How Different Social Media Influencers Equal Different Influence Results

Dhariana Lozano — December 5, 2016 Follow @DhariLo

Influencer marketing is a little more complicated than it seems. As if it isn’t hard enough to find influencers that fit your brand and target audience, another element to consider is the type of influence you’re looking for. In this post I’ll review 4 different influencer types and what kind of results you can expect from their posts.

Different influencers = different types of influence results.

Such as different forms of advertising, or messaging can drive specific actions, influencers and the content they produce will result in various types of engagement and activity. So just like you’d choose influencers based on your overall campaign goals, the content they produce for the campaign should be based on the type of buzz you are looking to build for your brand.

1. Influence for Brand Awareness

You choose these influencers because they have large followings, a new target audience for your brand, or create beautiful content. This influencer may not always post about your industry, but again this person is chosen purely to get new eyes on your brand. For example, a client my agency works with had a celebrity post about this particular business – did we see an immediate boost in followers? No. Why? The celebrity is not based anywhere near NYC so their followers weren’t as engaged. But what we do know is that people who we may have not targeted now know about the business.

2. Influence for Follower Growth

If you’re looking for follower growth you’ll want to choose an influencer who’s target audience or fan base, lines up with your target consumer. In the example above the influencer gave us brand visibility, but not too much on the follower side. Influencers who will drive follower traffic to your account are into products or services that align with yours (and will be local to your brick and mortar location). You’ll also want to pay attention to how this influencer may tag others in their posts. Make sure your handle is included in captions and if you have a brick and mortar location that they use a geo-tag in the post as well.

3. Influence to Drive Specific Actions

This type of influence is more detailed and concentrated on using influencers on specific campaigns to get users to sign up to your newsletter, or purchase a product etc. These influencers don’t mind sharing outside info, links and may regularly participate in promotions. Be careful with who you choose in this category! You don’t want to pick someone that pushes everything under the sun. Again, knowing your audience in and out is the best way to figure out who your potential customers will trust and take advice from. The influencers you choose to drive specific campaigns must have an engaged following or else you won’t see much return from their posts.

4. Influence for Content

Some influencers may not have very large followings, but create amazing content. If your brand or business is in need of better photos and videos – this is the kind of influencer you are looking for. Following is less of a criteria for these influencers, but you’ll want to make sure the content they create is eye catching and that they can reflect the look and feel of your brand.

General Influencer tips:

Here are some general things to remember anytime you’re considering using influencers. Here are some basics on what should you look for when sourcing influencers from my article “How to Win With Influencer Marketing“:

• An active user: You want someone that is active on their social media networks, email or blog.
  
• A user who knows what they’re doing: Pay attention to what is being posted. Are they getting all the action on cute cat pictures but none on other messages? If so, pass. Also pay attention to if the person or brand is using the correct format for the network (tagging handles correctly etc.)
  
• An engaged following: There is no point to an influencer if their posts don’t generate actions. You wouldn’t pay for an ad in a magazine no one reads right?
  
• A following that aligns with your target consumer: Influencer marketing won’t work unless your influencer’s audience is a match to your target consumer. Have a clear buyer persona in mind when looking at the influencer’s followers.
  
• Content that aligns with your brand’s image/message/aesthetic.

Influencer marketing is now one of the best ways to quickly reach your social media goals and grow your following. Influencers come in all shapes and sizes, and the best way to get the most out of any of your influencer campaigns is to choose the right influencers based on your social media objectives and goals. Got any questions? Let me know in a comment!

This article was originally published here.

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