Why it shouldn’t all be about social media followers…
It is no secret that social media has turned the world of public relations on its head. With so many new mediums to express a message, the public relations industry has been forced to think outside the box and use these new methods of communication in order to get their client’s message to their target audience.
One such by-product of the social media revolution has been the birth of the social influencer, an individual who through their mass social media following, with some blogs rivalling small media outlets in terms of readership, has the ability to command the conversation around a brand at the click of a button. With modern day consumers blind to billboards and averse to advertisements, social influencers have become the perfect medium for brands to use to help them get their message out there.
The relationship social influencers have with their audience is something brands could only ever dream of, and with recent data showing that consumers are 90% more likely to try something recommended by an influencer when compared with traditional advertising, it’s no wonder that brands are jumping on board the social influencer train. But simply involving a social influencer with a high number of followers won’t guarantee instant success; as many brands have already learned, it needs to be the right influencer.
When involving a social influencer they need to be authentic and they need to align with your client’s brand. There’s no point involving a social influencer who doesn’t smoke to promote an electronic cigarette – it just wouldn’t make sense to the influencer or their followers (after all, you wouldn’t send a beauty press release to a tech journalist).
The rule of quality over quantity also applies when working with influencers. Reaching 100,000 people through a social influencer is great, but how many of these are interested in hearing about your brand. Choosing an influencer with 20,000 followers over 100,000 is far more worthwhile for your campaign if these followers are you target audience.
Finding the right influencer for your brand can be tricky, but once you find them, or in some instances they find you, you’ll have struck gold.