- Hunter Communications
STRATEGY: SOCIAL MEDIA INFLUENCERS
Social Media Influencers are the new wave of ‘Perthonality’. There, we said it.
They make up a big part of the crowd at event opening nights, restaurant launches and social calendar events. Their reach can be huge and influence strong. Used strategically they can be a great PR tool.
Used incorrectly – you are giving away product, service or your time for little or no return.
In WA our influencer pool is much smaller than the eastern states, but it is growing. There are only a handful of people who make a living from paid Instagram posts alone – for most it is a supplementary income or pure passion project. Most are still posting in exchange for free products, a meal or an invitation to a show.
This creates fantastic opportunities for influencers - but for businesses you need to understand that unless money changes hands or there is a formal agreement there is no obligation from the influencer to talk positively about your product or even post at all.
At Hunter we love working with social media influencers on behalf of our clients in both a paid and unpaid capacity as part of the PR mix and have partnered with them to deliver some excellent business results.
Hunter’s tips;
Instagram remains the platform of choice – it was the source of 93% of influencer marketing campaigns in 2018.
Authenticity is key – both for the influencer and the brand. The product or event being promoted must closely match the brand of the influencer themselves, otherwise it will lead to disengagement.
Posts that look and feel like an advertisement will turn people off and not engage with the post. Give the influencer licence to curate the post in a way consistent with their page – after all, that is what attracted you to them.
Engagement is still the key measurement of any social influencer marketing campaign.
We also support influencers who adhere to the Australian Association of National Advertisers’ guidelines for influencer marketing around disclosure of sponsored posts and the exchange of money and other forms of payment for collaborations. This is done simply by the use of hashtags such as #ad, #sponsored, #partnership or #invited.
Want to find out if influencers could help your business? Give the team at Hunter a call.
