1.Choose Your Objective and Metrics
When it comes to defining a solid strategy, a clear objective should always be at the forefront of your strategy. This means defining your goal whether it’s creating brand awareness, boosting SEO, driving internet traffic to your site, or increasing your engagement on the social platform.
Once a goal or goals are defined it’s time to put the strategy in motion and pick the metrics to measure these goals. Often impressions and reach are the main metrics used for measurement of awareness, but what about broadening the spectrum and including engagement metrics such as comments and likes?
Also, don’t neglect the other metrics pertaining to your website such as clicks and click-through-rate (CTR). These additional metrics will allow you to measure more than engagement and allow you to see if the micro-influencer is driving people to your website.
2. Choose Your Platform
While it may be tempting to jump on the bandwagon and choose the main influencer platforms such as Instagram and Facebook, it may hinder your strategy down the line. With new social media platforms emerging, a proper assessment of the social media landscape must be given to ensure your objectives can be reached by utilizing that platform.
The demographics of your audience should be the driving force when picking your social media platform. In most cases, the key demographic includes a specific age range which aligns with your desired age range.
For example, if your age range lays within the younger millennial market of 18-24 then Youtube is your best bet hands down. In a recent survey conducted by Pew Research, a nonpartisan research center revealed nearly 94% of those 18-24, access Youtube. With Youtube soaring above all other social media platforms for those 18-24 it’s important to stay updated with statistics and keep an eye out for everchanging trends.
3. Choose a Micro-influencer
Alright, you’ve built a rainbow full of colorful objectives and stabilized the arch with a platform, now it’s time to find the gold; the micro-influencer. When it comes to selecting the ideal micro-influencer it’s important to focus on these key aspects:
- Post consistency: In a recent case study by CoSchedule, a social media and marketing calendar and scheduling platform, suggests posting at least once a day for Facebook, 15 times a day for Twitter, and at least twice a day for Instagram.
- Follower count: Micro-influencers are considered anyone with under 100,000 followers. It’s up to you to choose if you would like to have a more interactive micro-influencer who creates closer bonds with their followers or a micro-influencer who is well-established and may not engage with as many followers but possesses a larger audience.
- Engagement levels: The likes and comments a micro-influencer receives signals the amount of buzz surrounding their individual content. This means a micro-influencer should be generating many likes and comments to keep the conversation going as well as invite others to join as well.
- Personal Brand identity: Is the micro-influencer a person who truly embodies your brand along with its mission and values? When selecting a micro-influencer a full 360 view of their content and personal beliefs they’re putting on their platform must be taken into account.
4. Write up a contract and finalize details
In this day and age, everything has a price, including influencers. Despite containing the word micro, don’t be fooled by this, whether it’s 80,000 followers or 7,000 followers compensation is expected with any arrangement. Compensation usually takes three forms; commission, merchandise, or an hourly pay rate. Once compensation is decided it’s time to think about the remaining contract outlining measures.
These additions include the agreement outlining the deliverables, length, and consistency to ensure the company and influencer are on the same page regarding objectives.
Additionally, the ownership of content is defined within the agreement. Also, as with any person promoting a brand or having access to new products or releases, it’s suggested to require every influencer sign a non-disclosure agreement.
Lastly, ensure your influencer is not partnering with brands that rival your own. With an audience viewing content sponsored by brands who are rival competitors it will become unclear who they should root for and most importantly show loyalty towards.
5. Monitor and Motivate From Afar
The influencer relationship goes beyond just viewing sponsored content, but all of their social media posts. Repeatedly checking on all their forms of content will secure your contract agreement is intact and reaffirm your micro-influencer is still generating content that’s appealing to your audience.
Commenting, liking, and mentioning your influencer on your website or company page is a great way to motivate your influencer and create higher levels of engagement. With a large interaction present between the influencer and the company on social media, it shows the users how organic and authentic the content is and improves the customer-relationship experience as users know the brand is there to listen.
As you enter your journey to find the best micro-influencer it’s important to conduct exploratory research on the correct platforms that align with your target market and objectives. With the key points above driving your influencer search, a successful micro-influencer driven marketing campaign is bound to come about.