What Are the Benefits of Using Social Media Influencers?
Social media is only continuing to grow in popularity, which means businesses need to find ways to stand out from the crowd. When you discover the benefits of using social media influencers, you begin to see how partnering with those who have authority in your niche can help you grow your brand and more!
As far back as elementary school, we’ve all been trying to gain social status. And although our connections have become more sophisticated over the years, the underlying need to connect in tribes hasn’t changed. We all want to feel exclusivity and pride in something greater than ourselves—it’s human nature! That’s why we gravitate toward people who share the same values and can help us elevate our own status among our peers.
When it comes down to it, this need for connection and belonging is what drives the success of social media-focused influencer marketing.
Social media influencers attract and gather people who all share an affiliation with them. They draw a following of people who want to be like them and live their lifestyle. This prompts these loyal followers to buy what the influencer loves in order to align their lifestyles and values. Some influencers’ communities are as strong (or stronger) than tight-knit families; they support and trust each other, grow together, and consequently buy from influencers’ trusted recommendations. As you can imagine, this influencer-community dynamic presents a great opportunity for brands.
Let’s talk a little more about the benefits of using social media influencers, and look at how influencer marketing can be a game changer for your business…
7 Profit-Boosting Benefits of Using Social Media Influencers
Starting a new business? Looking to expand your customer base and boost ROI? Trying to get some eyeballs on your brand? Regardless of your primary goal, social media influencers can help you get there.
Here’s how…
1) Drive Sales and Grow Faster
We’ll never tell you to just sit back and take advantage of others’ successes to boost your own bottom line. After all, you get out of your business what you put into it! But, when it comes to influencer marketing, we can bend the rules a little…
Influencers spend years building trusted communities of loyal followers, and brands can literally swoop right in and get access to thousands of potential customers they did nothing to attract.
There is something you need to keep in mind though… Let’s just say that launching successful influencer campaigns isn’t as easy as just messaging an influencer and telling them to post your content. The process is much more involved. You have to find trusted influencers and then select the right ones, as not every influencer will be a good fit. The key is to choose social media influencers who fit your customer avatar, are authentic, and only recommend products they use or believe in. Influencers who sell out for money are at risk of diluting their trust and authenticity.
2) Achieve Better Results from Your Campaigns (with Less Work)
Successful social media influencers have a lot of followers and enjoy high engagement. With years of experience building engaged, responsive communities, influencers understand their platforms and how to get their communities to respond with impactful content.
One of the benefits of using social media influencers is they can weave your brand message and content into their already-successful vibe and messaging so that the content remains authentic and trustworthy. They already know how to elicit a response, which cuts down the time it takes for you to test the type of content your audience responds to. Your influencer partner can also provide you with analytics on their content, letting you know what type of content gets the highest engagement. It’s like having a social media expert in your back pocket to assist you with your marketing campaigns!
3) Experience Big-Time ROI Increases
Working with the right social media influencers will boost ROI considerably. Influencer content generates 11X higher ROI than traditional digital campaigns, and 89% of marketers say that influencer marketing is better than or comparable to other marketing channels.
The benefits of using social media influencers extend beyond initial gains and one-off ROI boosts, however. Influencer marketing can solidify a loyal customer base, increase customer retention, and contribute to your bottom line for years to come.
4) Build Trust and Credibility
Building trust and credibility is one of the hardest things for brands to do on their own. The reason is that every piece of content and messaging you publish will always have a level of bias associated with it. You simply can’t get away from it…
The good news is influencers can cut through this bias because they are not your employees and have no affiliation with your company. Their audiences trust them to only recommend and endorse products they genuinely know and love. For this reason, influencer content will almost always perform better than traditional ads, which consumers can often become blind to (ad blockers, anyone?). Branded content will seldom be as powerful as a recommendation from a trusted, unbiased influencer.
5) Extend Your Reach
Do you want to extend your reach to different segments of your target audience? One of the benefits of using social media influencers is that it allows you to do just that.
Let’s say you sell coffee makers, and your primary target is 30-somethings who want a quick way to get their cup of joe in the morning before they jet off to work. However, you recently improved your product, adding an attachment that makes instant cappuccinos, and you want to target the cappuccino connoisseur who enjoys coffee all day while working from home…
In that case, work with an influencer who speaks directly to this crowd. This influencer will likely be close to your target’s age and a lover of cappuccino. Working with this influencer will enable you to quickly expose your product to a large engaged community without having to do a lot of heavy lifting.
6) Increase Brand Awareness
When influencers love a brand, their communities love them too, simply because they are so connected and want to be like the influencer. This positive community–influencer relationship allows businesses like yours to raise brand awareness and quickly establish an enthusiastic audience who will have a positive opinion of your brand. Influencer marketing provides a rapid way to build a loyal following (and customer base) for life.
7) Save Money on Marketing
It may seem hard to believe at first, but one of the benefits of using social media influencers is that you can save money on your marketing. Plus, influencer marketing is more affordable than you may think…
There are roughly five tiers of social media influencers:
- Mega-influencers – These are social media stars who have more than 1 million followers. Those who belong to this category are usually celebrities.
- Macro-influencers – These are social media authorities who have between 500,000 and 1 million followers. Usually, those who fit into this category have gained fame through the internet.
- Mid-tier influencers – These are people with between 50,000 and 500,000 followers. Typically, these individuals have more experience than micro- and nano-influencers.
- Micro-influencers – These are influencers who have between 10,000 and 50,000 followers. Although their following is smaller, they have more authority and stronger relationships with their followers.
- Nano-influencers – These are people with between 1,000 and 10,000 followers. Those who belong to this group have a lot of influence with a comparatively narrow niche.
(Note: These tiers are constantly evolving.)
When it comes to social media influencers’ communities, the smaller the better. You may think that working with big-time celebrities is better for your brand, but this isn’t always the case. According to a Markerly study, as an influencer’s following increases, the engagement rate decreases.
Most people can’t relate to celebrities or big-time influencers who wear couture clothing and post photos from their professional shoots. Nano-influencers and micro-influencers may have smaller followings, but they pack a big punch. In fact, 6 out of 10 YouTube subscribers would rather follow product advice and recommendations from their favorite content creators over their favorite celebrities.
Micro- and nano-influencers have more engaged, loyal followings because they relate to the common, everyday person. They are the mothers, workers, and middle-class ordinary people who make up most of the population. They are vulnerable and transparent, share the good and bad times in their lives, and show their humanity, which makes people trust them more.
The connected audiences of micro- and nano-influencers also directly translate into a higher ROI. The everyday influencers with 50K to 250K followers deliver a 30% better ROI per dollar spent and a 20% better ROI per dollar spent than macro-influencers who have one million followers or more.
How much does it cost to work with an influencer? Unfortunately, it’s not that easy to calculate. According to Later, when asked how much they typically charge, influencers gave answers all over the place.
That’s why it’s best to always have a budget for influencer marketing ahead of time. In doing so, you can work out a fee that works for the influencer and your own budget. Another thing to keep in mind is that some brands offer discount codes for the influencer to make a percentage of the sale as well.
Before you sign a contract, check the influencer’s engagement rates (comments and likes on a post) and ensure it is above 1-2% (# of comments [avg of multiple posts] divided by the number of followers) x 100, the higher the better. It’s also not uncommon to have the influencer send you a screenshot of their analytics so you can verify their popularity, and then agree to a paid test to determine how their audience responds to your brand.
What You Need to Know about the Benefits of Using Social Media Influencers
As you can see, influencer marketing is a low-cost, highly effective marketing tactic for any business to try. The reason is that it directly translates into ROI and brand awareness. We talked about the following benefits of using social media influencers:
- Drive sales and grow faster
- Achieve better results for your campaigns with less work
- Experience big-time ROI increases
- Build trust and credibility
- Extend your reach
- Increase brand awareness
- Save money on marketing
When you partner with a social media influencer, you get immediate access to an expert on your target audience, along with quick exposure to highly engaged, loyal potential customers. But the most important thing to remember is that you should always look for an influencer who fits your customer avatar. Those who follow influencers are really picking up on what is authentic and what/who isn’t. Choosing the wrong influencer can actually have a negative impact on your brand.
If you want assistance finding the perfect influencers who can boost your brand and build your customer base, schedule your influencer marketing audit here. Take advantage of a free audit and consultation and let's chat about how we can help you supercharge your growth and strategic influencer partnerships.
At Viral Solutions we are committed to seeing YOU succeed. It is our goal to grow your business with proven digital marketing strategies that will help your business for the long haul.
Stay Up To Speed in the Ever Changing World of Marketing!
Sign-up today for FREE, monthly marketing tips, loopholes, and news to EXPLODE your Return on Investment!
Share your knowledge and gain exposure by becoming a guest author on our blog! Learn how to write for us.
