@reggiemartin10
I have been posting on social media since 2006. Instagram is the platform I enjoy using and having the most. It has become an integral part of the visual web, like a new language of images and videos perfectly suited to the fast-paced, constantly connected world. It allows my creativity to flow and for me to be the director, producer and writer of my life story. It also allows me to be a walking brand. It’s about people, and people are moved by emotions. As Influencers, we work to create an emotional connection with our followers, and that’s what the brands are after. Apart from Instagram, Facebook and YouTube are also my most used platforms as they allow me to monetise the videos while having fun. That is, they are the best means for me to make money while doing what I love, yet, building my business over time. The main focus or theme on my Instagram posts is living a fun and positive lifestyle, by walking in faith and not by sight and manifesting my blessings. Gratitude to God for my blessings is integrated in the very posts I make. If I were to share a piece of advice on becoming an Instagram influencer, simply posting pictures and video content whenever you feel like it might not be a wise move. It is very important to figure out your niche and define who your target audiences are, and to be consistent. You have to plan out your upcoming posts so that you can post content regularly. Don’t leave the followers hanging. Making a structure for yourself is key. My particular objective for Influencing is to become a positive role model in the lives of others and affect changes on a greater scale. Essentially, I want to inspire, educate and motivate my followers, and enable them to reconsider their life choices with my platforms. Bringing positive vibes to my audience is my main goal. I stay authentic and true to myself and my audience on my posts. Authenticity, in my opinion, is not just a way to set yourself apart from other accounts on Instagram, it is also one of the ways to build trust and credibility in your brand. Essentially, we should be using authenticity to build meaningful and personal connections with others, because after all, social media is all about being social, it is about people, being human beings, not brands or corporations, and finding things we share in common with our target audience. The downside is privacy becomes a luxury. When you walk out into the public, it’s lights, camera, action and the world is your stage. You have to be extra careful with how you behave. I would like to stress the importance of mental preparation. Never forget to prioritise self-care and all aspects of your wellbeing so that you are strong enough to tackle anything life throws at you. In the future, I hope to continue to brand my name as much as possible.
@puinam
My first official KOL advertising job was at the end of 2018, but the first time I posted on social media was back in 2014, when I just wanted to document my life. I prefer to use Facebook and Instagram, which I have never stopped using since the beginning. They are the most popular and most used platforms, and the content spreads quickly. My posts are mainly about beauty, fashion and life in general. I mainly want to convey to my followers some of my favourite make-up techniques. My fashion posts are to experiment with different looks and show a different side of me to keep my audience’s interest, and my daily life posts are to get closer to my followers and help them understand more about me behind the camera. It’s important to understand what my followers like about me, and to keep this aspect, and also to try different things to gain new followers. Sometimes it’s hard to pinpoint exactly what my followers like, and sometimes I have to strike a balance between the audience, myself and my clients. One of the things I like most is that I can use my small influence to grow and improve with others, and have the support and care of an audience I have never met. Since the beginning of my career, both the platforms and the living environment have changed a lot, so I have to be careful about my behaviour and what I say in public and on the platform, as both the good and the bad can be magnified. When just starting up, you must be persistent, work hard, know your strengths and weaknesses, and keep trying new things, rather than trying to define yourself too early. My future goal is to be able to lead some newcomers to the industry and to make the KOL industry in Macau more prosperous.
@jeffreyfok_224
I’ve been using social media for about 16 or 17 years, starting with Xanga and continuing with YouTube and Instagram now. It started when a friend of mine started using it and we began playing around together. I have been posting a lot since I joined Manner in about 2014. My favourite platforms are YouTube, Facebook and Instagram, as I am a video creator. YouTube is less restrictive, Instagram is mainly for sharing photos, and Facebook is for communicating with fans on your fan page. The main focus of my posts is to share my daily life, mostly entertaining and light-hearted content, but I also shoot some food-related content to share my personal recipes with the audience. My posts are quite spontaneous and I usually shoot whatever comes to mind. I also do a lot of livestreaming and chatting, but I don’t have a theme, so I usually just talk nonsense. Topics include: cooking, video shooting, travelling with beautiful women, experiments, travel, crafts, daily life, nonsense, sports and volunteering … I really just shoot whatever comes to mind. If I had to say what I do, I’d say it’s just chatting and having fun with all kinds of beautiful women, haha! I really enjoy working with a group of interesting people and meet other KOLs, mainly girls! I don’t have a fixed schedule, but I try to post two YouTube videos a week and three or more Instagram posts a week. If you want to become popular and successful, the main thing is to do what you like to do, don’t just shoot whatever is popular, keep your passion for sharing and the audience will feel it. They will like you for who you are, the real you, not the masked you; there are too many of those in real life. The most important thing is not to think of yourself as a celebrity, just a normal person. One particular challenge is finding a balance between our clients and our creations. We have to make money but we also have to take care of the audience’s feelings. I am an audience member myself, and I understand that I don’t want to wait for a few days for my favourite KOL to come out with new content, only to end up with a whole commercial instead. When you first begin, find the right platform for your development, share your interests and don’t start with the mindset of becoming famous and making money. This business is about building an audience and getting people to like you. Work with more people and don’t give up your full-time job right away, or trust me, you will be poor. Eight out of 10 KOLs have other careers to make ends meet, and you should only think about being fully committed to this when you can make a living as a KOL. After all, you can put in a lot of time at the beginning into making a video, but not many people will see it and it’s frustrating. Ultimately, it’s all up to you. When the time comes, you’ll be famous.
@weekdaycouple / @hungerlady
We started weekdaycouple around four years ago at the time when we first met each other. We just wanted to try something cool and share our lives with people. At that time not many people were using Instagram in Macau. Our friends were always saying there’s nothing to do in Macau and it’s so boring, but we think Macau is very cool and there are so many places to have fun, so we wanted to introduce people to different locations and restaurants. The main goal is just to share a ‘couple life’ in Macau and tell people what sort of things you can do here together. hungerlady has been around for three years. After we started weekdaycouple we found that a lot of our content was about food, so we created a new platform to focus purely on food. And hungerlady has actually grown faster than weekdaycouple. We use Instagram, and also Facebook, TikTok and Little Red Book (Xiaohongshu), but Instagram is our main platform. We have to modify the content slightly for different platforms, for example, we need to write in simplified Chinese for the mainland audience. We do focus on the number of followers, but we are also very focused on what sort of content we are going to feature. Even with commercial cooperation, we don’t take all the jobs if we don’t think the content is interesting for our followers. To maximise your followers, you have to make sure that you post high quality images, and write something meaningful, and have a clear theme and focus for your page, and your own photography style. Your content should be meaningful, educational or entertaining and then people will engage with you. Sometimes you can even do some giveaways, but not all the time, otherwise people will only follow for the gifts, not the content. We engage with our followers and talk with them. It’s very time consuming but it’s very important for all platforms. It is really a 24/7 job with no rest and no holidays, so you have to enjoy this type of work. In the beginning, it’s better to start part-time because it takes time to grow and earn income. Try to see if you really like this type of work, because it’s not for everyone. Now more people are doing it so it’s more difficult to stand out. Don’t jump in to it too quickly. Find your own talent and passion before you start so you know what content to focus on. The benefits are having so many new opportunities, experiencing new things every day, always meeting new people and trying the latest promotions. Life is not boring. It’s very fun every day.
@dorisleetw
I’ve been posting content on social media platforms for five to six years. I like Instagram more because it’s easier to post and there are channels for stories. I like YouTube too because it’s a good way to communicate with viewers as you can sometimes do live streaming. In the early stages of my career, I mostly talked about beauty and make-up, but now I like to share more about my life, because it’s a way of making an impact on others. I mostly just like to post content that is fun to watch. In terms of content creation, if it is purely personal and not commercial in nature, it is relatively simple and I just do as I please. On the commercial side, it is necessary to communicate with the clients many times before making any decisions. Before I was KOL, I didn’t edit the photos before I posted them, but now I pay attention to the layout of the photos, making sure the colours and tones are the same. For photos, I adjust the colour, fine-tune the skin, and if there are some areas that look fat, I adjust them to make them look thinner, so that the overall image is more beautiful. But I think authenticity is the most important thing, because in the online world, people don’t see the real us, so I will share things that I really like, or my real self; my friends and followers prefer to read this kind of content. When you become famous, everything you say and do is noticed by others, so you have to be careful because you affect your audience, and maybe if they see you doing it, they will follow. What I like most about being a KOL is that I can work flexible hours and every day is different and I do a lot of different things that I really love. I think people should really think carefully before deciding to join this industry though. Many people think our job is very easy and it’s easy to earn money, but in fact there are many sacrifices. We sometimes work from 7am to midnight and there is also a period of time when you don’t have any income because initially you don’t have a reputation and it takes time to build your platform and wait for clients to start coming to you and trusting you to make money. And I think KOLs, like actors and entertainers, have a certain limited lifespan.
@sulinip
I first started with QQ when I was in middle school and then Facebook in my second year of high school, because I wanted to share my feelings. I was bored studying, and I wanted to seek attention and post about things I was happy or unhappy about, and who liked who, etc. I prefer YouTube, then Instagram and finally Facebook. Nowadays, I mainly share about my life, whereas before I used to try to create a persona and hope that more brands would approach me, such as for beauty and make-up, or attending events. However, now I also like to share what I do for exercise and health. To attract new followers and get more likes I’ll try to do something different, something I haven’t done before, to give the audience something to react to. Then there’s the interaction, caring about the fans, responding to their questions, replying to them, so that they can like me and continue to support me. What I like most is that I can try a lot of different things, for example, when I go to a restaurant, they even let me go into the kitchen and try making pizza, pasta, etc. Making YouTube videos takes time because you have to think about the content, the intro, and the knowledge you want to share. Or for controversial arguments, you have to think about it first, and then write it down just as you would speak in a normal conversation. The major challenge is producing the content on my own, alone, often in a quiet space talking to myself, talking to the camera, being excited – sometimes it’s like having a party and sometimes it feels really lonely, so Is have to control these emotions. The most challenging thing is to persevere, because the thought of giving up is bound to keep coming up, but if you persevere, you will definitely achieve something. Since I started working in this industry, I feel that my relationship with my friends has changed and there is a sense of distance. Some people are not supportive and think I should get a job, but there are also friends who are supportive and think it’s great that I’m pursuing my dream in this way. If you want to be a KOL, do what you like to do, but with the mindset of how to teach people new knowledge and be informed. Don’t do it just for your own benefit, such as only wanting to receive free gifts from brands, as this can easily throw off your balance. Although people will start to know you, it takes hard work and luck to get what you want, so have a good mindset and keep doing it until someone sees you.
@sofiavdsp
I started posting on social media ten years ago because it was becoming fashionable at the time. When I first started using Instagram, it had not yet developed into what it is now. KOLs were rare at that time, but today many people use it to watch friends or celebrities, get news and information and see promotions. Personally, I love Instagram. It’s the place I use the most and put the most thought into. I think Instagram is a great place to share your life with a little taste and elegance. I mainly share about life, or about dressing up, trends and so on. I hope to bring my followers good content that can help them when they need it. When I create content I also think about my audience, their age and gender or what they are interested in, and then I come up with some topics to address these. For example, I did a programme about women called Girl’s Talk. I wanted to let more people know about the experiences of women in all walks of life, and this topic is of interest, not only to women but also to men, so it is suitable for all ages! I can’t say I really have a strategy, but I mainly focus on the big picture and my personal feelings. I prefer to be more realistic when it comes to photography – honest and straightforward, so the audience will feel it. A lot of people think this job is easy and you can make a lot of money, but I can only say that you will know what it’s really like when you experience it! Before you decide to become a KOL, prepare yourself, especially in terms of mentality, because if you don’t have a strong heart and will, it’s hard to keep going. This business is about perseverance if you want to see results! I enjoy being able to share what I like and feel good about it with other people. And when you have a certain audience, you can use your popularity to help people in need. I hope all future KOLs will bring more positive energy to the world, have a good impact on their followers, share sincerely and genuinely, and be good role models!
@bettyfung323
I have been posting for nine years, since when I started to learn cooking and enjoy eating in Paris. Instagram is my favourite platform because it’s an entirely visual platform and I can share images and videos with my followers. As I am a chef and I also enjoy travelling and tasting food in different countries, I focus more on restaurants and food. When I taste something I like or explore nice restaurants, I like to share these experiences with my followers. It’s important to always keep informed and up to date with new trends and restaurants, engage with your followers and answer their questions, and always try to entertain them and keep them interested. To get more likes and followers, I set my content goals and try to create more videos. Videos have a place in my strategy, and it’s important to come up with new ideas, bring new visitors to my site, and ultimately, generate revenue for my content. One challenge as a KOL is you need to have opinions about things, and in order to come up with your particular points of view, you still have to go to work. So you have to find a balance with the time management between your work and being a KOL. What I like most is connecting with people, having the chance to dine in fancy restaurants, and getting paid too! Over the years, social media platforms have developed specialized formats for mobile Apps and mobile-exclusive advertising has become even more popular. When you are just starting off, it’s important to set your content goals first, and remember that videos and visuals are always more popular than texts. As I continue my work as a KOL, I want to earn more credibility and develop my passion for the job, keep meeting amazing chefs from the world over and build a global view of gastronomy.
@blackjoe_5587
I started posting in 2016 because I was a part of three different movies in Macau. My focus is generally on lifestyle and having a happy life because I like to have fun with friends and fans and share a good laugh. I just post anything that comes to my mind because I think it’s funny. If I think my followers and my friends are going to like it, I just post it. The most challenging thing about being a KOL is to just keep being myself but still behave. The thing I like most about being on social media is the recognition of my fans. Since I first started posting, I think people have gotten to know me better. To be successful online you just need be yourself and follow your dreams. My plan is to just keep doing what I love.
@carolinasousa425
I have been posting on social media since 2005. I started posting on Fotolog and Hi5 a few years after they launched. I remember back then, it was just to be friends with the girls, we had to do whatever they were doing, and at that time, they were all so obsessed with Fotolog and Hi5. I used to be obsessed with tumblr and Facebook until Instagram was created. I stopped using Facebook because parents and teachers all just started to appear on my homepage, and I felt like there wasn’t any privacy anymore. I have always liked Instagram, and I’ve been posting on it since 2011. Then I created a TikTok account back in 2020. I had just posted my tenth video and it went viral with a total of 20 million views to date. I gained 100K followers in less than three months. The main theme of my posts is pictures of me travelling. I want to share with my friends/family and my followers all the beautiful places I’ve been to so they can also visit them. I want everyone to see the beauty of this world, and maybe they will start treating it better. And I love how people DM me on Instagram saying they have been inspired to travel to places because of my posts. I post whenever I have time or when I have new pictures. But I will always post something on my Instagram stories. As an Influencer, you alwasy need to keep your page active. You have to keep your followers entertained, if not you will lose them. To attract new followers and get likes, Hashtags are so important! Second, your pictures have to be high quality. I always add Saturation and Brightness to my pictures before I post them. Last but not least, the captions need to be interesting too. I love how people from all over the world have reached out to me sharing their stories, and asking for relationship advice, and some of them actually became my friends and are always checking up on me on Instagram. If you want to be successful on social media, do not focus on getting likes and followers. Just focus on creating the best content and posting your best pictures, and the right followers will find you eventually. And do not rush. It takes time. Sometimes a month, sometimes a year, or even more. My only goal is to make an impact in this world, to be known as someone who travels to make good things happen. I am still waiting for the day when I can finally visit my sponsor kid in Bolivia, and also to visit and help other people and animals in need.
@sou.good
We started around 2016 when we decided to start an Instagram couple account with the idea of sharing our passion for travelling. Pre-Covid we were very much focused on travelling. When we lived in Shanghai we wanted to make the most of living in China, so we did a lot of long weekend getaways and we decided we wanted to share this idea and concept of mini getaways. In 2019 we decided to travel full-time visiting over 40 countries and sharing all our travel experiences through our Instagram photos, and we also created our own website. Since Covid we have moved back to Macau and with more global travel restrictions we found that our focus has shifted to more lifestyle and family themes and specifically for the local Macau market. Instagram has always been our preferred and favourite media platform. Most, if not all, platforms have changed and evolved over the years. The biggest change for us has been the evolution of videos over photos. Only recently has Reels on Instagram arrived in Macau, so we are now creating more video content which is aligned with the new trends. When it comes to creating content, now it comes quite naturally to us and the best thing about this is that we get to do it together as a family! Like anything in life, you have to enjoy something for it to really work. Actually we are just a normal couple that want to share our experiences and influence in certain aspects, but the downside is this comes with some judgement and mixed reviews and opinions. We try to avoid conflicting circumstances where we can. In my opinion, there are no right strategies for becoming successful online. Everyone has a unique voice and different opinions to share, so I think as long as you stay true to yourself, and focus on creating the right content for your niche, the numbers will grow! Our goal isn’t necessarily to increase the number of followers, but primarily just to continue to enjoy doing what we love to do and build a positive reputation with the local community and local brands. With our family expanding, we will see if we can continue to focus on family influencing and sharing some of our experiences from that aspect.
@memofoodie
I’ve been an Instagram user since about the time it started. I was mainly posting about my daily life, but I started taking serious pictures of food in 2015. Instagram is my favourite platform because the interface is easy to use. People mainly share pictures and videos which is better for creators. The content of memofoodie mainly revolves around my daily records of what I have eaten. Through my content, I hope to make a positive impact on my readers, to get them started on creative things. I’m really not aggressive in trying to get more likes or followers, I just want to record and share what I’ve eaten. Of course, I’m happy that people like what I have to say, but there’s really no strategy. I personally find that when I introduce new restaurants that I’ve just discovered, I seem to get more likes. But I don’t just want to introduce that type of restaurant just because of the number of hits, I want keep my intentions pure. The most challenging thing is being able to persevere for so long in a small city like Macau. I’ve made a lot of mistakes along the way, but I’ll keep going! What I like most is not the income, but the fact that I have met people who appreciate me. In today’s technologically advanced online world, things are changing fast! The amount of hits distributed to each KOL by the platforms is changing, most notably because the platforms want the creators to spend money to increase their exposure. As a KOL, remember not to do things that you might regret, be yourself, don’t have a bad influence on others, and be responsible in what you do! In the future, I just hope I can continue to progress and grow together with my followers, so that more people in the world can get to know the food of Macau!
@wongnuno
Since the beginning of social media, I’ve been documenting my life and sharing what I see and hear, and it’s because people like my content that it has become something valuable. I like TikTok because it’s fast and easy, and it takes the shortest amount of time to get the point across. As I am a Mr. Macau myself, most of my material is based on Macau’s scenery and even Macau’s selling points. I hope that through my clips, more people can get to know and understand Macau. Being a KOL is a great way to be able to visit different shops, learn new things, meet like-minded people and, most importantly, improve your filming and editing skills. Since I started posting, social media has become all about sharing. Maybe we eat a bowl of noodles and it’s just a daily routine for us, but for others it’s a novelty, so it’s about understanding the tastes of the audience and making ourselves more likeable. You can go to different places to see and visit new things, but sometimes the topics you like may not be the ones your followers want to see, so it is important to always analyse what your followers like to read and what details they like to see based on demographic data. If you are just starting out, find your own personal style and know your own unique values. As I continue posting, I hope that through my own small efforts, I can share the different cultures and resources of Macau to more distant places so that more people can get to know me and Macau.
@varfitteam / @ivanova_erika / @ivan. vargovsky
When we started on social media a few years ago, we were absolutely terrified. We felt we were very ready to share our skills and inspire others with what we are passionate about, but we also felt nervous about the possible criticism and disinterest in our posts. This is normal for everyone on social media as we all often feel vulnerable when we share what we are passionate about. Instagram is a very addictive platform to post on so this is our most preferred social media platform. We love spending time exploring the picture filters and the new addition, Reels. Instagram has never failed to surprise us. It’s an amazing platform to make daily connections with people too. We are mostly concentrating on sharing our body posture and fitness tips, some artistic gymnastic tricks, some educational videos about exercise and how anyone with focus can achieve these same goals. One thing we enjoy about content creation and posting is that there are no rules. You can find your own way and one that resonates with you. Instagram can be another extension of your creativity and world as an author, if you embrace it as such. And with your own platform, you have complete control over what you decide to share and what you don’t. The most challenging thing about being a KOL is that there are no pauses in the job. Unlike regular office work, there’s no fixed time in an Influencer’s business hours, even during weekends and vacations. Instagram is constantly changing and adding new ideas to keep the posts interesting. The algorithm is also ever-changing. It can be hard to keep up with the latest trends as well as strategies, which is why it’s important to continue learning and staying up to date with what’s new. Ultimately, we think that being an Influencer takes patience, consistency, time and creativity to create unique and amazing content. Once you’ve overcome the initial challenges, it can be a really fun job to do! The key is to engage with people who are interested in similar things as you, as they are more likely to like your account and follow you. As well as our personal accounts, we also have VARFIT, a sport platform where people can find inspiration and education about fitness and health. And together with our partner Celeste, we are moving from online to creating our own VARFIT studio very soon!
@zero_nowz
I have been using social networking platforms for more than 10 years. I first started using them at university. I usually use Instagram and Facebook more often because most of my friends use these two platforms. I usually post more about dance and life, so I think people who follow me are interested in these two things. I hope that my posts can encourage more people to like street dance. I don’t have any particular strategies for getting more likes or followers. I just share what I want to share. I don't really see myself as a KOL, but it has given me more opportunities to work with different brands, so that has been an interesting experience. If you are thinking of starting your own Instagram page, just go for it!
