There are pros and cons for working with influencers on different social channels, so the question for the marketer is what’s the difference between these channels and what are the benefits of each? We’re going to break down the different social channels for influencer marketing, how much they cost, how to repurpose the content, and key metrics for evaluating each one to help you better make these decisions.
After all, social media is king in the marketing world right now because of how much time people spend on social channels. Looking at Instagram, Youtube, Snapchat, and Facebook, you can start to see different ways that these channels can be useful for your marketing.
A quick understanding on what influencer marketing is: influencer marketing is a type of marketing where companies rely on the following of a singular person, an influencer, who has a strong following and powerful voice. The premise of influencer marketing is that by this person with a loyal following sharing a liking for a product or service, their followers will become aware of it if not already, look into that product or service, and ultimately convert.
Influencer marketing is focused less on coercion or argument for a product such as typical marketing and more on sharing a point of view or opinion, more like a form of word-of-mouth marketing.
Instagram
Instagram launched in 2010, and ever since it has grown to a degree where it can be one of the best social tools for a company. Instagram’s strength as a platform is that it is adaptive and adds new features on a regular basis, while other social media platforms stay more stagnant and people get bored.
Instagram is a great form of social media marketing because you can engage with consumers organically without having to put ad dollars behind it. You can engage with your followers and engage with potential new followers on your own. If you create strong content, then you can organically grow your following and people will want to follow along.
Related: How to Perfect Your Influencer Marketing Strategy
Now, with Instagram Stories and Instagram Live, the Instagram app is becoming even more popular. Instagram is beating out other social media apps for what people trust, and it can be one of the best social sites for repurposing content because you can post live videos, stories, photos, and regular video posts. Trust us when we say that Instagram should be a part of your social marketing strategy!
However, another strategy many businesses are using through Instagram is paying influencers to promote their products through the influencers’ Instagram account. If an influencer has a small following (a few thousand), then a company will likely not have to pay the influencer to promote the product through product gifting because this micro-influencer tier is newer to influencer marketing.
If an influencer has a following between 10,000 and 50,000, then a company will usually spend between $50 and a few hundred dollars for the influencer to promote their gifted product. This amount then goes up more from a few hundred dollars to even thousands of dollars if the influencer has over 100,000 followers. Especially if the influencer is a very well known person, or is a professional photographer, companies can spend thousands of dollars having them to post about their gifted products.
Marketers can repurpose Instagram posts by requesting the high-res image or video and either sharing organically on the business’ own Instagram account or using it on other platforms like Facebook or the website. Other ways you can repurpose Instagram content include Facebook ads and newsletters.
YouTube
Did you know that 48% of marketers plan to include YouTube in their marketing strategies in the new year? This is because nearly 30% of all online activity is spent watching videos, and YouTube is the video king of the internet. More than one billion people are regularly using YouTube…that’s huge!
After Google, YouTube is the second largest search engine on the internet. So, clearly it can be a worthwhile social platform.
Influencers who have a solid audience charge thousands of dollars typically for one video. The reason for this is because a video is much more time-consuming to film and edit than a static photo on Instagram
YouTube videos can be repurposed for other social ads and they can be put on a company’s website. Video content is the new trend because they are so engaging, so having videos that can cross different social channels is essential. These videos can also act as testimonials on websites. People will use them to see if they can trust the product enough to buy it.
Snapchat
Snapchat used to be more of a teenage, playful app, but now it is being harnessed by marketers. Many marketers were confused by it for a while, but we have learned how best to use it to our advantage.
It has a daily usage rate of 158 million people. More importantly, the audience of Snapchat is growing to more than just teenagers. People of all ages are now using Snapchat.
Some people have massive followings on Snapchat and these influencers can advertise products through their Stories. The benefit of this is that the Stories are less “salesy” and are not pushing products as much. These videos are less staged, more organic, and less edited. Psychologically, this may play an important role in a consumer trusting the brand.
Related: 12 Things That Can Go Wrong Within An Influencer Partnership (& How to Avoid Them)
The obvious downside to marketing on Snapchat is that the stories are only live for 24 hours before they disappear. However, you can save the videos and repurpose them onto other social channels and put them on your website as well.
As far as costs are concerned, you should be paying influencers significantly less than you would pay for YouTube videos as the Snapchat video is gone after 24 hours and is much more casual and informal than professional YouTube videos.
One other possible downside and reason you should be paying less for Snapchat stories is that there is a growing trend to use Instagram Stories and Instagram Live instead of Snapchat. However, that does not mean you should ignore Snapchat, as it can be an important touch point as a social platform.
Facebook
As Timelines keep on changing and Facebook creates new ways to connect the world, it also creates new pathways for marketing. Facebook has 1.18 active daily users. That is 15% of the world population using one social site! The average time a user spends on Facebook is 50 minutes per day. That means that there is so much marketing potential.
However, because of Instagram and YouTube, Facebook is not the most popular influencer platform. Influencers tend to share their lives and stories through the aforementioned social platforms.
When it comes to the amount you should pay for influencers to post on Facebook, it is usually tied in to Instagram posts because you can sync Instagram to Facebook to syndicate content on multiple platforms.
A downside to using Facebook is that it now has more of an older audience, which can also be a plus side if that is your target audience. Facebook also allows you to put links into your posts and then as a marketer you can use Google Analytics to see referral traffic coming from that link.
As a whole, social influencer marketing is essential for your marketing strategy. Some parts of social influencer marketing can be costly, but all forms of this type of marketing can be repurposed, which is great for the money that you are spending. It is definitely worth the investment in social marketing considering the amount of people your marketing will reach!