She grew up just outside of Washington, D.C. in Northern Virginia and attended Virginia Commonwealth University, graduating in 2013 with a degree in Mass Communications. As a college student, her budget was limited, so traveling wasn’t her main focus when she started. As Alicia and her audience got older, the topics she chose to cover expanded to fit her own lifestyle.

Alicia is no stranger to the internet. When she was ten years old, she created her first website and has had a presence online, on and off, ever since. Success does not come easy in the influencer world, but Alicia’s strong work ethic, consistency, attention to detail, and professionalism has allowed her to continue to build her following.

Since Alicia Tenise started her blog in 2011, she has been named one of the top D.C. fashion and beauty Instagram accounts to follow by Washingtonian Magazine, featured on Essence Magazine’s Website, interviewed by The Washington Post, and appeared in ELLE Magazine in their April 2017 issue.

In February we connected with Alicia to take a deeper look into how she became the influencer she is today and learn more about what it takes to become successful in the travel blogging industry.

Photo credit: Tom McGovern

When did you first realize that you wanted to start the blog, Alicia Tenise?

“I initially started as a fashion blogger, but as I got older, I wanted to add a bit more depth to my blog and cover more topics. When I moved back to D.C. after I graduated from college, I loved having the chance to explore my hometown in a new light as an adult. I also took a job at a regional magazine, which required spending my weekends traveling throughout the D.C. Metro area attending local events and festivals. I loved incorporating this lifestyle element into my blog, and I quickly realized that my local content was pretty exciting travel content for readers who lived outside of the area.

I started by doing staycations and small guides for D.C. — I didn’t have a huge travel budget in my early 20s, so doing local content was essential. The local content I produced caught the attention of other regional hotels and travel partners, and I started to grow my coverage area and began to cover destinations that were 2-4 hours away. After a few years of regional travel, I started partnering with brands outside of my area and was able to fly to and cover other destinations.”

What is some advice you could give to inexperienced travel bloggers just starting out in the industry?

“Start out sharing finds in your own city. What you might consider to be local content is travel content for someone else. Staycations and local restaurant reviews are a great way to get started and figure out your voice and content production style. You will need to produce content on your own dime before partnering with brands, so starting local is a great way to create consistent content with lower overhead costs.”

Photo credit: Tom McGovern

How did you start to gain attention on the Alicia Tenise blog and grow your following?

“First, I engaged with other bloggers’ content—following, leaving comments, sharing, etc. Pre-COVID, I actively collaborated with local bloggers for shoots and content on a pretty regular basis. It’s a bit intimidating cold emailing another blogger or influencer to partner on a project, but it’s something that definitely helped me grow. Lastly, I try to focus on creating shareable content—making travel guides that are so researched, thorough, and targeted that you’d want to share them with a friend. Being vulnerable and sharing personal posts that people can relate to is also an effective way to grab your audience’s attention.”

What are your best tips for creating a successful travel blog?

“Consistency is key in the beginning. This is how you’ll grow your audience. I’ve also invested in several workshops and blogging conferences over the years to help improve the quality of content I produce. I’m not afraid to outsource some things I might not be the best at as my business grows (i.e. photography, video editing, etc.). I also think it’s essential to find your own voice and show your personality. My audience trusts me like a friend when it comes to travel, and it’s important to try to find what makes you unique and personable.”

“Find your own voice and show your personality.” – Alicia Tenise Chew

How much time, energy, and work does it take to be a travel blogger?

“It’s definitely a full-time job. A crazy one that I end up working 50-60 hours a week. Since local content for me is travel content for someone else, I always have a long list of places to explore in my local community to share with my audience. When you’re traveling for the blog and partnering with brands to produce content, you always need to be “on”—friendly with PR people, interviewing chefs, local reps, etc., making sure you’re on time for appointments, and so on. You don’t have much time to relax when you’re actively travel blogging, but I still prefer it to sitting in a cubicle!”

Photo credit: Tom McGovern

Top Five Takeaways for Aspiring Travel Bloggers by Alicia Tenise:

1. Consistency is key. Being consistent with the content you share will help grow your audience.
2. Show your own voice and personality—your audience will trust you more like a friend when you are authentically yourself.
3. Collaborate with other bloggers and influencers—this will allow you to reach a larger and more diverse audience.
4. Find what makes you unique and personable. Followers don’t like to see the same content they’ve seen a million times before. Spice it up and share what makes you, you.
5. Start local and share finds in your own city. What you consider local content could be travel content for someone else!

Freelance contribution especially written for Find Your Influence by Jordan O’Connor.

The post Travel Blogging Tips from Expert, Alicia Tenise appeared first on Find Your Influence.

You’ve probably started a blog with the idea to share your opinions and viewpoints with a larger audience group. It’s a totally legit reason, but why wouldn’t you follow in footsteps of other bloggers who also use their websites to make some serious money? 

Online writers earn a lot more than you think, but the money doesn’t come overnight. If you want to leave an impression on the target audience and grow the follower base, you have to think strategically and make a long-term content creation plan.

You can find hundreds of more or less valuable blogging suggestions online, but it’s hard to cut out the noise and distinguish between good and bad tips. We decided to give you a hand here by narrowing down the options, so keep reading to learn seven ways to make your blog successful and profitable.

1. Focus on a Single Niche

If you are thinking about launching an all-around blog, we have only one message for you – don’t do it! This is a surefire way to ruin your content creation strategy because you won’t be able to craft quality articles in the long run. 

The only logical solution is to focus on a single niche that you know well and have experience with. For example, you might have worked for the dissertation service, so now you can write amazing posts dedicated to high school and college students.

The point is to choose a niche where you can prove professional expertise and have enough content ideas for at least a few years. That is the foundation of success in blogging.

2. Conduct Market Research

Even if you identify your favorite niche, you should begin blogging before you do the homework and conduct market research. What makes this step so important? It is essential because you have to determine if there is enough interest in your field of work. 

Let’s say you are a scientist who can write superior articles about microbiology. Your posts would be amazing, but the niche itself is not too promising and you would probably generate no more than a few dozen followers. Such a small market makes it impossible to earn money blogging.

Therefore, you should try and find a niche with enough market potential to generate thousands of readers who are willing to engage based on your expert recommendations.

3. Take Care of the Technical Aspect

Now you know that your blog has a bright future, so it’s time to take care of the technical aspect of the work. It’s a multiple-step process and we will run through it briefly: 

• Pick the best name for your blog, preferably the one containing niche keywords.
• Choose the right web hosting provider that guarantees reliability.
• Install a content management system such as WordPress.
• Install a beautiful theme and tailor it so as to reflect the nature of your blog.
• Install plugins to enable SEO, contact forms, security functions, etc.

4. Choose Your Topics Wisely

We’ve come to the critical stage of every blogger’s job and that is topic selection. Namely, you need to choose your topics wisely in order to attract a substantial number of readers. 

A report reveals that 80% of readers never make it past the headline. It’s a mind-boggling figure that forces you not only to write high-quality posts but also to pay special attention to the headlines. How can you deal with it? 

Jake Gardner, a blogger at the best writing service, explains that headlines have to look interesting in the eyes of a typical reader: “You should adjust titles in a way that suits your target audience. Some headline solutions proved to be universal, including lists, numbers, how-to posts, and so on. But if you are not sure about the quality of a given title, you can test it using CoSchedule Headline Analyzer.”

5. Create a Content Schedule

If there is one word that can describe all profitable blogs, it must be “consistency.” Online writers who want to make money should treat their blogs as a real business, which means they have to keep publishing fresh articles week after week.

In such circumstances, creating a content schedule is a must for every blogger. First of all, it will help you to focus and meet deadlines every time. Secondly, it will make your website look highly professional and packed with new posts.

It’s enough to make a plan of work using a simple Excel table, but you can also take advantage of professional planning tools such as Google Calendar or Evernote.

6. Enrich Articles with Visual Elements

A lot of bloggers make a simple mistake of creating text-only articles. Although it seems logical (you are running a blog, after all), it can seriously undermine your monetization efforts because online readers enjoy visual content much more than plain text. 

According to the study, posts that include images produce 650% higher engagement than text-only posts. This and many other stats should convince you to support the story with beautiful or informative visual content such as images, videos, animations, GIFs, illustrations, charts, and so on. 

A nice combination of visual and textual content will make your blog more attractive and help you to grow the fan base post after post.

7. Monetize on Your Blog

After everything you’ve done so far to make your blog better and more appealing, it is time to think about the monetization. How can you earn money blogging? There are so many tricks and tactics to do it, but we will highlight the simplest and most popular monetization techniques only: 

• Advertising: You can sell advertising space directly or automate it using Google AdSense.
• Affiliate marketing: Use it to promote niche-relevant products or services.
• Sell products: Bloggers can sell digital or physical products directly from their websites.
• Sell memberships: If your content is very valuable, you might as well sell memberships with access to premium content.

The Bottom Line

Blogging is one of the most creative things you can do in your career, but you should also approach it as a source of income. We showed you seven ways to make your blog successful and profitable – now it’s up to you to put ideas into practice and turn your blog into a genuine revenue driver!

Freelance contribution especially written for Find Your Influence by David Collins. 

The post Tips To Make Your Blog Profitable appeared first on Find Your Influence.

Often, consumers are turning to Pinterest more and more as a search engine than a social media platform. This is wonderful news for bloggers. With so many eyes searching Pinterest, our team has curated a list of five ways to convert your Pinterest following into monthly blog views.

Know Your Audience

What content does your Pinterest audience engage with most often? What about on Instagram, or your other active social media channels? There might be a difference between the two! It’s important to review your Google Analytics to understand the search terms or keywords used most frequently to bring traffic to your blog. Once you have an understanding of what they are coming for, you can lean in and continue to create additional, relevant content to bring them back. And don’t just review your Google Analytics once, consider reviewing every three months to ensure you remain connected with what the audience needs.

Craft the Right Pin to Drive Blog Views

The work you put in with Google Analytics to understand the search terms used to drive traffic to your blog are critical when creating pins. Use those same keywords or phrases within the description of your pins. Think of it this way – if you’re needing ideas on a DIY project, where are you going to look first? Pinterest is a great resource to share ideas and projects, and many users turn to it for inspiration or guidance. Use that to your advantage. If you’re thinking of keywords from the perspective of someone who is searching for your content, it will put your pin front and center to your intended audience.

A pin with an outdated photo isn’t going to get anyone’s attention. Aspect ratios of your images are changing too. Long gone are the long and skinny pins. Today’s Pinners are using a 4:5 aspect ratio on images and engagement is on the rise. 

Play around with the content of your images as well. Do infographics generally perform well for you? Or images featuring people? What are the people in your images doing? This is all vital information to understand when choosing the right image to tell your story.

If you’re not adding a link to your blog within your pin, you’re missing out on potential blog views. Let’s just say you were searching Pinterest for that perfect chicken parmesan recipe. You searched long and hard for just the right one – and you’ve finally found it! You click through to get the recipe, and it takes you to a page you weren’t expecting. What are you most likely going to do? I’m no quitter – so I’d most likely go looking for that recipe on the site it took me to. BUT most pinners would click away and look for another delicious chicken parmesan image. Other Pinners are less likely to re-pin your content if you’re not giving them access to the information they crave. Without repins, you’re missing out on important growth opportunities. If you change the URL on your blog, be sure to change it on your Pin too.

Board Titles Shouldn’t be Bored Titles

Remember those keywords we keep talking about? Consider incorporating a few into your board titles to continue attracting followers. Keep your board title simple and short. Let the reader understand what they will expect to see within your board.

Similar to the importance of images within your pin, images are just as important in board titles. Research shows that blue tones perform better than warmer colors and images without faces perform better than those with faces. Pinners like to imagine themselves in photos and if you add a face, it can detract from them using their imagination. 

If You Blog It, Pin It

You’ve invested time into creating a blog so plan to share it everywhere possible, including Pinterest. Check your Pinterest insights to understand which of your blogs have performed well and then pin them again. It’s also important to note what is trending on Pinterest. Imagine you spent a week writing a blog post about your favorite summer travel spots. Those keywords would likely trend in the spring every year, so re-posting it around that time could lead it to trend again.

Consider adding the “Share to Pinterest” widget to your blog so your readers can share your content to their Pinterest audiences. We haven’t talked about key words for a bit but it’s important to change up the keywords you use in your pin descriptions and see if you can repurpose old blog content to fit a new, trending keyword. Not sure where to find trending keywords? Check out the Pinterest search feature.

Consistency is Key

According to Hootsuite, “The average Pinner types in eight Pinterest searches every month. It all adds up to more than two billion searches, and more than 200 billion Pins saved to more than four billion boards across the platform.” With so much activity, it’s easy to see how quickly your content can get pushed down in a timeline. Remember those keywords? They can help here too!

However, it is important to note that Pinterest rewards active users with more visibility. Also, Pinterest insights can rise and fall consistently, don’t get discouraged! Learn from your insights, and react accordingly.

Understanding and implementing these five strategies can give you the boost you need to help you convert your Pinterest following into more traffic to your blog. As we touched on in each strategy, focusing on the right keywords within your content will be the magic touch to help you grow.

The post Blog Views: How to Gain More From Pinterest appeared first on Find Your Influence.

A decade later, A Taste of Koko was voted best local blogger in Austin by the Austin Chronicle in both 2018 and 2019. In 2019 she published her first book, KoKo’s Guide to Austin, a pocket-sized guidebook on Austin Texas. Her blog has been featured in O Magazine, InStyle Magazine, OWN TV Network, Travel Channel and many more.

With a decade of influence to reflect on, we connected with Jane for ten questions about her ten years of influence.

Let’s start from the beginning. Where did the idea for the influencer blog start? 

I bought the domain, ATasteOfKoko, in March 2010. I was in my junior year in college at UT Austin where I was getting my degree in nutrition. I just knew that I wasn’t going to pursue further higher education to become some sort of doctor or lawyer. I kept thinking that I wasn’t on the same path as many of my peers and I didn’t know what I was going to do. I was reading a couple of national blogs at that time and they were all created by women.

I was very inspired by these women that had websites for themselves and could write about anything. I got on GoDaddy and thought atasteofkoko.com. I started originally as a baking blog and then pivoted.

Was there one specific social media platform you leaned on to promote your blog in the beginning?

Yes, Pinterest. I was doing a lot of baking and cooking at home. As a college student, I didn’t pay for any magazine subscriptions but instead I relied on Pinterest to look at how people plated and styled their food. That’s kind of how I got my feet wet, just pouring through Pinterest and looking at beautifully styled food photos. I tried to figure out how those professional photographers and stylists created these beautiful plated foods. And I just tried to replicate that at home.

Most bloggers start off with a full-time job and blog on the side. When you started, were you working full-time and if so, when did you make the switch to blogging as your career?

When I started in 2010, none of us knew that you could do blogging full-time nor did we know you could make any money from it. Back then I was thrilled to get like a bag of sugar sent to me for content. Then I started getting like $50 or $100 and that was a lot of money as a college student! 

I started working full-time in social media out of college. I have a background in social media working at different brands and agencies. I quit my job in 2015 when the company I worked for became a toxic situation. I had planned on going back to find a full-time job in social media, however, in 2015 I felt like that’s when the industry kind of changed. At that time, brands started allocating parts of their advertising budget to working with bloggers.

I began getting more and more partnerships each month which kept putting off my job search to the next month and the next. I told myself that I would look for a full-time job when the campaigns stopped and they’ve just never stopped.

Do you remember your first influencer partnership?

Besides the bag of sugar?! (laughs) 

There are different milestones in my career that I fondly remember.  The first partnership I remember came when I was only three months in. It was with Mutual of Omaha which was doing a tour throughout the U.S. interviewing entrepreneurs. I remember the contact, Jenna, because she recently reconnected with me. 

I don’t really remember many of the early partnerships because I think there are so many but I remember my first big one was with Carnival Cruise Line in 2016. For me to get contacted by Carnival Cruise Line with such a big deal because growing up my dad would save money for us to buy tickets to go in December, when it was slow season. 

Being able to take my dad on a Carnival cruise was one year is such a fond memory. I remember he said, “I can’t believe this. This experience is something that I used to take my little daughter on and now she’s signed a contract with Carnival to create content.”

When did you launch your Instagram account?

I was not an early adopter. I’m not really an early adopter because I feel like I don’t want to spend time on something if it might fail. I think I probably signed up with a personal account maybe six months after it launched in 2010. At the same time I did claim “ATasteofKoko” because having worked in social media I knew that it was important to claim your name on all platforms, regardless if you’re going to it or not.

I think my first photo was me eating gelato at Costco! After about a year I realized I should be using it professionally too.

Successful influencer marketing campaigns vary from brand to brand. What do you believe is the most successful campaign you’ve worked on?

It would be GoDaddy for sure. The GoDaddy partnership was successful for a variety of reasons. They entirely sourced influencers for the campaign which can only be done successfully if the team that is managing the influencer campaign has that kind of knowledge. Because they did it internally, they fully understood the program needs, the program KPI, and they knew exactly the kind of person they wanted to market to and bring the program to life.  

This partnership was a really authentic fit because I’ve been a loyal customer and brand advocate for GoDaddy since day one.  That doesn’t happen for a lot of campaigns. It’s very rare that you get to work with a brand that you actually love and advocate for.

When I saw GoDaddy in my inbox for the first time, I almost thought it was spam. I never see a brand that I love actually email me wanting to work together! The perfect kind of partnership is when you find an influencer who is already an advocate for your brand. 

I think that’s why GoDaddy was such an organic partnership. I’ve been a loyal customer. It was 10/10 the perfect partnership and it has become a continuous partnership. We’re on our third partnership now.

Brands understand that working with influencers helps them to reach their target audience. What can you tell us about your followers and how you engage with them?

My audience is about 70 percent female and 40 percent of my followers are between the ages of 25 to 35 which has been very appealing to advertisers. It’s the sweet spot in a person’s life where they are willing to splurge and spend money.  My demographic is almost 60 percent in Texas so that’s been very appealing because Texas has become a very in-demand market. 

A lot has changed in social media in ten years, how would you describe how you have changed in that same period?

I feel like I’m in a unique position. One-hundred percent of my life online is my real life. Because I started my blog in 2010 and there wasn’t a pretense of making money from it, I just started it by being myself.  I haven’t had to change my lifestyle.

Looking back on all that you’ve accomplished in this last decade, is there one thing you would have done differently?

No, I’ve never had a mindset of regret. I’ve been very lucky to get to where I am now. It’s not like there is a playbook outlining what you do each year to grow your brand as an influencer/blogger.

I feel confident in all that I’ve done in the past that has led me where I am today. In 2010 I didn’t have any expectations of what this could be. I didn’t have the option of hiring an assistant or a photographer. I didn’t have a mentor who had done this before. I’ve had to learn this all on my own. I don’t regret anything, even investing 80-100 hours into this each week.

What advice would you offer bloggers today as you look toward the next decade?

Do I really have to look toward the next decade of Influencer blogging? (laughs) 

I want to go back to longevity. It’s easy for anyone to start a business and just start putting up content. Maybe you’ll get a brand deal in year one. The chances of you making it to year two or year three are slim if you’re not putting in the work. You have to think about the audience you want to serve. You have to define your niche. 

The secret to my success is that I’ve put in so many hours and done so much for my community. I don’t do any of these things with the assumption that I’m going to get anything back, it’s really a gamble. That is why my brand has been so successful, because of how much content and value I’ve provided my audience and how much I’ve given back to the city I’m in.

Today, Jane’s total social media reach exceeds 253,000 across Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter and monthly blog views. Her Pinterest monthly viewers exceed ten million!! As Jane detailed, this success didn’t come overnight. She’s put in the time, and the energy. What a difference a decade makes. Congratulations to you, Jane!

The post A Decade of Influence with Blogger Jane Ko appeared first on Find Your Influence.

What is a Niche?

A niche is a position or activity that suits somebody’s talents or personality. It’s something that differentiates someone from the millions of others on social media. A niche can be anything from yoga to fishing or from peanut farming to gardening.

Meet ice-fishing influencer, Jenny Anderson 

In 2017, Jenny created a blog, Girl of 10,000 Lakes, to inspire people to get outdoors and explore what Minnesota has to offer. She uses her social media platforms to express her love for fishing and the outdoors to thousands of others.

Meet Jonah Kest, travel, and yoga influencer. 

Jonah is not only traveling but expressing the art of yoga around the world through his social media. Jonah’s niche is not only taking amazing pictures in new places, but showcasing yoga poses within those photos. 

Finding Your Niche

Finding your niche is not as hard as you may think. Just ask yourself a few questions:

1. What is something that interests you? 
2. What do you do for fun? 
3. What five words describe what your social media says about you?
4. What audience do you want to reach?

Once you’ve gone through these questions, you should have a clear idea of what makes you stand out, even if it’s in a broad category like fashion. Even if your niche is fashion, you can figure out what makes your fashion sense different from others.

Showcasing Your Niche

After you’ve identified your niche, you can start presenting it on your social media platforms. Target the audience you want to reach and begin to make content that reveals who you are. 

Here are some tips to help you showcase your niche on social media:

1. When creating content, base your ideas around your niche. For example, Jenny has highlighted the top lakes to go fishing in Minnesota.
2. Include hashtags on your posts that are related to your niche.
3. Highlight your niche in your bio. Call out if you are a fashion blogger or an outdoor enthusiast
4. Tag other profiles that are related to the content you are posting about.
5. Create a blog where you can make more in depth content on your niche.

Once you’ve determined your niche and have begun creating content that fully supports who you are, be sure to keep up a content schedule that works for you. Brands are always looking for interesting social media influencers to create sponsored content. Sign up for platforms like Find Your Influence that connect influencers like you with brands you love.

The post Social Media Influencers: Find Your Niche appeared first on Find Your Influence.

Step 1: Find Your Brand

How to Start a Blog, Day 1

Before you start, determine what your blog will look like and how you want to be portrayed to your audience.

Ask yourself these questions:

• If someone asked you, “What is your story?” what would you say?
• What five words describe what your social media accounts say about you?
• What audience are you wanting to reach? 
• What sets you apart from other bloggers or influencers?
• What is your mission and vision?

After answering these questions, you should begin to envision what your blog will look like and the purpose for creating it. These are also questions that you can continually ask yourself because the answers may change over time. 

Step 2: Pick a Content Management Platform

Deciding on a content management platform to use should be simple, but you want to make sure you do your research to find the one that’s the best fit for you.

 Here are some of the top platforms bloggers use today:

• Wix
• SquareSpace
• WordPress
• Weebly

  Step 3: Decide on Your Blog Name

The name is going to be one of the first things people see. Find one that means something to you. Follow these steps to come up with a name for your blog:

• Brainstorm ideas
• Google different names to see if they’re taken
• Narrow down to three options
• Go to GoDaddy.com and see if your domain name is available 
• Purchase your domain and connect to your site

 Step 4: Design your Site

Start creating your blog and putting your personal touch on every aspect. Follow these tips for starting the design of your website:

• Take a look at other bloggers for inspiration
• Make it you! Put your personality into the design. 
• Add categories for easy navigation
• Make sure all your social media platforms are linked on your home page
• Make an About page and a Contact page

 Step 5: Promote your Blog

After all is said and done, now it’s time to share your thoughts to the world.

• Publish your first blog post
• Add your website link in your Instagram bio
• Create a story/ post telling your Instagram followers about your new blog

Once your blog is in place and you’re comfortable with posting regular content, consider writing a blog about your successes and challenges to help future bloggers get started too!

Especially written for Find Your Influence by Renee Ware, student intern, Grand Canyon University.

The post Influencer 101: How To Start a Blog appeared first on Find Your Influence.

In September I attended Tastemakers Conference, a niche conference that limits the audience to just 250 food bloggers. Attendees included food bloggers (obviously), advertising agencies, public relations agencies, brands and other marketing specialists. The event was Tastemakers’s annual three-day gathering held this year in Portland, OR. Sessions were focused on education and community and the Tastemaker team hit a home run!

This was the first blogger conferenceI have attended and it was transformational in my understanding of what makes bloggers so successful. Here are the three things I learned from the 250 food bloggers at Tastemaker 2019:

Food bloggers love creating more than anything 

In a variety of breakout sessions, led by the bloggers themselves, I learned that many of them don’t like the work of posting to Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook or Twitter. Instead, their passions often lie in creating recipes, baking, cooking and assembling the final product. 

Many bloggers shared how once they reached a certain level of income from their blog, they began outsourcing some tasks. Susie Bulloch of the blog Hey Grill Hey shared how she creates to-do lists and when that list becomes too much to handle, she transfers the things she doesn’t enjoy to an “un-do” list. The un-do list helps her begin to see what she needs to outsource to someone else. 

Food bloggers are excited to be part of a community 

I wasn’t sure how bloggers engaged with one another before this conference. In today’s business environment, competition is a key driver for many businesses. Fortunately, this is not the case with food bloggers. Everywhere you looked you could see individuals laughing together, sharing ideas and reviewing one another’s blogs. 

The collaborative spirit was most clear during the breakout sessions and panel discussions. Many of these conversations were led by bloggers themselves. Michelle Tam of Nom Nom Paleo was the opening keynote speaker and was vulnerable in sharing how she transitioned from her career as a pharmacist to becoming a full time blogger with sponsored campaigns, her own action figure, cookbooks and more. In many other fields, brands aren’t willing to share what has made them successful because they don’t want their competitors in on the secret. This was not the case at Tastemaker 2019.

Food bloggers H-U-S-T-L-E!  

One of the afternoon panel discussions titled, “Work Smarter, Hot Harder: How to Effectively Manage & Why You Should Outsource Your Work” highlighted just how much time bloggers are investing in to their business. Rosalynn Daniels, lifestyle personality and content creator, was a featured panelist and shared how she invests nearly 60 hours each week into her business. 

Like many of us, bloggers are often balancing business with family and log off before dinner and get back on when the kids are in bed. This often times leads to working from 9 p.m. – 2 a.m. Not a single speaker complained about the hours, instead spoke with passion about the investment of time and how it has helped to grow their business.

I left Portland with a renewed appreciation for food bloggers and the content they so enthusiastically create. I’m already looking forward to Tastemaker Conference 2020.

The post 3 Things I Learned from Food Bloggers appeared first on Find Your Influence.

Part of a brand’s marketing strategy includes engaging social media influencers. This may require a niche influencer to share their experience with a niche product. More important than the influencers selected for a campaign is their followers, often the brand’s target market. Before a brand “swipes right” or starts a relationship with a social media influencer, there are five things influencers wished brands knew about them.

Influencers are Storytellers

Alicia T. Chew doesn’t like to be called an influencer. She prefers the term, ‘blogger.’

“I feel like I’m a little old school in that I would never call myself an influencer. I still feel like a blogger because it most accurately reflects what I do,” Chew explained. Having earned her degree in Public Relations, she demonstrates a deep understanding of how media is most effective.

“I take an editorial approach to the content I create,” shares the DC-based fashion, lifestyle and travel blogger. Most influencers who are creating content don’t come from an editorial background. “Storytelling is a huge component of what I do and what sets me apart,” she details.

Additionally, Chew has hired a third-party agency to help enhance the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) on her blog. “I make sure all of my blogs are optimized with keywords,” Chew explains. “Many brands I’ve partnered with on their influencer marketing campaigns require Instagram-only content but where I shine is in long-form blogs where I can optimize keywords to further support the campaign.”  

This storytelling and branding strategy not only benefits the brands but is also a valuable tool the 29-year old Chew uses to her advantage to offer longevity. “The satisfaction of knowing people will see those stories for years to come makes what I do feel important.”

It’s More Than Just a Pretty Picture

Creating content to support a brand’s influencer marketing strategy is often a heavier lift than a brand may imagine. Melissa Gitt, an Arizona-based fashion, beauty and aspiring travel blogger shares that “…some brands understand what it takes to create content for their campaign but others think you take a pretty picture and it’s over.” Gitt, of ‘Always Meliss’,  finds that there are times she’s not happy with the first photos and has to then re-shoot.

Many influencers like Gitt and Chew try to be upfront about what goes into creating content so brands have a set understanding of what the experience of working with influencers will be like. There is a lot of work that goes into content creation to ensure it is authentic to the influencer’s personal brand as well as supports the brand’s goals for the campaign.

In a May 2019 post, Chew shines a spotlight on how she’s more than a blogger. She’s also an editor, a web developer, the art director, model, stylist, makeup artist and often a part-time accountant and paralegal when reviewing contract offers.

Both Gitt and Chew stress the importance of time. The more time they have with a product to develop a creative concept, find the best place to shoot, coordinate with photographers, come up with a story and plan for weather delays, the better the content. “Longer lead times allow us to produce the best content,” Chew says.

Both influencers identified four weeks as the ideal window to create the most authentic and highest-quality content but understand that some brands may require a two-week turnaround. “As storytellers, our audience is receptive to that type of content and some brand guidelines and timelines don’t leave as much room for us to be organic and it can appear scripted,” said Chew.

Influencers Want to Help the Brand Be Successful

It’s not just the brand that is invested in the success of the influencer marketing campaign. The influencers are invested too.

“I’m strategic about when I post content,” Gitt described. “I don’t do sponsored posts on Friday because engagement is low but Sundays and Mondays have really good engagement for my sponsored posts.” No one knows an influencer’s audience better than the influencer.

From the blogger’s perspective, they rely heavily on the campaign brief before creating a blog. “A lot of brands have come a long way in their brief and have begun outlining what their keywords are,” Chew said. “I remember a couple of years ago I did a blog post for Ugg. They came out with a new product called the Ugg Bethany. I really put in a lot of keywords for the product and it quickly became one of the top new boots for Ugg.”

Because she is concurrently interested in the success of the campaign, that specific post still gets traffic every winter and still remains a top search result for the product on the first page of Google.

Exclusivity Comes with Expectations

To their followers, influencers/bloggers appear more genuine when they are loyal to a product. It doesn’t look authentic to be bouncing around from brand to brand within the same product category. Gitt’s experience with exclusivity depends on the term of the exclusivity. “I prefer the exclusive partnerships to be a two-week exclusive agreement, not a month.”  

When a brand asks for category exclusivity, they often pay a premium, to offset any potential lost earnings during that period.

Chew is nearing the end of a one-year exclusive agreement with Olay. “You have to really love the brand one-hundred percent if you’re signing on for a one-year exclusivity agreement,” said Chew. “I might try to reduce the time or not enter the partnership if I’m only feeling so-so about the brand.” She describes her year-long partnership with Olay as an easy choice because it’s a brand her whole family loves. “I didn’t mind the length of the exclusivity because of how passionate I am about the product.”

Authenticity Always Wins

Influencers can’t fake it until they make it. Their followers are smart and can clearly recognize content that is inauthentic. “I always try a product first to be sure I like it and can support it before moving forward with a paid sponsorship,” Gitt says. “I don’t want my followers to think I’m a walking, talking advertisement. I’ve had certain brands pursuing a partnership with me for a long time and I’ve turned them down multiple times because it’s a brand I wouldn’t use.”

The mentality of “fake it until you make it” doesn’t ever work in influencer marketing. “When a brand’s guidelines are too restrictive, it doesn’t allow me to tell a story organically,” Chew explains. “The more freedom we have to be ourselves, as bloggers, the better the content.” And ultimately the better the campaign results.

A brand may call them influencers, content creators, bloggers or Instagrammers. Regardless of the moniker, it’s paramount for brands to understand that when they find the right influencers, they are in it together, working to achieve the same results. <swipes right>

The post 5 Things Influencers Wished Brands Knew About Them appeared first on Find Your Influence.

Social media has been around for more than a decade but influencers even precede today’s dominant social platforms. The term weblog, or blog, was normalized in the late 1990’s when individuals created content about a topic or idea from which they could speak about with experience and passion. Bloggers began as the original content creators who then became influencers when they created a following through an RSS feed.

Influencers in the beginning

Liz Della Croce has been blogging since 2010. Today her blog, The Lemon Bowl, has seen exponential growth.

Liz lost 65 pounds inspiring her to take up blogging to share her weight-loss journey. “My blog started nine years ago, back when this wasn’t a career,” Liz explains. “Back then you weren’t writing a blog to make money. There was no money to be made.” In order for bloggers like Liz to create content and photography, a lot of time and energy is invested. Once the content is created, the next step is to promote so an audience can find and engage. All of this is a great deal of work resulting in a net payment of $0. You have to be genuinely excited about something if you’re not getting paid to do it.

When blogs originated, it was often driven by pure passion. Why else would someone invest so much without the promise of a payday? “People talk a lot about authenticity and that’s what it was for me,” says Liz. “My business is based on people finding my content through searches, like Google, when they’re searching for a helpful content like a simple recipe to make for dinner, a travel guide to a destination or tips for weight loss.”

Evergreen content wins for bloggers

When you create content that doesn’t expire and can be meaningfully used any day of the year, that’s winning content. Often called ‘evergreen’, this content is the key to success for any blogger. The recipes on The Lemon Bowl will be available forever. And since most of us eat three meals each day, a blog with a recipe isn’t going to expire.

For Liz, it’s about creating something that is helpful to someone else. “As you may imagine, most healthy recipes don’t go as viral as a chocolate brownie with chocolate drizzle and ooey, gooey caramel. But I don’t care. I’m more concerned about solving problems for my readers and my community.”

Often the most successful influencers have a background in communications or business. Liz earned her degree in hospitality administration from Boston University. “After college I worked for Marriott International for five years in regional sales,” said Liz. “I have also worked for the Boston Convention and Visitors Bureau as well as the Grand Rapids (MI) Convention and Visitors Bureau, so that’s the inspiration for my travel writing too.”

Beyond recipes, Liz’s blog also includes a handful of travel guides to various destinations. “I’m a huge fan of evergreen content with travel guides too,” Liz explains. “I want it to be useful when someone goes to visit that location. I don’t want to include a festival that happens only once and then when you go to that city, the festival isn’t going on. I want to talk things that will be helpful regardless of when someone comes across my website.

Bloggers and influencers today

Some influencers today start creating content with the sole purpose of getting paid. They may be doing it to pay their bills or save to send a child to college. “Some new bloggers create a business for blogging. I think what happens is they can lose their authenticity because they’re more focused on SEO, or what’s going to go viral on Pinterest instead of what they’re really pumped up to share,” Liz explains

Liz has made blogging her primary salary for the last five years. Her blog remains her primary source for content. “I look at other social media channels, like Instagram, as an extension of my brand.” Once new content is created, she will share via her various social media platforms, each time driving users back to The Lemon Bowl.

“Many influencers today don’t even have a website,” Liz highlights. Once they post an image, a recipe or an idea to a social channel, it’s not easy to access 60 days later, proving the value of the original content creators on blogs.

The future of influencers

Social media “stars” are born every day. But not everyone survives and thrives. Liz offers advice to future influencers, “If you’re not so damn excited about what you’re writing about, don’t write it! Your followers are savvy and are just going to see through it.” When a blogger builds up a significant following, brands are going to reach out to engage for paid content. In these instances, Liz advises that for every offer you decline, you’re making room for a much better offer. “Be protective of your brand. Have faith in the long game and don’t feel like you have to say yes to every opportunity that comes your way. That will help you in the long run creating the most authentic brand.”

When asked what the future holds for The Lemon Bowl, Liz was quick to respond that she’s not looking to sell. It’s easy to see the pride she has for all she has created.

The post Bloggers: The Original Influencers appeared first on Find Your Influence.

Here at Find Your Influence (FYI), we’re always learning, evolving and working to stay ahead of trends. One of the ways we achieve this is through our family of influencers, like Sarah Dussault. Self-described as “The OG Fitness YouTuber,” Sarah has her finger on the pulse of fitness and has offered up some tips, exclusive to Find Your Influence, about how to set yourself up for success in the new year. We’re sharing her valuable insights, so you too can be ahead of the curve.  

Positive Body Image Role Model

Sarah started making Fitness and YouTube videos in 2006. “I feel very lucky to get in early when I did,” she explained. “I was one of the first three fitness channels on YouTube.”

A lot has changed for Sarah since 2006. The social media landscape has grown. Social media influencer has become a profession. (One she’s really good at, by the way.) But that’s not it. Sarah is now the mom of two boys.

“I used to teach a lot of fitness classes and I made fitness a priority in my life,” the Boston mom explains. “I would try to work out five to six times a week. I was training for marathons. Fitness took up a ton of my time because it was something I enjoyed and it was also part of my career. Fast forward to having two kids and it’s still something I enjoy but I struggle to find that time. Instead of working out five to six days a week, I aim for three or four.”

Having a family has changed Sarah’s fitness priorities. Instead of focusing on looking fit enough to feel like she’s a fitness influencer, she shares, “It’s more about being a positive body-image role model. My health is a top priority but not the same way it was before I had kids.”

Forget the Oreos

As we near the holiday season filled with cocktail parties and sweet treats, it’s hard to know where to indulge and where to draw the line. But Sarah has the aha-answer we’ve all been looking for.

“If there are desserts at a holiday party, select the ones you can only have when you’re there at that party. For example, if someone brought Oreos, you can have those any day of the year. But, if your friend made her grandmother’s secret recipe Christmas cookies, when are you going to be able to have those again? Those are worth the splurge,” she says.

But what about family dinners during the holidays? You know you can count on cranberries, potatoes, stuffing and pie. Sarah says to give yourself a break here. “Many people say that you eat your day’s allotment of calories at Thanksgiving dinner, and that’s a lot. But you’re only doing that once.” Don’t beat yourself up when these meals aren’t a regular occurrence.

Fitness Trends with Friends

Once the gifts are opened, our focus often shifts to New Year’s resolutions. Some of the most common resolutions involve losing weight, eating healthier or going to the gym. What will the fitness and health trends be in 2019?

“I think group exercise is definitely going to be big again,” said Sarah. “People love to sweat with other people because it’s motivating. There’s also something to be said about being held accountable when you sign up for a class.”

But not everyone has the budget or access to a gym. Instead of making excuses, focus your attention instead on having a few essential pieces of equipment at home that will set you up for a good workout. There are apps, or Sarah’s fitness videos on YouTube, that can set you up for success.

A healthy lifestyle is often easier to stay committed to when your family or friends join in. “If you have friends and you love going out to dinner together, maybe instead of dinner, everybody decides, ‘let’s all go to a class at a gym’,” Sarah suggests. Accountability for a workout or a healthy meal with a friend or a partner is important because you’re less inclined to cancel.

Keep it Simple

What healthy eating plans will be trending next year? It may feel like Keto was the health conversation in 2018, however Sarah thinks it’s only getting started. “Personally, I’m not a huge fan of any diet that says bacon is better than fruit. That’s not a diet for me. But people find results. I think it might be a great way to jump-start a weight loss program but I don’t think it’s a long-term solution,” she says.

Sarah also thinks eating less meat is also going to be popular. “People are acknowledging the health benefits of a vegan diet and also the effects it has on the environment.”

When it comes to healthy meal planning for yourself and your family, the goal should always be to keep it simple. “I keep my recipes basic and simple because that’s all I really have time for these days,” explains Sarah as she gets ready to walk to pick up her son from school. “I’ve become a fan of roasting vegetables and potatoes and then have a standard protein that’s easy and simple. You can marinate the protein overnight or cook using a slow cooker.”

Be Basic

When it comes time to make those resolutions, be smart and set yourself up for success.  Be basic, not extra. For Sarah, her goal is to work out three to four days a week which isn’t always possible to do. “When I do hit my goal, I feel so good about myself!” Sarah says emphatically. ‘If my goal was to work out five times a week I would constantly be disappointed.”

Stay in-the-know and ahead of trends with FYI, from your New Year’s health resolutions to the latest consumer trends. If Sarah is “The Og Fitness YouTuber,” then Find Your Influence is “The OG Influencer Marketing Solution.” Stick with us and we will keep you informed so you’re not the last person still doing aerobics with Jane Fonda – unless it works for you, we won’t judge.

The post Yes, It’s November and We’re Talking Resolutions appeared first on Find Your Influence.