As the internet has become more accessible, influencers and creators have taken over the marketing industry. People used to primarily trust the integrity of people’s opinions and thoughts through word of mouth and the influencer market is a global extension of ‘word of mouth’ which amplified the wealth of knowledge on the internet. So, it’s no surprise that influencer marketing has been growing exponentially.
The Roles of Influencers:
Currently the model that most companies use for their social media presence is hiring influencers that align with their brands values, also known as an influencer collaboration. Companies currently pay an average of anywhere from $200 to $10,000 per video or post.
Stratezine conducted research and found that a company or brand can adapt their social media persona to be an “in-house influencer” by hiring or allowing employees to create original content, form relationships with brands, and help put a face to the brand. This type of influencing is great for forming relationships and building a community.
The Value of Employee Influencers:
B2C (business to consumer) companies have been using employee influencers as a way to connect with customers and build a personal connection. This is where the employee influencer can step in and utilize the business account to personally connect with those customers. These employee influencers are very similar to customer service representatives where the customers can then feel that they are speaking to a person with similar problems rather than just another company and hoping they receive a comment or feedback.
To back the idea of employee influencers being more personable, Stratezine conducted a survey and asked what the top three most important attributes are for following an influencer:
Out of a sample of 30 BYU-Idaho students, 41% voted authenticity is their most important attribute in following influencers.
Conversely, the biggest reason BYU-I students would unfollow an influencer was because of changing values or difference in ideas.
From this information, we can conclude that social media users want value and authenticity being brought to them by influencers. No person will devote their time to listening or looking at content that is unappealing and not adding value to their lives.
Pros and Cons of Employee Influencers:
Pros
● Able to build lasting, productive relationships with key industry
leaders and influencers
● Personal career advancement built off your social media presence
● Employees are experts in your industry and have insights you could leverage in different ways
● Because employees can create their own brands and build up credibility in a specific industry, businesses can use the credibility and
recognition by featuring them in the content you create and promote
Cons
● It takes time to do it right every day -could take away an
employee’s time to do other job
specific tasks
● Engagement with followers is now your job too – responding to
comments, messages, questions and possibly negative feedback at times
● Employees could be hesitant about using their personal profiles for company related tasks
● Because social media can take on a life of its own, companies will develop a new set of connections and people to interact with who may have different views
Additionally, employee content can show realistic and exclusive behind the scenes content that gives your audience an inside look of the product or service. Employee influencers can be a channel of sustainable content creation, rather than just a short term contract. Most importantly, they can build authority and credibility for your business in a personable and organic way.
Engagement & Employee influencers:
Employee influencer marketing, in particular, has the power to amplify content and boost brand awareness. They bring people into the company ‘network’ and change the way potential customers view a brand, product, or service.
According to one of our previously conducted surveys, we discovered that influencer sponsorships had no effect on whether people bought the product or service more. This proves that any notion that sponsorships negatively influence the purchasing power of your audience is unsubstantiated. Furthermore, this supports the idea that employees can build authority and credibility for your business.
In the same survey mentioned previously, we asked the same BYU-I students what specific topics they’d follow an influencer for. The highest ranked responses were tied between health/wellness and lifestyle. The second ranked topic was also a tie between adventure and outdoors.
These topics are all examples of niche content. BYU-I students felt connected to these influencers because they represent and create content based on the niche topics that they are interested in. Social media users want to see the topics that they are interested in, so influencers need to brand themselves and show the value they add to those specific topics. Authenticity helps increase engagement and chances of building a loyal audience.
Employee influencers also utilize different tactics to drive engaging content and show their brand as something enticing to capture the attention of a consumer. One tactic people enjoy is day-in-the-life content, giving a realistic view of the employee’s day-to-day routine at work. Similarly, utilizing more behind-the-scenes content that showcases the methods of their jobs and its potential perks. Another tactic could be to show viewers what there is to celebrate about the brand. Finally, find ways to personalize your content. People want to find ways to connect with what they see, if influencers utilize this aspect they can make powerful content for their brands.
Advice from an Influencer:
We interviewed influencer Lori Ward, who has built a following of 27k on Instagram. We set up a podcast interview to learn more about her journey and how she builds her own brand and style. She says, “I decided to start it on Instagram because of a few things, my target market, who is about 14, believe it or not, and 35 for acne. My target market lives here on Instagram. But my target market is younger, and so I went to Instagram six years ago.” As an established influencer, she gave our audience a few tips:
➔ “You don’t want to pay for followers because you can’t convert fake accounts into money. You can’t convert them over to being clients. They’re just dead weights. They will do nothing for you.”
➔ “If you’re going to be on Instagram or any social media and you want to do well, you want to promote yourself and start making money and growing your business, it is a full time job.”
➔ “I found that it is so much easier in my business if I talk to one person, one particular type of person, when you start talking to everybody, you won’t reach anyone.”
➔ “I feel like it’s harder to gain a following. I feel like it’s harder now because Instagram wants you to pay to get promoted, pay to be sponsored. And I just want you to know, you don’t have to do that. You can grow it organically. I’ve done both.”
➔ “I would recommend a niche into your particular set of skills. Like, for us, the umbrella is acne, right? That overarching theme is acne. And then everything underneath that supports getting clear and being healthy.”
➔ “You don’t want to pay for followers because you can’t convert fake accounts into money. You can’t convert them over to being clients. They’re just dead weights. They will do nothing for you.”
➔ “Here’s another tip, all the content that you make, make a reel out of it because Instagram is just going that way.”
➔ “Learn how to adapt and pivot really fast. Things are changing so quickly, there’s new features to use. I mainly use Instagram and there’s always new algorithms, which I can’t stand. I think they’re rather unfair to the users, but it is what it is. But learn to adapt to all the new changes.”
Nano-influencer Bethany Barr Smith echoed many of the same tips that Lori did. Both of their tips have come from personal experiences of success and failure trying to build a business. As individual influencers who are trying to carve out their own place in the business market, our interviewees have had to start from the ground up, taking years to experience some measure of success. But businesses can utilize the benefits of influencers by looking inward to the employees that they already have.
Determining Your Influencer Style:
The option is available for companies to hire someone to take over their social media, however, current employees have insider knowledge already that can be an asset to developing an influencer personality. This would be an easier and more effective method, rather than hiring a brand new person to the company.
However, a brand or company would need to scout out their employee’s media habits to determine a good candidate influencer. In this internet age, individuals have adopted natural ways that they use and present themselves in the media. The internet has given the average person limitless creative freedom. But with creative freedom comes distinct styles of content creation. When trying to determine an employee to entrust with a media page, you may consider if they fall into one of the five influencer styles.
The Five Influencer Styles:
● The Enthusiast – This creator focuses on the messaging and utilizing media platforms as a megaphone. These creators are ambassadors with a natural take on social media.
● The Expert Opinion – This is the “traditional” take to an influencer. These creators are seen as experts in topics that they portray through social media.
● The Unplanned – The internet sometimes turns out to blow up unexpected videos. These are unplanned when going viral but can be used to boost a brand if used correctly.
● The Reserved – These creators aren’t active in posting but prefer to support friends and other brands. They tend to stay in the background and don’t “sell themselves.”
● The Connector – This creator understands the value of networking and provides their audience with their natural self. They have potential to expand networks and strengthen brands within their social media.
What Next?
How to Implement: After identifying a group of employees who could take on the responsibilities and represent the style that aligns with your business— approach them with an offer. If they refuse the opportunity, graciously accept their answer and continue looking for potential candidates. If the offer is accepted, first be clear about their responsibilities and the guidelines they need to follow to represent the brand appropriately. Then follow the steps listed below.
1. Define your audience and goals. Help your employee influencer to see their role as a marketer. Teach or provide the training for them to create content that targets your business’ audience.
2. Create content calendars. Having a structure to the creative process will alleviate the stress of deadlines and help maintain a consistent posting schedule your audience can rely on.
3. Set clear expectations with contributors. If there are multiple employees who make content within a company, make sure to foster an environment where they create strong content together. Make sure all team members are aligned by a common purpose or goal.
4. Give them enough freedom to explore creatively, while still respecting the need for boundaries that propel the company forward and push creators to be innovative. But enough boundaries for the company to move forward. One way to ensure this is happening is by working with your group of employee influencers to set KPIs that track and measure their content performance.
5. Review and adjust the strategy. KPIs are only helpful when consistently reviewed and analyzed. Scheduled time weekly or monthly to review all KPIs. When reviewed correctly, you will be able to draw key insights from your KPIs that become actionable goals. Remember these employees are building a personal brand that aligns with your business’ values. Thus, there could be multiple KPIs that give insights into your company’s goals and also their personal brand goals as employees.
Key Takeaways:
➔ People can interact with different types of influencers in ways that benefit their personal lives and businesses.
➔ To a potential customer, an employee influencer is a trusted face and a good source of information.
➔ Authenticity is crucial to gathering followers.
➔ Sponsorships can help sell your product or service and doesn’t damage trust.
➔ People like to follow “niche influencer” because they add value about a specific brand or topic of interest.
➔ Employee influencers utilize their own strategy to drive engagement with their followers.
➔ Bethany Barr Smith said, “Go on to your stories and have live videos of you being yourself, being able to laugh, being able to show up without makeup on, and show your audience that you are actually a real person who is relatable and kind. That’s very attractive to people.”
➔ Humanize your content. Lori Ward said, “They want to see where you go, what you do, things that you eat, etc… I like bringing people along and I like showing people real life behind Instagram.”
➔ Businesses can utilize their employees to be influencers and advocates for the brand.
➔ Find how employees use their media and identify the influencer style that works best for the brand or business.
➔ Approach the employee with an offer of being an influencer; if accepted, be clear on responsibilities and guidelines.
Conclusion:
All in all, it’s wise to start taking advantage of the fact that social media has created a generation of hungry consumers. Turn your content creation over to employees who know the ins and outs of your business’ values and mission. Trusting those who have a passion for a brand or business to handle social media, is like tapping into a business’s own network of like minded customers. Doing this, will increase your business’ chance of being discovered, gaining support and strengthening the authority of your product or service.
Want to learn more about social media marketing? Check out this article we wrote about strategies for your brand on Instagram.
Want to learn more about employee influencers? Read more here.
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