In middle school, I was your typical “fangirl.”
Also known as the girl that made a Harry Styles/One Direction Instagram fan account.
At the young age of 10 years old, I was already obsessing over how many followers I had and how many likes I was getting per post. Was this a premonition that I was destined to be a Social Media Management major at 20 years old?
Maybe.
Even as a middle schooler, I wanted to be a popular account a lot of people followed, but even as a One Direction fan account, the influencer market was a competitive place. Now in 2021, we are in the age of influence. The concept of leveraging celebrities or those with influence to endorse or promote a product has been a fundamental part of marketing for centuries. However, harnessing the voices of influencers—social media celebrities—requires a different approach to how you’ve traditionally spread your brand’s message.
If you are considering entering this ambitious market, there are several types of influencer categories you can choose from:
- Beauty (James Charles, Manny Gutierrez)
- Fashion & Styles (Gigi Hadid, Sommer Ray)
- Food (Jamie Oliver, Salt Bae)
- Lifestyle (Joanna Gaines, Lilly Singh)
- Photography
- Fitness (Blogilates)
- Travel
- TikToker (Addison Rae, Charli d’Amelio)
- Youtuber (David Dobrik, Zach King)
Like with any marketing tactic, influencers have to go through the motions of learning how to target their audience and planning how to reach them. In order to create an influencer marketing strategy, there are steps those individuals can take.
How To Find Influencers & What To Pay Them
First, one should start conducting their research. What platform do you want to focus on? What is your demographic? Do you want to target gen-z or the millennials? Look into the different types of influencers you’re interested in as well: a nano-influencer (<1k-10k followers), micro-influencer (10k-100k followers), or macro-influencer (100k-1M).
“Time and attention are our two biggest currencies that we have right now on social media.” —Karen Freberg
When it comes down to payment, most influencers decide to make their rates per post. Regardless of what kind of influencer you are, it comes down to the number of followers you have yet again. Statistics show that for users with fewer than 1,000 followers, the price per post is far less than the average ($271) – these influencers charge roughly $83. Users with somewhere between 1,000 and 9,999 followers earn just over 30 percent more for their posts (roughly $108). Influencers who have upward of 99,999 followers, though, see their earnings more than double ($240), while users with more than 100,000 followers see their price per post rise the highest – over $763.
Set A Budget & Management Strategy
The next decision to be made is a budget after planning an influencer campaign. It is important to establish a posting schedule, calls to action to regularly use, and a diverse feed to showcase their brand.
Goals & Message
The two most common reasons for using influencer marketing are to elevate brand awareness and increase sales. This first step in figuring out what a brand’s goal needs to be, they need to understand what their mission is. Influencers have the ability to reach specific individuals, so in order to ensure you are communicating with the right target audience, it is important that you showcase your product correctly. For example, if your demographic is older individuals, we wouldn’t want to rely on a platform on TikTok or Snapchat. However, if the target audience is gen-z, TikTok would be the perfect place to post content.
Review & Refine Strategy
Make sure you create predetermined dates to measure progress and track results throughout the whole campaign!
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