Does your brand need an influencer?

Today’s influencers aren’t very similar to the people we would call “influential” some years ago. The influential people of before were highly accomplished people who would also offer advice or coaching on the fields they excelled at and also had some form of activism of philanthropy. Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Oprah, Stephen Hawking, Madonna, and Nelson Mandela are some of those “old-guard” influencers.

Now, with the widespread use of social networks, the people who have gathered a sufficiently large following (for many different reasons) and now share their opinions publicly have come to be known as “influencers”.

There is no sense in discussing if they are inherently “better” or “worse” than the influencers of old, as they are a fact of the present world that is not bound to change any time soon. However, there is a discussion that is much more useful and that you might be interested in: how could they benefit your business?

Let’s take a look on the modern influencer scene and find out how they could help your brand grow.

High reach

Most of those influencers are willing to advertise many kinds of products to their audiences. After they get a big enough fanbase, it becomes profitable to get a living just from their posts and live streams, more so than from their previous main source of income.

However, social networks normally aren’t profitable per se. You can’t get revenue from ads like you can in a website or a phone app. So that is where paid advertisement comes in.

Although many influencers tend to opt for subscription services such as Patreon in order to sustain themselves with the help of their fanbase, and as such not rely on paid advertisement, many others remain open to ads even at their peak.

It is then a matter of finding the right influencers for your brand. Each one has access to a different audience, a different number of people, and has different standards for the kinds of stuff they do marketing for. But they are all very influential for their followers and can reach easily.

After finding the right ones, you can do one-off ads, marketing campaigns, or even establish long-term partnerships. It all depends on what your objectives are. If you even try to go after the traditional approach of buying ad spaces on TikTok, you are going to see it won’t be as easy as you’d like. The “TikTok for Business” page already greets you with the saying: “Don’t make ads. Make TikToks”. Making ads in TikTok is all about not making your ads look like ads. They need to fit in, otherwise they will just be ignored. Read more articles: Emojis and Memes 

Younger audiences

Influencers are especially interesting if you are looking to attract younger audiences. Companies that develop mobile games are probably the kinds of companies that hire influencers the most for that exact reason.

Younger people are more drawn to today’s influencers because they tend to talk about the kinds of things that they deal with daily: technology, shopping, cooking, relationships, those kinds of things. They also use the same social networks and use the same kinds of internet lingo and memes.

And, even better, no one knows the influencers’ audience better than themselves. They are always in touch with them and interacting in many ways. They can even give some tips on your ads and brand and find ways to make them more appealing.

Niche subjects

If you are wary of going after influencers because your product is a bit “too specific”, it may please you to know that there are influencers in many different kinds of circles, and that includes many which specialize in talking to people that like niche subjects. That includes political Youtubers of many different kinds, history buffs, game reviewers, game players, book writers, life coaches, among many others.

And they can be even better than the mainstream influencers. The communities of those kinds of subjects tend to be rather small, so not only do the people that are part of it know the influencer, but he or she is probably close friends to many of them. They know their audience in a much better way. So, even better than an ad person, you may even get them to become your adviser if they like your product.

Influencers can really help you get your brand out into the world, it is just a matter of finding the right ones for you.