A social media influencer is anybody who has established credibility on social media. These kinds of people have large audiences, so targeting them will almost always help you grow your own online audience. On the surface, that sounds like a simple plan. All you need to do is target those people who have large followings on Twitter and Facebook, and you should be just fine, right? Well, it’s not that easy. Different things appeal to different audiences, so not all of your biggest influencers will be appropriate to every campaign you run. If you want your influencer marketing campaign to be successful, you need to choose the right influencers. Here are some tips that will help you with that.

Look at Age and Gender

Since like attracts like, social media influencers often develop followings of people much like themselves. Middle-aged women who run mommy blogs will attract other middle-aged women, and young male gamers will attract other young male gamers. Find out what kind of audience your services will likely attract, and find an influencer that falls into that demographic. The key here is to think about your audience and potential clients. You might be tempted to just focus on one influential person, but that’s just one person. They are one of many people you want to attract to your campaign. Focus on the big picture.

Look at Total Reach

Reach refers to the number of people who saw a piece of content, whether they found it on their Facebook feed organically or it showed up as part of an ad. While an influencer’s total reach shouldn’t be the only reason why you would target them, it is something that shouldn’t be ignored. Take a look at the number of people who have seen something that an influencer has posted if you want to get an idea of how influential they are.

Choose the Right Platforms

There are several social media platforms out there that go beyond Facebook and Twitter. Depending on what your product is and who you want to reach, you might be better off looking for influencers on Pinterest, Instagram, Tumblr, or one of the many other social media sites on the Internet. You will probably want to stick to established networks that already have plenty of users, but you don’t need to limit yourself to them. Take a look at the audience you want to reach, and see what kinds of networks they are using. Chances are that there is a huge influencer on these networks that will help you grow your audience into something bigger than you could imagine.

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There is a subtle shift underway in the world of influencer marketing, which involves companies moving away from aligning with people considered to be major influencers on social media, and moving toward those seen as much less popular, in terms of their followings and the potential they might exert on behalf of such companies.

Traditionally, influencer marketing has prescribed that a company should align itself with social media stars who had huge followings, and could therefore potentially sway many of them toward purchasing products offered by the company. More and more however, many companies are now seeing the value of collaborating with micro-influencers, who usually have far fewer followers, but may be able to reach a more focused audience through tailored storytelling.

What’s behind the shift

Marketing managers and executives have determined through research, surveys, and other feedback methods, that generation Z consumers who represent the first generation to be enslaved by electronic devices, have simply become disillusioned with the polished, glossy representation of reality TV stars and social media stars.

Instead, they prefer to consume more genuine experiences, and to be led by personalities having a more unique and personal point of view, with a deeper story to tell. In effect, the shift toward micro-influencers is happening because there has been a corresponding shift in consumer perspectives, and having identified that trend, many companies have accordingly hitched their wagons to this new horse.

Rather than relying on the social media star power of a single individual, marketing executives now see the value of working with several social media influencers who can combine their own perspectives with the message being disseminated by the company. The storytelling advantages provided by these micro-influencer individuals on social media are more deeply personal, yet still in alignment with company marketing objectives, and thus resonate more truly with Generation Z consumers. Collaborating with several micro-influencers also allows for a certain amount of flexibility in the ultimate message being conveyed to a targeted audience.

Micro-influencer ROI

Business being a bottom-line entity, the logical question about the success of micro-influencers centers around what kind of return is yielded by shifting toward this kind of marketing strategy. This is where it gets a little tricky. While the success of specific campaigns can certainly be measured in hard numbers, many marketers feel that doesn’t tell the whole story, and prefer to view micro-influencer storytelling in a broader, longer-term context. Tapping into the collective psyche of a generation can be a very elusive goal to achieve, but it is becoming increasingly clear that micro-influencers may have the potential to do just that.

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A lot of people are confused by the concept of programmatic digital advertising nevertheless, it is a concept that has changed how online advertising works forever. Here are the answers to a few of your most frequently asked questions concerning programmatic advertising.

What is programmatic ad buying?

Traditional ad buying involves a complicated process of human negotiations and manual orders. To make things easier, programmatic ad buying uses software to buy ads. Programmatic ad buying essentially makes the purchasing of digital advertising an overall smoother and quicker process.

Why does it matter?

The use of human salespeople and buyers can quickly add up to be very expensive for companies. In contrast, programmatic digital advertising has proven to be more reliable and efficient. It all comes down to the fact that human beings have needs and limits to how much time they can put in every day, while machines do not.

By removing humans from the process of ad buying, programmatic advertising allows the process to be more productive and cost-efficient. Plus, it creates more time for marketers and sellers to create more valuable content, rather than wasting time and resources on menial tasks.

Is programmatic the future of advertising?

Programmatic digital advertising is becoming more prevalent every day. Companies that hope to be successful, and stay successful, in their advertising endeavors should probably look into programmatic ad buying.

The future will surely see all forms of media being traded programmatically, including television commercials. However, for now, programmatic ad buying is mostly focused on online ads and other nontraditional forms of media. This has not stopped many top companies from creating entire teams to manage solely programmatic ad buying.

It is clear that many businesses are aware of the success associated with programmatic advertising and are determined to take advantage of it.

Please contact Blast Creative for all of your Programmatic Digital Advertising needs today!

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