Developing an engaging strategy for social media can be both highly effective and time-consuming. Content generated by influencers is a method that can allow you to save your time managing your presence on social platforms.
Content generated by influencers has a certain edge over branded content in terms of authenticity, which is also why numerous brands have started to shift their social media strategies to blend with influencer marketing into their overall social media strategy.
This article discusses why you, too, should integrate influencer marketing into your overall social media strategy and how you can do it.
2020: Social Media
Even before people were forced to stay at their home during the pandemic and use their mobile devices, consumers were utilizing social media to connect with the brands they looked favorably upon.
Social media platforms utilize analytics to improve user experience. In a short period of some years, social media became an entire ecosystem from something as simple as like, scroll, and comment environment. In the current ecosystem, users can compete, engage, document their lives, bond with other users, and even promote social causes.
Social media helps in growing and amplifying the brand’s name
Social media allows your brand to appear more humanized. Through an engaging and active social media presence, Brands can connect with their customers and employees emotionally.
In the current times, it is virtually impossible for a brand to possess a meaningful digital presence without constant engagement with users on the social media platform. The masterful use of various different social media platforms would allow brands to effectively connect with users, and each social media platform necessitates different strategies and approaches. A social strategy that works with your audience on a particular platform does not guarantee the same effect on other social media platforms. Understanding this can maximize the number of audiences a brand could connect with.
The Potential of Influencers on Social media platforms
Instead of attempting to perform and carrying out all the social media activities on your own, you can rely on the creative genius as well as the experience of an influencer. Influencers are present in all social media platforms and are reliable power users.
In addition, influencers are surrounded by an intimate curated community online of users and fans bound by a common interest or quality of life. These users surrounding the influencer are not just liking the content; they are engaging with the community by commenting, following, and sharing the recommendations on products and such by their favorite influencer.
A successful partnership with influencers can potentially do a lot more than just helping grow your brand’s name on the social media platform. As a matter of fact, partnering up with the right influencer can help you achieve your goals faster than you would’ve ever imagined possible.
At the same time, Marketing through influencers can be used all alone as an effective marketing strategy, but so can your own social media strategy. Ideally, if you utilize both of these, you will be able to amplify your overall ROI. Generating content through influencers can potentially help you achieve many benefits such as, Boosting sales, increased page followers, increased general brand awareness, promoting sales on holidays, and new product launches, boosting SEO for your website, and promoting branded events.
Blending your social media strategy with influencers
Suppose you’re familiar with the nuts and bolts of social media marketing but unfamiliar with the approach of marketing through influencers. The following guides you through how you can combine your current social media efforts with campaigning with influencers.
Recognize your objectives
For any sound marketing approach, the first step should be to recognize and establish goals. Goals set should be definite and achievable, such as it is not enough to realize that you require content. Instead, it would help if you recognized what you wish to achieve through your content. Do you want to improve sales through social media marketing, or do you want to amplify your brand name on social media platforms?
Once you’ve set your objectives and goals, it would be effortless for you to blend your social media efforts with influencer marketing. You can discuss your definite goals and objectives with the influencer.
However, the influencer’s objectives and your social media presence alone are not enough. There should be a method for you to measure your progress accurately; this can be done by tracking the performance of your content.
Tracking Performance
Create a key performance indicator through your established social media objectives, which you wish to achieve through user engagement, such as on your content such as comments, shares, click-thru rates, and likes.
It is recommended that you employ a system for tracking influencers and engagement metrics. If you’re unsure about spending on an influencer relationship management tool just yet, it is possible for you to track this information manually on a spreadsheet.
Discovering Influencers that align with your brand
One of the most vital parts of an influencer campaign is to find the right influencers to promote your brand and products.
The influencers you wish to hire should be fitting to your industry, maintain following on social media which align with yours, as well as have strong engagement with their followers. Remember to look past just post likes and number of followers. Do their followers engage meaningfully, and if there are positive comments regarding the content, do their posts produce ongoing user-generated content, and do followers share their posts.
Connect with influencers with your desired audience
As you grow to become familiar with influencers who have a following, you’re after, it is vital you closely observe how they operate. You can also share a comment or two or follow them to establish connection with them.
When you’ve selected an influencer for recruitment, you can reach out to them directly through email or direct messaging to let the influencer know what you’re looking for and who you are.
Generally, the successful relationships with influencers are those that are long-term and collaborative. Influencers possess a wealth of knowledge that you’re after as they are seasoned professionals. Creative drive possessed by them can aid you in amplifying your social media presence as well as attract more customers for your brand.
Influencers for Inspiration
When you start planning for your first campaign, inform your influencer on what you found best in their content and work with them without limiting their creative freedom, allowing them to think outside the box.
Partnership with influencers for you would mean allowing them to creatively put your service or product in action. The end result will illustrate to audiences how it can aid them in solving their problems or help meet consumer needs.
As the scale of your influencer program increases, feel free to borrow content techniques from influencers for your own branded content.
Building Influencer Campaigns
Once you have reached an agreement with your selected influencer, you will require a few things to help in managing the campaign. Completing the campaign brief is the first task You will lay out the specifics in the campaign brief, such as the type of posts the influencer is required to produce (style, colors, tone, etc.), The overall objective of your campaign (brand awareness, scales, etc.), The number of times the influencer is required to post, the gap in time between each post, any and all tags, hashtags or links that you will need to track the performance of the post.
An important point that you must contemplate over Is how will attribute the campaigns result to your influencers. Generally, experienced marketing influencers track contribution to campaigns through affiliate links or discount codes, or through both.
In one way or another, the campaign preparation will be the final step to make certain that your influencer and you are on the same page. Once both you and your influencer feel confident that you’re aware of expectations against each other, it would be the time to launch your campaign.
