There have been a lot of changes with communications and public relations over the last decade. Nearly all of these changes have been affected by social media to some extent. Bloggers and influencers have always been a part of branding and marketing, and some of them are as popular as celebrities.
Because of that, they can significantly extend the reach of your business, especially if your audience doesn’t watch regular television or listen to the radio. Instead, this audience spends more time in the digital world, so they use YouTube, Twitter, and Instagram for entertainment. With influencer marketing, you can partner with these social media personalities to attract new customers.
The Rise of Influencer Marketing
In public relations, earned media is a strategy that provides consumers with authenticity. According to a Nielsen study, the majority of consumers trust earned media more than traditional forms of advertising.
While commercials or billboards come directly from your business, having a journalist tell your story makes your advertising more organic. Influencer marketing is a modern form of this PR strategy. Rather than a radio or television reporter telling the story, a social media influencer does.
In general, consumers trust influencers’ opinions about products and services. When influencers tout your business as the best, the response from their followers is powerful. As a result, your brand reaps the benefits.
Benefits of Influencer Outreach
Some influencers have reached a significant level of fame in the digital world. Young people are achieving stardom with massive followings on social media platforms. A Collective Bias survey found that 30% of people are more likely to purchase products endorsed by noncelebrity bloggers than mainstream celebrities. Among the surveyed millennials, about 70% preferred influencer endorsements.
Unlike paid advertisements, influencers also connect with your audience to earn trust and credibility. Truthfully, consumers prefer this conversation over ads. Since influencers want to maintain the reputations that they’ve built, most of them only promote products that they’ve used and liked.
On top of that, influencer marketing is cost-effective and traceable. According to research, it is cheaper than traditional advertising and has a rather high return on investment. You can measure the success of an influencer marketing campaign via brand mentions, click-through rates, referral traffic, revenue, and social likes.
Qualities to Look for in an Influencer
When you want influencers to represent your business, look for up-and-coming individuals who have a large following and regularly engage with their followers. They should fit the target audience for your brand, and their posts should be at least 60% content. In addition, responses and engagement from their followers are essential. Followers who don’t join the conversation are less likely to try the product or service.
Since there are thousands of influencers on social media, choosing the best ones to represent your brand could be tedious without a PR company. GYC Vegas can sift through potential candidates to find the best influencers for your business. In fact, our PR agency in Las Vegas has experience with creating entire PR strategies for a small and large business.