The Age of the Influencer

Influencer marketing is one of the most talked-about social media marketing strategies, both positively and negatively. It’s been a few years since influencers starting making an impact for brands through Instagram, but some are wondering if the influencer bubble will soon burst.

Realistically, brands have been leveraging celebrity or popular influence for quite some time (since the 1920s). Take the Super Bowl for example, brands feature the pop culture phenomenons of the moment, often to blend humor with their brand. Here’s the 2020 lineup: Doritos and Lil Nas X, Pepsi and Missy Elliot, Bud Light and Post Malone, and countless others.

So although this strategy of leveraging influence to promote your brand may evolve, it’s certainly not going anywhere anytime soon. Here are my suggestions for those of you curious about adding this Instagram strategy to their marketing mix!

Look at the Stats

It’s easy to be in awe of an Instagram profile with 400,000 followers, but you’ll need to go beyond that initial follower shock before you start sending out free products or asking them to represent your brand.

There are a few things you’ll need to verify with your potential influencers:

• Engagement: As a rule of thumb, any influencer (unless they’re Kylie Jenner or James Charles) you’re looking to work with should have an engagement rate of 2-4%. For example, if they have 10,000 followers, they’ll average between 200-400 likes and comments (combined) on their posts.

• Geography: Where do their followers live? If you’re a CPG company that only ship nationally, you’ll want to ensure that at least 80% of their followers are based within the US.

• Age: Who is your target market? Identify influencers that align with your target market (by being one) or that highly influence that market. You’ll want to ensure that at least 50% of the individuals following that account fall within your target demographic.

Do your own research, not everyone on the internet is who they say they are! Use a tool like Social Blade to cross-reference any metrics and information the influencer provides.

Consider Micro Influencers

While they may not have a six-figure following, don’t discount the value of a micro influence (this means their following ranges between 2,000 and 50,000). While they will theoretically reach fewer individuals, their engagement will likely be higher and they’ll have more of a connection with their followers because they’re consistently replying to comments and messages.

Although you’ll need to consider what your goal (and budget) is: do you just want someone to simply recognize a brand label, or do you want someone to be able to provide insight/feedback on the product and answer questions their followers may have? If the ladder, micro influencers are your sweet spot.

These individuals are great brand advocates…it’s one thing just to post a photo with no context, but micro influencers can actually work to move the needle and influence action (and purchases).

Do Your Research

Ask questions! When I begin this process with my clients I have a detailed list of requirements and metric benchmarks that I look for. Just like any “new hire”, you’ll be trusting this individual to be an advocate for your brand. Here are some key questions to ask:

• Explain your personal brand and your social media community.
• Have you worked with any competitive brands? If so, when?
• Do you require just product for posts or payment?
• If payment, what are your rates for in feed posts versus stories?
• What is your turn around time for postings?
• Are you looking for a long-term partnership, or one-off posts?
• Are you familiar with all FTC compliances for influencer marketing?

Remember: you’ll also want to provide background and an overview of your brand, too. This will be a mutual agreement where you both have to feel comfortable that your morals, goals, and brands align.

Analyze

With any marketings efforts, you’ll need to review and analyze the results of influencer marketing tactics. I always suggest requiring influencers to provide metrics 48 hours after a an in-feed post and 24 hours after a story post.

To see the biggest impact, work with a variety of influencers at once for a period of 1-3 months. Then, review the KPI’s you’ve established for the campaign and determine if you should proceed with adding more influencers to your team, or extend existing partnerships.

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Are you ready to be “under the influence”? Let’s talk about how to identify some key influencers for your business and add this tactic to your marketing strategy today!