Tag Archive for: Social Media Influencers

The Power of Social Media Influencers: Why it works

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At this point in time, most businesses are well aware of the power of social media. According to Statista, roughly 79 percent of the American population has a social media profile, which accounts for almost 247 million people. However, simply having a social media presence isn’t enough. If you really want to take advantage of all that social media has to offer, you have to take advantage of the power of social media influencers. The use of social media influencers can help boost your brand’s reputation while also exposing your brand to an even bigger audience.

What Are Social Media Influencers?

Social media influencers are people on social media who can be considered “personalities” and who have massive amounts of followers who hang on to their every post. Many social influencers have such significant sway over their audience that they become mini-celebrities in a way. In fact, many celebrities are considered influencers because of their huge social media followings. Businesses are beginning to form relationships with these influencers as a way to gain access to these massive audiences. For example, when an Instagram model tags a designer brand in a picture of them wearing their clothing, the brand receives a huge boost in brand awareness amongst that influencer’s base.

The Benefits of Social Influencer Marketing

The following are some of the reasons why you should participate in social influencer marketing:

  • Improve brand awareness

The moment an influencer mentions your brand or showcases one of your products, you’ll immediately have the eyes of their followers on you. As a result, you’ll increase your brand awareness significantly based on the influencers you’re working with.

Also Read: Your Brand Reputation and Public Relations

  • Reach a relevant audience

If your influencer is relevant to your industry, then working with them will provide you with access to a relevant audience. For example, a business that sells dog food could gain more exposure to a larger audience by teaming up with an influencer whose Instagram account focuses on the daily adventures of their pet dog. It’s likely that this influencer’s audience is the type of audience the dog food brand is targeting.

  • A different way to promote products

There’s a fine line when it comes to advertising products and services to your audience. People often feel annoyed when they’re trying to read through a blog or email and all they find are advertisements. However, when an influencer promotes a product, most users don’t view it as a corporate advertisement despite the fact influencers are required to be transparent about the relationships that they have with brands when promoting a product. They see it more as an endorsement of a product from someone that they trust.

  • Influencers contribute to your content marketing

Influencers are natural content creators. It’s why they have such large followings, to begin with — they are capable of creating engaging content on a daily basis. They can not only create content promoting your brand but also generate content that a significant number of people are likely to share, like, and comment on. Essentially, influencer marketing benefits your content marketing efforts.

Also Read: How to Leverage Influencer Marketing for Your Brand’s Success

  • Improve your SEO

Influencers can significantly boost your SEO efforts. When mentioning your brand on social media, they often link back to the relevant page or use your company hashtag. This can improve your SEO because Google factors in backlinks from authoritative sources when ranking pages. Additionally, the web traffic that a backlink from a social influencer brings to your site can boost your page rankings.

Explore more with our Social Media Marketing White Pages

How Powerful Are Social Media Influencers?

Still not sure whether putting the effort into identifying influencers is worth the time and money? Consider the following social media influencer marketing stats that showcase just how powerful an influencer can be:

  • Around 49 percent of consumers make their purchasing decisions based on recommendations made by influencers that they follow.
  • About 40 percent of all Twitter users (and there are over 126 million of them) have made a purchasing decision as a result of a tweet.
  • Approximately 74 percent of consumers use social networks to help guide their purchasing decisions.
  • Around 40 percent of all consumers online use ad-blocking apps, making it challenging to reach them through paid advertising.

As you can see, influencer marketing is incredibly powerful — and it will only continue growing. Take advantage of the power of social media influencers by identifying the influencers that fit your brand. Reach out to them and begin to build a relationship that benefits you both.

Learn To Use Social Media To Find New Leads

How to Leverage Influencer Marketing for Your Brand’s Success

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Starting a business is one challenge, and building it into a success story is another. Several startups fail due to factors ranging from poor planning and ineffective marketing strategies to economic downturns and operational inefficiencies. As far as marketing is concerned, there are several lessons to learn from some of the most successful companies. In the sections below, we’ll discuss influencer marketing and how influencer collaboration with the right influencers can be a recipe for business success. You’ll also learn how to maximize influencer collaborations and make this marketing strategy work for you.

What is Influencer Marketing, and Why Does it Matter?

 

As the name suggests, influencer marketing is a technique where you partner up with a popular figure or celebrity to help promote your products or services. Influencers can be individuals or a group of people with a huge following, especially on popular social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and TikTok.

Whether your business is a startup or an established entity, influencer marketing can help drive brand awareness, increasing traffic and conversions. It’s worth noting that every business is unique, and how effective influencer marketing will be for your business depends on factors such as:

  • Nature of the business. Beauty, lifestyle, and fashion businesses have a natural fit with influencers, while those in the B2B sector may find this marketing technique challenging.
  • Online presence. A robust online presence, characterized by a well-designed website and active social media profiles, will attract the best influencers and may translate to better conversions.
  • Target demographics. The influencer’s ready audience should be your preferred target market. Otherwise, a mismatch will see your marketing campaign struggle.
  • Choice of influencer. Consider the influencer’s values, reputation, and audience engagement before striking a partnership deal. More on this later.

Besides having an engaged and loyal following willing to buy your products or services, influencers put a personality and face to your brand, making it more reputable and trustworthy. The right influencers will also push your product or services to a broader audience, thanks to the varied platforms they’ll use to promote your brand.

How Can You Leverage Influencer Collaborations to Drive Business Success? 

Most influencers have great ideas on how they can partner with you to market your brand. Even so, you may specify how you want them to promote your products or services. And while there’s no wrong or right way to promote your brand, some influencer marketing techniques are more effective than others. Here are a few ways to leverage influencer marketing for maximum impact:

Try Podcast Endorsements

According to PEW research, 49% of adults in the United States have listened to a podcast in the past 12 months. Therefore, it makes economic sense to partner with podcast hosts to promote your brand among their loyal following. To make this strategy work best, you want to sponsor specific episodes of several podcasts your target audience is already subscribed to.

Use Influencer Content as Paid Ads

Standard ads on social media platforms rarely convert since everyone sees them as a nuisance. However, this won’t be the case if you partner with an influencer and let them create a social ad with their face or voice on it.

Use Brand Ambassadors 

Over the years, businesses have used brand ambassador programs to build trust and win customers. With this technique, companies tap into loyal customers who already use their products or services and partner with them to recommend their brand to their following or audience. This program works well when the loyal customer you want to pick has a huge following that can convert easily.

Try Contests and Giveaways 

With this technique, you’ll provide your influencers with a product or service they can reward or give to their followers. You can modify this technique to have the influencer’s followers like your brand’s page or post. The giveaways may come in the form of contests or challenges meant to boost social media engagement, brand following, and awareness.

Gift Influencers and Obtain Honest Reviews 

Another way to leverage influencer marketing is to gift an influencer your product or provide them with your services for free and let them give their followers an honest review of what they think about your product/service. If the influencer thinks your product/service is excellent, they’ll recommend it to their followers. Otherwise, they won’t.

How to Identify the Right Influencers for Your Target Audience 

Before comfortably trusting an influencer to promote your brand, you must follow due process throughout the sourcing and selection stages. The right influencer for your brand is someone you can trust and who believes in your business. Here are a few things to look out for when choosing an influencer to partner up with:

  • Relevant audience. Not all influencers have an audience that resonates with your business or target demographic. Do your research to ensure you partner with someone who will directly add value to your business.
  • Brand Values. The right influencer will have values that resonate with your brand and target audience. You can check the influencer on social media platforms to learn more about their values and belief systems.
  • Communication and professionalism. One of the pillars of the 4Cs marketing model is effective communication. Customers always want to know how buying your product will benefit them, meaning the influencer should do a great job selling your brand. Similarly, you want to work with a professional influencer who has strong communication skills.
  • Content Quality. As much as the influencer is authentic, trustworthy, and meets the brand alignment metrics, you also want to ensure the content they produce meets your expected quality standards.

Bottom Line

Whether turning your employees into influencers or picking celebrity figures to partner with, influencer marketing is generally a true and tested technique. The goal is to choose a trustworthy person with a reasonable social following committed to walking the marketing journey with you, one step at a time. Use the tips above to guide you throughout the influencer marketing campaign, and where necessary, seek professional help from a reputable marketing company.