How Social Media Teams Can Benefit From Working With Influencers

Influencer marketing and social media go hand in hand. Social media influencers are constantly creating original content that’s trusted by their followers and sees high levels of engagement. This type of content is called user-generated content (UGC) and it’s highly appealing to today’s consumers. It’s why influencer marketing has become so popular and why partnering with influencers can help social media teams reach a broader audience, boost engagement, and gain more followers.

Why should you care about user-generated content?

User-generated content is effective because it’s personal and is considered to be more authentic than branded content. Consumers seek out recommendations and advice from their peers when they’re trying to make a purchase decision. Influencers fill that role, even though their followers don’t know them personally.

With social media, it all comes down to good content. User-generated content is infinitely shareable and can see higher engagement rates than branded marketing content. It helps humanize brands and provides an opportunity to show more personality. If user-generated content isn’t already part of your content marketing strategy, it should be.

User-generated content and social media

For social media teams, creating content that’s original and engaging can be one of the biggest challenges. When you partner with influencers, you get access to great content that’s highly relevant to your audience and can be tailored to fit specific campaigns.

Influencers are constantly creating content that resonates with their followers. By working with influencers in your industry or niche, you’re tapping into content that appeals to your target audience.

Influencers help brands create an amazing library of content that can be shared on brand accounts as posts or converted into ads with the correct licensing. Influencer marketing platforms help marketers manage their relationships and take care of permissions. Octoly has global licensing so when an influencer is opted in and submits content to campaigns, brands have unlimited commercial use of the content for print and digital promotional purposes.

Most people think of photos and videos when they think of UGC, but any content created by a user of a platform qualifies. Captions are an often overlooked form of user-generated content that’s very useful for social media marketers. Many influencers pair their photos with lengthy, detailed captions that can be converted into customer testimonials or used as copy for ads or emails.

With influencers, the cadence of posting on social media is very important. The more an influencer posts about and interacts with your brand, the more authentic the relationship feels to their followers and yours.

Building relationships with influencers

Selecting the right influencers is incredibly important, but once you find the right partners and reach out, the work doesn’t end there. The best influencer partnerships are a relationship.

Once you find your influencers, it’s important to interact with them regularly and focus on building relationships. This process strengthens your partnerships with influencers and helps create loyal brand ambassadors that are a powerful tool for marketing your brand and products.

Influencer marketing is effective because it’s authentic and that means relationships between a brand and an influencer need to fit. If an influencer doesn’t share the same values as your brand, they’re not going to be the right representation of your brand.

With a platform like Octoly, you can find vetted influencers that are interested in your brand and products, and it’s easy to see if they fit the profile you’re looking for. For the best experience working with influencers, start building good relationships from the very beginning.

Success with social media marketing is all about sharing content that’s relevant and resonates with your customers. User-generated content is effective on social media because it’s authentic and appealing to customers who can identify with the creator.

Influencers create great, original content that generates a ton of engagement and serves as social proof for brands. For social media teams, working with influencers is a good way to create more user-generated content, drive engagement, and increase brand awareness.

Request a Demo

Related Articles