Anybody can become an influencer. Don't get me wrong — it takes dedication and a willingness to fail until you succeed (and then probably fail again), but if you like posting content on the Internet, you can turn it into anything from a little extra cash every month to a nest egg to generational wealth.
Anybody Can Become An Influencer? Says Who?
I'm Jeremy Burchard, a co-founder of RootNote and a lifelong creator. In the past year, I've made around $45,000 from sponsored content, meaning influencer posts and UGC content for brands. And that's in addition to my full-time job. I typically spend about 10 hours per week on branded content. I landed my first deal at the beginning of 2024.
So to recap: in under two years I've managed to create a $45,000-per year part time side hustle that rarely requires me to leave my house. And I'm telling you that you can not only do that but blow me out of the water.
Don't get me wrong, though. While I only started doing content for brands in 2024 I've been making content for a long time. So I had a lot of fundamentals in place before I made the leap. But I'm willing to bet that even if you haven't been making stuff for 15-plus years, you've got the skills and interests to pick it up and make content people will pay you for quickly.
Perspective Helps
When it comes to influencer and branded content, I am "part-time" creator. My main focus is on music and narrative content like skits and films. But I'm still able to put together a really nice chunk of change working with brands. And my accounts aren't huge by any means. I currently have fewer than 30,000 followers each on Instagram and TikTok (the only two places I've done influencer posts for brands), and half the content I do doesn't even get posted from my own accounts — so it doesn't matter.
In addition to my own stuff, I work closely with creators, managers, agents, and brands of all kinds. I also routinely seek the advice and help of friends, mentors, and coaches who live and breathe content. We talk about rates and trends and what's working and what isn't all the time.
In other words, what I'm about to tell you isn't just from my own perspective and it's not just inspirational "best-case-scenario" stuff. This is verifiable info lived by myself and dozens of people around me. So let's talk about the steps you need to go through to become an influencer yourself.
Step One: Get Your Accounts In Order
This may seem obvious, but please make sure all of your social media accounts are public accounts with good profile pictures and brand-friendly handles. You may be laughing to yourself about that "69" in your handle, but there's a genuine chance it could hurt your ability to make money from your content. I know sometimes you can't get the exact same handle on every platform, but you want to be as consistent as possible.
Next, make sure you have either a creator or business account where applicable. Most importantly, on Instagram and TikTok. There are a lot of features you can only use if you have a creator or business profile and plenty of brands require it in order to do things like run your content as ads.
Do I Need An Account On All The Platforms?
Now you may be thinking to yourself, "Hold on, do I need to be on all the platforms?" Well. You don't have to. In fact, if you said, "Jeremy, I only have the energy and attention span for one platform as an influencer. Which do I choose?" Well...I would tell you Instagram. It's the platform that's pretty much responsible for the birth of influencer culture and it also seems the most likely to remain a stable platform regardless of politics.
That said, it really doesn't take that much effort to maintain profiles on all the biggest platforms. I'm talking Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, and Snapchat. Yes, even Facebook and Snapchat. The vast majority of brand deals happen on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube, but don't sleep on the others. I know several creators who make a living through Snapchat. Personally, my band account that I post from the most has more than 50,000 followers on Facebook.
Most brands care about Instagram and TikTok the most, but there are always exceptions to the rule.
Optimize Your Bio
Your bio is actually a lot more important than you think because a lot of brands use different tools that pull information from the bio. Meaning some brands will look for potential influencers by using software that scrapes public account data and bios and classifies creators by what kind of content they think they make.
So while we all love a cheeky bio, at least find a way to include keywords of things you like to make content about. Be specific if you can. For instance, if you love talking about gear and tech, see if you can't narrow it down a bit more, like "indie filmmaking gear." Or honestly, sometimes just list the keywords of what you're interested in most if you don't care that much about your bio.
If you absolutely can't bring yourself to keyword load your bio, it's ok. But you should include your contact email in your bio. And not just if you have a spot to put a link, but with text. The reality is people are busy and you want to make it very easy for them to find you.
Step Two: Dress For The Job You Want
You know the old saying, "Dress for the job you want, not the job you have?" It basically means that if you want brands and other people to see you as an influencer, start creating content like an influencer. We can break that down a bit more.
Think About Your Audience
First, be intentional about the content you make. I understand as well as anybody that it can be hard to "pick a niche," especially if you're just trying to have fun creating whatever pops in your head. If you already have a niche, that's awesome. But if you don't, I want to challenge you to think about the types of people you want to reach with your content and what they might respond positively to.
So for instance, maybe you can't commit just to creating makeup content, but you do like makeup and beauty products. Instead of saying, "Well, I'm a beauty influencer now," think about the types of people you want to draw in with your content. What other things do they like. They may trust you for your opinions on beauty products, but they're multi-dimensional people who will love you when you show more sides of yourself.
This will also allow you to experiment more freely with content styles when it feels like things that used to work aren't really working anymore. This approach lets you be yourself in multiple ways while still being genuine and speaking to a particular audience brands might want to get in front of.
Talk About Brands Before Brands Ask You To Talk About Them
You don't have to wait to land brand deals before you start talking about brands in your content. In fact, the best way to show brands that you're a great collaborative option is to start making videos about brands you already use.
This can be as small as a brief mention of something you use all the time while you're making content, or it could be a whole video dedicated to that item. A lot of people worry that if they make a video about a brand it might cheapen them a little bit, but this couldn't be further from the truth — especially when you're just starting out.
When it comes to influencer posts, brands want to work with creators who are genuinely excited about the brand. There are plenty of examples of brands agreeing to great deals with creators after the creator already starting talking about them.
But here's the thing. You have to tag them in your content. And you only want to tag one brand at a time. Don't expect Pringles to see your video about how much you love Pringles if you don't tag Pringles.
Step Three: Know Your Worth
Influencers are typically broken down into several categories. Even though follower count really does not mean the same thing it used to, the industry still uses follower counts to kind of categorize influencer levels.
Nano influencers have between 1,000 and 10,000 followers on a single platform. Micro influencers have between 10,000 and 50,000 followers. Mid-tier influencers have between 50,000 and 100,000 followers, while upper mid-tier influencers have between 100,000 and 500,000 followers. Then you have your macro influencers, who have between 500,000 and one million followers, and your mega influencers who have more than one million followers.
Again, this is usually judged by platform, not by total number across all platforms. So for instance, on YouTube and Snapchat I'm a nano influencer, while on TikTok and Instagram I'm a micro influencer. On Facebook I'm a mid-tier influencer. Just because my main platforms combined put me in the upper mid-tier influencer range doesn't mean I can expect to command those rates. That said, some brands are absolutely interested in a partnership that includes you posting on all your platforms, and all of your followings should be part of the conversation.
What To Charge
It can be hard to know how much to charge brands. That said, here is what I most commonly get paid for different types of content as a micro-influencer:
Influencer Post (TikTok or Instagram): $400-500
UGC Content (Footage Only): $300
UGC Content (Finished Video): $350-500
And here are some very common rates for various post types that other smaller influencers charge. Nano influencers will be on the lower end, while micro influencers will be on the higher end:
Instagram Static Post: $100-250
TikTok Video / Instagram Reel: $150-300
Carousel Post (Typically IG): $150-300
IG Stories + Link: $50-125
Influencer posts typically pay more than UGC content because UGC isn't getting posted from your profile. But UGC opportunities are usually more readily available, especially to people starting out. If you enjoy making content in general, I recommend diving into UGC.
One more thing: you typically want to get paid if a brand uses your content in an ad. However, sometimes that's easier said than done, especially if you're landing deals through third-party platforms. A general rule is to get 5 to 10 percent of what a brand may spend on advertising your content. So if a brand spends $1,000 on your influencer post as an ad, you may be getting an extra $50 to $100.
However, I've also been in situations where not getting that percentage actually led to a better return for me. One brand even liked a video I did so much that they ran it as an ad and generated and extra 14 million views on it. That brought me more followers and gave me great social proof. And I wouldn't have gotten that if it meant they also had to pay me 5 to 10 percent of that cost. So you just kind of have to decide what's best for you at the time.
These are all just a guideline, but there's actually a good way to at least mathematically start figuring out what to charge, which I'll talk about in the next step.
Decide Whether You'll Work For Free Product
Whether or not you decide to work for free product is completely up to you. I personally never have. I get a lot of generic offers in my inbox to do this kind of thing, and for me, it's just not worth my time.
That being said, there are plenty of niches where this might genuinely be the best way to start a relationship with a brand or to start your portfolio of collaborations. You will not see me throwing any shade at anybody choosing to do content for free product.
However, I do want you to be thoughtful about it. While yes, it is cool to get sent free stuff, I promise the allure wears off over time. And then you're just kind of sitting around with stuff you don't really care about, and nobody needs that. If you say yes to content for nothing more than product, make sure it's something that will actually help you build your profile and career overall, not just something you say yes to because it's nice when people send you things.
Step Four: Know What Brands Are Looking For And Identify Potential Fit
Brands are looking for a lot of different thing when they work with influencers. But remember, if they wanted to just get views, they would just run ads. In fact, that's a great way for you to initially gauge the value of your content.
If a brand expects to pay $15 per 1,000 views through an ad, then you know your post pulling in 10,000 views is worth at least $150 to them. Like, bare minimum. But it's more than just straight math to start determining your value.
For starters, many niches cost more than $15 per 1,000 views to run ads in, especially when we're talking about larger purchases like gear or high-end makeup. But even then, your audience is even more valuable than just the numbers. That's because you bring a sense of authority to the content.
At the end of the day, brands work with creators because they're trying to get something they can't get just by running ads or making their own content. They're trying to get buy-in from actual users. They want their product's name being said in your unique voice.
That means two things: first, don't be afraid to have a voice. We often see the most successful brand deals are the ones where the creator gets almost free reign over how they get to talk about the product. And second, don't work with every brand that wants to work with you if it just doesn't feel like the right fit.
Understanding Your Engagement Rate
One reason your follower count or even view count isn't as important as you might think is that brands are paying more attention to your engagement rate in many cases. However, so many people get engagement rate wrong.
In fact, there are dozens upon dozens of sites that will incorrectly calculate your engagement rate. There are lots of people who work in marketing and influencer campaigns who have the wrong formula for engagement rate.
What you've probably heard is that your engagement rate is the total number of likes, comments, shares etc. on a post divided by your number of followers.
WRONG.
The correct way to calculate your engagement rate is to take the sum of your engagements on a piece of content and divide it by the unique impressions that content has. If you can't get unique impressions, than the total impressions is ok, too. That means that each piece of content has its own engagement rate and your profile as a whole has an engagement rate.
Think about it. If you divide the engagements on a post by your following, creators with a larger number of followers are going to vastly underperform compared to creators with fewer followers. Not every single one of your followers will even have a chance to engage with your content because not all of your followers will see all of your content. That's just not how social media works nowadays.
So the only way to fairly calculate your engagement rate is to use the number of people who actually saw the content and had a chance to engage with it. Think about it — would you rather have a post get 1,000 views and 200 engagements, or 10,000 views and 50 engagements?
Can you guess which one a brand prefers? Remember — they know how to advertise to get views. What they want is your content to resonate with people and create positive engagements.
Step Five: Make A Media Kit
A media kit goes by many names. Press Kit, EPK, oners, one sheets, media package, press pack etc. But when it comes to being an influencer, they all pretty much mean the same thing.
Media kits tell brands who you are. They show brands who you are. And they get them excited about working with you. We've actually got a whole different article that dives into media kits and what you need in them. So I won't belabor that point here.
But you should definitely check that article out and make a media kit as you start to present yourself to brands. In addition to having a media kit, I also think it's worth writing up a few different intros for different types of brands you may be reaching out to. Whether you plan on emailing them directly, DMing them on social media, or applying to opportunities via third party platforms, having a consistent message can be really helpful in landing those deals.
And Now What Not To Do When You Become An Influencer
So we've spent a lot of time talking about what you need to do to become an influencer. But what about what you shouldn't do?
Do Not Buy Followers
In general, I really don't want you to get too hung up on your follower count at all. As we've discussed, it's not that big of a deal and it doesn't stop you from getting nice brand deals if you make good content. But even if you're going to worry about your follower count, definitely, absolutely, under no circumstances should you buy followers.
At best it's a waste of money. At worst it will completely tank your accounts and force you to start over.
Bought followers are not real, engaged followers. They might not even be real people. You are much better off sitting at 2,000 genuine followers than you are at 10,000 followers but 8,000 of them are fake. Brands can sniff this out. It's a complete vanity thing that does nothing for your career. Don't do it.
Do Not Limit Yourself By Platform
As I mentioned earlier, it's really not that hard to maintain multiple platforms and simply crosspost your content. You have no idea where you audience ultimately will want to find you. And there's really not much point in only posting videos on TikTok but not Instagram Reels, etc.
The more you utilize multiple platforms, the more data you have. The more opportunities you have to work with brands. And the less reliant you are on that platform to stay the same when your content is working, or to change when it isn't.
Do Not Change Who You Are To Fit A Brand
If a brand wants you to do something you just don't vibe with...don't do it. Brand deals aren't worth sacrificing your integrity for. Personally, I think I can make just about anything fit my style and my humor — if a brand is willing to let me try. But if they have a bunch of non-negotiable requirements and it just gives you the ick, don't do it. There are some categories of products I won't do. That's a red line I have to draw for myself. I've turned down a fair amount of money from different companies because I don't want to represent their product or their space.
There will be more opportunities. I promise.
Don't Give Up
Lastly, just don't give up. Some days you feel like the prettiest pumpkin in the patch, and some days you wonder why you even bother. You can't judge the journey by the peaks and troughs, you have to look at it as growth over time.
And usually, when you commit to something and then zoom out over a period of a few months or even a year. You draw that line from where you started to where you are and you go, "Huh. Look at that. Things went pretty well, didn't they?"
I've gone an entire month without booking anything just to book $5,000 worth of content deals in the last 48 hours of the month. You just can't put too much pressure on any one micro moment. But when you stick with it and then step back to look at what you've built, it's a rewarding feeling.