Ever since the age of social media has introduced a new way of marketing, it is no surprise that it also created a band of new celebrities known as influencers. Eventually, marketers realized the value of these famous people and decided to use the influencer saga for their companies’ benefit. How is influencer implemented in marketing? There are plenty of ways to do so, but incorporating them into your social media marketing can bode positive synergistic effects.
What does influencer marketing mean? Influencer marketing is tied to social media marketing at the core if you look at things on a technical level. After all, you use influencers who gained fame and social following through different social media platforms. These influencers are often regarded as professionals in their niche. By tagging the right individual to build up your brand, you gain access to their following, widening your reach.
Building and captivating a target audience is one of the struggles of using social media for your company. However, by using smart methods, you could explore this lucrative marketing strategy and grow your following steadily. There are plenty of influencers in your niche that can give you a shout out. However, you need to select wisely. As much as possible, choose influencers that share the same values as your brand, so they can accurately convey your brand message to a relevant audience.
Now, you may ask “How do you create an influencer strategy using social media?” Keep in mind that using Instagram alone, gives you access to over half a million influencers. While this platform is an influencer favorite, other platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube are also homes to these celebrities. It will not be challenging to find the perfect character to represent your brand on social media. However, you will still need to apply the necessary effort to get the job done correctly.
Get the Right Influencer for Your Social Media Campaign
The secret to finding the right key leaders who will see to it that your brand message gets disseminated accurately and rapidly is hard work. If you are not the type to put in the work, you’ll get nowhere. Influencers won’t flock toward you. You have to approach them.
In finding the best influencer to back up your social media campaign, you reap what you sow. The following steps serve as good seeds for you to plant.
Put Names to Possible Influencers in Social Media
The initial step involves identifying who are the best social media influencers in your niche. You can do manual work—scouring different social media platforms or typing in Google search box and scrutinizing the top results—or you could take the easy way and use tools such as BuzzSumo and Upfluence.
These tools make influencer marketing easier. They help with the influencer identification process and even the management and monitoring of the entire influencer marketing operation.
Make it a habit to check out lists of top influencers regularly while on the search. For companies offering a wide range of products or services, it is advisable to have about three to four influencers to represent your brand accordingly.
Organize Your Lists
The influencers you are considering to partner with need careful monitoring, so it is essential that you keep an eye on their content and avoid losing their potentially valuable content to a bunch of life update posts. After you have made a list to separate them from the crowd, things will be less overwhelming. Twitter has a list-making feature you can take advantage of.
Create a Memorable Profile
Influencers have plenty of fans and followers, so you need to have an excellent profile to work it. Make your profiles eye-catching and distinguished. You need a stand-up profile that translates your brand identity. Additionally, when you craft content, make sure you tag your brand and name to establish recognition. It is also worth noting that influencers, or people generally, respond more when they can see the face behind the voice.
Communicate with Influencers
Even if influencers are prominent in the industry, they are still ordinary people who appreciate a good conversation. Develop real relationships with them in social media by being true to yourself and your brand. Of course, you need to be a little strategic when conversing with them and avoid sounding pushy. Communicate how you would in real life.
Bring Value to Influencers
Reciprocation is one of the keys to influencer marketing. You have to go through the extra length to help an influencer out. Tweet their tweets, share their posts or videos, or quote them. Once you do some good deeds for them, the favor comes back. Not only do you establish rapport with them, but you also mirror their valuable content to yours. Also, do not forget to comment when reposting or sharing their content. Ensure that your comments are high-quality to solidify your expertise in the industry on their profiles, where thousands of followers come to dwell.
Be Generous with Compliments
Do not be afraid to indulge the influencers you know can give your brand some recognition. Who doesn’t appreciate compliments, offered in public no less? Fair warning, however, as this may not strike ultra-popular influencers the same way as mid-level influencers. You do not need to target the top social media influencer in your industry. Most marketers target intermediary thought-leaders more. They have a significant following, level of expertise, and commanding voice, but they still need to prove something to get to the top. They are also more grateful when you recognize their contribution. Use Facebook, Twitter, or Google+ to mention people and their pages too. Like step #5, you call for their attention while also adding valuable content for your following by doing this simple step.
Open a Discussion
One way to start a connection is to strike up a conversation by asking questions directly to the influencers of your choosing. When you engage in discussion with a prominent figure, you pique the curiosity of their followers while easing your way into your influencer’s circle. These two are excellent reasons to initiate a conversation, but there is one more benefit to doing this—you get to figure out mind-boggling industry questions through each other, filling your social media with useful content that will entice your readers and help you rake in more followers.
Don’t be afraid to ask questions. What’s the worst thing that can happen? They won’t respond, maybe. If you don’t ask, then you’ll never know anyway. You can soften the blow and increase the chances of getting a response by tagging many experts at once. When one takes the bait, the others are likely to follow suit. Why? The bandwagon effect. Moreover, tagging big names makes everyone on the list feel special and will likely entice them to engage.
Furthermore, aside from opening topics, you could join existing conversations. Acknowledge all comments and talk to influencers regarding their content on different platforms.
Have Influencers Share Your Work
Influencers are busy people. It is difficult enough for them to attend to their following, let alone help you grow your own. You could have them give your website or blog a boost in traffic and recognition by involving them in your work.
Curate content that is of interest to people in your industry. Pitch the idea to them, and have them endorse the final product. Make sure you give them credit on your post.
You can try to find out where other influences share their content and give them your best work. You need to have thick skin for this because there will be rejections. Don’t give up.
These simple steps can get your name in the game, but you need to be extra persistent. Social media influencer marketing can eat up your time, but it is very much worth it. Plus, you are technically not using your finances when boosting your profile this way, so you don’t lose anything.
Are You Ready for a Collab?
When you feel that you have formed a solid friendship with an influencer, you could try going the extra mile and ask for a joint project. However, you need to do the groundwork from the beginning. Gather ideas and identify the direction you want to take with the project. Then pitch it to experts in your niche. The more intriguing, the more likely someone is to get involved.
More Ways to Get Influencers to Boost Your Social Media
If you are wondering how is influencer implemented in marketing rapidly, you could pitch to your target influencer directly. However, there is something in exchange. This is how influencer marketing strategy works.
Find the Right Influencer
Again, you can use influencer marketing tools to simplify the task. When you have your eyes set on potential influencers, scrutinize their posts. Avoid influencers with too much sponsored content like the plague. Their audience will get tired of their steady stream of paid posts quickly. Instead, try to look for influencers who know how to keep their followers engaged and have an idea of the right balance between sponsored and organic posts.
Do Your Research
Conduct due diligence. Research well before approaching influencers for your plan because you need to be ready. You can’t reach out to them without knowing their backgrounds. Like some of the tips above, you can interact with them through their social media pages without being intrusive and pushy.
Set a Budget
Once you have made up your mind, it is time to allocate funds to your influencer marketing/social media strategy, go online to check out some of the best influencer marketing examples to inspire you. The budget depends on the scope of the project and the influencer in question. Free products only work for influencers with a small following. Big-time influencers and thought-leaders require a pretty penny.
Reach Out
When you already have things worked out, it is time to reach out. Send a direct message if you have no other means of contact. However, emails are more professional. Just be careful not to send them generic emails, keep it personal, so they will know you mean business and your fascination for them is legit. You could look for an influencer marketing pitch deck should you need assistance in this task.
Measure the Results
Friendly tip: After sealing the deal, you need to give the influencer some leeway. You can’t micromanage someone who is an expert on his or her own right. For instance, after launching your Instagram influencer marketing strategy, it is tempting to control the creative and technical side. Take a deep breath. The only thing that you should focus on is monitoring the campaign’s effectiveness. No, we are not talking about comments or likes. Track the data that matters such as the number of converts the influencer sends to your social media page.
Are you ready to influence social media?
There are many ways you can incorporate influencer marketing to boost and enhance your social media profile. Whatever approach you take, guarantee a smooth-sailing process by doing your part. The most essential and challenging undertaking is finding the right influencer who can do your social media page wonders.
To learn more on how to find great influencers, check out our guide on “How to Effectively Reach Out and Get the Best Influencers.“
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