How-to Define Yourself
The most important thing to do when planning to be an influencer is to understand how brands will see you. Brands have many choices of which influencers to work with and this is growing exponentially. The easier you make it for them to understand who you are, what your social media is about and who your audience is, the easier it is for them to decide to work with you.
Every influencer should start by deciding which category of influencer they want to be. While no one likes to pigeonhole themselves as a human being but when marketers think about working with influencers they think about (and search by) categories. If you’ve got a fitness product, what type of influencers are you going to go looking for? Fitness influencers.
We looked at the self-reported categories of all the members on influence.co as well as the categories used in hundreds of thousands of searches on our database and put together this ultimate list of influencer categories. We now call these supercategories.
- PETS & ANIMALS
- ADULT
- ART & ENTERTAINMENT
- AUTO
- BUSINESS
- GADGETS & TECH
- CHARITY
- PHOTOGRAPHY
- EDUCATION
- FASHION & BEAUTY
- FAMILY
- FITNESS
- DIY
- FOOD & DRINK
- GAMING
- TV, FILM & RADIO
- MUSIC
- SPORT
- HEALTH & WELLNESS
- TRAVEL
- HOME & GARDEN
- LIFESTYLE
- POLITICS
- JEWELRY & ACCESSORIES
- STYLE & DESIGN
- WEDDINGS
- RELIGION
- SCIENCE AND NATURE
- LGBTQ
What category do you fit in? If you’re having a hard time finding just one to place yourself in then perhaps you’re likely trying to cover too much ground with your account. Brands in general do not want to work with fitness influencers who also post a ton about dogs and their recipes as well as destination travel. That audience is going to be very diffuse in their interests and less of a concentrated group of relevant people for the brand to reach by working with you. Focusing on one super category will help you dominate it. At most, limit yourself to two supercategories (travel + food, fitness + fashion).
If you still can’t whittle what you post about down to two, you might be heading towards the LIFESTYLE category. LIFESTYLE is the unspoken catch-all of categories. While some brands will work with influencers who dominate the LIFESTYLE category, few brands search on LIFESTYLE and generally only influencers with huge followings in this category will get a lot of collaboration offers. To get a sense of who else is in your category, try a few searches on influence.co.
By starting with a clear definition of the category your social media is in, you will find yourself able to make lots of decisions more easily. Does a certain post fit your category? Does a brand match your category and thus supply your audience with useful information? Are you following and engaging with the right influencers who might follow you back?