I Want to Be an Influencer, Too! Creating a Business in Social Media

Abstract

Content creation represents a relatively new field of expertise, and influencers as entrepreneurs are in the core of the industry. As the digital world develops, social media platforms have become available to the majority of people in the developed countries. This trend has expanded the industry and made influencing an established and pursued profession.

As the industry is young, there is little literature and alliances to help upcoming influencers. Most have to build their knowledge about how to practice the profession by trying, failing and succeeding. However, there are already many lessons learned that could help in the process, if only those were collected somewhere.

The goal for this work is to gain understanding about the industry and entrepreneurship as a profession while bringing out common lessons learned from experienced influencers. Finally, based on this understanding, a concrete and condensed development plan and its execution for author’s business in social media will be produced.

This thesis is a combined research and development plan about the industry and the author’s personal journey towards entrepreneurship. The work is built upon three themes; entrepreneurship as a profession, social media as a workplace and networks that build the whole existence of an influencer. The research was qualitative in nature and conducted as four semi-structured interviews.

The main outcome of this thesis is the development plan for author’s business in social media The research also revealed common practices, lessons learned and means to practice the profession called influencing not just for the author herself but also for other influencers and people pursuing a career in social media.

Keywords: social media, networks, content creation, entrepreneurship