Influencers, the modern day celebrity. The social media world has enabled anybody with a smart phone to tap into an existing industry, become an “expert” in their field, and ultimately build a large and engaged audience. From fashion to food, people are building businesses for themselves via their social media platforms. Brands were quick to recognize the marketing potential influencers carry. Fun facts: 94% of people trust recommendations from individuals (even if they don’t know them) over brands and 75% of Instagrammers take an action after looking at an advertisement on Instagram. These are huge indicators that brands need influencers to help share their products or services.
Here at LMS, we too recognize the necessity for brands to have a network of influencers sharing and promoting their products. We work every day to connect brands to their target consumer via influencers. We have been fortunate to work with some amazing influencers and it’s their correspondence that has inspired us to create this post. Creating a partnership between influencer and brand doesn’t happen overnight and of course there will be some hurdles along the way. However, we have discovered the relationship to happen much more smoothly when influencers are practicing a certain etiquette. So, influencers pay attention because following these steps will likely end with some amazing brands interested in working with you!
Profile Setup
The best etiquette begins before there is any interaction. The easiest way to ensure a higher chance of outreach is by making means of communication obvious. Having an email in bio or utilizing Instagram’s business page feature and adding the ‘contact’ button are the types of accounts we’re most likely to reach out to first. If we have to spend more than a minute to find your contact info, chances are we will bypass reaching out at all.
Timely Correspondence
After the initial outreach takes place, timely correspondence is imperative. This may seem a bit obvious, but it’s very important to practice. When planning schedules with multiple parties it’s necessary for everyone to come to an agreement in a timely fashion. If we don’t hear back from influencers for a couple weeks there’s a big chance that the offer will no longer be available.
Creating Content & Posting
Once a relationship is established and a content type is agreed upon, the product is then shipped to the influencer. Majority of the time a brand will send posting guidelines along with their product. Maybe they have a specific hashtag they’d like to see accompany the photo or they’ve just launched a new product and there’s a certain way to utilize the product. Sharing the product aligned with the company guidelines helps for creating greater brand recognition and campaign building. Pro tip: if the content is posted to a temporary platform (Snapchat, Instagram Story, etc.) it is best etiquette to get a screenshot of the post to share with the brand, just in case they miss it.
After Activation
Send a follow-up email! Brands want and need to hear feedback. Of course they want to get their product in front of new audiences, but it’s also important for them to learn what the influencer thought of the product. Furthermore, sharing feedback whether it’s positive or negative will show goodwill and could lead to another partnership in the future.
There you have it! At LMS we’re working with influencers on a daily basis on behalf of our amazing clients and following this etiquette guide will get you a gold star in our book! If you’re a brand looking for influencers to share your product, contact us here!