Social media influencers have been in the news a lot lately. The release of competing Netflix and Hulu documentaries about the disastrous Fyre music festival showed the public the incredible amount of power social media influencers hold. If you’re unfamiliar with the documentaries or the Fyre Festival debacle itself, it can be summed up like this:

Hundreds of outrageously expensive tickets were sold to an elite, luxury music festival in the Bahamas that, in reality, had no bands, food, or reasonable accommodations. Tickets sold entirely because of Instagram posts made by major social media influencers. Supermodels and mega-influencers like Kendall Jenner and Bella Hadid sparked the interest of affluent millennials with Instagram posts and an exotic hype video. Suddenly, Fyre Festival was the place for the rich kids of Instagram to be in the spring of 2017 – despite the fact that it basically didn’t exist.

Ticketholders arrived in the Bahamas to find disaster relief tents instead of the luxury tents they’d been promised, incomplete structures, and not a musical act in sight. They had paid thousands, or even tens of thousands of dollars to be there based entirely on the hype posts of social media influencers.

Obviously, this is a cautionary tale. Nobody is suggesting that social media influencers should be used to promote dubious products. After all, the fallout from the Fyre Festival landed founder, Billy McFarland, in prison for fraud, and a few of those mega-influencers are facing possible civil suits for their part in promoting a festival that didn’t happen. But there is no denying the power of social media influencers.

So, how can you (responsibly!) harness some of that power for your brand? You probably don’t have the budget to pair with a mega-influencer like Kendall Jenner – she’s rumored to receive $250,000 for a single promotional post! But pairing with less prominent influencers can still have a huge impact on your brand’s reach. Here are 5 tips for building your brand recognition with the help of a social media influencer.

1. 1. Work with micro-influencers. They have between 1,000 and 10,000 followers that are dedicated and highly engaged, and micro-influencers are far more budget friendly than bigger names.
   2. Have influencers promote contests and giveaways. This is mutually beneficial because it helps the influencer engage with their followers while raising your brand awareness, finding you new customers, and increasing your web traffic.
   3. People listen to influencers’ opinions and recommendations. Including them in your Instagram posts along with a shopable link can give your sales a major boost.
   4. Build a relationship with your brand ambassadors. Invite them to events and give them exclusive discount codes to share with their followers. Authentic relationships are crucial to a good brand/influencer relationship.
   5. Evaluate the success of your influencer campaigns by tracking your engagement rate, web traffic, brand awareness, website rankings, sale inquiries and sales.

For more advice on pairing with social media influencers to build your brand awareness book a call today!