5 Resources That Help Me Succeed as a Microinfluencer

I finally hit that 10K mark last December and became a full-fledged microinfluencer—one notch up from a nanoinfluencer. Since then, I have garnered even more consistent brand work and have been even more inspired to sharpen my content creation skills. I would say that I am succeeding in my current arena. What is success anyway? However you define it! For me, success means maintaining my content sharing at a quality and consistent level, continuous brand work, and grossing enough to pay my bills. I want to get to the point where I could go full-time with content creation (based on income) if I wanted to. Will that be my reality? Not any time soon as I have to complete my residency training, but one thing about me: I like options. I realized that about myself in the past few years. I hate feeling stuck, pigeonholed, and without choice. More streams of income = more options on how to live out my life. In all of these ways, I am succeeding. There are specific resources that have helped me along the way and today, I am sharing them with all of you.

Tina Smith. I cannot say it enough. Tina is so talented!! When I started working with her more consistently, brands started taking me seriously. Quality photos matter. Beautiful imagery matters. Invest in yourself and your brand and see how far you go. I definitely started off with iPhone photos and still take a few for my feed every once in a while. Still, there is nothing like a crisp, professionally edited photo to get brands’ attention.

Seasoned Content Creators. Anytime there is an IG live, in-person event (pre-covid), blog post, or YouTube video on influencer marketing, I am in there! I study this industry. So often, bloggers who have been in the game for 10+ years will share about their experiences, tips on pitching brands, tips on pricing, knowing your worth, etc. And much of this advisement you can obtain without necessarily purchasing product first. This is especially helpful when you’re just starting out and may not have a large budget. Gleaning from those who are more well-versed in this industry has helped me tremendously. @themattiejames has been hosting Wednesday IG lives for over a year now and her tips really have pushed my business forward. I cannot recommend these free lives, her Facebook group, and her Instagram page enough. The OG’s have something to say. Listen.

LIKEtoKNOW.it. This online platform has been CLUTCH for my business. It truly has. If you are a content creator and you do not use affiliate links, I recommend you start ASAPtually. There is just so much money to be made through affiliates. The more I post to the app, the better I perform. I not only receive great commissions from this platform. I also have garnered brand partnerships. There are some brands that extend collaborations to content creators directly from the app. The ability to partner in this way while also monetizing what I’m wearing and loving has definitely helped me get SAC going in a great direction. The team is really supportive too! They even offered a strategy call with me to help me maintain consistency while I’m in residency. Amazing! More on how to improve your LIKEtoKNOW.it performance here!

Influencer by Brittany Hennessy. I read this book cover to cover and it really is a great resource. The text provides a comprehensive framework for the influencer marketing space, which is such a mystery to so many. Brittany worked for a major firm and was responsible for booking a great deal of influencers. In this book, she spills a lot of tea and even provides detailed examples of what to do and what not to do while working with brands. Definitely give it a read.

Me. Y’all, I bet on myself. I do not tell myself no because I just never know when the answer will be YES! I pitch and follow up with brands I want to work with every week. Yes, every single week. I find the correct email addresses and send my pitch email and media kit. Sometimes, this takes trial and error as the initial email I find is not always the right one. But when I try that fifth email for the same person and it doesn’t bounce back?! Got ’em! Best feeling ever. Can anyone else relate? Send the emails, y’all.

I hope you all find this post helpful. The influencer marketing industry is such a fascinating and exciting space. There is definitely room enough for all of us. Create what you love and put your best foot forward. Always remember success is what you define. I wanted to give you all insight into my definition and share the resources that helped me get there. Have the best week!

xx,

Photos by Tina Smith