With the growing rise of social media, and new influencers taking the digital world by storm every day, it’s no surprise that marketers are capitalising on influencer marketing now more than ever.
According to recent studies, 91% of marketers would describe influencer marketing as an effective tool to grow a business online.
In fact, they are planning to increase their influencer program budgets to 39%.
While influencer marketing has no-doubt grown in recent years and shown itself to be a successful form of marketing, what valuable lessons can we learn from some of the biggest influencers on Facebook in particular?
Let’s find out!
Authenticity
80% of consumers say that authentic content would influence them to follow a brand.
Building an authentic online community offers an opportunity to share valuable content with your target demographic and increase conversions as a result.
But why does authenticity matter?
At least part of the answer to this question seems to come from the fact that we as a society don’t trust institutions and businesses. In fact, Harvard Business Review reports that only 18% of consumers trust business leaders to be honest.
The other part of the equation might have to do with consumers wanting to do business with people who share similar values. We want to buy from and work with organizations that are dependable, genuine and truthful.
Facebook influencers, and social media influencers in general, are masters of authentic marketing. They focus on reaching audiences in new ways by publishing blogs or creating videos in which their humanity shines through.
If you’re struggling to create authentic content, perhaps it might be time to stop thinking like a salesman and consult with a successful brand identity agency that can help you build your online identity.
Giveaways
Facebook is a great channel to promote your brand through giveaways. Influencers use this marketing tactic all the time, as it helps them reach a new audience and solidify their influence with their existing demographic.
Your marketing campaign may focus on boosting brand engagement and raising awareness about your brand.
Coming up with a contest on your company page is a great way to do this, as it can lead to users sharing the link of your page with their Facebook friends.
Users are more likely to engage with your brand if there’s something in it for them, in this case, a chance to get a prize in your giveaway.
Take Facebook fashion influencer Katherine Saab, who runs the popular page Stylendipity, as an example.
[Source: Styleendipity]
She cooperated with Ziera Footwear to run a giveaway campaign through her blog and promoted it on her Facebook page.
Combining a giveaway with a cause, as Ziera and Katherine did for their Unstoppable Women Campaign, can increase your chances of success.
Facebook Ads
Influencers know that using Facebook ads to promote content can help increase their reach, and investing a bit into this channel could prove worthwhile for your marketing campaign as well.
An ever-changing algorithm and news-feed overload can make it difficult to reach your audience organically, even if they already follow your page.
By amplifying your content through Facebook ads, you can access campaign insights, optimize for your particular objective and target your ideal demographic. The more compelling and eye-grabbing the content of the boosted Facebook posts, the better will be the results. Influencers often engage external copywriters to write their posts, and if it works for them, it’ll very likely work for you too.
Top software companies in New York are specializing in this area and constantly working on improving software tools to automate the entire process. These tools are allowing you to choose a target audience, create targeted ads, access analytics and set parameters.
Launching an ad from a platform like this can help you reach a larger audience.
A good example of this would be Sendinblue, this type of software isn’t applicable to Facebook only, as it can include other social networks as well as SMS, email and chat, allowing you to reach your customers wherever they are.
This lets you enhance the relationship with your audience by tracking customer interactions.
Facebook Live
You’re probably aware of the fact that videos can be a very useful form of content in marketing. Facebook videos are no exception to this, but the platform’s live video seems to be even more engaging. It became so popular that many online learning platforms offer Facebook Live lessons as part of their Social Media Marketing course.
A study done by Agorapulse concluded that the reach of Facebook Live videos outperformed uploaded videos on their page by as much as 222%.
Even Facebook reported that people, on average, spend 3x more time watching Facebook Live videos than those that are no longer live.
The lesson here is, then, that if you want to reach a larger audience, engage them more and have them focused on your content for longer, use Facebook Live.
A great example of how to do this right comes from Laura Clery, a Facebook influencer with more than 10 million followers on that social network. She partnered with the developers of a game called Best Fiends, demonstrating how to play the game through a Facebook Live stream.
The video reached a wide audience, and perhaps more importantly, generated almost 9,000 comments.
In Conclusion
Facebook influencers are a new force in the world of digital marketing and marketing in general. Instead of ignoring their impact, we could perhaps learn a thing or two about how to be more successful in reaching a wider and more engaged audience.
Thinking about the lessons outlined in this post could help you evolve your marketing strategies and develop your skills as a marketer to meet the demands of this ever-evolving industry and enjoy success in your field of business.
