Navigating the World of Social Media Influencers: A Comprehensive Guide

In today’s marketing landscape, if you need a powerful way to get your brand’s message across, improve your traffic, and even drive more conversions, then working with social media influencers is the best way to reach these goals.

The power that the top social media influencers yield is at an all-time high, and it doesn’t seem to be going down anytime soon.

But if you want to start working with these key players to promote your products and services, check out this guide for a deep dive into social influencer marketing, how it can impact your business, and how to build successful partnerships.

Understanding Social Media Influencers

Social media influencers are people with a large following on social platforms who earn a living by creating content. They usually build their reputation by focusing on a specific niche, eventually placing themselves as somewhat of an authority in their sector.

For brands, working with social media influencers can help raise brand awareness and increase the level of trust people have in your company. For instance, you may have a difficult time promoting a new face cream with traditional marketing methods if your company is new since people don’t have a lot of information about you yet.

But if a well-liked beauty influencer recommends your new face cream, their followers are more likely to trust that you have a quality product.

Social media influencer marketing involves working with people with all types of social followings, so don’t assume you’ll need to reach out to the biggest names in the game only (known as macro-influencers). Micro- and nano-influencers may have smaller audiences, but they can present your brand to an engaged audience that’s likely to convert.

The Power of Social Media Influencer Marketing

Over 80% of marketers now have a dedicated budget for social influencer campaigns, but is that all worth it?

In short? Yes.

Around 31% of social media users discover new products and services from influencers directly, which showcases that this method directly boosts a company’s brand awareness levels.

In terms of sales, social media influencer marketing also delivers, as most marketers get an ROI of at least 1:1, which most likely occurs because influencers are the best way to build trust with new and niche audiences.

Around 50% of Millennials say they trust product recommendations from influencers, while 33% of Gen Z users bought a product because a social media influencer recommended it.

The Instagram Influencer Phenomenon

Instagram is the most popular platform for influencer marketing in the US, and it doesn’t take a lot of effort to see why.

The social network seems specifically built to give social media influencers all the tools they need to build a following.

First, its visual-heavy approach allows Instagram influencers to create engaging content that’s also easy to consume, either through photos, short reels, or stories. However, the behavior of Instagram users also helped make this platform a prime environment for social influencer marketing. People are accustomed to using hashtags on the platform to discover products and services and are more likely to engage with posts when compared to other social media networks.

Collaborating With Social Media Influencers

Whether you want to work with Instagram influencers or people from other platforms, these tips can help you build a profitable partnership:

1. Choose the right influencer. Not all influencers will help you see results. First, you should work with a person who has access to your type of consumer and who routinely creates content in your niche. In other words, working with a tech influencer when you’re trying to sell beauty products might not be the best approach. Other than niche, assess how engaged their following is and their reputation, and see if they are a good fit for your brand.
2. Decide what you want. Figure out what you want from the influencer in terms of your goals (selling more products, increasing awareness, promoting a coupon code, etc.) as well as how you want to reach them. You should establish an exact number of posts, type of content, and even when you want the content to be published.
3. Negotiate a deal: You and the influencer may have some back-and-forth until you both reach an agreement, especially if you don’t have the budget to pay for their services and want to work out a commission or bartering system.
4. Set clear expectations. Lastly, clarify what you want out of this process, and communicate clearly with your Instagram influencer to ensure you’re both on the same page.

Leveraging Mandala AI for Influencer Marketing

If you’re unsure who the top social media influencers in your niche are, Mandala AI’s tools can help you identify them with ease.

Our social listening tool is not just for figuring out what people think about your brand. You can also use them to discover key influencers, of all sizes and on any platform, and learn if you could potentially strike up a collaboration with them.

Two particularly useful tools to help you include:

1. Top Channels: Helps you get a list of the most popular influencers in your industry across several social media platforms and even in different languages.
2. Top Mentions: Find your mentions to assess the true extent of your Instagram influencer marketing campaigns and adjust them in real-time to enhance their success.

Learn more about how Mandala AI’s social influencer marketing tools work here.

Conclusion

Whether you work with the top social media influencers or choose micro or nano creators, this type of strategy is one of the most efficient ways to help your brand be discovered by new audiences.

The right influencers can help your brand reach its bottom line, but identifying the right people to follow up with can be difficult, especially if you don’t necessarily want to reach out to the heavy hitters.

Have you tried your luck at influencer marketing? How did you find the right people to partner with? Let us know in the comments below!

Remember to also check out Mandala AI’s tools if you want to identify top creators in your niche and effectively track campaign metrics.