Collaborating with content creators, who are gaining quite the celebrity in recent years, is becoming a powerful social media strategy. In this trendiest method of social media integration in digital marketing, influencers are gaining support from businesses.
Businesses, on the other hand, are getting a strong grip on the market through their millions of followers. Although, in order to step into the influencer marketing industry, you do not always have to look for someone with millions.
Influencers can start their career with a count of 10000 as well. Afterall, it depends on how you approach them with the collaboration idea and how well they can execute them with whatever audience they have.
In this excerpt below, we will be getting into the nitty gritty of influencer marketing as a successful social media integration strategy, and how we make the most of it for our business.
Why Social Media?
In the last decade, we have seen a paradigm shift between social media and its demography of use. Undoubtedly, social media is meant for the young demographics since the curiosity and zeal to connect and socialize is more of their forte.
However, it has changed from that to becoming a business sector for every new and traditional company. A key element of business and marketing for that business is ‘people.’ Something which social media is known for.
According to the 2022 statistics, there are approximately 1.3 billion users on Instagram alone. Followed with 700+ Million followers for TiTok, which is becoming the next internet sensation of the decade. Therefore, if one has to find people to advertise to, social media is the first place to go.
What Is Influencer Marketing As A Way To Integrate Social Media
Bleeding into the section before, reaching out to everyone on social media is an impossible task. Plus, it is not very lucrative when we think about relevance and resonance. After all, your social media audience has to find relevance in whatever you are selling in order to make a purchase.
This is where some of the social media strategies come in, a popular one being Influencer marketing.
Influencer marketing is reaching out to social media accounts that have gained popularity and a celebrity over social media for being an influencer, whether it is through their content or inspiring lifestyle, which they promote through fitness, fashion, health, and many more.
Now, once your product or service comes in relevance with these influencers, you can reach out to them with a brand deal. A brand deal is promoting your product or service through its content in exchange for income.
This income is based on the influencer; the higher the number of followers, the higher they will charge since they are reaching out to a larger target audience. The income might also be ROI based, where they can ask for a percentage of revenue you are receiving through their promotion.
How To Integrate Influencer Marketing The Right Way
If you are planning on using this social media integration strategy for your upcoming project, then here is what you should be prepared for beforehand. You can also read in the post about other social media integration strategies for your business.
1. Be Clear Of Your Own Goals
You will be sitting for meetings in collaboration with the influencer, and you have to teach them about your brand. In that case, if you are not clear about your goal, the influencer can be confused. For example, what exactly are you asking them to do?
- Create small content throughout all the platforms that have relevancy and following.
- Focus on one media platform, like youtube or Instagram.
- Would you rather they take the time and create a long video for branding or divide the promotion through quicker platforms like IGTV, TikTok, or Youtube Shots to create a buzz in the market?
In order to provide this information, you have to first understand the result you are expecting from these influencers.
2. Clear The Legal Matter
The state of the USA is pretty strict about permissions and legal matters when it comes to influencer marketing. To begin with, the Federal Trade Commission is serious about FTC, and it is compulsory for both parties to sign a nondisclosure agreement.
On the other hand, any social media content sponsored by a company should be clear with its intention. The influencer in the picture should place the term #Promotion or #Sponsored in their post to make things clear to their audience.
3. Target It Well
Reaching out to the right customer is more important than reaching out to millions. Afterall, influencer marketing is a waste without a steady conversion rate.
The three things which you must remember are
· Reach.
· Relevance, &
· Resonate.
Reaching out to the right target audience.
Ensuring the product or service is relevant to the age group or demographic, i.e., they are really in need of it.
They should be able to resonate with the influencer or their post. For example, if you have to promote a protein shake, you will go to a regular gym trainee. Not a fashion influencer, even if they are physically fit.
4. Do Not Jump Without A Research
Influencer marketing is gaining quite the hype, no doubt, but you do not have to follow the crowd. Do not invest in this strategy just because your competitors are doing so. Yes, that could be one of the reasons, but not the only one.
Plus, do not always run for the big names with huge followers. Get a grip on your research and pick the ones which will bring the results.
Yes, influencer marketing is getting all about the glitz and glamor, but you have to make it a business collaboration. Yes, creativity will play an important role, but creativity with no technical result is a waste.
Getting The Influencer!
Influencers also have every right to reject your sponsorship offer, no matter how little of an audience you have. Plus, there will be times when you will want to work with an online celebrity because of the audience they cover.
- Therefore, make your own social media alluring as well.
- Stick with a consistent aesthetic and design.
- Promote your social media through backlinks.
- Social media optimization for audience reach.
Overall, an influencer will also judge you on your social media presence, so make it too immaculate for them to reject your offer.
