A
study by Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) revealed that two-thirds of
consumers today are using ad blockers. Desktop users say that ads make it
difficult for them to navigate sites. While smartphone users believe that ads
make web browsing slower. This presents a pressing concern for marketers.
Fortunately, they can rely on the ingenuity offered by social media
influencers. Regardless of what it is that you are selling, there will always
be influencers in that space who can impact your target audience. From editors
of top-tier publications to independent bloggers, there are influencers in
every niche industry. Influencers are seen as trusted sources for content that
eventually help shape buying decisions for the target audiences they reach.
A Guardian
study stated that 69% of customers will use the Internet as their main source
of information within the next five years. A separate study conducted by Nike
suggests that fewer than 25% of consumers trust online advertisements.
74% of consumers are influenced by social media while making a purchase
decision. All this means that marketers will need to increasingly work with
influencers in their digital marketing strategies and campaigns, and veer away
from what they are familiar with. The power of word of mouth and personal
recommendations combined with influencer identification and activation is what
will make your campaigns work. Influencers help promote a product a lot further
and for far cheaper than do traditional media buying spots. Influencer
marketing is an incredibly effective way to reach interested consumers. It
delivers 11x higher ROI than other forms of digital marketing and marketers
often see a 7x return on their investment.[1]
4 biggest challenges to running a successful social media
campaign are:
Ø Keeping it authentic:
Today people have inbuilt bs detectors and can smell a non-genuine influencer post
from a mile away, and they are waiting for brands to slip up to be able to
point this out. It is important for brands to enable authentic
true-to-the-heart influencer experiences for their target audiences
Ø Maintaining content quality: The
challenge also lies in how you can give influencers the freedom to write in
their style while still sticking to the brand’s key message. It is important to
work with them on each step to ensure the right key messages are retained
Ø How do you incentivize influencers: Influencers will choose to post on their own
accord, how do you get them to post at the frequency you desire without just
buying them out? A decent barter or good reputation will ensure that your
campaign has the momentum required to potentially go viral
Ø Design to go viral: It
is important to understand as to how you will design your campaign in a way
that it takes the right advantage of social graphs of the influencers which in
turn will help your content spread in the right direction
With social
media, it’s easier for companies to find and partner with talented influencers
by following three simple steps.
1.
Identificatin
During the
identification process, some influencers come straight to mind while there may
be others you are not aware of. As marketers, we need to look beyond obvious
metrics previously used such as unique visitors or number of Twitter followers
and delve deeper using social media listening. To what extent do readers engage
with an influencer and/or how often they return to an influencer’s content are
indicators of how meaningful influencer/ customer relationships can potentially
be. It is also important to consider what social platforms your customers
visit. Someone with a large Pinterest or Instagram following might be more
valuable to a food or fashion brand, than someone on Facebook with a large
friend network. Ask yourself: What is a big part of my brand’s
personality? Will my product or campaign be best promoted by an activist,
an authority or an informer? This will help you identify the right influencer.
2. Onboarding
Personalizing
your pitch to influencers is key to having them engage with your brand. Many
Influencers are active on multiple social media platforms. This makes it
important for you and your brand to reference the content the influencer has
previously written, which should seamlessly align with the content you publish.
Pitching to influencers is just part of the process. What pays off long term is
building relationships with influencers, which result in more coverage and more
exposure to your brand’s target audience.
Ø Shout
outs:
Sharing anything your influencers write about with regards to your brand will
increase traffic to your influencer’s profiles and help grow their following
(leading to a win-win situation)
Ø Product
discount or giveaway: Offering discounts on services and giving
product freebies is a great way to incentivize an influencer to keep talking
about your brand. If they like what you have sent them, they could personally
recommend your offerings in the future
Ø Commission: For
influencers who are actively inserting themselves into conversations about your
brand and bringing you potential sales, it might be worthwhile to set up a
mutually beneficial partnership wherein they receive commission or revenue
share in the short term for the clients/sales they bring your way. This
commercial relationship should be made public so that the credibility of the
influencer and your brand is not compromised
3.
Sustenance:
When
it comes to influencers, how can you separate the wheat from the chaff? Social
media listening and monitoring tool helps identify influencers through a series
of algorithms. By using scores relating to reach, resonance and relevance, the
tool helps identify which influencer is serving your brand most effectively.
Based on this, the brand can plan and figure out future campaigns and
strategies around them.
Ø Creative
freedom: Brands should allow influencers as much
control as they can with regards to how they present the brand’s product. This
also encourages them to think about creative ways to promote the product, which
in turn creates unlimited fodder for interesting campaigns. Influencers
are more drawn to your brand when you give them more creative freedom, which
tends to show in the content they put out
Ø Timely
engagement: Make sure you get influencers involved at
an early stage of your brand campaign. Send your influencers select content, as
opposed to every piece you publish, such that their opinion and commentary adds
specific value. You can also exchange interesting pieces of content with one
another to build a relationship. This way you are seen as a content curator and
a viable resource for their audience rather than a self-promoter
In Summary
Influencer
marketing is here to stay, in fact, searches for the term “influencer
marketing” increased over 300% on Google in 2017 versus 2016. [2]Just like
any other marketing trend, influencer targeting for brand campaigns will
continue to morph and evolve. One should partner with influencers, not just to
tell your story but also to tell theirs. It is important for a brand to help
and direct influencers to useful resources whenever they are faced with certain
issues, even if those resources have nothing to do with the brand. It is this
kind of influencer/follower relationship that has helped cement powerful brands
and taken startups or small no name companies to dazzling heights. Social Media
intelligence can help you find the right influencers. The rest is in your
hands.
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