How To Work With Social Media Influencers

Influencer marketing has become a popular trend for businesses to reach potential new customers.

There are influencers all over social media who have built close communities of followers. These followers turn to them for product recommendations, and businesses are beginning to work with them to promote their brand.

But influencer marketing is still a new concept. Many businesses haven’t quite figured out how to leverage this new method of promotion to get the best results.

This post has everything you need to know about influencer marketing and how to use it effectively for your business.  From figuring out a budget to fostering collaborative relationships, we’ll walk you through the basics.

Nano & Micro Influencers

When most people think of social media influencers, celebrities like the Kardashian-Jenners usually come to mind.

But really…

Not all influencers are celebrities. In fact, there is a niche market of influencers with smaller communities who are perfect for small businesses to work with: nano and micro influencers.

Nano influencers have about 10,000 or less followers, while micro influencers have between 10,000 and 100,000 followers.

We think of them as small but mighty influencers.

These influencers are beneficial for smaller brands to work with because of the tight-knit communities they build with their followers. Their followers are more likely to pay attention to what they say, and their engagement rate is actually higher than larger influencers with over 1 million followers.

Another benefit? The cost to work with nano and micro influencers is typically less expensive than larger influencers.

Speaking of cost...

How Much Do Influencers Charge?

It’s important to remember that influencers are people too, and they have their own bills and expenses to pay for.

While some influencers will be willing to work with you for free – or in exchange for free products – not everyone will.

Pricing fluctuates depending on the influencer, the length of agreement, and the type of content you’re looking for.

But the general rule of thumb is 1 cent per follower — or $100 per 10k followers.

With this in mind, you can figure out what you can afford, and then focus on reaching out to influencers who fit into your budget.

How Do You Find The Right Influencers?

When you’re looking for influencers to work with, avoid messaging any and every influencer you come across.

Think about your products and your target audience. You want to reach out to influencers who fit your brand and can authentically promote your product to followers who are actually interested in it.

It would be a waste of your time to pay an influencer to promote your product when none of their followers are interested in buying it.

Engagement is also a key factor in choosing the right influencer. It might look good for a profile to have a lot of followers, but it doesn’t mean anything if they have low engagement on their posts.

Most influencers can provide a verified analytics report for you to see a reliable picture of their profile’s performance. High engagement means their followers actually interact with their profile, which can offer a higher return on investment for your brand.

How Do You Work With Influencers?

So you’ve found the perfect influencer to promote your business…

Now what?

The most important thing to remember is that social media influencers work with you – not for you. And they will be much more willing to do so if you foster comfortable and open relationships with them.

Trust their process and creative decisions. You can offer ideas, but they know what their followers like and what fits their brand, so give them some creative freedom with the posts.

An influencer’s followers know their brand and aesthetic. If a post is too different from their usual style, their followers will be able to tell it’s not an authentic post, and they will be less likely to pay attention to it.

This is why it’s important to be careful about the influencers you choose. If you can’t see your brand fitting into the aesthetic of their profile, go with someone else.

Tracking Your Influencer Marketing Results

Paying attention to the results of your campaign is one of the most important parts of influencer marketing.

You always want to measure the results in order to determine the success of the campaign. This information will help inform future campaigns.

One way to measure your results is by using Instagram’s branded content tools. Influencers can easily tag their posts as sponsored content to maintain transparency, and you can easily track the campaign’s reach and engagement via Facebook Page Insights.

You can also use trackable links to track the number of clicks you get from an influencer campaign. Automated services like Bit.ly make it easy to create custom, trackable links for your influencers to provide to their followers. These links will make it possible to determine whether the influencer’s followers actually clicked through the sponsored post to your brand’s website.

To Recap...

Influencer marketing is still a very new marketing strategy, but it has proven to be very successful.

Thousands of users across social media turn to influencers to discover new brands and get product advice.

Working with influencers gives your brand the opportunity to focus on marketing towards specific audiences. As opposed to the broader, less tangible (and more expensive!) focus of classic advertisements.

While influencer marketing may be a new concept to your business, it can be a beneficial marketing strategy – when done right.

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Spark & Pony is a creative marketing agency dedicated to making custom marketing solutions for small businesses. Follow us on Instagram for more social media tips!