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By Beau Peters
Special to the Financial Independence Hub
Justifying working with social media influencers in a big business is much easier. They have the resources, reach, and reputation to make the process seamless. But should your Small Business partner with a social media influencer?
Let’s examine three pros and cons of working with a social media influencer as a small business. Then, we’ll guide you in deciding if this type of partnership is worth pursuing.
Pros and Cons of working with a Social Media Influencer
Working with a social media influencer can positively impact your business’s bottom line, but first, you must weigh the pros and cons of this kind of partnership equally. Let’s start with three substantial disadvantages:
1.) Working with an influencer is hard to justify with a small budget
Small businesses have to be diligent about their finances. The last thing you want to do is spend unnecessary money on a marketing strategy you don’t need. When you have a small marketing budget, it can be hard to justify working with an influencer.
You must consider whether you can actually afford to bring on an influencer and that you’re committed to measuring the return on investment to ensure it’s worth it.
2.) It’s risky
Any marketing strategy is risky, but working with an influencer can be particularly risky because you can’t control people. Even if an influencer checks off all the boxes on your “ultimate influencer” list, they may not do what you thought they would do for your brand.
From taking your product and running to not producing the agreed-to content to being completely ghosted, many things can go wrong when working with a social media influencer.
If you aren’t comfortable with the risks, this may not be for you.
3.) It takes a lot of time and effort to find the right influencers
One of the most complex parts of working with influencers is finding the right ones to partner with. Working with the wrong influencers can damage your reputation. If they do something against your brand’s values, your audience won’t be pleased you’re associated with them.
Finding the right influencers to work with takes a lot of time and effort. But you must put in that time and effort to ensure you’re partnering with people with shared values, morals, and ethics.
Even with these cons, the advantages of working with a social media influencer can be significant for a small business. Here are three of them:
1.) Capitalize on the trust influencers have with their audience
Hyper-personalized customer experiences are becoming more important for marketing strategies to be effective. However, the challenge is building enough trust and a deep enough relationship with your target audience to provide that experience.
The great thing about successful influencers is that they know their audience. They built massive trust with them through content they can resonate with. You can capitalize on influencers’ trust with their audience when you choose the right ones to work with.
An influencer’s audience trusts their recommendations. So, when they vouch for your brand, they’re essentially helping you build trust too.
2.) Boost brand awareness and increase conversions
Social media platforms can be influential in elevating your brand awareness and increasing conversions among your audience, especially if it consists of the younger generations. These individuals trust influencers and hold their opinions about brands, products, and services in high regard.
When you partner with the right influencers, they can vouch for your brand and its products/services. You can use the videos, images, and anecdotes they post about their experience with your brand as social proof.
As a result, you can reach a broader audience, which boosts your brand awareness, leads to more conversions, and equals a more promising bottom line.
3.) Create better content
Influencers are some of the best content creators out there. They know how to craft content that gets and keeps the attention of their specific audience, which leads to regular engagement.
So, partnering with a social media influencer is an opportunity to create better-performing content for your brand. The better the content you can distribute to your audience, the more likely they will engage with it.
Is Partnering with a Social Media Influencer right for your Small Business?
Whether working with a social media influencer is right for you depends on your business’s unique needs, structure, and vision.
If it’s in your budget, you’re comfortable with the risk involved, and can put in the time and effort it takes to find the right influencers to partner with, working with a social media influencer may be right for you.
On the other hand, if you can’t foot it financially and don’t feel like it will be worth the risk or investment, don’t force it.
Conclusion
Partnering with a social media influencer can be a brilliant business move. You can boost brand awareness, increase conversions, build trust, and provide better content to your audience.
Still, there are cons to consider, like how risky working with a social media influencer can be, its impact on your marketing budget, and how much time and effort it takes to find the right influencers to partner with.
Think about your unique business and whether partnering with an influencer can enhance it before making a final decision.
Beau Peters is a creative professional with a lifetime of experience in service and care. As a manager, he’s learned a slew of tricks of the trade that he enjoys sharing with others who have the same passion and dedication that he brings to his work. When he is not writing, he enjoys reading and trying new things.
