Did you know that almost any social strategy and digital marketing plan should include what is known as influencer marketing? In a recent Forbes article, it was described as “part of a cohesive digital marketing plan to help brands get on the map,” and yet you may not be able to explain influencer marketing and where it fits into your social strategy.

Social Strategy and Influencer Marketing

Just what is influencer marketing? It is a relationship. This relationship exists between you (or your brand) and the individual influencer.  An influencer is just a person who is able to promote specific services or products through their media channels, most particularly YouTube and Instagram.

Are they celebrities? Yes and no. They are NOT celebrities who are hired to endorse a brand. They are celebrities within their niches, though. Influencers are able to be called influential because they have proven themselves experts — trusted experts — within their community. It could be food, beauty products, auto parts, or just about anything else. They have built up an audience on their social media channels and have a large following.

Because of that, they can be an essential part in a social strategy by drawing attention to your brand through their posts and other media. As an example, let’s say you sell whole food fitness shakes. You want to reach a specific audience, such as women in a certain age bracket. There are many influencers in the health and fitness niche, and you might offer them your product in exchange for a video or Instagram story about their use of it. Their loyal audience will trust what that influencer says and then be directed via a link or hashtag to your social media or landing page.

Digital Marketing and Influencers

One of the great things about relying on social media influencers as part of your digital marketing campaign is that they usually produce their own content. You draft specifications when they agree to endorse the product, and then the skilled influencer integrates those talking points into the content. They, however, do all of the heavy lifting of creating the video and posting it to the channel. You simply follow the price point standards based on their number of followers. For instance, experts say that it is usually a fee of roughly $1k per every 100k on Instagram or $100 per every 1k views on YouTube, and so on.

And you might wonder whether it is worthwhile to pursue such arrangements if you do not have a lot of control over the message. The simple truth, as explained in the Forbes’ article, is that “with the creation of the internet and the popularity of social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook and YouTube, consumers have unlimited freedom and choice over the content they wish to view.” By building an influencer or two into your social strategy, you retake control over your message and allow yourself to reach your intended audience through digital marketing to the established expert’s channels.

If you are eager to learn how influencer marketing might work for you, contact the team at Organically and discuss your needs.