Many people believe that Influencer Marketing is a new term closely related to social media, which is not accurate at all.
Influencer marketing is not a new concept and obviously has nothing to do with social media. In fact, one of the first “Influencer” collaborations was in 1760.
Undoubtedly, social media has significantly amplified this concept, making it more accessible for brands and businesses to leverage on it, and taste its benefits.
This is why, we are going to discuss the topic of Influencer Social Media Marketing in this article.
If you’re looking to promote your brand using social media influencers but are unsure about what steps to take, this article offers checklists, do’s and don’ts, pros and cons, and everything you need to know about Social Media Influencer Marketing.
Before we start, let’s remind ourselves of what the definition of a social media influencer is. Just to avoid any confusion.
What Is a Social Media Influencer?
A social media influencer is someone on social media platforms like Instagram, YouTube, or TikTok who has a lot of people following him (Or what we call: followers). These followers pay attention to what the influencer does, buys, or talks about.
The influencer concentrates on a particular niche within his pages, such as fashion, fitness, or PC games.
The influencer’s opinions and recommendations can really impact what followers think and do about that specific niche, which is why brands collaborate with influencers to promote their products/services or even ideas.
How a Social Media Influencer Can Promote Your Brand?
Let’s say you closed a deal with an influencer to promote your product.
Basically, there are two approaches to how he can do it.
Direct Approach
In this way, the influencer gives a straightforward and clear recommendation to his followers to use or buy your product.
He might say something like this: “Hey, I have tried this [Your product], I found it very helpful. I highly recommend it”. Sometimes, he may even mention that it was a paid collaboration.
Indirect Approach
Here, he can smoothly include the product in his posts, stories, or vlogs. It’s like dropping a hint, using the product naturally as part of his everyday life or in a story he is telling.
For example, consider him promoting your running shoe brand. He might produce a vlog during his 30-minute morning run, showcasing your running shoes in an indirect way
Clear enough?
What Are the Types of Influencers?
By the “Types of influencers,” I mean the size of the influencer –more accurately, the number of followers he has:
- Nano-Influencers: Follower Count: Below 1,000
- Micro-Influencers: Follower Count: 1,000 – 10,000
- Mid-Tier Influencers: Follower Count: 10,000 – 100,000
- Macro-Influencers: Follower Count: 100,000 – 1 million
- Mega-Influencers: Follower Count: 1 million+
Typically, we are talking here about Hollywood celebrities, athletes, and well-known personalities from different categories.
Clear Checklist of “Must-Have” to Find the Perfect Influencer for Your Brand
Identifying the ‘perfect’ influencer for your brand often depends on factors like your brand type, budget, and marketing strategy. There’s no one-size-fits-all approach here, but I’ve learned some universal must-haves from my experience to help you find the right fit.
- The same niche as your brand. Obviously.
- Real followers. Be aware of this! A lot of influencers are faking their followers. There are plenty of free tools you can use to check this. You can also analyze the “Likes-to-followers” ratio. Example: If an influencer has 20K followers, yet, his posts only get 10-30 Likes, run away.
- Clean Progress: Does this Influencer use any unusual methods to get his audience? Lots of influencers apply some methods such as controversial content, fake giveaways, or controversial content… to quickly grow their accounts.
- Do the followers of this influencer are the same as your target audience? If not; he is not the perfect choice.
- If you are selling a product that solves a problem, make sure that this influencer already has that problem solved. Meaning? Your product is for removing acne. If an influencer has acne, then you could assume that he is not the perfect match for your product, right?
Dos and Don’ts in Social Media Influencer Marketing
Here are some tips to work with the influencers in social media.
What to do:
1. Communicate very clearly
Every single thing should be crystal clear between you and the influencer. This includes deadlines, guidelines, and fees.
2. Measurement is the key
Many small brands make this mistake regularly. They don’t measure the necessary KPIs for each campaign.
Before you team up with influencers, set a clear goal for your collaboration. Then, pick the social media key metrics that match your goal and keep an eye on them.
If you are using social media automation platforms, tracking becomes much simpler.
For instance, you can utilize a feature called a link shortener. This allows you to condense the links you want to track and provides you with detailed information, including the number of clicks on the link, its origin, the devices used, and even the language.
You can share these shortened links with your influencer to help them track his effectiveness.
3. Video is far better than image post
When closing a deal with an influencer, make sure to request that they promote your brand in a video. It could be either a direct or indirect approach. An image post alone is not sufficient.
You can learn more about the value of video content here.
What Not to do:
1. Don’t be a short-time thinker
Real influencers command high fees for a reason – they can literally transform your brand for the better. So if you found one, don’t let him go directly after the collaboration is finished. Instead, keep in touch, share value, give honest feedback, and maybe even meet up for coffee. This connection can seriously help your business in the future.
2. Guidelines are important, and so do creativity
Guidelines are essential to protect your brand but don’t go overboard and restrict the influencer’s creativity. They know their followers better than you.
3. No scripted content, please!
Lots of brands make influencers use a written script to talk about their products/services. In my opinion, this doesn’t just make the audience feel strange and fake, but even worse, it can make people not like both the brand and the influencer.
Avoid it.
4. Don’t compromise respect for followers
Remember, it’s not just about numbers. An influencer’s respect for their followers matters. Some influencers have hundreds of thousands of followers, but people don’t respect a word of what they say.
If that’s the case, teaming up with them is just a waste of money. People won’t purchase based on a suggestion from someone they don’t respect. Find a respectful influencer.
How to Effectively Find the Right Influencer on Instagram
Instagram is not the only platform to use for Social Media influencers, but according to Hubspot, 72% of marketers listed Instagram among the social media platforms on which they work with influencers and creators.
With the same survey, Hubspot claimed that most marketers (32%) said Instagram is the easiest platform to work with influencers. Knowing this, let me show you a simple way, I do each time I want to find a great-match influencer on Instagram for my clients
- Open the page of any Influencer you know in your niche.
- Click on the small icons on the right of the “Message” button. It’s called “Similar Accounts”
It will show you multiple influencers in the same niche. You can click on one of them, and apply the same method until you find the right one for you.
Conclusion
Clearly, brands invest literally millions of dollars in social media influencer marketing for a reason – they understand the value it brings to the table.
The good news is, you don’t have to spend a huge amount to promote your brand effectively. When you outsource social media efforts, including influencer marketing, you’ll find influencers across every budget level, making it possible to reach diverse audiences worldwide while staying within your means.
I see that no matter your business type or the size of your marketing budget, it’s definitely worth giving social media influencer marketing a try.
Author: Yahya Aaghattass, the head of content of Nuelink.
