The founder of Australian Influencer Marketing agency, The Exposure Co, Victoria Harrison has put together some tips to help businesses find the right Instagram influencers for their brand.
With 92 per cent of consumers reporting that they trust recommendations from individuals over brands, there’s little wonder why brands are turning to social media influencers to build stronger connections with their target markets. And Instagram is leading the way. The photo-sharing platform now has more active users than Twitter and achieves almost 50-times more engagement than Twitter.
However, there are some important things brands should know before engaging with Instagram influencers. Harrison shares her top five tips for finding the right Instagram influencers for your brand.
Focus on relevance over reach
Although it’s tempting to choose the top tier influencer with one million followers, this isn’t always the best option. When selecting an influencer look at who is commenting on and liking their posts – are they the same gender, of a similar age and in the same location as your target customers?
Choose engagement over follower size
With the rise in popularity of social media influencers, we are seeing a rise in fake influencer accounts. To differentiate between the two, look at their engagement rate. If someone has 50,000 followers but is only achieving 50 likes per photo, chances are they have purchased followers.
Engage influencers multiple times
Engaging an influencer multiple times can help to build a strong rapport with their followers. Run an initial campaign engaging a couple of influencers with one post each. After the campaign has finished, take look at your metrics. Which influencer received the highest engagement?
Allow for creativity and authenticity
When engaging influencers, remember to give them the creative freedom to do what they do best – create awesome content that their fans will love. Too many brand requirements takes away from their personal branding and their followers will see right through it.
Compensate correctly
Some smaller influencers (around the 5,000 mark) are generally happy to promote brands in exchange for a free product or service experience. Once you start engaging influencers around the 20,000 mark, expect to pay them in addition to gifting your product or service.
