How to work with influencers?

The main value of social media marketing is the direct connectivity you get instantly to your target audiences. Across all the industries, it is always possible to find the best fit for your brand and collaborate with these social experts. Here’s a quick question for you frequent social media users. How much is your daily digital consumption? Here’s another one, through all the posts and captions, how many of the influencers’ online advertisements do you trust?

Want to know how to try and connect with them if you are planning for your next marketing campaign? Here’s 5.

• Start planning early
  
  

There are several ways you can do about to hold a campaign with influencers and ways to work with them. How to work with influencer? One is to go through an agency, or directly to an influencer. Although pictures and videos always come off with such good quality that it may seem so easy. But do not underestimate the planning and hardwork that comes into good content. Planning and editing takes up a substantial part of an influencer’s job. That is why it’s so important to plan your campaign ahead, and communicate with the relevant personnel in advance. This will also give you the extra advantage to secure influencers you want since you start early. Remember that it goes by a first come first serve basis.

• Never force your way through

Always engage your audience by how your product/services can solve their problems. It is always good if you engage influencers that will benefit from this product and get them to share their personal experiences. This makes it easy for people to relate without feeling the advertisement message being pushed too hard. Take it the natural way as it only takes less than a minute to make a decision. Put yourself in the influencers’ shoes and engage them in the right way. In this highly saturated market, advertisements are easily recognised, and there goes your brands/influencers credibility.

• Get noticed
  
  

One of the fastest and easiest way is through gifting your products or services to these social people. Firstly, identify people with the same brand identity as you. For example, if you are in the fashion line, get someone that does #ootd shots well. That’s why people follow him/her. Always ask yourself why people follow him/her, and align it with your requirements. If they love/need your gifts, there’s a higher chance for exposure. Do also note that gifiting does not guarantee exposure, so do not be disappointed if they do not appear on their profiles. Keep in mind of the goal- to make the influential messaging about your brand highly shareable.

• Make communication your first priority

Communicate frequently with not just the influencer, but with your team as well. Once you have plans for an influencer campaign, remember to set our your boundaries like budget, timeframe etc. It’s always good to have a few back up plans to fall back upon.

As it may not be easy to engage suitable influencers you ranked high on your list.

Always communicate your expectations with the influencer(s) you are working with to better know their working style. As influencers have a certain expectations to uphold, it is important to find a common ground. It is always good to leave good impressions by making sure that the partnership ends on a good note!

• Be flexible with the #sp tag

As we know in this digital age, trust is fragile. #sp essentially stands for sponsored post. Which is a tag to show that they are paid to post through their own voice. While you can always provide the relevant information for them to include, the content should be done in their style. This helps to maintain a consistent appeal with his/her audience.

You should be flexible with the #sp tag as it may be important to him/her to build trust with his/her readers. To include a small tag in the post to indicate that the post was sponsored but that the opinions expressed in the post are their own is a typical way.