Social media influencer marketing has been around for quite a few years and is just as effective now as it was in the beginning. A lot of times we see bigger, more well-known companies utilizing this form of marketing, but influencer marketing can be just as effective for smaller to medium-sized businesses.
What is Social Media Influencer Marketing?
In short, influencer marketing is when a company asks a social or public figure to represent its brand. This form of marketing can be represented through all social media platforms, including Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, even blog posts, and so much more.
If you are in charge of marketing at your company, you more than likely know exactly who your target audience is. There are already countless influencers on social media whose content appeals to the exact audience you want to reach. This means their followers are precisely the people you should be talking to about your product or service. Influencer marketing is essentially a paid ad, being delivered right to your target audience with a sense of trust and authenticity built right in.
Influencer Examples
First, we have an example of an influencer who has a niche group of followers that brands have taken notice of for their marketing strategy. This influencer has built her presence on Instagram with just under 90K followers. Her account’s success is based on her followers’ interest in her relationship, beauty/lifestyle tips (hair, skin, diet, etc.), and her growing family.
This is an ad for a well-known skin care product line
Here she is showing off a hair styling tool.
This photo is to showcase the black food cooler and how it can be used.
Next, we have an influencer in the CBD, THC, and alcoholic beverage industries. A very different group of followers and audiences are tuning in for her content, but this is the beauty of influencer marketing — there is a variety of influencers to choose from in every industry.
This is an ad for a CBD company showcasing their drops.
This was for a CBD/THC pen.
An advertisement for a sparkling alcoholic beverage.
Why Is It So Effective?
Influencers in the social media world are exactly that, influential to the community that follows them. The followers of these influencers trust them and feel a sense of connection to their lives. Many influencers have very passion-driven accounts (like the examples above) where they share personal information about their daily lives, families, careers, and challenges. Companies who use influencer marketing play on this pre-developed sense of trustworthiness.
According to Influencer Orchestration Network™, 82% of consumers say they are more likely to purchase a product if an influencer is promoting it. Now that is not the kind of number to turn a blind eye to! With social media being so bogged down in paid advertisements and business accounts, having your company praised can go a long way. When an influencer shares their thoughts about a brand and tells their followers that they use, and love this product, it doesn’t feel as much like an advertisement and more like a friend sharing something they think you should try.
Key Points to Consider
There are a few things to note when it comes to dealing with influencer marketing:
- First, there are two routes your company can take when working with influencers.
- You can employ a marketing/influencer agency to handle it for you. They would handle the guidelines to follow, the correspondence, and even the creative ideas for the campaign.
- The other option would be to handle everything internally. This route would be perfectly fine if your company is equipped with a designated digital marketing or social media team.
- Depending on their number of followers, influencers are represented by a talent agency. This can be both good and bad.
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- It eliminates a lot of the legality of using influencer marketing. Since all of the correspondence will be through the agency and not the influencer directly, they will handle ensuring that the influencer sees through to their contractual obligations to your company.
- On the other hand, the pricing of working with an influencer represented by a talent agency can be a little higher seeing as there is a split between them and the influencer for the profit of the advertisement.
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- Pricing overall is almost solely based on the following of the influencer. It is hard to pin down a good number as an example because engagement and active followers play a role in this as well.
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- For example, if an influencer has 50K followers but is only getting 200 likes on their posts, the engagement ratio is only about .4%. This kind of number could be a cause for negotiation in pricing.
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- The content that influencers post can be as restricted or as open as you would like it to be.
- If your company wants to give explicit directions as to what the content should look like, what the caption will say, and when exactly it will be posted, that is completely up to you and is suggested for proper use of your influencer marketing program.
- Content can also allow for creative freedom, where the influencer can take a photo or video that they feel their followers will respond well to, pending the approval of your team.
Is Social Media Influencer Marketing Right For You?
Implementing the use of influencer marketing into your social media strategy can prove to be very effective. By allowing influencers who are already looked up to and trusted to represent your brand, your company’s growth can be inevitable. If influencer marketing is something your company is considering, Trademark Productions can perform a full social media audit and determine if this strategy is right for you!
For more information on outreach and social media influencer marketing, check out our related blog post.
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