Among the new jobs and the new professional figures established during the digital revolution (throughout, more or less, the last two decades), those ones related to the social media galaxy are undoubtedly the most controversial. As of today, many people still don’t consider them real jobs, but rather something like a smart, sometimes (not always) profitable recreation activity. At the same time, TikTok, Instagram and – to a lesser extent – the other social media and content aggregators (like, for example, YouTube) have become such an important part of our public and private life, dragging us into a sort of parallel dimension where we’re able to live a sort of alternative life.
It is logical therefore that the social media could become an actual work and a source of income for those who are able to exploit their potential and use them to get to as many people as possible. But it’s logical as well that, in order to succeed in such a competitive environment, you must offer a unique, interesting, appealing and constantly updated digital product. In other words: making a profession out of our social media interactions is anything but a pastime. There are so many things to take care of, from the quality of your pictures and/or videos to the level of freshness of your content, not to mention the verbal language used in the captions and the videos themselves. Everything is crucial to become what is commonly known as an “influencer”, a “web star” or a “social media personality” (depending on the quality and the typology of contents you are able to offer).
So, in order to dispel any doubt and make things as clearest as possible, especially for the beginners who want to try their hand with the social media word, we have isolated the “essentials”. That is to say, the five unavoidable preconditions to become (with time, growing experience and hard work) a brand-new shooting (web) star.
Quality of audio/video content.
As mentioned before, making a good social media content doesn’t mean just pointing our smartphone on something/someone and turn the camera on. There is an actual mise-en-scène work behind, which means lighting, characters’ positioning and a thorough study on framing. The audio part is crucial as well.
Originality and customization.
Again, we must create a unique content, able to be readily distinguishable among many others. In this case, it can be useful to use applications like Mojo, that provides thousands of types of different instagram post template and effects.
Consistency.
Those who try to become an influencer will discover very soon that this is a full-time job. You must keep your followers constantly (which means: daily) updated, with new contents, and each one of them must be a relevant one.
Relevance and topicality.
Speaking of that, every single post has to deal with something notable: it has to be strictly bound to current events, even the most frivolous ones. Your followers should have the perception of being immersed in a flow of contemporaneity-related information.
Style.
Not only you must find your own one (see point 2), but this has to be perceived as beautiful, captivating, attractive. How to get to this? Making a lot of rehearsals, experimenting many things with audiovisual language and being receptive about any possible criticism. Style is rarely something that comes out of nowhere: it is, more often, the result of a tireless work on language.