Social Media Influencers can truly leverage a brand/business to a whole new level. Regardless of your personal feelings of them, as a business you’ll need to take note of them as their value and voice can truly catapult your brand into the market!
A month ago I finally built up the courage to work with some well known influencers here in Cape Town for a rather young brand. I say courage because it was my first time creating an influencer campaign and integrating it into the marketing communications strategy. It has taken me time to also fully understand the value of influencer marketing as I also work on my personal brand right here.
I am beyond happy to share that the collaboration helped create a very successful campaign that resulted in the event being sold out days before. A first for the business and a first for me as I expanded my knowledge and skills while opening myself up to working with one of the most relevant and newest platforms to marketing in the 21st century!
So below are just 5 of my top tips to help you choose and collaborate successfully with social media influencers for your brand.
1. Do not invite influencers for the large reach and ONLY for that reach
Social and digital media platforms are NOT like PRINT AND BROADCAST where high REACH estimates equal value. Unlike print and broadcast, you can literally count each and every person that has been reached if you had the time and sum up an exact amount. If you are going to choose an influencer with a big following, make sure the right market lies in those numbers! You can tell exactly who your market is with digital.
2.Make sure the influencer actually shares your brand values
The last thing you want is a displaced persona spreading word of your brand to a market who will ignore it as much as they will you after the event/launch etc. This is ultimately a waste of money and resources.
3. Agree on the content/communication plan ahead of time.
Once you have you right influencer/brand ambassador make sure you agree on what content is to be shared before the collaboration in terms what you can promise each other. Understand what content can bring the most value to both parties so that you both remain on brand and attract the right audiences.
4. Know and understand which platform the influencer works best on to help better leverage your brand’s presence.
Do your research and don’t simply work with someone based on the fact that they are trending. If you know where your audience and market enjoy receiving the content and information, then you need to look which influencer works best on that specific platform/s. If they perform well across all their social media platforms, then your brand and messaging needs to be as strong as theirs to be as cohesive and relevant as possible.
5. Your brand also need to have a presence on the same platforms as your chosen collaborators
Your accounts also need be cohesive with the right content so the influencers’ content may also seamlessly fit in with your feeds so that it looks natural, holistic and organic as all your other communications. Your influencers’ content must be aligned and hence the importance of them having the same brand values as yours. With social media allowing tagging and open partnership/collaborative options to share content…you know this can be a game changer!
Overall, two things are very important before commencing on a partnership with an influencer: research and a good understanding of your own audience. There are many influencers, and no two are alike and so they should no be…their success lies in their brand persona’s authority and more importantly their authenticity. This also applies to your business and how you will manage its voice on your different social media platforms.
An influencer collaboration can make or break your brand…or just waste your time and money. Ask yourself if the influencer is on the same journey as you and does your product/service offering meet their needs and wants as their market yours?
What I learnt and know is that in NO MEANS should this be about being popular…there are other ways to attain awareness that is less costly and won’t run a high risk of damaging either of your reputations!
If done right the results are phenomenal and your brand’s own personality will have better depth and credibility.
Thank you for reading and feel free to share you own experiences of working with influencers below!
Bee
beedujour.com 