5 Micro-Influencer Tips and Tricks for Girls with Full Time Jobs

So you want to be a micro-influencer?

You’re in the right place! As someone with less than 100k followers on any platform, you’re a micro-influencer.

Disclaimer: I came into micro influencing by way of being bullied on the Internet by a famous White woman, so a lot of it happened pretty quickly - I went from 1500-5500 in a matter of 3 days. (If you want the tea, listen to my episode on Diet Starts Tomorrow and Freckled Foodie & Friends.)

However, the growth since then has been strategic. I grew my TikTok from 0-15Kin 3 months and have continually grown my Instagram with a 10% engagement rate ever since I started taking content creation seriously in December.

Check out this YouTube Video for more tips here!

So, today I’m sharing with you 5 of my tips for getting started and managing content creation. Let me know if you want to have this as a series where I share my secrets, and let’s get into it! 

• Act As If. 

  • I  was so insecure about having less than 10,000 followers on Instagram, which is for some reason the Golden number that gets you the swipe uplink. I felt that I couldn’t start a podcast, my real dream, until I hit that golden number. But whether you have 300 or 50000 followers you need to nurture your community that you DO have if you want to grow, so providing value to your followers is simply the baseline.

• Choose Your Brand & Mission and Get Serious About it

  • You can’t just create content because you want to be famous, you have to have a reason. I personally create the content I wish that I was able to consume growing up - vulnerable and valuable stuff about money, body, career, and confidence. When I’m making a post I try to envision my little sisters, and the younger me, to be sure she would enjoy the information I’m putting out there.

• Educate, Inspire, Entertain

  • I don’t necessarily think you need a niche, but it definitely makes things easier. However, while I was trying to figure out my angle, I created a lot of content just to experiment with what worked and what didn't for me and for my audience. Something I wish I knew was that each platform can have a different goal or niche, which made things way easier for me when I was planning out content. For example, my core mission is to help people with self-love and self-improvement, and on TikTok, I do that through showing clothes that will help people with confidence (educate) and providing daily vlogs as a form of entertainment and inspiration. However, on my podcast, I interview people about their experiences as a form of education and entertainment, but it has nothing to do with fashion. My YouTube channel has lifestyle content and educational content about money and career, while my Instagram serves as a visual mood board that chronicles my experiences. You will have different audiences on each platform, so it’s important to cater to the platform and bring your personal brand and value proposition to each platform.

• Batch Creation!!!

  • If you have a full-time job, creating different types of content is going to be very time-consuming if you try to do it every single day. I want to maintain a presence on my podcast, my youtube, Instagram, and TikTok, but there simply isn’t enough time in the week to do each one from scratch daily.

  • I also firmly believe that you don’t NEED to be everywhere - just focus on 1 platform to start and gradually expand as you have the bandwidth. I started with IG, and then added a Podcast, a website/blog, then TikTok, and most recently, a YouTube channel.

  • Tactically, I choose one day a month to focus intensely on planning.

    • I write out content Ideas and plan what days I’ll film, edit, and upload in Asana

  • One day a month to record, edit and upload all of my podcasts for the month, and one day a month to record, edit, and upload all of my YouTube videos for the month.

    • I schedule recordings in advance and just record with my guests whenever they’re free. I save editing for one day a month to minimize switching between tasks.

  • I also have a day where I write all of my blog posts, pin all of my photos on Pinterest (another growth hack!), and update my website. 

    • Having a website is super important, mostly because I need it for my podcast, but I actually use my website as a links hub to drive traffic to my website as well. 

    • I use Squarespace and it’s amazing for scheduling, commerce, my podcast, and my blog!

  • I also try to have a photoshoot for in-feed Instagram posts 2-3x a month so I have enough content to post for that week.

  • This means that on a daily basis, all I have to do is promote the content I already created, as well as juggle Instagram stories and creating TikToks. It allows me to spend 8 hours a day fully at work, and then spend some time on IG and TikTok for growth.

• Make That Money Girl

  • Once you’ve got a consistent content schedule, niche, etc, brands will start to reach out to you. DO NOT accept all of them, and if you have more than 5000 followers, absolutely never do anything for free. You can accept gifting, and if it’s a huge brand that will help you grow, then free, but random supplement companies who want 3 in feed posts in exchange for the product? Absolutely not.

    • For brand deals, I choose 3-4 brands I absolutely love and use daily, and make a point to engage with their content for at least 2 weeks before reaching out to them via Instagram DM.

    • You also want to bake into contracts a 2 week trial period, negotiate for exclusivity rights, and be sure that u have clear deliverables!

    • Always respond to brand emails, even if you’re turning them down. Be kind always!

  • Affiliate Links

    • This was the first way I started making money as an Influencer, through Amazon affiliates. Anyone can apply and start making a commission, the other platform I use is RewardStyle, which is amazing. You need a referral but you will absolutely get one!