Marketing with Instagram Influencers

Marketing With Instagram Influencers

Today while I was browsing through my Instagram and doing my daily routine of checking the newest updates of several Instagram influencers that I follow, I suddenly realized why so many brands are looking for suitable influencers to collaborate and do marketing and branding for them. As a potential target customer myself, I don’t feel annoyed when I see these influencers promoting a specific brand or product. (Well, but I do get a little bit annoyed when I found out that they are probably taking up the mkt or pr jobs we communication students should do lol..) In fact, sometimes I even actively check and search what they have been talking about recently to know the latest trends and new brands. Especially when I decide to make purchase of a product they recommend, I will always look at their posts for promotional codes. And if the purchase is satisfying, this will increase my trust in this influencer and the possibility of making future purchase of suggested items.

More and more companies and brands have been noticed this process long time ago and have explored the far-reaching impact and viral growth potential of marketing with social media influencers, looking to popular social publishing platforms like Instagram, YouTube, and Snapchat for a competitive marketing advantage with millennial consumers. Instagram, though not as mature of a marketing medium as blogs or YouTube, holds one of the highest affinity rates for the 18-34 adult demographic.

So how do these brands and companies work with social media influencers? There are three primary ways:

• The One-off — usually direct-response in nature, one-off marketing with social media influencers can involve a call-to-action (CTA) directing an influencer’s fan base towards a company’s latest product, service, or media channels. These CTAs can be coupled with “reader-only” promo codes, contests, giveaways, or the influencer can solicit their followers for valuable consumer feedback and engagement regarding a brand or product.
• Branding content — oftentimes devoid of specific CTAs, companies can partner with social media influencers to favorably co-brand new products or services or feature well-integrated product placement.
• Deeper Collaboration/Partnerships — while all work with social media influencers implies some level of collaboration, partnerships are much more in-depth, involve longer-term commitments across entire seasons, campaigns, and may feature the social media influencer as an official brand ambassador. YouTuber and beauty vlogger, Ingrid Nilsen – Miss Glamorazzi, was CoverGirl’s first social media “Glambassador.” Travel blogger, Jessica Stein of blog Tuula Vintage, partnered with airline Cathay Pacific for their #LifeWellTraveled campaign.

And when different brands are choosing influencers to collaborate, they choose carefully according to the type of products they are selling. For example, beauty and makeup brands usually collaborate with influencers that present finished looks/images of their products. A 15-second video featuring quick how-to and DIY branding opportunities is very popular. Choosing the right influencers to collaborate has become important for brands and there are a lot of platforms nowadays that are building upon this need. Platforms such as izea and snapfluence are trying to link companies and influencers to create a marketplace, which is very interesting to me. Social media has created a public space that influence, which was a very abstract concept in the past, has now become something that could be measured and sold at a clear price.

References:

Anonymous. (2015). How brands market with top Instagram influencers. Mediakix. Retrieved from: http://mediakix.com/2015/08/brand-guide-to-working-with-top-instagram-influencers/ 

Anonymous. (2015). Top Social Media Influencers Series 2015. Mediakix. Retrieved from: http://mediakix.com/2015/07/top-social-media-influencers-2015-series/

Anonynous. (2015). Instagram Ads vs. Influencer Marketing: Deciding What’s Best for Your Brand. Adweek. Retrieved from:

http://www.adweek.com/socialtimes/instagram-ads-vs-influencer-marketing-deciding-whats-best-for-your-brand/624838

Brown, D., & Fiorella, S. (2013). Influence marketing: How to create, manage, and measure Brand Influencers in Social media marketing. Que Publishing.