According to a study, around 72% of people with internet access use social media. With more features constantly being added, social media platforms have shifted companies’ focus from investment-appropriate marketing to group-specific marketing. Social media platforms make use of certain algorithms to create hype around certain brands, campaigns, or markets. People with a smooth grasp of such algorithms are usually able to create an audience for the niche.
According to 24% of marketers, Twitter is one of the most sought-after marketing platforms, after Facebook and other handles. However, Twitter records an increased base of firm audience members looking for appropriate business houses to collaborate with. Hence, ignoring such a crucial platform could pose a severe threat to a business reputation amongst like-minded influencers. Given below are a few easy steps to collaborate with influencers for the success of your brand effectively.
- Step 1- Identify the right influencers
- Step 2- Engagement
- Step 3- Engage with interested candidates
- Step 4- Open-ended conversations are the key
- Step 5- Discuss campaigns with influencers
- Step 6- Incentivizing influencers
Step 1- Identify the right influencers
The first step involves finding the right set of influencers for marketing purposes. Influencers act as a voice for a new brand by amplifying what it serves and various parameters it aligns with. A lot of brands tend to send requests to random influencers blindly. Such requests are either not paid any heed because the influencer has no idea regarding your niche, or they simply end up creating every bit of fake promotion for your brand. For example, a fashion influencer has a distinctive audience, and if they participate in promoting a certain mutual fund scheme, it will be a bizarre act on Twitter.
Hence, look out for influencers posting tweets on the same subject as your own business. Try hunting for influencers with similar values by using hashtags.
Step 2- Engagement
Now that the brand has accurately identified the best set of influencers for promotion, the next step involves engaging with them. Methods like retweeting or commenting on their tweets are an effective way to show your interest. Do not text them immediately for collaboration or engagement process, as it has a very low rate of showing success. Try to act as an informed brand without jeopardizing brand privacy. Once an influencer recurrently sees the brand’s initiative, there is a high rate of full-fledged engagement.
Step 3- Engage with interested candidates
Once you have posted and engaged with several influencers, wait for the ones who are equally interested in your brand. Every promotion activity involves both parties to be equally interested in making it work. If one individual chooses to thank the brand for retweeting, it can further continue the conversation into an enhanced engagement. Keep a tab on influencers liking your tweets or retweeting them in order to engage with like-minded people. Using polls and supplementing their tweets with questions is also considered exciting ways of increasing engagement with influencers.
Step 4- Open-ended conversations are the key
A brand constantly texting for one day and never showing up afterward is a huge disappointment. Hence, try to have an open-ended conversation with influencers wherein giving an equal platform for questions and complements must be encouraged. However, the questions must be niche restricted. Asking private life questions can be detrimental to the brand image. Further, a compliment in business-appropriate language to ensure influencers don’t feel uncomfortable to message back.
Step 5- Discuss campaigns with influencers
Once you have established good contacts with influencers, it is time to discuss upcoming campaigns. Try to be more elaborative regarding the campaign rather than pushing influencers to join the campaign. The more effective the initial pitch is, the higher are the chances of influencers wanting to become a part of it. Don’t try to be the speaker as influencers have some crucial ideas for campaigns as well. Being a part of several campaigns, Influencers can help you with relevant hashtags.
Further, influencers can help you understand the audience’s taste better. A brand can also post about the campaign and wait for influencers to respond. However, influencers with whom one has a history of engagement might be more impressed with a personal message.
Step 6- Incentivizing influencers
Influencers put in a lot of effort to make sure that a certain campaign can positively influence the audience into generating leads. Hence, incentivizing them is crucial to get in touch with more audience members and develop an equally efficient network of influencers. Monetary incentives are usually more preferred by most influencers. However, giving your own product can be a good incentive for influencers interesting in the brand. Most brands send the products only for a test run period, wherein influencers cannot develop a significant opinion due to the short period. Giving them a shoutout can also act as a major boost for their morale.
Conclusion
The right approach in the initial stage can help a brand earn rewards in the form of greater audience reach and a good network of influencing personalities. Finally, the campaign must be directed at consumers but must sound authentic and not fabricated. Appealing to the influencers is the very first step in appealing to a larger population. Hence, try to be concrete and impactful with the initial engagement pitch.
