Stop waiting to find yourself a good influencer; this could be the biggest move to boost your presence on a social media platform.
It might just be the golden ticket to a large pool of new followers and customers, which, of course, you desire.
As of 2017, close to $1 billion went into Instagram marketing alone, and this amount has been doubling over the years.
Platforms like Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, YouTube, and even the newer TikTok all have networks of both great and not-so-great e-marketers with mouthwatering revenue.
It would not have been generating this much money over the years if brands were not benefiting from investing in this form of marketing.
Why is influencer marketing so effective on Instagram?
Even though influencer marketing is a thing on all social networks, Instagram surely stands out. But there has to be some level of authenticity for one to be successful as an Insta marketer.
The fact that the platform's personalities are willing to share the good, bad, and ugly is one way they get to increase their influence and gain the trust of more users.
This narrative applies to both micro-bloggers and celebrities who give fans access to some juicy details about their lives.
More so, these influencers put a lot of creativity, time, and thoughts into their posts. Some of them have a team for that sole purpose.
These influencers create captivating campaigns with stunning photos or videos, keeping the audience longing for your brand's offering. For instance, you're running a travel agency and want to draw more attention to it.
You can partner with some influencers and send them on a fun trip. You can be rest assured that they'll document every bit of the fun moments while citing your brand. This keeps Instagrammers longing for a vacation and gets them more interested in your brand.
And the best part is, the right influencers go about dishing out the content organically as they know enough not to invade users with too much promotion-centric content.
In a nutshell, influencer marketing is still a great way to raise social media awareness around your brand.
Several ways to work with Instagram influencers
Once you delve into influencer marketing, you realize that there are several ways to go about it. Here are the several forms that partnership with Instagram influencers can take place:
1. Instagram Stories
This feature is greatly valued as it allows influencers and brands to connect with the audience in a more genuine way.
Unlike in the regular feed, where users can edit the content till it becomes spotless, the Stories are more believable and feel more lifelike.
One other great add-on to Instagram Stories is the Swipe up. Viewers can now progress to your product or pricing page… directly.
It actually started from Snapchat and made its way into Instagram, wherein Stories are now being created twice as much as what is obtainable on Snapchat.
TikTok is also quite popular now but this option doesn't exist yet.
2. Sponsored posts
Quite common in influencer partnership, the brand gives influencers samples of their offerings.
After using the product or service, the influencer becomes equipped with the right and relevant information to create in-depth reviews and how-to's, and answer frequently-asked questions.
The fact that the influencer is using the product could sway many viewers to try out your brand.
With this model, the brand has to pay the influencer upfront for such sponsored posts. So if you send the samples as just gifts, the influencer is under no obligation to endorse you.
So as either a business or creator, make sure that the agreement and terms of the partnership are lucid.
3. Instagram Live Takeovers
This approach allows influencers to join Live sessions from the brand and engage with the audience in real-time.
If a user sees a famous influencer appear on a brand’s Instagram Live (out of nowhere), it could spark a lot of excitement and better interaction.
In the Live session, the audience can ask questions and push comments about the niche, brand, products, or services.
These marketers can even invite their friends and followers to join the takeover. This improves your content reach immensely.
You and other users can also download the Instagram Live video and publish it on other social media platforms for an even wider reach.
Pro-Tip: As a brand or influencer, you can try these approaches and look out for the ones that yield the best results.
How to get social media influencers
While finding an influencer might be easy (whether on Instagram or some other social network), getting the right one can be a big challenge. The stress can be worth it, considering the positive effect it promises to bring to the table.
So, the first step is to define the type of influencer that would be best for your brand. While going for sought-after celebrities to help promote your brand can be a tempting option, you might want to start with micro-influencers with immense knowledge of your niche.
Say you’re a cosmetic brand, you can go for popular Instagrammers that run tutorials on facial makeup and cosmetic products. This approach would narrow your list down a bit, and even if you don't have a list, you can easily come up with ways to go about it.
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Using relevant hashtags
Once you search for a popular hashtag in your niche, you would find popular brands, posts, and influencers. The result usually comes with the top and most popular ones first.
Once you find the one that catches your fancy, you can quickly head to the influencer’s bio to check it out. If there's a link to their site, you can visit that for more information.
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Using Google to find influencers
Yes! It’s actually that easy. Just search for influencers in your niche on Google, and you would find websites that have lists of the hottest ones.
But before you go deep into influencer marketing, you should check out some case studies and learn from them. Let’s consider the Gillette Venus campaign from the voguish Gillette brand.
They partnered with different beauty influencers to promote a shaving line called ‘Gillette Venus.’ The creators use their content in several forms and settings, with close-ups alongside a very catchy hashtag: #ChooseToSmooth.
This campaign resulted in an engagement rate of 2.2% and reached over 470,000 users. Gillette didn't shine away from micro-influencers, which offered a lot of authenticity and creativity.
There are many other examples of influencer partnership with different techniques and strategies that you can learn from.
