In today's digital landscape, social media influencers have emerged as powerful voices that can significantly impact consumer behavior. Brands that effectively harness the potential of these influencers gain a competitive edge in engaging their target consumers.
In this blog post, we will explore the latest trends in influencer marketing, highlight the risks of not doing it right, and provide best practices from HBR research for brands to consider.
Why Working With Influencers Can Matter to Your Brand:
Consumers trust recommendations from influencers they follow, making influencer marketing a powerful tool for brand advocacy and driving purchase decisions.
Social media has become an integral part of consumers' lives, with a significant portion of their time spent on platforms like Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok where they get exposed to influencers.
Traditional advertising channels struggle to capture the attention of younger generations, making influencer marketing an essential avenue for brand visibility and engagement.
BUT there are Risks of Not Doing It Right:
Inauthenticity and loss of credibility: Collaborating with influencers who don't align with the brand's values or target audience can lead to a perception of inauthenticity, damaging the brand's reputation.
Legal and ethical issues: Failure to adhere to disclosure guidelines and regulations regarding sponsored content can result in legal repercussions and reputational damage.
Poor content quality: Choosing influencers solely based on follower count without considering their content quality can lead to subpar promotional material that fails to resonate with the target audience.
Lack of ROI measurement: Without clear metrics and goals in place, brands may struggle to assess the effectiveness and return on investment of their influencer marketing efforts.
And Misconceptions to Manage:
Influencers guarantee immediate results: While influencer marketing can be highly effective, it's important to set realistic expectations and understand that building brand awareness and trust takes time.
Follower count equals influence: A high follower count does not necessarily translate to genuine influence. Micro-influencers with smaller, engaged audiences often yield better results.
Influencers are solely responsible for content creation: Collaboration should be a two-way street, with brands actively participating in the content creation process to ensure alignment with brand messaging and values.
Growing Investments Behind Influencers:
Investments in Influencer Marketing continue to grow: eMarketer forecasts (Nov 2022) that companies will spend $5 billion on it in 2022, growing to $6.16 billion in 2023.
They note:
§ “74.5% of marketers are using influencer marketing today, but that will hit 88.7% in 2026
§ Instagram gets the bulk of spending, with $2.23 billion expected in 2022
§ TikTok sits in third place, behind YouTube, though it will pass the video platform in 2024”
💲 But are Brands getting the best ROI on their Influencer Marketing investments?
Harvard Business Review research report (Nov 2022) says NO, and identifies opportunities to optimize:
“… authors analyzed engagement for more than 5,800 influencer posts and identified seven key variables that drive a campaign’s effectiveness, including characteristics of both the influencer and of their individual posts.
By optimizing these variables, the average brand could boost ROI by 16.6%, suggesting that many companies are designing campaigns that leave substantial value on the table.”
They identified 7 key variables that impact ROI, and what brands should focus on:
🧏♀️ Brands should look for partners with
1. large follower bases
2. who post frequently (but not too frequently)
3. whose followers’ interests have some (but not too much) overlap with brand’s domain
4. who post a lot of original content
✍🏻 When developing posts, brands should
5. strike a medium-positive tone
6. include links when possible
7. avoid focusing on new product launches
Influencer marketing has become an integral part of a brand's social media strategy, offering unique opportunities to engage target consumers authentically. By staying informed about the latest trends, understanding the risks involved, debunking misconceptions, and implementing best practices, brands can effectively leverage social media influencers to drive brand awareness, foster customer loyalty, and ultimately boost their bottom line in the dynamic digital landscape.
With HBR's research backed tactics brands should be able to optimize with whom and how to invest to get stronger ROI!