The Three Steps to Becoming an Influencer

Two years ago I got an opportunity to be on the creative team at my local church in Fort Lauderdale. This wasn’t your typical local church, this one had a beyond global reach to where t eh environment was extremely corporate. So much adaptation was needed for me to be more aware of my surrounding for the opportunities and threats that were posed. My wealth of knowledge is no where near the amount that you can typically pick up on analytics, books that cost dozens of dollars, or even programs for online marketing mentorships that will cost you thousands of dollar out-the-gate, but this works. If you know anything about marketing of creating a brand, you need to know what is important is not just the theory, but the application, especially in a time to where everything changes increasingly rapidly.

Believe me when I describe that I helped grow brands in consistency to amass 100,000 followers in a year, and got small influencers from a few thousand to a couple dozen followers within a months. When I starting working at the church, I didn’t have a playbook, or even have anyone around me who has done it before. It was pretty scary the larger we got as page, questions, insecurities, and different scenarios would pop up in my mind about reasons that our growth is unstable. In what I have learned, the mistakes I have been through, and what I have been through in this time, I have learned a few key lessons that have been helpful in getting me this far.

1. Leave your Insecurities at the Lock Screen

In this first stage understand that you will make mistakes, and you are not professional at anything, and neither are they, the only difference isn’t that they just have more skill, but they have also made more mistakes than you.

You can’t be afraid to make mistakes, you have to be bold to be able to an influencer. Influencers are those that are in front of the line, not behind of it, follows/likes/comments/shares are behind them, the only thing that they are following is their dream, or in different cases it is a mission. You need to follow that mission unapologetically and not be afraid to post, even though you think it isn’t great.

2. Greatness is ONLY birthed from Consistency

Anybody can start, not anyone can finish.

Consistency is the only thing that is stopping you from finishing. Finishing in my case was boosted through faith, faith that the church can exist online, and in my Christianity boosted my faith because of the truth in the Bible. You need to follow a mission that will give you faith, one that is worth it in you 2–3 likes and worth it your post that accumulates thousands of shares. You need to be consistent in your purpose and passion as well. When people see your posts, it needs as close to daily as possible, because it is free to post! Take advantage of it! Understand that you won’t learn until you do.

3. Be Social

Social media is half media, and half social.

If you have the flyest outfit in high school, the best hair, and the most smooth talk, but never add any value to anybody through talking to them, they will never be known. Social media platforms are often the same, you have an opportunity to talk to people, so make sure that you use it.

Find several hashtags that best defines you and your target audience. Go into those hashtags and comment on about 30–60 posts every hour. Finding these people and giving them a valuable comment on their post will guarantee growth into you account, especially if you have great content on your account!

If you have other questions, feel free to DM me on any social medium @Davravid