There are so many titles nowadays for people who create things on the internet and Instagram: digital creator, content creator, influencer, etc. But what is a digital creator on Instagram? How does one become one? What’s the difference between a digital creator and an influencer?
Related: How to Make Money Online As a Designer
What is a digital creator?
Simply put, a digital creator in general is someone who creates engaging or valuable digital content for their audience.
This can be tutorials, how-to guides, helpful and useful articles and videos, internet classes and lessons, e-books, and more. Anything digital that is useful or helpful to the audience.
These types of content are then posted on social media such as Instagram or TikTok, on personal websites and blogs (such as this one), or distributed through other digital channels.
Can you earn money as a digital creator?
Absolutely, yes. Anything that provides any type of perceived value to the consumer can be traded in for currency (money). This is not only applicable to valuable products that we buy, but also to content which is a type of modern day digital product.
I’m not gonna lie though, it is challenging to earn money through Instagram unless you have tons of followers.
But good news is, that you don’t need a ton of followers to start earning money. Here are some ways I’ve earned money through social media and blogs throughout my entire life:
- Create your own products and sell them to your audience. Examples on products: E-books, digital products, courses. If you are creating content of value (helpful, advice, useful) then you can repurpose that content into products that you can then market to your audience. Sometimes you may not even need to do much marketing, because your audience already trusts you and know that what you give them is valuable
- Affiliate marketing (you promote a product to your audience and get a commission for each sale)
- Ads (you can use social media to funnel people towards your own website or blog where you can display ads)
- Sponsorship (companies and organizations can give you money to create a certain type of content for them)
- Freelance job offers (if you are great at what you do, and especially if you’re a subject matter expert and create content around that skill, then it is highly likely that companies will be contacting you for your skills)
- Collaboration (being visible on social media such as Instagram can get you discover by others who have similar or complementary skillsets whom you can collaborate with to create your own products and services)
And do you know what the best thing is? It’s that there’s no limit to how much money you can earn, or how many people you can help and give value to. That’s why I personally love doing it!
And since I enjoy Instagram a lot, and since many people are typing into Google the question: “What is a digital creator on Instagram”?; let’s take a deeper dive into that.
What is a digital creator on Instagram?
If it says “Digital creator” as a label on someone’s Instagram profile, it just means that they have chosen that category for their account and have chosen to show it publicly.
It is not an official diploma given by Instagram. You can become a digital creator on Instagram as well.
Apart from the label, a digital creator on Instagram is someone who creates things that are engaging or valuable to their Instagram audience.
How to add “Digital creator” on Instagram
How do you become a “Digital creator” on Instagram?
To get the label of “Digital creator” on your Instagram account, you need to first switch your account type from “Personal Account” to “Professional Account”. Here’s how you do it:
How-to guide:
- Go to “Settings”
- Go to “Account”
- Scroll down to the bottom. Click the blue-button “Switch account type”
- Choose “Switch to Professional Account”
- On the step “What best describes you?” > Choose “Digital creator”
Now you have become a digital creator on Instagram! Oh well, not really. There’s of course a difference between just having that label on your account and being a digital creator.
If you want to become a digital creator on Instagram, then it’s time for you to start creating content for your followers! A digital creator aims to create things and content that gives value and engages their followers.
Common digital creator content on Instagram
- How-to guides
- Tutorials
- Helpful tips
- Answering commonly asked questions (FAQ)
- Share beautiful photography, videography, and visual inspiration
- Answer and reply to comments and other people’s posts. Contribute with something useful and helpful
- Encourage your audience to talk to each other and form a community (To feel a connection)
- Reviews of products
- Recommendations
- Listicles of things that your audience may get benefits from
How to start
If you want to become a digital creator yourself, then start thinking about what you can create to help, give advice, answer questions, and inspire your audience.
Brainstorm around what type of content your audience would enjoy consuming from you. Perhaps someone has told you before that they love some sort of post you’ve made in the past?
At first, it can be a good idea to create lots of different types of content. You can then analyze what type of content went well and what didn’t. Most of it may not be golden right away, but perhaps one or two things you created got a lot of engagement and interest.
Dive into what worked, and keep exploring that type of content. You can also use Instagram’s “Insights” (analytics) to analyze what types of content went better and which didn’t go so well.
Try and experiment with lots of different things until you find a pattern or a piece of gold!
You can also find other accounts on Instagram that you find inspiring, valuable, or helpful, and take inspiration from them. Don’t copy right off, that’s stealing!
But perhaps you like the idea behind a post, and you may take the same idea, but do your spin-off. You can answer the same question for example, but come up with your own answer, your own examples, and create your own graphics to it.
Niche & consistency
It’s important to find a niche as well, so that people who do not know you will follow you and want to consume your content.
How many of us want to follow a random person whom we have never met? Not many of us (if they’re not super good looking or famous).
But if that stranger is consistently posting niche content that speaks to our interests and needs, then we are much more likely to follow that person; because we are getting value and help from them.
Good luck!
Now, onto the question of what the difference is between a digital creator and influencer.
Difference between: Digital creator vs. influencer
Influencer
The difference between a digital creator and an influencer is that an influencer’s main purpose is to create things to influence their audience through sharing their personality or personal lives.
An influencers content can for example be about what types of clothes and makeup they already use and wear, and want to share and sell to their audience.
Digital creator
A digital creator can and does influence their audience as well, but the purpose is first and foremost to create something of value. Their content is most often not based solely or strongly on personality, looks, or personal lives, but based around more “objective” things.
A digital creators content can for example be about a certain topic, a problem to be solved, or a question to be answered.
Examples of the types of different content they create:
- A digital creator may for example create a how-to guide that shows someone how to fix their computer
- An influencer may for example create a video that showcases their newest clothes and how those clothes look on a body
This is not to say that a content creator does not share personal things, or that influencer doesn’t create things of value; they both do. It overlaps. The difference is in the different main purposes and methods primarily used in order to achieve what they aim for.
Who suits being a digital creator?
I would say that if you’re someone who’s like me, who is passionate about different subjects, topics or developing particular skills (e.g. design, programming, writing etc), then being a digital content creator can suit you well.
You get to reach and help a lot of people without needing to talk or show as much about yourself, your appearance and your personal life.
Also, if you’re someone who spends a lot of your free time just answering strangers questions on the internet, and love helping your friends with their homework or career questions; then being a digital content creator would allow you to do exactly that but on a bigger scale!
I can’t even count how many hours a day I used to sit and answer questions that popped up on Facebook groups and forums. Then I realized: Wait! I could create proper articles from these answers, and allow people to find them through search engines. That’s more valuable in the long run!
In addition, creating content on your own platforms can be monetized and turned into a full-time income and job. So, if that’s your passion, definitely give it a shot.
Who would fit as an influencer?
If you’re someone who may not be particularly interested in specific topics nor enjoy creating proper tutorials and objective content; but still want to reach, influence and help others: maybe being an influencer suits you better!
This is especially if you think others would be interested in your personal lifestyle, fashion sense, or visual aesthetics.
Perhaps you just love experimenting with your own fashion style, interior design or makeup and already love to show-and-tell to your friends? Then you could still do that, but to an even bigger audience! And earn money doing it.
Being an influencer compared to a content creator often also means that your audience will care more and want to see more of your personal life. So, it may be a big plus if you enjoy sharing those things. What you do from day to day, selfies, posting pictures of you in your daily activities, and so on.
I hope this was helpful!
