Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing refers to the science and art of getting people online who are influential to share brand messages with their followers through sponsored content.

Influencer marketing is all about connecting with real people. Social media platforms and the Internet have made it possible for anyone to become an expert or create a network that he/she can influence. You need to be a good content creator to become a successful influencer in your domain.

Advertisers have used celebrity endorsements to raise awareness and improve perceptions of brands for years. People trust celebrities and often aspire to be like them. Influencer marketing too follows the same concept but in a different way.

You do not need to be an actor, singer, or sportsperson to influence the mass. Social media users having a huge number of followers can become influencer marketers.

Social media platforms like Instagram and blogs allow people to build large, engaged followings. Social media influencers have the ability to influence their followers in a similar way as celebrities. These social media influencers can then be partnered by brands to produce a new type of celebrity endorsement.

Why Influencer Marketing?

Influencer marketing has seen unprecedented growth in recent times. The strategy that was once considered a fad is now a major part of digital marketing.

Replicating word-of-mouth via social media makes perfect sense, it is still the most effective marketing strategy. The best thing is that both brands, as well as influencers, benefit from the increasing rate of influencer marketing.

Influencer marketing uses the authenticity, reach, and personality of people who have established a niche in which they are targeting a certain audience. Twitter showed that 49% of consumers use social media to get advice about buying. It is worth looking into how to get influencers on board with your brand.

Experts in their field, skilled influencers, and creators create curated content that resonates well with audiences. Working with influencers has many benefits that can be tailored to suit your goals.

• Increasing brand awareness
• Attracting new audiences
• Reduce the noise
• Creating unique content
• Boost engagement
• Growing loyalty
• Get honest feedback
• High return on marketing investment

Levels Of Influence

The three groups of influence are Micro-Influencers, Category Influencers, and Celebrity Influencers. These three levels of influencers have a certain degree of influencing power to influence their community. Influencing power maybe their skill, knowledge, and creative ideas to create content.

Celebrity Influencers

Celebrity Influencers have a broad base of fame and can influence a large audience. Celebrity Influencers could include actors, musicians, and athletes. However, this category can also include online celebrities with large followings.

These are either Category Influencers who have reached celebrity status or high-profile individuals that have worked their way through traditional gatekeeper systems to gain the same recognition and influence.

On the other hand, a person who is just famous for their sake but has no ability or expertise to influence a target audience is a Celebrity, not a Celebrity Influencer.

Category Influencers

These are people who have genuine passion, expertise, or enthusiasm for a particular topic, such as beauty, automotive, music, etc. A practitioner is someone who has expertise in a specific area (e.g. a professional chef who makes cooking videos).

Although they may not be well-known to a large audience, they are able to influence people in their particular niche by changing their attitudes, beliefs, and behavior.

Micro-Influencers

They may not have a large online following, and they might not even be online. However, these individuals are passionate about a particular topic, brand, or product category. They could be someone who advocates organic food or someone who loves Apple products so much that they tell their offline and online friends to buy them.

Micro-influencers can bond with their followers by having a smaller audience. They are a great choice for businesses that want to build personal relationships with their target audience.

Depending on the company’s influencer marketing strategy, it might engage with only one level of influencers or all three.

Factors Affecting the Selection of Marketing Influncers

Influencers need to balance many key factors in order to succeed, regardless of how large their audience is or what role they play in companies that engage them.

Authenticity

A trusted, authentic relationship with a community is the key to success for an influencer. Influencers are concerned about how to maintain a genuine connection with their communities when collaborating with brands.

There are legal considerations as well, especially for US-based influencers. They need to be open about brand collaborations to maintain authenticity and protect themselves against legal consequences for violating Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

Although authenticity is a term that is often used, it is the core of everything. We don’t focus as much on following, but rather on engagement, sentiment, and business results.

Brand Fit

An influencer must have a consistent brand to build more influence. However, the influencer should also balance their personal brand with the companies they wish to work with.

To be an influencer, it is important to be able to see both the brand of the employer and your brand’s best interests in order to design and inform the collaboration. If it does not feel right, you must be able to leave.

Many influencers, especially those still in the building phase, don’t know how long it will take to sustain their popularity or reach their audience. This is why there’s a bit of a need to do as much right now as possible. They don’t feel like they have any choice but to say yes. They can’t deliver or compromise their brand in order to make money. No one wins.”

Community

The three elements that influencer-marketing professionals use to measure a community’s success are their Reach, Relevance and Resonance.

Reach: A total audience of influencers across all social media platforms, measured in followers, subscribers, and traffic. As discussed earlier, reach is what defines an individual as either a Micro-Influencer, Category Influencer, or Celebrity Influencer.

Resonance: – Engagement between an influencer’s audience, and the content they create, measured by likes, shares, comments, views, retweets, etc. Because influencers must be able to show that their audience is more than just numbers, they need to be able to demonstrate resonance. The saying “If a tweet goes out to 100,000 followers, but nobody retweets or shares it, does the tweet have any resonance?”

Relevance: Ensures that influencers’ content is consistent with the topics of the community. Relevance is also important for brands. It refers to how closely an influencer’s audience matches the brand’s target audience as well as how closely their content aligns to key topics the brand wants to be associated.

Content

Influencers add value and build relationships with their communities through content. This brings us to the second challenge that influencers have to face: How to create new content. Not just any content. But content that their community can’t find elsewhere. And how to continue engaging their community in a consistent topic.

People often refer to influencers according to the platforms they use. Although “YouTubers” and “bloggers” are common terms, the truth is that all social media platforms have been central to the rise of the modern-day influencer.

Social media gives influencers the ability to share their content in the way they feel most comfortable. Not everyone is camera-ready and not everyone can write in a persuasive way. Social media allows influencers to share content and increase their influence.

Top Influencer Marketing Platforms

No matter how many tools are invented, once you have mastered these six platforms you will be able to manage influencer marketers from anywhere.

Blogs

Blogs have changed from being a text-heavy medium for sharing opinions and stories to becoming a rich, visual world that is easily shared.

Bloggers were the first form of user-generated content to attract advertisers. Blogs were open to commenters which allowed bloggers (publishers), to interact with their readers. This was a revolutionary way to communicate with others, and whole communities were formed around blogs.

Blogs can be measured and are highly effective. Influential bloggers can create beautiful content and tell true stories in ways that brands can’t.

Instagram

All ages, especially the younger ones, love to share snapshots of other people’s lives. Instagram is fun and easy to use. Although marketers used to be skeptical that Instagram’s fleeting photos could make a difference for brands, almost 95 percent of retailers now use Instagram.

It’s great to work with Instagram influencers because users want visual content that is easy to understand. This is why Instagram is so beloved. It’s easy to engage Instagram influencers in order for brand content to be prominent on Instagram.

You can track Instagram programs using many tools. All you need is a unique hashtag. This makes it easy to measure program success and some tools even come free. Instagram’s audience can be diverse and sometimes different from those who read story-based blogs. Instagram is a great channel for getting sponsored content in front of as many people as possible.

Twitter

Twitter has revolutionized the news cycle and how social media-savvy users consume information. Twitter allows you to discuss and share any event as it happens in real-time.

Twitter is where people go to share and find out what’s going on in the world with thousands of others they don’t know. Twitter is great for:

• Hosting chats or “parties” with a different background of people who have a common interest
• Information about a product launch or any newsworthy event.
• Brands that are keen to engage with users. Facebook is less active — long-term comments can go unanswered, for instance. Twitter users expect responses quickly. If you are unable to engage in real-time conversations on Twitter with your followers, it is a great option to work with influencers who can.

Facebook

Facebook’s initial goal was to connect people around the world. As their user base grew, Facebook evolved to serve two purposes: helping people to maintain connections and helping businesses to build relationships.

Facebook’s influencer marketing is a cost-saving strategy that allows you to not have to create original content for your ads. You can often get unique content that is relatable and affordable by partnering with an influencer who has a passion for content creation.

Facebook regularly changes its algorithms, policies, and ad serving. What worked today might not work tomorrow. It is difficult, but essential, to keep up. It’s a great idea to work with influencers when it comes to Facebook. Here are the reasons:

• Popular Facebook users know how to use the platform to make sure their posts are seen by as many people as possible. Influencers are experts.
• Engaging Facebook influencers can be a great way to share branded content you have already created. Facebook is an amazing platform for sharing short, concise messages such as coupons or information about in-store sales, or brand images and videos.

Pinterest

Pinterest’s main focus is visual content. This allows for quick travel to other parts of the internet and brings new visitors to your website, blog, or online store. It can account for as much as 8 percent of all website referral traffic.

Pinterest is one of the most overlooked social media platforms for 2021. Pinterest is becoming a hub for ideas and home to many active influencers.

• Pinterest is a great place for influencers to post beautiful content. The wider the reach of a pin, the more beautiful it will be.
• Pins, unlike other platforms, tend to be eternal. They can be pinned and repinned in perpetuity.

Video

Video is a unique entity in the world of influencer marketing. Agents and agencies often take the most prominent video influencers quickly, making it difficult for brands or other businesses to work with them directly. Popular video influencers are often paid more than other types of influencers. This is especially true if they have six- or seven-figure followings.

There are many new video influencers, thanks to the fact that video production tools have become easier to use, more accessible, and more affordable. You can now film almost theater-quality movies using your camera.

This is allowing more people to enter the video influencer market and reach thousands of people who don’t read blogs, use Pinterest or Twitter. A sponsored video can look as good as a TV commercial, but it’s more engaging and authentic to viewers when it’s done right.

Do not limit your attention to YouTube stars. Video talent is everywhere! Vine is one example. They have thousands of users who are incredibly popular even though their videos are just seconds long.

Keep an open mind for potential talent. Video talent that is not well-known by the masses will be less likely to work with marketers or brands one-on-one.

Give influencers a lot of creative freedom. It’s not easy to build a video audience. The influencer is the best person to know his/her audience. You must be open to allowing his/her to use brand messaging or products in his/her work if you want to make it flexible.

How to Find Marketing Influencers

It can be hard to find the right influencer for your brand. We have compiled a list to help you do it.

Blogger

To find influential bloggers to help your business, take a look at their posts. You can check their Domain Authority and social media statistics to find the right ones for you.

You should reach out to bloggers to find out if they are interested in partnering with your brand. Also, search their content to look for popular influencers or other sources they frequently link to. These influencers can also be very valuable contacts. The deeper you dig into their content, you’ll find more!

Search Engines

Google and other search engines are great for finding marketing influencers. However, you must search specific keywords. Otherwise, you will be searching through all search results to find them. For these search queries, create a list that captures your brand’s overall mission.

A marketing influencer is someone who has already created content in your area and reached your target audience. A Google search for keywords and industry terms will bring up experts in these areas.

Social Media

You can use social media listening or monitoring tools to find marketing influencers talking about your industry or you. You can find influencers interested in working with your brand by searching social media. You can search social media yourself, or use tools to refine your search. You can use hashtags to search for marketing influencers on social media.

Personal and Professional Network

Refer to your professional and personal contacts for referrals. Ask your team to look for key opinion leaders on LinkedIn. They will be able to tell you if they have recently followed micro-influencers who post content that is compatible with your brand. Ask any influencers you have worked with if they are willing to link your business with other influential people they know.

Influencer Tool

Influencer tools may allow you to find the most influential people within a particular niche. You can find their social profiles, email addresses, and website in these databases so you can get in touch with them immediately for partnership opportunities.

This is a great way to find influential marketers, but it should not be taken lightly. Many companies exaggerate and provide outdated information about influencers. Ask for a trial or demo, if possible, to see the type of influencers they have.

Avoiding Common Mistakes in Influencer Marketing

Bigger brands can have more influencer marketing problems if they are too hands-off. There are many ways to scale influencer marketing programs, however, you should not rush to automate. Avoid falling for these traps.

Do not undervalue Influencer work

You shouldn’t underestimate how much work goes into making influencer marketing campaigns successful, regardless of whether you have your own influencer pool or hire an agency to do it.

Influencer marketing is based on the fact that influencers are actual, living human beings and not just display ads. While there are many ways to scale up your programs, influencer marketing cannot be considered programmatic.

Don’t under-budget!

It’s people working with you, not machines or ad exchanges. Every campaign is different. No matter how advanced and superior are your tools, each campaign needs a huge investment and a lot of manpower to execute it successfully.

Do not try to control everything

Brands with more experience are used to having their media under control. A company could provide the exact copy that influencers need to publish, but that is not influencer marketing.

Do not try to control messages for the sake of efficiency or for fear of losing control. Bloggers don’t like to read prewritten press releases. Give influencer marketers the freedom to present brands in their own way.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)