Are social influencers the future of digital marketing?
The social influencer is, in essence, an every day individual who has used strong, visual and relevant content to grow an attentive and engaged audience on their social media channels of choice.
If you come across a blogger or social media magnate with a significant social media following, it’s not uncommon to see, at varying levels of obviousness, posts that are sponsored or have been commissioned by a business, but what is a social influencer?
The social influencer is, in essence, an every day individual who has used strong, visual and relevant content to grow an attentive and engaged audience on their social media channels of choice.
What do social influencers have to do with digital marketing?
Online channels are being flooded with so many messages that even brands with strong search engine optimisation, an amazing user experience and great website design aren’t guaranteed the clicks they need from their promotional ads.
The beauty of using social influencers to deliver your message is that, if done in an organic and genuine way, not only are you tapping into the attentive audience of another social media user, your product or service is also being received with a level of trust from that audience.
The dos and don’ts of using social influencers
Do:
- Match your brand with an influencer who has shared values. A beauty blogger’s audience is unlikely to be interested in the vacuum cleaner she uses!
- Provide as much detail as you possibly can about your business values and goals within the brief. The more the social influencer understands what you’re all about, the more organic the content will come across.
- Re-post! Social influencers aren’t only great for sharing your product or service with a new audience; they’re also great for providing your brand with content.
Don’t:
- Skimp on the quality of social influencer! The larger and more engaged the following, the higher the price tag will be; as will the performance of your advertisements.
- Be disheartened if your campaign with said social influencer has been running for a week and you haven’t seen a spike in sales. This is a branding exercise and your focus should be around building an attentive audience.
- Make assumptions… provide everything from the hashtags to text suggestions.
With all of the opportunity around content marketing through social influencers, they are certainly a force to be considered when you’re building your digital marketing strategy.
Contact iFactory to learn more about the full range of digital strategy services that we can provide your business, including social media campaigns across platforms including Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest and YouTube.
