Want to try influencer marketing? You will find influencers in every field on social media platforms. A lot of people may ask – What is influencer marketing? The answer to the question is simple, influencer marketing is the promotion of any product or brand by influencers. Brands use social media platforms to promote their products or services, they try to reach a larger audience. In a way influencers help brands to boost online social media marketing campaigns because brands want an audience for their product and influencers are just a perfect fit for that role as they provide dedicated audience. This is the whole concept of influencer marketing. It is a win-win situation for both the brands and the influencers as both get benefitted from this.
Now, we know what is influencer marketing? So, now the question is, what is an influencer? The influencers have been in the limelight after the popularity of social media platforms. An influencer can affect the decision of others because of his popularity, knowledge, or relationship with the audience. So, basically, they can influence the decisions of others. There has been an immense growth of social media in the last few years and social media is an amazing platform for influencers as it allows them to connect to a bigger audience and increase their engagement and reach.
Brands see social media as an opportunity because these platforms allow brands to reach a bigger audience which was not possible earlier. This helps brands in increasing sales and make their product known to a lot of people. The social media influencers help in creating brand awareness as they have a huge following. That is why influencers play a huge role in the success of various brands.
Type of social media influencers
We see many types of influencers on social media. Here, we have mentioned types of social media influencers into mainly 3 categories.
By number of followers
Basically, you can classify the influencers into four types, and that are nano, micro, macro, and mega.
- The nano influencers have fewer followers and it is a cost-effective option. You won’t get a lot of audiences, but the audience of these followers feel that the products recommended by nano influencers are more genuine.
- The micro-influencers have a larger audience than nano influencers and they usually promote products of a specific niche, for example, food and beverages, travel, or fashion and beauty products. You won’t see them promoting other products.
- The macro influencers have a huge fanbase and some of the macro-influencers can be celebrities. Macro influencer’s work is similar to micro-influencers and the main difference between both is the number of followers.
- The mega influencers are generally major public figures or celebrities.
Type of content and market segments
There are various platforms where brands can promote products like blogs, YouTube, and other social media platforms. The bloggers might have fewer followers, but they have the most authentic audience, and it can be very helpful for the brands to earn authentic followers. Nowadays, brands also collaborate with popular YouTubers for promoting their products. With YouTubers, they can target a specific audience of any specific age group that they want to be based on their products. Now, these bloggers and YouTubers are also on social media platforms and they have good followers. So, they also promote the products on various platforms like Instagram, Facebook, etc. Hence, it is important for brands to understand what kind of audience they want for their product. So, based on all the parameters like the number of followers, demographics, and behavioral the brands can decide what will be the best option for marketing and promotions.
By level of influence
This is a very important factor behind the rise in sales of any product. People are highly influenced by celebrities and that is why the sales of any product rise when a celebrity promotes them. The only problem in celebrities promoting a product is that they might not completely relate with the product and there are chances that the audience might not buy it. Journalists or Industry experts are other options for brands as the audience respects their opinions and these people are experts on the subjects. So, if these experts promote a product related to their field then there is a very high chance of success for the brands. The level of influence plays a vital role in the promotion of products and brand awareness.
Top social media channels for influencer marketing
There are various social media channels that will help in growing your business and these platforms will provide an audience for your products. Some of the amazing social media platforms that will help you maximize your reach and allow you to engage with the audience that you want to target are,
1. Facebook
Facebook is one of the largest social media platforms that has over 2.7 billion active users every month. With such a huge audience, Facebook is a very safe option for the brands to get an audience and increase engagement. On Facebook, you get various options for sharing your content like text, videos, images, stories, and live videos. Every social media platform has a different algorithm, and the algorithm allows you to reach to a bigger audience. So, understanding of algorithm is important and for reaching more people on Facebook you need to post such content that increases the interaction between people. This way you can connect to a larger audience on Facebook.
2. Instagram
Instagram is slowly becoming very popular among youngsters. It allows you to share content in various formats like posts, videos, stories, and live videos. There is also an option called IGTV videos where you can post longer videos. A lot of brands are also on Instagram as it allows the brands to keep a business profile which shows all the analytics related to posts and profiles and the brands can know about their social presence and their growth among the people on Instagram. It is a perfect place to target the youths and attract them towards your brand.
3. YouTube
The main reason behind the brands using YouTube as a platform for social media marketing is that YouTube is the second largest search engine after Google. A lot of brands want to work with YouTube influencers to promote their products and increase their reach. So, as a YouTuber, if you have an audience of main youngsters then there is a very high possibility that a lot of brands would like to collaborate with you, but in the same way, the brands that are focused on the older age group would not come to you for collaboration because it is just a waste of time and money for them.
After the brands have selected the YouTube influencers, they want to collaborate with they will then look for the popularity and the reach of the YouTube influencers. Keeping in mind all these aspects the brands collaborate with YouTube influencers and promote their products on YouTube.
4. Snapchat
This social media application allows users to share photos, small videos, and stories. It is not as popular as the above-mentioned platform and a lot of brands prefer Instagram over Snapchat because you get all the features of Snapchat on Instagram. The major advantage of Snapchat was stories, but the popularity of Instagram has clearly affected Snapchat. Hence, Snapchat is not that popular platform when it comes to the social media marketing of top brands.
5. Tik Tok
Tik Tok is very popular and one of the most used music video social network. It is a very creative social media platform where you can upload short music videos up to 60 seconds and it also allows you to edit those videos and add special effects to it. All these features help brands as they can be as creative as they want for attracting more audiences and increasing their engagement. It is one of the most popular social media applications in Asia and it is slowly establishing itself in other countries as well.
6. Twitter
It is a social networking site that allows users to interact with each other using tweets and posts. However, there is a word limit and Twitter only allows 280 characters in a single tweet. This is a major disadvantage as other social media platforms do not have this kind of limitation. A lot of users use Twitter as a customer service channel. Twitter is different and it is certainly useful for brands to grow their audience and promote their products because interacting with different people is easy on Twitter.
7. Pinterest
It was founded in the year 2009 and it is very different from other social media platforms. Pinterest allows its users to discover new things and learn from them. This gives a new dimension to the social media marketing strategy of the brands. Brands represent their products in such a way that people get inspired by it. With the help of Pinterest, brands can inspire the audience and influence their marketing decision by showcasing their product in an innovative and creative way.
8. LinkedIn
LinkedIn is not just a platform for job search, but you can also build your personal brand on this platform. Users can share their content on this platform and connect with more and more people to form a network. LinkedIn is a professional network where you can build a credible and trustworthy network. You can use photos and videos on LinkedIn for getting better results for your marketing strategy. LinkedIn might not be a primary social networking website for promoting the products, but it is an important tool that will give you results if used effectively.
9. Reddit
It is one of the largest social media platforms for marketing, but a lot of brands do not use it. Reddit is famously known as the ‘front page of the internet’. Users post links, images, and social news on this platform. The other users can upvote and downvote content and there is also the option of comment where you can discuss it. The most popular threads are shown at the top. Brands can interact with the customers and by regular communication, they can earn the trust of the audience. The brands can also share their products and interact with the potential customers, this way they can increase the engagement and earn a bigger audience for the promotion of their products.
10. Tumblr
Tumblr is a microblogging and social networking website where users can share images, videos, audio, links, texts, etc. It is a widely used platform and the competition between brands is less on this platform so it can be a perfect opportunity for other brands to build an audience for them. One thing that brands must keep in mind before using Tumblr for social media marketing is that this platform has the youngest audience compared to other social media platforms.
11. Medium
Medium is an online publishing platform that was launched in the year 2012. It is a free platform where you can publish and read articles. You can write shorter long articles on any topic. Readers can find any kind of content on medium and if they like a certain post or content then they can comment on it and share it with other people easily. Brands publish their content on Medium and this way they can create an audience and increase their engagement.
These are the top social media channels for influencer marketing that helps brands to increase their reach and engagement. Every social media platform is different and requires a unique approach for making a successful influencer marketing strategy.
How can social influencers help a brand?
Influencer marketing help brands to connect with the audience with the help of social influencers. Brands target the social influencers because the influencers on the social media platforms already have a huge audience and followers that trust them. So, with the help of influencers brands can increase their reach and engagement. Influencers work as a platform for brands to promote their products to a larger audience. Influencers get paid by brands for promoting their products. In some cases, brands give their products for free to the influencers in exchange for the promotion of products. Social influencers also sign contracts with the brands, in this case, they get paid for continuously promoting the brands. Ultimately it is a win-win situation for both the brand and the social influencers.
Brands cannot just randomly select an influencer for promoting the brand. There are various factors that are considered before selecting an influencer. Brands should be clear about what they are looking for in an influencer and the age group that they want to target for promoting their products. This helps in narrowing down the list. Because there are numerous social influencers out there.
Thus, it is important to create an influencer marketing strategy before promoting the products. After that brands should make sure that the influencers will be able to connect with the audience because this is the most important thing otherwise all the efforts will go in vain. After the promotion of the product, you can measure the result and see how it affected the performance of the product and the engagement of the brand.
