In the age of social media, few things are as important to a person’s success as their perceived level of authority. People want to be put on to the best new things, they want to get expert advice from those in specialised fields, and they want to make sure that when they go online for information, they are getting something actionable and insightful. This has, alongside the rise of the social media influencer, created a new path for those who want to share their expertise and advice online, and that is the KOL.
What is a KOL?
KOLs, or Key Opinion Leaders, are personalities that are considered to be experts or “leaders” within their particular field. They are specialists that audiences go to for insider, authoritative advice or information on a particular topic or topics, and will often have relevant credentials to back up their place as trustworthy professionals.
What is the Difference Between a KOL and an Influencer?
This is something that it’s easy to get wrong when talking about KOLs, as many people see them as synonymous with influencers. Whilst both influencers and KOLs share a similar space within the social media ecosystem, both tend to have different goals, intentions and functions within that space. Influencers thrive on relatability and connection, with the draw of influencers being the often parasocial relationship with viewers and fans that develops from their position online.
On the other hand, a KOL (Key Opinion Leader) functions as a bastion of information that has been legitimised by an individual’s perceived expertise in a particular field. In other words, KOLs by their nature generally provide a more practical, informational approach to their online identity, rather than the generally personality-specific approach of influencers.
Now, when I say “generally”, this is an important factor in this discussion, as one can often reflect traits of the other depending on the individual personality. For example, a KOL may use social media in a way that would be associated with influencers, connecting with their audience as personalities, whilst also being an expert in their field and providing meaningful advice. Meanwhile, an influencer may still be an expert in a particular field, without making that the driving force of their work. This is often where the confusion lies when attempting to differentiate the two, which is why the deciding factor often comes down to the intention of how each uses their platforms.
Becoming a KOL
If you have had aspirations of sharing your field of expertise with an online audience, there are many things that can be done to ensure that you are set up for success. Today, we are going to go through 6 ways in which you can achieve your goal of becoming a Key Opinion Leader.
Know Your Niche
As obvious as it sounds, to be a Key Opinion Leader, you first need to have a field or niche for which you are looking to fill a need for meaningful information. The role of a KOL is one that comes with a lot of work and responsibility, and if you don’t have a very clear goal of what you want to provide an audience with and what you’re looking to achieve, then it will be easy to become disillusioned.
This is why it is beneficial to already have a field that you are dedicated to when selecting your niche. For example, if you run a property management company, then there is a niche to be filled as someone who is a proven professional within that space. Additionally, if you have a lot of experience doing something in the past, such as touring as a musician or playing football, it’s easy to translate that past experience and passion into the formation of a KOL journey.
Note: There are no particular rules when it comes to deciding who can be a KOL for a particular subject, but it does help significantly if you have a relevant degree, or significant authenticatable experience within your chosen field to ensure that people have a reason to listen to you. If you say that you are a specialist in the field of chemistry, but have no experience working in a lab or studying the field in academia, it will be hard to convince those more familiar with the subject that you should be listened to.
Carve Out Your Unique Space
When becoming KOLs, many people start with the urge to grow a following first rather than really forming what it is they can offer that would be meaningful to an audience. This can lead to many people immediately imitating the work of other people within the space, and whilst inspiration isn’t a bad thing by any means, having your work purely dictated by what’s popular in your field is an easy way to come off as inauthentic. Remember that if you are seeing something that is hugely popular, chances are the audience that you’re cultivating has also seen that thing in a space that they are interested in.
To avoid becoming a broken record of other people’s insights, start from your own personal experience. Think about the situations that you have had as someone with a direct connection to a field, and begin ideating from what you are most familiar with. Remember that success isn’t always going to be what has worked in the past for other people, and finding an audience may mean filling in the gaps for knowledge and insights that have not been widely provided.
Consider Your Branding
As much as we often don’t like to admit it, the content marketing and visual element of someone’s online presence is often just as important as what they are saying when it comes to building an initial audience. Spaces like YouTube and Instagram Reels are filled with people who have good information and authority but just haven’t invested in their branding or aesthetic design, and in turn, haven’t been given that first chance to win people over.
If you’re going to be making videos, make sure that you have a decent camera, and that you have spent some time learning about lighting, sound and editing. Remember that any time someone is going to your chosen platform, it will often be for entertainment, and so it’s up to you to position your knowledge in a way that is going to allow people to feel like they can enjoy the experience of consuming your content. This doesn’t mean that you have to put on a big persona, people appreciate authenticity, but a nicely lit, well-edited video that feels confident and considered is always going to have an easier time in the algorithm than one that looks like it was filmed in a basement.
Get Ready to Promote Yourself
As with any online content creation pathway, one of the most difficult parts of becoming a KOL is getting yourself out there and promoting what you do. Luckily, as a KOL with a specific niche of expertise, you have a good excuse to promote yourself and work with collaborators. Remember, the end goal isn’t always the biggest possible audience straight away, and if you want lasting growth, the best thing to do would be to make a good impression on other creators and their fanbases.
Collaboration and Authority
Authority comes in many forms, and by showing yourself to be reputable and not making outlandish, easily refuted claims, you can steadily gain a following that will stick with you.
A great example of this is the financial specialist, Patrick Boyle, whose experience as a hedge fund manager, investment banker, and university professor, has made him an important voice in the financial advice space of YouTube. Beyond his own videos, his work with acclaimed content creators such as CoffeeZilla has given him a reputation as a level-headed, articulate voice on news within the financial fraud space.
You can see an example of his work here:
Patrick Boyle is also a good example of the difference between an influencer and a KOL, as his videos have personality, but are not focused upon Mr Boyle and his life, instead factoring his knowledge of the finance world into larger topics in the space seamlessly to educate viewers.
Pay Attention to Data, But Don’t Get Consumed By It
You should always be paying attention to what’s popular and what your audience thinks, but you don’t want it to solely dictate your actions. This may seem like an obvious thing to some, but as many content creators have discussed over the years, a fixation on the data behind your videos is a great way to burn yourself out entirely. Additionally, whilst there is an entire industry of people out there ready to tell you how to “hack the algorithm” and “get explosive growth”, the key to true success is never that simple, and if you have found a hot tip from a social growth specialist on how to get 100,000 followers in 10 days if it actually worked, it would already have been done to death.
There’s a fantastic video on the issues with “Influencer Courses” by the creator Super Eyepatch Wolf that goes into some of the problems with a purely data-driven content creation methodology:
This doesn’t mean you should completely disregard your data. It’s important to see what your audience interacts with, and what you’ve made that appeals to them to figure out commonalities. However, if you are just trying to replicate old successes over and over again, it’s easy to lose sight of why your fans are interested in what you do.
Stay Consistent
For someone to become known for a particular niche, a lot of their content needs to be based in that particular niche. That doesn’t mean that other avenues can’t be explored, but if you’re someone who people specifically come to for their opinion on cars, and you make a hard pivot into anime reviews, there is a good chance that a lot of your original audience are going to quickly lose interest. Remember that for Key Opinion Leaders, a lot of your audience will have a very specific idea of your professional or specialist field, and deviating from that may not get you the same level of authority that you’ve had in your previous niche.
So, Where to From Here?
Whether you’re looking for social media success or you just want to add your expertise to the discourse, if you feel that your voice will benefit the culture of a particular niche, then you should do what you can to share that voice. The internet can be a confusing place, and it’s not hard to see how having more professionals to counteract misinformation helps people form opinions and positively shape how people talk about particular topics. So, do what you can to promote yourself, and refine your messaging, and if you need support, contact Trafficon today.
