Influencers play a prominent role in shaping how consumers perceive a brand, particularly when it comes to social media. If you are someone aspiring to establish a presence on social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram while also not forgetting YouTube, it feels like collaborating with influencers is inevitable at this point.
Having said that, there is one problem—building and establishing a long-term relationship with influencers. You can consider instances of one-time collaborations, but the common approach is to work on long-term commitments because it is much easier to work with influencers you know and trusts instead of jumping to new influencers all the time.
Step #1 – Find the Right Influencer
You want to start with finding the right influencer. This one sounds obvious, but some brands still fail to realize that you cannot just reach out to random influencers and expect a positive outcome. For one, establish your budget. How much can you realistically pay? If A-listers are out of your reach, you will need to go with micro-influencers, which is not a bad thing. If anything, they offer more value thanks to the overall engagement rate they get.
Next, make sure that the influencer has the right demographic. If you have a shirt store and want to promote custom designs, for example, it does not make sense to reach out to influencers in the pet product or smart home appliance industry, right? To find an influencer, you can go through various channels manually or utilize available tools, such as HypeAuditor or Upfluence.
Step #2 – Explain Your Goals and Expectations
Most influencers are always up to collaborate because they make money this way. Nevertheless, you should still be upfront and clear about your goals and expectations. It is a two-way deal, and your potential partner should know what to expect and whether it is achievable. Talk about how many content pieces you expect from an influencer and whether the content creation will be entirely in their hands.
Agree on compensation for the work and explain what you want in terms of conversions/engagement on social media. Work out what to do if the numbers are below/above expectations, etc. The more details you agree on in advance, the less likely you are to run into conflicts later down the line. And being transparent about everything also reveals genuine interest and builds trust, which further strengthens the relationship.
Photo by Polina Zimmerman
Step #3 – Give Influencers Creative Freedom
As already mentioned, it is important to establish who is going to curate the content. Creative posts are a driving force in influencer campaigns. For the most part, businesses leave the creative side of the collaboration in the hands of influencers. Influencers understand their audience and have experimented enough to know what works and what doesn’t.
In addition, social media users are perceptive enough to notice bits that seem out of the ordinary or forced. In other words, if an influencer shifts away from the usual content they publish because a brand had a hand in affecting the content. If this happens, the consequences could be negative.
Step #4 – Keep in Touch and Engage With Their Content
A relationship between a business and influencers should not end in just collaborating on a few bits of content. No, to build a lasting relationship, brands need to stay in touch with an influencer and do more than just keep them updated about the results. Sharing an influencer’s content or leaving a comment now and then is a sign of good faith. Also, if there is an opportunity to invite an influencer to a live event, it would be a waste not to take such an opportunity.
Businesses can keep their influencers in the loop by showing exclusive behind-the-scenes stuff, which can then be teased by the influencers themselves. There are multiple opportunities to keep influencers happy, and if they feel like they are part of the brand and not just a tool used to promote the goods and services, it is natural that the influencers will also want to continue working on building a strong relationship with the business.
