Unless you’ve been living in Outer Mongolia for the past few years, you’ll have undoubtedly noticed the rise of influencers in modern media. Love them or hate them, social influencers are everywhere in society. They fill column inches, dominate social media feeds and star on prime time television. They receive an impressive amount of attention, gaining many thousands of interactions with countless fans who hang on their every word.
Using influencers to bring attention to your brand is a sure-fire way of getting people to sit and pay attention to what you’re doing. And it’s not just the beauty and fashion scene, influencers exist in all fields, from people who run popular Facebook groups based around motorbikes to Twitter accounts devoted to the best restaurants in particular cities and regions.
Of course, today influencers are a global industry with agencies dedicated to managing them. The UK is home to some of the most high profile influencers in the world, making this country ahead of the curve when it comes to harnessing the power of online to create entirely new marketing opportunities. But some influencers are less obvious, rather than Zoella and the Kardashians, consider looking at those more suitable to your particular niche.
One useful way to use the power of social influencers is to host an event, if you’re launching a new product or venue, for example, and invite a select number of people with relevant online clout along – in return, they’ll provide coverage across their social channels which will encourage their followers to look into what your business is and become more invested in your brand.
Another method is to approach them about a specific post about your brand, offering a special discount with a unique code – that way you can see precisely how effective it was, and how it can be utilised for future campaigns. Many major brands now use influencers as a valuable part of their advertising strategy – it’s a far cry from just a few years ago, when the word ‘influencer’ barely existed in marketing circles.
We live in an incredibly fast-moving digital world, where practically everyone has a smartphone giving us instant access to what’s happening online. Visual-focused apps like Instagram offer fantastic ways to raise awareness about your products, no matter what kind of product or service you offer. More business-focused networks, such as LinkedIn are full of influential figures who post articles about their industry – influencers exist in all shapes and sizes.
It’s vital to seize opportunities when they present themselves. The rise of the influencer is just one of the modern marketing tools at your disposal, and there are no doubt many new techniques we don’t even know about yet.