If you have decided to start communicating more through influencers, it is important to understand that there are different types of influencers. By spreading your efforts and partnerships, and not putting all focus on one influencer, the results are very likely to improve. Obviously, to achieve good results, hard work is required, for each type of influencer, a tailored strategy is required to succeed. But first, you need to understand which types of influencers exist.
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1. An employee is also an influencer
Have you thought about the fact that your best influencers can sit just a few tables down the hall in the office? When your staff believes in the product/service you offer, they will become natural brand ambassadors, whether they work with sales or not.
How to take advantage of this: A natural first step in this is to ensure that your company is a place where your employees thrive and where you feel good when you go to work. Happy employees understand the value of your product – so it’s important to make sure everyone has access to it. Encourage them to get social media accounts so they can share content they like. If you succeed in all parts, you get a variety of distribution channels within the company, which also has even more credibility than if the company account turns on its own drum.
2. Consumers have a major impact on other consumers
It may seem tempting to go after the biggest poster names but in many cases, it is when one consumer tips another that the biggest impact happens. Often it takes place in different forums digitally, but it can also be about family and friends who suggest a good or bad product. On a global level, 59% of respondents in the survey ranked consumers as one of the three most effective types of influencers.
User reviews and threads in social media help consumers make their decisions; a majority values these tips higher than those exposed to them from advertising and brand communications.
How to take advantage of this: Make it easy for consumers to rate your products/services and encourage them to do so after purchase. Implement automatic emails that reach customers a few days after their purchase, asking them what they thought about the purchase and asking them to share their opinions.
3. The value of public figures and known influencers
An influencer who is a famous person with a lot of followers is what many visualize when they hear the term influencer. Famous people who apply their trademarks to others and go for the good of the product or service are an old phenomenon. Social media and the digital age have shed new light on the phenomenon but the principle is the same; If a consumer sees a well-known person use a product and recommends it, they will be interested in buying it.
Do proper research to identify which famous people your target group looks up to and contact them to develop a collaboration. Here it has to be realistic – the more well-known and prominent a profile is, the greater the compensation it will require. If it tastes like it costs. An alternative is to look at profiles that may be somewhat less known to the public but very prominent in the industry you work in.
4. Traditional journalists continue to have great influence
Whether or not they want it, the weight of traditional journalists weighs heavily and can have a major impact on other brands. A good review of the latest technology gadgets can push sales up and high ratings in a restaurant will definitely affect the business.
Learn about industry writers who are out there and start creating relationships with these journalists. Give them exclusivity when you have a new launch going on so that they feel viewed and valuable.
5. Micro-influencers may very well produce better results
One trend that is growing stronger in the field of influencer marketing is to work with micro-influencers. These are digital stars in social media that have created a platform for themselves within a particular industry. They are not celebrities in any traditional term, but their audience will listen to everything they have to say.
Prioritize quality over quantity – a micro-influencer may not have a follower count of hundreds of thousands, but if it can catch the audience’s attention, it can be better access to your business than a big celebrity you still couldn’t afford.
6. Bloggers have great followers
Bloggers have long been known as influencers as they have been writing product reviews and distributing corporate gifts to their audience for a long period of time. Nowadays, they have faced competition in the arena that forms influencer collaborations, only 40% of respondents lean on relationships with bloggers to spread their brand message.
Try to look beyond the old product samples and product reviews. Today’s bloggers demand more than that. Ask the blogs you want to work with if they have any ideas on how you can enter into partnerships. Here you can read an article with two bloggers who give their views on collaborations and how they want to be contacted. For example, if you put your wise heads together, you can come up with a deal with a more long-term strategy where you combine blogs, social media, and physical events.
7. Managers and decision-makers can contribute by acting as thought leaders
In addition to engaging employees to spread the word about the brand, you can encourage managers and senior players in the organization to become ambassadors. For example, the CEO can represent the organization in various contexts by contributing his knowledge and inspiring others. It is these players who make big decisions and therefore they should inspire customers and other stakeholders to support these decisions.
If there are managers who do not represent the brand externally and contribute their knowledge – make sure they start doing it. They can begin by attending industry-related events and networks and then begin creating content themselves and sharing their experiences as speakers at events.
Future communication will include work with influencers of various kinds, some results in the survey show. Start by testing yourself and optimizing the strategy according to what you see works for your business and remember that influencer collaboration is not a one-off phenomenon. If you build long-term campaigns with the influencers that produce results, it will benefit your brand while discovering adjacent influencers that you can start new partnerships with.
