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With the rise of ad blockers, DVRs, and streaming music we don’t see as many ads as we used to; which is why influencer marketing is now the most effective form of advertising. Influencers have a loyal following, authenticity, and trustworthiness making them so effective in persuading consumers to buy a product.
Karis, born in New York, entered the world of luxury fashion in early 2012 serving as the brand director at the luxury staple Helmut Lang. Since then, Karis has designed for a number of luxury fashion brands including Off-White, Hugo Boss, Miu Miu, Saint Laurent and so on throughout his decade-long career.
Many other renowned luxury brands based full collections off of his original creations. His exact color palettes, graphics, original fonts and garment silhouettes have been directly mimicked by many luxury brands within the past years. Karis has truly influenced the world of luxury fashion behind the scenes. We had a chance to chat with Karis Dowe to get his take on how to be an influencer.
So how do you become an influencer anyway?
- Find Your Niche: Grab a pen and list your passions. They don’t have to fit in the normal categories, like: Travel, makeup, reviews, etc.
- Do Something Unique: How many unsuccessful “lifestyle” bloggers are out there? Chances are that you have a friend who’s tried it. They have the passion for fashion, food, and travel but they couldn’t get a following. Why? Because they’re like everyone else. Be different than your competition.
- Pick Your Channels: You can’t possibly be successful on all channels. Pick one channel to focus on and maybe two more to be active on.
- Create A Social Media Strategy: Don’t just wing it. Plan out your content. Make a list of the content you want to create for the next three months. Decide how often are you going to post. When will you post? Be consistent.
- Create Great Content: This is where you’re going to spend most of your time. Make sure you create the best content you can. It’s your brand. And don’t be afraid to invest your money. If you were starting a business, you’d invest money wouldn’t you? If you’re serious about this, you should buy some good equipment.
- Be Consistent: My favorite podcasts come out on the same day and time every week. Your content should be the same way. I post new articles on my blog every Tuesday at 5PM. You need to give your audience a reason to subscribe. If you don’t create new content, on a consistent schedule, why would they need to subscribe? They’re not missing anything.
- Promote: You spent all this time creating content, but what good is it if nobody sees it? Remember, it’s 20% content creation and 80% promotion.
- Collab: The quickest and easiest way to grow your audience is by working with a bigger influencer than you. Remember, there’s more in it for you than the bigger influencer, so you’ve got to help them out to make it worth their while. I figured out this trick with my Forbes articles. If I interviewed big influencers, and let them promote what they wanted, they would share the article and it’d get a ton of views.
- Engage With Your Audience: This will be easy at first, because won’t have a big following. Respond to every comment, follow people back, etc.
- Look At The Data: What content is working? Who is your audience? Look at the analytics. Most platforms will give you the data but if they don’t, just look at what posts are getting the most likes and comments.
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