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Instagram has become one of the largest apps used throughout the world. Recent statistics have shown continuous growth throughout the United States and all of North America, and it’s expected to continue in a similar trend into next year. In fact, at this point 37% of American adults are on Instagram, making it the second most downloaded app after YouTube.
With such a reach, surely there is an argument that you absolutely should be using Instagram as one of your key digital marketing strategies for brand awareness. In nearly every case, that can and should be a key decision.
The personal approach of Instagram influencer marketing makes for a different experience of hearing about a brand than traditional advertising. In polished broadcast commercials, you are hearing from a brand that wants to explain how you should feel about them, or the product or service they’re trying to get you to buy and engage with. Oftentimes the inauthenticity can cause viewers to feel disinterested.
Influencers, on the other hand, are an outside voice. They create a personal attachment between the audience who knows them and the brand they are engaging with. If someone using Instagram follows the account of the influencer, they’re hearing from someone they see frequently, sometimes every day! This builds trust between these influencers and the audience and lets the audience know when the influencer is endorsing something: yes, it’s a sponsored post and they are getting paid. But also, they are only doing so with items or services they believe in. Many of the best influencers choose who they create partnerships with because they don’t want to betray their fanbase and followers.
What are some examples of Instagram influencers working?
It doesn’t take long to find viable accounts that prove influencers can have a meaningful impact and higher engagement. The ones that resonate with users of a particular app/channel typically share a common passion for a topic or are voices for specific communities of Instagram users. Let’s look at a few examples of successful influencer marketing campaigns.
Chelsea Bear is an influencer who has cerebral palsy. For a long time, she kept that relatively quiet on her social media accounts until one day she made a video and shared it on Instagram of her walking. Her walk showed how cerebral palsy impacted her movement, but her smile was wide and beaming. This video went completely viral, shining a light on a young woman, living her life in Florida, while simultaneously making her a visible advocate. She continued that journey, sharing her time and vacations in Fort Lauderdale and Tampa Bay.
As her number of followers grew, she became a motivational speaker and fully engaged advocate. With that, she also became a social media influencer. Now, multiple Florida vacation spots ask her to share her experiences in how they make amusement parks, resorts, and cruises accessible for her. While she can walk, she also utilizes her electric scooter for long periods. Her reels, Instagram stories, and TikTok often highlight where she can take “Scootz” with her. Her Instagram posts on her recent trip to Disney using their cruise lines received tens of thousands of engagements.
All this means that she has become a voice for those living with cerebral palsy, or other disabilities, providing a real sense of appeal. She’s shared moments on roller coasters, cruises, at bars, and restaurants, all to advocate for others like her and to show that dating, life, and other aspects can be enjoyed. She’s been featured on multiple news outlets including the Sun, Insider, and CBS News. She was even featured in clothing spots for Aerie, her reel alone garnering over 1 million views. Chelsea’s influencer posts not only help promote organizations that provide accommodations, but her positive outlook delivers an impactful voice and shows followers the greatest places to go if cerebral palsy is a part of their life.
Another ideal influencer is BossLogic. A designer by trade, he started using his ability to create posters and compelling images of his favorite fandoms in movies and television. Tagging celebrities and studios, his following grew and grew. Now, he has a high engagement rate with over 2.3 million followers just on Instagram.
He is regularly commissioned for artwork now and often receives thanks and congratulations from a-list celebrities. As a result, he is now a gauge on Instagram on what pop culture is most relevant. In addition, his artwork and designs are now featured works, his posters are used for promotion by movie and streaming services worldwide.
BossLogic, real name Kode Abdo, never intended for this to be his path. He was working as a designer for businesses, creating promotional materials and new products for companies that didn’t resonate with him much. But what started as creating fun images on the side, became a reflection of the design work he wanted to see in the world. What began as an artistic exploration resulted in a thriving career. There’s now even an entire team working with him, expanding his empire and his influence.
His account has become a beacon for awareness in pop culture. He designs work that resonates with his fanbase and helps promote upcoming releases through his influence and art. His passion is infectious in the best way, so his influence reflects that shared enthusiasm with his fanbase.
How do I find the right influencers for my brand?
Most business owners aren’t large resorts or movie studios. They provide other products or services. So how do businesses or organizations who need influencer marketing agencies find the right people for their brand?
Thankfully as Instagram’s impact has grown, so can the streamlining of the process. You do have the option to do direct contact with an influencer, but the results of that experience will completely depend on how that account handles itself.
Thankfully there are systems and platforms in place to help not only find the right Instagram influencers but also set the right expectations for what metrics and how many impressions you can expect. You can set your gauges for success such as search and discovery if you are in the early phases of launching a new facet of your business or organization. You can include promotion codes tied to the influencer to know how many people saw their video, or post, and decided to visit your site because of their content.
Influencer platforms also help you find people by industry or category of influence, finding brand ambassadors who are speaking with and have followers, that fit your target demographic. In addition, influencer platforms can also find social network influencers based on the platform. That way if you need social apps including Instagram and others such as Tik Tok or YouTube, those are made available to you as well. The platforms also provide information on followers and if they have established influencers, will have case study statistics to provide you as well.
The best option for most medium-sized businesses is to reach out to an agency with experience and expertise in this area. This is often the best route since navigating the searching for influencers, coordinating with them during their creative process, and managing multiple influencer campaigns can be not only time-consuming but you can also risk damaging relationships with influencers or making missteps with your overall brand and appearance in the market.
All of that is also of course in addition to risking the waste of the campaign dollars you have devoted to a specific effort in your marketing budget. You can help mitigate all these risks and increase the likelihood of success but talking with an agency with experience in influencer marketing like us or other certified and trusted agencies on UpCity.
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Areas you should be careful to remember:
Instagram has implemented new censorship tactics to deal with sensitive topics. As a result, if you are a nonprofit that deals with areas of mental, or behavioral health, like many of our clients, you’ll need to have a strong understanding of what is and isn’t allowed. Understanding those before working with an influencer will also help you to know what you can or cannot have in your posts that will get content censored or considered sensitive content.
The other aspect to consider is the visual element of Instagram. Including something visually compelling always helps on Instagram since it is a visual app. Text-only isn’t available, and what workarounds can be taken historically don’t do as well with views, likes, and engagements.
What can I do to make sure influencer marketing works?
If you don’t set parameters for your influencer content, then it may reach target audiences who may not resonate with what you provide. Not using relevant influencers could also result in a below-average engagement rate. For instance, a fashion influencer may be willing to step outside of their normal parameters, to connect with new audiences, such as either profiling their fashion at a resort or your hotel. They may share a food subscription box because their health and wellbeing are important for their lifestyle and the fashion they profile. Endorsements don’t always have to be a direct connection to the influencer.
However, there should always be a logical connection in how the influencer’s Instagram followers feel about the content they’re engaging. A cautionary news account will unlikely see strong results with an emotional plug that is well outside what’s regularly seen. Likewise, financial management software wouldn’t work too well on the fashion influencer’s account. That’s not what their followers are there for.
It all boils down to your target audience and the people who engage with the influencer. They should be very similar people. When you know who you are trying to reach, the route to successful influencer marketing becomes far easier. Target audiences are the people most likely searching for what you provide, whether that’s local hotspots that require only a regional tactic, or a service aimed at only a specific lifestyle, identifying that before you begin your search for the right influencer will be the first key step.
There are many essential pieces of knowledge to consider regarding social media. However, influencer marketing is a personable way to have outside voices impact your brand. After all, word of mouth from others can do infinitely more work for you than speaking about your services can. It’s why reviews on Google or Amazon are one of the key factors considered when people are looking up anything. The reviews are the voices of others, members of the community who have something to say, negative or positive.
These voices result in a strong impact on your brand. With others becoming advocates for what you do, it connects you to users and outsiders that you would likely not be able to reach in other ways. That’s why influencer marketing on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, or other platforms can be a strong strategy to include in your marketing efforts.