How would you compare Influencer Marketing with digital advertising?
First, let’s establish that businesses that use an advertising strategy are paying for direct placement in front of their ideal customers. For example, when you pay for Google Ads, you pay to be placed at the top of the search results. When you pay for Facebook Ads, you pay for your content to be placed in front of predefined target customers. When you pay an influencer to create and place content, you are “jumping the line” and being placed in front of a target audience. The big difference here is that you are paying to leverage that influencer’s existing relationship with their audience. In other words, you are creating a relationship-building shortcut. The influencer is inviting you into their community and allowing you to stand in their limelight, so to speak.
If you are lucky enough to have an influencer feature your brand simply because they like and use your product or service — that’s more like earned media. In other words — it’s PR.
Many brands work to enroll influencers to create content for free as if they were ambassadors in exchange for free products and services. While this can work in some markets — it’s not as effective with B2B products or services because those influencers are typically subject matter experts and spend hours creating technical content.
Which social platforms do you think will be the most used by influencer marketers in the next 5 years?
YouTube/Twitter/TikTok
How do you currently find relevant and high-quality influencers for your marketing campaigns?
Web search
How should brands use Instagram influencers to grow their business? What is your personal experience with Instagram influencing?
I don’t do Instagram campaigns because the brands I work with and my audience aren’t as active on Instagram as they are on platforms such as LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.
What are some common tools and strategies to help grow your presence on Instagram? Are you currently using any tools?
Reels and videos are huge as Instagram aims to compete with TikTok. I’m currently not using these very heavily.
Which content categories (i.e. verticals) are likely to become the most popular on Instagram for influencers?
Fashion, Health and Beauty, Fitness, Wellness,
What advice would you give to a new business that wants to gain and grow its paid sponsorships?
Paid sponsorships are a long game. If you only want leads from influencers, then you may be better off simply paying for direct advertising. Influencers shine when you’re leveraging their expertise and the relationships they’ve built with their audience. Creating loyal relationships from an influencer’s audience requires consistency and time. Be prepared to invest at least 6 -12 months in a campaign.
How do you think Influencer Marketing will grow among small businesses in the near future?
Small businesses will start to see that influencers are relatively inexpensive. Some currently see influencers as celebrities who are expensive and irrelevant to their business. This is a myth. There are influencers and experts for every type of business – small businesses, just need to know how to find them.
How do you currently collaborate with and pay Instagram influencers? Name any tools and strategies that you use.
I do not pay for Instagram influencers
