In today’s world where meetings and classes happen virtually and distance is no hurdle. Getting a good education, a new type of role has emerged in the corporate world- that of influencer marketing.
Companies engage with leading influencers on social platforms like Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, bloggers, and other new apps.
These influencers have followers sometimes more than a million and have a great impact on the fans. Be it in sports, travel, fashion, technology, arts and crafts, or food. click here
Influencer Marketing
A few decades ago influencers were celebrities in the mass media of the filmdom or sports stars.
Today an influencer is an ordinary person like you and me who shares their personal experiences with products on social media platforms.
These influencers are not from metropolitan cities alone, they are from tier II and III cities across India, doing brand reviews and posting them on social media.
If you have read a good book, or you have tasted an awesome biriyani somewhere or you have stayed at a rocking place in the hills you share a review on Amazon/Google or any of the social media platforms and you recommend it to friends and relatives.
In Search Of Influencers
Influencer marketing is word-of-mouth spreading its wings across the world due to the influence of social media apps and the internet.
Influencer marketing is something you can do from the comfort of your home. It is a win-win situation for both the brand and the influencer.
For the brand, it boosts its awareness and gets people talking and engaging about it which results in increased sales.
For the influencer, it is a big boost of self-image and helps take good brands across to people while earning a few bucks on the side.
Product Seeding
Product seeding or distribution of products to reviewers for free is a good marketing strategy for new brands. Who are trying to find a niche in the market through an online presence.
This is especially good for brands that are directly used by customers like mobile phones, dresses, baby products, cosmetics, and cookware.
My friend Priya is a brand ambassador for a company that manufactures reusable diapers and baby carriers. As she is a dentist by profession she is an influencer in her locality.
Brand collaborations work well with technology brands too. Giri, mobile technology influencer on YouTube says “When you get the real deal to the consumers it is worthwhile, just because you get it for free do not give everything five-star reviews, if you do, you lose your followers and get questioned by them.”
Social Media Influencer
Finding a balance is important for a social media influencer.
- The first thing is you find a niche for yourself- if you are interested in reading, review books, if you are a mother of an in fact review baby products, carve out a place for yourself in social media.
- Second is to choose which platform is good for you- Instagram, Twitter, Facebook or YouTube- this depends on the age group of your followers.
- Thirdly develop your content strategy- if you are good at videos, then make a video. If you are camera shy, do write-ups and do voiceovers, and use other people to validate your reviews.
- Fourthly, build and maintain a website. It will be easier for your fans and followers to reach out to you if they have doubts.
Finally, be consistent in your reviews, changing them so often will leave your followers confused and muddled, so they will doubt your further work.
Once you have established yourself and you have a significant number of followers then you have to work on retaining them and growing them.
Review and Grow
Once you start out, brands will consistently send out products for review and you will have a constant flow of work as and when they launch new products.
Your followers also will wait for your review before buying them.
Indian influencer network is a growing network with many registered social media influencers on the platform. This network helps build trust and partnerships between brands and influencers.
Align With The Image
An authentic product review is what most brands want and honestly is very important in reviewing to lay the foundation of trust between the influencer and the consumer.
Once the review is done or you have posted an opinion, engage with the audience. Clarify doubts and respond to comments to grow your network.
Products you review should align with your image, your audience, and your network. Do not review products randomly, if you do your image goes down.
Connect And Collaborate
The brand offers free products for specific posts and influencer-generated content.
For start-up brands, influencer marketing is a very appealing proposition. Since the brand want to reach out to the right people and mass media is costly and not very effective.
Brands look out for long-lasting relationships, their goal is not to reach out to millions at a time but to a few who will become brand loyal through the influencers.
These relationships have a good scale and are worth the money spent. Instead of paying millions to celebrities’ brands prefer the social media influencers. Because they have reached the specific people the brand wants to connect with.
Follow Up And Get Paid
Most companies or brands give an influencer brief to help out the influencer align with the brand. It makes collaboration easier, sets guidelines, and clarifies expectations on both sides.
Basically, the brief kit contains the bio of the company, what the campaign is about. How the content needs to be executed.
Which type of social platform to use, when and where the campaign will take place, the type of content. Audio, video- or content writing or a mix of these, how the content will be described- product review.
Unboxing video or advice and guidelines, the tone to be followed in the campaign, the hashtags to be used and the date of promotion.
Takeaway
The influencer may be paid a flat fee or a performance-based revenue sharing in tune with the brand. So what are you waiting for? Create, review and share and become a social media influencer today.
