I overheard a conversation between my eight-year-old son and his friends the other day. They were talking about what they wanted to do when they grow up. The little girl he was talking to confidently said “I’m going to be an influencer, have you seen how much free stuff they get? AND they can get paid too!”. I have to admit, it blew my mind a little!
The influencer journey
Not only do I run this blog, and have been described as an ‘influencer’ myself, in my day job I’m an Account Manager at a content marketing agency. We work with influencers and bloggers on digital campaigns on a regular basis, so I’m lucky that I get to see both sides of the coin. The thing is, I don’t have any marketing qualifications. I landed my job through sheer hard graft here on this blog that I started when the eight-year-old I previously mentioned was just an eight-week-old baby in my arms.
I didn’t have any idea where it would end up. At the time I wasn’t getting out much, I was a first time Mum and I just used it as a place to brain dump the whole experience. I’d left my previous job of ten years with no career prospects when I had my baby and I had no idea what I was going to do when my maternity leave was over. It was a daunting time but as time went by, my social media followers started to increase, my blog was getting read by more and more people, I’d got published on the Huffington Post and I was starting to get invited by brands to review their products or attend events they were holding. Despite all of this, I still never truly saw myself as an ‘influencer’ – how could I be? I was just little old me!
But the truth of it is, I was, and I was doing something right. I spent my evenings learning about SEO and web design. I enrolled in courses and studied how to grow my social media following. I clued myself up on influencer marketing and started accepting more and more offers that came my way. I was on to something here, I’d be a fool not to.
It was this knowledge that saw me get paid for social media management for the first time. Back then I was Admin Assistant at a law firm – a law firm that needed someone to take on their social media. I guess my own social media channels were my very own online CV and the rest they say is history! I took my knowledge and applied it for the first time for the businesses needs and it worked! I was good at this!
More than just an influencer
Roughly two years later, I was approached by the Co-Founders of the agency I now work for. I’d worked with them in the past on some ‘influencer’ work but this time they didn’t want my followers, they wanted me and my skills. It was a ‘pinch me I’m dreaming’ moment. I sit here writing this two years down the line and still to this day, I can’t quite work out how I’ve managed this tremendous career change and progression all without a single qualification to my name. Imposter Syndrome is real folks and I have it bad!
Real frauds don’t suffer with Imposter Syndrome.
I started as a Content and Influencer Executive and this is where all of that influencer research came into practice. I soon realised that the spotlight was on influencer marketing. It was far bigger than I ever imagined and it wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon. Brands were on to something here and it’s a clever move. Find the right influencer for your brand and it can increase the ROI far more than any paid advertisement. At this point, I’m still wondering how I found myself as an Exec at a marketing agency, let alone an ‘influencer’!
Fast forward a year and Covid hit. Brands had no choice but to go digital and so social media and influencer marketing became an effective strategy and so took centre stage. It was my time to shine and I must have done something right because five months later I was promoted to Account Manager. (Yep, still pinching here!).
So I guess what I’m trying to say is, being an influencer can be a dream job, if you know your stuff and know what you’re doing. But, it doesn’t have to stop there. Blogging and influencing was a mere stepping stone for me that lead me onto the path of a job that I absolutely bloody love. I took a leap – I didn’t know if I could do for others what I could do for myself, but thankfully those that matter had faith in me, and I am so thankful that they did!
Hard work pays off
It wasn’t a walk in the park. When I realised that I had an opportunity to make something of the position I was finding myself in, I grafted hard. I put in a lot of hours with little in return, but I persisted because I was determined. I’m living proof that hobbies can turn dreams into reality and in turn, into a rewarding career.
Many people think that influencers have it easy and it’s simply not true. You don’t see all of the hard work that goes on behind the scenes to get there in the first place, which is one of the reasons why I’m really pleased that influencer marketing isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. That would be an absolute travesty.
I’m a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it. ~ Thomas Jefferson, former President of the United States
So, what did I say to the little girl who I mentioned at the start of this post? I simply said ‘everything isn’t always as it seems, but if you work hard and give it your all, you might end up doing something even better than you ever dreamed’.