Influencer Marketing

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Social Media

Whether you’re on social media all day or just take the occasional scroll, chances are you’ve seen the words “paid collaboration” on the top of an image. Influencer marketing is projected to be one of the largest marketing trends of 2022, especially with influencer-generated video content.


What is Influencer Marketing?

Influencer marketing is when products and services are marketed/advertised by partnering with individuals who influence a large group of followers (ranging from several thousand to several million) on social media. Influencers fall under a range of categories and can be journalists, bloggers, vloggers, public figures, industry analysts, or any individual who has amassed a large following on social media.

 

When it comes to choosing the right influencer for your marketing campaign, there are a few things to consider:


Influencer Follower Tiers

The three main influencer tiers are as follows:

Mega-influencers
A-list celebrities with more than 500,000 followers on social media

Mega-influencers are celebrities. Take a look at your favourite A-lister’s Instagram page, and there is a good chance you will find sponsored posts throughout their feed, encouraging you to buy a product or service. Because of the number of people who will see their content, you can expect a collaboration with a mega-influencer to have a premium price.

 

Macro-influencers
Popular social media stars with an audience ranging from 10,000 followers to 500,000 followers

Once influencers reach the macro tier, the title of influencer fades, and ‘celebrity’ becomes more appropriate. They’ve become a household name in their city, and their audience aspires to reach their level of success or fame. Although they have thousands of followers, they may not receive the same number of likes and comments – especially with unauthentic sponsored posts and promotions.

 

Micro-influencers
Budding social media personalities with less than 10,000 followers

Micro-influencers don’t hold a large audience but typically have higher engagement rates. These beauty bloggers, food critics, fitness accounts, and lifestyle influencers have found a niche, developed a brand aesthetic, and built an authentic relationship with their audience.

 

Identifying which tier of influencer to work with will affect your marketing campaign’s reach and engagement. When working with an influencer, make sure their core audience is aligned with your brand’s target audience. The main thing to keep in mind is whether an influencer’s audience is actively listening and taking action (in the form of likes, shares, replies, and comments) based on what they say or post. For the best results, we recommend working with an influencer who is already a fan of your brand for content that truly resonates as authentic to the audience.

How to Work With an Influencer

After identifying the influencer(s) you want to work with for your marketing campaign, you have to identify how you’d like to collaborate. There are many different types of influencer marketing strategies to choose from:

Content sharing
The influencer(s) share brand-approved content on their own platforms and pages. This is the most popular form of influencer marketing.

 

Branded hashtags
The influencer(s) share brand-approved content on their own platforms and pages including required hashtags in their caption. This is a good option if working with multiple influencers to have one space for the whole campaign to live under.

 

Giveaways
The influencer(s) post a giveaway photo and caption with brand-approved rules and encourage their audience to engage to win a brand’s product or service. Although giveaways are great to increase engagement and followers, you will find once the giveaway is over both sides may lose some of the new followers.

 

Video series
The influencer(s) post their experience with or using a brand’s product and showcase it on their platform.  With the growing popularity of TikTok and Instagram Reels, vertical video is quickly becoming the must-have format for influencer marketing.

 

As influencer marketing continues to grow, businesses should capitalize on using strong voices to help build their brand identity and reach new audiences. As you’re working through the process of influencer marketing, it’s important to keep three key outcomes in mind: successful content that works on a specific platform, access to new audiences, and positive feedback from well-aligned or existing customers.

 

Whichever one is your key priority, it’s important not to lose sight of the eventual outcome you hope to gain from collaborating with an influencer and to remember that, at the end of the day, your marketing strategies should lead to work your brand can be proud of.


Our Work

26 Projects has been working closely with influencer Kirsten Buck facilitating and consulting on the relationship between brands and her by managing media partnerships, collaborations, and business development to provide strategy and direction for growth.

 

See our Influencer Marketing experience with Kirsten here.



Creating Evergreen Content

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Social Media

In its simplest form, evergreen content is content that will stay relevant and valuable for a long period of time, no matter the season or what is currently in the news – like “how-to” guides, tutorials, and case studies.

 

Photos by Pauline Boldt.


Starting Evergreen Content

When deciding on a content strategy for your business, you want to ensure a portion of evergreen content is included. Having a plan of what evergreen content to create can save you valuable time and offer room to post more timely or seasonal content around it. However, your focus should be on having the best information based on the searcher’s intent when it comes to creating.

An excellent place to start is looking at the top webpage results for the same content you’d like to create – this helps structure your content around what will get the most web traffic. Then, look at the language and SEO keywords these pages focus on.


Things to Consider

Now that you have great written content and had an in-depth look at SEO, it’s time to consider how else your evergreen content can rise to the top of searches.

Internal linking is a great way to get viewers to interact with other content on your site. For example, if you write a how-to guide on searing salmon, an internal link could lead to another page on your site where you sell the cookware you used for the guide.

External or outbound linking is when a page on your site links to another page on a different domain (aka links from your site to someone else’s). You may be thinking, why would I want a user to leave my site and look at someone else’s, but the reality is that external linking helps add depth and timeliness to your content by providing the user with extra knowledge, especially when writing about a complex topic.

You also need to think about how you’ll promote your evergreen content. Email marketing is a great way to get your content directly to who you want to read it – and to people who have said that they want to hear from you. In an ideal world, you’d be able to hit publish and have your target audience interact with your content. In reality, you need a solid promotional plan, so the right people find your content, interact with it, and share it.


The Bottom Line

Evergreen content saves you money, time, and resources if done well. Since the content requires less frequent updates, you can focus your efforts on more timely matters of your content strategy. Evergreen content is a fantastic way to assist your businesses’ continued organic growth.



Diving Into Reels and TikTok

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Social Media

TikTok and Instagram Reels have taken the world by storm. Not only does video content offer entertainment value, but if used correctly, it’s also a way to connect to your audience and give personality to your brand.

 

Photos by Pauline Boldt.


The Power of Video

Although TikTok videos and Reels may be similar, they have features that differ. Before we get into the importance of these short and snappy videos, we should discuss the features of both:

TikTok Features:

  • A separate platform
  • Videos can be up to 3 mins long
  • Edits (including graphics, text, and video transitions) are all available on the platform
  • 855 million monthly active users

Reel Features:

  • Live on the Instagram platform
  • Videos can be up to 60 sec long
  • Reels can be directly posted to Instagram stories
  • Edits (including graphics, text, and video transitions) are all available on the platform

When deciding how to approach Reels or TikToks for your business, spending some time on both platforms is essential. Researching what competitors are doing and how they succeed is an excellent baseline for tailoring your video content.

A common misconception is that filming video content for TikTok and Reels will be easy and quick. Of course, as time passes and you film more, they will become faster. However to start with, make sure you have the video strategized and storyboarded, and a list of props you’ll need before you even pick up the camera or phone.

The best part about using TikTok and Reels is that both are relatively new, meaning there is more room to experiment. If you find your brand lacks a personal connection to the audience, consider doing a behind-the-scenes office tour or a meet and greet of employees. Video content is a way to put a face to your brand and allow for a more authentic connection.


TikTok

Deciding to make a TikTok account is also great for experimenting with your business. For example, you may find posting different content than what you post on established social accounts can attract new audiences or even have a higher engagement rate! Currently, the highest share of users is between the ages of 10 and 28, but users aged 30 to 39 are one of the fastest-growing groups. It’s essential to consider the audience you are already reaching and which audiences you’d like to reach for more brand awareness.

Engagement with video content is made easy with TikTok. Most people think when they reach out to a company, they will get an automated response or be talking to a computer. If a customer comments on a TikTok with a question, you can respond right in the comment feed with a video response.

Instagram Reels

With Instagram Reels, the engagement focus is more on finding new customers for your business. Follower count and engagement rate are bound to rise if you post Reel videos on current trends and topics. Instagram, as a platform, promotes Reel content of high quality, so if Reels are something you hope to do going forward, make sure you invest the time and effort into creating them.