So, you are a student and love social media? Then why not make a bit of money out of it! Social media advertising is becoming much bigger and brands love student influencers. If their product or services are relevant to students, then who else is better to promote than you, another student. You could create your own little side hustle right from your phone and become a student influencer.
We all know being a student comes with being low on cash from all those takeaways and nights out. What better way to make a bit of cash and gain some freebies than through influencing and becoming a brand ambassador? You don’t even need loads of followers to do this, so it is anyone’s game! You can be earning money each time you post on Instagram! If you are an Instagram or TikTok lover and spend all your time on that app, why not get paid for making videos and posting selfies?
Here are some of the things you need to do to get you started:
Use the same handle on all social media
The first thing and the easiest thing you need to do is make sure all your handles are the same. This makes it easier for brands to find all your social accounts. A good thing to do is put your name in your handle too, so if people are searching, they can find you a bit quicker.
For example, if your name is Jane Smith, then try and make your social media handles something like ‘@janesmithx’ or ‘@janesmith_’ something simple is best!
Social media influencers use:
Instagram, YouTube and TikTok are the main two platforms that brands want their products or services to be shared on.
Facebook and Twitter are also platforms that brands tend to use.
Then lastly, lots of brands like to partner with bloggers who own their own websites.
Sometimes you may not even need to post the content on your own accounts. Some brands will just want content creation so that they can post your images on their accounts. For content creation the industry standard is £100 per month for usage rights of your images.
Sort out your bio
Another simple thing to do is pop your email in your bio so that brands can easily contact you. Most brands would rather email than send you a message on social media (although some brands do go for this method).
Just above your email write a description about who you are. E.g., Student Blogger or Student Influencer. Either way make sure you let brands know that you are a student, so they know you are right for them.
Grow your following
Ideally, you will already have a few different social media platforms with your friends and family on. Starting your influencer accounts from these accounts will work out well since you already have your friends supporting you rather than starting a new account from scratch.
The best way to grow your following is to interact and follow other accounts that are similar to yours.
REMINDER: You do not need a massive following to be a student influencer. You can easily work with brands if you have under 10k. So do not worry!
Engage with your followers
One of the most important things you need to do is engage with your followers on all your social media platforms. This Is the part that will take a little bit of time, but it is well worth it. Make sure you are replying to any comments you get as well as commenting on other people’s posts.
It is a good idea to try and find people who are doing the same thing as you or who are in the same niche as you and interact with them.
Start a student blog
Blogs are another great way to work with brands as a student influencer. Although this route takes more work and effort it can also be the most rewarding. Brands love blogs as not only do they get exposure to your readers, but they also get back links to their own website.
If you want to investigate this option, I recommend starting a WordPress blog and choosing a web host. This way you are paying for your own website which means you own it yourself and you have more creativity over it.
With a student blog you can either focus on student content, or you can branch out to a generic blog that covers other topics not just for students. Whatever you think you have more to write about is what you should focus on.
Find your niche
Decide what you’re most interested in and stick with a niche. If you want to work with fashion brands, then keep your social media fashion related. Then fashion brands will want you to share their student deals. Of course, the odd non-related content is fine here and there, but you mostly want to stay focused on one or two niches.
Do your research
Of course, one of the most obvious things to do is research. Research about your niche, what are the good things you should be doing to attract followers. Research which brands form partnerships with students who have a similar following to you.
Look for Student Influencer programmes
Leading on from research, a good place to start is researching brands that have student influencer programs. Here are a few programs that are looking for students:
Riddle and Bloom
Riddle and Bloom have partnerships with Amazon Prime, Microsoft and more. They have specific programs just for students.
Student Beans
As a student I am sure you will know all about Student Beans! Student Beans offer an ambassador program where you can sign up and get accepted. They offer freebies, and they also pay students to create content for social media platforms such as TikTok and Instagram.
Seed Marketing
Seed Marketing offers student ambassador roles with Spotify, Tinder Amazon Prime and lots more. All you must do is fill in a form. You will most likely get asked to do a short phone call interview, so they can ask you a few questions and tell you a bit more about the role. You may get an assessment day, or you may be accepted right onto training!
Jamworks Influencer Programme
We are super excited to announce that we will be launching our very own influencer programme at the start of September. Our influencer programme will reward those who tell their friends about us and interact with our content with incredible merchandise boxes. The boxes will include some amazing items. The more interactions and people you get to sign up to Jamworks, the bigger the merchandise boxes. So keep a look out for this one!
Final Thoughts and things to remember
Hopefully these little tips can give you a bit more insight into what you need to do to start influencing as a student. If this is something you want to do, then just go for it! It won’t be a massive time commitment if you are already spending lots of time on social media so there’s nothing to lose by trying it out!
ASA rules
Something to remember if you do start working with brands is to make sure you advertise it correctly. There have been lots of big influencers lately who have had their content taken down off social media because they did not follow the ASA rules.
Whether you are being paid to post or if it is a gifted item you must declare the post as an ad at the start of your caption. You cannot use anything else like ‘sponsored’ or ‘in association with…’ or ‘thanks to [brand]’. It must be the words ‘ad’, ‘advert ‘or ‘advertisement’ and these can also be hashtags.
The reason for this is that it misleads people who view your content. They may think that your opinions are completely your own when really you have been paid or sent the item for free.
If you have been given a code to use and you get money from the people who use the code, then that is also an ad.
The ASA monitors all kind of adverts so make sure you don’t get caught out! By putting ‘ad’ at the start you are making it obviously clear to everyone so you cannot go wrong!
