With the ever-expanding number of influencers in today’s social media age, establishing partnerships can be difficult to navigate. Following the simple guide below can aid in your brand’s execution for a successful social media influencer partnership.
How to price an influencers service
When it comes to budgeting, a range of factors will ultimately determine how much a business can expect to pay to engage an influencer. This includes their number of followers on social media, the number of posts they are required to make and whether they and their images/content are to be used and shared across multiple platforms. But how an influencer can be used to create hype and engagement with customers is only limited by the budget and the business’s imagination.
How businesses can identify the right influencer
According to marketing budgets and brand sophistication of large corporations, it can be easier for a smaller business to find the right influencer for them, because they tend to be closer to their customer. MGI’s Sandy Ho finds that “what you see with big businesses is the person making the decision can be, a lot of the time, separated maybe from the outcome of the campaign, or not as close to the DNA of the brand,”. Regardless of your businesses size, when choosing the right influencer to represent your brand it is vital to look at how aligned the influencer’s content is with your own brands messaging. This will ensure you reach the right target audience that will genuinely be interested in your brand.
How to determine if an influencer campaign has been successfulBusinesses should establish a contract from the outset and include KPIs to assess the performance of the marketing campaign and the influencer driving it. Due to social media involving digital platforms, it is easy to track performance both during and after the marketing campaign.
- Reach
- Engagement
- Brand sentiment
- Quality of the content
- Creativity of the storytelling involved
- Whether the overall goals are achieved
What to avoid when using a social media influencer
Whilst this is social media, all partnerships for social media campaigns are business contracts and should be treated as such. One ultimate mistake is thinking that any influencer with the right number of followers will do. The partnership must make sense for the influencer, matching their usual content to not only reach the desired target audience but ensure the partnership appears natural, resulting in more purchases.
Being dictatorial within the partnership also only serves to hinder social media campaigns. Businesses can learn a thing or two from influencers about how to best engage with their target audiences. Any social media campaign must be a two-way exchange between the brand and the influencer that is mutually beneficial for both parties. Being too forced in the messaging can put off consumers. According to MGI’s Sandy Ho, “really contrived campaigns just don’t perform anymore. I think consumers are just too savvy.” The hype of the early days of influencer marketing has given way to much more natural, authentic and relatable campaigns, particularly because social media is so personal.
