How To Develop a Social Media Influencer Strategy That Can Take Your Business To The Next Level
There was a time when influencer marketing was limited to celebrities and athletes. Today, it is much more than that. An influencer program needs deliberate targeting and planning to make it successful. This requires having a solid plan which when effectively executed can catapult your brand to the top. X3 Marketing can help you develop your social media plan quickly and effectively.
What Is Influencer Marketing?
Influencer marketing can be thought of as a word-of-mouth marketing online. It is a type of social media marketing that relies on endorsements and product mentions from individuals with a dedicated social media following. It is one of the trendy marketing tactics for getting a brand in front of a large yet to be targeted audience. Unlike traditional forms of digital marketing, this style of outreach allows brands to organically connect with their new audience. Check out X3 Marketing's Instagram and learn how we advertise our marketing services from Pittsburgh to Irvine, California.
Why Brands Choose to Work With Influencers
Influencer marketing offers very many benefits, but chiefly, it can increase your brand’s visibility and strengthen your image. Additionally, influencers can attract people to your products or services and shape their buying decision, widening your brand’s audience reach.
Social media influencers can give your content strategy a new perspective. They regularly create high-quality content that engage their audiences. It can be the stamp of approval further boosting the reputation of your brand.
When it comes to influencer marketing for brands, the most important thing is to collaborate with the right influencers. This means you should completely understand the different types of social media influencers.
Types of Social Media Influencers
There are 5 categories of social media influencer, each one providing a unique value to the brands that partner with them. However, when choosing, you’ll be looking to the category that represents your brand and fits your budget the most.
Celebrities: Celebrities are so popular and have an extraordinary reach and influence. However, keep in mind that this will cost you a lot of money and the posts won’t last more than a few months. Your brand may also need to go through a talent agency.
Social Stars: Also referred to as mega influencers, they have a million or more followers across different social platforms. Their audience is however spread out like a celebrity, but reaching your target audience is harder.
Macro-Influencers: These influencers are well known in their communities and usually have a large fan base of followers, usually around 500,000 followers. These are often experts in a specific industry.
Micro-Influencers: These influencers have a fan base of between 20,000 and 40,000 followers across their social media networks. They cater to a specific industry, just like macro-influencers, but because of their small audience size, they are highly engaged with their communities.
Nano-Influencers: With about 5000 followers or less, these influencers are very highly-engaged and they produce more relatable and down-to-earth content.
How to Find Social Media Influencers
Like all great plans, the first step is research. Pick one network and focus on it. It should be one that your brand already has a presence and following on. Also consider your industry and the network that is most successful for you.
A great way to get started is to look at your customer database to see what they are posting already and if they are influencers. You may find your brand has built connections and all you just need to do is work on the collaboration details.
1.Determine Measurable Goals
Before you start contacting influencers, ensure you have set your strategy. Determine the goals and key performance indicators (KPIs) and figure out what specific region or demographic you are trying to grow to. What product or service are you trying to promote? And who is your target? With these measurable goals, you and your influencer can tailor your approach to content and images. You will also be able to know which types of influencers to work with.
2.Have a Management Strategy
If you want to run a successful influencer marketing campaign, don’t expect it to be a set-it-and-go type of strategy. It cannot be an ad that is automated and left to run on its own. Influencers are humans and it is important to cultivate relationship and define realistic expectations.
Tracking Your Campaigns
There are a few ways to measure the success of your campaign. Some of them include creating a specific hashtag to track influencers activities, which makes it easy to follow and see mentions.
If more sales is what you are aiming for, then by giving out more affiliate codes or tracking links, you can see how much influencers help to generate
When you are able to track the campaign like any digital marketing campaign, you will be able to see what works for your brand and the influencers to partner with. Success between brands vary even if the first one is not as successful as you would have liked.
What you get: Authentic content
A reputable social influencer won’t partner with every brand that come their way because their reputation is of utmost importance. Becoming a well-known influencer is not easy. It takes a lot of hard work to build the large following and create a strong personal brand. Having said that, an influencer seeks to provide their following with compelling content that matches the sort of brand they have established. Once you have identified reliable influencer that make sense for your brand and they agree to work with you, you will begin to see authentic and unique content that you can’t possibly replicate as yours. Repurpose this content in every way you can for maximum exposure.
Measuring success is Vital
For influencer posts to be seen as successful, it will help to add a trackable link. This link will provide information about how many leads, sales, etc. are coming from the influencer and the content they share. Chances are, you will make some investments to get the right influencer on board. Ensure you track the success, so you can see what you paid for, and if you want to go again. Sometime, all you are looking for is just brand awareness, which is almost impossible to track, but you will find some other kinds of measurements like increase in website traffic, calls, or something else.
In conclusion, if you haven’t given social media influencer marketing a thought, then you should now. There is a whole world of opportunity waiting for you to build your brand and reach a new audience.