Last Updated: July 24, 2026
Year after year, social media influencers and content creators have dominated the social media space. Followers watch as their favorite social media influencers live, which seems like lavish lifestyles. For those active on social media, some may have asked “How do I become a social media influencer?”
This secret guide to becoming a social media influencer covers just that. Learn about what it means to be an influencer, the various types of social media influencers out there, marketing growth as an influencer, and how you can earn a social media marketing degree to become an influencer yourself.
What Is a Social Media Influencer?
A social media influencer is a social media user who uses their platforms specifically to build an audience. While many people use social media, their reasons might be to connect with friends, stay in touch with their relatives, or to meet new people online. An influencer may use social media for those reasons also, but their main goal behind posting is to reach as many people as possible and build a community. Influencers usually have broader goals of earning an income or a level of fame.
Influencers are often popular figures or credible individuals within a specific field like fitness, food, video games, or beauty. The world’s top 10 influencers in beauty have a social media reach of 135,000,000 people just on their own.
How Do Social Media Influencers Impact Their Audience?
Social media influencers often have the ability to influence or impact their followers in some way. Here are three examples, though the power of influencer marketing can include many different tactics and outcomes.
3 Ways Influencers Leverage Social Media to Influence Followers
1. Shaping opinions
Because influencers have built trust with their audience, their personal views and recommendations can significantly influence how followers think about topics, brands, and trends.
2. Affecting behaviors or driving action (both online and offline)
This could be as simple as getting their audience to share their post, or as complex as getting their community to participate in challenges, donate to causes, or try new experiences.
3. Swaying buying decisions
Influencers can drive purchasing behavior by recommending products or services to their followers, often resulting in increased sales. This can be particularly powerful for influencers who are paid through sponsorships or partnerships to promote a brand or product.
Types of Social Media Influencers
Social media is home to all different types of social media influencers that range in the size of followers and topic areas. These are the types of social media influencers and how they are categorized:
Types of Influencers by Follower Count
Nano Influencers (1-10k followers)
Nano influencers have a following ranging from 1,000 to 10,000 followers and are considered to be mid-tier influencers. Influencers in this category can earn anywhere from $50 to $250 per sponsored post.
Micro-Influencers (10-100k followers)
Micro-influencers cover social media influencers with a 10,000 to 100,000 following across social media sites. Social media influencers in this category earn anywhere from $100 to $1,000 per sponsored post.
Macro Influencers (100k-1 Million followers)
Macro-influencers are those with a follower range of 100,000 to 1,000,000 followers. This category covers social media influencers with much more prominence on their social media platforms and can make $1,000 to $5,000 per sponsored post.
Mega Influencers/Celebrities (1 Million+ followers)
The mega influencer and celebrity category contains the biggest social media influencers across social media. These influencers often achieve celebrity status and can become household names. The pay-per-sponsored post in this category can potentially reach $25,000 or even more.
Types of Social Media Influencers
Types of Influencers by Content Channel and Format
1. Bloggers
A social media influencer who falls into this category of content typically maintains their own website. Their website usually contains general posts about their activities as well as videos, stories, and pictures for followers to keep along with.
2. YouTubers
Social media influencers can also take the route of video content for their followers, and some decide to use the platform YouTube as the driving force for their content. These social media influencers are also known as “YouTubers” and cover subject areas primarily through the video format.
3. Podcasters
Another sect of social media influencers decide to deliver their content in audio form. Commonly known as “Podcasters,” these social media influencers cover their subject area in a conversational episodic format that can be listened to on a variety of different platforms.
4. Social Posts only
Then, there’s another grouping of social media influencers that strictly post on their social media of choice. Whatever content they cover, these social media influencers utilize the regular posting format to their advantage.
5 Popular Social Media Influencers and Their Audience Size in 2026
1. Addison Rae, 88 Million+ Followers on TikTok
A dancer and social media influencer who took her success on TikTok to start a music career as a pop singer. She has approximately 88 million followers on her Tiktok account and her estimated net worth is around $25 million.
2. Cristiano Ronaldo, 1 Billion+ Followers Across Platforms
A Portuguese soccer player with over 677 million followers on Instagram. He was the first person to ever amass more than 1 billion total followers across all social media platforms, and recently added 11.4 million new followers during the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
3. Kylie Jenner, 381 Million+ Followers on Instagram
An influencer with 381 million followers on Instagram who shares about her life, including her socialite status and and various brands she and her sisters own or partner with. The Kardashian-Jenners are a common example of social media success, as they were able to leverage their popular reality TV show and build massive social media loyalty.
4. Emma Chamberlain, 14 Million+ Followers on Instagram
Emma Chamberlain is an American social media influencer with 14.8 million Instagram followers. She also has a YouTube presence and a popular podcast. She won the 2018 Streamy Award for Breakout Creator.
5. Bella Poarch, 100 Million+ Followers on TikTok and Instagram
Bella Poarch is an American social media influencer and artist with over 92 million followers on Tiktok and 11.2 million followers on Instagram. A video of her lipsyncing in 2020 went mega-viral, earning the title of “Most Liked Tioktok Video of All Time” until it was surpassed in early 2026. Her success on Tiktok quickly propelled her to fame, helping her her leverage major brand partnerships and sign a record deal with Warner Records. Poarch has since removed the video, either by deleting it or setting it to “private” as of May 2026.
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What Do Social Media Influencers Do?
Social media influencers are social media-based content creators who share information with their audience to drive engagement on their posts and topic areas. Here is what social media influencers commonly do:
- Create content
- Gain a following across social media platforms
- Schedule content
- Brainstorm possible content
- Analyze feedback and platform analytics
- Engage with followers to build a community
- Attend events and guest spots
Influencer Marketing Growth Statistics
The growth seen across social media influencer marketing seems to reach new heights with every passing year. The influencer marketing industry is set to make $22 billion in 2025, compared to the $21 billion mark hit in 2021. Here are some social media influencer marketing growth statistics worth noting:
- Micro-influencers have the highest engagement rate and are most in demand.
- 63% of Gen Z and millennials say they trust social media influencers.
- Engagement rates for posts created by or with influencers are 4.7 times greater than content without influencers.
- 53% of women have purchased something through a social media influencer’s post.
- 93% of marketers use video to communicate with their audience; 86% of them also use it to generate leads.
- 80% of companies are dedicating a specific budget towards influencer marketing.
How To Become a Social Media Influencer in an Easy Way
When looking at how to become a social media influencer and get paid, these are the areas that will create the best path towards achieving that.
1. Choose Your Niche
Find your area of coverage and expertise. By finding your niche, you are finding your place in social media circles.
2. Optimize Your Social Media Profiles
Next, you’ll want to optimize your social media profiles to get ready for posting. Set up your profiles in the best way you see fit to tackle your area of expertise to drive engagement and create a relationship with your followers.
3. Understand Your Audience
A big factor in driving engagement is understanding your audience. Look towards other successful social media influencers and how they become successful with their audiences, but also make sure to put your spin on it.
4. Find a Strategy
Once you understand how to reach your audience, carve out a strategy to drive engagement to your content and move forward to building a bigger community. This step will differ depending on the topics covered and the social media platforms used.
5. Develop an Editorial Calendar
Set a schedule for your work as a social media influencer. An editorial calendar is a great way to visualize your workflow.
6. Create a Story and Be Realistic
At the beginning of your social media journey, you’ll want to create your content’s story, but be realistic. This can include your introduction to your followers, your background with your area of expertise, and the vision of your content creation journey. Be grounded in your expectations, and be realistic with your followers.
7. Maintain Consistency
One of the most important factors in becoming a successful social media influencer is consistency. If you maintain a consistent output of content, not only will this provide a plethora of content your followers can consume, but it will showcase your dedication to your area of expertise and drive more engagement.
8. Grow Your Audience
Growing your audience is a driving component to earning a sensible living as a social media influencer. There are many ways to go about this. Examples include:
- Community interaction
- Sponsoring content
- Collaborating with other content creators
- Maintaining consistency in your posts
9. Use SEO
Social media influencers should also use SEO (search engine optimization) to their advantage. By using a variety of SEO tools and analytics, more clicks will be generated toward your website as it becomes a more prominent search result.
Earning Your Social Media Degree to Become a Social Influencer
Making a living as a social media influencer is a lucrative career path. If you want to become a full-time influencer, obtaining a social media degree at the Erie Institute of Technology will provide you with the marketing skills and fundamentals to achieve that. Get started today.
Frequently Asked Questions About Social Media Influencers in 2026
Do social media influencers get paid?
Yes! Social media influencers can get paid by ads on the platforms that they post on and by sponsored posting for other brands and companies. Some platforms also pay influencers based on the views and engagement on their posts. Actual rates and payment structures vary across platforms.
How many followers do you need to be an influencer?
Once you obtain 1,000 followers, you will then be classified as a nano-influencer. There are different types of influencers, including nano-influencers (1k-10k followers), micro-influencers (10k-100k followers), macro influencers, 100k-1M followers), and mega influencers (1M+ followers). Mega influencers are usually celebrities or have a sort of celebrity status for their following.
How do you measure the success of an influencer?
The measurement of success can be different depending on what a social media influencer values the most, but high follower counts and the number of sponsors and sponsored posts are good measures of success. Bloggers, podcasters, Youtubers, Tiktokers, and influencers on other platforms may all have different goals tailored to where they post content most frequently and how that social media site rewards creators at each level. Tiktok, for example, strictly requires at least 10,000 followers in order to start earning in the Creator Program.
What qualifies someone as an influencer?
To qualify as an influencer, an individual must be a social media user who builds a dedicated audience through posts and engagement with their community. Influencers use social media-based content to build trust and shape opinions, attitudes, or purchasing decisions. Rather than relying on paid advertising alone to grow their brand, influencers often leverage an area of expertise to drive engagement and growth.
What skills do you need to become a Social Media Influencer?
To become a social media influencer, you should have excellent communication, creativity, time management, and writing skills. Many influencers are particularly skilled at connecting with their followers, either by responding to their comments and feedback, or by tailoring content to speak to their audience’s interests and sense of humor. Some business acumen is helpful for social media influencers who are trying to become macro- or mega-influencers. Managing brand relationships, contracts, posting deadlines, and business expenses can be challenging, and many influencers just starting to gain traction struggle with these aspects of the job.
Can you make a living as an influencer?
Yes, you can. Social media influencers can make this profession a living by the money they make from sponsors, sponsored posts, and ad revenue. Many influencers also develop brand partnerships that go beyond short-term or one-time transaction sponsorships. Partnerships focus more on long-term collaboration and growth.
About Author:
Ross Aresco
CFO
Ross Aresco is the CFO of Erie Institute of Technology. Erie Institute of Technology (EIT) is an Erie Pennsylvania technical/trade school providing training programs for medical, computer, electronics, manufacturing, and technology careers. EIT offers programs in many different areas to suit your interests and talents.