Working With Social Media Influencers

As with most areas of Marketing, when it comes to who you’re reaching and engaging with on Social Media, it’s very much quality over quantity. Of course, businesses want to see a large reach and bragable organic following, but there’s very little value in this if you’re not also seeing the results and ROI.

Although brand awareness and reaching new, conquest audiences is essential for business growth, with paid side of marketing it’s important that businesses air on the side of caution so as not to waste time and money.

Influencers are an increasingly popular choice for brands on Social Media looking to increase their exposure with the support of an already engaged audience. That being said, it’s only worthwhile if their existing audience is your target audience.

Here are three things to consider when looking for a Social Media Influencer.

1.Their Audience

Influencers are fantastic ways to reach new and engaged audiences because they spend so long building and engaging with their followers. However, as above, it’s important to choose an influencer who has the same audience that you’re looking to reach otherwise you’re unlikely to see a return.

2.What’s Expected – from both parties

Some influencers request payment as well as the product, and others are simply happy to try something new to keep their content fresh. However, it’s essential before conversations progress too far to understand what the requirement is from both sides.

If you’re willing to pay someone to promote your products (or even if they’re happy to do it for free) then think about what you expect in return. It could be a minimum of X grid posts and X stories, for example.

3.Timings

Timing is everything and there are two ways to approach this – especially if you’re looking to utilise multiple influencers at once. The first is to request they all share the required content at once to build up a wave of exposure and engagement – perhaps for a new product launch. The second is they drip feed the content so you have a staggered flow of interest, which may be better for a smaller business to manage.