Goodish Show [S2E2]: Influencer Marketing 101: Start Working With Social Media Influencers

Author: Gasper Gracel

For the second episode of Season 2 of the Goodish Show, we were joined by Nika Kristina Butina, CEO & Co-Founder of Epidemic, a fast-growing international Influencer Marketing agency with a precise AI system that helps to connect the right influencers with the right brands. So let’s discuss social media influencer marketing and the immense benefits it has for modern-day brands!

What is influencer marketing?

First, things first, let’s start with an influencer marketing definition. In its core, influencer marketing is a form of social media marketing which uses product mentions and endorsements from influencers (also known as people who have a dedicated social media following) to promote their products/services. These influencers tend to have a high amount of trust from their followers which serves as a type of social proof, which in turn can significantly boost your sales. Furthermore, the content that the influencers create is usually then sent to the company for further promotion, such as product reviews etc.

Types of Social Media Influencers

So who are influencers and how do you set them apart depending on your campaign objective? As social media influencers are becoming a bigger deal year after year, the influencers with a huge following now understand how much their endorsement is worth and commonly use it as a means of making a living.

This in turn means that they’ve become quite expensive for brands. They also oftentimes tend to have a lesser engagement percentage-wise than some of their smaller counterparts. Hence, brands are looking towards micro influencers (those who have 30,000 followers or less) and nano influencers (10,000 followers or less). They not only tend to cost less but they’re also usually a lot more invested in the collaboration, meaning they’ll create extra posts, happily reshare the brand’s use of their post etc.

Epidemic - bringing AI to influencer marketing

Epidemic is a new, yet very successful influencer marketing agency which was founded during the pandemic. In just a year the company successfully penetrated 20 markets on 3 continents. Focused mainly on nano and micro influencers, this Instagram influencer marketing agency uses an AI (which they’ve named Anton) to connect the best suited influencers with the right brands.

Anton – Epidemic’s AI

Their AI, Anton uses image recognition and natural language processing to classify social media profiles on Instagram. In other words, the AI interprets Instagram posts – the picture and caption and correlates it with the user’s bio to determine who’s most suited for a certain brand depending on their interests which in turn translates into the types of followers they have. What’s even cooler about Anton is the fact that in order to find the right social media influencer, it scans the entire Instagram platform to find the ideal social media influencer, instead of just pulling someone from a pre-made list.

Instagram Influencer Marketing

Epidemic’s AI, Anton uses image recognition and natural language processing to classify social media profiles on Instagram. In other words, the AI interprets Instagram posts – the picture and caption and correlates it with the user’s bio to determine who’s most suited for a certain brand depending on their interests which in turn translates into the types of followers they have. What’s even cooler about Anton is the fact that in order to find the right social media influencer, it scans the entire Instagram platform to find the ideal social media influencer, instead of just pulling someone from a pre-made list.

Influencer Marketing - Where to Start

Using the Company’s Vision vs. Having the Freedom to Create

When discussing a collaboration you’ll want to ensure that the social media influencer is well informed about your brand and its values. Send them types of posts (or influencer marketing examples) that you like and approve versus the types of posts you don’t, then leave the influencers the freedom to create. Some companies tend to be super strict and like to confirm every visual before it goes out, while others give the influencers a lot of freedom to take the creative wherever they want to. This depends on you.

Epidemic, however, recommends giving influencers a mood board, lots of examples of do’s and don’ts, and lots of information about the brand in order to be able to answer any potential questions that their followers might have.

The Length of a Collaboration Depends on Your Campaign Objectives

If you’ve been working with an influencer for a couple of months and you’re very happy with their work, you might want to invite the influencer to become a brand ambassador. Note that this changes the brand messaging quite a bit.

And while having an ambassador and being able to work with them on a retainer seems wonderful, there is also a downside. By working with the same influencer you are losing your reach potential because your products/services are going to reach the same audience over and over again. Hence, Epidemic suggests to have a mixture of 80% of influencers and 20% of ambassadors to promote your company.

Choosing the Right Influencer

So you’re ready to start your influencer marketing journey for your brand? The first thing you’ll want to do is define your campaign objective. If your goal is to get 2-3 influencers then you can do it yourself in-house, but Nika strongly recommends talking to an expert first so that you don’t hurt yourself in the long run.

If however, you’re looking for someone with a lot of knowledge in the industry and would like to run your campaign strategically and with measurable goals, don’t hesitate to contact Epidemic – a top influencer marketing agency with proven strategies and campaigns.

Finally, to thank you for reading this far, we wanted to provide you with a cheat sheet containing 10 things that you should be on the lookout for when deciding to work with a particular influencer. Download it below!