If you do not have the budget to hire a celebrity endorser, a cost-effective alternative would be hiring social media influencers.
These are people who have gained a significant following on social media. It is not just because they are famous, but because people trust their recommendations.
However, there is more to hiring an influencer than numbers.
In this post, we have listed eight factors you should consider before working with a social media influencer.
1. Social Media Platforms
Influencers are everywhere. They are not limited to Instagram alone. That said, connect with relevant social media influencers that are popular on a specific platform.
This means you might be working with popular influencers: One on Instagram, one on TikTok, one on Twitter, and one on Facebook. Doing so ensures that you are maximizing your social media audience reach.
2. Creative Control
The public made influencers famous not only because of the type of content they create but also their personality. However, many brands make the mistake of restricting creative control over influencers.
In your efforts to stick to your branding guidelines, you end up sabotaging the influencer’s content as they advertise your brand. It will sound out of place and forgettable within the content of said influencer.
That’s why you should find a good middle ground between the creativity and personality of these influencers and your branding’s sanctity. That way, your influencer can present your brand in a way that isn’t out of their character.
3. Type Of Influencer
Just because someone has a significant number of followers does not mean they’re the right influencer for you. If you are a fashion brand, it only makes sense to work with a fashion influencer.
Sure, working with an influencer with one million followers means getting your brands exposed to that many numbers of people. But it will not matter unless they are your target market.
The key here is to reach out to an influencer who can help you connect with your target customers.
4. Influencer’s Audience
In relation to the previous point, your influencer’s audience must be composed of people who are likely to buy from you.
For instance, you are a fashion brand. It only makes sense that you work with a fashion influencer. However, remember that there are luxury fashion influencers (think: LV and Prada) and casual fashion influencers (i.e., GAP).
You may choose to run your influencer marketing campaign yourself or work with a social media marketing services provider. What’s important is that you pick the influencer who can best represent your brand.
You should also look into their followers. This is to see if they are your target customers.
5. Previous Campaigns
Before you reach out to whichever social media influencer that you found, you should check out previous campaigns that they did. You should also check out the type of content they create and whether they fit your brand values.
When you see them in action in an advert, a campaign, or whatever, it becomes easier to picture how they will act when you connect with them.
If what they do doesn’t catch your eye or they don’t fit with your business ideals, then it’s good that you looked at how they did previous campaigns first. That way, you didn’t have to close a deal with them only to end up not liking the previous results. At the same time, you didn’t waste each other’s time and energy.
6. Professional Relationship
Of course, another critical factor to look into before working with a social media influencer is to look at their professionalism.
As you interact with them, were they friendly or respectful, and professional? If you don’t like how a person comes across, hiring them to be the influencer of your brand can leave a bad taste in your mouth and compromise your brand values.
Look at all the brands that got backlash from problems that influencers faced against the public. That alone should make you more conscious of the professional relationships that you build with an influencer.
7. Consistency
Some influencers have many followers in one platform but not on another. Meanwhile, some people are influential across different platforms.
You can hire multiple influencers for different platforms. But if you can choose to employ the latter if you have a limited marketing budget. What’s important is that they post and engage regularly.
As an entrepreneur, you must ensure that you connect with them on the platform that they’re most consistent in as much as possible.
If they’re not consistent in all of their platforms, then you might not get the best results possible when you collaborate with them. Thus, you might want to shop around for a different influencer in that case.
8. Level Of Engagement
The number of followers is one thing that people are most conscious of. It is also the first thing you see when you look at an influencer’s account. However, that’s not the best measurement of success for you as a brand seeking to collaborate with the said influencer.
However, engagement is one of the first things that you should be paying attention to.
An influencer that might have more followers might not have as much engagement as someone with fewer followers than they are. Once you’ve narrowed down the influencers you want to work with, the level of engagement will be the final qualification.
After all, there is no sense in posting about your brand if they cannot compel their followers to take action.
Conclusion
Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, it is estimated that influencer marketing will grow to $13.8 billion in 2021. That’s because businesses have decided to reconfigure their marketing budget.
If they do not have the budget to hire celebrity endorsers, they can go for the next big thing. And those are social media influencers.
If you are one of those businesses, go back to this post and learn the eight things you have to consider when working with an influencer by heart. That way, you can maximize and get the most out of your influencer marketing campaign.
