So you want to work with influencers to leverage your social media marketing campaign. But you’re not sure where to start, or what kind of content you should create. There are plenty of options for those who wish to integrate influencers into their social media marketing. Find out five strategies below, and learn how each can benefit your brand:
#1: Enrich Your Content with a Social Media Takeover
Your audience may currently find the type of content you normally publish to be interesting. But there’s no telling when your fans and followers will get bored with the same ol’ thing. Variety adds some spice to your social media content, keeping your existing audience intrigued and engaged. While it’s not always easy for brands to come up with new ideas for their social media posts, you can always count of influencers to provide you with a whole new perspective.
This is why social media takeovers have become so popular recently. Brands collaborate with influencers in their relevant category/niche. The influencers are given access to the brand’s social media account (or accounts) for a specific amount of time, (sometimes for a day, or even an entire week). During the takeover period, the influencer posts images or updates about their activities. The idea is to grow your audience by drawing in the influencer’s loyal fans, and provide fresh content to your existing audience.
Pop culture and teen community, Sweety High regularly runs influencer takeovers for their Instagram and Snapchat accounts. They recently ran an Instagram story takeover with Kendall Vertes, who has 4.4 million followers. She shared the news about the takeover with her fans and got more than 86k likes on the post in the first 24 hours.
Sweety High posted an image to announce the takeover as well, and encouraged their followers to leave questions for Kendall in the comments. Kendall will answer their questions as part of the takeover.
The brand makes use of influencer takeovers across various social media channels and even runs them on Snapchat. Their recent collaboration was with country music singer Tegan Marie, who drew fans to the community’s Snapchat account with a post on her Instagram.
#2: Boost Engagement and Visibility with Contests
Maybe you’ve learned how brands can boost social media engagement through contests and giveaways. But what if the contest doesn’t gain as much traction as you had hoped? Influencers can help you leverage your contests by spreading the news, and bringing it to the attention of their followers. They can further encourage their fans to participate, which will boost engagement as well.
The best way to do this is to have the influencers showcase the prizes. This helps incite desire in their followers to win the prizes, which motivates them to enter the contest. Make sure the prizes are something that the influencer’s audience will value. Maybe a free gift basket of your organic food products would be enticing to a food blogger’s fans, since they are already interested in food.
Contest prizes don’t always have to be free products or services from your company. For instance, you could give away free tickets to a concert that your target audience would be interested in, or tickets to your brand’s event with influencers and celebrities. The options are virtually endless.
See how Qupid Shoes and Laura Beverlin worked together to create a contest to promote the brand. The style blogger notified her followers about the contest, and showcased the prizes in a beautiful photo. She advised people to visit the Qupid Shoes Instagram account for details about the contest.
#3: Build Brand Awareness with Social Media Features
Influencers have massive audiences – ranging from thousands to millions of followers. This means that when they talk about your product, review it, or showcase it in action; they’re promoting it to thousands of people at a time. Many of those people have never heard of, (or noticed), your brand before. But when someone they idolize vouches for your product or service, it’s going to grab their attention and make them want to learn more about it.
Take a look at how Sarah Tripp (@sassyredlipstick) showcases a product from The Estée Edit, by describing what she uses, and how many other shades are available. Tripp has more than 50,000 Instagram followers, and frequently provides style tips and creates sponsored posts.
#4: Drive Conversions with Discount/Promo Codes
Showcasing your products with the help of influencers may boost your brand’s visibility. But visibility alone isn’t enough to help you achieve your marketing goals. You also need people to take action, and convert into paying customers. That means you need to give them a reason to buy the product.
An influencer vouching for your product may be enough to drive conversions in some cases, because they can effectively create a desire to purchase the product. But there is no guarantee that people will buy your product just because their idol posted about it. You need to seal the deal by providing them with attractive offers like discount codes or promo codes, which will encourage them to go ahead with the purchase.
Talis Collection partnered with influencers in the fashion and lifestyle industry. Fashion Instagrammers like Lori of @stylewithlori shared images with pieces from the brand’s collection, beautifully positioned. They also included a special discount code in each post, which allowed people to get 15% off on their purchases from Talis.
#5: Build Trust by Standing Up for a Cause
Trust is an important element in building a long-term relationship with your audience. You want people to have an emotional connection with your brand instead of looking at you like you’re just another faceless corporation. To prove your authenticity, partner with influencers to stand up for a cause that your audience will appreciate. This is a great way to put a human face on your brand, and show people that you have a heart.
The Entertainment Industry Foundation started the #Reasons2StandUp campaign and promoted it through influencers. The idea was to invite people to stand up to cancer and donate to the cause. Influential YouTubers like The Fine Brothers created content to promote the cause. Their video alone generated more than 800,000 views.
The foundation also partnered with a number of celebrities and other digital influencers, who had a combined reach of more than 16 million on social media. Overall, the campaign managed to raise over $111,000,000, and earned more than 1.8 billion media impressions.
Conclusion
The five tactics above are some of the most popular, and effective ways to integrate influencers into your social media marketing. Which of these are you planning to try? If you need any help coming up with ideas for your next social media influencer marketing campaign, feel free to get in touch with me.
And, of course, if you haven’t yet registered for this year’s Influencer Marketing Days register now
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