Alex DittyInfluencer marketing on Instagram can increase your brand’s exposure
Are you sharing great visual content on Instagram but still having difficulty building an audience? Then maybe you should activate influencers on Instagram to increase your exposure and get your brand in front of a larger audience. When you’re able to leverage influencers who are speaking to your target demographic of buyers then you can authentically share your brand’s story to these Instagrammers. In order to do this you need to understand how influencers become tastemakers that drive engagement with their audience and how to get the right influencers to share your brand’s message. We outline the benefits of using influencers to share your brand to a new audience. In our free guide to planning Instagram influencer promotions you can learn all of the details to promoting Instagram contests with influencers.
Importance of alignment & authenticity for influencer marketing
The best influencers on Instagram have established followers who look to that influencer as a tastemaker. Their influence over their specific interest areas are your asset to get your brand promoted to this targeted audience. To do this effectively, you want to use influencers who are speaking authentically to this audience and align with your brand’s message. Meaning, you don’t want influencers who wouldn’t make sense to speak about your brand.
Authenticity between the influencers and your brand promotion comes from their followers’ expectations. The influencer is sharing content that their followers expect and look to that influencer to see. When using any influencer you need to be confident that your brand’s story will fit within those expectations. Know your brand’s story and the posting style of the influencers you’re recruiting to properly identify convergence points where the two fit together. For example, you most likely wouldn’t want to activate auto influencers for your frozen yogurt shop. This alignment and authenticity works best when you know the audience you’re trying to reach and the influencers who are driving engagement with those individuals . This understanding is gained by using tools like SEEN Insights to analyze your community’s sharing and learn who’s driving those conversations.
Using influencers to get in front of a new audience
When the alignment and authenticity is set with the influencers’ posts, they can promote your brand to their followers. Consumers look to these influencers for guidance on fashion, food, entertainment and anything that applies to the influencers’ focus. When it makes sense for your brand to be a part of that focus, this exposure will yield great results. Most importantly, the consumers who follow these influencers trust the influencers’ posts more than branded posts. The trust that the influencers build with their followers is what enables you to build authentic brand promotion. The influencers build exposure of your brand to people who previously wouldn’t have been exposed to your content. The additional reach that you gain on Instagram from the influencer’s posts will make your content more discoverable, which will grow your account presence and grow your following on Instagram. This is the smartest way to promote your products and services to a new audience on Instagram.
Steps to using authentic influencers
To activate influencers that align with your brand that can expose your content to new people you need to follow three simple steps.
1. Identify influencers with the right following
Put in the work in your campaign’s preplanning to understand who you’re trying to reach and who is already reaching these individuals. When you know who you’re trying to speak to and the influencers who are currently doing that then you can plan the best ways to engage them and share your brand’s story.
2. Guide the influencers’ content creation
The next step for using influencers to speak to a new audience is designing the content types that the influencers will be sharing to this new audience. You want to guide their sharing in a way that will communicate your brand’s story while authentically matching what the influencers would normally share. After all, they’ve built their following for a reason.
3. Analyze & repeat
During and after the promotion, analyze the effectiveness of the promotion to understand what worked and what could have been improved for better results. Smart influencer marketing on Instagram takes commitment to more than just single one-off promotions. By analyzing your campaigns you can plan future influencer marketing promotions to continue reaching new people on the visual network.
Follow these steps to put together smart influencer marketing campaigns that will expose you to a new audience, grow your following and promote your brand. Plan these promotions with our free guide to Instagram influencer marketing.
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