What is a Social Media Influencer?

A social media influencer is the mainstream, influential person in social media networks, who promote products and services of a brand. You can also define social media influencer as a person who works in a certain industry and collaborate with followers in it. It is also an individual who is able to impact the individual’s purchases because of his authority or relationship with target customers. He can have his own blog with a reliable audience or a social media account, providing specific content interesting for his subscribers.

The goal of each business is to attract experts to the promotion of their products.
Studies show that you can gain $6.5 for each dollar invested in marketing activities online. Instagram remains the most effective platform for reaching influencers – 87.1% of them named it the main platform for their posts.

Social media influencer definition goes beyond the number of followers he can attract to your social media network or website. Really crucial for your brand is his ability to build engagement across with your core audience and strengthen it day-by-day.

Types of Social Media Influencers

You can place your target experts within any of the following categories (check the following infographic for more details):

Celebrities — artists, politicians, public people who have 1 million followers, and each their posts gain up to 5% engagement. Their impact comes from their status and personal brand
Macro-influencers — are people who have less than 1 million followers, and each their posts gain up to 10% engagement. Their expertise generates within a specific category. It can be anything from traveling to business development.
Micro-influencers — people who have at least 500 followers, most of their posts gain more than 25% engagement. These individuals build real engagement with the brand and have a unique relationship with their audience. Such close relations in a certain niche can bring really outstanding results in terms of promotion of any company planning to cooperate with this expert.

Remember, the best way to collaborate with a certain expert in social media is to work according to the 1-9-90 rule — 90% of Internet users consume the content, whereas only 1% produce the original one. Consequently, the best way to be effective in social media is to collaborate with influencers who are experts in your particular brand and can deliver the content required to your core customers.

How to Create a Successful Campaign with Social Media Influencers

Choose among these types of collaborations to make your work with niche experts most effective for your target audience:

Type 1. Sponsored partnership

Make a partnership with experts who will produce content in social media networks on your behalf. In this case, social media influencers have to develop specific content concerning your brand and place it on their social media account or blog. You have to make certain recommendations concerning the type of content you require. Prepare a sort of technical task for the blogger to understand the goals you aim to reach with this particular post.

Type 2. Guest blogging

In this strategy, you have to determine a set of creators who own blogs or websites with an audience that belong to your niche. Ask them if they accept guest blogs on their websites. When you reach a certain agreement, prepare an interesting article for them. It has to bring valuable information to your customers and should not be promotional.

Type 3. Brand ambassador program

You can bring collaboration with influencers to the next level by asking them to become your brand ambassadors. It means they will promote your product or service on a regular basis and will become your brand representative. Experts can describe their regular application of the brand’s service in their blogs and represent the brand at specific industry events.

Type 4. Takeover

You can allow the influencer to write from your account on the behalf of your brand. If he is an expert in your niche, these posts might receive higher engagement than any others in your social network. You can collaborate on a long term basis and provide the expert with full access to your account or ask him to participate in a takeover during a particular marketing campaign.