Businesses who have bought into endorsing influencers to reach their target audience have been predominantly active in the B2C sphere. Recently, there has been a noticeable shift in more B2B businesses exploring influencers.
An influencer is an individual or group of people that have the power to sway the behaviour or thoughts of others - this expression is frequently referred to as influencer marketing.
The role of an influencer varies but can be broadly categorised into social media personalities, bloggers, popular youtubers, independent business consultants, academics, industry analysts, journalists or celebrities.
It is important to understand that influencers need to be unique to your specific industry as well as the product or service you want to promote in order for a return on investment (ROI).
For example, if you are interested in pursuing an influencer to market your business in the tech sector you will explore tech critics in the industry, individuals with popular tech-focused social media accounts, or specific radio and TV personalities who have influence in this space.
Influencers can be beneficial to an organisation for two reasons:
How to find influencers?
When searching for influencers to enhance your brand, there are various elements to take into consideration.
First and foremost it is important to understand the goals of your business and how the influencer will assist in accomplishing those goals. Establishing goals and outlining the influencer’s role and responsibility, in the social media strategy, is essential to see results.
For an influencer to improve brand engagement, the following guidelines are noteworthy: