People bet their bottom dollar on opinions from a trusted source. Word of mouth has a huge impact on purchasing decisions. As a result, businesses cannot ignore the presence of influencers on Social Media.
Influencers have the power to structure the talk of the town with conversions, reviews, recommendations and criticism. As a result, it becomes imperative for brands to identify their influencers and reach out to them.
Out of their total marketing budget, brands devote a meagre amount on influencers. However, the impact they create is huge. Influencers can add value to your brand as people usually take them at face value.
Who can influence my audience?
Social Media gives a voice to everyone who was previously muted. An influencer does not need to be the who’s who of the industry. It could be anyone from a reviewer to a blogger to a loyal fan. Identify who is relevant, who is most likely to spread the word about your brand.
Monitor conversations, search with keywords to identify your influencers. Reciprocate to spark conversations. Put in an extra effort only if he is equally passionate about your brand and build a strong relationship him/her.
Like in this case :
Chetan Bhagat and his new movie Kai po che promotional team ran a twitter contest for people to share their dreams and 3 lucky ones would win a Mercedes a weekend!
Tinu Cherian Abraham, an influencer in the social media sphere did dream of driving a merc for free on a weekend. He took a small dig on Chetan Bhagat just for fun but it was the top tweet on the trend.
Although he did not win the contest, he thought of asking other car companies like Audi India, just for fun!
Interestingly it had caught the attention of Mercedes India first instead of Audi.
Mercedes India contacted him and decided to send him a Mercedes SLK 350 ( 90+lakh worth model) all the way from Pune to Bangalore, for the entire weekend.
It did trigger some interesting conversations on twitter and soon became the talk of the town. Even Blogadda jumped in for a possible future partnership.
Key Takeaways :
- For Mercedes India, one small pebble caused reverberating ripples. It was certainly worth the price.
- The influencer that they relied upon was also passionate about the brand. Reaching out to someone irrelevant won't do any good.
- Encourage your influencers with incentives or exclusive information so that they volunteer to become your ambassadors. Make sure that your investment translates into influence that people rely upon and not just idle gossip.
- On the other hand, it was not the first time, Audi India lagged behind in acting decisively. Just like Mercedes, BMW India too was fleet-footed in grabbing its stroke of luck! It rewarded Visha Gondal with a Mini Cooper as a comfort car for a few days. Read on:How an Online Influencer was Delighted by BMW Because of Audi
- Brands should be agile on Social Media to reap benefits out of it. You cant afford to be sluggish in the digital world!
- Influence marketing allows you to reach out to umpteen number of people at the same time allocating barely anything and investing less time and effort than you would with other marketing strategies.
- Your other marketing efforts are magnified and supplemented because of the credibility of the influencers that people swear by.
- Influence not only drives awareness and appreciation but it also initiates action.
Follow Us/socialsamosa/media/post_banners/jBESgWPMAk84GE9x9JFi.jpg)
/socialsamosa/media/agency_attachments/PrjL49L3c0mVA7YcMDHB.png)
