Does A Small Business Need Influencer Marketing?

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Influencer marketing is a key element of any social media activity that a brand or a business embarks upon. There are people who have put in time and effort to build credibility in a subject area and that gives them a committed and engaged set of followers who are keen to consume their content. These influencers are useful, are they useful to small businesses trying to pull clients from social media?

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There is a popular notion in the industry that influencer marketing is for the big brands with large coffers and billions to spend and that the smaller ones need not bother with it. Nothing could be farther than the truth. For a small company, targeting the right people and convincing them to engage and eventually converting them is much more important than a larger one, this is simply because they do not have the luxury of the number of tries or budgets that the larger ones do.

Looking through that angle, the influencer is a key weapon  in your conversion armory. But here is the catch, you need to get to the right ones for this to work for you. Remember that there are millions of people online and all we know about them is what they saw on their bio. So as a small brand, you need to work on narrowing down the right and most credible influencers for you. Ideally, they must be people who are established SMEs in your domain and have a considerable social footprint. You will do well to try and avoid the ones that are selling underwear on Monday and a computer or Tuesday. They are mostly useless in terms of real influence and clout. If you look at their profiles, you can clearly see that they have artificially inflated follower numbers. So if you invest in them, it is quite literally throwing your money into a well and expecting an angel to pop out of the well with a treasure chest. That never happens!

Now that you have identified the right set of influencers, it is imperative that you engage them over a longish term online so that they get the time to build your narrative into their messaging and then become your advocates. Also critical is the fact that they are fully oriented and have a proper understanding of what you have to offer and how it works. This will stand in good stead when your prospects engage in conversations about you with them. You really do not want them to simply say that XYZ is brilliant and then hand over to your agents without further conversations, that will look awfully fixed and hollow. The fact that as a brand you need the influencers on your side for a prolonged duration is also key for their support of your products or services to be seen and felt as credible. They need to come across as users and not just brand ambassadors. Micro influencers are also very good options for small and medium businesses to engage, they make a lot of sense from a spending angle too.

So, in a nutshell, Influencer marketing is very invaluable for small businesses too, but the key is in getting the right influencers and to be seen meaningfully engaging with them. They are like well oiled wheels, just remember to get the right fit and you’re home! What do you think?

About Shakthi

I am a Tech Blogger, Disability Activist, Keynote Speaker, Startup Mentor and Digital Branding Consultant. Also a McKinsey Executive Panel Member. Also known as @v_shakthi on twitter. Been around Tech for two decades now.

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