How Influencers can help your business
As a company owner you are constantly bombarded with advice, mostly from people trying to sell you products and services. The key is to see through the timewasters and to focus on the activities that will benefit your business.
There are differing schools of thought, some are for and others are against, as to whether an influencer can help raise the profile of your brand. In this instance, we would like to point out the benefits of a collaboration.
Here goes…social media platforms like Instagram allow businesses to portray a visual identity that will reflect their ethos and resonate with their audience. This is where an influencer can help. Having built their own community of followers, a successful influence has a high reach and this can be of great benefit to your company.
In simple terms, when an influencer posts about your product they are providing an endorsement that goes out to all of their followers. This means that their followers become aware of your product and start to trust in your brand.
Influencers tend to have a niche audience, so the key is to collaborate with one that can target your desired audience. It is also a more subtle way of advertising, sharing content about products and things that people like to see and do, gives exposure to the company without overtly advertising.
Stats that show you just how important influencers can be…
- 70% of teenagers trust influencers over celebrities (Ipsos Connect)
- 4 in 10 millennials feel more affinity with influencers than their friends (Ipsos Connect)
- 86% of women check social media advice before making a purchase (Influence Central)
- 40% of people bought something after seeing it on social media (Survey Annalect & Twitter)
- 49% of respondents rely on influencers for recommendations (Annalect & Twitter)
- Every dollar spent on influencers generates $6.50 (Tomoson)
In a nutshell, influencers save businesses the cost of time and money of promoting their products, as they speak on your behalf to their followers… and if it’s good enough for their favourite influencer, you can bet it will be good enough for them!
How to Identify a Real Influencer
You’ve probably heard of those who operate by buying fake likes, fake followers and inactive bots accounts. Unfortunately, some companies are taken in and as a result fall into the trap and end up employing people who are cheating the system.
Don’t panic, not all is lost, there are ways you can recognize the difference between a fake and a bone fide influencer.
4 ways to flush out a fake influencer
- Engagement rate. The higher the rate of engagement, the more loyal and interested followers they have.
- 10% Likes. Real influencers must have an average of 10% likes in proportion to the number of followers.
- Proportion of comments. If there are 4,000 likes but very few comments, it suggests that all is not as it should be.
- Statistics. Request screenshot that show the real stats, as they may show amazing numbers on their images but not on the stats.
