If you want more eyes to look at a new product, a partnership with social media influencers is an effective way to do it.
Marketing with social media influencers is similar to hiring a celebrity endorser: a popular individual who has thousands — or millions — of followers on Instagram or YouTube will be paid to create content that features the product you want to sell.
It is increasingly becoming a popular way to advertise. More than two-thirds of North American retailers set aside a part of their marketing budget to hire social media influencers.
Like celebrities, social media influencers have a loyal following who trust their recommendations. For proof, a previous survey found that 34% of Instagram users have bought a product featured by a social media influencer on their page.
For a company or a digital marketing agency running an online campaign, how should you approach a social media influencer to promote your product? Here are a few tips:
Who are Social Media Influencers?
There are several types of social media influencers. Celebrities (people who you regularly see on movies, television, or magazines) may also be active on social media platforms and have millions of fans across several channels. Macro influencers are famous individuals who also have several thousands or maybe over a million followers on Instagram or YouTube. Micro-influencers usually have more or less 10,000 followers on Instagram or YouTube.
There are pros and cons to hiring a celebrity versus macro or micro-influencers. Although celebrity pages would be seen by more people, only a small percentage of their followers actually actively interact with the account. They also have a more diverse following which means that you may be trying to sell a product to people who are not interested.
Macro influencers are considered industry leaders. People who have similar interests usually follow them and look at them for guidance. A post featuring your product would cost a lot of money.
Micro-influencers, on the other hand, are considered “normal” people. Although their reach is limited, their endorsements are often treated by their followers in a similar way as “word-of-mouth” and, therefore, can be trusted. They also ask for less money per post.
How Do You Find the Right Social Media Influencer?
In any campaign, you first must do your research. There are numerous social media influencers in whichever platform you want to use to advertise. You can check out Hype Auditor, a site specifically developed for social media influencer marketing, to find the right individuals to partner with for your campaign. You can also log into any social media platform and browse related hashtags to discover smaller social media influencers.
Before you make your choice, ask yourself, do they make content that is relevant to your product? For example, if you are selling shoes, you want to hire a social media influencer who regularly posts fashion content.
You should also check engagement. Bigger is not always better. Although some may have millions of followers, the likes and comments they receive may be minimal. Engagement is actually higher for micro-influencers than their more popular counterparts.
Be Careful of Fakes
Many social media influencers, unfortunately, buy their followers. That is why you want to check engagement. Although they have thousands or millions of followers, they only get a small percentage liking and commenting. You might be spending your money to advertise to bots.
Once you have made your choice, you can contact the social media influencers. Micro-influencers can be reached through a simple DM (direct message). Celebrities and macro-influencers should have their own agents you can contact. Look at their bio to find relevant email addresses.
