Instagram has quickly become the go-to platform for business owners who are looking to connect with audiences and influencer marketing on Instagram has become a top way to do it. When you work with the right people, it can be a huge boost to your business and your sales. Take a few minute to watch the video below on why brands in general are choosing to work with influencers.
But how do you know which influencer will be the best fit for you and your business? That's what we're tackling today!
Question
I'm interested in trying out influencer marketing on instagram for my store. I've never done it before, and the one thing that's been on my mind is making sure i'm working with the right people for my brand who have real, engaging audiences. Is there anything i should be doing ahead of time to make sure i'm working with the right audience.
To get the answer to the above question frequently asked, let's consider the following.
First who is a social media influencer?
Social Media Influencer Definition
Social Media Influencer is a user who has gained a reputation in a particular industry (niche), who post regularly about that topic on their preferred social media channels. A social media influencer has access to a large audience and persuade others by virtue of their authenticity, reach and resources.
Now we know who a social media influencer is, but our focus would be on Instagram influencer. Why?
Because that's the major channel business/brands get their influencers to connect with audiences.
What then is Instagram Influencer?
Instagram influencer is basically the same as a social media influencer as discussed above. It's an Instagram user with credibility in a specific niche, who has access to a large fan base.
Brands love Instagram influencers because they can create trends and encourage their followers to buy products/services they promote.
How Do You Know a Good Instagram Inflencer
Before you start researching Instagram influencers to use for your business/brand it's good to know the do's and don't of identifying a good social influencer.
There, two points are highlighted that you need to keep in mind.
The type of content they share wit their audience.
How this content relates to your business and how engaged they are with their audience and vice-versa.
Let's consider points to
Identifying a Good Instagram Influencer
Are they a brand fit?
You might want to start looking at things quantitative enough like numbers of followers or enagagement levels. Take a chill pill. It's important to build a list of influencers you think would be a genuinely good fit for your products and your brand. And you might need to define what makes someone a good fit, which is the first step you can take.
"In terms of Vetting, when we did influencer marketing with Shore Projects, the first thing we said was, "Does the influencer we're going to work with seem like someone we would want to be a customer, and would they actually use or wear our stuff?"" - says Neil. "Because if they don't, frankly what's the point in going about it"
The course of your brand and an inflencer's content is going to be different for every business. But based on their Instagram feed and their stories, you should get a clear sense of who the influencer is, what topics they create content about, and their general style.
If those factors match well with your brand and your products you can then check out their engagement rates.
Do they have good engagement rates?
Once you've gotten someone who seems to be a good fit for your brand, it's time to know their engagement rates. With tools like Whalar you can determine if an influencer has the engagement you’d expect on their posts, you can also figure it out based on the public information on their Instagram profiles.
“You can work this stuff out by taking a quick glance. Look at the post, look at the average amount of likes on each post. Take the last 4 to 10 posts, add up all the likes, divide them by the number of posts to get the average, and then divide that by the total followers.
That will give you what we call the engagement rate,” advises Neil. “As long as the engagement rate is anywhere from 2-3% or up, that’s a good mark of engagement. People with smaller audiences might have 8, 9, 10% engagement rates, which are really strong.”
Since Instagram isn’t just about the likes, you can also take a peek at the comments on each influencer’s posts to see what kind of conversations they’re having with the community. If the comments seem real, and not just a stream of single-word sentences, that’s a good sign they’re for real.
Keep your goals in mind
As you’re working through the process of investigating influencers, it’s important to keep the three key outcomes you can get from these collaborations in mind: content that works on a specific platform, access to new audiences, and feedback from a well-aligned customer.
Whichever one is your key priority, it’s important not to lose sight of the eventual outcome you hope to gain from the collaboration, and to remember that at the end of the day, your marketing efforts should lead to work you’re proud of.
“All roads lead to the work,” shares Neil. “If the end outcome of any collaboration, any terms of marketing and communication isn't great work that is representative of your brand, your brand values, and what you're wanting to communicate to people, then what was the point in doing it in the first place?”
Ensuring that you’re working with people who align with your brand, and have solid engagement on their platform, are just two ways to make sure that happens.
How to Find Instagram Influencers
Now, you've gone through what Instagram influencer is and what to look for in a good Instagram influencer. So how then can you find an Instagram Influencer?
The first step is to look closely in your "Closet" - your fans and followers. You could have some influencers following you already which is great news as they are already familiar with your business.
You can also research your influencer's with tools like Brand24. Simply setup a search for relevant keywords and hashtags that your ideal influencers would be using. Then you'd be given a list of all your matching results, which you can filter through different ways - "Influencer Score"
Another great tool for research is Buzzsumo - it's a very capable influencer research tool . You can search by entering a few keywords and then filter by their follower's number, as well as reply ratio.
How to Use Instagram Influencer
You now know what to look for in an influencer and how to find such influencers. How then can you use those Instagram influencers for your marketing goals.
When contacting the list of influencers you must have gotten from your research, you won't need more than 1-2 at a time when reaching out especially when using celebrity influencer
There are no specific ways on how to use Instagram influencers for your business, however, you want to know what your goal is with using an Instagram influencer and what you aim to achieve.
You might want to look at;
How Product review by an influencer can increase brand awareness and sales.
How Product and Service promotion by an influencer on social media can increase brand awareness and sales.
Conclusion
Influencer marketing has proven to be the most effective ways of improving brand awareness not only that, it can help you build your audience's trust and it can also mean more sales for your business.
It's important to note that these individuals are not simply marketing tools, but rather social relationship assets with which brands can collaborate to achieve their marketing objective.