With Bearenger, it’s more than delivering healthy recipes to her millions of followers, she finds true joy in creating, testing and developing new recipes. From blended drinks to desserts, her followers continue to return to her pages for delicious inspiration. Bearenger enjoys a plant-based diet and serves up mouth-watering images that are as tasty as they are healthy.

Find Your Influence connected with Bearenger Petrella to talk about her daily routine, inspirations, how she maintains a healthy lifestyle, and what her future endeavors might look like.

What is your favorite thing about being a social media influencer focused on health and wellness? 

“Health and wellness is one of my greatest loves. As someone who had a difficult relationship with my body and food, I have been able to use health and wellness to heal myself and that relationship. I love learning all the new things in the health and wellness space and creating content with everything I learn!” 

How much time do you dedicate to planning your social media content? 

“Hardly any! Most days I just create what I feel like or try the latest trend. I have an ongoing list of content ideas that I will pull from if I need a little inspiration.”

Where do you find inspiration for all of your different plant-based recipes?

“Though I am not fully plant-based, I do share a lot of plant-based recipes. I find inspiration from different places I’ve been, other creators, Pinterest, my environment, so many things!” 

Photo courtesy of Bearenger Petrella

In what way do you try to influence your followers? 

“I want my community to feel love for themselves. I want to inspire others to create good food, good habits, good health, and good relationships. Everyone is on their own path and will take something different from my content.”

How do you keep your followers engaged? 

“I am still learning everyday on how to foster a growing community. I find that if I show up and if I am engaged, then often they are as well. I like to stay in touch with everyone in the DM’s.”

What does a typical day as a social media influencer look like for you? 

“I usually get up and do my morning routine to really set up my day (lemon water, workout, breakfast, shower, get ready.) Then, I get right to creating.

I’ll film a few new recipes or videos and edit them. I’ll answer emails and do any other computer work I need to. I like to break my day up with some walks if possible. At night I make dinner and finish up any work. I am constantly struggling with boundaries between my life and work.”

Photo courtesy of Bearenger Petrella

What are your top three tips for maintaining a healthy and fit lifestyle? 

“Have your “WHY.” If you don’t have a reason to do something, then why would you stick to anything? My why is “to be the best version of myself, for myself, and the people around me.

Find what works best for you. Just because someone does something does not mean it will work for you. Take everything with a grain of salt and do your own experimenting. 

Make it fun! Find a new recipe on Pinterest, cook with a friend, find a workout buddy.  It’s a lot easier when you are actually having fun.”

What is your favorite cheat meal? 

“I don’t think any meal should be a cheat meal. We should look at our food as fuel. Some of my favorite meals that I don’t make very often are garlic butter noodles & plant-based ice cream.” 

What advice would you give an aspiring social media influencer? 

“Show up everyday. Consistency is so important. The only way you can find what works and what doesn’t is to keep showing up and experimenting.” 

What are your goals for this upcoming year? 

“I have a few goals. Move into a new space that really inspires me to create even more. Meet new people in the creator community. Step out of my comfort zone more. There are a few biz goals but I’m protecting the energy of those goals :)”

Keep up with Bearenger Petrella’s health and wellness journey on Instagram and TikTok where you can find inspiration in maintaining a healthy lifestyle. 

Freelance contribution especially written for Find Your Influence by Alice Wholey.

The post Healthy Living Tips from Social Media Influencer Bearenger Petrella appeared first on Find Your Influence.

Find the Best Time to Post For You

While it may be easy to post when it is most convenient for you, your engagement depends upon when your audience is looking for your content. According to a study conducted by Later of over twelve million Instagram accounts, the best time to post on Instagram are:

• Monday: 6 AM, 10 AM, and 10 PM EST
• Tuesday: 2 AM, 4 AM, and 9 AM EST
• Wednesday: 7 AM, 8 AM, and 11 PM EST
• Thursday: 9 AM, 12 PM, and 11 PM EST
• Friday: 5 AM, 1 PM, and 3 PM EST
• Saturday: 11 AM, 7 PM, and 8 PM EST
• Sunday: 7 AM, 8 AM, and 4 PM EST

Take note of these times and play around with them. See what times are best for your engagement based on your specific audience. Instagram is prioritizing “new” content, meaning that you should figure out when your audience is most likely scrolling through their feed. Later this year, Find Your Influence will be introducing a series of influencer-based analytics, showing when content is most engaged on your feed. (Check back weekly to the blog for more updates.)

Don’t Just Post, Utilize Instagram’s Features

While Instagram started off as a strictly photo-sharing platform, over the last decade it has grown to be much more. Influencers have the ability to interact with their followers through Instagram Story questions, polls, quizzes, and the countdown sticker. Each of these features gives followers the opportunity to directly interact with the creator, developing a stronger connection. Creators should be regularly using these features and encouraging followers to respond.

Blogger Bethanie Garcia is often using various story questions and polls to prompt responses and engage with her following. Every Tuesday, she hosts“Confession Tuesdays” on her Stories where her audience can submit confessions about themselves. In addition, she also engages her audience through various polls in an effort to normalize certain topics/conversations.

Go Outside Your Comfort Zone to Boost Your Engagement

When posting content on Instagram, it is easy to become complacent and stick to what you know. Instagram features like Reels, IG Live and IGTV to allow your audience to get to know you better. Rather than showing just a single image, followers get a peek inside various aspects of your life. Use your niche to your advantage and post videos that coincide with that. For example, if you’re a fashion influencer, create a reel of you doing a try-on haul with a voiceover explaining why you styled it that specific way.

Fashion and beauty creator, Tomi Obebe, is often posting Reels with a diverse range of content. Recently, she’s done try-on hauls, her favorite sunscreens, and dance trends.

Long Captions Can Yield Greater Engagement

While long captions may seem tedious to write out, one of the factors that impacts your Instagram engagement is the amount of time you put into the post. Your captions should tell a story and explain the meaning or situation behind your photos or videos. Not all of them have to be 2,000 characters, but choose the posts that make the most sense to create longer captions for.

LA-based Alicia Tenise is a great example of a blogger who creates long captions for her posts in order to engage with her following. For example, earlier this summer she posted a photo at the Row in Downtown Los Angeles. Rather than just posting the image, in the caption she listed her favorite things to do at the Row, tagging each business. She is not just sharing a day in her life, but giving her followers the ability to learn as well.

Boost Your Engagement When You Utilize Hashtags

Hashtags are one of the founding features of social media. Hashtags give creators the ability to be seen beyond their following. Instagram users search hashtags to find new content and inspiration.

Are you someone who wants to grow their popularity as an influencer, but you don’t know where to start? Reach out to our Influencer Management Team with your questions today. Send us an email at info@findyourinfluence.com.

Freelance contribution especially written for Find Your Influence by Gemma Weinstein.

The post How to Boost Your Engagement on Instagram appeared first on Find Your Influence.

It’s no secret that consumers tend to trust each other much more than brands. Luckily, this social aspect of brand awareness can be used to your advantage as a B2B company. However, creating an excellent B2B influencer strategy can be difficult for businesses that have never done so before. In this quick guide, we’ll break down a few key tips for developing a B2B-focused influencer marketing strategy, so you can tap into a market that you may have otherwise missed. Keep in mind that our tips are focused specifically on influencer marketing for B2B companies.

How to Build the Best B2B Influencer Marketing Strategy For Your Business

Creating an excellent B2B influencer marketing strategy doesn’t have to be so complex.

Understand Influencer Marketing in the Context of B2B

Influencer marketing is a type of online marketing technique that involves getting celebrities or well-known internet personalities to endorse one’s products or services. Typically, influencer marketing involves collaboration between a brand and an influencer. An influencer can be anyone and does not have to be a famous film or music star. Rather, influencers are simply influential individuals on social media networks that have a substantial following. Influencers can be TikTok stars, bloggers, artists, performers, and more.

Influencer marketing is a very common marketing method for B2C companies, but it has been relatively untapped in the world of B2B. As marketing continues to evolve, it would be a shame for B2B companies to miss out on this excellent marketing opportunity.

Think of it this way. An influencer who is a tech entrepreneur has over one million followers on Instagram. They have a lot of influence over their followers, especially when it comes to reviewing tech products. If you are a B2B software company, you could start a partnership with this influencer and have them speak to their audience about your product. Not everyone in their audience is a business owner or decision-maker for a company, but a good chunk of them might be due to their interest in tech. The relevance, influence, and power are all there. Influencer marketing can be very simple but effective.

Invest in a B2B Lead Generation Agency

A B2B lead generation agency will typically be made up of marketing professionals that will use a wide variety of marketing methods to generate quality leads, and many will incorporate influencer marketing as well. Using a third-party agency can be an excellent choice for small businesses that are struggling to pull in leads. Just as well, being in the B2B realm can present its own difficulties. A B2B lead generation agency will be able to help you with the unique struggles that come with B2B influencer marketing.

Focus on Collaboration

When it comes to influencer marketing, you don’t want to invest a lot of money into having someone retweet your brand’s Twitter account or read from a generic script that you give all of your influencers. You might as well purchase some PPC ads. For influencer marketing, the more of a unique voice your influencer has, the more of an impact they will have on your target audience.

There are a number of different ways you can showcase your influencer’s unique voice while also promoting the brand. A few options include research collaboration, guest-hosting on a podcast, penning unique and helpful guides, and creating personable and convincing video content.

Create Brand Ambassadors

Outside of talking with well-known influencers in your niche, you can also get in touch with your customer base and encourage them to become brand ambassadors. This is an excellent influencer marketing technique because word of mouth is one of the most powerful marketing tactics in the B2B world. The goal here is to build upon the word of mouth technique by encouraging your influencers to be an advocate, but also encouraging your satisfied customers to be mouthpieces for your brand as well. They will discuss your services with their colleagues who may need your unique offering.

Take the time to ask your customers to share their experiences by writing product reviews or responding to feedback surveys. Use incentives, such as a coupon code or free trial for a gate-kept service that you offer.

Implement Influencer Content into Your Website’s Content

Many consumers tend to trust branded content. Because of these, B2B companies should incorporate influencer content into their website content. This can take a variety of forms, from a guest blog post to a video to other types of media. If your B2B company hosts a podcast, incorporate your influencer’s experience with your product or service into the podcast itself. This is a great, but still unique, way to use influencer marketing that goes above and beyond basic social media posts. Guest posts, in particular, can be quite helpful for influencer marketing if your brand’s blog is already popular. Adding the element of a guest influencer writer that already is well-known in your niche can pack a lot of marketing power into a single blog post.

Freelance contribution especially written for Find Your Influence by John Dubay.

The post Building A B2B Influencer Marketing Strategy For Your Business appeared first on Find Your Influence.

The goal, for every company, is to create sustainable and systematic customer acquisition strategies that keep up with industry trends. It is important to note that customer acquisition should not be confused with lead generation. While there are so many views of marketing tactics and where success and opportunity align with the consumer, we often visualize the customer journey in the form of a funnel.

As part of their journey through the marketing funnel, consumers will:

1. Gain awareness about your brand and interest in its offerings
2. Add your products or services to the list of alternatives they are considering, and
3. Decide to become a paying customer of your business

Lead generation makes up the top part of the sales funnel, awareness. Lead acquisition is the middle section including interest and consideration. And lead conversion is all the way at the bottom with intent, evaluation and purchase.

Customer acquisition, however, is the entire end-to-end process that involves all of these stages. When it comes to integrating influencer marketing into a customer acquisition strategy, Find Your Influence offers the following tips.

Define Your Target Audience

The first step is to identify the right users or potential audience for your brand. Chances are, your product is the perfect solution to a problem a certain demographic of consumers are looking to solve. It’s only a matter of discovering who they are and focusing your customer acquisition efforts, primarily, on them. Conduct complete market research to better understand who and how you should market your product to win over new customers.

Upon completion of market research, consider creating a buyer persona that includes both demographics and buying habits of your target buyer. Once you know your audience, it will be easier to identify who they follow on social media.

Use the Right Acquisition Channel

There are a number of different frameworks that can help you identify the best channel to use for your customer acquisition strategies. But for the most part, it takes a lot of experimenting to find the right channel. Based on your media mix, you should set clear goals for yourself and your campaign. Even having rough goals will help you understand whether your tactics are working or not. Once you’ve tested different channels, you will be able to compare individual successes relative to each other.

Influencer marketing has the benefit of being one channel that allows brands to implement brand awareness, referral traffic and end-to-end actions being driven through visual content.

As you develop your influencer marketing strategy, it’s imperative that you first understand what you want to accomplish with your campaign. Are you solving for top of funnel, middle of funnel or bottom of funnel challenges?

If your focus is top of the funnel, you can engage influencers to create buzz and increase brand awareness with strategies focused on getting your product/brand name mentioned and shared. This tactic often leads to an increase in brand followers and engagement. When your focus shifts to bottom of the funnel tactics, influencers can add coupon codes or unique swipe up links to drive sale and increase your return on investment (ROI).

Create High-Quality Content, Regularly

Content marketing is easily one of the most effective and evergreen customer acquisition strategies that exist today. It helps brands establish thought-leadership in their industry or niche. Getting consumers to trust your brand is half the battle and content marketing helps you win that battle.

From a lead generation perspective, content marketing is more effective and less expensive than typical outbound marketing. Starting a blog for your business, sharing content on social media, and publishing white papers are all great ways to establish yourself as a trustworthy expert in your industry.

Consumers are more educated and informed these days. By empowering your prospects to make informed purchase decisions, you’ll gain their trust, and in all likelihood, convert them. Creating valuable, informative, insightful, and engaging content will, ultimately, help drive your customer acquisition.

Choose an Influencer Marketing Strategy

When designing your influencer marketing strategy, you must first determine which part of the marketing funnel are you looking to impact. Are you looking for customer acquisition or lead generation? Both are worthwhile and can be tackled from different angles.

Some influencer marketing strategies to consider include:

• Gifting: Provide free product or services to an influencer in exchange for a review or mention.
• Contests and Giveaways: Run a contest and ask an influencer to share your giveaway event with their followers or readers.
• Influencer Takeover: Allow an influencer to take control of your social media accounts for a certain amount of time.
• Guest Posting: Create or contribute content for an influencer’s blog.
• Sponsored Content: Paying for your brand to be featured on an influencer’s blog or social channel. You may or may not create the content for the post.
• Co-Creating Content: Partner with an influencer and create content that you can feature on your website, their website or a third-party website.
• Social Media Mentions: Your social media influencer marketing strategy can include a personality mentioning your brand, sharing your content or posting about you.
• Affiliates: Providing a unique code that gives influencers a percentage of each sale they drive.
• Discount Codes: Giving an influencer a unique discount code for your product or service that they can promote and offer to their audience. The thing we love about this is you can compare the performance of the various influencers on your campaign.
• Brand Ambassadors: Form relationships with loyal brand fans and have them mention or promote your brand, products and services in exchange for exclusive offers, free products or being featured by your brand.
• Add a link: You can actually put the link in the post on Facebook. With Instagram, you can have swipe-ups within your Instagram stories that take people right to your product.

It all depends on your influencer marketing strategy, but regardless of which route you choose, you’ll be exposing your business to a whole new targeted audience. There are numerous routes to explore within the influencer marketing space—especially with the primary goal of customer acquisition. Are you ready to get started? Contact Find Your Influence to get started today.

Freelance contribution written especially for Find Your Influence by Lindsay Jacobs.

The post Reinforce Your Customer Acquisition Strategy with Influencer Marketing appeared first on Find Your Influence.

Not every social media influencer has millions of followers. In fact, every influencer started out the same, building an audience from nothing. The key to their growth and continued success is in how engaged their audience is with their content.

An influencer creates word-of-mouth marketing to your exact buyer demographics directly through the social media channels where they spend all their time.  

Social media influencers with a following of fewer than 10,000 can often be just as effective as someone with hundreds of thousands of followers. Who you choose to work with depends on what you are trying to accomplish – and, of course, your budget.

At Find Your Influence, we define macro-influencers as those whose followings exceed 100,000. At this level, their audience spans a wide demographic, and they will command a much higher budget. Examples of macro-influencers may include celebrities, athletes, or other recognizable faces/names.

On the plus side, working with an influencer at this level will expose your brand to a massive audience. If the social media influencer aligns with your brand’s vision and values, there is potential for explosive growth. On the downside, you will need to have a significant budget to crack this market. A single post with macro-influencers could start at $10,000. If you’re working with top celebrities, it’s akin to paying for ad space during a major sporting event.

“Our data shows that the use of micro-influencers in influencer campaigns run on the Find Your Influence (FYI) platform grew 294% in 2019 over 2018,” explains Jamie Reardon, CEO of Find Your Influence. Micro-influencers have followings in the range of 1,000 to 100,000. Their audience is more specific and defined in terms of age group and interests. They are seen as experts in their niche and achieve exceptional engagement from their following.

Micro-influencers in social media campaigns

Working with micro-influencers is more affordable, and the audience is much better defined. When working with micro-influencers, cost per post often varies, depending on the platform, their engagement and total audience reach. Micro-influencers have recently been the preferred influencer type for many small businesses because of these factors.

Nano-influencers may have the smallest followings, often 1,000 or less, but they achieve amazing engagement, usually due to a strong local following or operating within a well-defined niche. Similar to micro-influencers, nano-influencers have increased engagement because their audience feels as though they have an established relationship with them. Maybe the influencer replied to their comment or their direct message (DM). This is more manageable for an influencer with fewer followers than for someone with hundreds of thousands of followers.

If your brand operates in a very specific niche, or your audience is highly localized, nano-influencers can supply immense value and expose your brand to an audience who is highly engaged in the niche topic. However, because of the intensity of their influence and the level of engagement they command, they tend to be very selective about the products they endorse. They want their followers to know they really use the product and hold it in high esteem.

When researching and recruiting influencers, consider how aligned the influencer’s brand is with your brand and whether their audience will connect with the message. If you’re a new restaurant offering specialty hamburgers, don’t approach vegan influencers as their audience may often be vegan as well.

Finally, take an objective view of the social media influencer beyond the campaign. Are they well-liked as a person? Is there anything in their history that an audience could see as negative? Since the goal is to raise awareness of the product or brand, it’s critical to ensure you’ve got the audience’s attention for the right reasons. Negative attention can be just as influential, but in a separate way.

All these considerations could have a significant impact on the ROI of your campaign. Finding the right social media influencer is paramount but not impossible. When done right, working with social media influencers can lend new perspectives and new voices to target buyers.

To learn more about how you can engage the power of influencer marketing, email Find Your Influence today, info@findyourinfluence.com. We’d love to help you tell your story.

The post An Introduction to Influencers appeared first on Find Your Influence.

But these days, B2B buying is increasingly digital. When buyers are looking for a new product or solution, they spend nearly 30% of their time independently researching it online.

According to a recent Gartner survey, just over 60% of buyers rely on peers, current users, and review websites like G2 and Capterra when evaluating a new purchase. Social media platforms like Instagram and Twitter come into play during this review process in a few different ways, as follows:

• Conversations about a product or service on social media threads
• User generated content in the form of product/service reviews
• Testimonials on company websites and social media pages
• Influencer recommendations and reviews on platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn

Instagram influencer marketing may not be the first thing you think about when developing your B2B marketing strategy, but it should be. Instagram is popular with businesses and is an effective way to generate buzz and awareness for B2B marketers.

Why Instagram for B2B?

One survey by IDG found that more than 90% of C-level executives ignore cold outreach, compared with 84% who use social media in their decision-making. Instagram tends to be a platform where B2C marketers flock, with more than 200 million Instagram users visiting at least one business profile each day.

But interest in Instagram is growing with B2B marketers, with about 30% of B2B companies leveraging Instagram in their marketing campaigns. While this is a relatively low percentage compared with B2C marketers, it presents an opportunity for B2B companies to stand out on the platform. Just like any other social platform, Instagram attracts a variety of high profile thought leaders with dedicated, niche followings.  

Tips for identifying B2B Instagram influencers

Influencer marketing, loosely defined, is when a respected or high-profile expert endorses your product, company, or service on social media. This can be achieved organically—for example, when a company or thought leader champions a product they like on their feed without being asked. 

Influencer marketing can also be a form of paid media that is more intentional. Paid influencer campaigns require reaching out to influencers either directly or through an influencer platform to create sponsored posts by thought leaders who promote a company, product, or service on their feed.

B2B marketers can identify relevant influencers using several approaches, as follows:

• Tap your existing network: Your existing network of clients, staff, and peers is a great resource for identifying industry influencers. Most thought leaders have a comprehensive social media presence, so if they’re presenting at conferences and events or writing articles in your favorite industry publications, the chances are they also have an Instagram profile with a decent following. 

The below post is from MarketingProfs Chief Content Officer, Ann Handley’s, Instagram feed. The post from her keynote at Social Media Marketing World Conference. She’s promoting herself, but also the conference and the venue, The San Diego Convention Center, simply by mentioning them in her copy. 

• Use external tools: Platforms like Find Your Influence facilitate influencer discovery using various targeting criteria such as keyword, content type, similar influencers, and more. These tools can be effective and efficient ways to unearth influencers relevant to your business. They also enable users to create and run paid campaigns with selected influencers, which is an easy way to begin testing your influencer strategy with minimal time spent on outreach.
• Follow thought leaders: Following thought leaders on Instagram can give you an understanding of how influencers promote themselves and the brands they work with (and champion). The  below post is from Sparktoro Founder, Rand Fishkin (formerly the Founder of Moz) and features a candid shot of him at a video shoot for video-hosting platform Wistia. 

Monitor your competitors’ Instagram feeds: Following your competitors’ corporate Instagram account not only exposes you to potential influencers that you can reach out to, but it gives you a good snapshot of their social media and content strategy (or lack thereof). Corporate accounts promote events, lead magnets, memes related to their industry and corporate culture, and more. This is a wealth of free competitive intelligence that you can leverage for your own influencer marketing strategy.

Important considerations for B2B influencer campaigns

B2B influencer campaigns typically target a niche audience of buyers compared with B2C campaigns which tend to be broad and focused on celebrity culture and influence. Thus, there are some important factors to consider when implementing influencer campaigns for a B2B audience. 

Additionally, B2B solutions require a much bigger investment in time and capital (as a rule) versus B2C products and services. Thus, the specifics of influencer marketing for B2B versus B2C differ somewhat. Here are some guidelines to keep in mind.

• Focus on relevancy over follower count: It’s tempting to look for influencers with a very large follower count so that you can get the most from your influencer endorsement, but bigger doesn’t always mean better when it comes to targeting a niche audience. Case in point: Rand Fishkin has just under 8000 followers on Instagram, but his impact in the search engine marketing industry is significant. 
• Set clear goals for your campaign: As with any marketing initiative, it’s important to set clear goals for your influencer campaigns that are tied directly to relevant metrics (e.g., revenue, new customers, qualified leads, etc.)
• Don’t get hung up on going viral: Everyone wants to hit the social media jackpot and go viral. This is, after all, one of the most compelling reasons you might consider influencer marketing in the first place. But your goal here is to make sure the right buyer sees the right ad, piece of content, or post at the right time so that you can get them into your buying funnel. Thus, don’t obsess over vanity goals like going viral – a successful influencer marketing campaign is all about quality over quantity.
• Test and optimize: Though you may get lucky, you probably won’t get influencer marketing exactly right on the first time. That’s why it’s critical to test messaging, creative, hashtags, and the mix of influencers you work with to see what drives the best return. Then, optimize your approach accordingly.

Influencer marketing is absolutely a viable and effective B2B marketing strategy. It ensures that your company, product, or service is part of the overarching conversation across a wide network of peers, competitors, and potential customers. 

Influencer marketing is also a good way to leverage word-of-mouth, testimonials, and reviews. It puts your brand in front of buyers as they research new solutions and ensures that you’re present at every stage — and touchpoint — of the buying journey.

Freelance contribution especially written for Find Your Influence by Ryan Gould. Ryan serves as Vice President of Strategy and Marketing Services with Elevation Marketing. From legacy Fortune 100 institutions to inventive start-ups, Ryan brings extensive experience with a wide range of B2B clients. He skillfully architects and manages the delivery of integrated marketing programs, and believes strongly in strategy, not just tactics, that effectively aligns sales and marketing teams within organizations.

The post How to Leverage B2B Influencers on Instagram appeared first on Find Your Influence.

Since 2013, proprietary machine learning has informed Find Your Influence (FYI) in the development of the industry’s most robust influencer marketing technology. Powered by seven years of campaign data, the FYI platform has a defined set of performance metrics across all social media platforms on which brands have activated. These metrics help to guide savvy marketers in the planning of influencer activations, along with Increased return on investment.

Any marketer who spends money on media has to report on the performance of the investment. What was the Return on Investment (ROI)? What was the Cost Per Thousand (CPM)? Did the engagement rate beat expectations? Influencer marketing is no different.

For more than a decade, Pinterest has been the platform many have turned to for more than just DIY and recipe ideas. The popularity of Pinterest lies in its ability to function as a social media platform and a search engine. This unique combination has powered its performance for more than a decade. 

Engagement Rates Rise on Pinterest

An engagement rate is a key performance indicator measuring the level of engagement that a piece of content (example: Pinterest post) is receiving from an audience and demonstrates how viewers interact with the content. Comments, shares and likes each can impact the engagement of content. Engagement rate is derived by dividing the total number of engagements by the total number of followers.

When it comes to platform engagement rates, it’s no surprise that Instagram and Facebook hold the top two spots but would you have guessed that Pinterest is holding strong in the number three spot? Since 2013, FYI data shows that Pinterest campaigns have seen a spike in engagement rates from 0.39 percent in 2014 to 2.56 percent in 2019, an increase of more than 552 percent. According to MarketingLand.com, ‘the average pin gets a 0.3 percent re-Pin ratio.” 

ROPI: Return on Pinterest Investment

When brands leverage social media influencers via Find Your Influence to create content on Pinterest, their return on investment in 2019 alone was north of 23x. From 2014 to 2019, the average ROI on Pinterest campaigns exploded beyond 1735 percent.

“In late 2018 and early 2019, Pinterest began opening it’s Application Programming Interface (API) to allow influencer marketing organizations access to data on the performance of sponsored content,” said FYI President and co-founder Cristine Vieira. “This has allowed organizations like Find Your Influence to better report on influencer campaign performance which is why we are seeing such monumental growth in recent years.”

The SEO Scoop

Influencers activating on Pinterest understand the power of leveraging keywords to drive Search Engine Optimization (SEO). “Pinterest is a very effective social media platform for me,” said Alicia Tenise, a Washington D.C.-based lifestyle and travel blogger. Tenise has more than 1.7 monthly views on her Pinterest page. “Today Pinterest drives more traffic to my blog than any other social media platform.” 

The most successful bloggers incorporate their top performing keywords that drive search traffic to their blog in all of their Pinterest content. Brands who engage bloggers for long-form content will be most successful when they include Pinterest content within their strategy.

Astute marketers know how to flex the muscle behind Pinterest to propel their influencer strategies forward. From SEO, ROI and engagement, adding Pinterest to platform requirements within your influencer campaigns can drive your metrics far beyond your goals.

The post Pinterest Performance Power and the Return on Investment appeared first on Find Your Influence.

Every year, brands of all sizes look to offer special savings or discounts in celebration of Mother’s Day and Father’s Day. Many of these same organizations include social media influencers in their digital marketing strategy to promote their brand.

Recently, I connected with Jordan Windle, FYI’s Director Account Management and Platform Services to learn about some of the more successful influencer marketing campaigns tied to Mother’s Day and Father’s Day that she has seen. Jordan has been with FYI for five years and is rich in campaign knowledge.

Thanks for chatting with me today, Jordan. Can you walk me through how influencer marketing is an important component of a brand’s marketing strategy around Mother’s Day and Father’s Day?

Hey Tami. This is a great topic that I’m excited to chat about with you. Many brands have content strategies already planned in support of both Mother’s Day and Father’s Day. Because they have a content plan, adding an influencer campaign is a natural next step. Influencer marketing strategies are a great way to seed a brand in the most authentic way. Any campaign that has a social media influencer creating content that includes heartfelt messages often does really well. And who doesn’t love celebrating their parents?

What types of brands have you seen execute successful influencer marketing campaigns for Mother’s Day and Father’s Day?

When it comes to spoiling mom, self-care products like candles, bath bombs and skin care are great for influencer campaigns. However, brands can get creative in tying other products to the Mother’s Day holiday too. They could create contests around sharing your favorite memories of mom or a favorite photo of you and mom. Influencers could be leveraged to promote these contests, encouraging their followers to create additional content using the brand’s hashtag.

To treat dad, ties, grilling and technology are often the first products that come to mind. Similar to getting creative with Mother’s Day, brands can engage influencers to create content around “What I learned from my dad”.The influencers could also encourage their audiences to share their stories as well.

How do influencers help drive Mother’s Day and Father’s Day purchases?

Regardless of what is going on around the globe or in the news, most Americans stop to celebrate Mother’s Day and Father’s Day. Even though it’s only once a year, many of us still struggle to find the perfect gift for mom and dad. As we look for creative ideas on how we will celebrate them, many of us will turn to different types of influencers for inspiration.

If an influencer is offering a discount code or a swipe-up feature on a product they are endorsing, we, as followers, are more inclined to purchase.

Let’s switch gears a bit and talk about micro-influencers. In general, what is the follower count of a micro-influencer?

Micro-influencers generally have a following of 10,000 or less. 

Why are micro-influencer campaigns so effective for brands?

Micro-influencers generally have a much higher engagement rate due to their intimate connection with their audiences. With a smaller audience, those who do follow feel as though they have formed a friendship with the influencer and regularly comment on posts.

Are brands hesitant to work with micro-influencers because they believe the real impact is with macro-influencers or celebrities?

We don’t see brands turning away from micro-influencers today. As an industry, brands are more enticed to work with micro-influencers because of their higher engagement rates. 

One challenge to note is that it can be difficult to manage a high volume of micro-influencers to get the total reach desired. This is why many brands utilize the Find Your Influence platform to seamlessly scale their efforts. And if a brand is limited on budget, I would encourage them to check out the FYI Exchange to test working with influencers on a product exchange basis.”

What are some of the more unique campaigns you’ve seen influencers execute?

A few years ago we worked with Tylenol to do a campaign about bringing families together. You wouldn’t think a pain reliever brand would necessarily focus on family messaging. The idea of bringing families together and tied into their core values. As we are talking about brands leveraging influencers to promote Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, any brand can create content when they lean into their core values and link those to the emotional tie-in to these two holidays. 

If your brand has a content strategy for Mother’s Day or Father’s Day and it doesn’t include influencer marketing, contact Find Your Influence for a demo today.

The post Mother’s Day & Father’s Day, An Influencer Guide for Brands appeared first on Find Your Influence.

What is a Niche?

A niche is a position or activity that suits somebody’s talents or personality. It’s something that differentiates someone from the millions of others on social media. A niche can be anything from yoga to fishing or from peanut farming to gardening.

Meet ice-fishing influencer, Jenny Anderson 

In 2017, Jenny created a blog, Girl of 10,000 Lakes, to inspire people to get outdoors and explore what Minnesota has to offer. She uses her social media platforms to express her love for fishing and the outdoors to thousands of others.

Meet Jonah Kest, travel, and yoga influencer. 

Jonah is not only traveling but expressing the art of yoga around the world through his social media. Jonah’s niche is not only taking amazing pictures in new places, but showcasing yoga poses within those photos. 

Finding Your Niche

Finding your niche is not as hard as you may think. Just ask yourself a few questions:

1. What is something that interests you? 
2. What do you do for fun? 
3. What five words describe what your social media says about you?
4. What audience do you want to reach?

Once you’ve gone through these questions, you should have a clear idea of what makes you stand out, even if it’s in a broad category like fashion. Even if your niche is fashion, you can figure out what makes your fashion sense different from others.

Showcasing Your Niche

After you’ve identified your niche, you can start presenting it on your social media platforms. Target the audience you want to reach and begin to make content that reveals who you are. 

Here are some tips to help you showcase your niche on social media:

1. When creating content, base your ideas around your niche. For example, Jenny has highlighted the top lakes to go fishing in Minnesota.
2. Include hashtags on your posts that are related to your niche.
3. Highlight your niche in your bio. Call out if you are a fashion blogger or an outdoor enthusiast
4. Tag other profiles that are related to the content you are posting about.
5. Create a blog where you can make more in depth content on your niche.

Once you’ve determined your niche and have begun creating content that fully supports who you are, be sure to keep up a content schedule that works for you. Brands are always looking for interesting social media influencers to create sponsored content. Sign up for platforms like Find Your Influence that connect influencers like you with brands you love.

The post Social Media Influencers: Find Your Niche appeared first on Find Your Influence.

Spring is here and with so much talk about spring cleaning, have you considered a good Marie Kondo-ing of your social media channels? When we think of spring cleaning, we think about cleaning out our closets or even cleaning our cookware. But tidying up your social media is just as important! Whether you’re an established influencer or an aspiring creator looking to work with brands to create sponsored posts, cleaning up your various social media platforms can impact the way others perceive you.

We found inspiration from Page Nine who created a social media health check last year. As a micro-influencer who finds herself professionally working with influencers every day, her social media health check worksheet is short and simple.

Spring cleaning Up Your Bio

Think of your bio as your movie trailer, or your book cover. What can you tell the world about you in to grab their attention? Your bio on Twitter, Instagram Facebook and Pinterest informs readers about what they can expect from your content. Be true to who you are and watch your audience grow.

A great example of a high quality bio is that of Phoenix-based blogger Diana Elizabeth. Diana’s bio is consistent across Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest and even within Google’s search results for her blog.

When a brand is looking for specific types of influencers to work with to reach their target market, your bio is often their first opportunity to get to know you. Consider including your email address in your bio to make it even easier for brands to connect with you. Tidy up your bio and help brands to clearly see how you can help them execute successful influencer marketing campaigns.

Prioritize Platforms 

For some creators, posting on Instagram is where they see their greatest engagement rates. Others see more traffic to their blogs. As you begin to update your bio as outlined above, what social media platform will you visit first? When you begin to prioritize your platforms, you may even recognize that others no longer perform for you. If that’s the case, it may be time for a purge.

In a recent conversation with some bloggers, we learned that Pinterest is a huge driver of traffic to their blog. Their target audience discovers them on Pinterest and connects to their blog for more content and information. Page Nine believes that when it comes to prioritizing social media platforms, “…the moral of the story is evaluate what you are posting and the audience you want to reach.”

When you prioritize the platforms you are creating content for, you are signaling to brands that you are ready for influencer partnerships.

Purge Who You Follow

Are you following more people on social media than you can keep up with? It’s important from time to time to review those people and brands you follow and determine if you still see value in the content they are delivering you. Some Instagram influencers began as foodies and have transitioned to travel bloggers. Do you enjoy their travel content or were you a fan in the beginning when they posted food-related content?

Page Nine explains that if you’re looking to work with brands, you really need to be smart about your following-to-follower ratio. If you have 2,000 followers and you are following 3,000, brands may make assumptions that your followers simply liked you in return for your follow.

A purge of who you follow not just on your Instagram account but your Twitter and Facebook accounts too can also impact a brand’s perception of you as they look to find the right influencers for their campaigns.

Purify Sponsored Content

As you’re doing a cleanse of your social media profiles, it’s critical to review any previous sponsored content you’ve posted. Have you included the appropriate disclosures to signal your relationship with a brand? In November 2019 the Federal Trade Commission issued “Disclosures 101 for Social Media Influencers,” highlighting when and where influencers need to disclose partnerships within their content.

As brands review your content and consider incorporating you into their influencer marketing strategy, prove that you post in accordance with the FTC. Brands aren’t interested in the risks associated with influencers who don’t follow the rules. Think you’re ready to dive in and tidy up your social media channels? Visit the Page Nine blog and download her social media worksheet today.

The post 3 Spring Cleaning Tips for Social Influencer Campaigns appeared first on Find Your Influence.