The Types of Social Influencers [Infographic]

Getting Social Influencers To Talk About Your Brand

As marketers, the big buzz word is 'social influencer' but actually harnassing the power of social influencers is another matter entirely.  In fact, it's an incredible amount of work that doesn't actually lead to instant sales for the majority of brands.

And that's ok.  It's not supposed to.  Yep - we said it.  Influencer marketing IS NOT supposed to land your brand instant sales.  Yet most brands still think a success story with an influencer comes with the ringing of the register firing away with new sales.  What it does do is create a strong word of mouth referral - which when accompanied by MORE influencers talking about your brand, will eventually lead to that sales bump being sought.

In this blog, Hollywood Branded shares our infographic discussed the types of social influencers your brand can work with.

Catching that Evasive Millennial

In fact, what social influencers do best is catch not just attention but also influence purchase decisions.  Typically FUTURE purchase decisions.

Think of it this way.  There is a 'golden rule' in advertising that came about most likely haphazardly, but it's one that is used quite often.  That rule?  It takes 7 times for a consumer to be made aware of a brand in order to get them influenced to purchase.  That doesn't mean they WILL purchase.  But influenced.

Speeding Up The Process

And working with a social influencer speeds that process up because it's like a warm welcome. It's a "hey, I liked this well enough to want to associate myself publicly with it, and I think it's cool... so should you."  And with microinfluencers, who the follower might actually personally know themselves... it's even stronger.

Having that strong word of mouth association is more powerful than an ad - be it digital or print. And influencer marketing actually provides the consumer with the feel of 'well, THEY like it... so maybe I will too.  Hmmm.'  It puts the thought of the brand in a positive spin, and doesn't come across as advertise-y and being hit over the head by a brand - at least when the influencer is allowed to position it organically to themselves within their content without the brand directing every move.  

What Type of Influencer Do You Need?

Check out the inforgraphic below for our in-depth explaination about different types of influencers your brand can work with.

Ok... I Get It. Influencers Are Great. Now What?

Well, we can't argue how powerful influencers are however, hiring a random influencer alone is not enough.  You need to know the type of influencer that is right for your brand.  Because just a random one, two or three isn't going to do it.

And of course your brand's budget also plays a MAJOR role in which influencers you are going to work with.  Because they do cost money. And that is only going to grow as this practice becomes more defined.  It's a little wild wild west right now - but there are elements that exist that will help provide a roadmap, including measurale things like follower base size, engagement level, type of content (video / photo) difficulty... and so on.

And from THAT you can create a general CPM rate which means cost per thousand of people reached through their post.  And at least understand how one influencer might measure compared to another.  

Engagement

• Higher engagement means higher CPM because they do a better job advertising for you.
• Lower engagement should mean lower CPM because either they have dead accounts, which we talk about in this blog, or they just aren't so very good at connecting with their followers.

Followers

• This is how many people are following that influencer on a specific platform.  
• Your partnership with the influencer will cost more if you are workign with them on more than one platform - but realize you may reach some of - or many of - the same people who follow them on another platform.

Content Produced

• Your brand could simply be referred to or called out, no photo or video included. Super easy. But not very engaging or noticeable.
• The influencer could create a cool photo, which is way preferable to them just throwing up something your brand team made. Boring! And not engaging to followerse.
• Or they could make a gif, or even a video. And that's going to take a lot more time.  Production alone for shooting a video with a storyline, a film crew, a team of people acting in it.  It's a MASSIVE production.  BUT SUPER AWESOME CONTENT that you can repurpose and which has tremendous engagement.

Why You Should Have An Influencer Marketing Strategy Expert?

Influencer management (really, it’s a lot like herding cats) requires a lot of juggling and hand holding, and plenty of content tweaks along the way.  All which add up to a lot of energy and time spent to make sure all elements come together at the end, perfectly executed for your brand.

So yes. It's a lot.  And as a brand marketer it's not like you don't have twenty four dozen OTHER pressing needs to get done.  So hire an expert to help you (ok, here's the sell... like Hollywood Braanded!)  It's unlikely your team has the bandwidth to become experts immediately in creating influencer outreach - although we are sure with time you can figure it out.  You don't need to sleep, right?

An entertainment marketing firm is giong to help you with outreach and sell in, content scripting and hashtags, product shipping, post approvals, follow up.  And follow up.  Did we say follow up? And then ultimatley detailed metric reporting on the program’s success!

Other Influencer Marketing Strategies  

There are lots of other options that your brand can leverage to take advantage of influencers and their powerful marketing, including:

• Product Placement in TV, films and music videos 
• Hollywood backstage & craft services sampling (You get customized branded content takeaways plus it  open doors to on set sales opportunities)
• Celebrity gifting lounges and gift bags (where your product ends up in the hands of Hollywood’s elite trendsetters)
• Talk Show segments (Your brand receives implied host celebrity endorsement)
• Local News segments (where you can target local markets to drive awareness or event traffic)
• Celebrity driven Music, Entertainment, Sports and Fashion event sponsorships (with lots and lots of Social media content takeaways and Public Relations assets)
• And more!

Interested in learning more customized influencer program for your brand? Check out our Influencer Marketing guide below or simply set a FREE complimentary consultation with our team!