The world of influencers has evolved at a speed as dizzying as that experienced by the same social networks where they operate with such ease. What was a trend just a year or a few months ago has been left behind and almost no one remembers the attention and attraction it generated. In the same way, some of the content creators who surpassed the metrics and were at the top of the wave have now fallen into oblivion and irrelevance.
Everything happens very quickly in this ecosystem. The same thing happened with the path that a person took when they were thinking about becoming an influencer until they established themselves. Since they were born almost entrepreneurs and ended up creating their own business and becoming entrepreneurs, others remained independent.
“It was different years ago,” says Jaime Vargas, head of the TikTok division of Grupo GO, a pioneering agency in talent and digital commerce. “When everything was still immature, people used the networks as a simple platform to have fun or to expose their projects. Then, their use and interest increased as the networks generated visibility, interest and customers,” he recalls.
When Grupo Go was founded in 2015, most of the success stories fell into this chapter of “accidental” entrepreneurship, adds Paloma Miranda, CEO and founder of the agency. And he gives the example of Itziar Aguilera: “She had style, she shared her love for drawing and fashion, and she generated an audience that accompanies her today.” Or Rocío Osorno, who “combined her career as a designer with a story in which she talked about her life, and over time, her character grew as much, if not more, than the company she had created.”
Today, “there is much more awareness of the creator’s ability to stand out in a field”, something to which TikTok has contributed, and this “perhaps invites more to create a brand or image in a particular territory”, intervenes Vargas, who gives the examples of Peldanyos with food; ParCalitos with fashion; Lola Lolita with pleasure in general; Mar Lucas with music or Esperansa Grasia with animation.
For this reason, and although there are many cases, the most common thing today and in a panorama where the opportunities are evident and the networks are more mature, “is to start with a medium and long-term plan, as any startup does, generating content, creating a story with its own narrative and aimed at a specific audience”, to then make other decisions, explains Miranda.
The majority are self-employed
The end of this process usually leads largely to the figure of self-employed workers, although with nuances. “The degree of planning also has an impact. The first creators have become autonomous, while those who plan more already structure their projects in another way,” says Miranda. “It also depends on what type of creator he is and if he combines his presence on the networks with some type of entrepreneurship, which can range from something artistic to a fashion brand, through a coaching platform, an application, events or various things, the list is endless,” says Vargas. In any case, “the majority of people become autonomous and live in uncertainty about their long-term future,” both agree.
In all these cases, and as one of its main functions, Grupo Go accompanies all these content creators from the beginning to provide them with security, knowledge and comprehensive advice that becomes a very useful and appreciated tool by them in their professional growth.
“We accompany all the phases of a creator’s life,” comments the CEO. And he describes a job that “begins with long conversations about where we are and where we want to go together. Because there are creators who have very clear ambitions, others who have fun and prefer to live by improvising, and others who, even if they have potential, we don’t know how to take advantage of it. We adapt to each situation, we are a bit like coaches for entrepreneurs.
This comprehensive support that the agency offers during the development of an influencer’s career includes this more personal part and this other more complex part, related to legal issues, paperwork, etc. “At this key moment, we are also by their side and we put them in contact with tax specialists, consultants, advisors, etc., so that they can make the right decisions,” concludes Vargas.
Five keys to success
GrupoG has identified five keys based on its experience to facilitate the arrival on the networks as an influencer and help those who choose this profession to succeed.
- Let yourself be advised. Getting good advice on social media and content creation is essential to getting started. This can be done through an agency or with people who are experts in this field.
- Have a strategy. Before you start communicating, you need to make a prior communication plan and a well-defined strategy. Its absence is precisely one of the most common mistakes. It must be a dynamic, flexible and open strategy, like what social networks are.
- “Differentiate yourself” and you will win: Amidst the noise of social networks, it is essential to establish a recognizable and differentiable profile, with personality to retain the audience we have and reach new ones.
- Trial and error: Social media is not an exact science. The evolution of trends and communication styles is constant, so it is necessary to review what works and what does not, how our audience evolves and how the environment changes. In the influencer field, not renewing yourself is dying.
- You will always have your place: It is important to define the strategy to define the specific niche and audience beforehand.
