Social media celebrities, and mega, macro and micro-influencers are a go, but only if there’s a common understanding with the brand and their values

[On the cover: an influencer’s group]

An increasing number of companies are entrusting the stars of social media to promote their products and setting aside big budgets to do so. Using influencers to promote products (influencer marketing) works, but only if there’s a parallelism between both the brand and the influencer: the chosen Instagrammer needs to know how to express the mood and the story of the product. During a webinar organised by Assocalzaturifici, Lucia Peraldo Matton from Triboo (an e-commerce and digital services hub) underlined the differences between Digital PR and Influencer Marketing. In the former, it’s about a digital connection, which doesn’t usually involve the company paying the influencer, giving them the freedom to choose how and when to insert the product into their social profiles. In the latter, however, the partnership is regulated by a contract, detailing costs, content, timeframes, promotion campaign tracking and feedback. In 2020, influencer marketing is estimated to be a 16-billion-dollar business and is set to be used more and more to boost brand visibility. Out there are (a handful of) influencers with 20 million followers, who are often inaccessible to most companies, social media celebrities with over 500k contacts, as well as macro-influencers (up to 150k) and micro-influencers (up to 25k followers). An influencer should be chosen based on whether they have a real and quality fan base, know how to create engaging stories and, most importantly, share the values of the brand they are promoting.

The channels include IG, doubtlessly the most popular choice, YouTube, great for “telling the story” of the company and making of videos, and now Tik Tok, the most downloaded app in 2019 with over a billion subscribers and which is now seeing the age of its users rise. Is it therefore important to work with influencers? Yes, if you want to strengthen your relationship with your target audience, build an understanding among the brand, influencer and fan base, and authentically promote the brand through real and natural stories. And it’s not all about photos, but videos too, which achieve 135% of the visibility of images or links. This is therefore an excellent opportunity to get products seen at a variety of price points. All you need to do is pick the right influencer.