Essentials of Social Media Marketing: Chapter 14

 Chapter 14 talks about Influencer Marketing with Social Media. 

In general, influencer marketing is a type of marketing that focuses on using influencers to promote a brand, message, product, or service to their larger market. The easiest examples of influencer marketing are celebrity and athlete endorsements, which date back many centuries. 

A social media influencer is, you guessed it, someone who exerts their influence through social media. In the past, brands would only want to work with you if you were a celebrity or famous actor or athlete, but in today's online world, everyday "regular" people have the ability to be an influencer. Social media leveled the playing field and gave everyone the opportunity to find their voice and follow others with similar opinions. Influencer marketing is now a multi-billion-dollar industry, and no matter the size of the brand, businesses are budgeting for influencer marketing. 

Wait, so what I'm hearing is that you and I could become an influencer? In a way, yes, but in order for a brand to want to work with you, they will be looking for some qualities that make a good influencer. Some of the qualities they will look for are as follows: reach, credibility, authenticity, activity, and engagement.

Reach is the quantity of people that an influencer is able to deliver their message to. You don't need to have millions of followers to become an influencer, but larger amounts = larger brands. Below is a breakdown of the different types of influencers based on how many followers they have. 

Credibility is the level of trust that your followers have in you based on your knowledge or expertise. In most cases, credibility is considered to be more important than your reach - if your followers don't think you are trustworthy, chances are they won't continue following you!

Authenticity: the best influencers are ones that believe in the brand they are promoting and they believe in what the brand name stands for. If you aren't sincere, your followers will feel like they have been led astray.

Activity: influencers need to be highly active, posting new content daily or minimum weekly. The more often you post the fresher you and the product you are promoting will be in your follower's minds. 

Engaging: influencers need to engage with their followers, if they mention you in a post or ask questions, it is best to acknowledge them by liking or commenting back!

There are many benefits to partnering with an influencer - they increase your brand exposure and awareness, improve your search rankings on Google, bring you more credibility, help you reach a specific target market, bring in new leads, and they drive conversions.