In the hyper-connected world of social media, where information can spread across the globe in less than an hour, people with big followings and rabid fans have the power to cause enormous shifts in global opinion.
These people are called influencers, and their popularity alone gives them enormous credibility and persuasive leverage. Influencers can even influence other influencers, and in turn inspire hordes of rabid followers to do any number of things, like watch a video, read a blog post, or buy something.
As such, it’s a sensible idea to make getting on their radar an aspect of your marketing strategy.
YouTube sensation PewDiePie has almost twice as many subscribers as Australia has citizens. If your brand was on his radar and he so much as mentioned you in one his videos, almost two Australia’s worth of people who take his opinion seriously would hear it.
So how do we incorporate influencers into our marketing strategy? How do we get them on our side and behind our brand?
Well, influencer marketing is a pretty new concept, so the exciting thing is that people are still trying new things every day.
However, there’s quite a bit of comprehensive information out there on how it’s being done today. Ideas include creating comprehensive case studies that the influencer and their audience would love, getting in touch for an interview or simply paying them.
What it all boils down to though, is good old-fashioned targeted marketing. The only difference here, is that you have a single target, and therefore, a highly tailored message specific to them and them only.
To pull off such a specific message takes a bit of work and savvy, especially when your competitors are doing the same. Getting an influencer’s attention is worth a lot of resources, time and energy.
To begin with, you need to choose an influencer or cluster of influencers. They need to be in your niche, or at least, related to it. Then you need to actually follow the influencer. You need to know their humour, style, brand and audience. You need to see what they’ve recommended or shared in the past.
Then, you need to create something extraordinary. Something that provides value to them or their audience. Something, ultimately, that it’s in THEIR best interest to share with their followers.
Of course, the extraordinary thing you create should lead people towards your brand. There are many ways to ensure it does, but in this context going with a hard sell might dissuade influencers from linking to your content. There’s a fine line between a sales piece, and a piece of content that gets people to know, like and trust you.
But do that with success, and often enough, and you might just become an influencer yourself. It all starts with providing value so that people know, like and trust you.
Influencer marketing is a new concept, but it’s an important one moving into the future. As people move further away from traditional media and towards media without barriers to entry, influencers will only start to wield more and more power.
Is influencer marketing part of your business strategy? Could it be? Our free media audit is a great place to start – and it’s FREE!
