Social Media Influencer Marketing 101 - Influencers on Social Media

What Is a Social Media Influencer?

Influencer marketing tactics utilize a digital creator’s audience, credibility, and ability to persuade their audience. Social media influencer marketing helps brands promote their products, services, or campaigns and is generally used when you have a specific call to action. We understand how stressful placing your brand's campaign message in an influencer's hands is, especially if you choose the wrong one. However, as a marketing agency, we’re here to help you, making influencer marketing a breeze. 

Influencer marketing has grown exponentially in the past few years and will continue to grow. According to Matter, 69% of people are more likely to purchase something a friend, family member, or influencer recommends over the actual brand. Influencers are changing the game of social media marketing. At Cork Tree Creative, we stay up to date with all the latest social media trends, so we’re sharing the best tips and tricks for leveraging social media influencers. 

What Are the Benefits of Influencer Marketing?

Collaborating with an influencer with thousands or millions of followers means you can promote your product or service to a diverse audience that may not already follow you. Your chosen influencer’s followers are likely to read about, click, or, even better, buy your brand's product or service through their videos or images. 

Some of the primary benefits of influencer marketing include:

Types of Influencers

With the digital world constantly evolving, we understand how overwhelming it can be to choose the right influencer to represent your brand. You want your influencer’s content to reach your campaign goal and their followers to resemble your target audience. There are three main types of influencer marketing: Content Creators, Influencers, and UGC Creators. 

• Influencers are considered community thought leaders who have the ability to influence their followers. This type of influencer is best utilized when selling a specific product or service with a direct call to action, such as “Sign Up Here,” to track measurables. 
• Content Creators produce engaging content based on their insight and knowledge about the brand or product and weave it into their typical online narrative. Content Creators are a great option when your goal is to promote brand awareness to a broader audience. 
• UGC Creators create messages using your brand's product or service, which you can use on your own platforms to supplement in-house creative.

If you’re not sure which type of influencer is right for your campaign goal, another way to choose an influencer is to determine the platform on which you want to promote your brand. Online platform influencers can help improve your content by creating sponsored posts, affiliate giveaways, brand ambassadors, and product collaborations.

The five leading types of platform influencers are:

1. Instagram Influencers
2. TikTok Influencers
3. Snapchat Influencers
4. Facebook Influencers
5. Twitter Influencers

When Should I Use B2C vs. B2B Influencer Marketing?

The first thing to consider when determining whether to use business-to-consumer (B2C) or business-to-business (B2B) influencer marketing is your target audience. If your goal is to reach other businesses, then B2B influencer marketing is for you. If you want to connect directly with consumers, you should utilize B2C influencers. B2B influencers consist of industry professionals and experts, and their content is more educational to generate leads and spread brand awareness. On the other hand, B2C uses social media influencers who create more entertaining content, such as engaging marketing videos, and help you reach new market audiences and sell your product or services. 

Types of B2B Industry Influencers:

• Healthcare Influencers
• Wholesale Business Influencers
• Technology Influencers
• Manufacturing Companies

Types of B2C Industry Influencers:

• Retail Content Marketing
• Travel Influencers
• Food Influencers
• Fashion Influencers

Influencer Campaigns for Businesses

There’s influencer marketing available for every industry, so it’s important to find an influencer unique to your brand's industry. As experts in social media marketing, if you’re debating if an influencer is the right one for your business, we recommend imagining your influencer's followers as potential clients. Would they buy your product or keep scrolling because it’s irrelevant to them? Partnering with the right social media influencer will increase your brand awareness and reach more highly engaged niche clients. Social media influencers' ability to sway their follower's opinions and purchasing decisions makes for the ideal collaboration. 

Examples of influencer campaigns include:

• Product Reviews: In product review influencer campaigns, an influencer acts as a brand advocate by building trust between their followers and the brand. Most commonly, product reviews are videos that give in-depth descriptions of the product or service after using it.
• Sponsored Content: In sponsored content, influencers receive a product or service directly from a brand to critique based on their experience in hopes of attracting new customers and boosting sales. 
• Brand Ambassadors: As brand ambassadors, customers, employees, influencers, or celebrities are recruited to represent a brand and promote its products.
• Social Media Takeover: During a social media takeover, an influencer or employee “takes over” a brand or company's social media accounts and posts content for a set amount of time. 
• Giveaways: Giveaways are a promotional strategy where a brand provides an incentive in exchange for an action from the audience, such as their email or a follow. 

Influencer Outreach Services in St. Louis

Influencers have forever reshaped the way social media marketing works. Their authentic connection with their followers has opened the door for brands to connect directly with their consumers and broaden their organic reach. At Cork Tree Creative, we are a team of established individuals who know when to utilize influencer marketing appropriately. We have the connections to help you choose the perfect social media influencer for your specific market needs. If you need influencer outreach services in the St. Louis area, contact us today, and let us help you reach the perfect influencer for your brand!