To the impatient marketer, striking up a relationship with a social influencer can be a nightmare. The relationship needs to be nurtured with performance regularly tracked. Emails and shares can seemingly go unnoticed in the early stages, and this is where it’s key to NOT throw in the towel, and instead remain patient. Remember the old adage – Good things come to those who wait.

Social Influencer Marketing

In its simplest form, social influencer marketing is Word Of Mouth in the digital age. And even in the digital age, word of mouth remains the most persuasive form of marketing. People trust recommendations from individuals more than information given to them by a brand. A recent study also revealed that people trusted the word of an influencer only slightly less than the word of their friend and 40% say they’ve made a purchase based on a Tweet from an influencer*.

Social platforms such as Twitter and Instagram are ideal for influencers and brands, due to their high outreach and simplicity in liking and sharing. Evidence shows that influencer tweets play a major role in inspiring users to share products online and even impact them in making a purchase as a direct result of the influencer tweet. It is here that retail brands, clothing brands and the food sector really come to the fore, possibly because social platform users often prefer imagery to masses of text, and clothing and food are perfect for these demands. The ROI can be massive for brands that utilise influencers to the optimum potential, with consequential benefits for both parties.

Micro-influencers

Don’t feel like using influencers is a pointless exercise unless you have a big celebrity name. Micro-influencers can be identified as having between 10,000 – 100,000 followers, and can be equally as effective as your A List or Z List celebrity influencer, if not more effective. And why is this? Micro-influencers provide a greater feel of authenticity, and can appear more accessible to the audience. Moreover, micro-influencers can often be easier to contact with regards to working together.

On the easyGym ‘Set To Sweat’ campaign, SWC Partnership enlisted micro-influencer @FoodFitnessFlora to be the face of the campaign. As an influencer, Flora focuses primarily on 2 areas, these being food and fitness, with an overarching health theme throughout. This aligned perfectly with easyGym. Furthermore, Flora was active on the same platforms as easyGym and the easyGym audience, which is a high priority when considering which influencer your brand should use.

To seek further insights into social influencer marketing, contact SWC Partnership, Full Service Integrated Marketing Agency with offices in Tunbridge Wells & London here.

*https://blog.twitter.com/marketing/en_us/a/2016/new-research-the-value-of-influencers-on-twitter.html