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Instagram influencers are ruling the world right now when it comes to advertising and marketing, making the job highly desirable and prompting thousands of young people to try their hand at breaking into the industry. And with the possible earnings of thousands of euro per insta post, it’s no wonder people are clambering to get in on the game.
But being an influencer is a relatively new career to come into existence. Even as little as 10 years ago, no one had ever heard of this profession. Now, it is estimated that the influencer market could be worth between $5 and $10 billion by 2020.
Instagram is challenging magazines as the number one way that people discover fashion, but influencing is not limited to clothes and make-up. People now follow influencers for advice and inspiration on food, travel, home décor and fitness.
Who’s who in influencing?
There are a huge number of Irish influencers who have made it big, with their careers sometimes skyrocketing to the dizzying heights of earning over €200,000 a year. Though not everyone will reach these heights, here are a few Irish influencers who managed to slowly build up their following and now enjoy huge success in different areas.
James Kavanagh – Humour
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James is one of the biggest social media personalities in Ireland, and he started out uploading parodies and vlogs to Snapchat in 2015. While he is best known for his humourous posts, he is also involved in advocacy work and founded a food buisness "Currabinny" with his partner.
Donal Skehan – Food
While not officially an influencer, Donal has carved out a huge following on social media uploading pictures of his food creations. He started his food blog back in 2007, and is probably best known for his resulting RTE cooking series "Kitchen Hero".
Joanne Larby – Make-up
A qualified make up artist, Joanne started her blog to showcase her skills and has become a huge online influencer as “The make-up fairy”. She works full-time in the make-up industry teaching make-up master classes.
Rob Lipsett – Fitness
Rob is a qualified personal trainer and owner of Lipsett Fitness. He shot to insta fame with his diet and fitness posts and will soon release his first book.
Erika Fox – Fashion
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The Retro Flame blog is a compact diary of Erika’s outfits, travel, work & inspirations. Erika moved to New York 5 years ago and worked in fashion until she managed to carve out a niche as a full-time fashion blogger.
Sai de Silva, a lifestyle influencer based in New York, is well known for her blog “Scout the City”. Speaking to Business Insider, de Silva gave her opinion on the number one thing you need to be a successful influencer.
"Patience is my No. 1 thing to tell someone. This is no overnight success unless you happen to go viral, and that's very hard to do."
De Silva says being an influencer is a slow and steady climb, "especially if you are starting out and you want to make money, please don't expect to see money for one to three years into it."
What does it take to make it in this tough industry?
This is a tough and highly competitive industry to break into, and you need to make sure that you have done the correct foundation work before you jump in.
Firstly, to get started, you need to plan a budget of how much money you need to earn each month to survive. It is essential that you plan ahead financially, as not all influencers will make money straight away. Most start out doing this in their free time while having a 9-5 job, so it is always worth having a back-up plan until you start to make it big.
You need to put a lot of focus on growing your audience and deciding a business plan. Once this is done, it is recommended to sign up to influencer platforms like TapInfluence to get invitations from brands to work with them.
You can read all about the start-up process here.
According to a study conducted by Linqia, 39% of marketers say they plan to increase their influencer marketing budget in 2018, so while influencing may be a tough career to break into, the success of those managing to break in keeps on rising.
Courses and qualifications to break into the influencer and digital marketing
There are hundreds of thousands of influencers who make their living posting on Instagram, but it’s not just influencing that can become a great career for some. Digital Marketing in general can create a world of opportunities and can lead you to a career of the future.
Moate Business College’s new Digital Marketing course is one of the first to be specially aimed at future influencers; “Have you ever thought about a career as an Online Marketing Manager, a Social Media Executive, an Entrepreneur, an Influencer or a Blogger? If the answer is yes, then consider the new Digital Marketing Course which will be offered in Moate Business College in September 2019.”
The course covers areas such as; Entrepreneurial Skills, Advertising, Customer Service, Marketing Practice, Spreadsheets, Desktop Publishing and Web Authoring.
There are a huge amount of Digital Marketing courses available across Ireland. Search them all using our coursefinder.
With Digital Marketing now being considered a top career, it can be well worth investigating it properly as an option on the CAO or as a PLC.
Whether you have dreams of being an influencer or not, there is no denying that Digital Marketing is a qualification that can take you anywhere.
To find out more about being an influencer, see our Media and Publishing sector page, or search Influencer in our Occupational Database.
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