Are you ready to find out why influencer generated content is one of the best ways to drive engagement for your brand? Read along as we explore the reasons why.

Before getting started, we need to state the obvious: social media is immensely popular. There are over 1.3 billion users on Instagram alone in 2022. 

We can think of each user as a potential vector for traffic growth and customer acquisition. Each user has a specific reach capability which is in part a function of their follower count and social connections.

Now, it’s time to discuss the most powerful tool of social media marketing, and the logical extension of social media as a concept: the influencer.

What Is an Influencer?

An influencer is someone whose views and tastes are respected within a certain area. Think of that person we all know whose opinion we value on a specific topic, or in general. 

Examples of influencers can be celebrities, politicians, and industry experts, just to name a few. An example of an everyday influencer is that friend you know who has a wide social group and who always attracts attention when you’re out.

By extension, a social media influencer is someone whose ability to influence people’s viewpoints and command their attention, is either (a) augmented by their social media presence; or (b) derived from their social media presence. More often than not, it is a combination of the two. 

How Does an Influencer Do What They Do?

Social media influencers create content; they are content creators. At the end of the day, to gain or extend their influence on social media, influencers need to create content for others to consume. It’s what keeps us coming back.

The higher quality the content, the more influence. It also has to be relevant to the audience that they are trying to reach. 

A successful influencer knows how to create content designed to appeal to their audience. They know what they want, and what to make without alienating them.

Why does this matter for your brand? This leads us to our first reason why using influencers to generate content is one of the most high-performing marketing approaches used today.

1. An Influencer is a Vector for Your Brand’s Success

Every person who knows about your brand is a potential vector for the further dissemination of your brand. Think of each person as having a specific reach which is determined by their social connections and the stock people put in their viewpoints. 

An influencer is someone whose reach is augmented by their sizable, high-quality social connections, and who in turn is able to be a more successful vector for your brand. 

There are different ways of getting the most out of influencer marketing. Not everyone has to spend an arm and a leg just to work with the latest celebrity-influencer.

Influencer marketing can be overwhelming at first. The challenge with influencer marketing is the complexity, time, and risk associated with running campaigns, while ensuring brand safety, and finding high quality influencers to work with.

Luckily for you, there are a myriad of simple, effective, and intuitive platforms for you to use to get your marketing campaign off the ground, and to grow your business.

Gone are the days of the big marketing budget and prohibitive overhead.

Take Ainfluencer for example, which is the only free, Do-it-Yourself Instagram influencer marketing platform that connects small businesses such as eCommerce shops with all types of influencers or creators.

Ainfluencer allows you to create an ad on the Ainfluencer marketplace, find influencers who are niche-relevant, and then invite them to collaborate with you on your campaign. Once your ad is created, it is published on the marketplace, which is only accessible to verified influencers who also use the Ainfluencer marketplace to explore ads and connect with brands. 

Through platforms like Ainfluencer, it is now easier than ever to gain access to thousands of Instagram influencers and to start generating buzz for your brand right away.

2. Influencers Find Your Audience for You

Reaching out to your target audience directly can be time-consuming and labour intensive. Why not collaborate with someone who already has their attention?

A successful influencer has already amassed a following who looks to them for content. Not only do influencers expose their followers to the brands they collaborate with, but their endorsement goes a long way. 

Remember: bigger is not always better. Brands are often looking for quality and engagement over sheer volume. Sometimes a smaller influencer who has a highly-engaged loyal follower base is more useful than an influencer with a much larger but less engaged follower base.

A growing trend is for brands to work with micro-influencers. Micro-influencers can often target niche markets and have a more intimately connected and engaged set of followers.

3. Influencers Target Audiences Organically

One way that brands get things wrong is by not understanding how to approach their target audience. The history of marketing is littered with examples of poorly executed campaigns which come off as desperate and transparent attempts to make money.

Influencers, on the other hand, inherently have a much better understanding of how to reach their target audience. After all, it is their ability to connect to their target audience that helped them gain so many followers in the first place.

When a brand comes up with a marketing plan, the collaborating influencer mediates this idea and essentially translates it into a language that is understood by their audience. This helps ensure authenticity, and to safeguard against any unwanted cheesiness or cringe factor, a real risk which can sink even the most well-funded campaigns.

4. Influencer Marketing is Bigger Than Ever

The projections are in: brands are expected to spend a staggering $15 billion on influencer marketing in 2022. 

Instagram has managed to create an ever-growing community of influencers and content creators. Two of the platform’s most recent innovations are Instagram stories and Reels. These new features create even more options for influencers to create content, while providing different marketing avenues for brands.

5. It Works

Influencer marketing is effective. Never before has a consumer been so empowered to access the content they want.

Today’s brands find themselves in a situation where a target audience is spread over an increasingly vast online marketplace and social media landscape. 

Partnerships with social media influencers have turned out to be one of the solutions to this new state of affairs. More and more, influencers are being recognized as the powerful tools that they are. So much so, that big social media companies are now competing with each other for influencers. 

Content creators drive trends, engagement, and build community. An endorsement from a key influencer can have huge impact for a brand. Identifying and working with the right creator is one of the main responsibilities of any brand looking to start an influencer marketing campaign.

Final Thoughts

Remember, working with influencers can be a high-reward and cost-effective way to drive engagement. But that doesn’t mean that influencers do all the heavy lifting. It is essential to do your research to ensure you find an influencer that is relevant to your brand, so that you can get the most out of your budget.