You are probably already thoroughly familiar with the notion that, through being active on social media, you can promote your business and so help to spur its growth. What you might not have realised, however, is how much you could benefit from letting other people do it on your behalf.
This is a reference to influencers – who, though simply popular, social media-based figures on the surface, also discuss, review or promote products or services for businesses offering them.
To your cause, you can recruit various influencers – potentially ranging from big names with millions of followers to nano-influencers whose follower counts are under 10,000. It’s easy to underestimate the usefulness of influencer marketing, but you shouldn’t – and here are several good reasons why.
You can attract more of the right customer
Yes, you might be able to land an advertising spot on Kim Kardashian’s social media pages – but how worthwhile would that really be for your business? After all, you could be paying big money for the privilege – and her followers might not be too interested in, say, your cloud computing solution.
None of this is to say you shouldn’t chase top-tier celebrities at all. Rather, the point is that you should make sure your chosen influencer’s audience is, essentially, your own company’s target audience. If your business sells catnip toys, for example, then an influencer whose niche is in sharing photos and videos of their cute kittens is the type of influencer you should seek out. An agency that offers influencer marketing services can help you find the right influencer for your brand or business saving you a lot of time.
You can build social proof
How many times have you scoured reviews all over the internet in your attempt to discern, say, the best smartphone for you, only for you to eventually just act on the recommendation of a friend who says something like “I got the new iPhone SE last week, it’s pretty brilliant”?
That’s the power of social proof – and, according to Business 2 Community, 90% of marketers report that social proof assists them in building brand awareness. Fortunately, when you have the right influencers on your side, social proof is much easier to build than you might have realised.
That’s because, while someone might pay little attention to your product if they simply see it listed in a glossy brochure, they could change tack if they later see their favourite influencer recommending that product.
You can leave influencers to create content on your behalf
Though Bill Gates once famously said that “content is king”, trying to compete in the content game can feel horribly daunting. Last year, internet users were watching 4.5 million YouTube videos, sending 87,500 tweets and scrolling through 347,222 Instagram messages – all just per internet minute, as Forbes Agency Council member Ismael El Qudsi warns.
Besides, you could be short of time you need to create much compelling content yourself. Fortunately, a company like the influencer marketing agency Socially Powerful can find you an influencer who knows how to create a steady stream of engrossing content – textual, visual and aural – shining a light on your brand’s products or services.
