Advertising agencies and brands are investing lots of money in influencer marketing. It is one of the most direct ways to reach a target audience. So what is a social media influencer? How can you reach out to them to promote your brand? Find out by reading this article!
What is an influencer
What is a social media influencer? An Influencer is an opinion leader in a certain field. This person has an audience on social networks and can influence the purchase decisions of these people. They trust them because of their knowledge, experience, social status, and other factors. Influencers and their audience constantly communicate in stories, comments under posts and personal messages. It is how this trust is built.
Loyal followers listen to their opinions and recommendations. So advertisers use these people's social networks as a tool in influencer marketing. Media personalities introduce a product or a service to their subscribers. With a well-chosen influencer, you get native advertising with a high conversion rate.
How to become an influencer
1. Choose a niche
First things first, choose which field you want to be an influencer in. For example, you can share your artworks, post reviews on books, movies, and music, be a lifestyle content creator, and so on.
2. Create a social network account
Depending on the niche and the desired blog format, choose a social network. For example, if you want to create video content, choose YouTube. If you’re going to take beautiful pictures with captions and build a live interaction with the audience through stories, choose Instagram story. If you want to cover games, make streams on Twitch.
3. Create a content plan
Make a few posts or videos; the content format depends on the social network you choose. You need to fill out your profile before you invite your first followers to it. Otherwise, they will see an empty profile and will not subscribe. Create a content plan with a rubricator to keep people interested.
At the initial stage, you will need to publish content frequently to attract and retain the interest of new followers. So that your Instagram followers don't forget about you, publish at least 4-5 posts per week including video posts and five stories per day. To make video posts for Instagram you can use the Instagram video editor online. Post at least three videos a week for YouTube so that people will be involved but not bored and highly probably won’t unsubscribe from you.
Publish every day for TikTok because the feed in this social network is updated extremely quickly, and you need to be in the sight of your followers and get into recommendations. And make at least five streams per week for Twitch, lasting 1.5 hours each, if you want to keep in touch with your audience.
4. Build up your audience
The most challenging task on the list. Create engaging content, promote yourself organically by mass following, participate in giveaways as a sponsor, and add popular hashtags in your posts. Also, you can buy ads from other opinion leaders or use the Ads Manager of your social network.
5. Attract the advertisers
Reach out to influencer marketing & talent agencies, influencer databases, sign up on Influencer marketing marketplaces. You will be noticed and eventually offered to advertise the first product. Some influencers choose to partner up with an agent or a manager who will search for sponsorship offers for them. Also, you can join a Talent agency as their exclusive talent; then, you will always be included in the lists proposed to current clients and get help in the development of your blog.
How to become an Instagram influencer
To become an Instagram influencer, you must follow all the steps described above. You should know that Instagram is considered one of the most difficult social networks to promote a personal blog. It isn’t easy to build up your audience organically, especially for niche creators & experts. Most likely, you will spend a lot of money on advertising before you become an influencer.
How much do influencers make
How much influencers make depends on many factors. Here are the most common ones:
- The number of subscribers and their engagement with the content
Usually, the more views an influencer has on his posts, the higher the price for their ads is. Also, the cost of cooperation is increased by the engagement of followers in the content, such as likes, reposts, saves, etc.
- The attitude to the blog as a source of income
If a blog is the primary source of income for an influencer, most likely, their services will be higher priced than that of their colleagues. However, there may also be an inverse situation when business owners or well-known specialists do not need to earn money from a blog, but they value the loyalty of their audience very much, so they are selective in advertisers and can request high amounts for integration with a small number of subscribers.
- The number of offers for cooperation
Influencers with a small audience usually don't receive many offers for advertising cooperation, so some of them agree to place ads for a lower price. Conversely, the more offers a person has, the more choice they have, the more expensive the promotion services become.
- The number of ads in the blog
Some influencers bet on quantity and set a relatively low price for advertising. You will pay less money but be prepared for the fact that your ad may be missed by subscribers in a large stream of other ads.
- Advertising effectiveness and reviews
Suppose advertisers thank the influencer for the increase in sales, product orders, installs, etc., and they consider the high efficiency of advertising and raise the price of ads.
- Labour costs of the influencer
The more complex the ad is in production, the higher the price for it is. If an influencer needs to look for props, write a script, act out a scene, and so on, the cost of such advertising will be much more expensive than simply speaking to the camera the text about your brand you prepared.
- Advertiser's popularity
If your brand is well-known and liked by the influencer, they may agree to advertise for a lower price, as they will be delighted to cooperate. Also, there are cases when blog owners are ready to promote a popular, luxury, and so on product for free or with a discount if they get it in return or if they simply acknowledge and respect the brand
Top social media influencers of 2021 according to their subscriber’s number
According to BuzzGuru data for May 2021, the TOP-10 channels on YouTube are:
- T-Series. 182 million subscribers.
- Cocomelon — Nursery Rhymes. 111 million subscribers.
- PewDiePie. 110 million subscribers.
- SET India. 104 million subscribers.
- Kids Diana Show. 78.4 million subscribers.
- WWE. 77 million subscribers.
- Like Nastya. 73.7 million subscribers.
- Zee Music Company. 72.7 million subscribers.
- 5-Minute Crafts. 72.3 million subscribers.
- Vlad and Niki. 67.5 million subscribers.
According to BuzzGuru data for May 2021, the TOP-10 channels on Twitch are:
- Ninja. 16.6 million subscribers.
- Tfue. 10.2 million subscribers.
- Shroud. 9 million subscribers.
- Rubius. 9 million subscribers.
- Auronplay. 8.5 million subscribers.
- Pokimane. 7.7 million subscribers.
- TheGrefg. 7.3 million subscribers.
- Myth. 7.2 million subscribers.
- TimTheTatman. 6.5 million subscribers.
- Ibai. 5.9 million subscribers.
Influencer marketing strategy that actually works
Step 1: define the portrait of the target influencer
To promote your product, you need influencers whose followers match the portrait of your potential buyers. Therefore, look for opinion leaders who can interest your target audience by topic, city of residence, lifestyle, and other criteria. Also, think about the platform, ad formats (texts, photos, videos, and so on); this also affects the portrait of your perfect influencer.
Step 2: make a list of opinion leaders
To start promoting your product through influencer marketing, you need to build a list of opinion leaders with the right tone of voice. This can be done through special analytical platforms such as BuzzGuru. Smart influencer search filters of our service will help you find influencers on YouTube, Twitch, and in the future Instagram.
BuzzGuru YouTube influencers feed
Step 3: analyze the account of each influencer
BuzzGuru shows the influencers' channel statistics so that you can choose opinion leaders whose ads will bring a lot of conversions to your product. Our service will allow you to check in advance whether it is worth entering into an advertising contract with them or not. You can also conduct competitive analysis and review any advertising campaign that influencers have ever been in on YouTube or Twitch.
Influencer statistics screen on BuzzGuru
Step 4: make a brief and estimate the price
Describe in detail what you want your ad to look like. If this is important, write a script. But it is better if the influencer will serve ads the way they do regular content so that it looks native. Give the influencer some freedom of expression. After that, determine how much you can pay for advertising, and BuzzGuru will give you a list of influencers who are presumably willing to work for this price. We assume this from the calculations of the average price and views.
Step 5: contact the influencers and send a commercial offer
Our service will give you the contacts of the influencers and celebrities you need to write them an offer for advertising cooperation. When sending an offer, try to state it clearly and concisely, be polite, because you need to maintain a good reputation as an advertiser.
Step 6: approve the drafts and check the publications
Before releasing ads, the influencer must approve their content with you. Confirm the drafts if you like them, or make edits and submit them for revision. Then make sure that the posts appear in the feed in full and on time.
Step 7: wait for the results and draw conclusions
Be sure to do the analytics after influencers post the ads. If you like the result, you can add these opinion leaders to the list in your personal BuzzGuru account so that you can contact them again in the future.
How to find Instagram influencers
So far, BuzzGuru does not have the option to search for top social media influencers on Instagram. It will appear soon, but in the meantime, you can search for them manually. Here are some tips on how to do this:
- Find an influencer in your niche and go search for their subscriptions. You will probably find many of their colleagues with similar themed profiles. You can also go to their followers’ profiles (in fact, your target audience) and see what influencers they are subscribed to.
- Click on the "Similar Profiles" button. Go to the influencer page and click on the down arrow icon. This opens the profiles of other influencers whose content is similar to the posts of the viewed account.
- Take a closer look at the recommendations section of your social network. Surely the algorithms will offer you creators that are similar to your subscriptions. You can also find interesting accounts by hashtags.
- Try searching for influencers on Google. Find the collections of creators on the topic you are interested in; someone has most likely collected them in one list. It may not be particularly relevant, but some influencers can be obtained from there.
How to find YouTube influencers
Use the BuzzGuru search for influencers from YouTube. The system has special filters such as:
- Channel topic
- Game genres
- Views
- Subscribers
- Publication date
- Influencer's country
- Broadcast language
- Previously advertised products
- Price and other filters
Influencer marketing platform
Try the demo version of BuzzGuru right now and find your first marketing influencers on Twitch and YouTube for free! By subscribing to our service, you get the following benefits:
- Automatic search for influencers through smart filters by topic, number of subscribers, broadcast language, etc.
- The ability to view the number of subscribers, statistics of views, likes, and the advertising price.
- The ability to immediately see the engagement rate and not be deceived by a dishonest author.
- Track current market trends in Influencer Marketing on YouTube and Twitch.
- The ability to perform competitive analysis and review any advertising campaign that has ever been conducted with influencers on YouTube or Twitch.
FAQ
What does an influencer marketing manager do?
An influencer marketing manager lists opinion leaders, reaches their account statistics and prices, communicates with influencers. They make briefs and send them out, approve drafts, control publications, and analyze performance. BuzzGuru specializes in handling these functions.
How successful is influencer marketing?
Influencer marketing helps to increase brand exposure and connect with new audiences. With the right choice of an influencer and good advertising from them, new potential buyers will come to your site, and new followers will subscribe to your social media account. The industry is growing, and in the future, will only expand and become even more efficient, controllable, and optimized.
How much do you pay influencers?
The price for advertising integration depends on the influencer's celebrity level, the average number of views, ad format, advertiser popularity, and other factors. Prices can range from a few hundred dollars to several hundred thousand or even millions. More detailed prices can be found in the lists of BuzzGuru.
How do I find an influencer in marketing?
Use the BuzzGuru service, so you can find and collaborate with influencers whose subscribers are your target audience. You can also use our platform to analyze mobile apps, websites, and games advertised on YouTube and find ideas for your advertising campaigns.
