re already doing often in your free time, chances are you’re going to be the most dedicated to producing quality content about a topic you’re already passionate about. Furthermore, the corresponding niche audience for that topic is going to be that much more engaged with your content if they can tell that you love it! If you feel like there are already a lot of influencers talking about what you love, don’t let that discourage you! Just find a way to bring your own unique twist.

SOLVE THEIR PROBLEM

If you still need help trying to decide what niche you’ll reach, perhaps one of the best questions to ask yourself is “What problems can I solve?” One of your primary goals as an influencer should be to ask how you can serve your audience, and problem-solving is a fantastic way to do this. Are you great and helping people find fashion more affordably? Or maybe you know loads of recipes to cook that are simple, yet healthy meals for a family who is strapped for time? Or maybe you know countless effective workouts anyone can do with no equipment right at home to get in shape? People are constantly looking for inspiration and solutions to everyday problems and influencers have a golden opportunity to step in and be that. Remember, solving a problem doesn’t have to always be something negative or seriously troubling they’re experiencing… it could be as simple as providing them with entertainment (providing great content solves the problem of wanting to be entertained!)

KNOW WHAT YOU’RE NOT

The proverbial “saying yes to one thing means saying no to another” definitely applies here. The more you hone in on what you are means also knowing what you’re not. For example, my content is focused toward women’s lifestyle, being a college girl, self- improvement, etc. Because I know this, I also know that I’m not someone who is going to be developing conspiracy videos, so I’ll let someone else who is passionate about that do it well! Practicing this mindset frees you up to stay in your lane and be really good in your area of expertise instead of frantically trying to keep up with every other category.

Hopefully these tactics have continued to build on my first post and you’re feeling even more encouraged about your journey to becoming an influencer! I still have one more blog post to share on this topic, so stay tuned for when we’ll discuss how you can research your field.

*This post was written by me through an activation with HireInfluence on behalf of .Online. Although I received compensation for participating in the campaign, all thoughts and opinions are my own.