Working with influencers to showcase your brand

I am often cornered by people asking me what the relevance of social media is to their company and how it can make a big difference to them?  Firstly if you’re still not on there it’s time to wake up and get your voice heard. It’s a valuable tool that isn’t going to go anywhere. It also opens up a wealth of opportunities to engage directly with your customer and get others to share unique content about you.  Working with influencers is a perfect way to do this.

To work with influencers you must already have your social media channels in place. The one thing I would say about setting up social media for your business is firstly strategise, secondly ensure you’re geared up with manpower and thirdly create lovely content. No one is going to want to like or share a picture of a zoomed in bowl of tomato soup, it’s just a red blur. Put it on a tray with some flowers, a magazine, some delicious crusty bread and a gorgeous garnish – then it will get engagement.

When your channels are looking fresh and you’ve got some followers and people talking about you it’s time to reach out to the influencers. This is sometimes categorised as PR but we feel it fits well within a social environment as this is where influencers are and can be engaged with easily.

Here are my top tips to working with influencers:

• Define who they are, and ensure they’re on brand. Someone with lots of followers is great but if they post about cats and you’re a restaurant there isn’t going to be any synergy.
• Create a brief so that they understand what you want to achieve in working with them.
• Incentivise influencers to work with you – goodies, collaborations and events go down well and don’t be shocked if they ask for payment. Many with over 100K will be asking for money in return and will provide you with a media pack so you can make an informed decision about working with them.

Above all, ensure you have the right communications going out to these influencers and develop a relationship and rapport with them. Getting them to work on a one off is one thing but working with them as a brand advocate will be far more worth your time and money in the long-term.