Micro-influencer with more powerful in brand engagement

It seems like micro-influencers become more powerful for the brand in the way to connect to consumers compare to how the brands promote the products by brand ambassadors. It was surprising that the more followers of influencers, the less average engagement rate. Many brands already take actions of using micro influencers for their marketing campaign as they can generate the satisfying result with cost-effective.

Source: https://influencermarketinghub.com/the-rise-of-influencer-marketing/

But why the micro-influencer?

The micro-influencers are the people who have around 1,000-100,000 followers united from the common interest with those micro-influencers. The followers tend to trust in the posts or reviews from this group of influencers as the closer gap interaction. Moreover, it makes the followers feel the same way as friends or families’ recommendation. Compare to the brand ambassador or the superstar; consumers think that it is what the brand already prepare for this group to represent the brand image. It is one of the reasons why the engagement from the smaller group can result better.

This way of marketing can help the brands in reaching more consumers, but the brands need to consider many factors to control the quality of the result and the brand image. For example,

• Choose the right person to work with the product. 
• There are many different styles of micro-influencers within the category. The brand needs to match the one which is proper to the brand position to support the brand image and creditability.
• Do not push the way how influencers promote the product. 
• Each influencer has his/her uniqueness. The brands can suggest the rough scope that the brands want the post to be but allow the influence to create their style to keep their profile proposition as well.

Reference:
https://www.marketingtechnews.net/news/2018/may/18/mighty-power-micro-influencer-going-beyond-generic-brand-ambassadors/

https://blog.markgrowth.com/how-micro-influencers-can-help-you-boost-your-conversion-rates-f8d04fecb8e2

Quarters, not Pennies

http://www.adweek.com/digital/brian-cristiano-bold-worldwide-guest-post-brutal-honesty-authenticity/

Let’s talk about companies’ social media personalities.  Is it better to be likable, politically correct and drama-free, or, is it better to take a stance and be unapologetically honest?  This opinion article states the latter, and I whole-heatedly agree.   The former, will likely keep your follower numbers up and your hater count down. But, how valuable are those followers? Do they have any sort of loyalty to your brand?  Companies who aren’t afraid to develop a true personality and take a stance can be confident their following truly identifies with their company; they are valuable.  At the end of the day it’s a simple comparison that can be used in both business and your personal life: would you rather have 4 quarters, or 100 pennies?

The author, Brian Cristiano, suggests that companies who are authentic, stand for something, embrace the haters, and aren’t afraid to be themselves, are more successfully building their consumer base than those whose strategy is to gain as many followers as possible.  The theory makes sense.  Before companies began taking advantage of social media as a means of marketing and advertising, it was just a way for humans to interact with each other.  From a consumer standpoint, it still is a method of communicating and interacting with other humans.

Companies who add what Cristiano calls some “magic filter” to their social media presence dehumanize themselves and become mediocre.  Consumers continue to view those companies’ presence as merely an advertisement.  Others, on the contrary, who aren’t afraid to stir the pot a bit, develop a personality that has been built from the people behind the posts.  I can’t say I know many people, or really, anyone, who goes on social media to check out the newest menu item Wendy’s has added.  But, to see Wendy’s throwing some shade at McDonald's? Yea, I’ll definitely give that post a like.  

See the article for more about Cristaino’s 4 guidelines to building “rabid fans”

http://www.adweek.com/digital/brian-cristiano-bold-worldwide-guest-post-brutal-honesty-authenticity/

Facebook : User Engagement with Brands

Buddy Media has released the results of a study they conducted in November to measure user engagement with Black Friday and Cyber Monday for top brands on Facebook. http://www.buddymedia.com/newsroom/2011/11/data-%E2%80%9Ccoupon%E2%80%9D-most-engaging-keyword-on-facebook-for-cyber-monday-black-friday-posts/ User engagement was arrived at using 3 metrics: number of likes, number of comments and the third metric being likes and comments, all 3 relative to the number of fans. Some of the results are not that surprising; user engagement on Thanksgiving Day was 31% higher than average, the term coupon resulted in twice as much user engagement than any other similar term (deal, discount, offer, sale, etc).

However, Buddy Media’s analysis does reveal a couple of interesting points. Brands preferred updating their status by incorporating photos, video usage was the least popular, updates with links and plain text status updates, ranked 2nd and 3^rd respectively. Although plain text updates were a less popular format for brands, user engagement was significantly higher with this type of update. Generally, we tend to think that one of the benefits of Facebook is that it simplifies the sharing of diverse types of media on one platform, making simple text posts scarcer. However, according to this data this may not be the best approach to engage customers.

The other interesting result from this report is that brands posted a lot less about Cyber Monday than they did about Black Friday. One would think that a large number of Facebook users are already significantly engaged with online activities that they would be perfect targets for Cyber Monday shopping. However, it turns out that users actually engaged more with Black Friday posts than with Cyber Monday posts. Although, the methodology used to generate this data may not be the most exact, thus negating any conclusions that may arise from it, one may perhaps conclude that Facebook users may not be as engaged with all aspects of online activities as one would think.

The Power of Twitter Followership

Not so surprisingly, when customers follow brands on Twitter, they are more likely to buy that brand as well as recommend it to others. A study by Constant Contact and market research firm Chadwick Martin Bailey revealed at 60% of followers will recommend a brand and 50% will actually purchase that brand. Nothing out of the ordinary there.

But the more interesting read for me was about actually becoming a followed company. Only 21% of Twitter users actually follow brands, and when they do, it's usually less than ten of them. Actually about 35% only follow one or two brands. But once, you have a follower, you usually keep them. Unfortunately, most followers only really read what their favorite brands are tweeting as opposed to tweeting about them themselves. There is definitely an opportunity to create a dialogue and gets customers further engaged with brands.

http://mashable.com/2011/10/20/twitter-brands-purchase-intent/