How to Use Influencer Marketing for Social Media Success

Is influencer marketing right for your business? We think so! In this article, we explore the ins and outs of influencer marketing to help your business take advantage of this branding opportunity.

What Is Influencer Marketing?

According to Mailchimp, influencer marketing means “businesses partnering with individuals with a significant social media presence to market their products and services.” In other words, influencer marketing is about providing product context and expertise through an influential person. Here are two tips to building a campaign that can strike gold.

Identify Potential Influencers

Before you pay for an influencer to post about your product or service, consider whom you want to reach. Identification of natural brand advocates is the foundation. While you may not be able to get your product pictured with a major celebrity, you can still raise brand awareness with the help of smaller names. Who would your target audience respect and recognize? Often, choosing someone that is less well-known will you’re your audience that you “get” them.

Build Your Own Influence

Before you get others to talk about your brand, you need a place for your growing audience to come to. A solid website and social media presence is crucial to assert your place in your industry. Creating a blog on your website is one way to show off your expertise. If you’re looking for topics, consider writing how-to posts for your customers’ frequently asked questions. How-to articles create a positive relationship by sharing helpful information with potential connections. Search engines give preference to sites that offer high-quality consumer-friendly content, so it can be beneficial to write some articles in this style. Just be sure to do these three things:

1. Write with your audience in mind.
2. Include relevant keywords.
3. Create a compelling headline.

Why Should You Care About Influencer Marketing?

If you’re still unsure if influencer marketing is right for you, here are seven reasons to implement this strategy:

1. It’s Impactful: A word-of-mouth recommendation remains the best way to drive sales. According to Business News Daily, “90% of customers will choose a product that comes with a person’s recommendation (even if they don’t know that person) over one lacking this endorsement.” When a respected and recognizable influencer endorses your brand, it can have incredible effects on your conversion rates.
2. It’s Interactive: Social media users have come to expect that brands will talk with them rather than at them. Having an entertaining social media presence will persuade followers to engage with your brand and share and like your posts.
3. It’s Attractive: Building a relationship with tastemakers and trendsetters can push your brand ahead of the curve and make you look like a leader.
4. Consumers Are Tired Of Paid Ads: According to Web Tribunal, the average American is exposed to between 4,000 to 10,000 ads a day. It’s no wonder many people have started to tune them out. When an influencer likes or is wearing a product, it allows the customer to see themselves using it. After all, they’re following the influencer because they like them and have similar tastes. Give them an opportunity to envision themselves with your brand.
5. It’s Native Advertising: In contrast to traditional advertising, which interrupts the consumer experience, native advertising places brands and products within the natural content, creating a more pleasurable experience for consumers and a more powerful marketing solution for brands.
6. It Helps Your SEO: The more people mention your brand on social media, the more popular and relevant you will be on Google, making your business easier to find online.
7. It’s Trackable: Every website visit, social like and picture posted online can be stored and analyzed, yielding large amounts of data that turns into valuable insights about your target market and your advertising performance. You will be able to see if a relationship is working or not and can make decisions from there.

How To Find Influencers

Create a list of influencers and research them to make sure they are right for your brand.

When looking for influencers, type in keywords related to your industry in whichever social media platform you’re using. Whether it is Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or Pinterest, take some time to research the right influencer for your brand. Look for accounts that have similar values to your brand and make sure their content stays on message. Just because an influencer has a high number of followers, doesn’t mean they are a quality account. Once you find accounts and create a solid list, use the tips below to begin engaging with them.

How To Engage In Influencer Marketing

Now that you understand the importance of influencer marketing and how to find the right people to represent your brand, it is time to get going. Here are seven do’s and don’ts to keep you on track.

1. Do Amplify Influencer Messages: Influencers are often under pressure to increase traffic to their platform, so anything you can do to help them do that will be noticed and greatly appreciated. Find an influencer you admire and start increase attention to their content by sharing it on your social media networks. Be sure to tag the influencer, so they know what you’re doing.
2. Do Offer Influencers Incentives: This could include offering them a free sample or service or providing additional information to a piece of work they’ve previously written. It’s their name on the line if they choose to engage with your brand, which makes it important to build a positive relationship. They may also have another number of brands interested in their them; give them every reason to choose you.

3. 

   Work on building a relationship with influencers as to not appear spam like or unprofessional.

   Do Use An Evangelical Approach: Top influencers respond to different value propositions than regular users. While typical users respond to quantitative value propositions like “cheaper,” “smaller” or “faster,” top influencers are more interested in qualitative value propositions. Use power words like “revolutionary,” “breakthrough” and “game-changing.” Influencers want to be involved in exciting ventures, so you need to attract their attention with engaging text.

4. Do Build Influencer Relationships: Get to know the influencer you are after before you start asking for things. Compliment and comment on work they’ve published. This will get a dialogue going that can lead to a successful relationship. If you start off with a request, it may come across as spam and it will be ignored.
5. Do Set Influencer Guidelines: As we mentioned before, find out how they like to work. Are they on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok or another platform? Make sure you have specific tactics in place for how you’d like to be promoted and tagged to generate the maximum exposure.
6. Don’t Spam Influencers With Follow Ups: After you send the initial message, they may take a few days to respond. Wait a week before sending a follow-up message, but don’t send too many. This could deter them from wanting to work with you. Walk the line between pleasantly persistent and annoyingly pushy for the best results.
7. Don’t Rely Only On Influencer Buzz: As effective as influencer marketing is, it cannot sustain your company. Continue with your other marketing efforts such as social media marketing, blogging and paid advertisements to keep spreading the word about your company.

Need Help With Your Influencer Marketing Efforts?

If your business is interested in influencer marketing, contact Three Girls Media today to get your campaign going; we can start you off with a complimentary consultation with our CEO, Erika Taylor Montgomery.

Special Offer:

Sign up for a complimentary consultation during January and receive an Email Marketing Guide valued at $475!  We offer a 30-minute phone consultation with our CEO and can answer your questions and discuss your specific marketing needs – no strings attached. Call 360-955-1410 or contact us today to arrange your consultation!