July 29, 2015 11:00 am
Published by Kirsty Sharman
Editor’s note: We asked the popular Twitter thought leader, Spillly, to share his thoughts on building and nurturing a mutually beneficial relationship between brands and influencers. Read more of insights and opinion below.
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Having received more than my fair share of branded disposable pens and matching lanyards over the years, I feel its my duty to inform brands and agencies to stop trying to buy my loyalty with cheap plastic gifts and branded promo-gear.
My loyalty should be curated, nurtured and rewarded.
Let’s be honest, you are looking to use me as another marketing channel and hoping that my mid level influence can help grow your brand or deliver your campaign objectives. It can, but only as long as I already believe in your purpose and buy into your marketing message and most importantly, love your product.
Influencer marketing is a very smart way of using a third parties voice to authentically portray your brand in a way that would only seems paid for and fake, if it were coming directly from the brand. Influencer marketing has been around before the dawn of social media, before the web and before traditional marketing was even dreamt up. Storekeepers would ask patrons to spread the word, and if the customer had a good experience, would do just that. Nothing has changed except the medium on which we spread the word.
I understand what you, the marketer, want to use me for and feel that I should be fairly rewarded for my part in your process. It is paid-for media and the reward should be cash.
My voice to my followers is far more powerful than any other medium you have in your vast arsenal of marketing channels. The consumer of today no longer believes your polished message and scripted values. The consumer of today wants to hear an honest message, one that is unique to the influencer but the truth no less. Consumers want someone that will answer the questions asked, with deep insight into the product and will kill for the brand if he is truly an ambassador.
Would you rather have a message being broadcast to thousands of people that don’t necessarily care or a conversation between an ambassador and a few real potential clients of the brand, who will most likely spend money with you? Influencers who believe in the brand will not only drive awareness but will drive an action that is valuable to the brand.
Involved affiliate marketing has proven to be hugely successful in industries like travel, fashion and restaurants. This is because people will trust the voice of a virtual stranger over the “your call is important to us” tone of taglines. Influencers have taken the time, often over years, to build credibility with their audience and have their own authentic voice and tone, which resonates with their own audience.
Influencer’s audiences are often incredibly niche. Understanding whom their audience is absolutely key to using an influencer to sell the right product to their niche audience. My personal online audience has evolved drastically from a comedic one to an entrepreneurial business base in the creative and tech industries. You can’t expect me to promote food brands or fashion, as my listeners know that this is not what I talk about and it won’t appear credible. I have taken years to have the right followers for my brand, my business and my messages, and if you want to gain access to this market and put my own credibility at risk, then you should pay for the privilege. If you are financially compensating someone then you also get the right to guide the conversation towards your own goals and expect certain clear deliverables to be executed by the influencer, in the influencers own unique tone and fashion. Giving the influencer the freedom to express your message in their incomparable voice will deliver the greatest results for your business.
You want your influencer to feel rewarded, acknowledged, loved, important, or any combination of those and ensure that they are partners in your communication strategy.
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July 23, 2018 1:04 pm
Published by Cara Shepherd
In many ways, the blue verification tick you see besides an influencer’s name is a sign of status. Only the most popular and influential Instagrammers will ever see it. In fact, it can be incredibly difficult to get verified on Instagram. Influencer Marketing Hub published an article highlighting 6 Instagram tips to help you get verified. You can view the original article here. We have summarised the article below.
Before it was symbolized status, the ‘verification’ symbol was primarily a symbol of authenticity, declaring that you are who you say you are. Verification symbols on most social media channels show people that the influencer or celebrity they are searching for are indeed authentic and not a tribute account or fake account. Instagram, however only verifies people who they deem are important enough for other people to create a tribute or fake accounts for. So, if there is no one trying to impersonate you there is no need for you to be verified.
Official Instagram statements
Instagram makes its views on verification clear in its help files. Instagram says that the verified badge means “that Instagram has confirmed that this is the authentic account for the public figure, celebrity or global brand it represents.”
Instagram also makes it clear that it is up to them to decide who qualifies as a public figure, celebrity or global brand. You cannot just apply to become verified.
Ultimately, Instagram sums up its policy with the following statement. “Currently, only Instagram accounts that have a high likelihood of being impersonated have verified badges.” If people can find your Instagram account easily enough, then Instagram is unlikely to verify you.
Although Instagram does not see the verification symbol as a status symbol, Instagrammers who have it display it with pride and those who don’t have it often feel that Instagram has denied them “authenticity power”.
What can you do to help yourself get verified on Instagram?
If you want that little tick beside your name then you need to turn yourself into a “public figure, celebrity or global brand”. In other words, you need to become a real influencer.
Hence you should first apply the suggestions here to another social network and build an influencer status there before you use them on Instagram. If you build up a following on Instagram too quickly, before you find fame elsewhere, you may never become verified.
1. Build your followers and engagement
Clearly, the key to being famous online is to become a true influencer. You want your audience to actually engage with your posts, rather than having irrelevant followers who just boost your numbers.
An essential requirement is to define your niche. Appealing to everyone is unlikely to increase engagement. An example of this is Zoe Sugg. She built her online reputation with her personal beauty and lifestyle blog- Zoella.
Having built her reputation on YouTube, Zoe was able to make a successful transition to other social networks, including Instagram.
Other people have opened similarly named Instagram accounts, so Instagram verified Zoe’s account to avoid confusion.
It is crucial that any engagement be meaningful. There is no point in making a series of “Nice picture”-type comments on peoples’ images/posts. Such meaningless comments do nothing to enhance your credibility as a thought leader.
2. Use popular Hashtags to help make yourself more visible
Both Instagram and Twitter suggest popular hashtags. There are also independent apps to assist with ideas, such as Hashtagify or TagBlender.
It is important that you only use hashtags that relevant to your niche. One common practice is to create a hashtag for your personal brand and to encourage your followers to use it regularly.
3. Cross promote your social media accounts
One way you can build your following on Instagram, or any other network is to promote all of your social network accounts.
By establishing popularity across a range of sites, you come across as being more of an internet celebrity, and more likely to be considered somebody worthy of Instagram verification.
4. Make your posts at the best times for your target social network
To encourage maximum engagement, you will want as many people as possible to see your posts. That means you should post at the times when most of your followers are checking their social media accounts.
CoSchedule has the following recommendations for the best time to post your Instagram images and videos to ensure ultimate engagement.
- Monday and Thursday at any time other than 3–4 p.m.
- Videos any day at 9 p.m.–8 a.m.
- Experiment with 2 a.m., 5 p.m., and Wednesday at 7 p.m.
5. Personalize your posts
You need to ensure that your account differs in some way from anyone else who might choose to use your name or something very similar. You need to add personality to your postings. If you merely post pictures of buildings or landscapes you are not adding value. Indeed you are not influential in any way. If you are a portraying yourself as a fashion influencer, there is little point in just posting pictures of clothing. You will do far better by posting a picture of people wearing the attire in attractive settings, or you modeling it.
6. Avoid Bad Social Practices
Instagram is skilled at spotting any attempts to game its system. You need to avoid taking any shortcuts as you attempt to build enough of a reputation as an influencer to gain the coveted verification tick.
If you use Instagram the way they want you to, and you build your reputation as an influencer somewhere else first, then the day may come when you open your account to find that Instagram has awarded you their verification tick.
It is hard to get verified on Instagram – but not impossible.
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May 21, 2018 1:45 pm
Published by Murray Legg
As influencer marketing continues to become a staple part of any brand’s digital media mix, we’re proud to welcome two new businesses to our Partner network in South Africa and Slovenia.
Nfinity Media in South Africa has acquired the rights to the Webfluential license in South Africa. The company will run the Webfluential business in the country and use its expertise to build the brand further. Nfinity will not just offer influencer marketing strategies and campaigns to the market, but also support growth in the influencer community, drive industry awareness and overall education about this emergent media channel. There remain a number of existing Partner agencies in South Africa that will continue to evangelise influencer marketing for their brands.
“Influencer marketing is on the rise, with more brands realising that recommendations from people are becoming more powerful than direct advertising,” says Ken Varejes, founder and CEO of Nfinity Media.
Webfluential is launching in Slovenia by the able team of AVI SPLET d.o.o. Tjaša Bogeljić, head of communications, says “V Sloveniji se veliko podjetij in agencij poslužuje influencer marketinga na napačen način – za doseg svojih ciljnih skupin izbirajo influencerje predvsem na podlagi števila sledilcev in nimajo vpogleda v tiste elemente, ki so za postavitev uspešne strategije ključnega pomena. Podjetja manualno upravljajo oglaševalske aktivnosti z influencerji kar terja veliko časa pa tudi denarja. Zato smo se odločili našemu tržišču ponuditi Webfluential, orodje, ki omogoča podjetjem izvajanje kampanj z influencerji na hiter, enostaven in predvsem učinkovit način ter jim nudi natančen vpogled v povračilo njihove naložbe.”
“In Slovenia, many marketers choose influencers primarily on the basis of the number of their followers and do not have the insights into the key elements for setting up a successful strategy to reach the right target groups. Marketers manually manage campaigns and that cost them a lot of time and money as well. That’s why we decided to offer Webfluential in our market, a platform that enables companies to manage campaigns with influencers in a quick, easy and above all efficient way that ensures much better returns.”
Webfluential is a software platform that offers brands a self-serve product for smaller campaigns and an enterprise product typically run by agencies. Accredited agencies offer highly effective campaign strategy, influencer selection, execution and reporting to their brands.
Webfluential currently has 35 Partners operating on six continents. Many global clients also utilise Webfluential to run their influencer marketing programmes. As part of an aggressive global roll-out strategy, the company is offering a select number of licenses in countries of Europe, Australia, Latin America and the US. A single franchise license for select countries is also available.
Interested parties can contact our partner team on [email protected] or find out more on the website.
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