How to be a Fashion Influencer in Seven Steps
In today’s day and age it’s not hard to get started as a fashion influencer. These days, high-quality cameras and editing tools are easily available and social media makes audiences always accessible.
All you need to become a fashion influencer is your phone, the cute outfits you already own, a good sense of style, and a solid plan! Luckily, we’ve detailed a full plan on how to get started as a fashion influencer, in only 7 simple steps.
1. Decide on your Niche
The first thing you’ll need to do when deciding to become a fashion influencer is to decide on your niche. Creating a niche for yourself as a fashion influencer can help you stand out, and help you cater to a particular audience that will eventually build your following. Do you want to showcase your collection of personalized necklaces, share your love for vintage shoes, or provide tips on how to maintain your luxury brand purchases? You choose! You can always post other fashion related content, but having a specialized focus can help you make your mark in a memorable way.
2. Determine your audience
Once you’ve decided your niche, by extension you’ll need to think about the audience you’re trying to cater to. For example, if your niche is designer purses, you’ll likely be catering to a demographic of wealthy, older women. Accordingly, you’ll need to keep your language a bit on the formal side, avoid slang, and shoot or film your content in locations that reflect the luxury aesthetic. Or if you’re showing off your thrifted finds, you’ll be catering to a demographic of fashion forward people who don’t necessarily have a huge budget to build their wardrobe. In this case, you’ll want to be highly relatable. You can use casual language and film from the comfort of your own bedroom, or even in the thrift stores.
3. Choose your Platform
Keeping in mind the audience you are speaking to, choose your primary platform. While you can and should create content for various platforms, there will be one platform that will inevitably end up housing your content, and which you’ll want to optimize your content for. For example, do you prefer to use Instagram, one of the most typically popular platforms for fashion due to its sleek, visual design? Or are you speaking to a younger audience, for example if you’re giving outfit ideas for college, university, or high school? In this case, perhaps Tik Tok could be a better fit. Alternatively, if you plan to make long form video tutorials to showcase your shopping trips and how to find high quality bargains at thrift stores? For that type of content, perhaps you’ll realize that YouTube could be the best fit. No matter which platform you choose, make sure to cross-promote your content to multiple channels.
4. Ensure your Feed is Aesthetic
As a fashion influencer, having visually appealing content is far more important than it is for most creators. But the good news is that you don’t need to invest in expensive cameras or production softwares. Today, any number of video and photo editing tools can be used to make content look high quality and well produced. You can do this directly on many social media platforms, such as Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok. If you’re not confident with your independent editing skills, you can easily use presets to apply attractive settings to your photos and videos in a single click. Make sure to choose presets that fit the vibe of your content. Something light and pink-toned if you primarily display dresses and highly feminine clothing, minimalistic and bright for a luxury aesthetic, or darker shadows and blue tones if you usually showcase a street-wear urban style.
5. Create Valuable Content
Creating high-quality content isn’t just about the production value of the photo or video. The best content provides true value. Remember, people watch fashion influencers to improve their own style. So don’t just share your outfits - give people advice on how to style certain types of clothing. Provide them with information on how to pick out the perfect outfit for their kind of body shapes. Offer insights on how to browse through and find the best bargains at stores. In short, offer value. Ideally, you’ll also want to offer this value in a form that is entertaining. Be funny, be fun, talk about your personal experiences or fashion struggles - perhaps even allow your cat to make a cameo on your feed! Bottom line is that you want people to be engaged, giving them an incentive to watch your content and come back to your feed.
6. Show off your style!
Now we come to what is definitely the most fun part of being an influencer: show off your style! To showcase outfits as an influencer, you don’t need to go out and buy a bunch of new clothes and accessories. First, look in your own wardrobe - and think out of the box. Mix and match pieces you already own to create unique and eye-catching new outfits; create new looks by pairing outfits with bold and unconventional accessories. If you really want to showcase new outfits without splurging, you can even take photos of different clothing in the dressing rooms of stores. As a bonus they always have great, flattering lighting and usually some cute decor that will add to the atmosphere of your photos or videos. Or you could check out thrift stores for unique and vintage pieces. Once you’re more well known as an influencer and have developed partnerships, you’ll even be able to show off clothes given to you by brands for exposure.
7. Monetize your Platform
This next step comes a little further along in the process, but is critical to being a fashion influencer: working with brands. By this step, you should have your channel up and running, a sizable amount of content created, and hopefully a good amount of followers. While building brand partnerships may seem like a daunting task, you can start this process by collaborating or cross promoting with other, bigger influencers. Another great way to start getting the attention of brands is to post content wearing their merchandise and tagging them in it.
