emarketing

Should You Reach Out to Social Media Influencers?

Imagine you’re in the market for a new cappuccino maker. You fire up your trusty laptop and head to Amazon, where you’re instantly presented with 876 options. After combing through tons of reviews and spending a solid 20 minutes debating whether you really need the extra attachment that draws hearts and kittens in the foam, you close the laptop in frustration and pledge your undying allegiance to Starbucks for the foreseeable future.

The next day, however, you’re scrolling through Facebook and see someone you follow — a mommy blogger, a D-list celebrity or a local musician — talking about how much they love their new cappuccino maker. The video clearly shows the features of the machine. You can see what the coffee comes out looking like, and exactly how the hearts-and-kittens attachment works. You can even hear the satisfied “ahh” after the first sip.

This is it. This is the cappuccino maker of your dreams.

It’s also a prime example of influencer marketing.

People are more likely to trust recommendations from people they know — even though, in the case of influencer marketing, they may not “know” the person in real life. Still, the familiarity is there, and that connection alone is worth more than any five-star Amazon rating.

What Is Social Media Influencer Marketing?

Social media influencer marketing is a way for you to get your product or service in front of a larger audience and piggyback off of the trust that audience already has in the influencer. It’s advertising 2.0 — so subtle that people likely don’t even realize it’s advertising at all.

These days, there are plenty of ways to avoid traditional marketing. YouTube has a skip button, we pay extra for the ad-less version of Hulu, and when we can’t fast-forward through the commercials on our favorite network TV program, we pick up our phones, tablets or laptops and scroll mindlessly until “The Masked Singer” comes back on.

Social media influencers hit us while we scroll. It’s the blogger we follow for her funny parenting tweets who wants to share the amazing diaper rash cream she swears by, or the Instagram food photographer who tells us all about his new camera bag. It doesn’t seem like an ad, so we watch it — and it gets us thinking that maybe we need rash cream or a camera bag, too!

Finding Your Social Media Influencers

As a small business, you don’t likely have the budget to hire top-tier celebrities to shill your goods and services. But just because you can’t afford a Kobe or a Kardashian doesn’t mean all hope is lost. Micro-influencers — people with a smaller following, but with incredibly engaged followers — can often offer more advantages.

Do you own a bakery? A wedding planner with 5,000 followers who touts your torte can bring plenty of brides-to-be into your fold. Do you sell yoga mats? There are plenty of fitness gurus out there with wide subscriber lists.

The trick is to choose an influencer with a connection to your ideal buyer persona. Asking the owner of a blog for outdoor enthusiasts to promote your new brand of insect repellant is good; asking them to promote your new style of tap shoes is not.

While most social media influencers do charge for their services, there’s always room for a little bartering. Some will do it just for the swag!

Are You Ready to Reach Out?

Social media influencers can connect you with an entirely new audience, often for less than what it would cost you to reach the same amount of people through traditional advertising. They bring a level of trust to the table that you probably couldn’t accomplish on your own. And influencer marketing is seen by many as more authentic than a paid ad or sponsored post. While it’s not a standalone way to market your small business, it’s definitely one you should consider adding to your arsenal!

Looking for other ways to shine the spotlight on your goods and services? Mischa Communications has plenty of marketing tricks up our sleeves. Call or click today and let’s get started!