Lots of teens want a little celebrity in their lives, and if they have a special talent, they might be able to become a public figure through one of their social media accounts, which could actually lend itself to future business and career opportunities, should they leverage the account wisely and strategically. Instagram and Facebook are both good for this type of account, but most teens choose the former rather than the latter. With the Instagram app, the right talent, strategy, and perseverance, many teens can become a public figure, and below are some of the key steps for how to become a public figure on Instagram if you’re an ambitious teen eager to build a valuable following and gain credibility with a verified profile.
Step 1: Decide What Your Niche Will Be
To become a public figure, you have to be good at something or have something unique you’d like to share with the world. Think of that niche as your brand, and you want to create brand awareness in the minds of your visitors and those who follow your online presence. To get started, think about what you’re good at – something you feel a lot of passion for – such as fashion, travel, or a special talent.
Alternatively, you could think of places, industries, or careers you’re passionate about or plan on pursuing and build a personal profile full of relevant information and Instagram content pertaining to your chosen industry, place, or topic of interest. There are many different ways to build an account with a large following, but keeping the content niche targeted is likely to accelerate that growth and make it easier for new followers to find you.
For example, you might want to share tips on how to get better at a certain craft and in the future rise up as an authority in the space, with enough of a following and credibility to sell courses, products, or books around the topic. Alternatively, you might want to share your travel experiences, or you may even wish to share fashion or skin-care tips. It’s really up to you what your niche is, but you should also consider the expected or target audience you plan to appeal to with your content, and checking the Instagram analytics on your account can be a great way to glean further insights into your followers’ interests and overall demographic.
Step 2: Determine the Best Social Media Platforms to Use
It was mentioned earlier that Instagram is a great platform to use when you wish to be a public figure, but that isn’t always the best platform. Keep in mind that when it comes to social media platforms, image-centered sites such as Instagram and Pinterest are better when you intend to share mostly visual content, while a Facebook page or Twitter account may be better when you’re planning on written content such as reviews or information on various topics. That said, with the surge in the number of social media platforms around and the advent of short-form content displacing some of the social media incumbents, it’s a good idea for aspiring public figures to cultivate profiles on a few different platforms to maximize their reach, offer a place for each type of content, and insulate themselves from the risk of a platform going down or one account getting compromised.
Step 3: Make Sure You Have a Specific Plan or Strategy
Just like anything else in life, being a successful online public figure (and perhaps one day getting that blue tick mark or blue badge on multiple social media platforms) requires you to have a specific plan that provides details on how you intend to accomplish your goals. The first thing you should do is learn all you can about creating good content and uploading clear photographs, pictures, and videos. Even though your Instagram site is being used to do something you consider fun, you still need to make it look professional, neat, and free of typos and grammatical errors, as well as to make the quality of content as professional as possible if you’re going to compete with full-time creators and influencers who’ve already been producing great content, amassing a large audience, and attracting brand deals.
Being a public figure requires not only posting applicable content but also learning how to make a great video, how to describe your niche in detail so that others can be drawn to or seek out your content, and how to stay organized and stick to a schedule so that you can post regularly. Even your Instagram bio needs to be professional-sounding because that is often what visitors will read first. If you’re a terrible speller, get someone else to proofread any posts you write before they go online. In other words, get the help you need to make sure your posts look great. Mastering high quality content creation is a big deal because as a public figure, a portion of your real job will be creatively, strategically, and professionally presenting brands, including your own and others, to influence an audience to take action.
Step 4: Always Post Regularly
People are fickle, and they’ll forget about you quickly even if they visit your site regularly for a while. Instagram followers are no different, and even if they don’t forget about you, they will quit following you if you do not post regularly. A lot of people actually make a schedule that shows exactly when they’re going to post and what type of content they’re going to post. This will keep you on target to meet your goals and will help you remember what you have and haven’t posted up to that point.
As far as the content itself, it’s up to you what you include on your site. That being said, it has to be interesting content that’s valuable to your audience because it either teaches, informs, entertains, or otherwise makes them come away better, happier, or more knowledgeable than when they first came across the content. You also need to offer them information that they can’t get elsewhere. Make it unique, very interesting, useful, and most importantly, frequent. You don’t want people to forget you; instead, you want them to look forward and with anticipation to what you’re going to post next.
Step 5: Don’t Skimp on Your AV Equipment
It was mentioned earlier that your posts need to look professional. To put it in practical terms, this may require some special equipment and software so that videos and photographs will look great once they’re uploaded. While you can purchase top-notch photography equipment, which includes the correct lighting equipment, you may also be able to use your smartphone’s camera, so long as you have high definition and good lighting, which can be natural light or affordable box or right lights.
The same goes for if you decide to set up an online store, though truth be told, it may be more important to purchase professional photography equipment or hire a freelancer to shoot photos and videos for products you wish to sell. In this case, you’ll also need a sophisticated and reliable point-of-sale (POS) system, though this can be found on simple e-commerce platforms with a Stripe payment gateway integration or through a checkout system like WooCommerce, Gumroad, or Kartra. Simply put, you really don’t have to spend tons of money to produce high quality visual content, but for audio-visual (video, voiceover, or podcast) content, a decent microphone for professional-sounding audio will be a worthwhile investment that can be purchased for under $100.
Step 6: Review Your Entries Before You Post
When it comes to best practices, one of the most important things to remember is to get familiar with the editing process. Don’t just record or write a post and then place it on your Instagram or Facebook account (or YouTube, Tiktok, etc.). Read through the post and review your video and if necessary, make the changes you’ll need for it to look even better. You might even want to consider purchasing programs such as Canva, which helps make all of your posts look amazing.
You can also get assistance with other software packages, including PhotoShop, InVideo, and others. These programs are relatively inexpensive (or in some cases, completely free!) but give you the same tools that the professionals use to make their photographs and videos aesthetically appealing and help them catch people’s attention.
Step 7: Use Different Mediums on Your Site
Once you become more comfortable with posting videos and informational materials, you can try your hand at other mediums, including blogs and live-streaming. Anything that gives you an edge over your competitors, makes your content more searchable, or makes you more relatable to your audience is a good thing, especially because you want to think outside the box whenever possible. You don’t want to become too comfortable with what you’re doing because your fans might get bored, and social media consumer behavior trends change with new platform developments. Therefore, you should try to continuously come up with newer and better ways to catch users’ attention and pique their interest.
Step 8: Engage, Engage, Engage!
Finally, keep in mind that continuous engagement with your audience is a must. At the beginning (early on in your content creation journey), you should make it a habit to respond to every like, comment, or mention that the audience members leave because it provides a more personalized touch that makes them realize you’re truly interested in them, thus reinforcing their loyalty to your brand and connection to you as a person. Even if you get a negative comment, it’s important to respond to it because it shows the visitors you care about what they’re thinking. Plus, a plethora of comments and responses – good or bad – is actually a positive indicator to the social media platform that your content is valuable enough to elicit engagement, thus incentivizing that platform and its algorithm to further promote your content and profile.
It’s also a good idea to eventually collaborate with another company, public figure, or brand with a similar audience so that both of you can grow and cross-promote your content to the other’s following. That being said, always make sure that whoever you collaborate with is similar when it comes to goals and the brand itself. You can also go after these partners without waiting for them to come to you. Search the Internet for people who are hawking similar or relevant content, products, or services to you, but not so similar that you’re directly competitive. You can mention each other in your posts and link to one another’s social networks, which lends more credibility to both of you.
Other Important Tips to Remember
Now that you’ve learned some steps to becoming a public figure on your favorite social media site, there are other practical things you need to learn. The first thing you should know is that a Public Figure account needs to be public and not a private account, and you should also switch your account from a personal account to an Instagram business account if you’d like access to detailed analytics and other helpful marketing features. You can even start a creator account if you like, and you’ll start this process by going to your account settings.
Since Instagram is a subsidiary of Facebook, you’ll need to link the former to the latter if you plan on creating a corresponding Facebook page. Just open your FB page, go to the top right-hand corner and tap on “Menu,” then “Pages,” then the plus sign, then “Create,” “Create Your Page,” and “Get Started,” at which time Facebook will ask you what you’d like to name the page. Type in your page name then “Next,” and you’ll get to the category page. At this point, you’ll choose “People” as your category and “Public Figure” as your sub-category. Keep clicking “Next” and add your address and profile pic. When you’re finished, click on “Done.”
You’ll also want to have a contact button on your profile because if you’re going to consider yourself a public figure and either direct people to products they can buy or encourage brands to send inbound collaboration requests, they’ll need an easy way to contact you. Your Instagram business profile should give visitors a lot of information about you, but your Instagram presence still needs to be professional. Many users also ask whether they need to add their phone number if they choose a business account. That is up to you, but keep in mind that with a cell phone number listed, some people may try to call you from time to time, so you should probably keep your personal number private, but consider getting a separate business number (which could be a free Google Voice number or low-cost Sideline app account).
If you’re wondering if you can use your personal Instagram account instead, the answer is “yes,” you can, but it’s likely you’ll draw more visitors to your site with a business account. In addition, you’ll have to add a public figure label to your Instagram account, which you can do by clicking on “Settings,” then tapping on “Switch to Business Profile.” Keep in mind that you have to be logged into Facebook for this to work right. Once you click on “Pages” on Facebook and click on the desired page, Instagram is going to ask you for some information. When you’re done, your public figure status should be showing on Instagram.
What About the coveted Blue Checkmark?
The blue checkmark is a prestigious symbol because it means you’ve been verified as being legitimate. If you want to be an Instagram influencer, this mark is important because it gives visitors more confidence that you’re real. Before you try to get one of these marks on your account, you have to make sure your professional account:
- Is unique
- Has a complete profile
- Is authentic
- Is already well-known and popular
While it seems difficult to get an Instagram verification badge, it’s worth it for you to give it a shot. The worst thing that’ll happen is they’ll tell you “no.” Instagram users who wish to apply for this checkmark verification should take the following steps:
- On your profile, tap on the three-line icon
- Click on “Settings”
- Click on “Account”
- Click on “Request Verification”
- Fill in the form and click on “Send”
Once you get to this point, Instagram will review your request and make a decision. You’ll need to pay attention to Instagram’s terms and conditions, which are in the “fine print,” and it can take from a few days up to two weeks to get a response from them. The main thing to remember is to supply all of the information and documents they require, and make sure you are completely honest with all of your answers. And if you get rejected the first time, you shouldn’t hesitate to reapply.
To be sure, when you have a verified account on Instagram, you’re certain to feel like a real public figure, even if you’re not famous. That verified badge gives you a certain status that is very likely to gain you many more visitors. It is without a doubt a type of status symbol, and all visitors to your profile will notice it. In fact, many of these visitors will actually look for this checkmark and won’t go any further unless they see it on your site. While the fact that anyone can apply for a blue verified checkmark may make it seem easy to get, realize that the verification team only awards those badges to profiles who meet a certain criteria of notoriety, which is determined through a combination of:
- How many followers you have on other social platforms
- What notable, newsworthy things you’ve done or accomplished
- How likely you are to be impersonated or confused with another account
In other words, the easiest way to ensure that you’ll get that verification badge is to take the first step of building massive followings (or a global brand) on other platforms and pursuing notable, newsworthy accomplishments that gain organic press. Following that, you’ll be a lot more likely to get a blue checkmark than simply trying to game the IG algorithm and amass followers on its own platform.
How Easy Is It to Become a Public Figure?
If you have a lot of followers and many people consider you an expert on something, especially if a lot of people come to you for advice, your business or creator profile might be conducive to attracting visitors who will eventually “like” your page and follow you. Don’t forget that your Instagram stories have to be interesting in order to lure people in, and you should have a business instead of a personal account, as well as a public account (not private) in order to succeed.
All of this being said, you should know that there’s a difference between a public figure site and a fan account. A fan account is a page set up in honor of someone who’s famous, but which is run by a fan of that person. You should think twice if you’re considering setting up one of these accounts because Instagram is shutting down lots of them. Why? Because there is often copyrighted material placed on the sites, and this goes against the law in most countries. While it might seem easy enough to build your audience around an existing famous person or well-known brand, doing so likely entails using content and a likeness you don’t own, which could stir up some problematic legal red flags. It’s much better if you can create original content you fully own to avoid those issues and build a brand and following that’s unique and proprietary, which you can monetize to your heart’s content, without the fear of lawsuits tracking you down, clawing back what wasn’t yours.
Conclusion
Creating a public figure page through Instagram or Facebook is something a lot of people are interested in, and your odds of being successful are much greater if you plan ahead and know what you’re doing first. While having one of these accounts doesn’t guarantee you’ll have thousands of followers soon, continuous hard work and commitment to the account, alongside the knowledge that brands don’t build themselves overnight, will increase the odds of that happening someday. At the end of the day, figuring out how to become a public figure on Instagram as a teen comes down to building an impressive brand and following around yourself (or your interest or talent), and the more strategically-planned, high-quality, niche-targeted content you regularly produce, the more easily and quickly you’ll attain this goal.
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