Although influencer marketing is not new in the industry, its popularity has exploded in recent years. As the world gets more digitally savvy, influencer marketing has risen to prominence, and businesses are dedicating more time and effort than ever before to brand reputation strategy. As a digital firm always looking for methods to provide its clients a competitive edge, we recommend and implement social media influencer marketing as part of a comprehensive brand reputation strategy to help companies get visibility. Our clients are shifting their attention to influencer marketing to promote their brands on social media.
Why is influencer marketing important?
Influencer marketing entails collaborating with prominent and relevant influencers in your field to promote your business and improve sales.
Influencers are distinguished by their large number of devoted social media followers. They are regarded as specialists in their fields, and their followers frequently hold their opinions in great esteem. Influencers are distinguished from regular celebrities by their close relationships with fan communities. They leverage the accessibility of social media to develop personal ties with their fans and earn their trust.
Influencers are frequently actual consumers with in-depth knowledge of specific topics. This provides them with leverage and enables them to inspire their followers to perform the appropriate actions.
Depending on your marketing goals, you can collaborate with influencers to generate compelling content, announce giveaways, conduct Q&A sessions, and so on. Additionally, you can invite them to manage your social media profiles and post content on your behalf for a specified time.
A successful influencer marketing strategy demands careful planning and a comprehensive grasp of the target demographic and marketing goals.
In 2018, Google received 61 thousand searches for the term "influencer marketing," according to a survey. 92% of respondents found influencer marketing to be effective, according to the same survey. Additionally, 86% of respondents were willing to allocate money for their influencer marketing activities. This demonstrates that business owners and marketers are increasingly accepting and embracing influencer marketing.
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Nine easy ways how influencers can improve brand reputation
Boost your authority
With the aid of influencers, you can become a thought leader within your sector. Influencers are typically subject matter experts in their respective fields. This is one reason why they have gained large fan bases.
You can search for an expert influencer in your field. When this expert creates material about your brand, they effectively endorse you. In doing so, they enhance the credibility of your company.
Viral marketing campaigns
If your brand has a broad reach but cannot discover its target audience, your present marketing techniques are likely ineffective. This will cost you a lot of time and resources with little return.
However, influencer marketing makes identifying your target audience pretty simple. For instance, if your brand relates to skincare or beauty products, there are numerous influencers you can approach for assistance with marketing. If most of their followers are interested in beauty products, then their audience would be a wonderful fit for your brand.
Brand awareness via hashtags
When you search for a hashtag on social media, the most popular material containing that hashtag is displayed first.
Influencers' content generates significant engagement. There is a significant probability that the content they develop for you will be easily discoverable using a relevant hashtag. This increases your likelihood of reaching a broader audience.
You can create a branded hashtag that influencers can promote on your behalf. Alternatively, you can encourage people to join current conversations by identifying popular and relevant hashtags. Hashtag platforms such as Hashtagify can help you uncover hot hashtags for your influencers' content.
Media reach
Communication is vital to salvage a situation during a crisis. You'll need a pool of influencers with devoted followers for this. Public relations and influencer marketing can help you reach a broader audience and create a successful marketing campaign.
For instance, after Glossier was accused of being transphobic and racist in a public relations disaster, they began to feature more black and LGBT influencers in their material. Additionally, they developed a unique account for people of color who wear the brand's products. This influencer campaign increased the audience reach. Now, their message resonates with the black and LGBT communities as well.
Because influencers leverage their reputation to acquire a larger and more committed audience, it might be a potent social marketing strategy for competitive reach and brand positioning. As people promote your items favorably, you acquire traction and the opportunity to control your PR problem.
Earn consumer trust
One of the first steps in retaining customers for the long term is establishing trust and credibility with current and prospective consumers. 76% of internet users, according to recent research by Olapic, are more willing to accept brand-centric material published by "regular" individuals than by the businesses themselves. By partnering with influencers, firms will receive endorsements from more credible sources and achieve greater brand visibility. For instance, if a well-respected technological influencer recommends a specific mobile phone, it will have a far more significant impact than if the brand itself emphasizes its superiority and features.
SEO-related improvements
Even if you have a great website, effective landing pages, and a user-friendly app, you still need a method to direct positive visitors to your most appropriate digital resources during a crisis.
When you search for a particular topic, Google will sometimes show a "top stories" portion near the top of their search results. If your brand has been in the news and is trending for all the wrong reasons on social media, unpleasant comments are likely to show here. You do not desire that.
A well-executed and timely influencer marketing plan can increase positive brand mentions and comments. Social momentum rises as the influencer's audience engage with the excellent content.
It's hard to think that in late 2021, Britain's most popular breakfast cereal, Weetabix, was experiencing a major public relations issue that made headlines. Weetabix became scarce as a result of Weetabix shortages caused by partially downed tools at the food giant's factory. As a result, a solid unfavorable attitude towards the Weetabix brand surfaced.
Weetabix predicted that negative comments about the brand would continue to dominate online search results and mentions in the days and weeks following the strike's conclusion.
By collaborating with content creators and micro-influencers in the food and lifestyle niches, Weetabix was able to spark several viral moments on social media sites such as Instagram and TikTok. The #WeetabixCheesecake viral challenge, in particular, garnered great brand attention.
Influencers create positive associations
No one follows influential individuals whose personalities they dislike. You wouldn't subscribe, see, and comment on dozens of videos from a YouTuber you have no interest in (although trolls would, but that's a separate issue).
This implies that the good associations formed with the influencer are carried directly to your brand. You enjoy Instagram personalities because they are entertaining and humorous. If they endorse your brand, buyers will feel precisely the same way if they do. The highest level of reputation management.
Influencers improve brand reputation
We already know that increased interaction correlates with increased SEO and conversions. A further consideration is that the more positive and transparent your brand's communication seems, the better your reputation management.
Whereas brand-generated content may appear static, the engaging quality of influencer content encourages commenting and discussion. Even if you are the one driving the conversation, there are multiple benefits: people feel heard, they respond better to your brand, and more users notice, so enhancing your online reputation.
How can brands measure their reputation?
Measuring brand reputation is essential for its proper monitoring and management. To establish a positive brand reputation, you must understand if your brand is seen positively or badly and why. You can use numerous measures to measure your brand's reputation in a meaningful way, which will help you adapt and improve your brand's image.
These will vary based on variables such as your brand's prominence, area, and firm's nature. Consider which measures will best inform your comprehension of the following when picking metrics to gauge brand reputation:
How famous is your brand on the Internet? Do you have a large social media following, and does your brand appear prominently in search results?
Are people discussing you? Where are they speaking, and what do they say?
What types of results do online searches for your brand return? Is this content advantageous, neutral, or detrimental to your brand?
What is the sentiment that underlies the perception of your brand? How do your consumers and prospective customers perceive their interactions with you?
How does your brand's reputation compare to that of your nearest competitors? What are their strengths, and how can you use them to improve your brand?
Answering these questions will provide you with a baseline — a sense of where you stand and what you need to understand better to build your company's reputation.
The reputation of a brand is intricate and the result of numerous elements. Brand reputation measurement is an ongoing process that must be incorporated into the methods you use to monitor your marketing and overall business goals.
Conclusion
We have already seen how influencers may assist with content generation, conversion rate optimization, and event promotion. All of the factors above contribute directly to the internet reputation of your brand or business.
And in the digital realm, as in the real world, the greater the number of positive remarks about you, the more attention you receive. Hopefully, you will never have to engage a reputation management agency to eliminate negative online headlines about you.
FAQ - Common questions about improving brand reputation
What is brand reputation?
Brand reputation refers to how the public, customers, competitors, and stakeholders perceive a brand. It is the sum of all associations with your brand and comes from how people perceive it, interacts with it, and what their experiences are using a brand's products or services.
How to improve brand reputation?
There are numerous ways how one can increase brand reputation. Among those we have already mentioned, we can also highlight the following:
Cost Effective and High Customer Acquisition
Influencers Make Brands Personable
Influencers Create Positive Associations With Brands
What does good brand reputation mean?
Good brand reputation management signifies that a brand is perceived as credible, trustworthy, and desirable. Its customers feel good about interacting with it and feel optimistic about being associated with it. A brand’s good reputation is an intangible asset critical for success and closely linked to the brand’s value.
