Finding & Choosing Influencers Archives - Social Media Branding by Mishu & Dad

SmartPassiveIncome.com: Influencer Marketing 101, by Dear Mishu’s Dad

What is Influencer Marketing?

Influencer marketing is a form of guerrilla marketing! And when we talk about marketing via social media influencers (SMI), we mean someone who:

Owns a social media account (minimum 50 followers) on platforms such as on TikTok, Instagram, Linkedin and YouTube, and—very importantly—
Uses it for amazing relationship building with their followers AND/OR content creation.

As I’ve said before, our social media accounts are our brand business cards now. It’s obvious to the post-business-card generation that when one talks about “influencers” they mean social media influencers. And so, marketing via endorsements from bloggers, famous authors, whitepaper composers, or podcasters isn’t really considered to be influential nowadays unless they’re using social media to get their message across.

At the same time, the public and the media tend to hate what they think the word “influencer” stands for. So if you’d like, use other names to refer to them: creators, testimonial advertisers, online cheerleaders, advocates, social media impactors, etc. But whatever you call them, it is generally agreed that there are four types of SMIs, determined by their follower counts:

Celebs/Mega-Influencers (those with over one million followers)
Macro-Influencers (between 100,000 and one million followers)
Micro-Influencers (10,00 to 100,000)
Nano-Influencers (5,000 to 10,000)

Only Mega-Influencers are usually famous. That means that all others—and there are millions and millions of them—are unknown to the general public but are very well-known to the communities they’ve built through their social accounts. And, as a result, they can move mountains through those communities.

Why Would You Use Influencer Marketing?

You work hard designing, innovating, and creating. Whether it’s a new product, your new design services, a new menu, a new app, or a new Amazon product, it takes time and sweat to give birth to that baby. But when you are done, and the product is ready to be released to the world, alas, crickets… It’s hard to break through—and most people know how to bypass ads via ad-blocking software or emotional blockers! Unless you can find someone who already has the eyes, ears, and trust of your potential audience to recommend your creation.

And that is where hiring an SMI can be a great shortcut to speed your marketing efforts. If done right, you can get exposure, and so much more, including:

Feedback. You can save/earn a lot of money and avoid unnecessary work when your audience tells you whether or not they’re interested in your new idea for a business/product. This kind of feedback can be accessed through SMIs and their communities, because if you pick the right ones, they will become your target audience.

Here’s a real-world example from my DearMishu, where she found an issue with package closure of a sample she received, reported it to the brand, and saved them a lot of money before they launched to a mass market:

Access to new communities. By creatively working with influencers, brands can reach communities they never would have considered targeting. I always like to give the example of a new tennis racquet entering the market that happens to come in orange. Imagine that the brand worked with an SMI who leads a community of people who love anything orange!

Orange tennis racket and orange lover SMI—what a match!

Recognition. SMI’s are recognized as experts, and they transfer that to you. An SMI can bring you what we marketers know as “positive bias.” As a result, your brand will be “stamped” into their followers’ subconscious, and when they need to make a buying decision, they will remember the SMI’s recommendation.
Virality. If the SMI you work with is skilled, your message will become viral through their communities.
Great, reusable content. You need to have content—photos, videos, audio, etc. Even if you already have someone (yourself?) creating the content, after some time it can become repetitive and less creative than when you started your business. Most SMIs are very talented at story-telling, and you can use that to your advantage.
Great consultant. SMIs “live” in your marketplace. They know exactly what your audience members want and feel, how they’ll react, and so on. Ask them to share their experience and recommendations—they can be great consultants.

Source: My writing at https://www.smartpassiveincome.com/blog/influencer-marketing-101/

Telling your Story via Emojis on your Profile

Branding Your Social Media Profile (BSMP) is a new 1-on-1 program that helps brands bring their social media profile and presence to the next level.

This series of articles is an introduction to some of the techniques and experiments that have been proven to make this underutilized real estate work for you.

Brands and others looking for customized analysis and guidance specific to their profile(s) can register for 1:1 coaching here.

In the last BSMP* series article I explained how you can do YOUR** story-telling through your profile photos, extended name, update line, profile description, hashtags, URL, and influencers. Today I will show you another one, a minimalist, fun way to tell your story: emojis and special characters!

*BSMP = branded social media profile, a term that was coined by… me.

First, look how beautiful telling your story via emojis can be:

Look how much imagination is integrated into this SMI* profile – in the most pure, wonderful, fantastic way, via simple emoji integration! Congrats Ajak!

Beautiful, right? Now let’s explain:

Fantastic, suitable social media KPI example is here!

I think the following KPI, as well as its CTA execution, is PERFECT:

Here is why:

Social media platforms such as Instagram and YouTube were not built for instant sales (not even for eCommerce, although the platforms are fixing that now). They were built from the bottom up for community building, where the community building is focused around ideas, attitudes, specific emotions (love, hate, blushing, …) about a specific area.

If you want to succeed on social media, work hard to bring a dialog about what you do/preach. A hard sell approach is not suitable… Instead, bring the people together, and maybe down the line find ways to convince them sign up for your “mailing list.” Now – mind you – “mailing list” in terms of social media doesn’t necessarily mean an email list. Rather, make them become engaged followers and community members.

You! Your social media is a great place to get leads (not instant sales), but first work hard to get your message out to those who care.

Interviews with Dog Brands: How They Work with Influencers

Should brands contract only Influencers who posted about their products in the past?

No, that’s a shortsighted approach and out of touch with the way influencers work.

After all:

Many products and brands are totally new and no one has used them yet (and that’s the whole point of hiring SMI (Social Media Influencer), to gain awareness.
If SMI used “Adidas shoes” so far (and enjoyed them tremendously), it doesn’t mean she won’t enjoy “Bronx shoes”!
SMI who are professional may not post about any brands they aren’t hired by (it’s a matter of not working without compensation)

I know I may sound like I’m contradicting myself here, but come on… if you are a brand and you see an SMI who is very suitable for you, someone with your kind of audience, with followers who CARE, then introduce any new product to her and consider hiring her. Even if she’s promoted a competitive product, if she just hasn’t tried yours it’s worth introducing it and trying to convince her. Because if she IS convinced, she can share why she switched to your product, and that’s a good thing!!

I like to keep it real, which some people consider contrarian… well, so be it: check out my articles that have been tagged “contrarian”

Why do some teens want to be Influencers?

Because teens are…people. And people believe people, not company’s brands.

“I just wanted to share this blog about the lack of transparency in the influencer marketing industry”

I don’t think WE should handle transparency, as well as ethics and morals. In fact, we shld stop it… Think about that – influencers are community builders. The only ones who are important here are *their community members*.

If those like x% of transparency, ok. If they like x-12% transparency, that’s ok FOR THEM too, it’s up to the people to decide which communities they are following, not for us at all. Now those communities are gather around certain niche topics. The brand can choose whatever communities they want to. #DeepThoughts

Feedback Influencers for Walmart.com and Amazon Vendors

Hire niche SMI* with the sole objective of getting feedback for samples received from the factory before placing a minimum quantity order with your manufacturer, and definitely before sending a new product to the Amazon (or Walmart) warehouse.

I have been there. I was an Amazon Vendor and really enjoyed it. What a journey it is! It’s exciting to build a small empire, your own legacy, with your own brand and various products and creations that you have envisioned.

Why does everyone want to be an influencer?

Everyone wants to be an influencer because they confuse influencers with the beautiful celebs who sail on beautiful yachts… It’s not the same thing though. Most SMI* are unknown to the public and yet they influence. The job requires so many working hours a day of content creation, photography, editing, re-editing, publishing, marketing and – yes – engaging all day long…

Brands: DM is the new ‘phone number’ for social media!

Brands: So we know by now that not having a presence on social media is like you… do not exist, since that’s where your audience is. Your social media account is your business card, your face, your talking point, your front-line, your border, your mom and pop, your puppy too.

Once you choose the right social media platform for the audience you want to reach, and you activate it, it’s…YOU. Make sure that from then on it reflects … YOU indeed.

Your communication with your audience should now be via social media. And so – for example – if someone sends you a DM instead of calling your phone, it means that they want a response via DM (= direct messages) and they most definitely do not want to call you. So make sure you address that.

Brands: create an Instagram account only if you can handle it – use direct messaging as your new phone.

Or alternatively:

Branding Your #SocialMedia Profile Series No. 10: Your BSMP Influencer

Branding Your Social Media Profile (BSMP) is a new 1-on-1 program that helps brands bring their social media profile and presence to the next level.

This series of articles is an introduction to some of the techniques and experiments that have been proven to make this underutilized real estate work for you.

Brands and others looking for customized analysis and guidance specific to their profile(s) can register for 1:1 coaching here.

In past BSMP* series article I explained how you can optimize YOUR story-telling through your profile photos, extended name, update line, profile description, hashtags, CTA and URL. Today I will show you something new, related to SMI* on – yes – your profile.

*BSMP = branded social media profile, a term that was coined by… me.