As celebrity endorsements influence consumer buying decisions, new voices emerge as influencers on social media. The popularity and rise of social media influencers has created a marketing channel that connects social media content to a target audience that fits the product.
In this article, we define the different types of social media influencers along with tips on how to partner with social media influencers.
Contents
1 What are social media influencers?
2 Types of social media influencers
2.1 Nano-influencer
2.2 Micro-influencer
2.3 Macro-influencer
2.4 Mega-influencer
3 Why is it important for brands to partner with social media influencers?
4 Tips for partnering with social media influencers.
4.1 Find the best influencers in your niche
4.2 Focus on micro-influencers
4.3 Investigate each influencer
4.4 Set a budget
4.5 Decide who owns the content
4.6 Share user-generated content (UGC)
4.7 Be specific about content requirements
4.8 Get a written agreement
4.9 Working with multiple influencers
4.10 Try a different platform
4.11 Track your results
What are social media influencers?
Social media influencers are individuals who have gained popularity and trust among a growing audience of online followers by becoming early adopters, innovators, or niche experts in a particular area of interest such as fashion, health, or technology. Influencers are personalities who share their opinions, expertise and recommendations on any social media channel.
The term “influencer” is often confused with “content creator”. While a person can be both a content creator and an influencer, a content creator is someone who develops a description, image, or video that an influencer uses or promotes about a product, service, or topic of interest.
Here are the different levels of influencers based on their online follower volume and their social media content coverage:
Nano-influencer
- 1,000 or fewer followers
- Curated content for small audiences looking for highly specialized topics
- Authentic partners for special products or services
Micro-influencer
- 1,000 to 50,000 followers
- Content that is interesting or worthy of sharing with a dedicated audience that is consistently growing
- The most common types of social media talent
Macro-influencer
- 50,000 to 1 million followers
- Industry expertise reaches a very wide audience with a single post
- Thought leaders, professionals, academic experts
Mega-influencer
- Over 1 million followers
- Celebrity, professional athlete
- Support from well-known public figures
By partnering with social media influencers, brands can expand their marketing reach and benefit from an established target audience. Social media networks can be ideal channels for business-to-consumer (B2C) campaigns.
Partnerships between social media influencers and companies can be short-term agreements for paid promotions. In exchange for a free product, affiliate marketing program, or monetary compensation, an influencer can promote your brand, product or service to their followers.
If you decide you want to use influencer marketing to drive conversions and grow your brand, be sure to develop a strategic plan to achieve the specific goals for your investment. Here are some tips that can help you get the most out of this marketing tactic:
Find the best influencers in your niche
The first thing you want to do is find the most popular social media influencers in your niche. Spend some time on each social media platform looking for popular accounts that post content related to your product or service.
Make a note of their name along with how many followers they have on that platform. You may also want to note whether they have promoted a product in the past, as this may be an indication that they are open to becoming an influencer for you.
Focus on micro-influencers
Working with micro-influencers can be a great way to target very specific topics on a smaller budget. You can often spend the same amount of money on multiple micro-influencers than one macro-influencer and still engage the same number of people.
Micro-influencers are the most common type of social media influencer, and they can offer a variety of followers and personalities to match your brand.
Investigate every influencer
Once you have a list of potential influencers, you should look at each one a little further. When you hire influencers to promote your brand, they become brand ambassadors for your image.
You don’t want to hire someone to advertise your product only to find out later that they have made controversial statements on their platform before.
Pick a few strong competitors from your initial list, then try to learn more about their background, their audience, and the type of content they post. The more you can learn about a potential partner, the more likely you will be to match the influencer to your product or service and goals.
Set a budget
As with any marketing campaign, it’s important to set a budget beforehand. If this is your first influencer marketing campaign, consider starting with a small budget before increasing it.
Then, when you’re looking for influencers to work with, keep your budget in mind. You’ll want to find the nano-influencers or micro-influencers who will give you the best return on your investment.
Take the time to learn more about influencer marketing and the best ways to spend your money, which will allow you to better allocate your budget.
Decide who owns the content
Working with influencers is like forming a partnership. Together you create content that influencers will post with the aim of promoting your product.
One thing you have to decide is who ultimately owns the content. If you want to keep control of your content, it’s important to create a content syndication agreement or negotiate terms before you partner with an influencer.
Full-Form Of user-generated content (UGC)
User-generated content is a great way to leverage your online presence. For example, let’s say a customer posts an unsolicited positive review about your product.
When this happens, you not only get the benefits of free word-of-mouth marketing on social media, but you can also use it to further promote products in your other paid social ads.
With the customer’s permission, you can repost their reviews on your own brand’s social media channels or testimonial pages on your website. Some companies launch referral programs to drive sales and create long-term relationships with loyal customers.
Be sure to decide what types of incentives you might offer to influencers and regular customers to show your appreciation.
Be specific about content requirements
An important tip is to be very specific about what you want from an influencer. If you leave your terms open, you may not be happy with what the influencer created or posted. Tell them what kind of content you want them to create, what you want them to say in it, and when it needs to be posted.
Get a written agreement
Be sure to be specific, and also get your consent in writing to prevent disputes or confusion. By having everything in writing before work begins, you will have a document that you can both return to for guidance.
One effective way to do this is with a nondisclosure agreement (NDA) that lists all the details of your arrangement. Then, send this to the influencer and ask them to respond that they have reviewed the document and agreed to all the points.
Work with multiple influencers
Once you have run a successful campaign with one influencer, you may consider expanding your influencer marketing. Working with multiple influencers allows you to reach a wider audience and amplify your message with overlapping audiences.
For example, if someone followed two influencers you used to promote your brand, that is someone who is now twice as likely to see your message.
Also, because they are in both influencer audiences, they are likely to be your ideal target. No one has the same exact following, so the more influencers you work with, the more people you can reach.
Try different platforms
In line with using different influencers using different social media platforms. Each platform contains a wide variety of people, but some are better at reaching one audience than others. Run test campaigns on each platform to see what kind of results you get. Once you know which platform is the best fit for your brand, you can dedicate more of your resources there.
Track your results
The only way to increase your influencer marketing success is to count impressions and evaluate your results. With every campaign you run, you must have a system in place to track your results.
For example, if you hire an influencer to promote one of your products, you’ll want to know exactly how many people visited your website pages because of that influencer. You can then compare the success of that influencer with others and make better decisions in the future.