Top benefits and biggest risks of using ‘Social media influencers’ to promote your products using Instagram

What’s important to know for a Business carrying out this initiative?

An interesting journal article by Booth and Matic (2011) explains the method used to identify the correct influencers for a brand. The method explained is called ‘The Index valuation algorithm’ which analyses the variables against the product or service to the influencer.

“New consumer influencers are gaining a large share of voice in the market thanks to the power of the internet” (Booth and Matic, 2011). The first important aspect is to identify activist influencers before engagement, starts with developing a strategy taking into consideration these objectives:

• Influencers that stimulate engaging conversations with the opportunity to change brand perception
• Influencers that will build a relationship

The valuation algorithm is a model that consists of categories that include:

• Viewers per month (calculated by views, likes, shares)
• Linkages, the popularity of the posts to mutual followers
• Post frequency
• Media citation score (Volume of media that cites blogger)
• Engagement (quantity of likes and comments)

At the end of the model the blogger is scored in terms of how high the above factors were using scales of 1-5 for poor, fair, good, very good and excellent. Each rating corresponds to a different objective or subjective set of values . It is important to take into consideration when choosing the right influencer for the brand by identifying how they represent the brand positively and to ensure that engagement will improve measurable results. The variables can be measured quantitatively and qualitatively to measure the effectiveness of the bloggers influence (Booth and Matic, 2011).

Choosing the right influencers to promote your products:

In this YouTube video Neil Patel talks about the factors to consider when picking the influencer, you want to promote your brand. Patel (2017) describes picking ‘relevant’ influencers that share the same target market otherwise the partnership will be pointless.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Traackr (2018) Shows the five steps to follow when creating an action plan for influencer marketing. The framework includes steps that will make sure the correct approach has been taken and all aspects have been considered.

Success stories:

Kylie Jenner promoting for Fit Tea (2017)

Using the successful visual platform Instagram, Fit Tea’s account has approximately 1.7 million followers, which is above average in their sector. Using Kylie Jenner to post the above picture on her Instagram holding the product as one of their promoters increases views and followers for the brand (Patel, 2017).

Important aspects to consider from Fit tea:

• Choosing to work with females is tactile as women are more likely to follow brands compared to men.
• Fit tea uses comedic content to entertain their followers including frequent posts of memes
• Looking at Fit Tea on their website their statement say’s ‘exercise and proper diet are necessary to achieve and maintain weight loss’, they have used influencers that are fit and healthy to integrate with their products

Social media influencer promoting for Garmen (Stages)

Social Media Influencers are Changing the way companies market their products / TODAY

Samantha Brooke posted a photo on her Instagram page of her dog in her kayak which went viral and so she gained a lot of followers. People were asking about what Kayak she was using which then caught the attention of advertisers. A company called Garmen that specialize in outdoor products were looking for a female influencer with a big following to promote their products. Benefits of working with Samantha meant that Garmen gained 40% of purchases through people seeing the post on social media.

 

What are the risks and disadvantages of using social media influencers?

When choosing to use social media influencers to promote products there is a few risks that a business must take and a few disadvantages.

1. FTC (Federal Trade Commission) requirements. These include making sure that when influencers endorse a paid product, they must clearly disclose any connection with the influencer and the company. Failure to state clearly influencers and marketers are violating against the rules (Ganoza, 2017).
2. Choosing the wrong influencer to promote products. This can result in having a negative impact on the brand if the target market is different to the influencers followers (Barker, 2018). The brand should take into consideration the age, gender, interest etc. otherwise the partnership won’t work.
3. Cost can be expensive. Guideline for Instagram influencer marketing is $1000 for every 100,000 followers (Lua, 2018). So, if the influencer has 1 million followers’ the price for a paid post is going to be costly.
4. Negative buzz. Possibility of receiving negative feedback (comments on Instagram) which could ruin the brands reputation

Bibliography:

Barker, S. (2017). How to Boost Your Product Launch With Influencer Marketing. Available: https://mention.com/blog/product-launch-influencer-marketing/. Last accessed 13th January 2019.

Booth, N and Matic, J. (2011). Mapping and leveraging influencers in social media to shape corporate brand perceptions. Corporate Communications: An International Journal. 16 (3), 184-191.

Ganoza, L. (2017). What Brands Need to Know about Using Influencers to Advertise their Products . Available: https://www.manufacturingindustryadvisor.com/ftccrackdownwhat-brands-need-to-know-about-using-influencers-to-advertise-their-products/#page=1. Last accessed 13th January 2019.

Lua, A. (2018). How Much Does Social Media Influencer Marketing Cost? Available: https://blog.bufferapp.com/influencer-marketing-cost. Last accessed 13th January 2019.

Patel, D. (2017). How Fit Tea Is Winning Big With Influencer Marketing. Available: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/how-fit-tea-is-winning-big-with-influencer-marketing_us_58ebd4f1e4b0ea028d568bbe?ec_carp=3641512943064852452&guccounter=1. Last accessed 12th January 2019.

Traackr. (2017). Influencer marketing framework. Available: http://www.traackr.com/influencer-marketing-framework. Last accessed 13th January 2019.