6 Benefits of Partnering with Social Media Influencers
Gaining a significant following on social media as a small business is no easy feat. While it’s true that people are spending more and more time on social media, it’s a business’ social media marketing strategy that gets them noticed. Did you know that 81% of people living in the United States have one or more social media profiles? Just think about how many of those people could fit your target audience – but you won’t benefit unless you can gain brand exposure on social media.
As a small business, there are several useful tips for optimizing your social media presence, but one of the most effective is to partner with social media influencers. Social media influencers are social media users that have gained popularity on a social media platform. They can have thousands, or even millions, of followers and are considered a reliable source.
In the past few years, increasingly more brands are choosing to work with these influencers as a way to promote their brand. Here are the benefits:
Builds brand trust
One of the most significant benefits of partnering with a social media influencer is that it will help trust in your brand. Social media influencers are people who have gained a significant following on social media platforms because people like them and trust their opinion. Whether they gained popularity from making Youtube videos, creating inspirational Instagram Stories, or posting hilarious content on Twitter, people noticed, told their friends, and helped these people become famous.
The relationship between social media influencers and their followers is unique because, even though they have likely never met, their relationship is built upon a foundation of trust. Followers trust social media influencers, which means that when a social media influencer promotes a brand, followers trust the brand, too. By partnering with trusted social media influencers relevant to your target audience, you can build brand trust.
Improves your search engine ranking
Finding ways to make content rank high on search engines is usually something that drives small business owners mad. The rules of SEO are constantly evolving and popular search engines like Google are consistently altering their algorithms to keep up with search results. The answer to ranking high on search engines is no longer as simple as using long-tail keywords.
Partnering with a social media influencer, however, is an effective way to improve your search engine ranking. Above all, search engines look for high-quality organic links in order to boost website ranking. This is easily achieved when partnering with social media influencers because all they need to do is provide backlinks to your brand’s products or services.
Generates relevant leads
A mistake that many brands make when engaging with social media influencers is picking the wrong ones. While partnering with social media influencers is typically seen as a way to have your brand promoted without any work needed on your part, that’s not entirely true. Yes, partnering with these influencers takes a lot off of your plate, but it’s crucial that you find influencers relevant to your target audience.
For example, if you sell a protein powder aimed specifically at women, you likely won’t generate many leads by partnering with a male influencer in the gaming niche. However, if you seek out influencers that are female athletes, their target audience and yours will likely match up, meaning you will be able to generate relevant leads with ease.
Reduces your brand’s need to produce unique content
It’s a fact that social media influencers didn’t gain popularity because they post dull, uninteresting content. In the social media world, presentation and aesthetics are everything. In order to become well-known on any social media platform, you need to post unique and intriguing content. However, small businesses aren’t typically social media influencers – that’s why a partnership is needed.
Creating your own creative content is time-consuming, potentially costly and, if you aren’t creative, frustrating. One way that your small business can benefit by partnering with a social media influencer is a guarantee that they will be able to creatively promote your brand, while you reap the benefits.
Attracts a new target audience
The reason many brands and small businesses choose to partner with social media influencers is because it can increase their exposure. Social media influencers can have anywhere from thousands to even millions of followers on social media platforms, which means the content that they put out reaches a wide audience. If you are a small business – particularly one with a small social media following – it’s safe to say that the majority of social media influencers’ followers have never heard of your brand.
An effective strategy to use when partnering with social media influencers is to offer a free giveaway that the influencer can promote on their page… but to enter, their follower would also need to follow your social media account. This ensures that your brand’s page is getting exposure, views and followers. By partnering with a social media influencer, many of their followers may express interest in your brand, although they don’t fit your typical target audience demographics.
Drives conversions
There is a specific formula that must be followed to drive conversions as a small business. You need to have brand awareness, create brand trust, and inspire urgency. The benefit of partnering with a social media influencer is that they can help you generate both brand awareness and trust, but that’s not all that potential customers require before making a purchase.
Even if the potential customer has seen your brand thanks to the influencer and finds it relevant to their life, they may have second thoughts simply because of financial reasons or necessity of your product or service. That’s why it may help to offer some type of promotional code or discount to social media influencers’ followers – it creates a sense of urgency because the offer will expire soon, which can help convince customers to buy your product, therefore driving conversions right away.
At the end of the day, there are several benefits to partnering with social media influencers and very few cons. However, if you do choose to promote your brand this way, it’s important to pick social media influencers that are relevant to your target audience and to build a relationship with the influencers themselves.
Influencers need to be able to benefit from the partnership as well, which can easily be done by offering them both payment and free product samples or services. Once a relationship is formed, you will be able to reap the benefits of partnering with a social media influencer – and trust us, you won’t regret your decision.
Heather Hart
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