social media influencers
A guide on how to create and manage influencer campaigns
A guide on how to create and manage influencer campaigns
Love them. Hate them. You cannot ignore them.
They are all around us – on all virtual platforms that we come across – Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitch, TikTok – doing a variety of things.
Teaching, educating, working out, singing, dancing, talking about various social, cultural and political issues and the list from here is endless. So is the count of these people.
This is the ‘influencer’ breed, which as per Instagram, is a whopping 64 million, out of the total 2.35 billion active Instagram users.
What can social media influencers do for your brand?
The answer to this question lies in another question -
What do you want with your influencer campaign?
If you wish to do one or more of the following –
a. spread your message to a larger audience, i.e. increase your reach
b. want this larger audience or the old audience to know about your brand, i.e. create awareness
c. want the chances of your brand being rememebered over other brands, i.e. create brand recall
An influencer campaigns might help.
Sorry, please reread the above statement as ‘well designed’ and ‘properly executed’ influencer campaigns might help.
For a new brand, however, using influence campaigns can be quick way to increase visibility.
Make the influencer fit in, in your marketing plan. And not make a marketing plan around the influencer.
However, if your aim is to achieve any one or more of the following –
a. Increase traffic to your website, app or increase
b. Increase engagement on your website or your app
c. Increase registrations on the website or increase app installs and app registrations
d. Increase number of checkouts (orders) and cart value per checkout (average bill value)
Influencer campaigns might not be your best bet.
Other types of paid promotions or ad campaigns might turn out better for you.
What are the ways to engage with influencers and what to expect?
The brand always wants a barter, or even free. The influencer always wants it to be paid.
The brand will always wants a barter, or even free.
The influencer always wants it to be paid.
Barter Influencer Collaborations –
Creativity and Cooperation from the influencer
Since the brand wants a task done for free, chances of things not happening as per their wish is higher.
While agreeing on deliverables between the parties is not a problem, agreeing on acceptable quality is.
What the influencer wants to deliver might not be exactly what the brand was looking for. And getting things redone with a lot of these creators is more difficult than explaining a 5 year why that homework needs to be redone.
Creativity from the creators
Not all influencers are good at ‘creativity’ or ‘putting out creative ideas’.
A lot of them would just want to ‘to make a reel on the latest trending audio’ where they get to show off their dance moves or their ‘hot attitiude’ etc.
There are also the ones who are ‘creative’ and will work to deliver a good product. But then these are only a few.
And if they have already worked their way up to more than 75K followers, chances are, you will have to pay them for their work.
Paid Influencer Collaborations –
Cooperation from the influencer
Here, a brand is paying, so they would absolutely want the influencer to cooperate during planning and executing the collaboration.
Well, you can get that. Just be sure to clearly discuss and agree on the deliverables, quality, timelines and ownership rights of the content.
And then, make sure to get this documented and accepted by the influencer on an email or at least on WhatsApp.
Creativity from the creators –
Since you have already selected an influncer for a ‘paid collaboration’ you must have looked at their work and found it to be good.
Also, you must have done the required background checks.
So expecting some creative ideas to flow from them is not too much to ask for. However, it would be better if the brand is the one leading with the ideas, as then the deliverables can be planned as a part of a campaign and not stand alone efforts.
On-boarding influencers - How NOT to go about with the discussion
Every brand on social media wants to work with influencers. Or rather wants the influencers to work with them.
Sharing an excerpt of how a lot of the discussions go around.
Client – Give us the best social media influencers for the new campaign.
Me – Sure, what budget are we allocating to influencer collborations for the next month?
Client – Why do we need a budget for that? Offer them our products in barter.
Me – Most good influcencers that we know or are in touch with, are not doing barter deals any more.
Client – Why are they not doing barter. Our products are the best in the market. Better than . . .
(names the biggest players in their industry, while they themselves have just started)
Me – Well, the influencer has already worked with those brands. They got bigger product hampers and goodies along with recognition. Now they are looking to make money. And a lot of of them have actually moved up to paid deals.
Client – Still, please try to get some influencers on barter deals.
Me – Okay, let us try. We will share the list of shortlisted influencers shortly.
Client – Okay. But we want only the best influencers for our brand…
Me –
I have had a lot of discussions like this. And trust, this never comes to fruition.
3 pointers that might help you giving direction to a discussion like this –
The amount of headache you will have to bear while managing a influencer campaign will be inversely proportional to the amount of money you are willing to pay to the influencer.
If you want quality work done, be ready to pay for it.
This keeping in mind that you have got the right influencer for your campaign.
Don't let your influencer campaigns turn into nightmares.
Follow this 10 step process for successful social media influencer campaigns.
The brand always wants a barter, or even free. The influencer always wants it to be paid.
1. Objectives
Brand objectives > Campaigns
Many desktop publishing packages and web page editors now use Lorem Ipsum as their default model text, and a search for ‘lorem ipsum’ will uncover many web sites still in their infancy.
Start with what you want to achieve from your social media at the end of 1 year – then break it down into quarters – then month and then into weeks.
Get a list of campaigns that you have planned around your brand for the next 1 month and quarter and then look for influencers who fit in those campaigns.
Check if the influencer you want to onborad matches your brand – value, presentation, tone. If yes, add them to your shortlist.
Follow this 10 step process for successful social media influencer campaigns.
Many desktop publishing packages and web page editors now use Lorem Ipsum as their default model text, and a search for ‘lorem ipsum’ will uncover many web sites still in their infancy.