BALOT AMECHACHURA DEL ROSARIO

AROMATHERAPIST |  COACH | TEACHER

Lessons from being a Micro-Influencer

Balot Del Rosario - Smart Parenting Mom Ambassador

 

I have been blogging since 2005 but it was not until 2020 that I have put in some serious effort to grow and make use of my social media channels and digital assets to communicate my products and services to the market. 

As a certified aromatherapist, a mom, and a life coach, I started to consistently post content on my Instagram, Youtube, and website, specifically on health and wellness. I published relevant topics from essential oil recipes to coaching to daily snippets of my mom life. That was when my followers really grew. I was able to find a tribe that resonated with what I was teaching and got several brands to partner with me in the process.

In the same year, I was lucky enough to be chosen as one of the micro-influencers of a local parenting magazine in the Philippines. I didn’t realize that I would grow so much in this role and funnel it back to the other things I do.

Being an influencer does sound lucrative but let me share with you some lessons I have learned in the past year: 

  • Being an influencer is not all glitz and glamour. You have to do the work.

You have to create strategies. You have to plan your content. You have to take photos that your audience would resonate with. All of these you are most likely to do on your own when you are starting so be prepared for that. 

  • Be honest and authentic.

Gone are the days of mass marketing. People love word-of-mouth and referrals from family, friends, or someone they look up to. This is why influencer marketing has grown so much in the past years. As an influencer, people in your circle would most likely take your word when you talk about a brand or a collaboration. Make sure you believe what you endorse because, in the long run, your audience will know if you are truthful in the things that you say (and yes, this includes what you post on your social media, too!) 

  • When you are just starting out, being an influencer may not yet be your “main job.” 

Like another influencer in my Intellifluence circle, Tim, he didn’t really plan to branch out into influencer marketing. He is a Los Angeles-based online fitness and nutrition coach, who just started posting about relevant content in the industry where he serves. Later on, he got offers for brand collaborations and that is where it started. Start small, dream big, and put in the work.

  • You have to harness the influence you have on your audience.

In the cluttered world of social media and the digital space, you always have to deliver content that is relatable to your audience so that they keep coming back. To my first point, you have to consistently show up and connect with your audience. 

These are just some nuggets I learned in my short time as an influencer and there is still so much room to grow. I continuously study what other influencers do, especially those I follow and look up to in the health and wellness industry such as Adriene from Yoga with Adriene, Emily Fletcher, and Kayla Itsines. These ladies have been amazing in helping me create my own self-care program at home in the midst of the pandemic and I have learned so much from them with the content they deliver on yoga, meditation, and home workout. 

These influencers I look up to taught me that at the end of the day, more than the bells and whistles of being called an influencer, it all comes down to the service they put out to the world, creating content their audience can relate to, and being able to provide value in their lives. 

Anything else on top of that is just icing on the cake.

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