Influencer Collaboration: A New Age Content Marketing Technique
5 min read
5 min read
by Krisiana Kostadinova
In today’s digital age, marketing has undergone a transformation, and one of the most potent tools in a marketer’s arsenal is influencer collaboration. Influencers, as the name suggests, wield significant power in shaping consumers’ decisions, particularly when it comes to purchasing products or services. Platforms like Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok have become the go-to destinations for individuals seeking the counsel of trusted content creators – often, well-known influencers – to make informed buying choices. This is why influencer marketing on social media is not just a trendy buzzword but a vital strategy for elevating brand awareness and boosting sales. If you want to get to know more about the topic of Influencers you can check our post, where we explored the rising trend of Micro-Influencers. But now, let’s delve into the world of influencer marketing and learn how to harness its potential to benefit your brand.
As you already know from their name, Influencers impact users’ decisions when it comes to buying products. Consumers usually turn to Instagram, YouTube, or TikTok when a product or service has caught their eye and they are considering a purchase. They seek the opinion of trusted content creators, often well-known influencers, to make up their minds and commit to the purchase. This is why Influencer Marketing on social media is a big step toward sales improvement and overall brand awareness raise.
If you are considering implementing Influencer Marketing in your marketing strategy, you better think wisely. Choosing more, but smaller influencers might be more profitable for your business. Of course, if Kim Kardashian shares your product on her Instagram story more people will see it and may remember it, but if you collaborate with say 5-6 smaller influencers with a similar following base, fewer people will see your products but they will see it more than once and will surely remember your brand name. What is more, influencers who have fewer followers are usually more trustworthy, because they have a more personal “relationship” with their fans and tend to answer their followers’ questions.
Many influencers you see on Instagram get really picky once they gain enough followers to call themselves “big” and start to choose their collaboration offers carefully, in order not to get hate or get canceled when promoting something controversial on social media. Your brand may not be controversial or bad, but you should know: haters gonna hate!
That is why working with smaller influencers is easier for small and not-so-well-known brands who have recently started their business and don’t have much budget. I won’t even mention the financial aspect of the follower difference, the bigger the following base, the bigger the price on the contract. Smaller influencers usually want less money and provide more content in exchange because they want to secure these big bucks and want to improve their overall image, in order to receive more and more collaboration offers.
UGC (User Generated Content) and Influencer Marketing often get mixed. Influencers (also influencer wannabes and content creators) nowadays are trying to ride the wave of trends and create social media posts showing viral, hyped product testings/try-on in order to get more views and followers.
What is more, not every person with a big following who shares a story with their UGG boots, for example, has received them for free or has been paid to share them on their story. Content creators and public figures follow trends and share posts and stories with trendy and aesthetic products to be relevant and to get more views. Refrain from getting this mixed with Influencer Marketing.
UGC on its own is every kind of content like posts, stories, podcasts, and reviews generated by all kinds of online users, let they be fans, employees, content creators, or even influencers. UGC could be paid or unpaid content, and it can also be bad (in terms of review) when unpaid for. All of this content shared online contributes to overall brand awareness.
Unless it is specifically disclosed in the captions (for example #ad, “This post is sponsored by @brandname” or “paid collaboration with @brandname”), a social media post including a certain product has been not paid for by a brand and the creator has done the post with their own money.
Regulations on collaborations, ads, and paid posts depend on the platform and on each country’s rules. Make sure to do your research before participating in a paid collaboration, no matter if you are the influencer or the brand that has requested the collaboration, or you will risk your post being taken down or even worse, getting your account restricted or banned.
Influencer marketing is a great investment and a serious thing to implement in your marketing strategy. Oftentimes you will get someone to stand for and be the face of your brand in exchange for free products or a monthly payment, depending on the collaboration contract.
If your brand and products are already well-known and influencers share them on social media without being paid for it, congratulations! You’ve reached the final level of success!
Jokes aside, once your brand reaches peak recognition, you will get free advertising. Work hard for it, use Influencer Marketing in your favor, and make your products go viral. After that, it gets easy, and people will start promoting your brand for free so they can get views, and followers and be in the trend.
What is User-Generated Content? And Why is it Important? – Hootsuite.com
