Ever considered using an influencer to help promote your product, but not sure where to start? Well, you’re not alone. That’s why we ran a training session on the very topic.
Samuel Begg, founder of Hit With Me tennis app, social media marketing specialist and Instagram influencer (with over 130,000 followers), provided us with an hour and a half on ‘insider’ knowledge. Covering both aspects of being an influencer and working for a brand hiring them.
You can download he’s full presentation here…
I also took a couple of handy notes of my own and jotted down some of Sam’s HOT TIP’s at the session in case you couldn’t make it to the training session. It’s not as good as the real thing, but it’s a start!
What is an Influencer?
(noun) a person with the ability to influence potential buyers of a product or service by promoting or recommending the items on social media. [2] Oxford Dictionary
An influencer has the ability to create a cause (a campaign) and effect (ROI) for your business.
First you need to identify your audience
Your brand Identity needs to be clear in your strategy prior to booking an influencer. Define your audience:
- Who are they?
- What do they look like?
- What are their hobbies?
If it helps, actually create personas for your audience.
Remember, your brand identity is how you want to be perceived not how you are perceived. Your brand image is how people actually perceive you.
An influencer may help people see you brand identity over the brand image.
Know what you want
Think about what you’re trying to achieve first. Set a goal. Do you want more followers, sales or engagement? How is it that you want to be perceived? Write it down.
How do you want it to look? Visually? Sam provided these examples showing three very different styles…
The first one is a professional photographer, using dark urban imagery. The second has a family focused feed and the last one is a verified account that uses luxury to sell the products.
This is how people are diversifying their persona. What does yours look like?
Stats…
Don’t get scared away by stats, they are important to ensure you engage with the most appropriate influencer.
Influencers are defined based on their following:
- Nano: less than 3k
- Micro: 3k – 100k
- Macro: 100k – 1M
- Mega: 1m+
Their engagement rate can be calculated by…
Likes + Comments / Follower Count x 100 = %
Conversion rate of campaign can be calculated by…
Number of Sales/Follows/Clicks – Cost of Influencer x 100 = ROI %
Page 16 of the presentation gives a great breakdown on how to assess an influencers statistics.
Sam’s Tip – When searching for influencers use your desktop! You can still see the amount of likes people are getting on each image. However, this might change in the future. If it does change you will need to ask the influencer for screen shots of their stats. Don’t be worried to do this, it’s normal in the industry and influences expect it. In fact, you should be asking for these stats regardless. They will be more than happy to share this with you if they’re honest about their results.
How to find the right influencer
- Use the instagram # search to find top performing posts within your business category or region. For example, we would search #geelongwaterfront and see what’s been top posts.
- Use Geo location feature on IG to check out the influencers who are checking in at local restaurants, events or businesses like yours.
- Create a list of influencers who appear* to be aligned to your brand
- *Check out Sam’s tips in the presentation on how to identify the warning signs when choosing an influencer
Does all of this seem like too much work for you?
You can always utilise an influencer platform to launch and run a campaign. Sam suggested Tribe in his session. Here’s a video that explains how it works. In the presentation slides Sam also provides case studies as examples of how it works, this will help you figure out if it’s right for your organisation.
If you missed out on the Influencers, Who, What, Why & How Much session and would like to attend one, please let us know by emailing training@tousimgeelongbellarine.com.au and we’ll let you know when the next session is.
A big thank you to Samuel Begg who provided us with a fantastic insider session. If you would like to work with Sam in your business you can contact him
@SAMUELBEGG
http://www.samuelbegg.com/
E: samuel@hitwithme.com
