Social influencers have had a huge impact on how brands approach digital marketing these days. They are a force to be reckoned with, creating well-crafted content and online conversations which engage and persuade their audience in way that traditional marketing doesn’t manage to pull off.

What Exactly Is A Social Influencer?

A social influencer is a person who has extensive knowledge about a specific brand or topic. This individual has established themselves as a reliable source of information with their audience online. Within their niche, they are able to influence the opinions and choices of their followers due to their authenticity and reach. 

Due to the rise in popularity of influencers brands have incorporated these individuals into their social media marketing strategies. These influencers are then tasked with assisting in marketing efforts by promoting a brand or product/service.

By partnering with an influencer a brand is able to reach a larger audience which ultimately boosts business. The influencer is paid for creating and sharing content relevant to your brand and industry. This makes which makes the collaboration beneficial for everyone involved.

Why Collaborating With Influencers Is Good For Business

There’s no doubt that conventional brand-specific aspects of digital marketing are very useful to create leads and build relationships with customers. But people tend to respond positively to content comes from like-minded people that they can relate to.

It doesn’t matter what product you’re selling – a positive recommendation from a trusted source can win over a person more easily than the most beautifully constructed advertising campaign. This is what makes social influencers a valuable addition to any marketing strategy.

Finding The Right Influencers

Finding the right influencer to fit your brand can be tricky because there are millions of social influencers out there. Despite the advantages, influencer marketing won’t work if you’re not working with the right person.

Single-metric definitions like unique visitors and follower counts are helpful when measuring influence. But it’s important to do a deep dive into a potential influencer to figure out how influential they actually are online.

 

How To Collaborate With Social Influencers

A successful partnership with an influencer can boost your business and do wonders for your brand. But when seeking out the perfect person to collaborate with there are a few important points to consider such as the following…

  • Relevance

Before analyzing statistics it’s important to look at how an influencer’s content aligns with your brand’s message and core values. It’s also important to get an overall sense of an influencer’s personality. Simply having an interest in your brand doesn’t always mean they’ll be a good fit. Your chosen influencer needs to share content relevant to your brand and industry. They also need to have an audience that aligns with your target market.

  • Engagement

Engagement is a good way to measure how interactive an influencer’s audience is with the content. Do their followers respond, comment, and share posts? How much readers engage with posts and how often they return are indications of how meaningful those relationships are. It’s also a good idea to examine how an influencer interacts with their followers. It’s worth taking note of things like tone, syntax and how they react to criticism and negativity.

  • Consistency

How often an influencer posts on digital channels  is directly related to their online traffic. Like marketing any website, it often takes lots of exposure to get followers/visitors to interact with a post. If an influencer regularly posts high quality content, followers are more likely to comment, share and return. People who don’t post as frequently tend to have a higher rate of turnover – fewer comments, shares, return visitors, and therefore less loyalty.

  • Authenticity

Influencers with a small ratio of sponsored content tend to be more trusted by their followers/consumers. Personal stories and anecdotes that include genuine use or mention of a brand are seen as more authentic than obvious reviews. While it’s tempting to ask influencers to write a nice long review of whatever your brand has to offer, people don’t really pay much attention to posts of that nature. Authentic content of high quality (with an added personal touch) will resonate more with an audience. This is because this type of post creates a real connection between the brand and the audience.