What is influencer marketing?
At a basic level, influencer marketing is a type of social media marketing that uses recommendations and product mentions from influencers - individuals who have a dedicated following on social media and are considered experts in their field.
Influencer marketing works because of the trust that influencers have built up with their followers - and recommendations from them act as a form of social proof for your brand's potential customers.
How to find influencers
Like any strategy, research is the first step. Choose the network you want to focus on first. You can always expand to other networks later, but if you're just starting out, stick with one.
Ideally, your brand should already have a presence on this network or want to expand into it.
Management strategy and budget for influencer marketing
Running a successful influencer marketing campaign is not easy. Therefore, you can't just set up your campaign and hope it performs. It involves careful tracking and follow-up.
Unlike a more automated advertising strategy, influencers are ordinary people who often balance multiple partnerships, so some may fall behind in their commitments to send out content on time or make mistakes in your requested tags or calls to action. You will need to have time to be more involved and refine your approach through experience on what works and what doesn't.
You need to think about the expected return on investment in your campaign when using influencer marketing: How will you measure the campaign? One approach might be to compare your expectations of influencers with what you pay for leads elsewhere.
