We have all seen the transformational power of social media. With its invention, social media has changed the way we socialize and has changed the way brands work. Social media has evolved to be a place where people connect with those they admire and a hub where brands are increasingly trying to connect to their target audience. This has led to the discovery of different innovative marketing channels, one of which is influencer marketing. Data from Google Trends shows that searches for the term ‘influencer marketing’ grow by 5000% every month. These huge numbers show that the brands have realized the potential of influencer marketing which has fueled the rise of social media influencers. Let us see what has made influencer marketing such a popular field, and what makes social media influencers hold a lot of power.
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ToggleWhat are social media influencers?
An influencer is a person who has an authoritative voice on social media. Influencers are people who have built a loyal audience base by sharing unique and authentic content aligned to a specific niche. For example, fashion influencers come up with different fashion trends, and ideas, that are loved and consumed by their audience. By creating consistent content related to a specific niche, social media influencers establish a credibility factor amongst their followers. The influencers then become a trusted source of information for the audience and can further influence their buying decisions. Influencers actively engage with their followers, thus making them more approachable. Brands gain an advantage by collaborating with influencers since they employ a personal relationship with their audience who enthusiastically follow the reviews and recommendations coming from the influencer. Hearing your brand’s name from reputed personalities on social media creates a positive image of your brand in the minds of the audience
The rise of social media influencers
The rise of social media platforms has fueled the rise of social media influencers. Statistics show that there are around 3.2 to 37 million influencers in the world on all platforms combined. Social media has given everyone the power to voice their opinions and to be heard. Anybody can take it to social media to share their opinions, to share their journey, and stories. Sharing content has become easier than ever and everybody holds the key to becoming an influencer today. However, influence is not just about the views and likes and followers. A lot more goes into being an influencer and actually being a social leader with an ability to influence. It needs a lot of consistency, patience and uniqueness to establish yourself as an influencer. However, influencer marketing is one field that can yield significant returns when chosen to pursue with all your heart.
How are social media influencers different from celebrities?
Social media influencers unlike celebrities have a personal connection with their followers. Social media influencers through their digital homes, constantly engage their audience, thus giving them an assurance that they are being heard. Influencers share content that their audience loves to consume and appear to them as someone who really cares. Unlike celebrity endorsements, influencers choose to collaborate with brands that are aligned to their niche, hence boosting their credibility. Besides, influencers are constantly on the lookout for creating creative and engaging content that adds value to their audience. Influencers react to their follower’s comments and accept their suggestions, which makes them more approachable to the common people as compared to celebrities. Influencers often give their audience a quick look backstage, which helps the audience to relate to them more
Why are social media influencers important for your brand?
1. Increase Brand awareness: Influencers are trusted by their followers. Collaborating with the influencers that are relevant to your brand helps capture the attention of a large audience base. When influencers talk about your brand, it gets recorded in the minds of their followers, thus giving your brand better reach and visibility.
2. Enhance the credibility of your brand: People influence people. That’s what stands as one of the most significant parts of influencer marketing. Here, it’s the influencers (people) who claim your product to be beneficial, which can instigate their followers to try it out too. This helps build the credibility of your brand amongst communities that closely follow the influencer you choose to collaborate with.
3. Improve your content marketing strategy: Influencers help create content that is valuable and unique. Influencer marketing can pump up your content strategy by simplifying the content creation process for your brand. The influencer exactly knows what their audience looks for, and can easily tap into their areas of interest by delivering content that the audience craves.
4. Generate quality leads: Influencer marketing is more of a targeted marketing technique where you reach out to a potential consumer base who is already interested in your niche. This allows you to generate qualified leads that are genuinely interested in your product or service.
5. Boost ROI: Influencer marketing is known to generate 11 times more ROI than other marketing channels. A study by Twitter and Annalect showed that 40% of consumers purchased a product after seeing an influencer use it. That’s the power of influencer recommendations on the masses. Influencers are trusted by their audience just as they trust their friends, thus leading them to change their buying decisions thus boosting your sales and revenue.
Best Example of Influencer Marketing Campaign
Now that we know the power of social media influencers, here are some of the best examples of influencer marketing to inspire your next influencer marketing campaign:
01
Hotel Trident, Hyderabad – #TridentSocialHotel
An amazing example of an influencer marketing campaign is the one launched by Hotel Trident, inviting social media influencers through various platforms. The objective was to create buzz on the online platform, which was achieved by the influencers Instagramming pictures and tweeting about their experiences at the hotel. This campaign resulted in making more than 1.2 million impressions for the #TridentSocialHotel on Twitter, thus giving the brand recognition to a larger audience.
02
Walmart- #FightHunger
For executing a charitable initiative, the retail giant Walmart partnered with 7 influencers with the intention to raise funds for Feeding America. The pledge was to donate $0.90 in return for every share, like or hashtag comment #FightHunger on each sponsored Instagram post. Logan Paul, a daily vlogger’s Instagram post was highly effective for his explicit engagement. His CTA prompts the followers to act towards it. With this influencer collaboration, the brand, Walmart, boosted an effective and positive sentiment among more than 16.2 million audiences. The results have been immense with raising $1.5 million for the Feeding America campaign, with the social media engagement rate being 23%. Also, the Walmart campaign generated 3,170,000 likes & 216,000 comments through the seven social media influencers’ Instagram photos
03
Next Games, The Walking Dead Mobile Game Youtube Campaign
Next Games partnered with all-star Youtubers, including Lele Pons, for the release of the new The Walking Dead mobile game. The youtube influencers collectively hold an audience following of over 18 million subscribers. Lele Pons being the standout of the campaign, a 4-minute humorous skit was created in which zombies in the game attack in real life. Being the macro influencer, Lele Pons successfully brings the quality of shareability, that provided immense audience reach for the Next Games audience, which led to a high amount of downloads for the mobile game.
04
Afzal Worldwide, Brand Awareness, Instagram Campaign
Confluencr led a successful campaign to promote the brand Afzal globally via collaborations with Instagram influencers, without the need for paid advertisements. We did this global campaign during the Cricket World Cup and created contextual content around the World Cup with influencers from different countries. Through this campaign, we got 1.3M+ Reach and 2M+ impressions for the brand while keeping the cost very low.
Influencer marketing is the new-age reality, is in tremendous boom and is nowhere near slowing down. Social media influencers have risen to power with their ability to influence the buying decisions of their audience. Brands are increasingly on the lookout to collaborate with these influencers, and see them as potential advocates for their brand. Influencer marketing has the power to drive great returns for brands at a comparatively lower investment. All you need to do is build a strong, healthy relationship with the influencers and their communities, and it shall bring in profitable conversions for your brand.
Being a leading global influencer marketing agency, we, at Confluencr, have closely studied the influencer marketing industry and have helped a wide array of brands to craft content-driven influencer marketing campaigns. With a striking 15000+ influencer network and 500+ content-driven brand campaigns, we have worked for 200+ leading brands across India. With experience and expertise on our side, we exactly know which social media influencer shall be the best fit for your brand. Reach a wide network of a global audience with our customized marketing campaigns. Get in touch with us at [email protected] to learn more.