As a marketer, you’re faced with a multitude of challenges. One of the biggest of these challenges is building a strong social media following and keeping that following engaged. The key to a successful social media marketing campaign begins when you craft your part of the “conversation.” What will you talk about? Who will you talk to? How will you talk about it?
Defining the Dialogue
First off, whatever you decide to post needs to be thematically consistent across all your platforms. If your brand firmly believes in veganism on Instagram, you shouldn’t be snapping pictures of baby back ribs on your Facebook. If you haven’t yet decided what conversations you’d like to have or which you’d like to contribute to, it may mean you need to take some additional time to clearly define your brand. Once you know your identity, you’ll know who you want to reach.
The Art of Conversing
There is no need to create a whole new conversation. In fact, your brand can benefit from adding value to an already existing conversation. For example, extreme sports have always existed, yet Red Bull consistently and expertly adds to this dialogue. However, there is an indisputable art to utilizing social media. This is where your influence marketers and fashion bloggers come into play: their minds brimming with quality content, ideas for engagement, and bringing with them an avid audience that’s just waiting for the next post. Just as not everyone is an amazing painter, not every brand is going to be an amazing content creator. However, by aligning your products or services with someone who is, suddenly, you’re joining the conversation; more importantly, you’re adding value to it. Find a blogger that matches your brand contextually and their message can become your message if you collaborate together. There is a certain magic behind pairing up with micro-influencers specifically, as they tend to have more passionate audiences than the celebrity influencers. With micro-influencers, your marketing content is being produced in a way that not only earns you thousands of impressions, but also builds brand loyalty and trust.
Producing Proprietary Brand Content
While a micro-influencer is creating content on behalf of your brand, you still need a solid business profile on each social platform with its own content. Now, you may be asking yourself, “Isn’t this the same problem I had when I started? Why even get an influencer involved?” Think about it. After an influencer marketing campaign, you can go a step further and receive in-depth customer insights from these trend setters while also building a stronger brand identity. With all this content and data, plus the networking you’ve been a part of, producing material for your own profile gets whole lot easier.
Post Influencer Marketing Campaign
You now know who your customers are, as they’re essentially your influencer’s followers. Browse through profiles and analyze your observations to tailor content to your target demographic, location, and interests. Collaborate with campaign managers if you’re working with an influencer agency that offers one. Generally, a campaign manager—at least a good one—will know the seasonal themes that are hot and be up-to-date on the latest news, trends, and styles. It’s also likely that he or she will have substantial experience working with a variety of brands. When you begin producing content, perform an audit on any past material you may have. See what worked and what didn’t, and then compare and contrast that information with your fashion blogger or micro-influencer’s content. Remember, you don’t have to repost or use all influencer content to get the benefits. If the influencers style isn’t exactly aligned with your theme, leave that content with the influencer’s audience. Finally, you can get insights right from the source: the influencer. Often times, marketing campaigns are so successful that the brand and content creators stay in touch. More often than not, a micro-influencer will encourage you to repost and share their blogs, photography, tweets, and posts with your audience. It will bolster both of your profiles and humanize your brand.
Find the Right Micro-Influencer
Finding the right micro-influencer can be half the battle (if not more). For this reason, you want to find a micro-influencer marketing agency that has a vigorous vetting process to ensure that you only have the best content creators producing material for your brand.
ApexDrop has helped thousands of authentic micro-influencers connect with quality brands through contextual product gifting (also known as trade collaborations). Imagine having an affordable and easy way to get your products featured by hundreds of influencers immediately on Instagram, but without all the extra work. ApexDrop offers an unparalleled service in campaign management from start to finish and can assure that their clients receive quality posts and authenticity. For more information, schedule a call with an ApexDrop Influencer Specialist today www.apexdrop.com/contact
