How would you compare Influencer Marketing with digital advertising?
Influencer marketing has become a powerful force in media because authentic views from people you trust are so extremely valuable. Consumers are much more influenced in their buying journey by following people they love and respect.
Which social platforms do you think will be the most used by influencer marketers in the next 5 years?
Instagram/YouTube/Facebook
How do you currently find relevant and high-quality influencers for your marketing campaigns?
Hashtags search
How would you decide which influencers to work with?
It is not an easy job to do- need data and history
How should brands use Instagram influencers to grow their business? What is your personal experience with Instagram influencing?
Working with influencers provides a brand instant access to an already established audience. Many micro-influencers will work with brands in exchange for products, allowing the brand to instantly penetrate a micro-market. Working with Ambassadors and influencers can be a good strategy, but has to be closely managed to ensure that the influencer’s posts align with your vision and that it actually results in additional followers for your own brand. In many cases, a combination of influencer strategy and paid ads is more effective to augment the awareness campaigns than either in isolation.
What are some common tools and strategies to help grow your presence on Instagram? Are you currently using any tools?
Everyone on Instagram should be utilizing stories and highlights to further enhance their branding and storytelling on Instagram. Gaining traction with followers requires frequent updates so leveraging stories can ensure your followers are seeing you at the top of their feed. Furthermore, highlights are an amazing way to entertain followers and keep them on your page for a long time while gaining new followers.
Which content categories (i.e. verticals) are likely to become the most popular on Instagram for influencers?
Retail/Fashion and Subscription Services can benefit from the features in Instagram to show their products, like Reels and Highlights. Food and Beverage also display well through the Instagram lens, and many foodies and bloggers have been able to attract millions of followers as they showcase restaurants and products. Seeing and tasting through Instagram is a powerful medium for these two industries.
What advice would you give to a new business that wants to gain and grow its paid sponsorships?
You have to understand your target market before delving into paid sponsorships with influencers. Similar to any paid campaign, you need to have pre-determined success metrics to your specific goals. Decide in advance if you are simply trying to grow your follower base, draw in new customers or get web traffic in order to identify how the influencer should communicate on your behalf.
How do you think Influencer Marketing will grow among small businesses in the near future?
Influencer marketing is only going to expand as normal people with an aptitude for story telling gain fans and as social platforms monetize content through every level of society. From existing stars to micro-influencers, brands want in on their audience and will make offers to do so. Paid advertising is simply too expensive to get access to some of these audiences which is why influencer marketing has exploded.
How do you currently collaborate with and pay Instagram influencers? Name any tools and strategies that you use.
As an influencer myself, I accept products to promote as an ambassador on my feed. I spend a lot of time planning photo shoots and developing original content to grow the feed and it works. Any brand that partners with me instantly gains access to my thousands of followers, and it’s very easy to do.
