Social media has changed the market dynamics considerably in the last few years. Your business or brand needs to have a presence on the biggest social media platforms; Facebook and Instagram.
A social influencer is someone who can bring attention to your products and prevent you from having to start the process from scratch.
Word-of-mouth is a proven marketing strategy for promoting products. People trust the opinions of their peers more than traditional advertisements. Consumers also like to see product reviews from real people for buying decisions.
Millennials and Gen X’ers appreciate personable, authentic, and accessible brands. These generations also spend the most time on social media. They are encouraged to join in when they see social media influencers engaging with your product.
What are social media influencers?
Instagram’s rise in popularity created the social media influencer.
The social media influencer definition includes:
– a person with a prominent social media following who is an authority in their industry, or
– celebrities who have widespread access to significant audiences.
Non-celebrity influencers are people who have established credibility in a niche content area, ranging from literature to food to fashion and beyond. They have less reach than a celebrity, but followers trust them because they provide a more personal connection.
Instagram influencers promote brands they trust. Brands that partner with influencers pay them with money or free products per post, or both. The influencer showcases the product in a way that does not feel like a commercial to their followers.
Types of Social Media Influencers
Various social media influencers exist, so it is essential to know which type is right for your ad campaign.
Influencers fall into three broad categories: celebrities, macro-influencers, and micro-influencers.
1. Celebrities
Celebrities are people known to the public and have a personal brand. They tend to be widely known musicians, actors, or political figures who have over a million followers.
2. Macro-influencers
Macro-influencers have followers in the hundreds of thousands, and about 10 percent of their crowd engages with posts. They tend to have expertise in a specific category.
3. Micro-influencers
Micro-influencers have over 500 followers, and a high percentage of those followers interact with posts. Since their followers are loyal, these influencers build genuine brand engagement.
Instagram is the largest platform for influencers. Snapchat, YouTube, and Facebook are also popular places for influencer marketing campaigns, though. Sometimes, influencers promote the same product across a variety of channels for better results.
How to Create a Successful Campaign with Social Media Influencers
Creating a successful social influencer campaign starts with identifying your goals.
What topics interest your target audience?
What do you want the influencers to say about your product?
Think of ways for your influencer to do more than an ordinary product review. Their followers respond to interesting visual content—experiment with giving your influencers different topics to find which approach works best.
You’ll also need to decide which collaboration you want for your brand. You can view influencer marketing as a way to build a network. The relationship between brand and influencer should be beneficial to both parties, with a message that people are willing to listen to and share.
There are four ways to collaborate with social influencers: sponsored partnerships, brand ambassadors, social media takeovers, and guest bloggers.
1. Sponsored Partnerships
In a sponsored partnership, you tell the influencer your goals for your campaign and give suggestions for content. The influencer creates content related to your product and posts it on their page.
2. Brand Ambassadors
If you want more than a one-time promotion, look for brand ambassadors. These influencers promote your product regularly and may even be willing to represent the brand outside of social media, as well.
3. Social Media Takeovers
You can have a popular social media personality or blogger take charge of your account. They will post from your page. Their posts may acquire more engagement and awareness for your brand.
For example, the baking supplies company, Wilton Cakes, often allows influencers to take over their social media. Once, a self-taught baker posted a series of baking tutorials using Wilton Cakes’ supplies. The posts increased Wilton Cakes’ followers across Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter tremendously.
4. Guest Bloggers
Consider guest blogging if your blog does not have a lot of readers. Find creators who run blogs relevant to your market. Ask if they will put your blog posts on their page.
Guest blogging is a great way to introduce yourself to people. It allows you to take advantage of an existing audience until you can create your own.
Top 5 Most Popular Social Media Influencers in the world
Being an influencer is about more than having a ton of followers online. Influencers are people who can tell others what to do so that those people listen.
These are the Top Five Most Popular Social Media Influencers currently trending:
1. Huda Kattan (@hudabeauty) has over 40 million followers as a beauty blogger who also posts on Instagram. She reviews makeup brands, does makeup tutorials, and has her own product line.
2. Cameron Dallas (@camerondallas) became popular as a self-made actor and producer via Vine and YouTube. He now has 21 million Instagram followers.
3. Zach King (@zachking) is similar to Cameron in that he found fame on the internet through Vine and Youtube. Zach’s filmmaking skills have attracted 22 million followers on Instagram.
4. Michelle Lewin (@michelle_lewin) is all about fitness. She posts workouts, product reviews, and lifestyle tips for over 13.5 million followers.
5. Nash Grier (@nashgrier) posts videos on Vine that have helped him rise to popularity since 2015. Now, he has mobile apps, a clothing line, and over 10 million followers.
Why Social Media Influencer?
Influencer marketing works for many reasons. Today’s consumers do not want to see ads. They skip commercials and block pop-ups on their computers.
Influencer marketing is one way to get around the traditional advertisement with flair. Social media is also sent directly to your target consumer. You can use niche influencers to get your product right in front of the same people who would use it.
You also benefit from new digital content created by actual product users. Influencers create videos, photos, and blog posts that you can then use to promote your brand or business.
Lastly, the results of social media marketing are easy to track—counting followers gained, likes, and comments on the posts, and how many people are clicking through to your website.
Find yourself a social media influencer today—it can only benefit your business.