As social media becomes more prevalent in our everyday life, the number of people who are great at utilizing it will continue to increase. Influencers are one of these groups of people. They are experts in a specific niche and industry who have built a reputation on social media for their expertise and knowledge. Their followers can range from a few thousand to millions, depending on their influence.
YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and TikTok are some of the most popular social media platforms for influencers. However, Instagram still reigns as the top influencer platform. Lifestyle, music, photography, beauty, and family are its most common categories.
The power of influencer marketing has been around for about a decade. Well-known personalities such as Zoe Sugg, Manny Gutierrez, and Michelle Phan are social media icons who started as beauty influencers in the early to mid-2010s.
If you’ve always looked up to these internet celebrities, there’s still time and plenty of opportunities to follow their steps. You can share your experiences with certain beauty brands and products and earn from the content you produce.
The market for brand-influencer partnerships is at a steady growth. By 2025, 86% of U.S. marketers will be using influencer marketing. This means that brand deal openings – be it from offline or online eCommerce businesses – will keep on flowing.
Learn how you can become a credible social media beauty influencer below.
- Do your industry research
The world of beauty has a wide scope. You can focus on makeup, skincare, nails, or hair—or all of the above. Just make sure that you know what you’re talking about or sharing with your followers by doing your research.
Everything you want to know about beauty trends and science is only a few clicks away. So, take the time to dig in a little deeper on the effects certain ingredients do on your skin or some beauty hacks that can help your audience clean their makeup brushes more efficiently. Other than online research, you can also attend beauty seminars, lessons, and conventions to get up to speed on the latest trends and launches.
- Create a personal brand
In creating your brand, you must find your unique selling point (USP). What makes you different from the saturated market of beauty influencers? What will make the public want to follow or subscribe to your content?
One way to start finding your USP is to stick to a niche. You can target a certain audience that can resonate with your content. For example, if you have a monolid, you can create tutorials on different eye makeups suitable for your eye type.
There are other ideas and gimmicks you can mix into your content. The more unique and out-of-the-box your theme is, the more you’ll get noticed by the public. In the beauty influencer industry, blending your foundation shade is important, but blending in won’t make you the icon you dream of.
- Do honest reviews
As you work to establish a reputation, don’t shy away from doing product reviews and tagging brands. If you love the product, shower it with praises and recommend it to your audience.
However, you should always be honest. Users can smell if an influencer is faking it. The Internet faces a lot of influencer fatigue too and you do not want to become a personality that turns people off.
Thus, only recommend brands you truly love and never promote something just for the money. If a brand likes your style and tone, they’ll most likely reach out to you for a collaboration.
- Make shareable high-quality content
You’ll encourage more audiences to engage with your post when you share high-quality content. Your photos should be clear with a caption that resonates with your followers.
For videos, the audio and clips should be spot on, with the message understandable to anybody who views them. It would be best if you also minded the video length, as you may find it difficult to capture your audience’s attention with unnecessarily long video content.
Value is also important for influencer content. Your audiences should gain something from your posts, whether a quick laugh, an inspirational story, or a helpful hack. By providing high-value content, audiences will want to keep coming back to your channel, helping you acquire a loyal following.
- Keep a consistent online presence
Once you have enough industry knowledge and have established your brand, you should stay consistent with your posts. By showing up every day on your chosen social media platform, you’re opening the door for brands to discover you.
There are numerous ways for you to create content within one platform. Take Instagram, for example: you can post photos, videos or reels, stories, and live content.
Be creative, and don’t be afraid to mix it up. You don’t have to post on the spot. You can schedule your posts using tools. This way, you’ll be able to post something on your profile even when you don’t feel #glam.
- Use the right hashtag
Posting consistently also needs some strategy, and one tactic is to use the right beauty-related hashtags. The right hashtags will help you gain more followers and get the attention of brands. Trending and industry-specific hashtags will show the public that you’re on top of the beauty world.
Here are some recommended hashtags you can use:
- #discoverunder10k – Influencers with less than 10k followers use this hashtag to help them get recognized by brands looking to collaborate with nano influencers.
- #IGskincare, #organic, #skincarejunkie, and #instamakeup – These hashtags are mostly followed by audiences interested in beauty and are looking for their daily inspiration. Posting under these hashtags can help you gain visibility to potential followers.
- Hashtags specific to awareness or brands – You can use a particular hashtag if your post is part of an awareness campaign like #AcneAwarenessMonth or #RosaceaAwareness. Branded hashtags are also good if you want to get noticed by the business you’re tagging. Some sample hashtags include Dove’s #SPEAKBEAUTIFUL and L’Oréal Paris’ #WorthSaying.
Start a Beauty Influencer Career
You can take multiple career paths when you’re a beauty enthusiast. However, a social media beauty influencer may be one of the most profitable and exciting ventures. If you want to establish your branding and credibility as a beauty influencer for marketing, follow the steps above to build your foundation and start your journey to becoming one of the most prominent names in the beauty industry.
