Is your business using social media influencers to promote your products or services? If not, you are missing an exceptional opportunity to get a better return on your advertising investment.

In the past, businesses hired celebrities to enhance their brands. The trend now is shifting to using social influencers instead. Studies show that social influencers are six times more effective than celebrities. It’s no wonder that 86% of marketers now tap into the power of social influencers to boost their advertising results. Marketers cannot afford to ignore this trend.

Why Use Influencers?

Social influencers are people who have large and enthusiastic followings, often with niche interests, on social media. Sometimes influencers are people who were famous before they created their social media accounts. Other times, their social media activity itself turned them into stars. Influencers can be anyone who attracts a following, from teenagers posting videos about make-up tips to radio personalities in a local market. Influencers are especially active on Instagram but you can also find them on YouTube, Facebook, and other sites.

Social influencers have an advantage over traditional celebrity endorsers. The influencers interact directly with their followers and make their fans feel as if they were part of the influencers' lives. The influencers share photos and text showing their vacations, friends, loved ones, clothes, make-up, and even their secrets. This sharing has a powerful bonding effect. Followers consider influencers their friends, and they trust them and look up to them as taste-makers.

Because of the way influencers share their lives and interact with their followers, they come across as authentic. Their followers believe that influencers recommend only products that they use and like, so their recommendations are far more powerful. For all these reasons, 70% of millennials say that bloggers influence them more than celebrities.

How to Get Best Results With a Social Influencer Campaign

While social media posts may appear to be casual, a successful social influencer campaign requires that marketers think through their strategies and plan their campaigns carefully.

• In a small market, look no further than your radio or TV stations. Thousands of people listen to these celebrities on a daily basis. People feel as though they know the on-air talent and trust their opinions. These local celebrities often have huge social followings.
• Make sure you choose the right influencer for your company's needs. The influencer should be someone who posts about the kinds of products or services you offer. The influencer’s followers should be part of your target audience. Finally, since influencers give their honest opinions, you should make sure the influencer’s taste aligns with your company's products.
• Set a goal and then take appropriate action. If your goal is to quickly increase the number of followers and likes on your company's social accounts, to increase your visibility, then offer giveaways to people who follow you or tag a friend. If you are more interested in quickly increasing sales of your products or services, then have your social influencers post product reviews.
• The power of social influencers comes from their authenticity, so be sure to give your influencers total creative freedom.

Conclusion

Influencer marketing is not just a simple shout-out for your products. It’s a complete strategy that needs to be carefully planned and executed. The results are well worth the effort. A social influencer campaign will create genuine excitement about your products and your brand.

You can boost the effects of your social media marketing even more by reinforcing your message using different types of media, by combining audio branding, social media ads, and influencer marketing. Each marketing strategy -- audio branding using radio to appeal to the ear, Facebook ads to appeal to the eye, and influencers to appeal to the sense of belonging -- contributes to an effect that is greater than the sum of any of these strategies alone. To find out more about how to improve your audio branding, contact Zimmer Radio Inc., the leader in radio audio branding in Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Kansas.