The future of social marketing with influencers

Podcast transcript

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Do you think any amateur can randomly become a social media influencer and rise to a brand-driven fandom? If you thought yes, well becoming a successful influencer takes much more internal drive and external factors than you think it would.

Hi, my name is Romanthi and welcome to your favorite podcast channel #Jargonots - where we discuss the why’s and what’s of various aspects of digital marketing. Today’s episode is about The future of social marketing with influencers.

Glad to have you with me today.

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Social media is a space many companies and creators try hard to strike the correct chord. We are exposed to nearly 17 social media platforms with a combined 300 million active user base.

Tiktok’s influencer marketing industry alone, is expected to hit $16.4 billion this year according to #statistica, pulling in many creators and influencers to success.

Now more than ever, there’s more opportunity for companies to compete for top creators at a lower price point.

But in a report published by #Hootsuit surprisingly, 72% of smaller companies did not work with influencers, and only 42% of larger companies did use influencer marketing.

This got me wondering, what is causing this resistance even in light of the influencer marketing boom?

Main reason is volatility in pricing.

The one question that gets most marketers thinking is the pricing mechanism for an influencer. The lack of standardization gets Many top-notch creator agencies to smaller businesses feel the same way about how much is enough?

But Could there be more reasons?

this got me thinking…

What gets an influencer to puts in time and effort to build a content strategy that gains phenomenal followers?

And while they are great at it and attract sponsors, why do they get judged for what they are worth?

Can a brand make an influencer rise or fall?

There is actually a motivational science behind this.

An influencer is driven by the rewards of self or self-determination. This was initially highlighted by psychologists Edward Deci and Richard Ryan, in their 1985 book Self-Determination and Intrinsic Motivation in Human Behavior.

The self-determination theory suggested that people tend to be driven by a need to grow and gain fulfillment, this is, essentially the intrinsic motivation behind influences who do what they do.

And this is true for Many social influencers their social networks are based on intrinsic motivation, as an outlet for themselves or because they enjoy inspiring, helping, or educating others.

But As their audience grows, their motivations may also gradually change to or expand. As you would have noticed and experienced yourselves, some sponsored content, will not be as popular among the same follower base compared to a non-paid post.

As a result, Studies have shown that some influencers can become less motivated when it comes to creating and sharing sponsored posts and behaviors (Neal, 2017; Audrezeta et al., 2020).

This emphasizes the importance of focusing on intrinsic motivation in interventions with social influencers to keep them engaged in the promoted behaviors.

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One example that highlights the relevance of this, can be seen when the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport in the Netherlands launched the health campaign for COVID-19 with the hashtag #onlytogether

In this campaign, social influencers were rewarded extrinsically with money to post a video or message on their social media to promote the government-imposed COVID-19 measures on social distancing

But A few months later, some of these influencers turned against the government policy and urged others on social media using the [#idonotparticipateanymore] hashtag to stop adhering to these COVID-19 measures (Nederlandse Omroep Stichting NOS, 2020).

From this perspective, I dug deeper to find out more possibilities as to why this would occur and whether there could be a workaround that helps influencers allowing them to be perceived as credible and authentic by their followers and reliable and consistent by brands.

In a research article published by frontienrsin in 2022, I found some interesting Techniques for Motivating Social Influencers. The research team used two sets of groups to prove each of these techniques.

The first technique, was to test the APPROACH

This study was done using influencers who promoted youth health behaviors.

Two groups of influencers, one group was entirely trained online and no personal interactions.

The other group had purely face-to-face interactions.

What they discovered was shocking.

With the less personal, online approach group, the results showed lower social influencer engagement than

in the group who experience face-to-face interactions,

This shows that the relationship between the intervention developer and the influencer that provides follow-up sessions with regular support is an important factor in determining the success of the ultimate influencer engagement. (Santiago and Castelo, 2020).

Another systematic review, indicated that

the Technique for Motivating Social Influencers is the use of non-controlling language.

To prove this, two groups were used, one group of influencers was exposed to highly controlled language, for training and briefings and even communication in general.

While the next group was given more autonomy.

The results showed that the group of influencers who were exposed to non-controlling language were more likely to perceive choice and collaboration and the marketers were offered choices and even encouraged to ask questions.

In contrast, the groups who was exposed to a more controlling language left social influencers feeling that performing the behavior is not their own choice. And in fact, These feelings of external pressure showed resistance whereby they disregarded the desired behavior and even tended to do the opposite

Essentially, The way in which the training or briefing is communicated to social influencers is also important to ensure that they feel connected, given the freedom of choice and space to internalize the information.

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So how do we know what works? Theory is one thing, but let’s dive into some real-life business examples.

Let’s break this down. To find out what works, first, start by doing your research across all social networks/ and having an initial assessment of what works. It 100% starts with the audience. Know where they are.

When brands like #Walmart, #UltaBeauty and #Amazon willingly partnered with Clare McLaughlin , A self-proclaimed “Martha Stewart Jr.,” who is a Tiktok influencer for #BudgetLuxury, they didn’t have to worry about doing an audience audit. Her targeting was very clear. She shares hacks and tips for interior design and home organization with bit of luxe to their home, without breaking the bank.

These brands are saved by dictating terms of brand guides and controlling the influencer more specifically because her content already successfully resonates with the brand and the audience. Making things easier for everyone.

And That leads us to identify the purpose.

The UK based sustainable underwear brand #Pantee also does something similar. They specifically partnered with creators who advocate the same values as the brand, which are sustainability, mental health and body positivity.

one important aspect #Pantee tries to achieve is target creators who use the brand specifically for the partnership as a value of truth and transparency, which is vital in social creativity, because the followers, will always find out.

Like #Pantee, it’s best to get to the game plan knowing your purpose and values your business stands for.

So when using an influencer, chose someone who finds it easier to connect and maintain a consistent brand voice within the audience and a clear purpose and identity. This makes it possible for a sponsored message to make an impact without impacting an influencer’s usual response rates.

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Finally, don’t be limited by reaching to influencers only with Large follower sizes.

One of the best examples of this is seen with the Engineering school, #Purdue University in Indiana

The influencers consists of student ambassadors and interns

As they signed up for the influencer programs, they are given brand voice training, templates, and special tags, so that the students, have free reign of their Instagram account and create content themselves and even view reports.

The unique tags keep the Digital Engagement team aware of what is posted and were even able to spot a potential crisis before it spins out.

As a result, they were able to increase their social media engagement by 25%

Sometimes what’s really more important is finding the right creators/ who can collaborate with you/ to make inspiring content/ relevant to your product or service.

To wind up, I leave you something to think about: Do you support creators for the type of content they produce?/ or for reflecting your brand values in what they publish?

All that being said, here are my key takeaways for today.

Watch out for the creators within your industry and make sure you make the correct choice ahead of time. you can get about that by using a free tool like Ninja outreach.

29% of brands used products and freebees as influencer payments, 15% of brands didn’t pay anything at all. And Less than 12% of brands paid anything aver USD 1000.

Use UTM codes to track influencer results. If not, you can use a social media tool to track post success and keep multiple teams collaborating.

The future is the creator economy. And with eyes wide open, your success depends on spotting the influencer when he’s still small.

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Okay folks that’s all I have for you today.

I hope you enjoyed today’s show, if you have any feedback, please make sure to write to me, on the email link provided here.

For most of the data used here I used the #Hootsuit social media trends report for 2023.

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