Category: Social Media

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Four Things You Should Always Provide the Influencer

When you start working with influencers, it can be tempting to keep it very informal, but the truth is, contracts and information help you avoid problems. This is good advice whether you’re working with influencers, service providers, or consultants. Contracts and clear information make all the difference.

 

Here are four things you should never neglect providing an influencer:

 

Contract or Agreement

 

Once you have hashed out all the responsibilities of each party to the contract, make sure to put it in writing. Don’t be scared of contracts. List each person’s information and list the responsibilities for each party to the agreement along with timelines, due dates, and any pertinent info needed to fulfill the contract accurately. Plus, describe exactly what you’ll want to do if there is a dispute to prevent any unforeseen problems.

 

Contracts need a starting and ending date, names of all parties involved, payment amounts and due dates, penalties, or changes if breaches, missed deadlines, or disagreements.

 

Clear Expectations

 

Before you even approach the influencer to work with you, develop your expectations to be clear to yourself. That way, it’ll be easier to communicate what you are expecting from them. Always ask them if they understand what you are saying and listen to them.

 

If you have formal meetings, record the information you gather at the meetings, and then agree to what has been recorded, it’s easier to make sure everyone is on the same page regarding expectations.

 

Compensation

 

Be very clear about how you’re going to compensate your influencers. Do what you say you will when you say you will. Don’t necessarily try to go for the cheapest deal when it comes to influencers. Instead, go for the best return on investment.

 

One way to ensure that you’ll receive a good ROI is to compensate influencers in multiple ways, from product sales, free products to a flat fee to commission as an affiliate.

 

Content and Other Supporting Materials

 

Once you’ve settled the contract and everyone is clear about what is expected, make sure you deliver the content and supporting material as soon as possible. Then, if you meet your deadlines, you will ensure that they meet theirs too.

 

Furnish your audience persona and other information you want to be provided to your audience through the influencer so that they can design the promotion based on the research you’ve already done.

Start with the Right Influencer and Target Audience

Influencer marketing is an effective way to get the word out about your products, services, and offers. But you must plan beforehand and do your due diligence to ensure that the people you work with are up for the task.

 

 

 

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Important Questions to Ask Before You Work with An Influencer

The following are important questions to ask your potential influencers and key information they should provide back to ensure you pick the right influencer for your campaign:

 

  • Who Is Your Target Audience? – Ask them if they have an audience persona created or if they can provide audience demographics so you can be sure their audience really will want what you have.

 

  • How Does Your Target Audience Algin with My Brand and Message? – You need your own brand message and reason for existing, and it should align in some way with the influencers you choose to work with. Let them explain how they align.

 

  • What Type of Content Do You Produce? – It will help you to know the type of content they can produce to start with. For example, some influencers do life-like vlogs and don’t do scripted commercials or advertorials. Work with influencers who give you what you need but be open to new ideas.

 

  • How Often Do You Publish Content? – Knowing their production schedule can help you ensure that your campaign is launched at the right time.

 

  • What Is Your Engagement Like? – They should tell you about some actual numbers regarding their engagement but understand if you choose to work with new influencers (which works great, by the way), they may not understand yet, but you can show them.

 

  • Have You Ever Worked with My Competitors Before? If so, Why and Why Do You Want to Work with Us Now? – This can help you ensure that they’re going to be upfront and honest with their audience about their recommendations.

 

  • Have You Worked with Similar Brands Before? How Successful Were You? – Getting these stats will really help you project the type of response they might get for your campaign.

 

  • How Often Do You Share Sponsored Content or Affiliate Links? – You want to ensure they have a good ratio of information and sponsored content or affiliate content. This will help you determine if they have staying power.

 

  • What Are Your Overall Expectations for Partnering with a Brand? – You want to know from them what they are expecting to gain from this too.

 

  • What Are Your Thoughts About Exclusive Brand Partnerships? – If you want them to work with you exclusively and not another brand that competes with you, this is good information to know.

 

  • What Is Your Content Creation Process? – Understanding their process can help you understand how you’ll work with them, including timelines and other info.

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  • Do You Want to Work with Us to Create the Content and Share Before Posting or Be on Your Own? – How autonomous will they want to be, and are you okay with this method? Of course, you can’t make them work how you want to work, but you can judge whether you can work together or not.

 

  • What Are Your Fees and Other Compensation Needs? – Try to get them to give you a fee schedule instead of telling them what you’ll pay. Not only will they feel more in control, but it’ll make working together easier.

 

  • What Sort of Timeline Do You Need to Get to Publishing? – Knowing the timeline will help you get your information to them promptly.

 

Use these questions to figure out whether you can work with the influencer in a seamless way that matches your own needs and includes their needs. You’ll be very glad you took the time.

 

 

 

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Six Steps to the Influencer Outreach Process

In order to find the perfect influencers for your campaigns, it’s important to go through an outreach process that ensures you find just the right people. After all, if you do this with a plan in mind and seriously check your information and data for accuracy, you can practically guarantee that you’ll be successful. Truly, you’re not even taking that much of a risk when you do this work to get it right.

 

Step #1: Create an Influencer List

Define Your Influencer Marketing Goals

Form a list of the influencers you would like to work with the most. The bigger the list at this point, the better. Shoot for locating at least 20 to 30 potential influencers per platform. Focus on one platform at a time to streamline this process.

 

Step #2: Review Their Profiles

 

Find the information required to make decisions before reaching out to the influencer. Find their social media handles and business credentials. Many influencers include links and special e-mails for business inquiries. Avoid using their personal e-mail or profile when contacting them. Instead, follow their accounts and actually view their profiles and content for a period of time before reaching out.

 

Step #3: Develop a Brief Project Goal

 

Determine why you want to work with an influencer at all. What is your goal? Do you want to boost traffic? If so, how is working with them going to do that? Do you want to make sales? How will this influencer help you make more sales? Figure out the mechanism to reach the goal you’ve set by setting SMART goals to ensure that you have a plan going forward.

 

Step #4: Pick Your Medium

 

You may need to be flexible and communicate with each influencer in the way that they desire to. For example, they may choose to use e-mail, direct message, management contact, video chat, phone call, mail merge apps, sponsored product packages, or something else. Typically, the influencer will have guidelines on their business page about what they need from you. If not, choose what you want to present to them and how.

 

Step #5: Create and Personalize Your Message

 

Be specific, clear, and direct about your goals, what your products or services are and how you’re going to work with them on this project if they choose to work with you. Always make sure that you include follow-up information and server times that will work for you to get the collaboration started faster. Be flexible but only within the guidelines you’ve already set for yourself and your campaign’s time limit and deadlines.

 

Step #6: Edit and Review

 

Always edit and review everything before sending it on to a potential influencer. The clearer you are, the easier it’s going to be to work together. You want to be professional as possible when you reach out to them. The higher quality your reach out is, the higher quality they’re going to expect from themselves as they create your campaign.

 

Once you reach out, make sure you record how and when you reached out to them so that you can follow up quickly when needed. The more records you keep, the easier it’s going to be each time you set up a campaign.

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The Do’s and Don’ts to Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing is pretty straightforward. First, you want to find the right influencers who already impact an audience that will want and need your products, services, and offers. Even if you have zero sales yet, and no audience of your own yet, using influencers who already promote to an audience who wants what you have will substantially shorten your journey to success.

Start with the Right Influencer and Target Audience

Included below are the top five do’s and don’ts to follow so that you can run a successful influencer marketing campaign and repeat the success over and over again.

 

#1 Don’t: Focus on Follower or Audience Count Only

 

Remember, just because a YouTube star has a million subscribers does not mean they are ready to buy. Not all audiences are equal. Plus, often, a smaller influencer can have more sway over their audience than one that has grown really large. So you may get more results from a niched down small channel than a huge channel with wide appeal.

 

#1 Do: Consider Influencers of all Levels

 

When you try to find the right people to work with to promote your products, offers, and services, don’t just pick the big movers and shakers. Instead, look at smaller influencers that are more intimate with their audience. You may even end up making more sales due to the higher level of engagement many smaller audience influencers have.

 

#2 Don’t: Micromanage Your Influencer

 

When you finally weed through and pick the influencers you want to work with, avoid trying to tret them as employees. Your influencer likely already has a particular way of doing things, and you want them to stay true to themselves and their audience, giving them plenty of freedom. Avoid micromanaging them by giving too many guidelines and rules.

 

#2 Do: Allow for Creative Freedom

 

Creative people like to create. If you stand in their way, they won’t want to work with you, and even if they do, it might not work out and allow them total creative freedom. Of course, you can always include an option for approval to ensure nothing goes wrong, but if you do the research and choose the right people, letting them be themselves will work out best for you. Plus, it’s less work for you!  

 

#3 Don’t: Expect Non-Monetary Work

 

There are plenty of self-named gurus out there who will tell you to try to work with everyone for free, but the truth is, you really do get what you pay for. So instead, reward the influencers you work with according to what’s right and fair. Do not expect them to work for you for free because if you both get value from the partnership, you’ll want to repeat it.

 

#3 Do: Compensate Fairly

 

When you do work out a payment plan for your influencers, make sure you compensate them fairly. As mentioned above, you don’t want to expect them to work for free, but you also want to build a reputation as a great company to work with. So believe it when I tell you that word gets around. Ask them for their fee schedule instead of telling them what you’ll pay. Influencers will be happy with what they ask for, even if it is less than they thought it would be.

 

#4 Don’t: Only Use Instagram

 

It’s tempting to go to the number one social media platform and start using only that for your influencer campaigns, but the truth is, this is a mistake. You don’t even know until you do your research if your audience is on the platform, and if your audience is not there, neither is your influencer.

 

#4 Do: Consider Multiple Platforms

 

Find out what social platforms your ideal audience uses. Find out how many are on those platforms. Then look for the influencers you want to help you promote. Try doing a multi-platform campaign as long as your audience is there, and you’ll get amazing results because the more often you show up in front of your ideal audience, the better.

 

#5 Don’t: Create Deceiving and Generic Content

 

It can feel overwhelming to create all the content you need for your business, but you want to refrain from deceiving and generic content for your influencer campaigns. Remember, you have an influencer who is a creator who can give you amazing ideas on how to promote your product. If they love it, they’re going to be the best person to help you. Each time you promote something, you want the content to be unique and specific for the audience you want to influence.

 

#5: Do: Follow all FTC Guidelines and Plan Content with Your Influencer

 

Remember, when using the internet to communicate, you must follow the Federal Trade Commission’s guidelines (and any guidelines in any country where you do business) to have no problems. Also, please work with your influencer to plan the content they will create for you but remember to give them creative freedom.

 

As a content creator, it’s important to stay aware of the dos and don’ts of using influencer marketing. The great thing is when you do engage in influencer marketing, you’re not alone. You have someone who is already an expert at creating content for their audience. Supply an amazing product, service, or offer and let them do the rest within the guidelines. To learn more about the FTC guidelines for social media, you can visit the government website here. (https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2019/11/ftc-releases-advertising-disclosures-guidance-online-influencers)

 

 

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Influencer Marketing Vs. Brand Ambassadors

It can be easy to think influencers and brand ambassadors are the same thing. They promote your products and influence your audience in some way. However, influencer marketing and brand ambassadors are not interchangeable as they have many key differences.

 

Promote Vs. Example

 

Ambassadors promote your products and are seen as the experts on the product. This is made into a full-time position for larger brands where the company provides them the details they need to know to become a master. They are the ones consumers can go to and get almost any question answered.

 

While influencers show your audience by being the example and sharing how and why they use your products or services, they may love your products and understand them quite a bit. Still, for the most part, they don’t have the extensive knowledge brand ambassadors gain when working with one or a few brands.

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Influencers tend to work with many different brands and campaigns over the months and years, making it impossible for them to be a real expert on all the information your brand has to provide.

 

Long-term vs. Short-term

 

As stated above, influencers typically work with more than one brand or company. On the other hand, brand ambassadors only work with your company to master the knowledge and understand how your products and services work.

 

Influencers may recommend your business once or twice while brand ambassadors repeated it daily. They are your brand loyalists or journalists and will find them at the top of the pyramid of influence right above influencers.

 

Audience vs. Experience

 

Brand ambassadors are sought out due to experience and devotion to the product. They are committed to your brand and truly believe in the benefits. They are likely coming to you or directly applying. On the other hand, influencers are contracted due to their audience, engagement rate, or other important conversions you need for your business. They do not have to have tried your product or care too much about it. These conversions give you a clear insight into what kind of return on investment you can expect to see.

 

Their Similarities

 

Both brand ambassadors and influencers want to promote your product and see you succeed. Each can be added to your marketing campaign to drive more engagement, traffic, and brand awareness. However, they both need to sign agreements to protect their rights and promote your product authentically and enthusiastically through unique and creative content.

 

Overall, it is important to understand the difference to choose the right person for your campaign goals. Each offers many similar benefits, but the type of relationship, compensation, and metrics needed will determine who is right for the job.

 

 

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Define Your Influencer Marketing Goals

 

A successful and sustainable influencer marketing campaign requires a plan to maintain focus and direction and identifying your goals. This means before you make any content and before you determine your campaign type and find your influencers.

 

If you do these steps before identifying your goals and setting proper key performance metrics, you are less likely to see appropriate returns. This is because the content and influencer you pick more than likely won’t correlate. Thus, wasting your time and other valuable resources required to run a positively functioning campaign.

 

Each goal you set will require a different type of influencer, budget, and resource needs and for you to produce a set of relevant and unique content. You can’t just use any influencer and throw out poor content and think it will work. Over time this will cause more work, confusion, and eat up at your profits and other resources.

 

  • Brand Awareness and Reputation – Your customers need to notice you several times before they feel safe enough to spend money. The more touchpoints you create using your content, the more notice you will get. Running a social media influencer campaign can make all the difference for your business.

 

  • Increased Sales and Leads – Another goal you can have with your influencer campaign is to make more sales. One way to do that is to use the campaign to build your e-mail list. One tactic is to offer the influencer a freebie to give away that only requires their audience to sign up for a newsletter. This act alone will increase sales today and tomorrow.

 

  • Higher Engagement Rate – Another goal is to increase your engagement rate. When you have more engagement and communication that is two-way with your audience, they get to know you better, and you get to know them better. When this happens, they will be more likely to accept your offers because your offers will be more likely relevant to them.

 

  • More Followers or Traffic – If you want more followers, more leads, more anything, you need more traffic. One type of influencer campaign you can do is designed to bring traffic to your site so that they see what you have to offer. Another option is to get them to another social media account instead, but it’s typically best to push traffic to your website.

 

  • Product Launches and Promotions – Using influencers to promote your next product launch or your sale on your products is a no-brainer. Influencers love to help people announce a new product to their customers because it makes them seem like VIPs.

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Remember when you create your influencer marketing goals not to skimp on your goal-setting process. Instead, use the SMART goal-setting process to ensure that your goal is specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely. Then, you’ll never regret planning and implementing an influencer campaign that you’ve seriously planned out because you’re more likely to be successful and reach your objectives.

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Top Social Media Platforms for Influencer Marketing

When you start using influencer marketing, it’s important to understand that not all platforms will be viable for your needs. Only the platforms that have influencers who market to your audience will work for you. It will help you understand what the personality is and the audience is of each platform to make the right choices.

 

Instagram

 

This visual social media platform has grown so fast that hardly anyone hasn’t heard of it. Over a billion people use the platform at least monthly, and most of them are based outside of the USA, with 140 million residing in the USA. Even during the 2020 pandemic, Instagram grew by leaps and bounds. So if you have a visual product or know how to make your offers visual, this platform will work for you.

 

YouTube

 

It’s hard to imagine life without YouTube. It’s only been here since 2005, but it has changed the landscape of media. Anyone can truly get their “15 minutes of fame” by starting their own YouTube channel. YouTube is still growing its influence by expanding its member base by 14 percent in 2020, and it’s still growing. Today, there are almost 2 billion active users on YouTube. So there is no doubt that your audience is also on YouTube. Even if you don’t have a particularly visual niche, you can usually find what you need here.

 

TikTok

 

As a micro media visual platform, this social media network has taken off in a big way. Some of the explosion is due to “bad press,” which proves that there is no bad press if you’re ready to use it for your needs. This platform is in over 150 countries and is most loved by the younger generation.

 

Twitter

 

One of the most long-lived platforms on social media platforms has gone from a text-based solution to a multimedia solution used by millions every day. Many people use Twitter to get all their news and information. The audience on Twitter is mostly from the USA, and in fact, more than half of all citizens in the USA are using the platform regularly.

 

Blogs

 

You may not initially think of a blog as a social media platform, but it is because you can have plenty of engagement through the comment section of any blog. Influencers who have very popular blogs can help you get more views for your offer just as easily as a YouTube influencer can. If they have an engaged audience that needs your solutions, it will work for you.

 

Research each platform to see if you can find influencers who entertain or inform your ideal audience who wants and needs your offers. If so, you can surely work out a deal to get the word out that is beneficial for you both.

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Set Up A Product Creation Schedule For Yourself And Your Team

Let’s talk about money. More importantly, let’s talk about how you profit from your online properties. You do it through ads, by making affiliate sales, or my personal favorite – by selling your own products. Those products are what we’ll be talking about today. More specifically, we’ll be discussing creating information products consistently. Why information products? Because you create them once and sell them again and again. No supply line, no storage, no overhead. When you make a sale, it’s almost pure profit.

 

I’m going to let you in on a secret it took me a while to discover when I first started out. It’s much easier to sell an existing customer a second product than it is to find a brand new customer. It’s even easier to sell them the third, fourth, fifth one. You get the idea. That’s because you’ve done all the hard work of earning this person’s trust already and if you’ve done your job right, the first thing they purchased from you is already helping them solve their problem. That’s what information products are all about. Solving a problem. To create that next product, look at where your customers are at and think about what they need to do next. What’s another problem they will face and how can you help them solve it.

 

For example, your first product may be an eBook or course on setting up a WordPress site. Next, your customers may need to learn about creating content that attracts the right type of reader. And then they need to learn about traffic, and list building, and effective social media strategies. Each one of these could be a new info product or new content for your paid membership site.

 

Once you have an idea of what types of products you want to create, it’s important to get them out consistently. You want to have a new product out there for your existing customers to buy. Of course, you’ll also attract new buyers along the way who will then not only buy the new thing you’ve come out with but hopefully also some of the other titles and courses you have out there.

 

Start with a list of products you want to create. Do your best to estimate how long it will take you to create the product and all the infrastructure that goes along with it like a sales page, a download page, autoresponders, and solo emails to promote it, a promotion schedule, etc. Make a list of everything you need to do before you can launch this new product. Then get to work. Chip away at it every day and continue to consistently work towards each of these new product launches, adjusting your timeframe as needed.

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In the beginning, it will probably be just you working on this product creation. Maybe you’re hiring out the graphics. Put that on the schedule and communicate with your graphic designer early to avoid bottlenecks. As time goes by, you may choose to outsource some of the product creation. Maybe you’re hiring an editor to proofread your work. Or a VA to help with the setup, infrastructure, and customer service. Eventually, you may even hire some writers to create these products for you. As your team expands, it’s even more important to have a schedule everyone works off to make sure these new products come out regularly.

 

 

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Your Lack of Focus Is Getting in Your Way

Are you constantly struggling to get your work done? You start one project only to find yourself tapping away at another, then the next two minutes, you find yourself doing it again but on something completely different. Even with a to-do list, you can’t seem to get on track and find the focus to finish your tasks. It’s easy to do, but you must change your bad habit before it gets in your way.

 

Your lack of focus is affecting your business success in the following common ways:

 

Leads to Poor Productivity and Quality of Work

When you don’t have the right focus and concentration on your work, it leads to mistakes and poor decisions as you don’t have the clarity you need to work at your best.

 

Leads to Inconsistent Habits and Results

You need innovation and creativity to stay relevant and competitive—all of which could be stalled or lackluster without proper focus.

 

Uses Valuable Resources Incorrectly

Ultimately it depletes valuable time and financial resources that could better be used somewhere else. When you don’t do your best the first time, you’ll leave behind mistakes.

 

If you have trouble with focus, here are five things you can give a try right now:

 

#1: Reoutline Your Intentions

One cause of lack of focus is that they forgot what they were going after. Even worse, they chose goals that were unrealistic and didn’t relate to who they really are. It’s easy to lose track if you really don’t want it.

 

#2: Craft A Vision Board

Create a board of pictures, drawings, or objects that inspire your ideal life and dreams. In five years, what are your expectations about your life and your business? Even better, what are you working on in your business right now that will make the most impact on your success as you envision it? Add that to your vision board and put it somewhere you will see every day to encourage you to get right back on track. Often a lack of focus is due to an unclear vision of the future.

 

#3: Play Brain Games

Make it fun and play memory and concentration-building games from Lumosity. Lumosity provides many fun games that include a specific section to improve your focus. The idea is to exercise your brain just like you would do other parts of your body at the gym.

 

#4: Change Your Environment

Create an environment that influences movement and positivity. As you work on different projects or goals, change the setting to fit.

 

#5: Go to Bed

Are you constantly yawning or getting blurry vision? Then you need to get some sleep. If you don’t have the right amount of sleep, you won’t be capable of concentrating.

 

As you can see, focus plays a crucial role in the actions you take for your business and life. Without it, you easily leave behind a messy and disorganized company.

 

Stay More Focused with These Five Simple Steps