Influencer Marketing Technology: Teching Up Your Influence

What is influencer marketing technology? A lot of the changes that the marketing industry has experienced may be due in part to the changing technology. Used to be, newspaper ads and TV commercials dominated the scene. This migrated to more interactive mediums, until even our screen time has become an interaction and not passive consumption. Further innovations have led to the development of influencer marketing software.

Influencer marketing software are now staples for any forward-thinking brand. So, it might be time to explore and experiment how technology can work to your brand’s advantage. Doing so will help you improve audience engagement and ultimately, boost your bottom line.

If you are new to influencer marketing or if it’s a strategy you have yet to adapt, there are a few things you need to keep in mind. This new channel opens up new ways to use technology to its advantage.

Role of Tech: Making Content King

Even in traditional marketing, content has been a key factor to make a brand stand out from the rest. Between proper messaging and appropriately crafted narratives, content gives brands the direction they want to communicate to consumers.

The same strategy still works with influencer marketing. The only difference is that there are now more mediums to choose from, creating more kinds of content. For influencers, two types of content are both easy to create and manage.

Video and photos: Content that last

Video content rakes in viewers because it can be informative or entertaining, and yet easy to consume. Vloggers, content creators who make video blogs, make use of more popular apps like Tiktok and YouTube because they provide them the highest returns for their efforts in content.

For a lot of marketers and influencers, video content is easier to make. Most created content videos no longer need to be curated or professionally shot. Homemade videos, especially those that become viral, are acceptable formats. This makes it more organic, and allows the creator to give their own signature or touch to the video.

It’s the same with photos. While curated feeds and social media accounts still carry an air of professionalism, some features allow for quick content updates. This can be in the form of quick stories, which can be viewed by fans temporarily. Its time-limited quality makes it a must-view content for followers. Add the fact that it does not have to stay in the feed means one can still curate with no issues.

Best of all, these kinds of content can still be consumed in long-form without worrying about an audience’s attention. As long as you have good and interesting content and a creative influencer with their own trademark or cause, you are likely to attract viewers.

Disrupting a disruptive channel

The beauty of technology is that it allows for new creativity to flow through. Technology has always ushered in a breakthrough in industries, and marketing is no different. If anything, the available immersive technologies are transforming how one would answer the question, “What is influencer marketing and how does it work?”

In itself, influencer marketing is disruptive. It takes away the power from the brands alone and makes it a collaborative effort. There are many types of influencers, and each one has a specific power they wield in the industry. For brands, what they can do is know how to use that power to disrupt the flow of ideas and make it their own.

Influencer marketing should not be confused with endorsements. They should also not be mistaken as a strategy meant only for the big brands. Practices in tapping influencers vary depending on one’s needs. Some still prefer to monitor engagement by ensuring a big following for each influencer. Others experiment and see how smaller fan bases could work in terms of creating meaningful dialogue between micro and nano-influencers.

Directing consumer behavior

Even when you use an influencer marketing software, note that this is merely an accessory to your main mode of action. Brands and marketing managers need to build a relationship with their audiences, because this will be the basis for whatever output you will track.

For as much as technology may be the medium, it only connects brands to the more important aspect of building relationships. Even with the best technologies, one cannot expect engagement to happen if there are no relationships between the brand and the audience. So you need the right tech and strategy to direct consumer behavior into one that is more engaging and relating with the brand.

Injecting Influencers Into Your Marketing Tactics

Instead of trying to know how is influencer implemented in marketing tactics, it might be better to look at it from the other side. Think of influencers as a strategy in their own right.

Influencer strategies and programs need to be specific to the brand they are targeted at. This entails deliberate planning and making precise decisions, from the kind of influencers you need to the channels they will use to connect with the audience.

Stick to a good influencer marketing software

It starts with the basics: a good influencer marketing software should consider not only your basic needs. It should also be forward-thinking to allow for any adjustments you will make further down your campaign.

Go with trusted influencer marketing software programs. Some offer a flexible package, which can be good for smaller businesses. Corporations may look into more standard but complete packages, seeing as how this brand of marketing will definitely stay for the long haul.

Complement platforms with agencies

Advertising and marketing still go hand-in-hand, so much so that some of the processes of influencer marketing gets passed to them. While some agencies expand their offered services, it still does not compare to the ease, freedom, and immediacy that platforms can provide.

Consider agencies when expanding your reach, rather than starting with them. Agencies have specific connections, which you can tap and integrate with an overall platform-based strategy. It may even be easier to consolidate these aspects and outsource your needs when your influencer marketing platform stays ahead of the game.

Tech Trends for Influencer Marketing

With a lot of the content and engagement migrating online given current events and practices, it becomes obvious that you can never have too much tech in influencer marketing.

If anything, tech evolves at breakneck speed to ensure that you brand meets engagement targets, demographics, and quality at each leg of your strategy.

Always use data analytics

As long as it follows proper data privacy procedures, any presence and movement of your market and brand online needs to be tracked. For 2020 and beyond, influencer marketing is more than just understanding your customer and connecting them to the right personality.

Now, it’s about predicting their behavior, setting a trend that matches their needs, and putting an influencer who is the clincher for the campaign.

All the while, you need to take the necessary steps and details when you collect data. Preferences and personal details are available at a click–what can be done to maximize those insights now lies in the capability of one’s influencer marketing software and marketing sense.

Chatbots will remain

Research shows that the majority of the corporations in the United States are already using chatbots, but only a small fraction of small businesses do it to engage with their customers. Thus, there is a call to provide better services to the client by having a chatbot run the website.

Even if chatbots appear to have a notorious reputation of having an impersonal approach to one’s online experience with the brand. At the very least, chatbots will provide easy answers to the very basic questions. For example, asking about specific payment and delivery systems,

Chatbots will also be useful for influencer marketing analytics in the future. Brands can use chatbots to review the most basic questions that their customers need to have answered.

Make voice search a regular feature

The evolution of technology for influencer marketing also means there is room to add more features for convenient use. It seems tempting to just stay with most of the basic and free tools and offers of social media platforms such as Instagram.

As a responsible and progressive influencer marketer, your job as influencer marketing manager is to explore and vouch for new features. And among those gaining popularity is voice search. More people now shift to their phones as their preferred gadgets due to its mobility. This means that there is an opportunity even during mobile moments to make use of tech for engagement.

Voice search, especially those that access content, need to find its way to your platform. Combine this with the golden rule of authentic content, and you’ll have yourself a good foundation for content creation on your platform.

Expanding to more immersive experiences

Influencer marketing news always zones in on the major tech trend of immersive experiences. Visibility in the market becomes harder with more brands and competitors in the scene.

Nowadays, smaller gigs do not necessarily mean fewer engagement and fans. In many cases, they even explore the comfort zone of influencer marketing to be more penetrative of the market.

One way to do this would be to use immersive technologies. Just a few years ago, virtual and agumented reality, and other gadgets were limited to experimental or commercial use. Before, some audiences did not have the purchasing power to own one.

Now, more companies are creating versions that can cater to more personal use. As these kinds of technologies move from experimental to more consumer-friendly territories. Content creators and influencers can now play with them for more content.

Marking the Market: Breaking Into the Tech Influencer Industry

For a lot of businesses, especially those in the tech industry, there are two effective approaches. Two effective approaches to influencer marketing are to either tap or build a niche of tech influencers that could be part of your brand’s strategy.

People who ask the question, “How do you become a tech influencer?” often have the mistaken notion that industry-specific influencers have completely different ways of maneuvering through this landscape. However, in reality, there are a few key practices that aspiring influencers observe to carve their own niches in whatever sectors.

Identifying by ideas, not industries

Based on the name alone, some assume that being a tech influencer means either having a background in tech or being an important part of the industry.

Tech influencers actually pertain to content creators who use, understand, and communicate the latest in technology. They help to give a background for a deeper understanding and easier way of communicating tech ideas to others.

But just as influencers educate themselves on the passion they pursue, the same goes for tech influencers. They may have become more tech-savvy because of consistent use, a skill they want to share with others. Or they may take an interest in the individuals behind tech breakthroughs. They can use their skills in journalism to do on-ground and background research. In whatever way they build their reputation, they become tech influencers if their goal is to communicate that intention to their audience.

Joining fruitful conversations

For both brands and influencers, this is a very important move to grow one’s engagement. When looking for new additions to your influencer marketing strategy software, always make engagements your top priority.

Conversations allow ideas to flow. The sharing of ideas does not only have to come from the influencer or the brand. Your followers may also have something important to impart that can help your campaign grow.

Get creative with tools like hashtags, but learn when your brand can be relevant in trending issues. Dialogues not only engage those who already know your brand–they also expand them to others who may find the idea appealing.

What is the future of influencers?

As part of any branding and reputation strategy, the key to sustained success is partnership. With brands no longer the sole authority in their fields, they now turn to partners for knowledge and action. These can include influencers who can dominate both tech and other social spaces.

Towards success in tech influencer marketing

New advancements in influencer marketing should complement your main goal. Every brand will have a different approach to this strategy. Some may be more aggressive, going for macro and mega infuencers to get in the game. Others will be more deliberate and exclusive to match their market.

The bottom line is to be up to speed with the available technology that magnifies your strategy. Make it work for you, so that you and your influencers can build your base and credibility together.

If you have more burning questions on influencer marketing, check out our piece “Is Your Brand Ready For Influencer Marketing? 10 Questions to Ask” to learn more.