Social Media Marketers: 3 Action Items to Improve Your Influencer Marketing Campaign

As a social media marketer, it is important to work with influencers on authentic content creation and storytelling for brands. As a graduate student in the Integrated Marketing Communications program at Northwestern University, I have found two articles which have addressed the essence of genuine influencers and the difference between influencer marketing and celebrity endorsement.

Stop Calling The Use Of Celebrities “Influencer Marketing” by Amy Callahan at HuffPost, presents that although influencer marketing grew out of celebrity endorsement, it is not all about celebrities. Callahan defines the difference between celebrities and influencers: celebrities own millions of followers but little engagement; while influencers have closer relationships with their small groups of followers, since they build their following by choosing a niche they are passionate about and sharing their thoughts. Especially, she emphasizes the power of micro-influencers, who command dedicated audiences and killer content opportunities for a fraction of the price of a celebrity. Persuasive data and experiments are provided to illustrate her perspectives.

Source: blog.a-b-c    

Influencer MarketingHub brings us the second article, Influencer Marketing is About Data and Relationships Not Celebrity Deals. This article first points out the significant problems of celebrity endorsement – lack of trust and low engagement. Then, it proposes that influencer marketing is all about trust and relationships are the essence of influencer marketing. On this basis, the article explains how a genuine influencer works and why data is a key part of influencer marketing. Eventually, it comes to a conclusion - influencer marketing is about data and relationships not celebrity deals.

Based on my review of these two articles and my studies in the IMC graduate program at Northwestern University, I have developed 3 action items to help you improve your influencer marketing campaign. They are:

• Engage Micro-Influencers – Find and engage the right micro-influencers, people with small but loyal followings and high engagement rate, in the relevant niche. 
• Pick Suitable Platforms – Choose suitable platforms where your target audiences always go. 
• Customize Content – Approach and work with each influencer differently based on their own personas. 

The next time you are developing your social media marketing strategy, think of the importance of influencer marketing and how it will engage the very people you want to reach, build actual trust and purchase intent, then motivate them to take actions.

Mengdi Li:

Mengdi Li is a digital marketing enthusiast. She is pursuing her master’s degree in Integrated Marketing Communications at Medill, Northwestern University and will graduate in December, 2018. You can get in touch with her on LinkedIn and Twitter @mengdili1022.