Influencer marketing has been on the rise since 2016 and the now popular marketing strategy is only getting bigger – with experts predicting the growth of influencer marketing continuing into 2022 and the sector valuing at over £12.57 billion globally this year!
Influencer marketing is a great way to further your brand awareness and social presence online. When it first came around, working with influencers was usually focused on celebrities and a small handful of bloggers. Now, it’s a mainstream form of social media marketing used by brands worldwide and has grown to include macro influencers, micro influencers and nano influencers.
Finding the right social media influencers for your brand may seem like a confusing process because there is no one-size-fits-all method to an influencer marketing strategy – you’ve got to find what works for your brand and meets your objectives. Which is why making sure you choose the right influencers, who will help you reach your target audience and successfully share your messaging, is crucial.
Here’s three top tips to help you consider whether an influencer is right for your campaign.
Consider who your influencer’s audience is
When finding the right social media influencer for your brand, it is important that you choose someone that has the right audience that you’re looking to target. The first step for this is of course knowing who you want to target and then letting this inform your influencer selection process.
Take a look at the topics that your audience may be interested in and target social media influencers that share content within those categories. Or take a look at the demographics of an influencer’s audience and see if they align with your brand via an influencer marketing tool to determine their audiences location, age, or gender. This will help you to ensure that the influencer you’re working with will help you reach the right audience, to communicate your products and services to.
Determine the authenticity of the individual
The first step to spotting authentic social media influencers is by taking a look at the content on their feed. To identify influencers who are genuine and have a genuine audience, look at the type of response they get to their content. If they receive engagement from real accounts, as opposed to spam/bot type accounts- this is a good indicator of their authenticity.
Also consider the way they post. Do they offer genuine advice, insightful captions and seem to really understand the content they’re promoting? If so, this suggests they are genuine and are knowledgeable in the content they are sharing.
Make sure you check their values align with yours
Identifying influencers whose values coincide with your brand values is vital for maximum ROI. By aligning your brand values with an influencer who shares the same values, the partnership will feel much more authentic and is likely to reach an engaged audience.
Finding out their values can be as simple as going through the influencers content or maybe even engaging in initial conversation, before deciding if they’re the right fit for you. Influencers with large followings would be great for exposure, but if your values do not match it could damage your reputation and be unsuccessful. It’s always worth just sense checking these things – for example, if you’re promoting a vegan product, make sure the influencer is vegan!
To ensure a successful influencer marketing campaign that delivers real results, make sure you take the time to check that the influencers you’re working with are right for your brand. This will ensure you reach your target audience and communicate your campaign messages successfully.
At Prohibition we work with a range of B2B and B2C brands to deliver successful, authentic and creative influencer campaigns. Get in touch with us today to find out more. Drop us an email at hello@prohibitionpr.co.uk.
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