Over the last decade, social media platforms have evolved to the point where they’ve become a major marketing opportunity for companies, with big brands investing millions of dollars to promote their content on those channels.
However, in the last few years, many brands have also started investing in promoting the content of other people, with influencer marketing becoming a very valuable part of the digital marketing toolbox.
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Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing is a social media marketing strategy that involves partnerships, endorsements, and product placement with companies and organizations with social influence.
Plenty of big brands use this social media marketing strategy to create a better relationship with their target audience.
Goals
Before a company can start looking for influencers it wants to work with on a marketing campaign, it needs to set goals for that promotional campaign.
That can mean generating more brand awareness for the company with the help of an influencer, or increasing its engagement rates on a specific social media platform.
Once a company sets its promotional goals, it’s time to look for the right influencer and platform, and to create a campaign.
Influencers and Platforms
In order to select the ones that are relevant to their target audience, companies have to be aware of the influencers that are relevant to their industry or niche.
After a company chooses the right influencer for its target market, it’s time to choose the platform that’s going to work for its promotional campaign.
It’s important to remember that what’s going to work in terms of promotion on a platform like Instagram, isn’t necessarily going to work on another platform such as Twitter, or TikTok.
That’s why companies have to look at all the social media platforms, as well as the different factors that impact campaigns on those platforms, such as budget, format, features, reach, and demographics.
When selecting a platform, companies are most likely to pick Instagram, because the platform has the highest number of influencers, and it allows those influencers to tell their story easily in a visual manner.
Campaign Plan
After a company has chosen the platform it’s going to use to promote its marketing campaign, as well as the influencer it’s going to be partnering with, it’s time to start planning the campaign.
There are plenty of different strategies that companies can use to create social media influencer marketing campaigns, such as influencer takeovers, social media mentions, giveaways, contests, and more.
One thing that’s important to remember when planning a marketing campaign for social media is that all of the content that’s going to be created for the campaign has to match the values, ideals, and beliefs of both the business and the influencer.
Although sales are an important metric, they are not the only indicator of whether an influencer marketing campaign is performing well, and any metrics that a company decides to keep track of for their influencer marketing campaigns should be tied to the overall campaign goal that’s been set beforehand.
Matthew Caiola serves as Co-CEO at 5W Public Relations, managing the overall growth, direction and day-to-day business of the Corporate & Technology Communications Divisions and Digital Marketing.
With more than 17 years of PR experience, Matthew leads teams in launching and building high-growth tech companies, disrupting industries, building global brand resonance through thought leadership, C-Suite profiling, and speakers’ programs, as well as crisis communications across a variety of industries.
