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North Bay Biz

April 1, 2022 in Columns, What Works

by Jenny Kaplan

Developing influencer relationships is a strategy that will give you more control over the conversation about your business.

A recent entrepreneur.com article explained that, “Marketing (in 2022) will be less about the product and more about the customer…the future of marketing is about customer needs, not selling.” Simply put, now is the time to stop pushing products. Instead of relying on a message of “buy my product,” it’s time to create the personalized experiences customers are looking for. People want to be approached as more than simply a consumer. This means building relationships and providing greater value when pitching your product or service.

What exactly is an influencer?

In my early days, back when dinosaurs roamed the earth (okay, the 1980s), there was a successful advertising campaign for Fabergé Organics shampoo. In the commercial, “It Girl” of the day, Heather Locklear, appears on screen and flips her gorgeous mane of blonde head of hair and explains how much she loves the shampoo and its results.

She then looks directly into the camera and says, “I loved Fabergé Organics shampoo so much that I told two friends about it…and then they told two friends.” Immediately, the screen splits and a second frame with her image pops up. Together they continue to repeat the line in unison, “And then they told two friends, and so on, and so on.” With each “and so on,” one by one more Heather Locklears continue to pop up onscreen, repeating the line together. Ultimately, the entire screen is filled edge-to-edge with boxes of her image all saying that same catchy line. Though executed decades before the term was popular, this perfectly demonstrates an influencer in action.

According to sproutsocial.com, “an influencer is someone in your niche or industry with sway over your target audience.” Influencers, then, can be just people who like—or love—a product or brand and then talk about it in public. In other words, a recommendation from a consumer experience is king. Herein lies the superpower of an influencer.

Bottom line: another way of expressing “influencer content” is “credible personalized content.”

Finding your influencers

Optimizing your presence on social media platforms (or anywhere) is a matter of connecting with and finding the right audience. Beyond colleagues and friends who support you and your business, this means people who can connect with your potential customers, share their experience and interact with that audience on your behalf.

Think about how you hire contractors and vendors. For most local entrepreneurs, it’s much more about a trusted referral than glossy advertisements and slick sales pitches. Like you, your customers will trust organic posts, on social media and other platforms, where influencers talk about brands and products they admire or relate to.

According to forbes.com, influencers will lead social commerce trends in 2022. There are also “micro-influencers” defined as those with up to 50,000 followers and the more approachable and my suggestion for starting your influencer campaign, the “nano-influencer.”

Nano-influencers are everyday social media users, with anywhere from 100 to 10,000 followers. They aren’t professional influencers – they don’t get paid to endorse products; in fact, most of their posts feature personal content. Your customers know them as neighbors, friends, community leaders and local celebrities all with influence in their own communities. You can find them by asking these questions: Where do my customers live, play and eat? What do they read and watch? And who do they follow?

The pandemic set the stage for this very type of small-scale messaging, as authentic content has emerged as essential for any successful marketing campaign. The time is ripe to search out these nano-influencer soldiers to spread your good message. Those who genuinely believe in you and what you’re offering. There’s no higher accolade for a business than a customer willing to shout their praises from the rooftops.

The time is right

Everyone you know—and who knows you—are your goldmine. Consistently invite and ask your audience for participation. Ask for new connections, likes, support, subscription, and involvement in anything to do with your brand. Remember, happy customers do want to talk about their experience and boast about what a wonderful product or item they’ve found, so find ways to help them do just that.

Now more than ever people trust who they know and follow. Developing influencer relationships is a strategy that will give you more control over the conversation about your business. The importance of these followers is only going to increase from here on, so build these connections to represent yourself and your business in a positive light.

Jenny Kaplan has gotten clients newsworthy ink for more than 20 years. Most days, this public relations strategist can be found connecting in one way or another to the public. She specializes in brands, inspiring content and telling your story. Ask her PR questions at (707) 578-1336. For more information, visit JKaplanpr.com.