How to work with social media influencers
Marketing comes in so many forms these days and there are many free and no so free choices when it comes to marketing.
Social Media Influencer
A Social Media Influencer is someone who has quite a lot of genuine followers. These followers are keen to hear when their favourite online personality is using or recommending.
Social Media influencers may be found on Instagram, or YouTube, you may already follow them or know of someone who would be great for your brand. They may also have a blog or website and be across many of the social media platforms.
Top influencers in these areas get sent A LOT of stuff for free in the hope they will mention it on their platform/s. Others receive a specific marketing deal and specific payment to do so.
Can you trust influencers?
- This is something you need to decide when choosing your influencer
- Remember that just because you send them the product for free, it doesn’t mean they will mention it
- Some are more ethical than others and true to their own brand
- You must ensure that their post-engagement is reasonable for their number of followers. If someone has 500,000 followers but only 20 likes on a post, chances are their followers are bought and not genuine.
Why should you?
- Working with an influencer may increase your credibility and the credibility of your product
- If your potential audience matches your influencer’s audience
- Their perspective of your brand can boost sales and followers of your brand
How do you?
Get in touch – most will have a contact available, generally via email, where you can submit a proposal. From here, if you are planning on sending an item, you should ensure that you wait until you receive a confirmation of what they will do with your product once they have it.
Some influencers will have an expectation of how they promote products. So they may reject your product or they may request more than you are prepared to pay.
You may also find that your influencer requests that you contact their management and that is who you get to negotiate with.
Agree on payment – It will be a business negotiation that you have and you may not be able to agree. The influencer may change more than you are prepared to pay or they may not want to promote your item. Remember they are a business and will usually have standard rates they apply.
Agree on promotion – Again a business negotiation but your chosen influencer may have a very specific way of doing things. Or their management will let you know how they expect to run things.
Conclusion
Working with an influencer can be incredibly successful for a lot of businesses. It can get your product or service out quickly to a large number of your ideal clients.
If you need help with creating a plan to work with influencers, schedule a meeting with Kelly at My Sassy Business today.
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