Has there ever been a time when you purchased something because a close friend or someone who is a mentor figure to you used that product? All of us would say Yes to that question. What smart businesses realize is that influencer content goes with an emotional touch in the heart of the prospective audience. Hence why it becomes important to build meaningful influencer relationships.

Take Hobo.Video for instance, we are a social commerce platform where millions of Generation Z influencers, resellers, buyers, and friends connect and interact mostly by video sharing to make a perfect purchase with the help of community-driven recommendations. The influencers make short fun video clips while tagging products on Hobo’s social platform so that their followers purchase based on the product’s recommendation. 

What is noteworthy is that these influencers are working as Key Opinion Leaders and recommending authentic products in their videos over social media apps like Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, etc. with the link to buy products from Hobo. Nonetheless, with the influencer’s signature personality, the raving followers can nurture a desire to adopt and inscribe the promoted product or service into an aspect of their daily life where it fulfills a need.

Thus, businesses that have embraced the inclusion of social influencers and celebrities have seen increased product sales. The good results are attributed to the fact that the marketing message resonates with the customers in a positive light.

Influencer Relationship Management

There is a term that is common in the influencer marketing niche. It is the Influencer Relationship Management, IRM. IRM refers to creating strategic relationships with influencers and managing your interactions with them. This modernized strategy was heavily derived from Customer Relationship Management (CRM) which is ultimately aimed at maximizing the brand’s closer interactions with customers. Hobo.Video has found a measure of success in maintaining good and ongoing relationships with its influencers regardless of the social media platform. Therefore, in this article, we will share 5 simple ways to start or build upon your relationships with a social media influencer. But first, what are the various types of influencers out there

What Are The Various Types of Influencers?

Now that we know the far-reaching effects influencers can have on a brand’s reputation or success, here are four major types of influencers to choose from;

• Micro-influencers with 10k to 50k followers
• Mid-tier influencers with 50k to 500k followers
• Marco-influencers with 500k to 1M followers
• Mega-influencers or celebrities with over a million followers

There are a variety of different occupational niches that fit into each of the different types. These people can be reality TV stars, YouTubers, bloggers, motivational speakers, activists, journalists, photographers, and so on. 

Why Statistics Matter With IRM?

Influencers are called as Indicators of the Marketing Arena for a reason.

Studies show that 49% of people buy certain items because of recommendations either from the eCommerce store or from a well-known friend. Others may be due to their need for social approval even though the purchase was of slightly questionable logic. Roughly 80% of marketers say that influencer marketing methods perform better than other marketing channels.

Companies and marketers have increased their expenditure on social media influencer marketing avenues by tens of millions of dollars. Influencer Marketing Hub gives us an interesting perspective on IRM by revealing that for every $1 that a company’s brand spends on influencers, they would likely make a $5.78 average ROI (return on investment).

The use of influencers to do the marketing of a product or service on their channel provides a great opportunity for smaller brands to gain a competitive advantage.

Simple Ways To Build Relationships With Influencers:

1. Pick The Right Influencer From The Right Category

With the knowledge you have gathered about the various types of influencers, you should be conscious of which one to pick from your niche. The right influencer for you is the social media influencer that has the category of audience relevant to your brand. Also, another noteworthy point is that a small brand may rather go with micro or mid-tier influencers. Their budget can afford them and then step up with time if need be.

2. Use Warm Outreach And Sell Your Vision To The Chosen Influencer

A cold email outreach will likely not increase your chances of getting a response. Instead, the recruiter may be following them on their dominant social media and engage in their posts from time to time. Using a warm appeal will kickstart the relationship on a good foundation. Once you interact with them as a person before the company’s management interviews them, you show the influencer that your company’s brand is different from all other brands who tried to drag them by the horns after the first one or two crude approaches. 

Here is a basic rule that you should follow in Influencer Relationship Management – approach them as strategic partners, not as replaceable employees. Every organization wants a productive yield from partnering with a social media influencer or celebrity. But to do that, you must persuade the influencer by words and deeds that your brand is now their brand and its reputation their reputation as well. You must qualify their mindset to reach their utmost potential. Explain the aims, objectives, vision, and mission of the brand to them.

3. Give A Reasonable Offer Or Promise

Frankly, welcoming gestures and prep talk aren’t all that you need to keep a good influencer on your side. The gain or prize for them upon a couple of good social media promotions should be in front of them. Your offer may be salary-based, commission-based, or exclusive privileges and other special gifts. You can observe what offers, promises, or rewards other companies give their influencers and borrow a leaf.

4. Allow Creative Freedom And Let Adequate Time Elapse

This is the part where some brands mess up their Influencer Relationship Management. The leaders of the organization may want to be in full control of every activity of the influencer. That is, about the product or service. They can dampen the creativity and signature personality that the raving fans use. Moreover, the emotional feel of the brand’s promotion will not be felt by the audience. Sometimes, you need to allow for freedom of creativity and expression so that there is a flow. In that way, the brand’s voice will be heard. Likewise, there is a need for adequate time to be allowed before expecting a drastic turn-around in the marketing campaign 

5. Measure The Engagement Metrics And Performance Indicators For Each Influencer And Thereafter Decide. 

So a month or so has elapsed and you request a breakdown analysis of the performance of the social media marketing campaign. Your analyst reveals the top 5 KPIs (key performance indicators) and metrics. From there you can start to deduce the information from the data analyzed and draw inferences about your IRM processes. 

You should compare influencers on the same social network. But bear in mind that the engagement can differ across social media platforms. Nevertheless, you should note that studies have shown that as a whole, the engagement rates of larger influencers (macro or mega-influencers) are expected to be lower than that of smaller influencers (micro or nano-influencers) even on the same platform.

Pick Up The Gold Nuggets And Try Them!

Influencer marketing and IRM processes are very interesting subjects that Hobo.Video doesn’t mind explaining it to you for as long as you want. It focuses on branding or marketing where the response to call-to-action or active engagements can generate 8x ROI. You should pay a little more attention to influencer marketing and try to build relationships with influencers as much as you would focus on your customers. We urge you to pick up the gold nuggets in this blog article and try them.

Success to you and your brand!