For better or worse, people spend a great part of their day glued to their phone screens—that is, whenever they’re not busy with work or any other tasks. Smartphones are a great way to pass the time, catch up on the latest news, and even share some of the local gossip with friends and family when we’re out and about.

This new co-dependency of sorts, while looked down upon by many individuals, actually poses an opportunity for those who seek to spread a message, or for those who want to use the written word to enact a change, or simply perform a service in a specific community.

This is where nurse influencers come in.

This a relatively new occupation enabled only through the mass proliferation of social media, which revolves around a nurse sharing her story on social networks and using her story to help others. In other words, they create posts and content related to their trade, about what nursing school is like, life in the hospital, or even to vent after a long, stressful day at work. In a nutshell, a nurse influencer is a professional nurse that gives insider info about what it’s like to actually work as someone in this profession, either to uplift, motivate, and inspire their followers. Also, some specialized nurses might even create informative posts about specific topics to help out students and enthusiasts.

Still, like most things related to social media, being a successful nurse influencer is not as simple as grabbing a phone and creating content. It’s important to find an angle that will hook your followers, and allow you to remain relevant to reach the largest amount of people possible. To this end, here are a few tips that you could follow to help you become a nurse influencer.

Find Your Angle

You are more than a blogger. You are a person sharing personal stories about a specialized subject. This means, your posts have to always be engaging to your followers. Sure, it’s fine to rant every now and then or to speak about something unrelated to nursing, but it’s important to keep at least 90% of your posts oriented towards the subject matter. The more specialized your posts (i.e. ER nursing vs general nursing), the more engagement you’re likely to get from the audience that is following you for your nursing experience.

Your posts contain knowledge, and that knowledge provides value to the reader. So remember, find your angle in nursing, and stick with it.

Grow Your Reader-base, But Don’t Worry About the Metrics

We know it’s tough persevering in the face of adversity, especially when the said adversity comes from a stunted follower count. It’s difficult to keep producing quality content when there are only 15 people that actively read your posts. But to that, we say to keep persevering.

If your content is relevant and specialized, your audience will slowly grow as people retweet or reblog your content. In other words, quality posting is an organic way to improve reader engagement and turn the said readers into consumers, depending on your intentions.

While it’s important to establish a good audience, you don’t have to worry about your follower count after you reach a certain point. After all, it’s better to maintain a small and engaged audience with specialized posts than to try and pander to everyone, losing your appeal in the process.

Remember, followers are not what matter; engagement and quality content will always come out on top when it comes to conversion.

Be Careful Who You Deal With

There will come a time when brands or other influencers reach out to you to conduct business with you: maybe they will trade an advertising spot on your posts with increased exposure in their social networks, or a shoutout for a free sample of the products they sell. Regardless of the offers, remember that your word carries weight and value, especially once you’ve established a faithful crowd. In this sense, trading advertising for products is akin to working for free; they’re trading a product (which is a one-time thing) for a service that could potentially earn them millions.

If someone reaches out to you for advertising, always be upfront about your business; your word has value and you should be compensated fairly for it. Furthermore, if you manage to strike a deal, make sure to announce that you’re getting paid for advertising a product in every post; it’s illegal to advertise or publish posts about something without disclosing your paid partnership.

Watch your back, be safe.

Dealing with Criticism

If someone is criticizing your content, it’s always safer to deal with them respectfully rather than lashing out or deleting their comments outright. Instead of feeling attacked (especially when the criticism is poorly-worded or personal), try to view these comments as a chance to show how you deal with hecklers or troublesome commenters. In this manner, your sponsors, readers, and everyone else involved can see you responding as a professional, earning you extra points in the process.

However, if criticism becomes commonplace in every new post, try to think about what could be happening to elicit such responses. Maybe you’re saying or doing something that doesn’t quite strike a chord with your readers. In this sense, try asking a friend or a professional if there’s anything you’re doing wrong; sometimes all you need to refocus your efforts is a neutral, third-party opinion.