Over 347,000 new tweets are sent on Twitter every minute, almost 50,000 photos are posted to Instagram, 300+ hours of video are uploaded to YouTube, and 31 million posts are shared on Facebook every day. The social media world is evolving too quickly for anyone to keep up.
The best and worst thing about social media is that it allows information to spread very quickly. People share content they’re interested in with their social sphere by reposting, reblogging, and retweeting.
An influencer is someone who is recognized as an authority in their niche and whose thoughts and opinions spread quickly through the people who follow them.
A positive word from a prominent influencer could lead to an increase in website traffic and hundreds of new leads. A negative review from the same person could result in a significant drop in your followers.
We will look at the basics of targeting influencers and the tools you need to be successful in our digital landscape.
Why Influencers Should be Your #1 Target
Inbound marketing is always about your customers, but sometimes the best way to connect with the people who haven’t heard about your business is to have someone else talk to them about you. Here’s five reasons why it pays to win new leads through an influencer (with supporting stats by Hive):
1. They Have Huge Reach
This means that a very small percentage of social media users have a very large impact on what is seen and heard online. If you want to increase your following, you should focus on building trust and winning leads through content marketing. However, getting the endorsement of a key influencer can jumpstart your following.
2. They Have Built-in Trust
Influencer audiences trust their advice and are more receptive to content from a human being. Although a relatively small percentage of customers trust ads and branded content, a much larger majority trust an influencer’s endorsement.
3. They Help You Keep up with Current Trends
There is a lot of content on the internet that is not useful, but people who are influential because they are respected tend to only endorse information that is good—that is how they gained the trust of their followers. If you listen to what people are saying, you will know what the latest trends are in your industry. No wonder 74% of marketers rely on Influence Marketing.
4. They Give Your Content Direction
It can be difficult to determine what your customers want from your content if you do not have a well-developed audience. If you are aware of the content that your industry is interested in, you can adjust your content tofit their needs, which could potentially increase your conversions by 3 to 10 times.
5. They’ll Help You Trail Blaze
70% of people want to learn about products through content instead of advertising, but that number drops significantly when you use the same language as everyone else. If you want to become an influencer, partner with another influencer and create new content that no one has seen before. This will help you start conversations and establish yourself as an influencer.
What to Look for in an Influencer
Even though Katy Perry and PewDiePie have a lot of followers on social media, they are not likely to promote content that is not related to their interests.
Before you reach out to potential influencers, it is important to clarify what your goals are for your influencer marketing strategy. Organize your thoughts into categories to make it easier to change your strategy or approach in the future.
Here’s some questions you should consider:
- Is My Content Worth Sharing and Promoting by Influencers?
While good looks may help you get your foot in the door, they alone will not be enough to help you get promoted. When targeting influencers, it is important to have high-quality content that they will want to share. You need a repertoire of content before you start targeting influencers.
- Do I Have an Ideal Influencer Profile?
KISSmetrics takes a brilliant approach to influencer targeting, by first creating an ideal type of influencer (similar to a customer persona). Narrow down your list of potential influencers by defining the genres, niches, and topics they specialize in, as well as their personality type. This will help you figure out which influencers you’d like to collaborate with. To find influencers that will be a good fit for your business, it is helpful to keep track of them.
- Who are My Top Prospects?
Construct a list of your most promising leads. See below for information on using influencer targeting software to find the most well-known names in your desired field. Identify where the company publishes their content and look through it to get a sense of what they typically post.
If you want your content to be seen by a specific influencer, tailor it to the social media platforms they use most frequently.
What Influencer Marketing Challenges Do Brands Face?
Influencer marketing does not come without challenges. The brand is aware of the influencer’s compliance with both FTC guidelines and brand expectations through regular communication and updates. Brands must monitor the influencers channels and posts closely.
Brands must manage unrepresentative testimonials, too. Testimonials are a way for influencers to help promote a product. If an influencer’s followers say that a product helped them lose 10 pounds in a week, it may not be an accurate representation. Speaking to influencers, it is important to mention that results may vary.
Purchased followers inflate an influencer’s numbers significantly. The use of bot detection services and audit tools are becoming more prevalent among brands but they can also be on the lookout for warning signs such as:
- Sudden spikes in followers
- A large percentage of followers from
- other countries
- Low-quality or below average content
- Low engagement
How Should You Talk to Influencers?
Get Personable
The goal of any influencer program should be to build a long-term relationship in which influencers are encouraged to promote the brand even when no formal collaboration is in place. You should know the birthdays, schools, and parental statuses of your Influencers.
The accessories brand partnerized with gifting all influencers a product from their latest holiday collection, which included a personalized note thanking them for their efforts throughout the year. The initiative was not given any extra budget to support it, only the product and the higher commission rate. The brand drove 19,000 engagements by letting influencers know that the brand was thinking of them. These engagements ranged from Likes, to comments, to shares.
Partnering with your influencers more closely will help improve the relationship and make it more beneficial for both parties.
Sharing is Caring
Don’t leave your influencers hanging! Inform your audience about the new product you are promoting. Give your employees tips and tricks that will help them improve their performance and achieve your company’s goals. Do they want to increase their blog readership? Share ways they can improve their SEO rankings. Do they want to increase their Instagram following? Repost some of their content. It’s important to keep in touch with your influencers often, whether by email or phone. That way, they’ll think of you when they have their next great idea.
Recognize and Reward
Some influencers are in it for the business and the money. Others are in it because it’s their passion. It is important to recognize your loyal customers on your site and social platforms, and to reward them with something monetary or with a product or service. The influencers can benefit from an affiliate marketing relationship when they have a large following. You can let your employees know that you appreciate their hard work by increasing their commission rate for a period of time. This will show them that their efforts are not going unnoticed and that you value their contribution to the company.
Partnerize is hoping to close the divide between affiliate and influencer marketing so that the two can work together, like they should. If an influencer uses Partnerize’s In-Cart Attribution tool, they can be given credit for sales they influenced at any time during the transaction. If you want to make sure that your influencer gets credit for any sales that they generate, you can use the Preferred Publisher Tool to prioritize them over any other partner.
An issue that influencers often have with affiliate marketing is that they aren’t always compensated for their work, since the last-click model is used. At Partnerize, we hear you! And that’s why we’ve invested in technology like In-Cart Attribution and Preferred Publisher. This makes it easier to consider both channels as one and should address any concerns you might have.
How Do I Ensure That an Influencer I’m Partnered With Doesn’t Post Something Inappropriate?
As a brand, you must keep track of your relationships with influencers to make sure that the content they post is aligned with your brand, campaign, and the law. The FTC is taking a more active role in regulating influencer marketing. The responsibility for making sure that FTC Endorsement guidelines are followed falls on the brand when it partners with an influencer. It is also beneficial to have a contract that outlines what each person is responsible for in relation to the campaign.
Should Influencers Disclose Their Sponsored Posts or Campaigns?
This means that if an influencer has been paid, gifted product or given some other type of compensation in exchange for a post, they must disclose this information to their followers. In order for a post to be considered an #ad by the FTC, influencers must disclose any material connection they have to the brand – which includes, but is not limited to, free products or services, monetary compensation, or access to special events. This means that if an influencer is being paid or given free products in exchange for a post, they must disclose that information to their followers. A disclosure statement should be prominent and easily visible. The font must be large and legible, and it should be set apart from the background. Present your ideas in a clear and concise manner, using language that can be easily understood. The advertisement should be placed where consumers will see it, using hashtags or statements such as “Ad,” “Advertisement,” or “Sponsored Advertising.”
Where Should Influencers Place Disclosures?
If influencers bury the #ad hashtag in the middle of their posts, they are not following FTC guidelines. The disclosure must be easy to see. A good practice is to place the disclosure statement at the beginning of the post, or use a hashtag, so that the reader sees the disclosure first. The disclosure must be above the “More” button.
Final Steps: Reaching Out & Building Your Repertoire
This means it’s time to develop relationships that will last for a long time. Reach out to your target influencers on social media and offer them content that they would be interested in.
There’s a few ways to go about this, but I recommend:
1. Genuinely Loving Their Content
You should not approach an influencer just for good PR while secretly hating their content. offer a different opinion It’s ok in fact it’s encouraged to on a topic that real conversation but you need to be in your interest
2. Actively Engaging with Their Updates
You can show interest in something by engaging with it. Interact with potential employers by starting conversations, asking questions, commenting on their blogs, and retweeting their insights. By doing this, you will be able to create a relationship with potential employers and get your name out there.
3. Establishing Yourself as a Peer
The key to a successful interaction with your target influencer is to make sure that you are both contributing equally to the conversation. If you want to gain more followers on social media, share topics that are relevant to their interests, offer insights into their niche, and share some of your own experience. Make a list of potential influencers to partner with. And remember to keep them informed! If you have new content or products that would interest your audience, let them know by sending them a link. After taking the necessary actions, you can relax and observe the consequences that follow.
How Do You Find the Right Type Of Influencer for Your Brand?
A micro influencer is almost 50% more likely to result in engagement than a macro influencer. And why is this the case? The system is largely based on micro-influencers having a more devoted audience. They create the content their audience wants and are therefore better able to make valuable and authentic connections. As an audience size grows, it becomes more difficult to target consumers with relevant messages, which can impact a brand’s revenue potential. After establishing trust, brands can confidently give the micro-influencer leeway to speak on their behalf in an authentic way that resonates with their followers. Brands trust micro-influencers to be genuine advocates of their product who will influence their audience on the subject matter that brought the audience to them in the first place.
Brands are looking for an influencer that not only has a large audience, but also one that is a good fit for their brand personality-wise. An example of this would be if Birchbox partnered with Emily Schuman of Cupcakes & Cashmere. They created five Instagram posts that received 18,000 likes and had 550,000 consumers engage with their content.
Schuman is a lifestyle blogger who is followed by over 489,000 people on Instagram. Birchbox knew that she would be the perfect person to endorse their beauty supply boxes because she has the right personality and her blog attracts the right audience.
Related posts:
