by Influencer Marketing and How to Make it Your New PR Best Friend
By: Samantha Elliott
You noticed last week that your childhood best friend’s hair has been looking so sleek and healthy lately in her Instagram post. Your own hair has been feeling pretty dull and frail so you reach out and ask her what magic shampoo she’s been using and where on earth you can find it. She recommends you a new shampoo line and a coconut oil hair mask to put on once a week and thank goodness, all the products were at Target and under 10 dollars! You trust your old best friend’s word and you’ve SEEN her hair looking visibly better, and thus you’ve been influenced to try the same products as her. This is the entire premise that influencer marketing operates and capitalizes on.
If your business or company is considering moving into any kind of influencer marketing, there are three ingredients to a successful influencer interaction to keep in mind.
TRUST. Trust should be first and foremost in your search when considering which influencers to work with. If your influencer was the bad guy on this season of the Bachelor and made a persona from being a liar, the people following them probably won’t trust anything they have to say about your product. If you are marketing a new line of ethically sewn tank tops, you will want to do some research into influencers who have already started the conversation about ethical clothing practices or caring for the environment. Their audience most likely trusts them and what they have to say about products. This is critical, because you don’t want to market a product that doesn’t resonate with the influencers online following.
CLOUT. Obviously, you need to take into consideration the size of your influencers following. Some questions to ask yourself are: Will the current number of followers on this account help my company reach our interaction goals? Is this influencer someone who is growing more followers, or losing followers as time goes on? Often, with the rise of reality TV shows, someone who sees one month of screen time will gain hundreds of thousands of followers during that month. But as time goes on, if the influencer isn’t engaging with their audience, referencing the original thing that brought them fame, or just doesn’t have an aesthetic feel to their Instagram, they will lose followers. If you want to create a new relationship with an influencer, think about whether they are already glowing, or if they have places that they need to grow.
INTERACTIONS. Interaction arguably is the most important of the three ingredient recipe to a successful influencer marketing relationship. Interactions can be a number of items on a social media platform: comments, likes, sliding-up on a story, reposting, etc. One influencer that I have personally followed for a long time on Instagram is Indy Blue (@indyblue) and she has nailed the interaction piece of her Instagram strategy. She asks questions on her story every single day, and she will re-post tons and tons of people’s responses. This means she is listening, and that makes people want to engage. If an influencer seems like an omniscient, floating aura that is untouchable from an Instagram comment, the likelihood of people finding value in trying to interact with them on social media is low.
So what this means for you if you are scouring the internet for an influencer to rep your brand, is to read the comments on their photos and watch their Instagram stories. Are they speaking back to their followers? Does their Instagram model follow a two-way communication idea?
Influencer marketing is a powerhouse tool of today’s PR, advertising and business successes. Whether an influencer mentions a product on their podcast or wears a brand in a TikTok video, the circulation that can be generated by users clicking, commenting and sharing content is stronger than most outdated marketing plans. Whether it’s feta pasta going viral overnight and completely wiping the entire country of Norway’s feta stock or that darn red swimsuit that broke Instagram back in 2014, people are looking to social media to find the next best thing. Use influencer marketing to be a part of this conversation, and you might just set off the next viral trend.
Influencer Marketing
Hi Samantha,
I really enjoyed reading your blog post, especially the introduction! That immediately made me want to learn more. I thought a topic is a great place for companies and brands to consider, especially now when everyone is on social media due to the pandemic.
Social media has totally transitioned into a markable platform and is pathing the way for influencers. I find that when I’m on social media I am constantly seeing things I like and going off and purchasing them on my own. Furthermore I think the element of building a brand through the use of social media is so powerful today. Looking at the brand Coach for example. They have completely changed their branding and formed a new aesthetic on Instagram. The worst is when you see something you like on Tik Tok and it’s already sold out. 🙁
I really enjoyed this post! We are truly in a new age of marketing, advertising and public relations. Loved the layout and all steps/points you made.
Hi Samantha,
Your blog post has a lot of really great information. I really enjoyed reading about influencer marketing. This has become a great tool and brands definitely need to keep their eyes on it. You provide great tips on how to do this!
Hi Samantha,
I really enjoyed this blog post. Using influencers to advertise for brands is such a genus strategy. I think the most effective way to implement this strategy is to use micro influencers (people with under 10 thousand followers).
Hi Samantha,
This is a great post and I think it highlights where marketing is heading in the current age of social media. I think your steps and guidelines about utilizing influencer marketing are perfect and allowed me as the reader to gain knowledge about how to implement this.
Loved your insight and tone in this piece. I loved that you divided influencer marketing into three “ingredients,” it made it super easy to understand!
I love the way you broke down this post! You highlight some really great points. I think it’ll be especially interesting to see how brands leverage influencers and user-generated content post-Covid. With more ability to do in-person production, I’ll be curious to see how much of the traditional advertisement they’ll be doing versus sticking to easier and remote opportunities like influencer’s self-made content.
I really loved this post! It has such great information and was laid out in a great way. Social media has changed so much and has really changed into a great place for companies to advertise. I don’t know much about the influencer market but you gave me some great insight that was easy to follow along.
Great blog! I agree that social media has turned into a markable platform for brands via influencers. Social media is constantly changing and you had some great insights on how you believe brands can develop influencer relations in the future.
Great blog! I agree that social media has turned into place for brands to market and advertise via influencers. Social media is constantly changing and you had some great insights on how you believe brands can develop influencer relations in the future.
This was a great post! I love that you started off with an explanation of influencer marketing using a situation that could happen every day to any person. I agree that social media has transformed into a whole marketplace for influencers to sell products and brands to their fans and followers who trust their opinions.
Hi Samantha! This was an awesome blog post! I really enjoyed reading this, especially because influencers are so prevalent in society right now. They are crucial in growing a brand.
Hi Sam! I was very interested while reading your blog post and think it is definitely a very important topic right now for social media. I connected with a lot of your points as things I see on a daily basis when scrolling through my own personal feed. Great job!
Hi Sam! Influencers are extremely relevant nowadays and you lay out your thoughts in this post so well. You reel the reader in right at the start by engaging with your audience. I was picturing myself in that very relatable first paragraph. Just the other day I was looking at my friend’s Instagram feed because she always has the cutest dresses and I’d been meaning to ask her for some new stores to shop at. I also just love how readable this post is because you clearly break down each point with bold headings and paragraph breaks. Additionally your links were extra insightful to get a further understanding of what you were referencing. Overall your content was interesting and made me want to keep reading. Great job!
Hi Sam!
I really enjoyed reading your post, once I started reading I was sucked in and wanted to learn more. I think you touch on some really important points. It is super important to look at how influencers are connecting with their audience because the audience loves to be noticed. Overall, really good content and super valid points!
Hi Samantha!
Great job on this blog post!
Since influencers are so popular nowadays, I think it is very important that the right influencers are chosen. I think the most important factor you talked about is trust. I know some influencers who just care about the money, and not what they advertise to their followers. Also, trusting an influencer to carry out what is asked of them is vital.