Have you ever wondered what an Amazon nano influencer is? Is your own Instagram explore page flooded with brand ambassadors? Even if you’re new to the world of nano influencers, 2021 is the year to get on board with this marketing tactic. In this article, we discuss:
- What influencer marketing is
- The elements of influencer marketing
- Which social channels you should use in your influencer campaign
- The best practices for launching your influencer marketing campaign
Influencer Marketing: The Basics
What exactly is the relationship between a nano influencer, Instagram and a brand? The most straightforward answer is that it encompasses the working partnership between these three entities. A brand leverages an influencer’s communal reach to market, endorse or speak about its product on one of several social channels.
Although it might seem like it, influencer marketing isn’t new. Nano influencers have been impacting purchasing decisions for years. It follows that this marketing strategy is among the fastest-growing opportunities for brands. According to Influencer Marketing Hub, influencer marketing is poised to make over $16 billion by the end of 2022.
Advantages of Influencer Marketing for Brands
Social media influencer marketing presents immense opportunities for brands:
- Almost every person on the planet is on one social platform or another. So, it makes sense for companies to go where their customers spend a lot of their time.
- It combines two proven and time-tested marketing strategies: content-driven marketing and “celebrity” endorsement. It runs this potent combination on today’s hyper-connected social media networks.
- This marketing tool can reach thousands to millions of consumers, influencing their decision to buy.
- The right influencer can align the brand’s marketing with the relevant market segment.
- An influencer campaign is cost-effective. The per-post cost of an influencer is only around $100 per 10,000 followers.
Elements of Influencer Marketing
There are three essential elements of influencer marketing: the influencer, the content strategy and the social media platform.
The Influencer
The influencer is the “celebrity” endorser. Interestingly, though, an influencer does not need to be an actual celebrity. Consider the following terms:
- A nano influencer is a social media user with around 1,000 to 10,000 followers. They are typically highly engaged with their local communities. This often leads to higher conversions for brands.
- A micro-influencer is a social media user with between 10,000 and 100,000 followers. Their larger audiences mean wider reach for brands.
- A macro influencer is a social media user with between 100,000 and 1 million followers. They are not quite celebrities in the traditional sense. However, they can impact the buying decisions of a wide range of people.
In short, an influencer affects the decisions and behavior of people. Typically, these people are members of the influencer’s audience. To do this, the influencer must have the following attributes:
- Reputation. The influencer must be someone their followers see as honest and trustworthy.
- Image. The influencer must have a style or way of living that their followers want to emulate.
- Authority. The influencer must have a following built upon their knowledge of the niche in which they operate. In other words, their followers must believe they know what they’re talking about when they recommend something.
The Content Strategy
There are several different ways to optimize an influencer marketing campaign with content. This often depends on the social media platform an influencer uses. For instance, because Instagram is image-based, it makes sense for a brand to invest in quality lifestyle photos. The brand’s network of influencers can then use these photos on their profiles. Alternatively, on a text-forward platform, such as Twitter, brands should optimize their copywriting.
Brands should create their content strategy through the lens of their chosen social media channel. Doing so will lead to the most authoritative, genuine experience for the influencer’s audience.
The Social Media Platform
The social media platform brings everything together for the influencer. It allows them to put forth a regular stream of exciting and useful content. It also provides mechanisms that attract people to the content. The social platform lets influencers capture people’s interest.
We’ll dive deeper into the particulars of the most popular social media channels later on.
Top Social Media Platforms for Influencers
There are many suitable social media platforms for launching influencer marketing campaigns. There are the major social media sites, of course. But there are also over a hundred other lesser-known influencer platforms. It’s worth investigating which channel will present the best opportunities for your brand.
How to Choose the Right Platform
Which social media platform works best for your influencer marketing campaigns? The answer depends on a few key factors.
First, you need to know which platform hosts your influencer of choice. For example, let’s say you run a baking tools brand, and you’re looking to find a baking influencer. If your influencer is on Facebook, then Facebook should be your social network of choice. But if they’re on some relatively unknown blog, such as SocialBakers, that’s where you need to be.
Sometimes, industry or subject matter alignment is not enough. The influencer needs to share the same culture and values as the brand seeking to engage. Due diligence and research are the keys to getting this right.
Remember that you can invest in Omnichannel marketing efforts, too. You can expand your marketing approach to include multiple influencers across many social media channels. To do this, you’ll need an intimate understanding of the most popular social media platforms.
With over 2.6 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the largest social network in the world. It should undoubtedly be on your list of platforms to target. Take a look at some of Facebook’s advantages for influencer marketing:
- According to a survey by Audience Project, 53% of respondents report that they are on Facebook several times a day.
- Facebook’s demographic covers nearly all age ranges.
- Facebook is continually investing in its capabilities. It offers live streaming, video and photo uploads, stories and business groups.
The biggest drawback of Facebook is that its younger users are gradually moving away from the platform. Gen Z and millennials are leaving Facebook for other channels, according to a study by Edison Research. This presents a challenge for brands whose target customers are in this age range.
Interestingly, the Edison Research study shows that these younger users are predominantly moving toward Instagram. Users are no longer just browsing aesthetic photos of brunch. Here are some of Instagram’s biggest pros:
- The highly visual nature of this platform makes it particularly strong in visitor engagement. Instagram has an engagement rate reportedly 10 times greater than that of Facebook.
- Instagram is optimized for mobile devices, which means users can interact with an influencer campaign wherever they are.
- Instagram has kept up with transforming technological landscapes and has developed ads in stories and on feeds. It has branded hashtags. It now offers a shopping cart so users can easily click to see a brand’s product page.
- According to a survey by Mediakix, 78% of respondents think Instagram posts are the most effective format for influencer marketing. Stories and video are also among the top five responses.
The only downside of Instagram is that it isn’t optimized for text-based posts. Long-form written content is hard to promote through this channel. Therefore, when using Instagram, develop your brand’s visual content.
YouTube
The video platform has transformed over the last few years, and it is now an excellent launching pad for a nano influencer marketing campaign. Check out some of its perks:
- Video content is highly engaging and personal, which can create high conversion and brand loyalty.
- Videos can remain relevant for long periods. This extends the impact of an influencer campaign.
- According to Mediakix’s survey, YouTube is ranked the second most crucial influencer marketing platform.
- YouTube offers stories, community posts and live streaming
YouTube’s format creates engaged loyal audiences. However, video requires a significant amount of editing, videography and on-camera skill. It’s much harder to create an impactful, fun video than upload a single photo. Be aware of this when pursuing work with a YouTube influencer.
Twitter is the fastest-moving of all the social networks. Perhaps this is why it is the channel of choice for customer service engagement. Take a look at why this platform is great for certain brands:
- It’s great for sharing information and online resources. Twitter users can chat with each other quickly and efficiently.
- Twitter is excellent for engagement and interaction. Users can tweet directly at brands and can have public discourse.
- Trending hashtags can boost visibility and engagement about a topic.
- According to Twitter’s research, nearly 40% of its users have made a purchase after seeing an influencer’s tweet.
- Twitter has expanded into videos and photos.
Twitter, like Instagram, is limited by its content format. Tweets cannot exceed 280 characters, which means influencers must keep their endorsements short. Twitter is not the place for long essays about why an influencer loves a product.
TikTok
A relatively new addition to the mix is TikTok. TikTok is an addictive social network for sharing user-generated videos. We know that video is a highly engaging medium, so it makes sense that TikTok enjoys the following pros:
- TikTok has been downloaded 2.6 billion times worldwide. According to Sensor Tower, it was downloaded an astonishing 62 million times in January 2021 alone.
- The platform sees 1 billion monthly active users.
- User-generated content builds trust and relationships with an influencer’s audience.
- Comscore reported that about one-third of TikTok’s users are between the ages of 10 and 19. Another third is between 20 and 29.
- Short, consumable videos don’t exceed users’ attention spans.
The young, active audience represents considerable potential for clever branding opportunities. At the same time, it presents obstacles. B2B and white-collar brands might have trouble finding their audience on TikTok right now.
Plus, the platform has come under intense scrutiny. In August 2020, the U.S. government called to effectively ban TikTok, citing national security concerns. In response, the platform sued the U.S. government. While TikTok lives on today, brands might anticipate policy changes in the future.
LinkedIn is home to many professionals, including some 40 million business decision-makers. Below are some of its advantages:
- It’s the network to be on if you are looking for experts, authorities and industry thought leaders.
- LinkedIn has developed posts, videos and LinkedIn Pulse, a news aggregation feed.
That said, LinkedIn is ranked low in importance for influencer marketing. It is geared towards the professional landscape, which makes it a tough landing spot for lifestyle brands.
Blogs
There are seemingly infinite blogs dedicated to endless subjects. While hosted by different overarching platforms, most blogs share the following benefits:
- Long-form written content creates high engagement in a small, niche audience
- Blogs are ideal for explaining a product or brand in detail
- Blog topics can span reviews, rankings, shared experiences, warnings and challenges. An influencer can write about practically anything they want.
- Successful blogs contribute to search engine optimization. They can drive organic traffic to a brand’s website.
Blogs are typically more popular with older demographics. Moreover, it can be harder to accumulate an audience around a hyper-niche subject. Once you do, though, you’ll be sure to spark conversation among people that care about your product.
Best Practices for Influencer Marketing
The best social network for influencer marketing is the one that most closely aligns with a brand’s marketing requirements. The most desirable outcomes result from employing effective influencer marketing procedures. Here are a few of the best practices.
Set Goals
Like any serious marketing initiative, influencer campaigns need a concrete goal. Setting campaign goals provides direction and focus. It also helps motivate during times of adversity. Goals need to be realistic and measurable. You must be able to say if the goals have been accomplished.
Personalize Outreach
There is no such thing as a “one size fits all” marketing campaign. Many companies have learned this the hard way.
Influencers are vastly different in temperament and style. An approach that works for one may not necessarily work for others. This could be true even if those influencers are working within the same niche. It is essential to study each one and create a plan that is specific to each influencer. Their audiences will most likely be vastly different from each other.
Select Experts in Your Niche
The best influencers are those with the expertise and knowledge of your niche. Let’s say you sell accounting services, for example. It would be pointless to reach out to an English language expert for an influencer campaign. Know your specialization and use it effectively.
Focus on Engagement Stats, Not Followers
Numbers are good, but only if they come with healthy engagement statistics. In influencer marketing, engagement is king. That is why many brands seek out nano influencers.
Nano influencers may not have the audience size of mega influencers, but they make up for closer relationships and higher engagement levels. Engagement is a good indicator of trust; trust is the holy grail of social media marketing. It is the bedrock upon which influence will be cultivated.
Don’t Micromanage Influencers
Influence marketing is more than merely asking an influencer to say nice things about a brand or its products. If that were the case, then we would be observing more successful influencers on social media. Influencers work hard to create relationships with their followers. This ultimately builds trust between them.
An impatient client could execute a careless campaign, which can undo that trust. By all means, set goals and communicate expectations. Then get out of the way and let the influencer work their magic.
Track the ROI Using Analytics
What can be measured can be improved. Brands and influencers need to agree on the relevant metrics. This will let them measure the progress of a campaign. These metrics can help determine what changes to make. In turn, these changes can help improve the campaign’s performance.
Use the Right Social Platform in 2021
No matter which social media platform you choose for your next influencer marketing campaign, make sure to do your research. We hope this guide is helpful to you in that endeavor. It’s crucial to know the ins and outs of the above platforms. Plus, you should learn how to optimize your relationship with your influencers.
For more guides to working with Amazon nano influencers, please contact us and schedule an appointment.