Future Instagram Influencer-Coming Right Up!

The word influencer makes me cringe already.

If you are anything like me, you follow a plethora of influencers who showcase their seemingly perfect life through filtered photos and behind-the-scenes story highlights. We see these people on the streets in random poses trying to get that perfect photo for the feed or talking to themselves in their cars as they give their followers an emotional Instagram Live.

We see them all the time, and for a while, I really disliked influencers. I didn't understand why someone would want to see an influencer talking about their skin routine or what they had for breakfast. I didn't care, so why should others?

Well, this cynical mindset of mine shifted during the summer of 2020 when I learned about personal branding. I became OBSESSED with it. I learned about the color palettes, the brand voice and tone, the content pillars and more. Looking at Instagram influencers from the perspective of a personal brand guru, I suddenly realized that they were masters at branding! Influencers follow a very regimented posting schedule, filled with posts that only fall within their aesthetic, content pillars, and brand, and seeing all of this completely shifted my mindset on influencing.

After making this realization, I learned that I want to become a personal branding coach one day. Think Julie Solomon or Vanessa Lau. This is my DREAM job! I want to help businesses and individuals build powerful brands through strategic communication and turn followers into customers.

This October, I will be attending the National Public Relations Conference virtually. Part of this event will include networking with various individuals who have the potential to help me kickstart my career.

What does this have to do with anything, you might be asking.

Well, in order to make a good impression on those individuals at the conference and help them understand that I want to become a personal branding coach for influencers and businesses, I must first go through the process of building my own personal brand and learning the art of becoming an influencer.

You can't coach others if you have never done it yourself, right?

In preparation for this conference, I have been building up my own personal brand on Instagram to use as a tool at the conference. Here is a list of the top three things I have done to elevate my brand and tips for others who want to build their personal brand via Instagram:

1. I decided what I wanted to be known for and created my three content pillars.

The funny thing about personal branding is it has literally nothing to do with how you want to be seen, and everything to do with how others see you, and using that to your advantage. With that being said, the first step in my journey Insta-fame was to find out what my friends, family, and followers knew me for. The answers varied a little bit, but they fell into three main categories:

-Fashion (typically loud fashion)

-School (the positions I held at UVU and what I was doing for the university)

-Inspiration (My life as a triplet, what I have learned as a titleholder, etc.)

Taking this information, I created the content pillars of bold fashion, student life, and real-life insight. Since determining these pillars, I only post content that falls into one of these categories.

My tips for other students: Ask your peers what they would describe to be your personal brand and use to inspire your content pillars. It is usually helpful to stay very narrow and specific in your pillars, and once you establish them, never post content that does not align with them.

2. I picked an aesthetic.

This was the hardest part, to be honest. This is where I found my brand colors, fonts, and editing style. Because I am focusing mostly on fashion, I didn't want to choose specific colors, so instead I chose an airy theme. This means I have lots of light in my photos and I don't have a lot of shadows. I chose a filter that I use consistently in Lightroom for my photos, and established a list of designated photos spots to take pics. To get to this point however, I had to do lots of research on aesthetics that I liked and influencer feeds that I loved. Since establishing my aesthetic, my feed is brighter and most importantly, specifically themed.

Tips: Make a mood board on Pinterest and then determine what colors are on that board the most-these are your brand colors. Download a few different editing presets to use so that all of your photos look similar and tied together.

3. I have planned out a meticulously scheduled posting schedule.

Before doing this on my own, I never realized how meticulous this was. Influencers spent a lot of time planning their feed so it looks uniform and they can shoot multiple weeks on content in one sitting. My experience has been no different. First, I decided what photos needed to be taken to create a visually exciting feed. Then, I picked dates and locations to shoot those photos. Then I created custom captions and hashtags for each post. The captions range from fashion info to deep authentic posts and the hashtags are constantly changing to allow for maximum exposure. After taking the photos, I have created a content calendar that outlines what I'll be posting, along with the captions and hashtags, weeks in advance.

Tips: You really do need to customize your hashtags for each post to match the photo, this will help your photos to be seen by more followers than if you just kept the hashtags the same.

Overall, the process has been super interesting and exciting! I have learned so many lessons about personal branding along the way and I am only getting started on this journey.

So, even though I only have 1450 followers, I'm learning about what it takes to build a memorable personal brand and that's something I have sincerely enjoyed doing.

With that being said, give your girl some love and follow @kadeejojones so I can progress in my journey to Insta fame and personal branding success!

Want more tips about personal branding? Follow @uvuprssa on Instagram or check out uvuprssa.org.